I looked down at the paper. The instructions were clear, take the USB drive to this address. Get someone named Violet to open it and print any details necessary. I frowned. Writing was becoming a lost art. Humans let machines do the work for them.

I looked up at the building it could only be described as a tenement. The place should have been condemned long ago. I remembered in the 19th century they’d be packed full of immigrants. Easy pickings, if you liked drinking the blood of diseased masses. I frowned, looked at the buzzers, found 303 and pressed.

“If you’re looking for meth it’s 304, shithead.”

I winced when the female voice came through the speaker, the squeal and static piercing my ears.

“I’m looking for Violet. Not meth.” I responded not hiding my annoyance.

“Oh…uh…” I heard the lock unlatch and pulled the door open.

I walked through the lobby. Some ratty couches were against a wall. On one of them sat a balding pig of a man in stained wife beater he had a cast on his left arm. He made kissing sounds to me as I walked by, I ignored him. A group of thuggish looking teens pushed past me and I felt a hand touching the back of my thigh.

“Need a place to stay darlin?” I heard his wheezy voice from behind me.

I grabbed the hand crushing it until I heard it just start to crack. I turned. It was the man on the couch. I flicked my trench open showing Blood Reaper, my sword.

“Mines bigger than yours, touch me again and I’ll shove it up your ass. I’m sure that’s not what you’re looking for tonight.”

I let go of his hand and pulled the door open to the stairwell.

Mortals, disgusting messy things barely edible these days. I wrinkled my nose. In another day and age, I would have just snapped his hand, then his neck. Alas the authorities actually cared about random murders these days. Mores the pity. Though when I considered it the authorities in Rome cared too. Slave or citizen. I frowned. Cattle and their laws. Not that I cared about following mortal law, vampire law was the only law that mattered. Vampire law says keep a low profile, keep our kind secret. Police investigations risked secrets being revealed.

I walked up the stairs, stepped over an unconscious mortal. She had a needle hanging out of her arm. I sniffed the air. She wasn’t long for this world. There were more where she came from anyway. I continued to the third floor and pulled open the door. I recognized several gang tags, one of them vampiric. I wonder, did they know another of their kind lived so close to their pack. I glanced down at the torn yellow police tape that decorated the frame of apartment 303. I raised my hand to knock and felt someone bump into me from behind. I frowned it was a strung out looking woman. I shoved her into the opposite wall she hit her head, and slid down to the floor holding her head.

“Bitch!” She complained. I glared at her.

“Hey, you, looking for some of the good stuff?” A man was hanging out the doorway of 304. “It’s over here.” He shook a baggy of something.

“No, thank you.” I turned away from him and knocked on the door.

“No drugs, 304!” a familiar female voice responded.

“Violet, open the door, or I will kick it in.”

I hit the door hard enough I heard wood crack.

“Fuck, okay, okay!”

I heard the door lock then two door chains, and a teenager opened it. She took one look at me and started to close the door.

“No room for homeless chicks here!”

I reached out and shoved the door, she went flying and hit her back on her bed. She landed on the floor a tangle of arms and legs. Truthfully it was almost comical, but I rarely laughed.

“Jesus!” She scrambled backwards until her back was against a wall. “What the fuck are you?”

“What do you think I am?”

I stepped inside and slammed the door behind me. Paint chips fell from the peeling wall. I saw her reach under the bed. She pulled out a wooden stake. It was crude, but would be effective. She lunged at me. I let her hit me, truthfully, I wanted to see how good her aim was. She would have succeeded but even with her strength all it did was hit the front of my bullet proof vest. She tried again. I grabbed her wrist, forced it around and stabbed her through the heart. She fell to the ground staring at the wall. I sat her up and leaned her against her bed. It was easier this way anyway.

“I need you to tell me what is on this.”

I held up the USB stick. I hated technology, humans should have stayed killing each other with swords and riding horses.

“I’m going to pull the stake out now, stop being an idiot. I’m far older and more powerful than you. And I have a bullet proof vest on. Behave child.”

I pulled the stake out. It made a mushy sound. I tossed it aside. She gasped for a breath that would never come. I watched as the wound on her chest healed up flesh and bone regenerating.

“You didn’t have to stake me. Wow you are a bitch. Did Tony send you? He said he was going to send someone with money and tickets.”

She continued to lean against the bed

“I don’t know who Tony is. I was sent by the royal family, this has my current assignment on it, and you are going to tell me what’s on this…stupid thing.”

I crouched down so we were eye level.

“Ya, cause the vampire royal family is going to have some homeless teenager working for them. Do you even know what a brush is?”

She was beginning to get on my nerves. I stood up to my full height which at five feet one, was not impressive. Pushed the sides of my trench open with my wrists, putting my hands on my hips. I saw fear in her eyes almost immediately. They were focused on my sword. She recognized the metal immediately all vampires did, silver. I looked down at her, allowing my anger to show. She squirmed backwards her bed slamming against the wall. An angry ancient was a thing to be feared, it was instinct ingrained in all things, even young vampires.

“I need you to read this thing. Do so and I will leave. Continue to waste my time and I will punish you accordingly.”

I had enough of the whelp.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“Yo…you’re a Reaper.”

Her eyes were still wide as she climbed her way up the bed to stand.

“You are correct now open this fucking thing, so I can get on with my job.”

I waved the USB stick in front of her face. She snatched the USB stick from my hand and sat at her desk. She slid it into the side of the portable computer. She started clicked a few times. Stared at her screen and scratched the back of her head.

“Uh, there’s a password on it.”

She winced as she spoke the words.

“Well put it in then, do your job.”

I motioned at the computer screen.

“What is it?” She hunched defensively.

“I don’t know, you’re the-”

I waved at the computer.

“Expert.”

“I don’t know it, you are the one who brought it to me. A password it’s like a group of letters and numbers.”

I didn’t like her condescending tone. I kind of wanted to smash her face into the computer. I didn’t know much about them but I know they were easily damaged. So, I didn’t do it. I pulled the note out of my pocket. It was signed with a broken heart. I pondered for a moment.

“Try, NonesSextilisNeroIV"

She typed it in and it worked then looked up at me, curiosity dancing in her eyes. I sighed.

"The seventh of August, sixty AD. Romans named their years after...well it's not important. It was the day my husband and father killed my sister."

“Romans, as in Rome, Rome?” She asked wide eyed.

“Yes.”

“So, you’re like two-thousand years old?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ve been married for two-thousand years.”

She eyed my wedding band.

“Yes”

“Holy shit!”

She glanced back at her computer as if remembering it existed.

“Oh, this is encrypted, it will take a while to access, my computer’s crappy and slow. Tony promised me a new one.”

“That is something that has not changed in two-thousand years, men promise much but seldom deliver.”

She laughed, I found it quite calming, a teenager laughing. Vampires seldom laughed in my presence. I found myself smiling. I stopped as soon as I noticed. She looked serious suddenly.

“I’m helping you kill someone, aren’t I? It’s what Reapers do, they kill vampires.”

Her voice got low near the end.

“And mortals. Anyone who breaks our laws, or is a threat to our way of life. It is my job to punish them.”

I said, I silently wondered why I was talking to her so much. It was easy to talk to her, oddly, I’d spoken more tonight then in the last decade. Of course, the usual extent of the conversation was my target begging for their life. It never worked.

“I..I am not sure I should be helping you then.”

She was reaching for the USB stick.

“Why? We have laws, I enforce them. It is no different than the mortal police force.”

As I finished she stopped reaching and began paying attention.

“We have vast powers; can you imagine the damage a rogue vampire could cause to the world at large? The risks involved to the rest of us if they are allowed to go unchecked. One vampire death, or ten mortal deaths to save ten million? The math is easy.”

“I guess.”

“You look pale have you eaten?”

“Uh, no, I uh, I usually wait until I really need it.”

She twisted a piece of her brown hair in with her fingers.

“Why? This is an easy place to hunt.”

“I donno, I don’t really like hurting people.”

“Humans aren’t people, to us they’re like cows. Walking steaks.”

“We used to be human.”

“If a vampire had killed me as human I would have better off for it. They are prey, we are predators.”

I despised wishy washy vampires. We drink blood, it’s what we are.

“How can you say that? Everyone has friends, family, they have a right not to be violated.”

“You are naïve.”

“You are a monster.”

“We are monsters.”

I said showing my fangs. We sat silently for a few minutes. Then she perked up and looked at me.

“So…uh… Romans don’t usually have red hair and green eyes…”

She was asking a question I could tell from her voice.

“I’m from what you call Scotland today. I believe the humans call us Picts?”

“How did you end up in Rome?”

“That is a long story. My adoptive found me near dead and saved my life and brought me back to Rome. Raised me as his daughter. He was a vampire. He is likely gone now.”

I trailed off. Thinking of the kind man, who brought me up.

“He was a vampire?”

“Oh yes, he was. He is the progenitor of all vampires. He was ancient when he found me, from Mesopotamia I think, or further back. He didn’t talk much about his distant past. Though he had some interesting stories about Babylon and Egypt.”

I smiled in spite of myself. I saw Violet’s face soften as well. I hadn’t noticed it but she had been wound tight since I’d arrived.

“Seems like he was a good man.”

“He was the best kind of man, wise, balanced. He ruled us well. He always had a light about him. I always knew if I needed advice I could go to him, he wouldn’t judge.”

I fingered the pommel of my sword.

“What happened to him?”

“He grew cold and angry. His wife was killed in the purge.”

I frowned, why was I talking so much tonight?

“Purge?”

“Vampires in Rome grew careless, my father had an agreement with the Senate. We didn’t bother them, they didn’t bother us. My sister, my adopted sister, raised an army of vampires and blood-slaves, to fight in Britain. When she returned, Nero feared he would be next. He convinced another group of vampires, Pugmentia, trash, we called them to show up for peace talks with the us, and the humans. Father refused to meet with them, mother however decided we couldn’t turn a blind eye and went without his permission. She was killed along with most of the Pugmentia. Nero had his soldiers burn the city. Get rid of our shelter. We managed to survive, some of us, but father was never the same. She was his true love, his Sodales.”

I closed my eyes. The memories even almost two thousand years ago, still burned in my chest.

“I’m so sorry.”

She had come and put her arm around me. I touched my cheek there was blood running from my eye. I shoved her off.

“It was long ago.”

“Yes, but they were your parents.”

She had blood dripping from her eyes.

“Is that thing done yet?”

I waved at the computer.

“No, doesn’t look like it will be done for a while.”

I didn’t believe her and took a look at the screen. What is the term the mortals use these days? It’s Greek to me. I wished it was I’d be able to understand it then. The screens hurt my eyes. A bar seemed to measure progress and it was not even a quarter the way across the screen. I frowned.

“So, umm, ah, what do you umm do for fun?”

Forced conversations were the worse. I could never understand the mortal’s incessant need to fill silences. I turned towards her.

“Fun? I don’t have time for fun. There are more idiot vampires in this age than ever before. And every single mortal has a camera.”

I moved back and sat on her bed. I watched her. She still felt the need to blink, fidget. She was barely a vampire.

“You can’t always be hunting people.”

The girl frowned as she spoke. I glared in her direction. Why was I engaging her? Usually I’d just tell someone I had to deal with the shut up and do as they are asked. Yet here I was chatting it up with someone who was at almost two-thousand years my junior. She was barely a grain of sand to me. Barely better than a mortal. Why then did I feel the need to have this discourse with her.

“Look, kid, I don’t want to be your friend. I might have to destroy you tomorrow. So just get my intel and let me get on with my job.”

“That is not a way to live, worrying that you may need to kill someone tomorrow, not getting close to them.”

“You are telling me how to live, I have literally lived a hundred times longer than you. How could your life experience possibly give me any insight?”

I could feel myself glaring at her, I closed my eyes. And calmed myself. She was getting under my skin.

“Well for someone so old, you suck at living.”

“I’m dead. And I don’t need your advice on living, I raised four children, and helped raise thirteen grandchildren. I drank wine with Augustus Caesar, lived through the glory of Rome, partook in the court of Charlemagne. I don’t think I need advice from a teenager born in the twenty first century.”

“You lived history, you have so much knowledge you could share with people like me.”

“Why? People don’t care about history just whether it suits their beliefs on reality.”

“Some of us want the truth no matter how horrible it is.”

“Humans haven’t changed in my lifetime, they are still smelly, self-destructive and power mad. Though they taste horrible these days. They are so consumed with having, they will trample their loved ones in a heartbeat to get it.”

“There are good people in this world.”

“Until they think they can get something or need something, then they are down here in the mud and blood with the rest of creation.”

“You need to open your eyes and heart to humanity. We might be dead, but it doesn’t mean we have to be dead inside.”

“Give it a decade, give it a century, give it a millennium and let us have this conversation again. You will come to see humanity the same way, they are here for an instant and gone like so much dust.”

“But your adopted father, he was kind, caring and he was ten thousand years old or so you described.”

“And he turned into a bitter, hate-filled vampire, because of humans!”

“Is that why you hate yourself and humanity so much?”

“Why am I even having this conversation with you?”

I wasn’t so much asking her as asking myself. I couldn’t stop myself she was drawing me in to this conversation.

“I think it’s because you need to talk to someone, you need companionship.”

I growled and closed my eyes again. She was right which was even more frustrating.

“I wasn’t asking you, whelp.”

“I know but you didn’t seem to have an answer.”

I had the urge to beat her into a pulp. She was annoyingly accurate with her assessments. For one so young, she had a lot of insight. Minutes stretched into hours as we waited for her very slow computer to process the data. I was afraid it might be broken. I had exhausted her youthful exuberance for questions, and she had fallen to staring at the hilt of Bloodseeker. Her computer beeped and she jumped. I feared it meant the technology had failed but it hadn’t something popped up on the screen. She opened the first file and I stared at the screen my mouth falling open. A photo of my sister was there, not in Rome, but standing in front of a bus stop. I blinked in disbelief. She was standing in the sun.

“Who is she? Do you have to kill her?”

“It looks like my sister, but she’s been dead for two thousand years. She’s also in the sun, kind of hard to do when you’re a vampire, unless you were my father or mother.”

“Is she your next target? What did she do?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t read the rest of what is there. Can you put it on paper, I hate those screens they hurt my eyes.”

Violet selected a bunch of things on the screen did something else and then looked at the a number.

“Gee I don’t know, do you have 8 crates of paper? Probably thirty printers? Mines a piece of shit ink jet.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

“It means there is way too much data here to print out. Just sit down move your finger along this thingy here and press this twice if you want to look at something.”

Enid frowned at her and sat down she squinted at the titles. She had no trouble reading the text but it was like looking at the sun too long for her. She found a file entitled Read me first Enid. She used the touch pad and moved the curser to it and double clicked. She was surprised to see a document written in the runes of her people. Violet was looking over her shoulder and gasped with surprise.

“That is a funky font. Uh you can change it to a normal one.”

Enid spoke without looking away from the screen she scanned the first few lines of runes.

“I can read it.”

Enid’s eyes scanned the runes. Mariana was alive… Lucius was the Black Sun. She swallowed very hard.