Enid parked her rental car. She’d picked a lot several blocks from where she was heading. She knew Toronto had some shady areas. This was one of them. She hadn’t been active in the vampire community for the last several decades but still had contacts. There was a vampire gang in the area. Mortal drug dealers, drug crime also issues. She had abused her detective badge to find Violet and the local police were more than happy to tell her how crappy the area was. She was carrying a Glock. She’d become accustomed to the weight of a gun in a conceal carry holster. She opened the front door to the building. The half the florescent lights were flickering. The plastic covering them was stained with years of cigarette residue. A heavy-set man sat behind protective glass, she could smell his lack of a hygiene the moment she entered the building she silently cursed her enhanced senses. He ogled her. Her retired military persona wasn’t unattractive. She didn’t pay him much mind and pressed the button for the elevator. No light came on.

“They’re out. Need to use the stairs.”

Enid frowned and pushed the door to the stairwell open. She walked up the stairs. In the corner of one of the landings she was forced to step over a passed-out woman. She sighed and crouched down checking her for a pulse. She had one, it was weak. She lifted the woman’s chin and saw tell-tale bite marks.

Fucking amateurs. She’ll live.

Enid stood up and continued up the stairs. She glanced down at the text she’d received on her phone. Room 3B. She continued up to the third floor. She saw a group of men at the other end of the hall. They paused their conversation when the door opened. She could smell them from where she was.

Pugmentia.

She did her best to pay them no mind and approached Violet’s door. The group of vampires approached her. She frowned. She really didn’t feel like dealing with a gang of vampire rabble tonight. The recent few days had made her cranky. She liked being a police detective and now she’d have to give that up to be a high school student again. She loathed the idea. She’d done it once. She didn’t want to do it again. The leader of the group was puffing on a cigarette and had a gun stuck in his belt. He was Russian she could tell from the tattoos.

“You think you can just waltz in here like you own the place.”

“Fuck off.”

He pulled the gun out of his belt and pointed it at Enid’s face.

“What did you say bitch? Think dinner came.”

“Put your gun away before I embarrass you in front of your bitch-patrol. I’m not in the mood to deal with your kind tonight.”

He fired his gun. Enid was no longer in front of the gun, and she had snapped his neck by the time the muzzle flare had dissipated. He fell down in a heap. The injury would be easy for a vampire to heal but it would incapacitate him for a few moments. She had to admit it felt nice to cut loose she rarely used her vampiric abilities these days, preferring to live as a human.

“Stay down next time I rip it off.”

The vampires started to back off quickly after that. One of them was too stunned to move. And was stammering.

“No one can move that fast.”

“I’m a reaper you idiot. I could have killed you all before the first one hit the ground. Back the fuck off and clean up after yourselves. I’m not here for you tonight but if you keep this shit up, I will be back.”

With that statement and her putting their leader down the group dispersed quickly. She’d seen human gangs do it when police showed up. She shoved the one with the broken neck with her foot and rolled him over.

“Heal yourself and get the fuck out of here. Before I dust your ass.”

She promptly turned and walked back to Violet’s door. Unsurprisingly no one came out to investigate the gunfire. She’d seen that before too. She knocked on Violet’s door.

“Meth dealer is across the hall.”

“I’m here for you Violet McLeod.”

The door opened a crack it was still chained. Enid flashed her police ID and put it back in her pocket. Violet narrowed her eyes.

“That’s not a Toronto police badge.”

“You’re an observant one.”

“Open the door before I kick it down.”

“You can’t do that; You have no authority here.”

“Do you know what a Reaper is? Because you’re in the middle of annoying one at this very moment. And you also know a door isn’t even close to enough to slow one of us down. Use your senses. You can smell what I am.”

Violet swore several times and opened the door stepping back. Enid blinked she had the vaguest hint of deja vu. As if she knew this girl already but they had never met. Like an echo of a past life.

“Why are you here? I didn’t do anything?”

“You don’t do anything. I did some investigating. You basically hide here and play video games and do live streams. I have to commend you on not going the porn route.”

“What do you want?”

Violet closed the door quickly. Enid glanced around at the green screen and camera she had set up and the mess the rest of the apartment was in.

“I want you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re an Imperial vampire. That puts you above the other rabble who live in this building. I have a proposal for you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Let me just make this very quick, three types of vampires, Imperial, Pugmentia, cursed. You’re Imperial, we’re the strongest. You come from the bloodline of my father. You shouldn’t have been made, but you were, so here we are, you can stay here and waste the stupid amount of power you were gifted, or you can come with me and learn how to use your gifts to better yourself and the world around you.”

“What do you mean Pugmentia?”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Enid sighed and rubbed her temples. She rarely got impatient like this these days but she had her moments and she wanted to just grab the kid and drag her to Edmonton.

“The gang of vampires that lives here, they are Pugmentia, vampire trailer trash. You’re a noble. Come on use your gift, kid.”

“Hey, I’m twenty-three years old!”

“I’m two-thousand years old. Still want to play this game?”

Violet’s eyes went wide, and she stepped back almost tripping.

“I heard of you guys before you hunt us young vampires for blood!”

“Not exactly untrue. I’m sure some ancient Imperials and Pugmentia do hunt young ones for their blood. It can heal some wounds faster than human blood.”

“Are you here for my blood?”

She pulled a stake out from under her pillow. Enid put her face in her hand and rolled her eyes.

“Kid if I was here to eat you, you’d be dead already. I don’t have time for this. I need to get to Edmonton. Let me try this. My daughter is there, she’s richer than the guy who own’s Amazon and she is willing to take you in and teach you.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m her mother and I told her too.”

“Wait you have a kid?”

“I have had four, what did you think I was born a vampire?”

“But if you’re two thousand years old then she would be…”

“She’s a vampire too.”

“Oh.”

“Come on Violet, you’re smarter than this. You have the same gift I do; You know I’m speaking the truth.”

“It’s all very sudden. I can’t just leave…”

“You are a hermit. You have no friends. You’re living in a shit hole and you’re squandering your potential. You need to get away from here, you’re easily identifiable and findable. You need to stop showing up online until you change your look. And you need to do a better job of covering up your address. Come on. What happens if someone swats you during the day? Hmm? They’re going to find a corpse; You wake up in a morgue. Unless you burn up in the sun.”

“Okay! Jesus you really are a mother.”

“No, I’m just cautious. And I’ve been dealing with his longer than you. Are you coming?”

“Fine. You’re not going to leave me alone if I don’t, are you?”

“Probably not, you need someone to look after you. You’re doing a shitty job of it.”

“Wow you don’t hold back.”

“No, I don’t. Now hurry up. I’ll tell them to prep the plane.”

“We’re not flying commercial?”

“No, I have my plane waiting at the airport.”

“Your plane? You know how to fly?”

“What? A vampire can’t know how to fly a plane?”

“But you’re two thousand years old, how did you learn?”

“I joined the Navy.”

Violet stared at her for several minutes. Enid clapped her hands.

“Come on, let’s go. I want to land in Edmonton with enough time to get you to Eyre’s house before sunrise.”

Violet started stuffing cloths in a duffle bag and pulling her laptop and several memories sticks out of drawers. Enid did her best to help her. The pair made their way to Enid’s rental car.

“Why did you come find me?”

“My, my mother told me about you, and felt guilty that she abandoned you to your own devices and asked me to pick you up on the way to Edmonton.”

“Your mother?”

Violet’s eyes went wide.

“Not my real mother, she took care of me when I was a baby until I was twelve.”

“So, when you were alive?”

“Yes, when I was alive.”

“Is she like us?”

“No, she’s something worse.”

“What do you mean worse? We’re cursed monsters!”

“She lives in Hell when she isn’t fucking with us lowly earthbound creatures.”

Violet’s eyes when wide and her mouth opened into an o-shape, and she got quiet. Enid preferred her quiet. She wasn’t up to answering a bunch of questions. The drive to the airport was fairly short for the pair, but Violet got talkative again.

“So, your adoptive mother was a demon?”

“No, she’s human.”

“How did she survive so long?”

“Have you ever heard of the Garden of Eden?”

“Duh.”

“Well, I don’t know kids these days don’t seem to care much for religious books.”

“I’m Catholic.”

“She ate some fruit from a tree. It made her immortal. Then she basically told God to go fuck himself. Had a relationship with my vampire father, and he broke up with her when he met someone else and then she started up a relationship with the devil. And then she did some questionable stuff.”

“Wait she had a relationship with the devil, and told God to go fuck himself and then she did questionable stuff? She sounds pretty evil.”

“I thought she was.”

“Oh, am I going to meet her?”

“I doubt it, she’s busy.”

“I’m actually kind of glad, she sounds like she’d be scary. What’s your daughter like?”

“You have a lot of questions.”

“Well, you came to my apartment you said: ‘come with me if you want to live’, of course I’m going to have questions.”

“My daughter is probably the most human vampire you will ever meet.”

“What do you mean human?”

“Well don’t let my sunny disposition fool you, there was a time where I treated humans like they were cows and little more. Eyre, has always treated them with respect.”

“I thought older vampires got all pale and scary looking. And stopped being able to relate to humans.”

“Some do. Imperial vampires will never be pale. Well except my sister but she had a condition even when she was alive. Pugmentia though, they get more and more corpse like as the ages pass. They can cover it up by feeding regularly but they started to become pretty obvious.”

“Why do you call them that?”

“My father called them that. It’s a long story, but they’re like our inbred cousins from Alabama.”

Violet nodded.

“So why are you so human seeming? I mean you’re really old and I was kind of thinking you were like me and just made.”

“That is also a long story, but mostly Eyre’s fault.”

“She sounds like a good daughter.”

“The best.”

“I can’t wait to meet her.”

“She is looking forward to meeting you. Something about a new partner in crime.”

“What about you?”

“Oh, I have a job to do, so I’m going to be changing back to my true form and going to high school.”

“Your true form?”

“Yes, I look about sixteen in my real form. This is a disguise, a second skin I created for this identity.”

“How did you do that?”

“I learned it from a Japanese vampire. Nice guy, a bit strange.”

“You’ve been to Japan?”

“Yes, lived there for ten years, went to high school, university, became a doctor.”

“You’re a doctor?”

“Not anymore, now I’m a retired fighter pilot, who is a police detective.”

Enid adjusted her glasses.

“Eyes got hurt in a plane crash.”

“You need glasses?”

“No, I just faked an injury so I could try something new.”

“Wow, how did you do all this as a vampire? And how are you going to go to school, I mean isn’t that during the day? I know every word you’ve told me is the truth, but how?”

“My daughter and I are special, we’re day walkers. Sun doesn’t do us any harm.”

“Oh, but don’t you fall asleep?”

“I stopped sleeping during the day when I hit, four or five hundred years old. Just didn’t fall asleep. You’ll get there one day.”

“So, I’ll get more powerful with age?”

“Absolutely, you’ll also get stronger with education on being a vampire. You can probably do more then you know already, you just haven’t tried it.”

“Oh wow. That sounds cool. Are we really flying to Edmonton on a Private plane?”

“Yes, it’s a Gulfstream.”

“Those are like fifty million dollars!”

“Well two thousand years and power to control minds is a lot of time to accumulate wealth and power. But It was a Christmas present from Eyre.”

“Oh my god.”

“Look, we’re Imperials, that makes us natural leaders. We’re apex predators, even among vampires. We’re attractive, we can influence mortals with little effort and we’re also ridiculously charismatic. People just like us. You know from your streaming. I bet you aren’t hurting for money.”

“Well yeah.”

“That’s the Imperial blood in you. I bet whoever turned you had you wrapped around their finger.”

“Yes, the rat. He was all talking big about his castle in Europe. And next thing I know I’m a blood sucking monster. I don’t even know how it happened.”

“Same way humans usually end up giving us stock options, hiring us for money then we’re worth. Trusting us with business deals. We influence them without meaning too. I have practiced for a very long time to not exude that aura.”

“Why?”

“Because to learn how to be human again I had to be human again. No vampire powers, no inadvertent charming the pants off them. It was hard at first. But I’ve managed. It was easy to just be blessed with that social magnetism the challenge is living without it.”

“Why do other vampires treat us with such scorn then?”

“Ah, well vampires are predators, and territorial. How do cats and dogs react when a bigger scarier animal tromps into their territory? They get vicious. So, the Pugmentia get their hackles up they puff out their chests and try to be intimidating. They don’t realize compared to us they’re basically humans. They’re easy to deal with a show of force will put them in their place and they will back down and leave you be. Some are just idiots though and don’t have a sense of self-preservation, but those are few and far between.”

“I wish I’d known that; I was paying the gang protection money.”

“Well, you’re young, and you didn’t know better, and sometimes it’s just easier to act weak and let them feel superior. Sometimes it’s not worth the effort to assert your dominance.”

“Don’t they push you around then?”

“They try sometimes, and I ignore them, if they push too hard, I’ll push back. Usually when I pull out the soul-sucking silver sword they rapidly realize their mistake and run away with their tails between their legs. Most of the time though they’re happy to feel like they’re in charge so if you let them just go on believing that they leave you be.”

“You have a silver sword? Doesn’t silver like kill us?”

“Us?”

Enid laughed.

“No silver doesn’t hurt us at all. Only the Pugmentia and some of the cursed.”

“Wait, so the gang leader waving a gun full of silver bullets at me was just bullshitting?”

“To be honest he probably doesn’t realize what an Imperial vampire is. We are so far above them. Yes, we can still be staked, yes, the sun still hurts us under normal circumstances, but fire is no more dangerous to us then humans, and silver, we can wear as much as we want. Well besides the fact it freaks the Pugmentia out and they get upset.”

“Oh my god, I was terrified of him.”

“That is your creator’s fault. He should have explained all of this, we’ll remedy that once we reach Edmonton.”

Enid pulled into the airport parking lot and parked her rental car with the rest of them, the flight to Edmonton was uneventful.