His beautiful face was all I could see. The sharp edges of his chin, the badly shaved beard on his glossy skin, after a hard day at work, gave my boyfriend the manliest. He was no way different from any other day, but I had not seen him for a while and my mind’s eye was playing tricks on me. But that had turned on the most ancient part of my brain that urged me to pounce on him. None of what could come from it would have any reproductive consequence, only the pleasure of the flesh.

And yet I had to contain my lust. The beer had made me weary after a few bottles. The Appleden Digger was one of my weaknesses, and the cold beer served by the hands of Hayier was the tastiest. Any other person would’ve given me a worse-tasting beer, even if it was served in the exact same conditions. Hayier had the hands of the Almighty.

“If he ever does something stupid, you let me know. I know my Eddy, he isn’t the smartest when he does something he loves. And he loves talking and explaining magic.”

Martin had been talking to Misa ever since we entered the place and found her conversing with Hayier.

‘Hey,’ he saluted. ‘Misa, right?’

‘Hello?’ she answered back.

‘Misa Reinstad, she’s the friend I told you about,’ I presented. ‘And this is Martin Duaihei, my boyfriend.’

‘Oh, wow. You’re very handsome.’

‘Hey, now, Misa,’ I stepped in front of him. ‘He’s a loyal man. Watch it.’

Misa chuckled. She got used to our typical banter.

‘Don’t worry, Ed. If I wanted him for me, I would’ve done much worse.’

‘Oh, I like her!’ exclaimed Martin. ‘And you told me she was very shy. But you don’t look shy at all.’

To that, Misa turned red. ‘Well, I did use to be like… that…’

‘Ah! I see what you meant.’

The conversation opened to all types of topics. From what we did, to how we met. I hadn’t talked much about all the adventures with Martin since we last saw each other. Misa began telling him all our stories since the fight with the demon Ssadassar and the training she’s had with the Galieta family.

“They’re gonna be best friends,” Hayier spoke to me as I was lost in my boyfriend’s moving lips.

“Huh?” I eloquently responded. “Friends? Oh! Yea.”

“Knock it off, Ed. I can tell, even when you’re human, that you’re lost in love. It makes others uncomfortable.”

“I haven’t seen him in over a month. I’m allowed a little fantasy,” I said and winked.

“Winking only makes it weirder.”

“You know what that means…”

“Of course, I do. I run a pub. I talk with a lot of humans. I’m used to all your mannerisms. Maybe I know your body language better than yourselves.”

“You know?” I began, and decided to strike back. “Sometimes, I like you better when you’re the quiet kind of bartender.”

“And how would that have worked between you and your boyfriend,” he answered sassily. “You owe me.” He pointed at me with the hand still holding a glass he was wiping clean just for show.

“I said sometimes. And you pretty much proved my point.” I drank the rest of my beer and slammed it on the table. “So, shut it and hand me another.”

“I don’t think that’s good.”

I grunted.

“You’ve been attacked by vampires, lately. Any more intoxicated and you can consider yourself dead.”

“I have my bodyguard…”

“Misa doesn’t count when she’s still learning.”

I scowled and turned away from the stupid bartender refusing to do his job and turned to my second best friend, Misa, and my boyfriend talking about… science. That was slightly problematic for me since I was never good with science.

I heard them mention Martin’s line of work and about what he studied. Misa told him something she had never mentioned: ‘I wanted to study chemistry, but then I tried medicine. I was never good at either, so I changed that and went for a law school.’

I had never seen Misa as the science-y type, and even less as someone that enjoyed chemistry.

Removing the image of Misa in a lab coat and goggles, handling glassware, and pouring chemicals was an impossibility now. Although the imagery was welcomed, given that it was some of the most adorable and mature things I’ve combined. I wanted to see her working like that instead of pushing her eyes into screens like she usually does. Misa never wore glasses, but after spending years reading text less than a meter away from her face on a screen, she has started losing a big part of her sight.

Old treatments could’ve saved her eyesight, but now all of that has become expensive and the specialists only live in other cities. Al Patreck might be a big city, but it is nowhere near as big or developed as others in the country. In fact, we lose professionals and skilled workers more than we gain, through immigration, despite our high levels of education, which makes this city a net negative for any kind of highly developed job. Most people work in factories since we don’t even have arable land surrounding us. Most land is used to raise animals for consumption, and, even then, there’s not a lot since most meat is grown in vitro in other cities and exported here.

Lab meat… yet another industry that does not exist in the city, even when we are huge meat eaters.

If I were to say I love my city, I would be half-lying.

“It’s getting quite late for you, isn’t it, Misa?” interrupted Hayier.

“Oh shoot!” she exclaimed. “I need to go early to bed. I’m sorry, boys, I need to leave. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Not at all,” answered my boyfriend. “In fact, I think this is a good time for us to go. Right, Eddy?”

“I’m fine,” I slurred.

Martin sighed. “We’re taking our leave too, Hayier.”

“Sure thing,” the bartender responded. “I’m glad you’re finally taking this bum home.”

“I’m paying for your daughter’s education. Remember that!”

“You and a thousand people more,” he said while shaking the overly clean glass cup in his towel. “Take him home before he embarrasses himself more, Martin.” Then turned around and continued wiping the next already clean glass on the row.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Martin tipped his imaginary hat, bidding adieu simultaneously. Misa bent lightly forward and placed her straight hand beside her face like she was giving her curtsy a military spin.

Meanwhile, all I did was bend backward on my chair, against the back, from getting my arm pulled by Martin. I waved my farewell with an unenergetic and barely audible goodbye.

We walked towards the corner of a street and waited for a bus to come by. Halfway through the commute, Misa would take her stop and leave to walk back to her apartment. Martin would accompany me to the Wizard Tower and stay the night with me in my laboratory — what I like to call my apartment.

However, while we waited for Misa’s stop, we spent our time talking more nonsense during the trip.

That is, until my senses began chirping. I was already used to separating this kind of leaking magic from the rest, like one would by tasting a slight tinge of chocolate in a dessert. The bus stopped shortly after I became acutely aware of the vampiric presences. I reincorporated myself from my slumped position. In that same instant, Misa noticed my change in demeanor and realized what was happening. She reached behind, into her clothing, and pulled a concealed gun she bought after getting a permit to carry small firearms — she passed the safety and handling tests after training with the Galieta Duo.

This was Martin’s first experience with vampires, while Misa had not only fought with them before, but had encountered herself with vampires during our commute home before. This time, however, Misa and I were not accompanied by the Galeita Duo, and we had a non-combatant to protect, to boot — this was my boyfriend.

“What’s happening?” asked Martin.

“Vampires,” answered Misa.

“They came to hunt me down,” I continued.

“Oh, Lord…”

Once the bus came to a stop, the doors were forcefully opened by a single man who stepped into and hissed joyfully. People gasped as they spotted something that made their skin crawl.

“Everyone,” said the vampire. “Step out of the vehicle. Right now.”

Something about vampires is that their voices carry powerful suggestions that convince people to do as they say. If you are aware of their nature, or were particularly strong of will, you can handle their suggestions better, but those who are ignorant follow their orders without realizing what had happened to them. As a vampire grows older and wiser, they can supplement their suggestions with their speech pattern, which makes their suggestions ever more appealing and acceptable.

These were not elder vampires, they were simple thugs and they commanded people with a forceful tone. In reality, they did not need their suggestions, a simple act of violence or aggression would be enough to push the usual low-lives, such as myself, that ride the train.

Several people stood up, frightened, and moved towards the back door of the bus, climbing down the stairs and out into the streets where many more vampires awaited them. I was a bit scared for them, but I knew they would not attack them for now, especially not that many people in the middle of the streets with possible witnesses. Just like sex, vampires like succumbing to their urges in private. Killing their targets is a different matter, just as any other thug would simply shoot a guy and leave.

I held on to Martin’s arm and asked him to stay seated. They knew he was involved with me and they would do anything to kill me, including taking my boyfriend as hostage.

“Mister Avarez,” it saluted. “Miss Reinstad. And… Mister Duaihei. A pleasure.”

“Likewise,” I reciprocated, like a sarcastic smart-ass.

“You know why we’re here. Let’s not beat around the bush.”

“Come to settle the scores for the sixth time this month.”

“Sixth and final time.”

“Third time isn’t the charm when it’s the second time you say it,” I played around. “See you on your ninth attempt, maybe then you’ll get the luck you’ve been hoping for.”

I readied my magic once it finished speaking and used my own monologue to give me time. There was only so much conversation I could make to stall the vampire.

Misa had taken her defensive position, aiming towards the back of the bus.

When the vampire flared for an instant with magic, something else came to me at the edge of my senses. It was vampire-like but not quite.

The vampire that was talking to me looked outside and hissed. It jumped out and I followed it through the bus’s windows, noticing a skirmish outside. Three radera, that I assumed were actually torviela, ripped three vampires apart outside the bus. The main vampire was suddenly flanked by a torviela that appeared from the front of the truck, right out of the vampire’s blind spot. The torviela grabbed it by the neck and squeezed hard, cracking its vertebra and rendering the vampire a vegetable, if not dead.

The same torviela climbed up the stairs and removed its hood from its head, revealing a familiar face.

“You…” I eloquently put it despite finding myself speechless.

“Long time no see, my benefactor, Edwhite.”

“To what do I owe you the displeasure, Uderach?”

Uderach walked harmlessly to the seat next to us and sat down sideways, his feet planted over the walkway between the rows of seats. At no point did I sense or see any sign of aggression. Uderach was short for a radera, but his posture, even if alien, commanded so much power and presence, it was hard for someone to not feel pressured. And even then, I felt calm, and not from my own will. Maybe it was his torviela suggestion.

At this point, it was hard to tell. And that was what made elder vampirids so scary. They can control your feelings so easily like they were just playing with toys, even when you knew or were aware of what they were doing.

“You never cease to meet my expectations. The same as always,” he said.

I smiled proudly, then quickly changed my expression to communicate suspicion.

“I’ve come for what I am owed,” he explained.

I refuse, I wanted to say, but I at least wanted to hear him speak more. So, instead, I answered: “Go on…”

“I need you to retrieve something for me.”

“You know there are things I can and cannot do, Uderach. Before I accept, I need something else.”

Misa twirled to look at me, dead straight, and scolded me with her piercing sight that simply said: “Ed!”

I looked back at her and did not change my expression. I hoped she’d understand what I meant by it, while giving no clue to the centenarian alien right before us. I’m sure Misa remembers, just as well as I, what Galavant told me last time: ‘refuse him; refuse him no matter what.’

Uderach looked at me with big yellow eyes. His intense look pierced my eyes, but no matter how long he looked, nothing within those dead pupils pulled me. Vampirids have no soul, and without one they could not activate a soul gaze. The eyes are the windows to the soul, but there’s nothing to peer into when there’s no soul beyond them.

So, I looked and looked. The more we looked, the more I felt the hair at the back of my neck stand. Even when I did not find a soul, the void left behind within those eyes gave every wizard the creeps. Their stare was always chillingly empty, even when they shared their emotions. Even radera, who are hard to read for humans, hold a warmth behind their cold, fishy alien stare. So, beyond the alienness and the coldness of hiding emotions, Uderach, as a torviela, simply stared back emptily.

It almost made me shudder. Almost.

Misa held her gun close, her finger moved from the side of the gun and rested on the trigger. I noticed since Uderach’s eyes turned to look at her hand while his face flared red.

No matter how empty or old, for a vampire, the thirst for violence was hard to hide.

I moved my opened palm towards her, asking her to hold on. Uderach might be dangerous, but he wasn’t dangerous to us for the moment. We didn’t want to give him an early excuse for it. Not when he was sitting centimeters from us.

“There’s something I need you to retrieve for me,” he finally said. “A package.”

“What kind of package?” I asked.

“That’s not something you need to know for now.”

“It is if you want me to accept.”

“You get nothing more.”

I refuse, I thought saying.

“I am willing to throw in money. The package retrieval and delivery shouldn’t be dangerous. Well, not the package itself. However, the way to it is only dangerous if you aren’t knowledgeable, which I know you are. This shouldn’t be a problem for you. I can assure you. By my Family’s name.”

He emphasized the last part. If he was willing to settle it on his family, he did not lie about a single thing. I could simply do what he asks and be done with it. However, a humming at the back of my head made it ache. The deal with Galavant reminded me of my decision.

“So, you say…” I continued between each pang. “Where am I going, then?”

“Not until you accept, Wizard.”

“Then I must refuse,” I finally said. “No, information; no deal.”

“You are making a mistake,” he said after standing up aggressively. An intense blue shone through his pimples and throughout the skin around it. “I will not be this generous anymore. Take the deal, human. Take the deal or you will regret not taking it.”

‘You’ll get into trouble if you accept. In trouble with us. You don’t want that, do you?’

“It pains me to say this,” I so deliciously lied, “but I must refuse.”

“Why?” he simply asked, confused and, mostly, offended.

However — confused? I was starting to like this task given to me.

“I was asked to do so,” I confessed. “As far as I know, this business with you will only bring me trouble.”

“Who was it?”

I smiled. He didn’t know. This was the first time I had seen Uderach handle himself so erratic. It made me giddy.

Maybe this was the kind of discord I wanted to create within the supernatural. Spark an infight just before the war begins. Pit the supernatural against each other. What’s best about it was that I was given the green light:

‘You can say that it was me.’

“Galavant,” I said, savoring every letter like they were covered in sweet syrup.