Chapter 10: Old Friends

The night was still light with the sun barely behind the horizon as Caleb drove down the highway. I sat in the passenger seat looking at a video of house cats! It was the strangest thing to have on the internet. People uploaded videos of cats being ‘derpy’ little fur balls. They were doing the cutest things I’d ever seen. While yes, I’d seen cats do similar in my time, it was interesting to see how prevalent it was when millions of people watched the same videos I did!

The phone sat in my hands as I hunched forward, not really looking at the road or paying attention to the cello ‘covers’ of heavy metal songs. Caleb was trying to make the new world feel better for me, but he drove with a silent frown and narrowed eyes. Something was bothering him. I wasn’t sure what until he spoke.

“You lied to me,” he said quietly, finally breaking his self-imposed silence.

I cocked my head in his direction and turned the phone off. “What do you mean?”

“You said if I drank your blood I’d get powers. I don’t have any new powers and now you said it’s like sex.”

“No,” I began as I shook my head from side to side, putting the phone in a coat pocket. “I said it could be a part of intercourse and sometimes is. Such as when I was with one of my old vampire partners. We enjoyed each other’s company and exchanged our blood as well.” I wouldn’t tell him who the vampire was, because protecting their identity is a top priority. Although, Amelia knew about them and what we did. It was hard to hide from my love, because she was travelling with us and wanted to join in.

For a vampire hunter, she sure loved vampires.

“And where did we sleep?” I added.

“You were so fascinated by running water you wanted to sleep in the bathroom.” The man shook his head a few times. “And went on a long rant about proper sensibilities about you and I sleeping in the same bed, so I took the bed, you took the tub.”

I waved a hand in Caleb’s direction before motioning at myself. “You are the one who took it as meaning we partook in each other’s flesh. From what I gather, you and I entered an arrangement to share blood as part of a power exchange, because you wanted to feel what it was like to be bitten in the neck by a vampire. Ergo, it is a business transaction. Nothing more than that. How did it feel?”

Caleb glanced in his driver side mirror as if he were contemplating on changing lanes. He sighed once more, much in the way a mortal does, and grabbed a can of blood from a center cup holder. “It felt weird. I saw… another world. A world I can’t explain. Like a dream I didn’t want to leave. I knew everything there ever was and will be, but now I lost that knowledge.”

“The Great Dark Beyond,” I said quietly, tapping my chin a bit. “Most unusual… Others I feed from do not see the Great Beyond, so why did you? What makes you different from the rest, I wonder?”

“So why can’t I tell anyone?” He looked over at me, blinking a few times.

I patted my stomach a bit. “Tell your girlfriend if you want, but not anyone else. If other vampires knew you or I drank each other’s blood, they may fear the power we share and seek to end us. You are a ThinGen vampire. How does that stack up in the Council's eyes if you suddenly gained my powers and were on the same level as say… if you were my fledgling?”

“The first time I met a council member was when I met your sire. They just don't interact with common vampires. Let alone someone like me who is closer to a half-vampire than a vampire.” The man took a small sip from his drink, reminding me that the canned stuff tasted fine now.

It was still as un-filling as before, and bland, oh so very bland, but I could drink the canned blood without feeling as if I was going to vomit it up. Before drinking from Caleb the canned stuff would churn my stomach and give me an uneasy feeling. It wasn't right to drink, not real blood. Not proper blood. It wasn't even vampire blood! More akin to diluted animal blood than anything.

As I drummed my fingers against my stomach and listened to the cellos and drums mixing together, a glowing motorcycle flew by us. Its buzzing engine caught up and roared into the night as the rider weaved in and out of traffic. I saw no hide nor hair of the license plate on the back. It could have been Isabella, or it could have been someone else. Motorcycles were a regular sight on the highway. For every ten cars there were three motorcycles. Most looked to be riding along with the general traffic speed like Caleb drove at. Not like the one that blew by us.

“Did I tell you that you need to be taught how to use the power I gave you?” I softly patted my stomach.

Caleb took a deep breath. “No. I’m sorry about how I acted at the warehouse. I never… never had to deal with something like that. Or seen anyone shot before.”

I ran a hand through my hair as I thought over his words. He was a Merchant, not a fighter. Yet the man wanted to do what I used to deal with every night. Or at least he thought he did. It didn't seem like a good fit for the ThinGen.

“Don't take this the wrong way, but you're better off sticking with being a Merchant.”

“But I have to finish the job I was hired to do.” He set the can of blood back in the cup holder after we hit a small bump in the road. “I froze… I’ll do better tonight.”

I still couldn't fully recall the night before. “Caleb, I remember pulling the trigger and nothing beyond that. What happened?”

“A lot of gunfire, a few grenades, and dead people… I didn't see much.”

Not at all a helpful description. I took the phone out once more to do some reading on Halifax as a country. I would have thought Spain reclaimed Encinar in my absence, but it seemed not if Isabella was telling me the truth about the ruler of Halifax being a dragon called Lord Halifax. A quick search of him brought up both his human and dragon appearance with his dragon form being terrible to behold and not at all something I’d ever want to encounter.

Halifax was a gargantuan dragon with scales across his body resembling brass plating. Both of his wings were replaced with robotic imitation wings I couldn’t quite see the details of, as the photograph was taken from so far away. Additionally, his human form was not someone I recognized. I never saw the man in my unlife. Almost the full half of his human body on his left side was nothing but metallic plating rather than skin.

“Dinner… Caleb!” I began, looking up from the phone. “Have you ever met Lord Halifax?”

He shook his head. “The various rulers don’t interact with people like you and me. Why?”

“Just wondering.”

*** ***

We arrived at the club just as the stars came out. Again, Caleb parked far from the club at my behest and we walked the rest of the way to the club. There was a long line of people and no retainer to greet us, so we waited.

I pulled my phone out to watch more videos. Only instead of cats, I found a documentary about how sailing ships like mine were still used by sailors! A few were retrofitted with Star Drives and had their cloth sails converted to Solar Sails capable of harnessing the power of the solar winds to fuel arcane engines. That way they could traverse the ‘Dark Sea’ between the shards. The ship layouts looked fairly similar, too, with open decks.

Mine had been fitted with a Charleston-built Arcane Engine and required a special crew to run, because I couldn't cast the required magic to work on it. I don't even know what fuel it used aside from fancy gemstones the ship mages would imbue spells into. The ships in the documentary were fairly similar. However, I didn't know how being a vampire would work when it came to sailing on an open deck. Especially when the Solar System's twin suns were visible from everywhere.

A search of the internet brought up concerning results. Vampires didn't sail tall ships across the Dark Sea, or Star Sea to some. And the last tall ship to engage in combat was last seen over fifty years ago. The photograph taken from another starship looked almost comical.

On one side of the photograph was a well-kept fifth-rate floating on brightly colored fog. While the ship it sat next to looked more akin to a giant egg on the end of a stick with shipping containers attached to said stick.

I pointed to the strange ship and asked Caleb, “What kind of ship is this?”

Caleb followed my gesture. “An Interstellar cargo hauler. They move goods between the shards. If you think that is an ugly ship, you should see a dwarven carrier. They look like a tipped over trash can.”

I never got the chance to look for the carrier, because the mortal retainer walked up to us and called for our attention. She was staring right at me with a frown on her face.

“Did you come fed?” she asked, not taking her eyes off me. “Hungry is fine. Starving is not.”

I nodded. She waved for us to follow her inside.

The inside of the club was dark and noisy once again. Perfect for vampires to hide or feed without being spotted if one was careful. Only the dance floor and bar were really illuminated by various lights. Other areas had a strange purple glow to them tonight. Glowing paint splatters covered a few surfaces and even people.

As we wandered by the bar and dance floor, the retainer stole a glance at my jacket before nodding. “Nice jacket,” she yelled, voice almost drowned out by the thumping music.

“I thought I should get with the times,” I replied just as loud.

“Get a larger size if you want to hide your weapon,” she replied. Then flicked her head up toward the stairs as we passed by the stage. “No guns allowed in the boss’s office.”

I waited for us to get behind the stage and slowly pulled the revolver out, removed the cartridges, and gave it to her. It was a pointless gesture when guns didn't really slow down a vampire. Only swords were truly deadly, except for a cannonball. I once saw a vampire’s head explode off their shoulders because they thought they could take a cannonball when their skin was hard enough to repel bullets.

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The retainer stuffed the revolver down her waistband like a degenerate pirate and nodded back. She approached the door, uncaring that Caleb hadn't spoken once since arriving at the club. She knocked, waited a moment, opened the door, and peered in. “Boss? The ThinGen and ancient Tech Ghost are here.”

“Send them in!” a vaguely familiar man’s voice called out.

The retainer opened the door all the way for Caleb and I to head inside.

It was a strange room with a wall of televisions displaying every angle of the club’s main floor, a safe tucked in the corner with canned blood stacked atop it like a pyramid, a desk and a tired mortal sprawled out in a chair like they were enjoying every moment of their existence.

The retainer followed us in, helped the mortal to their feet and led them out of the room, leaving us alone with the vampire sitting behind the desk.

His clothing cut close to his body in a way that accented his pale features and oozed the air of old money with a mixture of royalty, leading me to wonder if perhaps he was a king or prince in his old days. Or if it was simply his blood.

A wide grin crossed his face. It felt like an elder holding the cards over a fledgling’s head and I did not like the feeling at all. Especially the stack of papers in front of him, or the way his eyes went right to me and not Caleb.

The man managed to keep his appearance nice enough. I wondered if he actually had a reflection, or used his retainer for that, which led me to think that perhaps my own appearance was not well off. Amelia hadn't tended to it in a few days.

The elder vampire steepled his hands before dipping them in our direction. “I saw the news. Good job at the warehouse.” The man got up from his chair while I folded my arms across my chest. I had a feeling he was behind it. He turned away from us and faced the wall of televisions where one showed a still image of my blurry, smear-like appearance on the dance floor last night.

It was a look that was wholly unflattering, but strangely, you could still somewhat see what I looked like. Broad shoulders, male body shape in a dress, and all as I spoke to Dinner.

“Excuse me? People died!” Caleb yelled.

The other vampire sighed, slowly shaking his head from side to side. “And many more of us would have died had you not gone to the warehouse. Vampires were turning up as piles of ash around my club and we couldn't find the culprits. Not only did you expose the hunters, but you sent the police after them.” He turned around and clapped his hands in a condescending manner that reminded me of Jean.

It wasn't Jean, but the man’s face looked eerily familiar as if I had seen him in my past. Caleb mentioned the club owner was worried about me.

I frowned. “So how did they know where to find us?”

“That is the problem of tonight.” The man waved a hand at the wall of televisions. “You have free reign to explore my club. Find the rat and bring them to me alive. I will make an example of them.”

Caleb looked at me, one eyebrow raised.

I shrugged. “It's fledgling work,” I said. “We’re both at the bottom of this new world and you wanted in, welcome to it.”

He blinked over and over at me.

The elder vampire looked between us before he picked up two envelopes and held them out. “This should be suitable compensation for your efforts last night.”

I stuffed the envelope in a jacket pocket without looking at the contents, as that was uncouth.

Caleb finally tore his red eyes from me and looked at the other vampire. “Do you allow feeding in your club?” he asked. “I was told by my boss that I could.”

“I would be review bombed to bankruptcy if I denied half my clientele from partaking in sustenance!”

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“Can we hunt?” Caleb tilted his head a bit, hope filling his voice. “Like actually stalking people and drinking from them?”

“Get your target’s permission first, but be discreet. Hunting is outlawed in Halifax.”

Caleb looked at me again.

“You think it was Dinner?” I asked. “They've never been to the club before!”

“That person you were with?” the elder added, throwing a hand in my direction. “I had them vetted by my retainer during the day. They're just a high level corporate mercenary from Angeles.”

That… is a long drive.

“Does it cost anything to hunt?” Caleb turned to the wall of televisions, taking a step toward them as he held his hands wide like he was trying to give the screens a hug.

The elder nodded. “Usually, but yesterday was free drink night. Why?”

“Well, that mortal my friend spoke with said she bought blood at ten dollars a glass.” Caleb looked at me. “Right?”

“They did.” I nodded. “Said they asked for the good stuff and bought actual blood.”

“The blood I drank tasted bad,” Caleb added for me.

The elder held his chin for a moment, emerald eyes to the floor while his thumb stroked his cheek for a moment.

I cocked an eyebrow at Caleb, catching what he might be implying. The barkeep was acting suspicious. Suspicious enough I took out my phone and sent Dinner a message: Which glass did you give me last night? The first or second one the barkeep gave you?

Idk. Y? was Dinner's reply after a moment. An odd shorthand for sure, but recognizable enough once I stared at it for ten seconds.

I will tell you face to face next time we meet.

Tomorrow?

If that is when you want. No pressure.

Tomorrow! I wanna show you a place in Encinar’s Old Town district. Where can I meet you?

I showed Caleb the message. He squinted and muttered, “Why is the screen flickering like that?”

“Like what?” I turned it around and it looked normal to me, so I held it in a way Caleb and I could both see it. The screen still looked normal to me, but he pointed at it.

“Look! It's covered in a shadow that doesn't go away.” His finger touched the screen, causing it to go dark.

“What?” I pulled the device away from him and looked at its normal screen.

“I swear something is wrong with that phone!”

My eyes drifted to the elder vampire before looking at Caleb. He should learn to remain quiet about those things and tell me in secret, but what was done was done.

The elder shrugged. “Your lineage’s issue with technology is hard to hide in this day and age,” he said dryly. “There are cameras everywhere and fewer of you sea vampires each night.”

Caleb nodded. “I have an idea. I’ll watch from the shadows and you buy mortal blood. Act like you're looking for a hunt, too.”

“Using me as bait?” I hummed to myself, smirking at Caleb. “You catch on quick.”

“I’ll be watching,” the old vampire said, flicking his head toward the wall of televisions. “Don't disappoint me, Cassandra. Your sire recommended you as capable, but past personal experience says otherwise.”

I turned to go, but paused and stared at the man for the longest time. He still didn't sound like Jean, but he sure was acting like it, so I asked, “Are you Jean’s fledgling?”

He nodded slowly. “He’ll be by later tonight to give you your payment and would like a few words with you. Nothing bad. He missed you is all, and would like to formally welcome you back to Encinar. He has put in an application for your return to the council as well.”

“Lovely.” Just what I needed. I waved for the confused Caleb to go.

He and I headed downstairs to the dance floor. I gave the ThinGen a short rundown on how to hide in the shadows and have them respond to him, but he said he already grasped the very basics. Something about playing assassin video games set in the Renaissance Era.

That left me to wander the dance floor and listen to the crowd. Music thrummed and thumped around us like a heartbeat. Mortals cheered, heartbeats absolutely pounding blood through their writhing limbs. Sweat glistened in the lights as it swept across them, calling me to mingle and look for a meal once more.

I turned away, knowing I was fed enough to not need food for the time being.

My heart yearned for the sea, to feel the wind at my back and hear the flag flapping in the breeze. To hear the ship creak and breathe on its own. To feel the rocking of the deck and smell the gunpowder with the crack of cannon fire. I missed my ship.

I wandered by a table with a pair of mortals engaged in a conversation. One man with dark clothing was speaking to another in a military uniform. “So how long are you in town for?” the light haired mortal asked.

“A month, but I’ll be busy all next week ‘cause of that damn event,” the military man said, waving across his plate of food in front of him. Actual food and drink. Not blood.

“The hurricane?” the other man asked.

The man in military clothing nodded. “Yeah. We’re sticking around in case we’re needed.”

When the other man’s soft, easy, eyes met mine, they lit up like the sun. It looked like he had something to say, but couldn’t think of how to say it. He stumbled his words, snapping his fingers to get my attention, but I didn’t have time for mortals when I was doing a job.

The military man watched me walk by their table, glanced at the other man, and they continued on in their conversation.

I made my way by another table with a man and woman talking to each other. And again, neither of them had any blood on their table, which made me wonder how many vampires were actually in the club.

“I don't really like th-this place,” the woman said quietly, her voice trembling with fear, glancing at the tables around them, her eyes meeting mine for a moment before she returned to the man at her table.

“Why not?” the man asked.

“Something just feels off. Do y-you want to go somewhere else?”

“Where do you want to go?”

The woman leaned as far forward as she could when I passed by, her voice low, but not low enough. “I don’t fucking care! I’ve seen that old woman in a book about evil vampires from the old days. Let’s get out of here before she kills us.”

It wasn’t worth starting an argument about me not being evil when I had Caleb’s plan to follow: buy a flute of human blood.

The barkeep looked the same as yesterday: Green eyes and scruffy hair. She went from patron to patron to ask about their drinks and ignored my presence for the most part, until I knocked on the counter and called to her.

I nodded when she approached me. “I’ll take some… ‘good’ blood if you have it.”

“Got creds?” she asked.

“I have gold.” I waved at her.

“Fifty gold pieces.” She smiled.

“Outrageous! Fifty gold pieces for a flute of blood? Why, when I was a fledgling it was only a quarter of a gold piece!”

“Well, grandpa, the prices have gone up. It's fifty pieces now.”

“Grandpa?!” I gasped, eyes wide as I reached for the pistol that wasn't there. My hand fumbled against my trousers and jacket, failing to find the holster I used to carry on my hip just last week. I thrust a pair of fingers at the barkeeper. “Listen here, you macaroni trollop! I am a paying customer and you will serve me what I ask for.”

“Do you even have the gold, you old bag of dust?”

“I do. Where is your stupid gold payment machine?”

She pulled a small square from her apron and held it out for me. I didn't see any buttons or a screen to indicate what it was for, which the gun store had. Taking the device from her, I held it up and turned it over.

“What is this?”

“A card machine. Where's your card?”

“I don't have one. Do you take cell phone payments?”

The barkeeper shrugged. “Are you stupid? Just tap it against the logo.”

I held my phone over the device until it beeped that the payment had gone through. The barkeep took the device back and handed me a glass filled with a dark red liquid.

A sniff test revealed nothing out of the ordinary, and neither did a finger dip, so I sipped from it. That’s when I tasted the normal metallic after burn of the imitation blood. I set the glass down and frowned at her.

“I want fresh,” I demanded, tapping my finger against the counter top.

“You ain’t getting fresh for ten credits.”

Dinner bought fresh for ten credits. Or so they claimed. There was no way Jean’s child only sold imitation blood when he himself had a mortal he was drinking from. If the prices had increased that much from when I went to sleep, then a hundred credits wouldn't buy a mortal to drink from.

I opened the jacket, flashing my empty holster to the barkeep and pulled the envelope of money out. It wasn’t respectable to do, but I didn’t have any other folding money on me. I threw down all of my credits. “Fresh.”

“Fresh, huh?” she asked as she inspected the bills, holding them beneath an oddly colored light. Then folded each one a few times and ran them through her fingers. All in all it was 3,500 credits. After she was satisfied, she pocketed them and slid a dark red card across the counter. “You’ll find fresh here. Talk to Lyra when you get inside.”

The barkeep gave me instructions to the saloon’s back rooms just down a dark hallway prime for a vampire to be hiding in the shadows, left down a narrow corridor past the dimly lit restrooms to a plain door guarded by a man in a suit.

I flashed the card to the guard from yesterday like I was instructed to and he opened the door.

An elf woman a full head taller than I greeted me with a wave and a smile. The golden-eyed woman wore a fancy black dress that showed off her pale arms and neck, contrasting against her flame-red hair, making it look like magma flowing from a volcano. She was very beautiful in that dress.

“Are you Lyra?” I asked, holding the card out.

She took the card and put it down the front of her dress, nodding slowly.

Her warm hand practically dragged me through a tour of the place. Lyra showed me a few different areas for feeding. They ranged from a plush couch near card tables with mortals playing games against each other, to a communal feeding room with vampires sharing drinks from mortals. The whole time the elf said not a word. Just waved at anything of interest and then at me.

She acted as if she was asking questions but I wasn't sure what she wanted. Her hands moved in various ways I didn’t understand and her growing frown was concerning. The flaming haired elf tapped her chin for a couple of moments, staring at me. She snapped her fingers and motioned to herself, showing off her neck.

It took a second for it to dawn on me. She was offering me her blood!

I nodded slowly, saying nothing. Lyra again dragged me on an adventure through the club’s back rooms until we came to a plain door. She opened it, and inside was an opulent bedroom beyond anything a peasant could afford. A velvet post bed with thick curtains and a dresser full of clothes. It was huge, too. Roughly the size of my old bedroom with its own heater, a television screen, and a microwave.

I stepped through into the room, inhaling a sweet rose-scented aroma that reminded me of my old gardens. Curiously, the only noise was the elf woman's heartbeat rapidly increasing as she closed and locked the door behind me.

Spinning around, I met her golden-eyed gaze. Lyra's head leaned to the side once more to expose her neck in a way that made it all too clear what she expected of me. No foreplay, no kissing, no words exchanged. We both knew what we were there for: food for me.

I pulled her close and sunk my fangs into her neck. Lyra gasped. She wrapped her arms around my waist, pulling me closer as I drank deep.