Chapter 24: Pickled Boons

  The chestnut haired fledgling known as Samantha stood before me in comfortable looking pants and a sweater. She couldn't look at me as she rubbed her hands together and frowned. I didn't want to know the reason for her embrace, because I knew why; love.

  What she failed to realize is that her parents wanted her home. Even if they had nothing and the conditions at both encampments were terrible. They loved her, at least according to them, and they wanted her safe. That is all. Well, as a vampire she was safe for the most part. She just had to avoid the sun, stakes, and swords. Otherwise the vaguely familiar fledgling would be fine.

  Caleb stood between Samantha and I, while another male vampire watched me very closely. Everyone in the encampment was weary, because out of all of them I was the only old hag of a vampire. The only one with silvered hair, wrinkled skin and a voice like gravel. My voice had become stranger through whatever caused Eva and I to share the same body. It was one of those things I would have to adjust and get used to, since the half-elf’s voice was naturally light while mine was deeper, causing me to work to maintain a semblance of my old self.

  Which meant I sometimes sounded like a lady pretending to be a man, rather than a deep voiced lady.

  Caleb didn't recognize me just yet, but he wore his suspicions on his face. I knew him well enough to know when the wheels in his head were turning with a plan on what stupidity he'd ask next. He was smart, but sometimes the questions were worse than a mortal’s.

  The blonde vampire to Samantha’s right had not introduced herself just yet, so I just called him Blondie. He attempted to look imposing as he stood as tall as he could and glared at me with the fury of the moon. We were roughly equal heights with Eva’s body being a tad shorter, but both of us were shorter than Caleb.

  It felt amusing to have to look up to a man for once and not meet them at equal eye level, but I kept my smile in check as I waited for Samantha to speak.

  The fledgling gulped. “They’re not my parents.”

  I cocked my head and opened my mouth to speak, but Blondie interrupted me. “Look, lady,” the human began. “Leave the girl alone and keep moving. Those people down the way won't listen to anything you have to say. I’m surprised they let you live.”

  “So if they're not your parents… then who are they?”

  “Trouble.”

  My foot tapped into the ground for a moment as I hummed to myself, digging the toe first as if I were squishing a cigarette into the dirt. Caleb cocked his head in reply. The situation was silly, considering the ThinGen was involved in it and he panicked the last time someone was embraced outside the system’s procedures. Someone was lying to me and I don’t know who. Could be the mortals, could be the vampires, but the mortal looked a bit strange. Too clean.

  Slowly, I looked between the fledgling and ThinGen vampire, because something about Samantha was bugging me. I had seen her before, and recently. She was human, so it couldn’t have been two weeks ago. Her nervous tick felt familiar, but I couldn’t place exactly where until my eyes drifted to Samantha’s juicy neck. My fangs ached to bite down as her face became washed out by the lights of a passing car.

  Then it clicked.

  I wheeled around and pointed at Caleb, narrowing my eyes. “You wanted me to turn her!”

  “What?!” Caleb blinked, stepping back, red eyes widening in shock.

  Something told me to stop talking, but something else let the anger flow through as I glared at the man and shouted, “At my house a week and a half ago! You brought this same mor–vampire for me to drink from. You were hoping I would accidentally kill her and embrace the woman out of pity! Well, Caleb. I hope you got everything you asked for with the footage in your sick and twisted world.”

  His eyes twitched. “Cassandra…?” The man stepped toward me and squinted as if it’d do anything. Then he sniffed the air for a moment. “Cassandra! Did you buy a cosmetic?!”

  I glanced around the camp. The others were busy getting their things together and going about their lives. They didn’t have to cook food, so they worked on projects like a trio of vampires huddled around something I didn’t quite understand, but at least knew some of the terms for the machine.

  It had a thin hull similar to a dockside crane with a cockpit at the front and stubby wings. A fancy H-shaped tail hung off the back with a long snout up front and a slightly droopy cockpit. It looked large enough that every vampire in the camp could pile inside and leave Encinar.

  If it wasn’t a rusty pile of shit worse off than Dinner’s car.

  She had two thrusters at the back and armored ducting leading off to the engines in the center of the hull. The vampires had covered it partially in tarps and built around it to make it look like part of their encampment from the air. All in all, the ship looked like an effective transport. If Eva knew what an effective transport was that is. I had her memories to go by and that was it.

  But the transport wasn’t my concern. All I wanted was the fucking truth from someone for once, and it had to start somewhere.

  “This doesn’t leave the four of us, understand?” I finally explained, turning my gaze back to the three vampires before me. “Caleb knows what I am capable of and what my preferred food is, so I will allow him to inform you two of what fate befalls you should word get out.”

  I got nods of approval.

  “My sire tried to kill me because she says I’m too dangerous for modern Encinar. I had to resort to stealing my killer’s body to stay alive. Now, we are hiding from her while figuring out what to do next. All I want is the honest truth from someone. Are they your parents or were they lying to me? If they are lying then I will deal with them for you, because I don’t like being lied to.”

  She bit her lip.

  “How does stealing a body work?!” Caleb exclaimed.

  “Because I refuse to die until time itself dies. Next question.”

  “Yeah,” Blondie began and gestured in my direction. “Can you leave us the fuck alone?”

  “Okay!” Samantha yelled, throwing her hands up. “Look, I don’t know who told you they were my parents, because my parents are dead.”

  I sighed heavily. A very mortal-like gesture and one I shouldn’t be doing, but so many fledglings in a fortnight would make any vampire’s hair turn grey.

  This is why I never really took a fledgling. That and Isabella didn’t want me to have one. She said I needed to wait until I was two hundred years old to have one. That way I was sure I knew I wanted a fledgling, but Amelia would be dead by then. We had to make the choice and we wouldn’t change it. Amelia was… was… alive?

  Sort of.

  She was more dead than alive, but Lyra’s acquaintance was supposed to be in Encinar tomorrow night. That was something to look forward to at least. For now, however, I had to deal with mortals being afraid of vampires, again.

  “Why are blood sacks afraid of vampires if they live in a city ruled by them?!” I asked loudly.

  “Because of that exact language,” Blondie deadpanned.

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m hungry, so bite me.”

  Caleb stepped in, reaching for my hand as he opened his mouth, fangs sliding out. I jumped back and snatched his wrist from the air, twisting it out of the way. I glared at him. He shook his head, blinking again before glancing around. “Sorry! I thought you were being serious.”

  “How does biting me give me food?” I groaned. Fledglings. The whole situation was becoming more and more insane the more we spoke.

  “Sorry, sire.”

  As I stared into Caleb’s eyes, they looked… odd to say the least. The way he was looking at me reminded me of the way my sire used to look at me. Slowly, I brought up my hand and looked at the wrist Caleb had bitten last week, remembering that my sire warned her two fledglings specifically to not drink from each other. And how Jean told me to stop drinking from her, but I couldn’t.

  Her blood was just too tasty. Intoxicatingly so.

  “Caleb… when you drank from me, what did it taste like?”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Like nothing I’ve ever tasted,” he replied quietly. “It made me feel like a powerful vampire, not a weak thin-blooded vampire. I… I accidentally found that I can influence people if I am using a forceful tone. Happened to a customer who was acting like a Karen about something he bought.”

  “And if I showed you my wrist, what would you do?” I pulled it close to my chest so he couldn’t see it.

  His eyes went to the ground. “I just want a taste again…”

  “No.” I shook my head from side to side. “There will be no more drinking from other vampires for you all. Not you, not Samantha, not Blondie—”

  “John.”

  “Not John, not anyone. Understand? Pass the word around that vampire blood is addictive. And if you two truly love each other, then I implore you to not drink from each other.”

  It was surprising that they didn’t try it themselves, but I suppose when they’re a corporate product then they don’t quite have all the powers of a vampire. Caleb’s blood bond with me was gone thanks to Eva. Even when I was in Cassandra’s body, I didn’t have an inkling to bite from Caleb any more than I needed to.

  I brought up the close relationship menu and stared at the level 5.5 bond with my sire. It should have gone down more than that when I died, considering Caleb’s was at zero, but it still had a note about him being my adoptive fledgling. Unless each drink adds a level to it and I was at 6.6 when I died. But surely, death would have done more? I was starting to have access to my memories, so perhaps it would take time.

  But I needed to visit her on an instinctual level. I couldn’t put it off any longer. Unless that was her blood talking. It very well could be.

  Slapping myself, I shook my head from side to side to clear it of any lingering thoughts. I couldn’t let them take root and control me again.

  “Alright, I’m going to go back there and kill the mortal who sent me here. Caleb, would you mind giving me a ride?”

  “No one needs to be killed.” John turned to look at the rest of the camp, lowering his voice. “We were here first and some mortals tried to move in. It went okay, but then another group came by and split us. They want our cargo shuttle, because they think it’ll get them off Halifax. She doesn’t have the range to reach anywhere but Olympia. We need to either buy fuel from a tanker or hitch a ride on a bigger ship, but vampires are illegal on most shards and we won’t be able to dock with a ship bound for a place beyond the local Halifax system.”

  “So the rust bucket can fly?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why haven’t you left?” I cocked my head and felt my pockets for a pencil or something to twirl in my hand so I didn’t think about her. All I could find was a spare magazine and that did the job.

  “It’s a pre-corporate shuttle from back during the first Corporation Wars. You need the Old Shuttle Pilot class to fly it, not the new one, so even if the new group took it from us they can’t go anywhere without someone versed in pre-corporate tech.”

  “There’s hardly any Old Shuttle Pilots anymore,” Samantha added as she looked down at the ground.

  John moved closer to her and gently rubbed the fledgling’s back, whispering something I didn’t want to hear.

  I looked at Caleb for his advice.

  Caleb shrugged. “I’ve been doing what I can to keep the vampires fed, but I don’t have much help. People think it’s stupid because they should just get a job, but these vampires don’t have a class. So how can they get a job?”

  Lovely.

  “Sounds familiar.” I ran a hand through my hair as I gently bit my lower lip. My eyes went to the partly cloudy night sky where so many stars were gone it looked like the early evening despite it being around midnight. A few stars moved on their own and blinked, telling me that they were either airships or starships, or airplanes, or helicopters. Maybe a dragon, as according to dragon law they had to have lights on them so airplanes could see them.

  I couldn’t tell Caleb that the whole reason I didn’t have a class in the first place was because I didn’t pick one to use. I was just an idiot and didn’t pay enough attention at the start. Amelia was on my mind and I had been starving. Anyone would overlook the fact that they had a class when they just woke up after a two hundred year nap and needed sustenance.

  “I think I know a half-elf who might know a half-elf, who knows a person who may be able to help.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and sent Dinner a message: Do you know anything about pre-corporate tech? And what is it?

  The message was quicker than I expected: Pre-Corporate Tech refers to stuff made shortly before Reality broke and not long after. Think of it like really, really, really advanced magitech machines capable of forming a symbiotic relationship with you. The warmachine picks you. Like, no one can pilot my mech ‘cause she don’t want any other pilot but me. Now you see why Salvage Pilots are cloned and so fucking expensive to hire? 1/3

  Corporate Tech is what you’re using now. It is more scientific, because the ancient dragons have completely banned most magitech shit. Like, they say that the rampant magic used by elves and humans in the First World War, and the insane warmachines they built are why Reality died. I’m surprised they even allow a System to work, but maybe they dunno how to stop it, yk? 2/3

  What’s up? Do you need someone versed in Pre-Corporate Tech? 3/3

  I blinked a few times at the fast and wordy message. Dinner had sent all that in under a minute. On a phone no less! It took me a long time to send my messages, because I had to use my stylus and the keyboard is arranged oddly. Why is the Q the first thing you see?

  I sent another: I found a Pre-Corporate Shuttle in need of a pilot.

  They replied: I’ll grow wings before you can find one. A lot of the old pilots died in a ball of fire or were ripped to shreds by dragons. The dragons fucking hated airplanes with a burning passion until Ventrosa created a Dragon Council to rule the planets equally. For every planet with a dragon ruler, there is a non-dragon council member to voice our pleas.

  Thank you, Dinner, I replied.

  Anytime~ <3

  With that as a bust, I put the phone away and sighed. “Alright, let’s get this over with. I’ll talk to the mortal encampment and see whether or not they’ll leave.”

  *** ***

  On the drive over to the other encampment, Caleb asked, “Where’s Lyra?”

  “At one of her businesses.” She had things to do, vampires to feed, and mortals to manage. Despite her being a fledgling, I couldn't keep her around much. She knew about vampires, she knew how to navigate our world, so my initial job was done. All Lyra needed me for was when she wanted to practice her powers or learn new ones.

  We only spent a few days together, but those few days made my heart ache for her return. It was odd, because I wanted her to fly free as well, but she enjoyed following me around. Except when she almost got arrested. That was my fault, of course. I was the foolish one who didn't simply follow orders. Because a blood sack ordering me around is not something I am keen on.

  The seatbelt dug into my chest, so I had to adjust it a couple of times until it sat between my breasts and didn't cut through the shirt.

  Caleb’s fancy pickup’s suspension thumped into the frame as the tires flung gravel into the wheel wells, creating an annoying racket that drowned out the music.

  “The news is lying about you,” Caleb said quietly.

  “I know.” I nodded in reply. “So is the museum.”

  “What actually happened back before you went into torpor?”

  “My memory is hazy. I try, and I try, but I cannot pull at the threads. It is as if I am being shielded from it. I can access a few memories, but the dates don't line up.”

  “How do you know the dates?”

  “I access the memory in my System menu and compare the dates with what I created by doing the math, because I don’t like your Before Collide and After Collide dates.”

  Caleb stared at me for a few seconds, then nodded slowly. “Cassandra, I, uh… don’t know how to say this, but that’s not normal…”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  “Explain.”

  He simply shrugged. “My System Menu doesn’t have that. It has my classes, skills, stats, and that’s it. What did she do to you? Are you sure of what you know concerning your death?” He shook his head and looked out the windshield as we passed by a few thick bushes and approached close enough to the encampment that I was able to walk the rest of the way.

  “Let us not speak of this further. It might provoke an instinctual response to return to her. It’s why I left my apartment. I was compelled to. Now let me out here. I can walk.”

  He nodded as he pulled over roughly fifty yards from the encampment. I climbed out of his pickup and walked the rest while Caleb waited. My feet crunched the gravel, feeling vaguely familiar. I could’ve sworn I walked a similar path with a rifle in my hands at one point in my past.

  Approaching the camp, I tried to call out as best I could so my voice carried. Of course, it didn’t carry far. My appearance did more to attract attention than my voice. I held my sharp nails against my palm, looking like I was scratching it as I glared from person to person, searching for my quarry. I don’t know where they were, but I felt the shot slam into my side with a thump, followed by the echoing pop of a pistol. A small caliber one like Eva carried that did little more than tickle a vampire, but put serious hurt on a mortal.

  The burly man didn’t have to choose violence as an answer for my approach, but he did. He and five other people with his build were all armed with projectile weapons. They resembled the military with how they were fanning for cover as they aimed their weapons at me.

  I split my palm open and let the shadows flow.

  *** ***

  There were now two dead mortals, one captured, and two on the run with me having a few bullet holes in my denim jacket and shirt. And my injuries itched as they worked to heal themselves and push the bullets back out. Caleb’s pickup had a few more holes with him remarking, “Why is it anytime I do something with you, my truck is damaged?”

  I didn't want to stay and wait for the cops, because I had an apartment to get back to, but Caleb urged me to. He damn near got on his knees and offered a boon if I stayed. He would do a small favor in exchange for me explaining to the cops that he was not in fact the one who murdered the hostiles. Kind of happens when he pulls the trigger and shoots one with buckshot from his lever-action shotgun he now kept in his pickup.

  I also didn't look like Cassandra in his words. I didn't look like Eva either. I was a weird combination of the two that was called Sandra, the elder half-elven vampire of the Moon Goddess. Priestess to Her soft light. I told the cops as much and recited a few verses about how Her light shines upon us all and gives us energy. And how we should make peace with the mortals and the werewolves, because when we all finally die She brings us into Her embrace.

  It didn't work when my hair was silvered-white, I was as old as time, and there were two dead mortals.

  The cops wanted to take me down to the station for further questioning. I could have run, I really should have after the last encounter with them, but I didn't quite have a choice with Mr. Goody Two Shoes telling me he would owe me a favor if I stayed. Willing favors like that were hard to come by. I would take the blame for killing both mortals, Caleb would walk free, and then later on down the road I would walk up to him and say, ‘Caleb, remember when you wanted me to wait for the cops? Well, there’s something I want you to do.’

  Favors like that were hard currency in the vampire world. I just had to survive the encounter with four groups of patrolmen who didn’t care much about the dead mortals, because they were some dragon crime lord’s thugs according to the man I interrogated. They cared more about me being Cassandra!

  Whomever arrests Cassandra von Colterville, the leading suspect in the Blood Tank’s operation, would likely get a large raise. From what I gathered, they were scouring the city every day and night for me. I was some blood kingpin and didn’t even know it.

  As much as I wanted to escape again, because they mentioned her as well, I sat on the ground like a good little vampire with my hands cuffed behind my back. Meanwhile two armored officers with goggles and helmets waited on a lady cop to arrive to give me a full pat down. One man kept calling me Cassandra even though I told him I wasn’t her. I was Sandra. Yes, our names are similar, but we were different people.

  I had an out. It was insane and wholly stupid, because I was going to do what Caleb did. I was going to ask a vampire for help, because I suspect Detective Carlisle was fairly malleable when it came to the law. Since hardly any of the policemen used magic on civilians, or me, and he used a mind dominating spell right away.

  I took a deep breath and looked up at the cops. “I am an undercover agent working to track down a monster pack in the city. We already dealt with one from the pack and I had a lead that turned out to be a bust.” I tossed my head toward the dead mortals for emphasis.

  “Do you have a badge?”

  “What part of undercover do you not understand?”

  “What’s your badge number?”

  “Call Detective Carlisle of the South Encinar Monster Division,” I said, nodding. “He’s my partner.”

  The cops called for the vampire and we all waited. Caleb couldn't come near me, so after giving his false statement on the events, he drove back to the other encampment to warn them about Sabre the Steelclaw wanting their shuttle for his collection. Time slowly dragged on for me as the minutes turned to hours until the wayward Carlisle finally showed up in a standard issue unmarked police car painted the most boring shade of white.

  The dark skinned vampire looked much in the way I remembered him; Long trench coat topped off with a baseball cap. Only now, his badge dangled around his neck as he showed it off to the other officers. They, of course, pointed at me.

  One of the officers leaned toward the man and whispered as if I couldn’t hear it, “She resembles the suspect from the Blood Tank. We need to take her in for questioning.”

  Carlisle looked from me to the officer for a moment. His face contorted as he frowned. “Hm… I’ll handle this one.” Then he raised his voice, “Hungry?”

  I nodded firmly, picking up the feeling that he might want to talk somewhere away from the others. The man helped me to my feet and led me over to his patrol car where he gently guided me to the passenger seat

  His white car was lower in technology than Caleb's pickup. Closer to Dustin’s SUV, but the Nord Crown Empress was a mildly uncomfortable chair shielded from prying ears. Much like before, the detective held a can of blood in his hand as he stared silently at me.

  I failed to meet his gaze and stared at the passenger side airbag cover, since we both could force each other to speak truthfully. Possibly. I didn't know the extent of Carlisle’s powers beyond what I saw and pissing him off using my powers wouldn't be a good idea. He wasn’t her, so his powers might not work on me.

  “I don't know,” Carlisle began, slowly shaking his head from side to side. “If I was on the run from the police I wouldn't pick the most human-looking cosmetic to buy. It's a nice subtle effect though. Most people won't recognize you at a glance. Half-elven ears only carry you so far.”

  His shotgun was situated in a console mount between the two of us. As was a long rifle and a pistol. The car idled softly as warm air billowed out from the vents, and a quiet voice spoke through speakers in terms I didn't understand. Numbers likely related to a police only language along with mentions of suspects.

  Carlisle pointed to himself. “Me? I got a good enough look at you the other day that I clocked you as soon as I arrived on scene. You still stand the same way and have the same nervous hair twirl. So tell me. Why are you still in the city?”

  I shook my head from side to side, closing my eyes. “I know I'm a fucking idiot, you don't have to remind me.”

  He frowned. “Come on, Missus Colterville, I am trying to help you here. You called me, remember?” He then flashed a fancy smile as he held the handcuff keys for me to see. "Partner for a few nights? I've got a spare badge."

  "Do you really think I'd call you out here to say no?" I asked as I turned to show him my cuffed hands. "Let's get the fuck out of here."