Fuck delivery. It didn’t get any fresher than that for a vampire.
A blessing and a curse to be sure. It was that access that had brought Rosanna back to me after our stint in Budapest. I hadn’t seen her since the 20s and then she’d turned up on my doorstep and brought her particular brand of bullshit with her.
“Fucking Rosanna. Cursed cunt,” I mutter, cursing my maker. She was still in Seattle and there she’d stay, far fucking away from me. She wouldn’t bother me where I was going. Rosanna had a healthy aversion to small towns and Vesper Point was the epitome of small coastal town living, or at least that’s what Aubrey told me.
As if summoned by my thoughts, my phone dings with a text. I don’t have to look to know who it is. Aubrey. Talented concierge and dutiful assistant for hire to the vampire elite. I’d hired Aubrey just that week to get me the fuck out of Seattle.Aubrey was the best. Efficient, respectful, and result driven, just as was to be expected when working with vamps. She had to be. We weren’t exactly known for our patience or empathy, now were we?
How or why Aubrey had picked Vesper Point for my relocation was a mystery to me, but I wasn’t in the best spot to bitch so I took the move on the chin.
Another text dings through on my phone. Curious. I wonder what has Aubrey double texting? As much as that triggers my interest, I don’t pick up my phone. Instead, I keep both hands on the wheel and do my best impression of a safe driver. My switch to safety-conscious wasn’t by choice, it was by necessity. Even if a human couldn’t see more than a few feet through the rain, I could.
The headlights up ahead are the reason for me not reaching to read Aubrey’s texts like I might have a mile or so back. A wreck is the opposite of a low profile and all that. What would even be the point of leaving the city I’d called home for the better part of a decade if I went crashing into a human the second I left town?
The road dips and the headlights vanish before they reappear again. It’s a truck. I sigh when they come over the hill too fast and hydroplane towards me for a second before they manage to pull their car back into their lane.
“Idiot humans,” I mutter as the truck bounces by. Five bucks says they slam into a tree in half an hour.
My phone trills with a call. Aubrey’s name flashes across the console and I accept the call. It’s perfectly acceptable to be handsfree while driving. I tap the screen to accept the call and practically feel my car insurance lower from how damn mindful I’m being.
“Aubrey,” I greet.
“Julian! Hi, how’s the drive?” She sounds chipper. Happy and bubbly. The exact opposite of what someone might imagine when they think of a vampire assistant but that’s probably why Aubrey is so good at what she does. No one would ever look twice at her and wonder what she does for work. Discretion is her speciality.
“Wet,” I tell her and frown up at the sky. There’s a boom of thunder and the telltale flash of lightning a second later. “I’m in the middle of a storm. It’s slowing me down some.”
Aubrey hums. “Bummer. I guess that’s why you weren’t answering my texts.”
“Driving safety is important,” I remind her.
“How very responsible of you, Doctor Vale.”
“You had it right before.” I sigh and slow around another curve. “Just Julian.”
“Right. Julian. I wasn’t calling just to check on your drive. I was calling with an update on your…situation.”
Situation. That’s what we’re calling almost losing my job over the loss of 500 pints of blood because my fucking maker set me up and stole it.
I nod even though Aubrey can’t see it. “Yes, that. What’s the update?”
“Your maker has been apprehended by the authorities.”
A pang of remorse hits me. The authorities in the vampire world are even worse than the barely graduated high school asshole human cops that harass anyone they don’t like the look of. For us order and hierarchy are maintained by a council of a select few. We call them the Varcolacus. Between the five of them they have enough power and enough foot soldiers that stepping out of line isn’t just frowned upon, it’s the quickest way to earn the Final Death.
If Rosanna’s been taken by the Varcolacus her days are numbered. No doubt they’ll give her the Final Death. I lean back into my seat while I wait for Aubrey to keep speaking.
“She’s going on trial in six month’s time. I, well, I thought you should know.”
“How did she get caught?”
“She got sloppy. Was trying to unload too much of the blood at once. The hospital had already started their investigation. Your leaving definitely caused notice but when Rosanna hit the blood market with the quantity she was trying to move they locked onto her. No one knows who she is to you so I think with a bit of time you’ll be in the clear to return to Seattle. Maybe after her trial and sentencing.”
That’s another thing about hospitals. They know vampires exist. At least, the ones high enough up the chain do. Humans at large are ignorant about the supernatural. They have no idea that vampires exist. They barely even understand that witches are real, so what can you really expect from them?
There are some that know our secret. The ones in power do and the ones with money certainly do. Hospitals liked both power and money, which made my job risky. I prized my privacy above all else. Passing as human helped me maintain the life I enjoyed but one wrong move from me as a doctor could bring that all down by putting me on the wrong people’s radar.
So far, my involvement in Rosanna’s theft was surface level stuff. Maybe they thought I was her boyfriend or family member. Someone whose key card got swiped and abused without them knowing. That was the story I was pushing. It was thin but was holding. Now more so than ever with Rosanna foolishly trying to sell on the market.
“How could she be so stupid?” I ask. My question is more rhetorical but Aubrey answers me because I pay her to answer me.
