“His name is Reginald. That’s all I know.”
“Reggie? Reggie is a fucking vampire?” I laugh because it’s ridiculous. He’s a custodial worker who cleans a few places in town. He’s on my payroll as a go-to hire for cleaning move out spaces when I have turnover in the rentals I own.
“You know him?” Julian asks.
“Yeah, he’s been working for my family for a while.” He’s quiet and older, with a salt and pepper beard and kind green eyes but now that I think about it…Reggie hasn’t aged a fucking day since I met him as a kid. “Come to think of it, he's been with us for generations. Why didn’t I notice that until now?”
It’s true. Reggie worked for my grandparents, but I also think he worked for my granny’s mother, too.
“I never noticed him. His age. Not like that.”
“Some vampires have the ability to hide themselves in plain sight. This Reggie probably has some variation of the ability. The ones that have it are able to stay in one place indefinitely.”
“Because people just don’t notice?”
Julian nods. “Yes, he would become as common to you as the background. Someone that you know but don’t think aboutmuch. It’s a perfect ability for someone not keen on uprooting their lives.”
“What abilities do you have?” I ask. I remember the way the temperature dropped in the hospital with Donna. “You did something to Donna.”
“I did.” I stay silent and wait for him to speak. Julian rocks back and looks up at me. “I told you that I was strong enough to challenge the Varcolacus. That I would protect you if it came down to it.”
I nod. “You did.”
“There are two reasons I would be able to do this. Normally, challenging a vampire older than you is a difficult fight to win, but not in my case,” Julian pauses like he’s about to tell me something bad, so I brace myself for it, “When I was newly made there was a healer, a witch that I spent months with, studying everything she did as a healer. She grew fond of me so she spelled me.”
“Spelled you?”
“She imbued me with power. When I left her to rejoin my maker, she told me she’d given me a gift. One that would make me so much more than a mere vampire. She warned me not to tell a soul because it would make me a target. I’m stronger and faster than any of the Varcolacus, and I’ve mastered energy. That’s what you saw me doing to Donna. I think she knew I wouldn’t make it after I left her if she didn’t do something. I was young and weak when I met her. Only a couple of decades old and foolish with a selfish maker. Easy pickings for a vampire hunter or another vampire who wanted to make a point. When I realized what it was that she had given me I went back to ask what she’d done but she was dead by the time I returned to her village. Her name was Anne.”
I let out a sigh of relief when he tells me that. “Oh thank god.” I laugh when I realize what he is. “Oh my god, you’re an energy vampire.”
Julian’s brow furrows. “What?”
“I thought you were going to tell me something insane like you’re in the mafia or controlled by an ocean monster, but you’re just a superpowered energy vampire, which is actually kind of funny.”
“You equate the mafia with ocean monsters?”
I throw my hands out to gesture towards town. “Have you seen where I live? We have as much chance of getting overrun by the mafia as we do sea monsters.”
Julian’s lips turn up in a half smile. “You are fascinating. I never know what you’re going to do or say.”
Fascinating.
“And for the record, I’m not an energy vampire. I’m a vampire with a mastery of energy.”
“Sure, sure,” I swear I see Julian’s eye twitch when I brush him off but I feel like I’m on cloud nine. I’ve been called a lot of things by a lot of people in my life but fascinating has never been one of them. I warm at his words and let myself indulge in Julian’s attention. His little secret to take on the vampire council isn’t a bombshell, or something sinister and dark. He’s still Julian, just more. Everything is going to be okay.
“What’s the second reason you could win? You said there were two but that’s only one.”
“The second is not so illustrious. It’s blood. The more blood a vampire consumes the more power they absorb. Each person has their own sort of energy and magic that only the blood can hold. If a vampire has as many different types as I have working as a doctor for over a century the power and abilities they amass is considerable and makes me more than an even match for the Varcolacus. They might have their meals served to them ona silver platter but they’re lazy, and none of them have been spelled like me.”
“That’s…that’s good. It gives you an edge if anything were to happen. Keep you safe.”
Julian rises. “It’s not my safety that I care about. It’s yours. We’ll have to be smart now that we know another vampire is in the area.”
“What if it was just a coincidence? There was so much blood when I-” I stop short and then take a deep breath, if I can’t say it then I shouldn’t have done it, right? I’m not going to admit to that so I say it, “When I killed Brian there was blood. A lot of it. Maybe it's a vampire that was just passing through and smelled the blood. Like a shark.”
“The comparison to sharks is apt, but there are no coincidences with vampires. Whoever did this put effort into him. Too much time really, with the state of his body and my burying him. This isn’t a coincidence, Maris.”
