Arthur had been confined to his apartment for a week now. Saint claimed they weren’t watching him, but they were. Arthur was tapping his foot against the floor over and over. He hadn’t even been allowed out to his real job, having to call in sick. At first Dot seemed worried. But by the end of the week he could sense that worry was slowly fading into apathy when she’d called and asked for some documents to be sent over on a case, with just a hint of bitterness in her voice. If Arthur was having to work double because she was out he’d probably have the same attitude, so he didn’t blame her.

  So Arthur sat, and waited. Watched television. Tried to spend his time with his hobbies. But taking care of plants in an apartment wasn’t really a hobby, and it was difficult to focus on if Jennifer would ever see Kyle again after their fling in Bali after seeing what Arthur had seen. Saint had already explained to him the basics, and when he had, everything started to make sense. Only doing business at night. Never seeing them eat or drink anything normal. The supernatural strength and speed. Sucking blood out of some poor guys neck, Arthur thought. If the world was full of supernatural things, Arthur probably would’ve pieced it together faster. But he’d been far past that point in life where he really expected there to be gremlins or goblins or magic or monsters hiding in the shadowy nooks and crannies of the world. At some point, you just begin to believe that the world is the way it is and there’s nothing more to it. Humans on their own manage to make the world a scary, dangerous place, so there’s not really a whole lot of room to the imagination to wonder what exactly things would look like if monsters really were running around. So when Saint laughed and told him they were all vampires, it was like the entirety of Arthur’s logical perception of the world suddenly halted. Like a veil was lifted.

  And it was hard to call it a joke, or ridiculous, when Arthur had seen what he’d seen. He drank another deep swallow of the liquor in his hand and reached to pour yet another glass. He’d drank more in the past week than he had in a very, very long time. He’d also spent more time on his computer than he was used to. The internet wasn’t exactly the best place to find concise, accurate information, but it was all he had. So when he started reading about anemic people and depressed teenagers who thought they were vampires, it became clear why being a vampire in the modern world probably wasn’t so hard after all. There was so much misinformation, and the world had done a fantastic job of convincing itself that nothing supernatural existed. That they were all myths and legends and fairy tales that stupid people in the past made up.

  Even the people online who seemed rational, and made claims about the same sorts of things Arthur had seen were discredited and shunned as being liars, trolls, or just outright foolish. Arthur felt like making accounts on the various paranormal image boards and online discussion forums just to try to validate these people, tell them he knew what they knew, but he actually had confirmation. But Saint had warned him shortly before confining him to the apartment. A human knowing about vampires was a big no-no. A big one. So, very bluntly, Saint told Arthur that if he started running around trying to expose them, he would be punished severely. Arthur thought it was strange he didn’t outright say killed. He didn’t want to imagine what kind of punishment would be worse than death.

  That alone sent questions racing through his head. What parts of the vampire myths are true? What about the classic ones like silver? Garlic? Running water? The only one that seemed obviously true was they didn’t like the sun, because they all refused to come out until it went down. Did they used to rule large swathes of land? What about the famous vampires? Were they fictional, or historical accounts? The one thing Arthur really wanted to know was their relationship with humans. Old stories always talked about how they had human, or half-human servants who willingly did their bidding for a number of reasons. Arthur realized he was Renfield, willingly running around doing whatever the vampire overlords told him to.

  Arthur groaned, dragging his hand down his face. Although, he wasn’t actually sure he was still working for them, as they hadn’t called him in a week. Just told him to sit tight and not say anything to anyone. Apparently this was going to Bartolome, and Bartolome was in Europe again which meant communication was slow, even with cellphones and email. Saint, at least, had checked on Arthur once. At night, of course. Arthur wasn’t sure if it was to genuinely see if he was doing ok or just to make sure he hadn’t tried to run away.

  He laughed to himself. A vampire coming to check up on me. The whole thing felt so absurd, so ridiculous, so completely fantastical and unbelievable. And yet, Arthur felt strangely unperturbed. That feeling of calm was what bothered him more. He felt like a normal person would react much more…violently? Lose their mind, maybe? The human brain was coded to a set of rules and laws that existed within the universe, and when it witnessed things that it wasn’t used to; like violent murders; it could break. And yet, he felt calm. Maybe it was all the years of being a cop. Maybe something was just wrong with him. Probably both.

  What he did know was that they were deciding what to do with him. Clearly, vampires employing humans was not actually all that uncommon, seeing as how he’d worked for two different blood sucking bosses. However, it probably wasn’t so simple when the ignorant human idiot doing their bidding actually figured out what was going on. Not that Arthur did, he reminded himself. Yes they were strange monsters who killed wantonly in many cases, but they also acted very normal. Like businessmen. Entrepreneurs. They had goals, desires, and apparently making money was a pretty common goal. Even if you were undead, money makes the world go round.

  Arthur laughed again. Even a fucking vampire couldn’t get away from the trappings of modern society. Although, he did wonder what exactly vampire society was like. How many of them there were in Longley. Did they have politics? A government? Surely they couldn’t integrate themselves that deeply into normal society if they couldn’t be seen during the day, when ninety percent of human business occurred.

  The phone rang, and Arthur jumped. He picked it up.

  Saint spoke on the line, “Yo Arthur,” Arthur couldn’t believe how casually he was speaking. “Sending a car for you. Told Bartolome what happened, he said it was just a matter of time. So we’re gonna have a little talk, and I’ll explain some stuff.”

  “Uh, sure. I’ll be here.”

  Saint hung up. Ten minutes later there was a honk outside his apartment. Arthur put on his jacket, despite it being the middle of summer, and his gun. He wasn’t even sure it would be helpful, but it gave him some level of comfort. That security guard sure didn’t find out if his gun worked against vampires. Arthur shuddered, the image of Saint’s…fangs, in that mans throat. Dead for what? Was the question that kept nagging at Arthur.

  Outside the apartment was the same cars that most of CargoLink used. A black BMW, tinted windows. Arthur knew first hand they were fast, and hard to see at night. To anyone else they’d probably be impressed by the engine, or the rims, or the exhaust, or the interior. All Arthur wondered now was if the tint was enough to keep the sun out during the day. As he got in the back, Saint was sitting next to him and one of the Soldado’s that Arthur recognized was driving. The man didn’t even say anything, just started driving. Arthur was trying to figure out if they were going to kill him and dump his body or do something worse, but the way Saint was being nonchalant scrolling through his phone and the fact that the driver was listening to pop music made it seem like that wasn’t the case.

  They drove to a warehouse next to a car dealership lot, a place Arthur had been to before. One of the many subsidiaries under CargoLink that was mostly used for money laundering via luxury car sales. There were only a few guards outside who opened the big sheet metal door and let the car in. The driver parked, and Arthur followed Saint as he got out of the car. In the middle of the warehouse there was a plastic white table with two metal folding chairs on either side under a fluorescent light. It looked like a scene out of a mob movie.

  As if to comeplete the scene, Saint sat in one chair and the Soldado moved behind him, clasping his hands together behind his back. Saint motioned for Arthur to sit in the opposite chair. It was intimidating. Maybe the mob movies actually know a thing or two, Arthur thought as he moved forward and sat across from Saint. There was a small, closed laptop on the table and some envelopes and papers. No weapons, although Arthur knew they didn’t need them.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “All right man,” Saint said, still keeping his ever present casual tone. “Before I say anything, I want you to tell me what you think you saw.”

  Arthur nodded slowly. “Uh. Well…you killed that security guard. With your…mouth. And not all of his blood ended up on the floor.”

  Saint snorted, “No need to dance around this Arthur. I just want to know what you know so I don’t have to talk anymore than I need to.”

  “Well, It looked like you were drinking his blood. It looked like you ambushed him, and drank his blood. It looked like at my apartment the Assistant was way stronger than she should’ve been. It looks like every time we meet up it’s once the sun’s gone down.”

  Saint smiled. When he did so, there were two very large, very clear fangs lined in with the rest of his teeth. Arthur’s hairs on his neck rose and he felt a chill.

  “That’s all accurate I’d say. We are vampires. All of us,” Saint said motioning to the Soldado’s. “All hand chosen by Bartolome. I’d wager that the Assistant and anyone you saw working for her was probably one too.”

  “...and Bartolome?”

  Saint nodded. “It might seem a bit ridiculous, but…well, unless you can come up for another explanation for what you saw. You’re a smart guy Arthur, and this is all probably a big shock, but it’s the truth.”

  Arthur just nodded again. “So…”

  “So, this puts us in a awkward position. Bartolome wanted me to be honest with you, so just listen. We all work under a sort of code of conduct. I don’t agree with it, personally, but it’s bigger than us and while we’re in Longley Bartolome wants us to play nice. You know, basic stuff. Don’t go feeding from people in broad daylight. Don’t go telling people what we are. Don’t use Potential in front of mortals.”

  Arthur closed his eyes and shook his head. “Mortals…wait, Potential?”

  “Blood Potential. Makes us faster, stronger. Gives us some pretty wild powers too, like magical type shit. Besides that, don’t kill people willy nilly, try not do expose yourself to mortal people,” Mortal people, Arthur thought. Me. “Clean up your messes, that sort of thing. I’m pretty sure there’s a bit more to it. I used to know all the Vampiric Law pretty well but frankly it’s a bunch of horseshit. But, I do what Bartolome says.

  “So, basically just keep everything on the down low,” Arthur said.

  Saint smiled, “Exactly! Even you get it, being a human and whatnot. Bartolome’s job in our little world is to take out certain vampires who are wanted for this or that reason. Sometimes they broke the Laws, or they just did something they were told not to, or caused problems, or whatever the fuck. We don’t really ask questions. Bartolome just sends us out and we get rid of whoever we’re supposed to get rid of.”

  Arthur was trying to process everything he was saying, and for some terrible reason his brain turned it into a joke. Coping mechanism, maybe. “Or what, the church will sent vampire hunters with stakes and silver after you?”

  Saint just kept his smile aimed at Arthur.

  “What? Wait, are you serious?” Arthur asked.

  “The Church is irrelevant, we keep an eye on them.” Saint said. “The point is, now, a mortal knows about us. And, as you might’ve guessed, keeping mortals unaware of our existence is a pretty big one. Common sense, like I said. There’s not a lot of us, but there’s a lot of them. Imagine what would happen if the world publicly accepted vampires are real? We’d be fucked. But, you in particular are a very clever mortal who knows how to look our for his own safety, and also works for us. So out of anyone, you’re a pretty acceptable person to know about all this. Hence why we didn’t just kill you.”

  Arthur raised his eyebrows, but Saint just shrugged. “Sorry hombre, them’s the rules. So as long as you can agree to a few things, everything will stay the same and you’ll keep working for us and not have to worry about a thing. And come on, how many people can say they’ve got vampires for friends? Not that you’d be allowed to tell anyone,” Saint laughed.

  Arthur shook his head, “I…look. I appreciate that you think highly of me, but…this all seems very…immoral. You killed an innocent person. I was under the impression that despite the obvious implications of our work, the only people getting hurt were bad people. That’s what you told me. But that guard…”

  Saint interrupted him, “That guard is still alive.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Saint nodded. “Just because we drink blood doesn’t mean we have to murder that person every time. They might get woozy, even pass out from all the blood loss. But we choose to kill. And like I said, Bartolome wants us to follow the Law right now, one of them stating that you avoid killing at all costs. You probably know, leaving bodies behind causes problems. Easy way to get caught. So we just drink some of their blood and leave them. They wake up a bit later, sometimes immediately, and don’t think anything of it.”

  “They just forget?”

  “Eh…sort of. It’s kind of like a trance.”

  The Soldado chimed in, “More like a coma.”

  “Coma…” Arthur repeated.

  “Not permanently anyway. Arthur, look. Unless something has changed in your perception of our work, then nothing has changed. You will still work for us. We’ll do our best to keep the nasty stuff away from you and won’t involve you in anything vampire related unless we have to. The less you know, the better.”

  Arthur shook his head, “Wait, wait. How could I possibly agree to this knowing you’re all…vampires.”

  “Come on, enough with the vampire. You plan on walking around calling us vampires in front of normal people?”

  “Well what else am I supposed to call you?”

  “You don’t have to call us anything. Once you hang around us long enough it’ll become pretty easy to figure out who is and who isn’t a vampire. You gotta be careful about what you say. If you start throwing that word around you might end up getting hurt.”

  “Really? Vampire is an offensive term?” Arthur asked.

  “No, no. But like I said. We’re trying to keep our heads down and if some dumbass is running around calling people out, bad things are gonna happen. Back in Mexico we used to called each other Chupy.”

  “I thought Chupacabra was supposed to be some kind of dog, or werewolf.”

  “That’s the joke, dumbass, but it still drinks blood.”

  “You’re not about to tell me the Chupacabra is real too,” Arthur said, only half joking this time around.

  “Nah, nah. What I’m sayin’ is there’s tons of terms out that. A lot of em make sense, a lot of em are kinda stupid. Also depends on what part of the world you’re in. Some places they straight up don’t give a shit, but in the US it’s a little more strict, because it seems like every bad thing that’s happened to vampires in the past hundreds years has either been in Europe, or here. Fuckin’ Americans. Point is, there’s better ways to identify one of our own instead of asking for everyone in the room to raise their hand like a fuckin’ Suck.”

  “A Suck?”

  “Yeah, a newbie. A bright-eye. Someone who just got turned. They don’t know how to suck, but to everyone else they suck.”

  Arthur laughed, “I think I’m starting to get it now. So what am I?”

  “Like is there a name for you? Well, halfies got a bunch of different names. Thrall, familiar. Heard em be called helots once, whatever that means.”

  “Wait, slow down, what’s a halfie?” Arthur asked.

  “Half-vampire. Someone whose drank our blood but not been turned. Half-blood. Half-drained. Mutt. Kinda fucked up if you asked me.”

  “Jesus, it’s like there’s a name for every name and then ten more names for each of those names too. Why is it all so complicated?”

  Saint shrugged. “Society is complicated bro. Vampires’ been around for a long ass time, got a lot of words for things. You ain’t a halfie though. You’re just…a guy. I don’t think there’s a name for a mortal who knows about vampires, besides ‘target’.”

  The Soldado laughed. Arthur just nodded, not entirely sure if Saint was kidding or not.

  “You’ll learn as you go bro, don’t worry about it. Just don’t say stupid shit. Simple.

  Arthur blew air between his lips and sighed, leaning back in the chair. “I guess so. This is a lot you know.”

  “Yeah yeah, but you can handle it. Imagine not knowing shit about vampires and then getting turned and having to learn all this shit on the fly.”

  Arthur looked at him, “You’re not planning on…biting me, are you?”

  “Not unless you ask nicely,” Saint asked, “Nah. There’s laws about that too. Not supposed to go around turning people unless you got a real good reason. Basically, every new vampire in a city is just one more problem that needs to be educated and taught before they fuck it up for all of us. So, most of us know each other.”

  “I thought you said not to call you vampires.”

  “Hey, you’re catching on. Now if that’s enough talk about this shit can we move on please? We’ve both got better shit to do than sit around here debating on what we can and can’t say. In fact, I think it’s probably best I give you some pointers about how to get around in our world without getting your throat torn out.”

  Arthur wasn’t sure if that was just a common turn of phrase in the vampire world or, but immediately the killing of Todd Ruckles and Jordan Alvarez came to mind. Throat ripped out. Arthur almost asked if Saint had something to do with it, but decided that at this point he didn’t want to know, and it was probably better if he never knew.

  “All right. I’m sure as hell not ready for all this but fuck it. Let’s rock and roll.”