Their driver was taking them to a part of town Arthur immediately recognized. Factories, smokestacks and abandoned warehouses, along with the stench of something awful, reminded Arthur of a time when he thought he’d actually be safe working under Bartolome. Running around with Saint on their little missions every night, continually justifying to himself that helping them murder people was somehow ok. As the car pulled up in front of a familiar, red brick bar, Arthur could only hope that his new life under Persephone and the Baron would be different. And yet all he could think as he looked at the bar was that once again he was getting into danger.

  As the car stopped and they got out, Persephone led the way inside with her usual, confident stride. Arthur watched their driver reverse and leave the bar, leaving Persephone and Arthur alone. Meaning they might be here a while. As they entered, the familiar scene washed over Arthur and immediately the bartender looked their way.

  “Liz?” he asked slowly, eyeing Arthur hard.

  “He’s ok. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s all been sorted out.”

  The bartender kept staring Arthur down, “You sure?”

  Persephone nodded. The bartender grunted, finally drawing his gaze away from Arthur, giving him some relief.

  “Guessing Liz is another alias.”

  She nodded, “What, you don’t like it?”

  “Well it’s no queen of hell,” Arthur commented. Persephone looked at him, surprised. “Used to read a lot. Plus, not many people named Persephone nowadays.”

  “Not many people are me,” she said with a swagger that made Arthur grin.

  She led them towards the backroom of the bar. The last time Arthur had been here with Saint, that room was where the Feral had gone to meet Lewis, before getting ripped in half out in the parking lot. They’d only been in the bar for maybe ten minutes, but apparently it was enough for the bartender to recognize Arthur again, and hold a grudge. But this time, he and Persephone were the one’s going inside. So it wasn’t all too surprising to Arthur when he saw another person already inside. Well, three, technically. Lewis was still a hulking figure even when sitting down. Dressed in dark street clothing sitting with his boots kicked up on the table, chugging down a beer with an arm wrapped around two different women.

  Persephone cleared her throat, and as Lewis looked up he rolled his eyes. “Get the fuck out of here,” he said. Arthur was astonished by Lewis’ attitude, as if he didn’t know who Persephone was. Persephone raised an eyebrow at the two girls. Arthur realized that Lewis was talking to them, not Persephone. As they realized it too, annoyed aggravation crossed their faces, but they stood and left anyway. As the door swung closed behind him, Lewis looked up.

  “Your boy looks a lot different when he’s not dressed like a scumbag. Still being led around on a leash, though.” Somehow his English accent made the insult worse.

  Persephone sighed, lighting a cigarette and sitting across from Lewis. Arthur sat down as well, a hint of anger rising from Lewis’ comment. But he’d seen the man tear another Vampire to shreds like it was nothing, so he kept his mouth shut.

  “Wait, how are you drinking beer?” Arthur asked, as Lewis let the empty mug thunk onto the table in front of them.

  “Jesus fuckin’ christ, he doesn't know shit, does he? What did you teach this kid?”

  Arthur almost explained he was probably twenty years older than Lewis, before realizing that in terms of having been a vampire, Arthur was a kid. It made him wonder when Lewis had been turned.

  “I taught him the necessities, not how to drink beer.”

  “But can you?” Arthur interrupted.

  Lewis chortled, taking the pitcher and pouring a mug out for Arthur, before sliding it across from him. “Give it a go!” he barked. Arthur took the beer and lifted it to his lips, only seeing Persephone’s protest out of the corner of his eye, when it was too late.

  As the beer hit his tongue it tasted just as good as it had before he’d been turned, but when he went to swallow it’s like his entire body rejected the idea of it all at once. His stomach tightened and convulsed, and Arthur involuntarily spit the drink out all over the floor. Lewis was laughing, and Persephone just let out a loud sigh, tapping her foot in annoyance at Lewis.

  “Dumbass. What made you think you could just up and eat and drink again?” Lewis asked. “Your stomach don’t work! Gotta train yourself to do that again.”

  “Shit,” Arthur said, reluctantly placing the fresh mug of cold beer back on the table. “That sucks.”

  “Fuckin’ a right,” Lewis said. “And believe me, a good drink never hits as good as it used to. Definitely don’t hit as good as the red stuff.”

  “Well this was a great introduction,” Persephone said sarcastically. “But we didn’t come here to drink beer. Speaking of which, where is Shiang?"

  Lewis shrugged, “Who the hell knows. Not like he ever answers his phone.” Lewis paused, as though something had caught his attention. Nothing seemed to have changed as far as Arthur was concerned. “Speak of the devil.”

  As if on queue the door opened again and a thin man with light beige skin tone and long black hair tied in a knot entered the room. There was some sort of tattoo hiding underneath his coat, barely poking out from his wrist when he sat and the fabric tugged. When he spoke, he had no accent whatsoever.

  “Forgive my lateness,” Shiang said, sitting down politely around the table. Without looking at him, Shiang said, “You must be Arthur Rowe. I’m surprised she was willing to turn anyone. Hopefully you will meet her expectations.”

  “...yeah. Thanks. So these are all the Claws?”

  “Everybody for tonight at least. The others are out. Thibut before we start I do want to make something very clear. You will treat Arthur with the same respect, and the same courtesy you would give to me. This isn’t a request. He’s with us now. And to answer your statement, Shiang, he does have what it takes. I wouldn’t underestimate him.”

  Arthur couldn’t tell if Persephone was just trying to get them to shut up or actually believed that, but he actually felt pride in her sticking up for him.

  Shiang looked over at Persphone, “You’ve really taken a liking to this one, eh? So be it. We will treat him with respect.”

  Lewis just grunted, but didn’t protest.

  “Thanks,” Arthur said. “I know I’m new to this, but I’ve been around the block a few times.”

  “So I’ve heard,” Shiang said, now looking at him for the first time. Arthur noticed that none of their eyes had that telling orange tint. Shiang’s chestnut eyes were piercing, like they were trying to siphon every possible piece of information out of someone from just a glance. “A cop, to a vampire killer, to a hit man for a Judge, to a vampire yourself, now working with us. You’ve seen more than most vampires much older than you.”

  “I wasn’t a hit man. I just…helped them. Also, I didn’t work for a judge…” Arthur said, looking at Persephone in confusion.

  “He means Bartolome. And we never really discussed it, but let’s be perfectly clear here; you were a hit man, and you did kill people, even if not directly. But the Baron has given you a pass, so you don’t need to worry about it. Anyways, now that everyone’s gotten a piece of Arthur here, let’s move on to business.”

  “Fine. Well, like we expected, that little rat has gone into hiding,” Lewis grunted. “Haven’t seen him around here or any of the other usual spots since their attack.”

  “Which means,” Shiang said, “Despite his master’s promises, they likely aren’t comfortable waltzing around Longley out in the open anymore. What’s the likelihood of a Judge making a move against a Baron?”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Zero,” Persephone said flatly. “At least not directly. But Bartolome and his men have been skulking through Longley for a long time now, far before they went after their sanctioned targets. And they killed more than them, too. He’s after something else.”

  “Well, spill it,” Lewis grunted impatiently.

  “We don’t know for certain. Sassy’s working the lines, said she’s pretty close to coming up with something. But, fortunately we had someone who not only worked with Bartolome, but met him directly,” Persephone turned to Arthur.

  Arthur looked around the room, “Well, I only met him once. In a church. He was…well, I didn’t know exactly what he was at the time. A vampire, I mean. But something about him was off. He seemed so unnatural. Like an actual monster.”

  “Fucker’s been around a hot minute,” Lewis spat, “All them old Ancient fucks act like weirdos. Been around for so long forgot what it’s like to be normal. But that ain’t what the lady asked. We don’t give a fuck what he looked like.”

  “Right,” Arthur said, trying to remember back to the original meeting. “When I met him he was just sitting in a church alone, doing nothing. Just staring at the wall. His men seemed surprised that I was even there, and I thought for sure he was going to kill me once I…” Arthur trailed off.

  “Once you what?” Lewis asked.

  Arthur turned to Persephone, “Once I gave him the package. That you gave me,” his voice strained. Like a flash, he remembered why he chose to work for Bartolome in the first place. What should have happened, and who sent him, his life completely worthless to them. “When you sent me there alone. And I nearly died.”

  Lewis raised his eyebrows, Shiang was staring intently at Arthur now, and Persephone gave him a confused look.

  “Nearly died? What are you talking about?”

  Arthur scoffed. Clearly Lewis nor Shiang were expecting this to come up, but were more than happy to sit quietly and watch it unfold.

  “Oh come on. You knew by sending me into that maniacs place there was a chance I’d die. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t do everything he said. In fact, not that you ever bothered to ask, but that’s why I chose to work for him in the first place!”

  Persephone narrowed her eyes at him. Arthur couldn’t read her expression, but her tone told him he needed to tread carefully. “I know that any time you deal with some dangerous, there is a chane something can go wrong. However, us taking care of his…issue, was a means to show him that we controlled the city, and…” she trailed off. “I guess I could see why it would make someone like him upset.”

  “That’s it? You guess?” Arthur scoffed. “You’re more like them than you know. You people really don’t give a shit about other people’s lives.” Arthur could see their faces beginning to darken at the accusation, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to be traded around again like a piece of meat, beholden to this or that person. “You know what, I’m out. Thanks for making me a vampire and all, but Bartolome was right; you don’t give a shit if I live or die.”

  Arthur was already out of his seat and making his way to the door.

  “Arthur, sit down,” Persephone said, but Arthur was already halfway out. As he was about to leave, Shiang spoke softly.

  “Why did you believe him?” Shiang asked.

  Arthur stopped, having to catch the door. “What?”

  Shiang looked at him, his face still unreadable, but his tone was relaxed. Non-confrontational. He spoke slowly, emphasizing every word, “Why did you believe him?” Shiang cocked his head to one side. “He says we don’t care if you live or die, why did you believe him?”

  Arthur looked at the door, then back to Shiang, and made an exasperated sound with his mouth. “What difference does it make? He was right!”

  Shiang turned towards Persephone, “It seems like your new friend here is even more hot-headed than Lewis. And more gullible.”

  Lewis just growled at Shiang, but didn’t seem to disagree. Persephone looked at Arthur again. She wasn’t pleading, but it was the closest thing she could get to asking him nicely, instead of just forcing him to do what she wanted.

  “Arthur, please sit down. I can explain any questions you have, but Shiang is right. Bartolome is a conniving, sinister person. He very well may have killed you, but it would have had nothing to do with the job we gave you. The whole point of the delivery was to show Bartolome that we were capable, and we wanted him gone. Clearly, we did not know the man well enough to know this was how he would react. As you can see, he took it as an opportunity to undermine me and try to go after the Baron’s people. But, you might be the only person who knows why.”

  Arthur wasn’t sure how to feel, but with the looks everyone was giving him, he figured that he was acting stupid. Trying to think about the series of events that happened, what Persephone was saying did make sense. Bartolome had given Saint carte blanche to run around the city and do basically whatever he wanted under the guise of taking out Persephone. And when that opportunity came, the only one that ended up dying was Arthur.

  He sighed, and sat back down. “Sorry. I’m just really sick and tired of being yanked in every direction by people I barely fucking know. No offense. But you are right about one thing, at least. Bartolome is a bastard. He even called me a slave at one point, or close enough.”

  Lewis spat, “Cunt.”

  “Like I said, Bartolome is a dangerous, scheming type of person,” Persephone said. “We’re not quite sure what his goals are in Longley, but his men don’t belong here. Bartolome is a Judge, which is a fancy way of saying he hunts down dangerous vampires all over the world. But he isn’t the one giving orders. In fact, he and the Baron technically work for the same people. But, like I said, his target was taken out. Job done. He has no reason to be here anymore. Clearly he seems to have taken it as an insult. Or at least, it seems.”

  “No,” Arthur said. “I don’t think he did. If anything, he wasn’t petty. It was like he always was a step ahead, always thinking about what was coming next.”

  “What else?” Shiang asked, leaning back into the chair, showing a degree of relaxation for the first time that night. “Motivations? Desires? Goals?”

  Arthur shook his head, “He didn’t reveal anything about himself to me. All I know is that he wanted to use me to get to you, specifically,” Arthur said, looking at Persephone. “But we know how that worked out. And between the first meeting and my death, there was a lot of killing in between.”

  “Any patterns?” Shiang pressed. “Anyone you recognized?”

  Arthur tried to think back to the various jobs they had done. None of them seemed connected in any obvious way. And he was never privy to any of the deeper details of each operation, mostly just information gathering around the surfaces.

  “I can’t say. All I know is that whenever we got a guy, Saint really worked on them, like he enjoyed it. Made them…hurt,” Arthur said, regret welling inside him, “Before he killed them.”

  Shiang looked at the others, “Saint?”

  Lewis spoke, “Santiago Flores. Total psycho. Used to work for the Sinaloa Cartel. Killed his own sire, apparently, and Bartolome hired him for how much of a fucking maniac he is. Working out well based on what Arthur just said.”

  “You know a lot about him,” Arthur said. But Lewis didn’t feel like offering anything more, so Arthur continued. “Saint, er, Santiago, always told me the end goal was to take you out,” Arthur said, looking at Persephone again. “Never really explained why besides that you were a ‘loose end’ from that first night.”

  Lewis and Shiang looked at Persephone to explain. “Aiden,” she said softly.

  Lewis shook his head, “Nasty business. Guessing Santiago was in charge of that too.”

  Persephone nodded. Arthur saw there was the slightest look of sadness, maybe a bit of longing, in her eyes as she said the name. Lewis said nothing more, and Shiang was quiet, staring at the table in front of them.

  “Aiden?” Arthur asked, breaking the silence.

  Persephone looked back up, all hint of emotion gone again. “Who you worked for before Santiago and his men gunned him down. He was a…good friend. Worked closely with the Baron, and all the Claws.”

  “I don’t understand, weren’t you his assistant?”

  A wry smile crossed Persephone’s face, “Only as a guise. A means to get eyes on his operations for the Baron.” Persephone went quiet for a few moments. “Aiden didn’t deserve to die like that.”

  “Hear hear,” Lewis said raising his beer, Shiang agreeing with him.

  “So why did Bartolome want Aiden dead?” Arthur asked, more confused than anything now.

  The table all looked around at each other. Shiang spoke, “Could’ve been a million reasons. Aiden used to be a Claw. He got a lot of stuff, and people, in and out of Longley. He worked out of all the surrounding cities too. He ran a small operation, but it was tight. And he never broke the rules.”

  “Almost never,” Persephone said. Everyone in the room turned to look at her, but she shook her head like she was refusing to elaborate. Even Lewis, usually dour, looked at her surprised.

  Shiang spoke softly, “So that’s why the Baron never went after Bartolome?” Persephone nodded.

  “I don’t understand,” Arthur said.

  “You don’t need to,” Persephone snapped. It was the first time in a while her demeanor had switched back to that old, mean sort of persona she used to keep on around him. Arthur felt a little hurt, but decided that wasn’t worth pressing the clearly touchy subject.

  Lewis turned to Arthur, “Weird question, but are you sure he’s dead?”

  Arthur nodded. The table continued to stare at him. “What, you want me to go into detail?”

  Persephone spoke quietly, “We just need to be sure.”

  Arthur made a reluctant face, “If you say so. Yes, he’s dead. I saw his body, and the two others in the car. Up close. They were…torn to pieces from the gunfire. There was almost nothing left.”

  The table went quiet again, seemingly at a loss, until Persephone spoke. “You saw his face?”

  “...there was no face left,” Arthur said as gently as he could.

  Persephone nodded, then sighed. “Shit. Well, let’s hope we get something solid back in the next few days. We wanted to goad Santiago into doing something stupid, which worked. But he’s surprisingly good at not revealing information. Bartolome wants something with Longley. He wouldn’t just leave people here for no reason. So for now we’ll just have to wait. We should be hearing back from some sources soon anyway, see if anything turns up. In the mean time, just keep your eyes and ears open.”

  Some minor small talk followed, and shortly after each of them got up and left the bar one by one. Persephone and Arthur were the last ones to stay, sitting together in silence for a while.

  Eventually Arthur broke the silence. “Ready to go?”

  She shook her head. “I’m going to stay for a while. You can head back to Glasshill if you want. Or go to a bar and find something to eat. Or fuck. I don’t care.”

  “Sorry about Aiden. Were you close?”

  Persephone nodded, “Taught me everything I know.”

  “...he was your sire?”

  Persephone didn’t respond, just let out a long drag of cigarette smoke and sunk back into the couch she was sitting on. Arthur nodded, leaving out the front door of the bar. This group had a lot of strange people, but at the very least they appeared to have some sense of morality, unlike the Soldados. And for right now, that was enough.