Sebastian whistled as he made his way to the strange family’s apartment. He was still under the disguise of the librarian. He carried a basket with fruits and a freshly baked bread. All perfectly normal to greet his new “neighbors”.

It took a smile and a pear to get the woman at the front desk to tell him where Edwin Roberts lived. Then it was a short climbing of stairs, and he was in front of a boring white door with a knocker.

The surrounding apartments looked much the same. Sebastian wondered if each one was rented. He gripped the knocker and brought it down three times. Little Ben answered the door with a suspicious look.

“Why, hello there. Did you get your signature?” Sebastian was the very picture of a well-meaning man at this moment. Well-pressed shirt with a black tie. A beige overcoat. A fluffy hat that was white and black in chessboard patterns, and gloves with only thumbs with S. stitched on them. All that topped with a smile that reached the eyes and a set of round cheeks crowned by dimples.

“Dany, we have visitors,” a muscled warrior came then. He was about two heads taller than Sebastian. He would be an additional half a head taller than Sebastian’s real form. That presented a challenge. Sebastian loved those.

“I come here bringing this for mage Jorg. He passed away last night,” Sebastian’s smile faltered, as if he was sad for the slob’s fate. Ben took a couple of seconds to figure out who that was, and then he too looked saddened.

“He was just trying to make ends meet,” said the boy, as if that had been something he had to do too, once. Sebastian had read his portfolio and knew the child had his hand cut off for stealing. So, that should check out.

“Yes, well, he didn’t have any family. I am gathering everyone who spoke to him for the funeral. Then, I learned you are new to Wandermere, so I decided to welcome you. The grapes might not be in season, but they are as rich as any fruit that is. If not, richer,” Sebastian nudged the basket towards the boy.

The truth was that all fruits and the bread were poisoned. A slow, but mostly harmless, poison that imitated the black plague. Enough to make Roberts paranoid. For he seemed not to take Sebastian’s note seriously. And that irked the vampire.

“I am on a special diet and can’t eat anything not approved by Eddy,” the boy didn’t so much as spare the assortment of expensive out of season fruit any attention. His eyes did linger on the still steaming bread, but then he turned to go back inside.

“Wait, I came here to invite you to the funeral. And to warn you. The funeral will be a closed casket. Someone killed Jorg and performed cannibalism on him. The guards will want to speak with you after the funeral, so you have to go,” Ben turned back towards Sebastian and narrowed his eyes.

“Excuse me, sir, but what is your name?” Sebastian resisted the urge to smirk. Clever boy. But the game was not over yet.

“Jabez Volk,” at least that was one of the many names Sebastian came up with to move from town to town.

Ben’s eyes traveled to the S on the gloves, and he stepped back, so Daniel was between them. Daniel took the basket, frowning as he did so, and placed an arm around Ben.

“I think we can go to the guard house for the talk by ourselves. Ben, here, is too young to go to such a funeral. Thank you for your time. I am sure mage Jorg appreciates it. Have a nice day,” and Daniel closed the door in Sebastian’s face.

Sebastian entertained the thought of sending the wraith here in the middle of the day, but then reconsidered. This was Daniel Hollow, a renowned dragon slayer. He would need at least a couple of reanimated dragons to take him out. It was too much trouble over a boy.

But this meant he couldn’t be Jabez Volk anymore. Which was unfortunate. That name meant the wolf who brings sorrow. Oh, how Sebastian would have preferred to be a werewolf than a vampire. Then he would be able to savage his victims by himself.

He heard footsteps coming up and began descending the stairs as if he fit in this apartment building. He passed by a purple eyed white-haired youth, no, not a youth. An ancient vampire. He could feel the power rolling out of him in waves.

“Hey, using the cloudy day to do some shopping? Didn’t know there was another one of my kind living here. Well, apart from Eddy,” the vampire had a lopsided smile on and his eyes sparkled with mirth. Sebastian itched to bash his skull in.

“I don’t live here. I work at the library,” the white-haired vampire got a confused look. “Now, if you excuse me.”

Sebastian went pass the man and almost ran to the exit. He didn’t have his wraith nearby. In a one-on-one fight, the conclusion could go either way. He didn’t like his chances against someone who was actively restraining his mana and still gave out signals that were this loud.

Now that his cover was well and truly blown, he needed to find someone else. A new shell. The librarian would wake up missing memories and Sebastian will return to his body, for about two hours while he completed the ritual.

Soul skipping was a specialty of his. A technique he had created and kept secret. That and his book were the two things that kept him above his prey. But this one was not alone.

Originally, he had wanted to do away with Fernand Polites. That garden had been an insult to all vampires. But then, the childe of Paul had died. Killed by his own ill-gotten progeny. Now, children inherited from their parents. It was a pity that Roberts inherited the sentence the council had given Polites because of the blasted gardens.