“This is so fucking weird…..”

I muttered softly, as I gently tapped the little plastic container currently holding one of my eyes, in all its vampiric glory. I had expected it to just look like a floating ball, given my limited biological knowledge. But the witch had really gone all out when she removed it, taking a large portion of the optic nerves and other attached bits with the horrific little orb.
The green goop she was keeping it in was also quite odd. Somehow it was constantly producing small bubbles at a slow rate, that would occasionally bounce off the eye making it move about in a slightly disturbing way.

“Ellie.” Brewer called to me from her place in front of our makeshift crime board, finally noticing my inattention.
“Please stop playing with that and pay attention. Or I’ll take it back.”

“Miss, Miss! Ellie’s playing with herself in class!”
Merii stuck her hand in the air and did her apparent best at impersonating an annoying schoolgirl. Absolutely nailing the annoying part. Earning a fanged glare from myself and, I like to think, a regular glare from my disembodied eye.

I was still in a mood with Merii, even a day later and with a half liter of blood in me. Not that I was as mad as I had been. The anger had eventually, annoyingly, faded. It had actually done so concerning fast after I fed, bringing me back to baseline as it always did. But even then, I hadn’t forgotten the feeling.

My unconditional love for Merii was obviously something to do with her blood being part of my essence, of whatever dark magic it was that let me live. But you could still get angry  with those you loved. Hate them even. Although, to be fair, that's not what I felt towards her. Manipulative bitch or not, magic or not, I still liked Merii.

As a human I had railed against the existence of mind magic, detested that anyone would ever be taught it. And knowing that I was the victim of it had done nothing to ease that hate..... but again, not hatred for her. What had been a directed seething for her treatment of me, had become a general simmering discontent. Something that was easy to forget I was even feeling when the woman in question made such effort to act like nothing serious was ever happening.

Given that the witch couldn’t show emotion it was incredible how I could almost feel the frustration rolling off of her. Brewer’s shoulder sagging a touch.
“Merii, please. I suffered enough of that behaviour from you already.”

“Fineeeee, but she’s still playing with herself.”
Merii said, giving a dismissive wave and dropping herself back into the couch.

“Thank you.” Brewer then turned her gaze to me.
“And Ellie, please stop playing with yourself when I’m talking”.

“I’m not…. Gods damn it…”
Crossing my arms I also sank back in my seat. Mumbling nonsense, but making my displeasure clear all the same.

“Good, now if we could please focus on the current problem threatening our entire way of life? No comments? Excellent.”
Turning to the board Brewer indicated a new batch of photos, they were of the second crime scene. There were only a few of them annoyingly, and much to Brewer’s disapproval. Apparently the guard had gotten a little tighter on security given the media attention this was getting. Bastards hadn’t bothered doing so much for me…..

“Our killer seemed to have not only done the same thing again, but they’ve also perfectly replicated the original.” She pointed to one of the shots from the first murder. “The two circles are exactly the same, not only in form and layout but also in the details.”

Now that she mentioned it, something about the circles had been bothering me. Not the magic, luckily that had no effect through a photo other than catching my eye, but something about how they looked. Leaning a little closer I figured out exactly what it was. 
Brewer was correct when she said they were exact copies. I had marvelled at how even the uneven slashes on the first had looked perfect, almost deliberately sloppy. Now that I saw the exact same strokes in the second one. Every stroke, every drop, and every marking was exactly the same on both of them. Obviously, I had to question how anyone could manage to pull off something like that.
“How did they do it? Obviously some kind of magic, right? “

“Naturally. My assumption is with the assistance of a familiar.”

I thought for a moment on my very limited knowledge. I was sure she had tried to teach me about this… Not that I could remember a thing of it. Well, no more than that she had one of her own.
“Like Ogma?”

Brewer nodded.
“Precisely. While he may be trapped in the form of a crow while on our plane, he is a fey spirit. Not particularly powerful or alike, but capable of memorizing and assisting in spells and rituals.”

“So magic assistant?”

She waved her hand in a so-so motion. “Basically, yes. But more, a spirit that is contracted to my soul and bidding until I release it. Capable of providing assistance and knowledge on demand.”

I had wondered why she kept the crow around, and how she could summon it back even after death. That it was also basically a living magic encyclopaedia and spell printer actually made me respect the thing a little. Only a little though, the bastard was still a flying hazard to anyone in possession of eyes or shiny objects. And I was starting to suspect, given its nest mostly had only one sock of any given pair, that it was spreading its terror to the neighbours.

Come to think of it, I hadn't actually seen the little creature since I woke up. 

Merii voiced my thoughts for me, if a little less kindly.
“Where is the little bugger anyway? I plan on teaching Ellie to shoot soon, and we need a moving target.”

“At present….” Brewer’s eye shimmered for a moment, a light purple haze consuming her eyes and giving the impression she had gone suddenly blind. “He’s perched on a power line near the building you two climbed. Observing the goings on of the investigation…. Or at least he will be if he values his nest…. No, a pigeon is not a reasonable excuse….” Her eyes cleared and she shook her head lightly. Mouthing something I didn’t quite catch but could have been something about “finding good help”, and I was almost certain I saw her eye twitch for a moment.
“Once he’s done with…. that. He’ll be taking over your patrolling.” 

Merii nodded sagely. “A good idea.”

“I rarely have any other kind”.
Brewer said, returning her unflinching  gaze to the board once more. 
“But the use of a familiar or something similar does raise issues. Mainly that this cultist knows old magic well enough to pierce the veil.”

I coughed.
“I know pretty much nothing about how any of this works….. but is this going to be a problem?”

Again the frustration was almost palpable. “If you would pay attention to your lessons you would know this, but yes it’s a problem. To directly contact the Wilds and summon a creature takes a great knowledge of ritual and rune. Not something the average person knows, especially in the modern day.”

“Also, you know, he has to be planning something with all the blood he’s taking.”
Merii helpfully added. And I let my tongue trace a fang at the mention of the wonderful liquid. Saints, I was getting thirsty….

“Quite likely.” The witch continued, “I suspect he may try to replicate the beacons on a grander scale using said blood. Though that is only speculation.”

I groaned and let myself drop sideways on the couch. Why was it always magic that got me? First with Jess waking me up or knocking me down with her stupid little spells, then with becoming undead, and now with a crazy guy trying to summon a super vampire that would all but certainly kill us in new and creative ways. “I hate magic….. can we just kill this guy and never have to worry about it again?”

“I second that”
Merii chimed in.
“Murder the guy and move on with our lives.”

Brewer crossed her arms, looking down her nose at the two of us.
“While I agree with the sentiment. We do still need to talk about how he managed to get the upper hand on young Ellie, and we need to wait for any information to actually figure out the man’s identity. Not to mention what information or knowledge he might hold. Knowingly or otherwise.”

I gave another groan and buried my face in the soft leather of the couch. My loss was a little bit of a sore point to my pride. I say little bit, but what I meant was a massive glowing weak point. Not only because of the loss itself, but because of how it had happened. While I could easily blame Merii’s poor training in combat, or my prey's use of magic to cheat. The sad truth was I had simply been an idiot and not thought about what I was doing. The more I looked back on it the stupider I felt about everything I had done that night.

“What part are we worried about?”
Merii carried on the conversation with her like I wasn’t only a few feet away trying, to suffocate myself with a cushion.

“Mainly how he managed to not only detect you, but to set an ambush that easily could have killed your fledgling.”

Shrugging my sire thought for a moment.
“I assume he used his familiar in both instances. That he doesn’t have a scent, combined with her lack of experience meant he won handily.”

“Magic is bullshit…”
I mumbled into the couch.

“It is.” Merii readily agreed.

“Might I point out that it is also the only thing keeping both of you from being long dead and rotting corpses.”
Brewer said in the closet thing to a mocking tone I had heard from her. Taking a seat next to Merii.

“Ok, yes….” Merii relented to the point but bought up another. “But more to the point, I think we got ambushed from the start on this one. Most of the roofs were impassable and we were forced into a kill box to try and chase him….. so maybe a diviner of some kind as well?”

There was a pause as Brewer thought about the comment.
“They are unbelievably rare, and even then, they normally only have a vague feeling about things. I doubt that was the case. More likely he had a ward, or his familiar saw you on the way there.”

Not really wanting to listen to how we had completely failed, I turned my head to face the two of them, my attempt to escape the conversation by way of suffocating having been foiled by my already being dead.
“Can we please talk about what we’re supposed to do now? Brewer, you’re smart, please tell me the super simple and easy plan that ends with me draining this guy’s blood.”

The witch cocked her head slightly.
“The current plan is that the two of you avoid anything suspicious and we wait for a pattern to emerge or the guards to gather information that will help us.”

I thought for a moment, a little annoyed at the conclusion.
“That sounds a lot like “stay home and wait”. 

She shrugged, a rare thing for her.
“A fine excuse to continue your studies.”

“But I need to feed on something fresh! Even Merii said so!” There was a clear hint of desperation in my voice, both at not wanting to be cooped up and wanting to get some exercise….. and fresh blood. Mostly the blood. A good hunt felt like exactly what I needed to get back into the groove after my little incident. And another night without those dreams would be wonderful.

Brewers’ response was to slowly turn her head to the vampire in question.

“Well it’s true she needs to top up her reserves.”
Merii said, trying to defend her seemingly foolish statement. The witch simply raised an eyebrow, apparently implying something. Likely something interesting and obvious given Merii’s reaction.
“No. Nope, not happening.”

“But she needs to feed Merii. You said so yourself.” I didn't know Brewer could even do sarcasm. “Just a little wouldn’t hurt.”

Merii gave her a glare.
“No, it’s awful and you know it, once was more than enough.”

Slowly I sat myself up.
“Am I missing something? Because if it’s awful for me then I would rather not.”

Sighing Merii and over looked at me.
“Awful for me dear. She’s suggesting, extremely rudely, that I let you feed on me.”

I looked back and forth between Brewer and Merii, my eyebrows raised at the revelation.
“That’s an option?! I thought our blood would be useless?”

She shook her head.
“Exactly the opposite, we drink blood because we can’t naturally gather the energy needed to keep ourselves alive. So our blood contains super condensed magic, like the Fey and other such creatures. The problem is it’s both super addicting, and “we are our blood”. So being fed on, for us, is like having a piece of your soul pulled out.”

That thought made me grimace, Merii had hurt me quite a few times, and she was most certainly not in my good books, but I didn’t exactly want to get payback by pulling her soul apart. Even for my, admittedly troubled, mind that was a little bit extreme.
“Maybe we hold off the soul torture as our first option?”

“Gods! She's showing restraint!”

“They grow up so fast.”

I rolled my eyes at the two apparent comedians, a headache creeping it’s way in as my mind was turned to the idea of feeding.
“I’m just saying that we explore other options before I go breaking her soul?”

“As a woman who enjoys her soul being in one piece, I support that.” Merii said, nodding enthusiastically. 

Brewer sunk into thought once again. “While I certainly find the results of Ellie’s bite to be quite enjoyable….. I am still a human. There is no possible way I can offer enough blood with any regularity to support her growth. Not without risking backlash from the effort.”

I honestly was a little disappointed, but they both made good points. I was hardly going to pressure Brewer into offering blood, not that I thought I could, but also it seemed wrong to force the offer. So it seemed it was bagged blood for the foreseeable future, at least until we got this guy off the streets….

With a new sense of determination, I stood up. My mind working on something resembling an idea.
“Ok, if we need to solve this so I can get a decent drink then let’s get to it.”

Merii raised an eyebrow.
“The guard are still investigating, and we have next to nothing.”

I drummed my fingers on my thigh.
“Can Hunter get us CCTV if we asked?”

 “Probably?”
She shrugged and looked at me questioningly.

I nodded, a smirk forming on my face and the plan came together.
“Perfect, this guy didn’t walk to the crime scene from home, and he didn’t take that can of blood on the bus.”

 “Ah….” My sire smiled back at me, the comradery in her gaze warming my heart. “I think I see where you’re going. But it’s a little risky for us to go snooping around for the scent of blood while the scene is fresh.”

“You can ask Hunter for just the information regarding a car in the area? Or change of vehicle?”

Merii thought for a moment, her face playing several emotions I wasn't sure I understood, as she seemed to be thinking on my proposal.
“That’s, actually a good plan…. When did you grow a brain?”

“Yesterday. If I recall correctly.”
The witch added. She was apparently going strong with the humour today.

“Ha ha.” I rolled my eyes. “If you must know it’s because it’s what they always do in the movies. The first car is stolen or something and the killer switches cars somewhere else.”

Merii shrugged and pulled out her phone.
“Well it’s as good a place as any other to start from. I’ll see if Hunter can dig up anything while you and Brewer get back to your lessons”

Immediately I deflated. Why? Why must no good deed go unpunished?