Exsanguination and Other Love Stories

I. The Arrival

The story that preceded this one – the story of how I lost my great aunt's mansion and all ten of her surviving cats to one Florian Werther Bathory Byron, a vampire – ended suddenly. There's been disappointment expressed about that by certain parties, but I will make no apologies as narrator for the lack of romantic closure. Haven't you read all that before somewhere, anyway? Didn't you want something new to happen? How on earth could any story have moved forward if I'd elected to spend the rest of my days tending cats, and ministering to Florian?

And as far as the die-hard shippers are concerned, what I will say is this: better to lose a heffalump trap of a house and some cats who never liked one much anyways, than to lose one's mind: and that's what would have happened to me, I assure you, if I'd stayed on in an inherited folie à deux with a vampire.

Besides, my parents' old lawyer, Florence, of Meyers & Steele, isn't very good at her job, and although she certainly would have tried to represent my interests if I had wanted to bring Florian to court, I doubt either of us would have come out of it well. Taking the internship she'd found for me and letting Florian have everything really was the best solution for everyone at the time.

I was not running away! I just needed an out, a change of scene, preferably sudden and final, and the internship at Azure Tech, located halfway across the country, seemed like an ideal option.

Upon arriving in Austin, though, I was slightly disappointed. I'd been hoping for a svelte skyscraper and a see-through elevator, or at least a slide and hanging gardens on the roof. From the outside, at least, Azure Tech's international headquarters had the air of a correctional institution – all windowless concrete, and sharp, ugly metal accents in odd places. I couldn't tell whether the steel lettering above the front entrance had been designed to look spiky for some aesthetic purpose, or as a way of deterring pigeons.

The sight of a few bird nests might make it all seem a more approachable. I craned my neck up hopefully – but there were none. Not even a twig.

And it was then that I wondered if there were still time for me to go back. Not home – nowhere really had been home for me since the seventh of January, last year* – but back somewhere where I knew the risks a bit better. Somewhere with less sharp edges...

Bzzzt. My phone trembled, a welcome distraction. It was a text.

Hello, Sabilla! This is Florian B. Your friend Florence was kind enough to lend me your number. ;)

Et tu, Florence. I gritted my teeth and resisted the urge to stamp my foot, standing there. She really was a very nice human being and a very terrible lawyer. Good thing I couldn't afford to consult her professionally anymore, now that Florian had the house and all Cordelia's assets.

Bzzzt!

Do you recall where Cordelia kept her good silk slippers? She seems to have moved them since the days of her youth, and Drusilla wants a new pair to nurse on. ^^

I stared down at the screen for a long moment. My finger hovered over reply box. I wondered how long it would take autocorrect to amend the very choice words I had in mind to type to a certain vampire before I hit send.

Then a tall shadow shuddered behind clouded, double-paned glass, and the front doors of Azure Tech slid open with a hiss. I hastily pocketed my phone as a boy in a security uniform strode out.

He seemed like he might be around my own age, or older, and had a freckled, plain face. His deep-set brown eyes were set in a scowl which might have passed for brooding, had not his eye-brows been carroty orange, and his horrendously spiked hair, too.

"Are you lost?" he asked me brusquely. He was wearing a badge around his neck, but there was a sort of childish set to his features despite his professional dress. He gave off the impression of someone who was trying far too hard, and who was also ready to smack you for it straight off as soon as you told them so. "This is private property. No loitering allowed."