Let's Go For A Pint (Vampire/Humor)

2.5 The Reveal

Classes were almost done for the semester and I looked forward to them ending. Why? I could sleep in for one morning after a night of hunting. Anyway, that same night I was lucky enough to catch a restaurant worker on break before any other vampire could. If you got to take a smoke break in an alley after sunset, you should at least have protection. He did have some, and I tasted it while I fed. On second thought that might've been nicotine. I can't tell the difference at times.

After drinking my fill, I headed straight back to the apartment; however the way back was a bit of a long one. More vampires showed up to hunt and instead of walking past them I circled the block. I knew someone in that party and there was no chance in Hell I was being his seductress.

Or maybe it was serendipity they showed. As I was about to return to the main street, two tattooed, skin-headed men and one woman were pushing around a black guy in a parking lot. You'd think having some tattooed thugs were put for plot convenience. Thugs or not, they were not pushing around my future meal. I jumped onto a nearby car, took a deep breath and yelled, "Leave him alone!"

The three tattooed thugs turned their attention to me. They had the same eye-popping, shocked expression when Max first met me.

I crouched and looked directly into the eyes of the largest thug. "Go home, give yourself a wank, and forget what happened here tonight." I pretty much said the same to the other two though I wasn't sure how the female pulled that off.

"That. Was. Amazing."

I snapped out of my daze and saw Max leaning against the car. His face was puffy and blood dripped from his nose. I had to avert my gaze so I wouldn't attack him over that.

"No, really. I was hoping for some epic battle where you would just toss them around. You'd be like those warriors from an anime Carmen likes."

I took a tissue out of my pocket and stuck my hand out.

"Wow, thanks! In case you were wondering, they weren't Neo-Nazi's or white supremacists."

"Then who were they?" I turned my head to face him, avoiding direct eye contact.

"I'm short on money." He wiped his nose then pressed the used tissue against it. "It's more that I owe others money, but I've not been able to pay people back. Everyone here's aware vampires, witches, werewolves, and ghosts exist, but they haven't been documented other that those suspected. Vampires even more because of Councillor Myska, but not all follow the Dracularian Movement like him."

Damn those Dracularians! Oh right, my story."

"These guys promised to pay me if I brought them footage," Max continued, "but they figured beating me up bloodied as bait would work faster. I've done fucked up, didn't I?"

I wanted to beat him up further for trying to sell me out, or any other vampire for that matter. But I had to consider Max's feelings. Empathy is not exclusively a human thing. "You're not the only one who fucked up. I tried to embarrass you into not thinking I'm a vampire and Carmen did mention your obsession with them. I have personal reasons why I don't go flaunting it about."

Max folded his tissue and put it up against his nose. "To be honest, I didn't expect a freckle-face like you to be a vampire. I know of redheaded vampires like Rayne, Jessica, well I'm not much of a Twilight fan but — oh right you're from Eastern Europe. Raas! I should have suspected–"

I waved my hand and interrupted, "The best thing you can do is just ask a simple question. Believe me, if our roles were reversed I'd do anything to avoid asking and watch from afar. If there are two cardinal rules you should know regarding vampires, they're not to trust fiction, and not to out them publicly. You may think vampires are top predator, but there are hunters hunting the hunters, you know? Laws in the Metropolis don't necessarily prevent them from taking us out."

It took him about a couple of seconds for that to sink in and he nodded afterwards. "Blade's one of my favourites by the way."

"I like the first two films. Not much for the third one."

Max let out a chuckle, but that didn't last long as the pain in his face reminded him of his injuries. "Say, can we continue this when I'm properly fixed up?"

Max isn't such a bad guy. It's not so bad having someone interested in my culture, even if I can't explain it all. Just as long as he isn't begging me to turn him all's good. With a grin I replied, "I actually know a place. Have you heard of Talia's Tavern?"

"Is it crowded? By crowded I mean would I get suffocated by mobs of people?"

"What you need is someone and something to fix you up. Talia can help if you ask nicely. Also I'm in need of something alcoholic." I jumped off the car and landed quite hard on my feet. "Fuck that hurts!" I used the car to help me stand and continued, "And besides, there are other vampires that may answer your questions better."

Max tossed away the blood soaked tissue. "In that case I'm sold."

"Well then. Let's go for a pint now, shall we?"

So we decided to spend the rest of the night at Talia's. Before we got there he had to ask questions.

"Say, how do you get into public places? Are there special invites you get from the manager? Or because they're public anyone can show up uninvited? Or someone from the public invites you ..."

"Shut up Max! Those will be answered in the next episode."

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And Episode Two has come to a close. Episode 3 will not only look at whether vampires have to be invited into some place but also introduce a new character? Who will it be?

You know the drill. Spread the word, say something, yadda yadda.

Song featured: "Vampires Are Alive" by DJ Bobo

Edited 14/10/2017. The Dracularian movement is something mentioned in a contest entry in which I had to create a rant from the perspective of a vampire. The rant can be found in Contest Entries and Shorts: Vampire.