The Ripper ➵ Benny Weir (My Babysitters a Vampire; Book 2)

prologue

New Orleans 1923

McKenna walked through the French Quarter after nightfall, relishing in how alive the city was around her. The city was known for how many witches resided here, probably making the city as vibrant as it was.

New Orleans was the perfect place for those not wanting to be found. There were always parties, nonstop festivities, even more so due to the booming economy. She could stay here long enough to find a way to protect herself before her brother found her once again.

Only a week before, she had been in Richmond, Virginia. She even settled, had been there almost two years, but he had found her, and he came to kill her. The only reason she was able to escape was by running away from that life she worked so hard to build, never looking back.

The vampire wanted a chance to settle down, to build a life, but her brother would never stop chasing her, she would have to uproot herself in a couple of years, forced to leave any of the friends she made for dead in order to save herself.

She shook off the thoughts of what he could've done to the friends she had made, the thought itself made her nauseous.

She came to New Orleans for more than an escape from her brother, she knew that the protection she sought could be found in an old friend here.

She had followed a lead, since she hadn't quite kept in contact. Lead after lead, they all brought her to the city. She ducked into a jazz bar, walking up to the bar and ordering herself a glass of wine. She wasn't typically one to drink, but she didn't want to stand out.

"Looks like I found you before you could find me."

McKenna whipped her head up, looking at the man behind her, someone she knew would protect her.

"Matthias," she said in a soft voice, turning to face him completely. He looked the same as she last saw him over a century ago. He hadn't gone with her and her brother to the town, he had gone to explore other opportunities, though she suspected his disappearing act was in part due to the end of their fifty year relationship.

"In the flesh. You look just as beautiful as I remember, only with shorter hair," he said in reference to the bob she had.

She grinned at him, having actually missed his company. "You're flattering me," she said with a laugh, holding her glass of wine without drinking it.

His eyebrows raised, and he looked at the drink. "What? Still sober? In a city like this," he remarked, smiling at her.

"I assume you haven't come to New Orleans to rekindle our love, have you?" He asked her, raising his eyebrows.

"My brother will stop at nothing until I'm dead, just last week he nearly killed me, I just, I needed some familiarity, maybe a bit of protection as well. He won't kill you, Matthias," she begged him, feeling as though she was out of options.

He smiled at her, taking the glass from her hand and setting it down on the bar. He then grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the jazz music. "Well, if what you say is true, we should probably start the run now, shouldn't we?" He asked in a kind voice, promising his protection to her.

McKenna had been afraid that he wouldn't be willing to help her, still scorned by the heartbreak that she caused him. She now realized that he would always care for her, even if just as friends, they had spent most of their mortal lives together, and that's not something that could easily be thrown away.

Of course, if she had known what a monster he had become in the century they spent apart, she never would've gone looking for him, he had no idea that he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocents, that he had become the vampire that even other vampires feared. She hadn't realized that he was The Ripper.

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Word Count: 687