There are certain known facts about vampires. They revile change. They are obsessive-compulsive. They are illogical. They are cursed. They will burst into flames in sunlight.
They are dying.
With less than a hundred vampires left in the world, Yas...
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The country of Benin had once been host to a very powerful rainbow dragon, the Ayida-Weddo, who could make any woman fertile with a touch. There was a bit of an issue with how much the dragon enjoyed said touching and how eager the Ayida-Weddo was to test out the very fertility it granted, but Benin's economy had flourished as a result of the dragon's influence. Seventy five years ago, China had bought the dragon's citizenship, for the cost of a country twenty times Benin's size—enough to keep Benin's economy afloat and in comfort for decades. But then tourism had plummeted, as well as a spate of unfortunate and unpredictable natural disasters over the course of half a century, and in the end, Benin never recovered. China, on the other hand, became simply richer. Since then, they'd purchased two other African-born dragons and were steadily working their way through the European bloodlines. Dragons weren't exactly rare, but the Chinese were fanatical about collecting them.
So when Tavius' carriage landed by the lake shore, in an impromptu lot of similar vehicles, he wasn't entirely surprised by a small crowd of Chinese in business suits off to one side. Or a smaller but equally-ambitious group of Russians not far off. About three hundred yards away, the dragon sat in her flaming crater, watching everyone with a narrow, red glare. Closest to her was a line of tittering women, cellphones out as they studiously flipped their hair and wavered between practiced nonchalance and outright catcalling.
Tavius was tempted to tell them the dragon was female, but he doubted it would discourage them. The goals of a determined woman could wouldn't be tempered easily.
