Eyre sat down at the table in the seat the constable had occupied. Violet sat down in another empty seat. She fidgeted with her hands tapping them on the glass tabletop. All eyes turned to Mariana who was stroking her crucifix with her fingers. She looked up and noticed she was being stared at then she looked down at the table. Enid nodded and looked at Eyre.

“You really laid on the long-suffering mother act thick there.”

“Well, I am long-suffering. I mean a mother like you who need’s enemies?”

Eyre grinned her green eyes twinkling.

“This is a problem. They aren’t going to find that van, or those Russians. I’m pretty sure they’re being dissolved with acid as we speak. This is a lot more attention than we want.”

“I can use my contacts to create a false trail leading out of the country to somewhere in eastern Europe.”

“You can backstop for Russian mercenary id’s?”

“Child’s play for my people.”

Enid nodded.

“Can we expect any blow back from the Pugmentia mom?”

Enid shook her head.

“I doubt it, they think we’re all mortals, and if they know Violet exists, they’ll assume she’s here as our handler for the Empress. I think I gave them enough false leads to be scared shitless of worrying about us any further. Violet that means if you run into one of the pugementia you need to act like you’re big time, a made woman if you know what I mean.”

“So, act like you?”

“Ya, that should do it.”

“Do you think the black sun knows we’re here now?”

Enid shook her head.

“I don’t think so hon, if he did we’d be knee deep in his minions. I also think if there is any scent of him nearby I left enough on the table that the Pugmentia will reach out to tell us. We should be secure for the time being. We just need to keep Mariana and myself out of the public eye. Keep a low profile.”

Mariana seemed to snap out of whatever had her so out of it and she looked at Eyre and Violet.

“Ma’am, Violet, could I speak to Enid alone.”

“You don’t have to call me ma’am Aunt Mariana, you are way older than me. I’m so happy to meet you finally, I’ll take Violet out hunting mom. Give you some privacy. Come on Violet.”

The pair left the house together. Mariana waited until they were alone.

“You lied to those police officers, that is not right, they are going to be wasting a bunch of time hunting down people who are already dead.”

“Look I know that is wrong, but it is really hard to explain me killing all four of them myself, isn’t it? And this is vampire stuff the covenant says we need to keep ourselves secret. The consequences of telling the truth would cause a lot more harm.”

Mariana stroked her crucifix her fingers tracing the form of Jesus.

“You lied to me.”

Enid looked down at the table tracing patterns with her fingers unable to meet her sister’s gaze.

“I am sorry, I did not want to overwhelm you with information.”

“What happened to me?”

“You saved the world, and our father told the council he had you executed. You broke the rules and the council except for our father and myself voted to kill you. That includes my husband your brother Lucius, only it wasn’t him, it was a being called the Black Sun that took control of him during a battle.”

“The why am I here?”

“I can only assume that Amara was more loyal to you then she was to the council and our father and kept you safe.”

“Why do I not remember this?”

“You were hurt badly when we fought the Black Sun, our father wanted to heal you, wake you, but the council overruled him. I wanted to kill them all, still do.”

“Two wrongs do not make a right Enid.”

“I know, but you’re my sister, my best friend, it’s my duty to protect you and I couldn’t our father stopped me. He was so old and powerful no one can stand against him or could before he went into eternal slumber.”

“We look nothing alike; How can we be sisters? I know what you say to be true, I have no doubt in my soul.”

“You father rescued me when I was near death, I was ten or eleven. The night after I got to Rome you came into my room; We couldn’t speak the same language but we knew then we’d be friends forever.”

Enid showed the scar on her hand and reached for Mariana’s hand that had an identical scar.

“We used a spell when we were mortal to bind ourselves as blood sisters, when we were fifteen, just before we got married. We swore that we would live and die for each other. Swore by all the gods.”

“There is only one god.”

“You didn’t always believe that Mariana. You were born in Rome. You were raised in Rome. It wasn’t until our nephew was born that you had a change of heart.”

“Nephew?”

“You know him as Jesus Christ.”

“Jesus?”

“Yes, he was Plutonia’s grandson.”

“Who is Plutonia?”

“She was our sister. She was the oldest child of our father and mother. Sextus and Aurelia. She chose not to become a vampire. Sextus accepted that and left her live out her mortal life. She had six children with a Hebrew man. One of which was named Mary, who had a son, named Jesus. Plutonia died in what we’d call the year 64 now.”

“How old was she?”

“I think one hundred and ninety or so.”

“And she was human?”

“Well not fully, our father, he could have children, but he was a god in his own right. As his biological children Lucius, Plutonia and yourself, you could live for centuries. Your children lived to be three or four hundred years old. I watched out for them as best I could. You ate the fruit like I did though. Eyre was 130ish when I turned her.”

“So, Jesus was our nephew? As in Jesus Christ, the Messiah?”

Enid nodded.

“We were with him the night before he died. I tried to stop him, you told me we had to let him go, it was God’s will.”

“So, I knew him, while he was flesh and blood.”

Mariana crossed herself, and then her hand started stroking her crucifix rapidly.

“Yes, we were at the so-called last supper together. Look don’t let it make your head spin. He was just a man, a very good, and very holy man, but he was just a man, no more, no less. Because you ate the fruit and your father was a god, he had gifts, most of our direct family did.”

“You are wrong.”

“Okay, I’m not going to argue the point with you sis. I’m just happy I can finally tell you the whole truth.”

“How old are we? Am I?”

“You were born in 103 BCE. You were turned in 85ish BCE. Lucius was turned at the same time as me. So you’re older then both us. The only surviving vampires older are the council members now. I killed the oldest of us in the 19th century in London.”

“Why did you kill them?”

“I had no choice, she using blood to summon an apocalyptic storm, it would have killed millions. Father had trapped her, but for whatever reason the Black Sun unleashed her. I didn’t want to do it but if the choice was another Sodom and Gomorrah, or her death, I would choose her death every time.”

Mariana’s eyes went wide.

“We have such power?”

“Not all of us, the only reason I had a chance was I had taught Eyre magic and we were able to redirect the energy back into the storm causing it to collapse.”

“And tonight, you killed those four people while you were in the sun, how? Do you have your powers in sunlight?”

“No, I’ve just spent a long time living as a mortal and learned how to fight without my powers.”

“So, you really were injured and could not heal until you were out of the sun.”

“Yes.”

“And that vampire he tried to stake you, are we immune?”

“Yes, we have amulets they wrap around our hearts. They make us immune to sun’s effects and protect us from stakes, but in sunlight we are just as vulnerable to everything mortals are.”

“You healed from a silver bullet; How did you do that so fast?”

Enid laughed.

“Silver doesn’t do anything to us silly. We’re imperial vampires. The only things we need to worry about usually are the sun and stakes. There are other magical things but for the most part, we’re pretty tough. Does your silver crucifix burn your hand?”

“No, but I thought it was God…”

“Sis, I am going to say it again, if there is a God he doesn’t give a goats piss what is going on in the world.”

Mariana stroked her crucifix more quickly.

“You went into Limbo you came out with armor and weapons and were immune to the sun. You healed a jerk of an angel named Ezekiel, should have left him cursed by the way. And then you started your war with the Black Sun. What you did there I do not know beyond what your journal told me. But I do know your sun immunity is your amulet not some intangible all powerful being. Amulets your father and uncle Remus made. Look I’m not trying to make you question your faith and I should be more sensitive to it. I have spent a long time dealing with the bull shit that Christianity has spawned in this world. Hell, they made me a saint.”

Enid threw up her hands.

“Saint Sarah, is you?”

“Unfortunately.”

“So, you did all those things? Slew a demon hound, built a cathedral, married, had twins, the story about the pig violator was true?”

“Yes, for the most part everything attributed to Saint Sarah is true, embellished a bit by my son who had a taste for women and drink and would tell a story for either.”

“How did you have children? You would have been…thirteen hundred years old by then.”

“That was a shock, trust me. Eyre is one of the twins.”

“But how?”

“I ate fruit from the tree of life in the garden of Eden. Apparently, that makes me able to conceive because I’m neither fully dead, nor fully alive. Our father didn’t explain it very well and I wasn’t handling the whole pregnancy thing very well. We argued and I didn’t get to ask details.”

“And you prayed for a spring?”

“No, I created a healing spring. It was complicated and I needed Eyre, and her daughter’s blood and my blood.”

“So, it was not a miracle.”

“No, sorry sis, it wasn’t, it was just me trying to save people I cared very deeply about.”

“Then it was a miracle, because it was done out of love.”

“Sure, okay.”

Mariana nodded.

“You say I have eaten the same fruit, so I can still have children?”

“I guess so but trust me you don’t want to. You literally can’t drink blood you will vomit it out, your body rejects it. It isn’t pretty. By the end of the pregnancy, I was pretty much running on fumes.”

“But it can be done.”

“Yes.”

Mariana smiled stroking her crucifix.

“Look, we have bigger issues at the moment. Lilith sent me here to recruit you.”

“Lilith, the first one who rejected God?”

“Yes, wife to Lucifer.”

“How can you associate with such a thing?”

“She raised me before my father tried to kill me, my biological father. She isn’t who you think she is, trust me I know what you think of her, because I thought the same thing for a very long time. But I didn’t remember her as my first mother.”

“But she rejected God’s will to his face.”

“She rejected being subservient to men. There’s a difference. I don’t disagree with her. But whatever you think of her, she is on our side. She is helping us fight the Black Sun.”

“What is this Black Sun?”

“Atlantean legends state he was the first creation of God. And that he rejected God and wants to remake creation in his own image. God created our father Sextus, and our uncle Remus to balance the Black Sun once he determined he could not destroy it.”

“Atlantean?”

“Atlantis, the first city of the first creation. Our father ruled it. There was a war, a terrible weapon was unleashed and now the city and it’s surviving residents are stuck there frozen for all eternity in that one moment. It is in Limbo now. The first prison.”

“Tell me more please.”

“This is more legend than fact, you need to understand that. The only one who knew the real history was our father and he never spoke of it. I can only infer what I have read in the Atlantean documents and have gleaned from other sources over the years and what Lilith has told me.”

Mariana nodded.

“In the beginning there was God. He lost focus and a stray thought became manifest. And the with a flash of light the raw stuff of creation burst into existence along with it came the Black Sun. The black sun started creating reality in his image. God was distressed with this, that was his right, not this stray thought’s so he tried to smite it, but he found he could not, try as he might the stray thought, the Black Sun was immune to direct manipulation. So, he created a prison, Limbo and shoved the Black Sun into it. Reality started to unravel, God saw that his stray thoughts were dangerous, so he needed to get creation under control, so he created his second and third creations. We know them as Father and Uncle. The brothers started to rein in creation, it stabilized and solidified. God found he could manipulate the reality. Unlike the raw stuff of creation, it wasn’t chaotic it was ordered, structured and he could use it as a framework. He rested pleased with his second and third creations and their new reality. As time went on the population of Atlantis grew. But the Black Sun, though trapped was able to spread his influence. He demanded a return to chaos, he wanted to make reality in his image, not Gods, or these two pretenders. His followers broke him out of his prison and while God’s gaze was elsewhere they started a war. Sextus realizing that Atlantis was the lynch pin in creation sacrificed his people to save reality, to save creation, to save what God had wrought. So, he detonated a temporal bomb. It froze Atlantis and its magical core in time. Never changing. Trapping all his people in that one moment. He and Remus were immune. As was the Black Sun. The three battled in earnest. They had turned themselves into monsters to fight the monsters the Black Sun had created. God was angered when he saw that the Black Sun had escaped. He threw him back into Limbo along with his second and third creations and Atlantis. But he still had his lynch pin for reality, a stable core for his new creation.”

Enid stopped and glanced at Mariana who nodded.

“God started again, this time he created a bigger group of workers, we’d call them Angels. They worked away crafting all manner of thing for him planets solar systems, plants, animals. All was good with creation until the Black Sun’s whispers reached Lucifer, oh Lucifer was a proud angel, the brightest and strongest among his kind, the first angel. God’s favored creation. His pride was his downfall. The Black Sun whispered that should this creation not be his to weave, not in an image God demanded, but in the image and to the glory of Lucifer, greatest among all of creation. Thus began another war. God when he turned back was furious and hurt. Lucifer, his fourth child had turned against him. He loved him too much to destroy him. Realizing that Limbo was an ineffective prison created a new one Hell and cast Lucifer and his cohort into it creating demons. God didn’t know what to do next, every time he created something to help him shape reality, it turned on him because the Black Sun would whisper to it. He couldn’t seem to keep it trapped. So, he decided to go back to the base form he had chosen, human, this time though he started with a woman. Before there had been no genders all had been male and or genderless. He decided that he needed something different to balance creation. So, he created the Garden, he charged Ezekiel the Archangel with protecting his fledgling creations within. He created Lilith first. She wasn’t fully a woman. He was still working on the design I guess. He then created Adam and demanded Lilith serve him. Lilith would have none of that. She said I was first, and he was second he should be subservient to me. God was not pleased, rebellion already and she was just created. He tossed her out of the Garden to keep it pure. He then created Eve. All was good until the Black Sun whispered to Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, but in so doing he made a prison that could hold him. When God made Adam and Eve mortal he created the lands of the dead, he hadn’t intended it, but death needed its own realm. God was furious at the interference of the Black Sun yet again. So, he pulled a weapon of dread from Atlantis and gave it to Sextus. It wasn’t of God’s creation; It was the Black Sun’s a sword of silver that would drain the very essence of creation from beings. It could kill anything even God, but God was beyond reason at this point and wanted only to see the Black Sun destroyed. But even the sword would prove to be useless against the Black Sun.”

Enid paused, as Violet and Eyre returned. They went into the basement.

“Dawn’s coming soon. Violet isn’t immune to the sun and she’s young she has to sleep.”

Mariana nodded.

“Please finish the story.”

Enid nodded.

“Okay where was I? Bloodseeker and Sextus hunting the Black Sun. Sextus and Remus tracked the Black Sun down in the dark pit he’d crafted himself in Limbo, where he plotted his next move to unravel creation. A fight ensued the Black Sun was defeated by the brothers, but the sword didn’t slay him. It just absorbed his essence. Trapping him there. It would seem not even this blade could end it. Sextus tried to drain the essence that was stored in the sword but could not, he was not strong enough. With his physical form destroyed the Black Sun escaped the sword eventually but had nowhere to return to and was quickly sucked into the lands of the dead. Sextus assumed he had won once and for all and believed that it had just taken time for the essence to dissipate. Victorious and having completed the task laid before him by God he sought out his own path. He found Lilith and they had a very long love affair. Lilith could not conceive. As I said, god hadn’t finished making her. She was incomplete she had no womb with which to hold a child. She didn’t tell him about this, she took Remus and Sextus out of Limbo into the world. Humans had spread far and wide. Lilith tried to conceive with several men. It did not work. She watched as Sextus and Remus created more of their kind. She grew jealous and stole Sextus’s blood and turned a child. The child was the first strix it became a monster. It fed and killed wantonly. Sextus put it down. He was upset at Lilith’s betrayal, but he was the forgiving kind and took her back. She was obsessed with having a child of her own. She stole his blood and tried again, this time with an older human. A woman. She became the first Child of Lilith, the first Pugmentia trash blooded as Sextus referred to them. This curse spread far and wide and by the time Sextus and Remus realized it was too late to clean up the mess. God was angered again at the arrogance of Lilith and cast her into hell. There she seduced Lucifer who tried to seduce her, but she was wise to his ways and wasn’t one to lay subservient to a male. She played the part of dutiful wife, promising to let him and his fallen angels and the horde of demons they had created out of their prison with her portal ability. She used the time to gather her strength and left Hell betraying Lucifer. He’s still fairly angry. I can tell by the fallen angel that was summoned by Deloriss from earlier tonight.”

Mariana nodded.

“The Black Sun took a long time to restore its form and consciousness. Then it quietly started gathering the unclaimed souls of the dead. Pulling them into its essence. Once it had restored itself with the essence of the souls, it started collecting them into cells. He/it theorized that it could use the collective power of the unclaimed ones to destroy the realm of the dead, he would concentrate that energy on Atlantis and destroy it in Limbo breaking the lynch pin of reality and unraveling creation and then he would rebuild it how he wanted it, full of chaos. This is from your journal, whether this is fact or supposition I do not know. You realized what he was planning because you have a unique connection to the lands of the dead. You see also in your journal you claim the Black Sun tried to snuff out your life force as an act of revenge. He reached into your mother’s womb and tried to kill you, and you were born early, near death. Sextus made a pact with Lilith to keep you alive, he could no longer enter limbo, but she could. She got a piece of fruit from the tree of life. She gave it to him. But told him there would be a cost to save his child he said he would pay anything. So, you were saved. In this act the Black Sun created his greatest enemy: You. Once you found out souls were being devoured and trapped in this plot you set about stopping him, you built a legion of vampires and unclaimed souls and you took Amara, myself, Lucius into the realm of the dead where we fought a terrible battle. We told you to wait but you didn’t you lunged at him, I didn’t see the fight that ensued. Lucius went down and I was knee deep in the Black Sun’s forces when everyone was blasted down and you smashed through an altar. You weren’t moving. I attacked the Black Sun with the Bloodseeker and I thought I had killed him like Sextus had thought before me. You were fading fast. I fed you my blood it kept you alive but it didn’t heal you. Lucius was unconscious, you were unconscious we carried you out of there and the Black Legion stayed to cover our retreat as you had trained them to do, we barely made it through the portal but you never woke. I don’t know what the Black Sun did to you. I do know the Pugmentia you called Uncle used some form of mental ability to rewrite your memories to build someone pliable. I think he was trying to use you to uncover your knowledge of necromancy. I think he failed to realize that your force of will, and your inherent goodness would interfere.”

“How do you know what he did?”

“Lilith told me. She is older than either of us. She has a network of agents all over the world. Mortal and immortal.”

“The Black Sun still lives?”

“Yes, to save itself it entered Lucius and possessed him. Shunting Lucius elsewhere. In that one act he made it possible for us to destroy him. Or at least imprison him forever in the shell that was Lucius. Which is why I need you; I need you to turn Lucius’s body into a soul trap so the Black Sun cannot escape into the realm of the dead again. This is the last time he will rise up against our reality. I swear it, and I swear once he is dealt with, I will find my husband and I will rescue him.”

“That will not work Enid. We need another way.”

“How do you know that? You can’t even remember your real name.”

“Sextus would have done the same with the sword if he could not use it to destroy him. Yet he did not, that tells me that he did not believe trapping him was going to work.”

“I see what you’re getting at. Trap him he will just escape later. Leaving us with the question: At what point will that happen? And when it happens, we start the cycle all over again. He is far weaker than he was at least when it comes to being the first creation of God. He has been stuck in a physical body with no real access to the realm of the dead to gather that power. He can’t enter limbo either without yours or Lilith’s help. So, he cannot attack Atlantis directly. I’m not sure what his plan is, I know what his end goal is, but I don’t even know what board we’re playing on.”

“This is not a game Enid.”

“You are so wrong sis. Everything is a game. Right now, we’re playing the infinite game against someone who is playing a finite game. We’re going to lose its just a matter of when, to win we have to keep beating him down, to win all he has to do is succeed in destroying Atlantis or Limbo.”

“How can you say that this is just a game.”

“I did not say that this is just a game, I said that everything is a game. It’s a theory the humans came up with called Game Theory, you can use the math to describe everything that is a contest of any sort. Economics, war, politics, eternal struggles against the forces of chaos. Say what you will about United States, but they sure have some good strategic thinking classes in their officer training.”

Mariana quirked her head looking at Enid.

“I was a fighter pilot for the US Navy.”

“How?”

“Easy I made up an identity did four years of college to set up my back story properly, signed up.”

“How did they not find out you were a vampire?”

“I went for all my physicals in places with lots of windows.”

Mariana stroked her crucifix and shook her head.

“You have seen so much and I so little. I am envious.”

“You still have thousands of years Mariana, just relax.”

“I am not sure how I can help you, Enid. I have no memory of any of this, and I am not sure I am capable of such a thing anymore.”

“You can help, you still understand this.”

Enid reached into her bag and pulled out the Atlantean tablet. She offered it to Mariana who looked at the scrolling blue matrix like text.

“You gave me this in case something happened to you and told me if you failed to stop the Black Sun the key would be in here.”

Mariana read for several minutes. While she was reading Eyre had come back up stairs and started cooking breakfast. This morning it was sausages, pancakes and eggs. Enid took a deep breath and Eyre waved her spatula the pair.

“School is in a couple of hours.”

Enid’s response was a very sarcastic: “Thanks mom”

Mariana looked up from her reading, apparently not aware of the goings on around her.

“It is a, he, The Black Son is male. You translated it wrong. It is son as in male child.”

“See you already found something I’ve missed for thousands of years. You can help. Even if you don’t remember.”

“The person who wrote this was brilliant. It could not have been me.”

“Oh no, it was you, that’s your journal and your notes. Most if I can’t understand. I never had a talent for necromancy or interdimensional physics and travel. My brain just can’t wrap itself around the concepts.”

Mariana began to stroke her crucifix again and looked at the real Enid for the first time.