Enid was laying underneath Henry as he thrust into her. Sweat was dripping off of him from the humid Jamaican summer and their current exertions. With one final thrust he spent his load and collapsed beside her. She rolled on her side and they wrapped their arms around each other kissing passionately. Enid laid back and stared at the ceiling. Sex with Henry was fantastic, but she’d rather be with Rose. Unfortunately, the fact Rose was in the employ of Francisco the Lord of the Vampires meant sometimes her time was not her own and with the ball was in two days, Francisco had her working day and night. So she’d been staying with Henry and he’d been making up for two months of sexual frustration. Enid didn’t mind. He knew how to please a woman. Also, it helped keep him focused on the prize, which was the demon hunt. At least in Enid’s mind. She glanced at him; His blue eyes were looking at her with more affection than she’d expect when they started this strange business arrangement. If you’d ask her five hundred years ago if she’d sleep with Henry Tanner, she’d probably have stabbed you with her soul sucking sword. She looked at him again.

“Why are you looking at me like that, Henry?”

“I’m in love.”

Enid groaned his fingers danced across her chest pinching her nipple.

“That’s just lust.”

He shook his head. Enid reached out her hand and played with the grey streak that dangled from his front bangs. He wore his hair long enough for a ponytail and he sported a neatly trimmed beard. She supposed pirates will always be pirates.

“People like us don’t fall in love. We fall in profit.”

“Reconsider, won’t you? Marry me, we can keep doing what we do with Rose.”

“You got her pregnant.”

He shifted uncomfortably.

“She seems happy about it.”

“She is. But you need to make an honest woman out of her.”

“She’s amazing, but it’s you I’m in love with.”

Enid rolled on her side.

“I’ve been married many times before and it never ends well for anyone involved. I always end up broken hearted and my partners always end up dead. And I’ll be leaving as soon as the demon is dead.”

Henry sighed wistfully his hands sliding down her back and cupping her butt cheek. He squeezed.

“You keep saying that, yet you keep having sex with me and Rose, you never seem to be hunting the demon.”

Enid slipped her hand down to his manhood and started stroking it gently. She bent down to get him ready for another go. Then slipped on top of him and slid him inside. She started to squeeze.

“Change of subject please.”

He shifted trying to thrust into her she leaned down and kissed him passionately. Eventually he finished again and she lay on top of him her cheek and ear pressed against his hairy chest. He wrapped his arm around her back and gently rubbed it.

“You are hesitating my love.”

Enid groaned again.

“Why can’t you just be a dick sticking out of the bed that answers to a name?”

Henry chuckled.

“Because I’m your business partner.”

Enid groaned again and rolled off of him. He rolled on his side and looked at her.

“You’re scared of something. I’ve seen it before. You showed me what you’re fighting for, and I cannot imagine what would frighten you but I can see it in your eyes.”

Enid threw his tunic at him and rolled off the bed.

“I need to clean up you made a few messes.”

He sat up and called after her.

“Avoiding the truth is just another way you’re showing that you’re frightened.”

“Fuck off!”

Enid started cleaning herself off they’d been at it all day. She pondered the morality of plying him with 29th century sex enhancement drugs. She hadn’t exactly lied, but she hadn’t exactly told him the whole truth. She took the female version as well and was still feeling the effects, but she had to go to court tonight. Her presence had been demanded. Henry appeared behind her in the mirror, and she could feel him pressing against her. He was ready to go again.

“Don’t go.”

“I need to Henry. Business before pleasure.”

“Where do you go when you vanish for the evening?”

Enid could feel her breath catching in her throat and she pressed back against him.

“One more time before I leave.”

He pressed her against the wall and after a very passionate and aggressive few minutes he finished inside her again. She kissed him with tongue. He released her and she pushed him against the far wall and kissed him again. Silently she cursed the increased libido from the drug. It was intended to assist people who were asexual if they wanted it. This was recreational use and completely unethical of her as a medical doctor. Not that she’d been one of those for over a century. She pulled away.

“I need to get ready.”

He nodded and started to kiss her shoulders while she cleaned herself off again. His arms wrapped around her abdomen.

“I don’t know what that medicine was you gave us, but it is amazing.”

“Except we spent a whole day doing nothing but having sex, entirely unproductive. Get dressed. Don’t you have that meeting?”

He sighed and nodded he kissed her shoulder one last time and left to clean himself up. Enid started to brush out her long blonde hair. She pulled on her dress underclothes and one of Rose’s finest dresses. She wrapped her hair up in a bun and tied it off. She wasn’t going to foot tonight she was taking a carriage.

Enid arrived separately from Helen who had made a name for herself as a go-getter amongst the vampires of Port Royal. It was part of their plan. The enemy of Henry Tanner’s business was a nuisance and he hadn’t been here when Enid had initially sailed out of Port Royal on her ship. That made him an anomaly. Henry had survived well past the tsunami and retired to England. At the rate things were going, he would not survive. The anomaly had to be squished. Of course, she could have ended him any number of ways, but he’d been insidious with his usurpation of Henry’s assets. Helen was pretending to hate her creator with a passion because she felt stifled. So, she was working with the anomaly and passing intel to Enid. Of course, the anomaly thought he was getting one up on Enid. Egotistical prick that he was. Her younger self had been summoned because Helen had inferred Enid had broken numerous rules. She had of course, but the ones she was being accused of by him were nonsense. The fish was on the hook and now all that was left was to watch him get reeled in and suffocate. She had despised these politics when younger, but this was a masterpiece, and it would be painted in his blood.

Enid, as Sarah walked in like she owned the courtroom. In many ways she did. She was the eldest there by far. The stories they had weaved about her. Rumors of her surviving the great flood. Being created by Lilith herself. Her younger self was already present. She’d hoped to get here earlier but one last round in bed with Henry had ended in three last rounds. Enid’s eyes fell to Bloodseeker. She could feel him yearning for her touch already. The sword, while not a talker had ways of making its feelings known, it also gravitated to the strongest owner it could. It didn’t seem to realize she was any different then its current holder it just saw that she was the inferior copy. She saw her younger self shifting uncomfortably and her hand resting on the hilt.

She heard the seneschal calling the room to order as Francisco sat down on his throne. It was a gaudy thing. Gold plated. Large gems. Ornate fabric draped over the arms. Francisco is what many in the twentieth century would call fabulous. His outfits were always garish which made up for his boring personality she supposed. He glanced at the younger Enid and held his ever present perfumed handkerchief to his nose.

“Really, Seer could you have bathed before arriving?”

Her younger self returned the glare. Enid was slightly amused. It’s like Francisco had no sense of self-preservation. Not that anyone knew her younger self better than her. She’d always considered him a puffy idiot. Of course, her jealousy over Rose may have had something to do with it. How repressed she was in this day and age. Her younger self’s usual tactic with emotions she couldn’t process was to kill things. Or at least spread the suffering. Thus the twenty-two years of piracy and numerous dead vampires for tiny infractions. He motioned to Helen who stepped forward.

“Child, Abaddan has advised that you have witnessed the esteemed Lady Sarah committing violations of our honored covenants. Is this true?”

“I have not witnessed Lady Sarah breach any of our Covenants while residing in your domain, Lord Francisco. I am unsure of what Abadden speaks of. Perhaps it is because she is his rival in control of the criminal elements of Port Royal? I will not provide false witness against my creator.”

The younger Enid had been staring at Helen intently. Abadden looked like he was about to speak but before he could her younger self spoke up.

“But there has been a breach. She did not seek permission of the council before turning a human. How old were you when you were turned?”

Abaddan looked relieved at this turn of events. Enid frowned slightly. As well he should this isn’t how it was supposed to go at all.

“I was turned on my eighteenth birthday.”

“Did she seek permission of her Elders?”

Helen glanced at her Enid, who nodded to her.

“She has no elders. She made herself into a vampire.”

Everyone gasped.

“You are imperial and not cursed.”

Younger Enid was staring at her older self but like two equally powered magnets that matched polarity their gifts bounced off of each other. The elder Enid nodded in agreement. Her younger self’s emerald, green eyes clouded with frustration.

“I have no elders because I am a vampire by choice. You can feel free to try and judge me, but I am above the emperor and his council. Even Remus is powerless against me. Even Sextus defers to my judgment. So young Enid Aurelius, perhaps we should focus on the fact Abaddan has falsely accused his elder and an Imperial of crimes against our people. You are a truth seeker; My child did not lie. I have breached no covenants that I recognize. I have not revealed myself to the mortals. I have not sought to rule over them.”

Abaddan spoke up.

“But yes, you have! You have. You are using Henry Tanner to take control of the entirety of Port Royal.”

“That simply isn’t so. I am assisting him with dealing with your attempts to do so, of course we’re also having sex, but what does that matter?”

Her younger self looked utterly disgusted by the last admission. Abaddan looked frustrated. She’d beaten him to his final punch. Her laying with a human. Not illegal.

“What will you say next Abaddan? That I’ve been devouring children?”

“You have been hunting us!”

Helen, Enid and younger Enid both looked at Abaddan. That was true. Which Enid thought was thoroughly odd because she hadn’t touched a single vampire since she’d been here. Sure she’d thought about popping Abaddan’s head with her hands like it was pimple but she hadn’t given into the urge. Helen looked at her mother.

“That is an interesting statement because I have been hunting something, but it certainly isn’t vampires.”

She reached out her hand and Bloodseeker flew to it leaving her younger self in shock.

“How about I cut you open and we see what’s squirming inside?”

Francisco stood up and was about to declare she was breaching the sanctum of court but she just stared at him and met his gaze.

“Sit down and shut up pugmentia. I’ll give you an opinion when I want one.”

He sat down and his mouth closed instantly. Her younger self had her eyes on Bloodseeker. Abaddan seemed to realize he was in serious trouble now and was starting to run towards the exit. Enid reached out her hand and lifted it in the air. Abaddan slammed into the ceiling and she swept her hand downwards and he was broken on the marble floor. He would heal rapidly, he was after all a vampire, at least in part. One of Francisco’s enforcers had the audacity to try and stop her. She reached out and clenched her fist closed his entire chest cavity caved in piercing his heart with multiple ribs. He fell the ground paralyzed. Another of the enforcers looked like he might want to interfere but seemed to realize that the entire court was entirely outmatched.

Enid reached out her hand and flicked Abaddan’s broken body to her and she reached out her hands and made a yanking motion and there was a sickening crack and the sound of flesh tearing as she ripped his sternum apart with her telekinesis. A foot long black centipede thing with glowing red eyes lept out of him and tried to skitter away. Enid threw Bloodseeker at it and it screeched and vanished in a flash of red as its essence was drained by the blade. She reached out her hand again and Bloodseeker flung itself to her. She took him by the blade and turned around and approached her younger self offering her the blade hilt first.

Her younger self looked up at her with both fear and admiration. She took the hilt. Bloodseeker resisted her but eventually relented to her control. At this age Enid had never considered the many uses of telekinesis mostly it was just throwing stuff very hard. She had since refined it to an art form. Mostly out of a keen sense of not getting her clothing covered in blood. She turned to Francisco and met his gaze.

“You are released.”

Younger Enid looked at her older self, though she did not recognize her.

“How did you wield him?”

“He craves power.”

The younger of the two blinked up at the strange blonde vampire. The elder Enid walked to Francisco.

“You had a demon in your midst for how long? You simpleton. After the ball tomorrow night you will release Roseilund. I will remove the memories of your amateurish feedings and the scars you left. You are lucky the Reapers blade hasn’t found you yet.”

Enid turned to Helen.

“Come Helen, our work is done here. I suspect out problems with Abaddan are over.”

Helen smiled at her mother and walked beside her. Once they were in the carriage Enid let the mask of calmness fall away and she frowned deeply.

“That was very concerning. A demon neither of us could sense.”

Helen nodded.

“I sensed it once you ripped him open.”

“Yes. Not very efficient. I don’t want to have to rip open every human in Port Royal.”

Enid leaned her elbow on the armrest and leaned on the palm of her hand.

“They could be anyone. Anywhere. Henry, Roseilund.”

“Me?”

Enid shook her head.

“No hon, not you. You are immune to the predations of demons. Imperial vampires are pure. Its like being reborn without corruption. Hazel would be immune too. No, humans are born with original sin and Pugmentia are born of dark magic and corruption. An imperial would have to agree to the possession. Humans and Pugmentia they’re just susceptible to that. Though they can agree to it… How do I know all this stuff?”

“You are an angel, mother.”

Enid hit her fist on the wood of the carriage.

“Fuck. They’ve been right in front of us all along. That’s what the spirits were telling Hazel. I was so arrogant and sure of my gift, our gift….”

She closed her fist again and hit the window frame. Helen looked at her mother.

“You shouldn’t blame yourself mother. Hazel has been going on about you being distracted, but you haven’t. You’ve been on the scent of one all along. You just didn’t realize it.”

Enid shook her head.

“No, I’ve been distracted. First by Rose, then by Henry…oh Henry. That man can make a woman…”

Helen looked at the floor of the carriage and Enid let her voice trail off.

“That may be the work of demons. They are devious scheming bastards.”

Enid shook her head.

“No, no. Not their style. I’ll need to think about this, how we can find them. Maybe the angel can help.”

“You can’t just walk around as an angel mother. You said it yourself we need to minimize our impact here.”

Enid smiled at Helen.

“Turning you is a decision I will never regret. You are probably the most loyal of my vampiric children.”

Helen smiled at her mother.

“Mother without you I would have nothing, you took me in when I had nothing. You taught me to be a lady, how to fight, how to read… So many things I would have been blind to without you. I wouldn’t have a sister.”

“You have several you haven’t met yet.”

The carriage was slowing down. Enid motioned to the door.

“Tell Hazel what we found. See if she has any spirit talker tricks up her sleeves that can help us out them. I’ll make sure Henry is clear at least. Rose will be more difficult. She’s sleeping at the shop and they’re taking shifts to get all the dresses ready… If you two find anything let me know so I can see if the angel can spot them. See you at the ball if I don’t see you before.”

Helen leaned forward and hugged Enid.

“I’ll see you at the ball mother.”