Sylvie

Amber tapped play on the new reel and saw another horrific scene.  A woman who looked to be in her early thirties had a set of children tied up in the middle of the street and was steadily running them over with her car.  After hearing the bones of the kids crunch and watching their blood splatter all over the wheels, Amber looked up. “Who would just record this?  I take it the woman in the car is their mother?”

Alan solemnly nodded. “She recorded this.  Laughed the entire time her kids were screaming in the street.  The news cleaned up the recording so it could be shown on television.”

“They didn’t clean up too much, it’s still beastly.”  Amber took down her shoulder-length platinum hair and began to braid it. “Wait…there we go, the police arrived…finally.”

Alan smiled, “Okay, slow down the frames.  You will see her attempt to attack the police with the car, they will open fire and then you should see..”

Cutting off her new master, Amber quickly spoke. “There they are, the diamonds.  Just like you said for the last few.”  She shivered and pressed stop on the phone. “Do you have any idea what those things are?”

Dejected, Alan shook his head. “Not a clue.  Again, I was hoping that Sylvie could tell me or even discover them on her investigations.”  He shrugged. “Whatever they are, they are breaking the veil.  Which we cannot have.”

“Is this why I keep hearing that there are no more spaces in mental hospitals?”  Amber asked while making a patron a rum and coke. “It’s been all over the internet and news for the last few months.  Places like Central State are double booked and because police are taking delusional people for help.”  Amber sliced a lime and ran it over the rim of the glass. “Here you are, ma’am.  One rum and coke.  Is there anything else?”  Amber smiled when the woman shook her head and resumed talking to her other friends.

Alan waited for Amber to come back over, “Oddly enough I was just about to address the hospital issue.  I suspect that these things are the reason for the influx of patents, yes.  Though I can’t prove it.”  He sipped more of his drink. “It isn’t like the news has anything on the individual people, and doctors can’t discuss it openly.”

Amber smiled at her new master. “You could infiltrate the hospitals just to see their eyes, if it’s that important to you.”  She chuckled and watched Alan finish off his last Bloody Madelyn.  Feeling that the conversation about the strange events had come to an end, Amber raised one eyebrow and spoke, “I would like to discuss one tiny detail that you mentioned before you told me all about the diamond-eyed things.”

Alan looked at his watch and was amazed by how fast time went by. “You have about fifteen minutes left before you and Jessica shut down for the night, so I guess you have to make this quick.”  Alan winked.

Clearing the mug from the bar that held Alan’s drink, Amber began washing the glass in the sink closest to her. “It won’t take long at all.”  She cleared her throat. “You mentioned before that you would have to bring me into the fold.”  Amber laughed, “Alan.  No.  I am not asking for a polyamorous relationship.”  She watched the look of confusion cross through the man’s brown eyes. “I am certainly monogamous, so I will try to explain.”  

“Please do.”  Alan quipped.

“Love is an odd thing.  You can love multiple people without any prejudice and still not be romantically involved with them.  I am like that with all of the Blood Bunnies as well as Sylvie.”  Amber started wiping down the bar, “It’s that simple.  I don’t mind being close as in kissing or cuddling if a loved one needs it.  I have gone so far as to let Jessica sleep beside me when she was having nightmares about Phantasmagoria.  It was completely platonic.”

“How do you view your wardship?  I mean I have seen some vampires have a romantic involvement with theirs.   In fact, in the past, I have.”  Alan shrugged, “This is clearly not the case this time around.  Perhaps I used the wrong word.  Can you stop by the condo after your shift?  Give me a couple hours with Veronica to explain what happened and why.”

“No problem, Master.  I don’t need an address.”  Amber winked one of her chestnut eyes, “I can track you now.”  She took off the small apron around her waist and draped it over the sinkwell. “I wanted to shower and get cleaned up anyway.  See you in about two hours.”

---

Tension began to rise again in Alan as he drove his silver BMW luxury car down the main road of Colonial Heights called the Boulevard.  It was one thing not to get upset with his new ward and finally have the opportunity to show someone other than Amos the happenings, it was another to have the one person that he needed to overcome the challenges ignore him. “If she’d just take ten minutes to listen, instead of running off.”  Alan tried to calmly tell himself as he steadily passed the older sections of town to reach the edge of the city limits. 

Windows down on his car, Alan took note of the water that was passing beneath him. “Swift Creek.  Nothing like being home.”  Alan took a right turn after a small bridge and went down a newly paved street named ‘Creek Landing’.  It took nearly a minute to get through the grove of trees that the street weaved its way through, and opened into the oldest section of town.

Alan had purchased the entire old subdivision on the promise to the Colonial Heights City Council that he would restore the history surrounding the small area.  It had everything the vampire needed to stay carefully hidden if necessary, but could join the town in a few minutes if need be.  Historically, the area had been designed during the 1800s Victorian era and was mixed with relics of the American Civil War.  Long abandoned, the grand houses and small local farms had become overgrown and were falling down.

Taking nearly four years to complete, Alan turned the whole section back into a thriving little community of gorgeous three-story homes that reflected the Victorian style that had been there, but were in fact condominiums on the inside with the latest technology.  Huge plate windows and wrap-around porches were everywhere to be seen, dotted with little rocking chairs where the new tenants now spent their evenings.