“Yes, with my husband from my arranged marriage.”

“Wait, so you are required to have kids with someone you didn’t even choose to marry?”

Caleb nods, “We’re not as much of a futuristic, superior race as you think.”

“So how exactly does the whole children thing work? Considering you’re both guys.”

“…I imagine this has to be the strangest conversation to ever grace the walls of this elevator.” Caleb points out.

“Oh, sorry, you don’t have to tell me.” Sophie takes the hint, “Vampire secret stuff and all that.” she quickly apologizes.

“Hmm, I can see why Fredrick wanted you to be my partner. You’re a quick study and not an asshole.”

“Thank…you?”

“You’re welcome.”

The rest of the day Caleb spends his time doing the jobs specific to him with Sophie shadowing him trying to learn the ropes. Caleb’s job is to work all the cases relating to vampires. Purebreds enjoy a life lapped in luxury and rarely do they leave their palaces to see the world from the perspective of others they think lesser than them like halflings and familiars. Unlike the rest of his family Caleb immerses himself in it on a daily basis meaning he has to file the assault charges for when vampires and familiars are attacked by the human supremist, try to help them find new homes when they’ve been wrongfully evicted from theirs or jobs when they’ve been laid off, try to prove that a donor with bad blood was trying to poison vampires on purpose, listen to the stories of them being turned away by businesses while trying to explain to them that

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segregation is only illegal in publicly owned businesses and institutes, and read the files sent over by other precincts dealing with humans who had been supposedly attacked by vampires to try and prove if they are legitimate. The only cases other precincts take are the ones that deal with humans being physically harmed in the crimes. All others are turned away and sent to Caleb’s precinct.

Sophie is surprised about the amount of work that they actually end up having. She had never expected to see so many people face discrimination in her city, for the entire day there is a steady stream of men and women seeking solace and justice for the transgressions against them. After listening to story after story and filing reports for them she regrets her anger this morning for thinking that she’d only be Caleb’s chauffeur. When the day is finally coming to an end there’s a stacks of files and reports on her desk that she has to go through. She had noticed earlier that Caleb’s desk was covered in files, more so than hers is now, but she hadn’t thought much of it, now looking across to his side she has more apprehension at the numerous piles of paper.

“How do you get any of this done? There’s so much.” Sophie asks.

“I don’t sleep.” Caleb says not looking away from his computer screen while reading an electronic report sent over to him.

“Oh, yeah,” Sophie laughs thinking he’s joking, “I bet I’ll only catch a few hours with this workload.”

“No,” Caleb corrects her offhandedly, “I physically don’t sleep.”

“Huh.” Sophie pauses and thinks about that for a second, “Doesn’t that get boring being awake when everyone else is asleep?”

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“Nope. Got plenty of work to do. And speaking of you should go home already. Fredrick hates giving overtime.”

Sophie nods in agreement. Most of the other officers had already packed up and are on their way out leaving only the night crew.

“What about you?”

“I don’t get paid.”

~

Sophie walks to the subway station pondering over everything she had learned today. She had never considered just how many vampires and familiars live in the city. Thinking about it logically there are probably thousands of humans who at one point or another had been familiars to vampires and likely hundreds of vampires living outside of the sector. Sophie knows so little about the vampires that she had never even known that Medea had children. Everyone knows that there are twenty-four purebred vampires in the world, some of them like Medea and Aurelius are infamously popular in media circles: Medea being the CEO of a huge stock trading conglomerate with reaches all across the globe and Aurelius being the head of the vampire embassy and defacto spokesperson for vampires in all of North America, both are names that appear frequently in the news. Others, like Caleb and Marcus, Sophie had never even heard of, even though in the case of the latter that is probably just because she doesn’t keep up with the tabloids.

In the crowded subway packed with people like her going home for the day from work she wonders how many of them are human. It suddenly feels like a new game Sophie’s become obsessed with; maybe that man with pale blond hair, but then she notices that he’s holding a bag

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of fast food, then maybe the tall woman with strict features, she kinda reminds her of Caleb, the way she holds herself at least is similar. Sophie watches the woman until she gets off debating her vampirism until she’s gone, and then she starts anew with someone else.

The subway Sophie is riding is one of the old ones that still bumps and squeals as it rides down the tracks at terrifying speeds. Not many people drive anymore. Since the vampires had taken over public transportation has become popularized leaving car salesmen out of jobs. Most major cities have an extensive rail system for subways or trollies and the smaller cities have bus routes and taxis for the people to take advantage of. Nowadays the majority of vehicles owned are only for commercial use only.

The older generation who still remember what life was like before the vampires complain that the vampires took away their freedoms and are a tyrannical force. Within the sixty years that the vampires have taken control there have been many changes and the vampires gave little thought to the people they were hurting when they forced their way into government and used political leaders as puppets to implement their new laws and regulations. The old generation are still bitter over the sharp rise of unemployment, homelessness, and fear in the uncertainty of the future that occurred in the wake of vampires. Younger people like Sophie who have never known a life any different than the one they currently live in have very little to complain about. Air pollution and pollution in general is the lowest it’s been in centuries and taxes are lower because people don’t have to pay for the maintenance of the roads and highways, education has been privatized, and all militaries have been dissolved to create world peace. In this new world the government has more ability to look after its citizens more effectively and give them the aid they need where they need it. Humans will always be humans though and despite the new