diapers stacked on it, a small dresser, and in the corner a rocking chair occupied by a young man feeding an infant child swaddled in a soft pink blanket with an almost empty bottle.

The man looks up and smiles at them. “Callippus. I didn’t expect you to come by.” He gazes past him to Sophie, “And you brought a friend.”

Caleb leans back against the wall and stares at him wearily, “I’m here on business. Sophie, meet High Councilman Aurelius.”

“Oh!” Sophie suddenly finds herself bowing her head in respect, “It’s an honor to meet you sir.” She looks up at him more closely now. He has dirty blond hair, dark blue eyes that stand out against his fair skin tone, and a warm smile.

“No need for formalities. Callippus must think highly of you if he thought to bring you along.”

Sophie jerks her head back at Caleb in surprise, but immediately begins to deny it, “No, no, I just drive him to places.” She says looking back at Aurelius.

He laughs and stands up, cradling the baby carefully in his arms, “You’re modest, I like that. Andrea, if you would.” Sophie nearly jumps out of her skin as woman comes in from the hallway. She had been standing out there the whole time and Sophie hadn’t noticed her. Andrea takes the child back from Aurelius and replaces him in the rocking chair to continue feeding her. “She’s a resilient child considering her poor mother had been dead for hours before you found her Callippus.” Aurelius remarks as he gazes down at Andrea gently holding her.

“What?” Sophie looks between Caleb and Aurelius questioning them.

Caleb just shrugs, but Aurelius smiles, “Callippus has always had a soft heart, but he hides it behind jade walls. You must have done something quite extraordinary for him to give

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

you this gift.” He reaches forward to give Caleb a warm touch on the shoulder, but Caleb grabs his wrist and stops him.

“Don’t.” He warns with a dark look.

Aurelius’s smile never drops he just pulls back and turns to Sophie, “It was lovely meeting you dear.” He grabs her by the shoulders and gives a kiss on the forehead, “If you’ll excuse me, though, Callippus and I must talk about private matters.”

“O-okay.” She stutters, her mind still too surprised by the turn of events to process of everything going on.

Caleb follows Aurelius out of the room and walks behind him as they traverse the dark passages to the second floor where Aurelius’s office is.

“You’ve found yourself quite the pretty human.” Aurelius remarks as he sits himself down on his side of the desk in a large leather chair, but Caleb continues to stand.

“Fredrick picked her up.”

“Ah, another pretty human, but neither the human you’re looking for.”

“No clue what you’re talking about.” Caleb lies as he wanders to the window looking out on a small park. The office is small like most of the rooms in the embassy and the walls and desk are bare of any type of personal mementos.

“No? Oh, well.” Aurelius gives up easily, “So what brings you here Callippus?”

“Fredrick should have sent you the file. More bodies were found out by the warehouses.”

“Poor things.” Aurelius mourns. “Were any more of them pregnant?”

“No, the first was the only.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Well, I guess there’s a silver lining to every tragedy.”

“Uh-huh. So do you have any information on who the halfling running these experiments is?”

Aurelius sighs, “Unfortunately our records show that there have only been a few halflings in the past month who have regularly left and returned to the sector and we already interviewed them so the halfling you’re looking for is one who lives outside the sector and we don’t monitor their activities.”

Caleb sighs, “Yeah, kinda figured that.” He turns his back to the window and stares at Aurelius.

“So, what will you do?”

“Look up records to see who’s been purchasing medical supplies and cross reference it to the list of halflings who live outside the sector that you’re going to give me.”

“Of course, whatever will help your investigations detective.” Aurelius smiles pleasantly.

“Right…” Caleb turns to leave, but then turns back with another question, “How successful was he?”

“Turning the child into a vampire? Not very. The child craved blood yes, but it was easy enough to wean her off of it. She appears to be completely human and healthy now. We’ll be keeping her under observation for a few months to be sure of it, but that’s all. After that we’ll ensure that she finds a home with her own kind.”

Caleb bites his lip in thought, “What if the experiment hadn’t been stopped short? The baby survived staying in it’s deceased mother’s womb for hours drinking her blood to sustain itself before I pulled it out. That’s not completely unsuccessful.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aurelius shakes his head, “Callippus, these experiments have happened before. We have books downstairs that extensively cover the matter. There might be some ephemeral side effects, but in the end they are all failures.”

“This halfling would have never read those books though…”

Aurelius stares hard at Caleb, “What are you getting at?”

“I think now might be a good time for you to hold a press conference.”

Caleb can’t understand humans’ fascination with babies. He has to practically drag Sophie away from the infant after he’s finished with Aurelius. Most vampires treat their own children like nothing more than a chore to accomplish. When Caleb was still a child both of his parents had faithfully left him in the care of a familiar. Caleb hadn’t even met his father until he was almost a young man and despite living under the same roof his mother had barely looked his way until he could learn to talk and read. For vampires family is a word that includes all twenty-four purebreds and no bond is greater than or less than between any of them meaning they all love each other equally.

On their way back to the precinct Sophie is in a much better mood, but notices that Caleb seems even colder than usual as he watches the buildings go by through the window. “Thank you for letting me see her.” Sophie glances over at him to see if there’s any change in expression, there isn’t. “So, what will happen to her?”

“Aurelius will make she she gets adopted by a good family.”

“Aurelius seems like a really nice person. I wasn’t expecting him to be so… nice.”