“What about yours?”

“I don’t have one.”

“You are a real…” Captain Batting inhales slowly trying to not completely blow up at him. He can feel a dull pounding start right behind his eyes notifying him of the impending migraine.

“I volunteer.” Sophie speaks up looking back and forth between them. “The only distinguishing difference between familiars and regular people is the scarring, right? I’m pretty sure with a little makeup I can recreate them.”

“I can help run backup as well.” Andrew adds. “So you guys aren’t going in there alone. I’ll pull some guys too and we can start prep. When are we wanting this to go down?”

“Tomorrow night.” Caleb informs him.

All three of them stare at Fredrick waiting for his seal of approval on the matter, Fredrick shakes his head, “Fine.” He gives in, “You technically have more authority than me in this precinct anyway so do whatever the fuck you want.”

Caleb smiles and stands to leave, “Thanks.”

The other two begin to leave, but Fredrick stops one of them. “Free, stay a minute.”

Sophie pauses and watches the other two walk out of the office before slowly taking her seat back, “Is there something you wanted to add, sir?”

Fredrick takes a moment to start cleaning up the photos spread across his desk. “Follow Caleb when he leaves tonight.”

Sophie’s eyes widen in shock, “What?”

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“Listen, I have worked on the police force for over twenty years and I have known Caleb since day one. I know when he’s hiding something. Right now he’s on edge, this case is getting to him and I need to know to what extent.”

“But me following him, I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I think Caleb trusts me—or at least tolerates me—and I don’t want to ruin that.” Sophie looks down at the desktop uncomfortably. The desk is made of warm wood with swirls of dark through it making it look like someone poured coffee over a pool of honey.

“Miss Free, Sophie,” Fredrick stares at her, “understand this: if you’re not comfortable with what I’m asking you to do then I’ll be assigning Caleb a new partner.”

“What?” Sophie stares at him incredulously. A dark pit grows in her stomach. “I thought you said you trusted Caleb. How can you ask me to spy on him like this in good conscious?”

“It may not seem like it, but I’m trying to help Caleb.” Fredrick explains, “Caleb is like a cat. He may act like he knows everything, but in reality if you leave him unintended he’ll get himself into trouble that could wind up hurting him, okay? I’m not asking you to do anything malicious or wrong. I just want you to follow him, if he ends up going to his house then that’s fine, if he’s going somewhere else then I just want you to tell me where.”

Sophie thinks about it. She doesn’t want to betray Caleb, but she doesn’t want to be reassigned. Sophie had realized yesterday the amount of good work she could do working with Caleb and it had only been reaffirmed this morning when visiting the embassy and seeing the child Caleb had saved.

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Sophie inhales slowly, “Fine, but it will be on my terms. If I don’t think that wherever Caleb goes or whatever he does is relevant to you or the case then I’m not going to tell you anything.”

Fredrick nods. “Good. Then you’re dismissed, you can go back to work.” He waves Sophie out the office as he goes back to his monitor and watches Aurelius’s press conference.

“So what are we doing now?” Sophie asks as she sits back down at her desk.

“I’m looking over the photos of all the halfbreeds that live in the city.”

“Is that a lot?”

“A couple hundred.”

“That’s a lot. How is looking at their photos going to help?”

“I’m memorizing their faces so if we encounter one of them tomorrow night I’ll recognize them.”

“You’re just memorizing a couple hundred faces?”

“That is what I just said.”

“But… that’s amazing. Do all vampires have memories like that?”

“Purebreds do.”

“Okay, can I ask another stupid question?”

“Yes, but I’d prefer it if you didn’t.”

Sophie pauses for a moment, “What’s the difference between purebreds and halfbreeds?”

Caleb rolls his eyes, “The biggest difference: I was born a vampire, they were turned. And I’m not immortal like they are.”

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“Wait! Not all vampires are immortal!” Sophie shouts surprised and looks at him wide-eyed, but at his dark look she swallows and lowers her voice, “That’s like the biggest thing everyone knows about vampires, the human supremist use it as some kind of proof that you guys are monsters.”

“So, when I said that I was married and was expected to have children with my husband that just went in one ear and out the other.” Caleb comments.

“No, okay, that wasn’t…” Sophie tries to defend herself, “I just didn’t understand everything, okay. So if you’re not immortal how long do you actually live for? And the halfbreeds, they are immortal? How does that work? Aren’t they supposed to be like servants?”

“Halfbreeds can live for as long as they please. Most choose to end their own lives, though, after their master has passed. Halfbreeds don’t have any other family besides us. Their lives are… depressing.” Caleb remembers the first person he had ever turned into a halfbreed.

Humans think that being immortal is the greatest thing, many of them agree to be familiars with the hopes that the vampire will turn them, but if the vampire truly loves them then they would never allow the human to be dishonored in such a way. Humans don’t understand that just because they become immortal doesn’t mean they don’t die. Every day they live the closer they get to death until they are just an empty husk of a person, a statue frozen in time. Everyone they’ve ever loved will turn to ash and everything that made them human will turn to dust around them until they themselves are nothing.

The first time Caleb had turned someone into a vampire he had still been a small child and he hadn’t understood the consequences. She had been a family servant and not only a familiar to Caleb, but the closest thing he had to a real mom. He had loved her and hadn’t wanted