Luke walked through the streets of Portland, Maine, feeling strangely out of place as cars rushed by, people chatted on sidewalks, and groups of teenagers posed for selfies. His quiet, familiar Maine somehow looked different now.

  “Wow, Luke. We finally made it here. No undead, no floating murder castles dangling over an abyss. Seriously, why don’t you just retire already?” Artemis said as they moved along the street.

  “I feel like an old man from the 1930s who just woke up in the future,” he muttered.

  “Your soul is an old man. You were talking about retirement at eighteen. There’s definitely a cranky grandpa living inside you,” she shot back.

  He had already bought two bus tickets from Portland to Bangor, one for himself and one for Charlie. The station opened at five in the morning, and it had taken him about half an hour to walk there from the SIA building.

  “It’s almost a three hour ride,” he said to Artemis. “I’ll get there early.”

  He booked seats on the 7:30 a.m. bus, then wandered the streets until he found a narrow, shadowed alley. After checking twice to make sure no one was watching, he focused.

  A swirl of black mist spilled out of him, pulling together into a shape until Charlie stood before him. A stunning blonde woman with bright blue eyes materialized in the dim light. Luke still wasn’t used to seeing her like this. The towering two meter skeleton knight he had known had become someone only slightly shorter than him, slender, graceful, and impossibly beautiful. Anyone seeing her would think she was delicate. Hard to believe she could kill a person with a single punch.

  “Master Luke,” she said gently. “We’ve reached your city?”

  “Almost. We’ve got a little less than two hours before the bus, then about three hours on the road.”

  “Bus?” she repeated, puzzled.

  “I told you about it. A metal structure that moves,” he said, offering his hand. “Want to walk around the city with me?”

  “I would love to, master Luke,” she replied, practically leaping to take his hand.

  And just like that, their walk began.

  ***

  Dawn was breaking, the first pale streaks of light tearing through what was left of the night sky. At the start of their walk, Charlie stayed close to Luke’s side, staring up at the buildings with wide, fascinated eyes and peppering him with questions. Luke couldn’t help thinking about her reaction when she finally saw New York and rode a subway for the first time.

  The sunlight didn’t harm her, which eased some of his anxiety. Charlie only experienced a mild discomfort, something like a persistent migraine. Still, he needed to be careful. According to Samael, a vampire exposed to sunlight became drastically weaker. In numbers, it was brutal. A vampire effectively lost half of their overall strength, and most race skills shut down completely. Class skills still worked, but at reduced power.

  Which was why killing vampires during the day was so much easier. A level 50 vampire became the equivalent of a level 25 one. In other words, it was like Luke suddenly dropping back to the strength he had when he was still fumbling through Herbalist training. The difference was enormous.

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  That was also why vampires raced to level up as fast as possible. Even weakened, a high level vampire could still be monstrous. If Luke ever reached level 100, and sunlight cut his power down to his current level, he’d still be terrifyingly strong. But at night… Samael had warned him that facing a vampire in darkness required extreme caution. Night amplified everything. A vampire’s strength peaked, and with race buffs layered on top, their power skyrocketed. Past level 50, Samael said vampires began awakening more advanced offensive skills.

  Hunting a vampire above level 50 alone was suicide. Usually a group was needed just to survive one. It all depended on the strength of the group, of course, but Luke had understood one thing clearly: from now on, Charlie would begin awakening her race vampire skills.

  Which meant she was going to become far, far stronger. Yet one thought kept gnawing at him. The great enemies of vampires, second only to rival lineages. Those were the ones who could truly be a problem for Charlie.

  “Here’s your breakfast. Have a great day,” the waitress said, placing two plates on the table.

  “Thanks, you too,” Luke replied.

  “Th-thank you,” Charlie murmured, awkward but trying.

  They had stopped at a small breakfast place.

  “M-master Luke, look over there,” she whispered, amazed.

  “That’s a television,” he said.

  “There are people inside it,” she said, astonished.

  “They’re not actually in there right now,” he explained. “Think of it like an illustrated book, except it’s magical, and the moving drawings look real.”

  “T-they are talking!” she gasped.

  “Yes. They talk.”

  She had completely forgotten about the breakfast sitting in front of her, staring transfixed at the screen.

  The waitress had brought two cups of coffee and two plates with eggs and toast. The place was moderately busy, workers grabbing breakfast, people chatting. A bit farther down, Luke noticed someone typing on a laptop.

  And for the first time in a long time, he felt the peculiar warmth of being home beginning to settle in.

  Luke ate while laughing quietly to himself, remembering how they had even ended up here. Charlie had accidentally drawn her sword from her inventory when a car honked at them. She’d assumed it worked like the Wild Zone, where anything noisy was a monster.

  “M-master Luke… could you help me eat?” she asked softly. “I still don’t really know how to use these utensils. Could you… feed me?”

  She held the fork the same way an elderly person might hold a computer mouse for the first time, and Luke realized she genuinely had no practice with any of this.

  “For breakfast we eat toast with our hands,” he said, picking one up. “It’s fun. Put some eggs on top and take a bite.”

  For some reason, she looked disappointed he hadn’t fed her directly. The bond between them let him sense that tiny sting of sadness.

  Is it because she’s embarrassed to eat with her hands?

  They ate by the window, sunlight pouring through the glass. The whole point of this outing was to help Charlie adjust to modern life, and to test how her vampiric body handled daytime.

  “Does the sun hurt?” he asked quietly.

  She shook her head. “It’s just… strange,” she murmured.

  Hiding in the shade wouldn’t fix it, and the fifty percent debuff didn’t go away. It wasn’t the brightness of the sun that weakened her. It was the sun’s radiation during the day, something far deeper than simple light, or so Luke understood it.

  Sunlight was packed with different kinds of mana, especially healing mana. Plants grew because they absorbed that same radiance, even magical plants. That was what infused them with the enchantments needed for potion making, including healing potions.

  So a vampire’s greatest weaknesses, aside from the sun, were all the things tied to healing and light: healing magic, healing potions, light magic, and, worst of all, holy magic.

  A single healing spell would deal massive damage to a vampire. Light magic did the same. And holy magic, as Samael described it, was an advanced blend of healing, light, and other types of mana. Naturally, it was the most lethal magic a vampire could face.

  As Luke read further into the letter, one particular warning stood out sharply:

  “Remember this, Luke. Never reveal that Charlie is a vampire. Don’t tell anyone who isn’t bound to you by absolute trust. Vampires have two natural enemies. The first is other vampires, families and noble bloodlines constantly in conflict. The second, and far more dangerous, are Vampire Hunters.”

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