The Circus Master

The Book of the Vampires: Demons of the Underground

"Roll up, roll up, roll up. Come get tickets to see the Circus of Tzas," the young boy shouted whilst pestering as many adults as he could to buy some tickets. Only one responded to him however, and it was really out of pity more than anything else. She certainly wasn't going to see a Circus of all things, but she didn't want to leave the poor little urchin to go hungry.

The young urchin however was somewhat intimidated by the sight of this strange lady who he knew from reputation. She was quite unlike anyone else in all of London. She was dressed in completely dark, yet fancy clothing, whilst her skin was whiter than snow. She had a long thin nose, piercing green eyes, and a massive beehive haircut. She was also smoking too which the young boy thought was most unlady like. When she smiled, the boy could see what appeared to be sharp teeth, though only for a few seconds.

Despite her somewhat elegant if unusual appearance when she spoke it was in an extremely gutteral, thick cockney accent.

"Awright Darling, ere have one on me." she said in a friendly tone as she handed him some money. After a few seconds hesitation the boy accepted before running away. He may have been scared of this eccentric lady, but this was more money than he'd ever been given before. He shouted thank you at her as he ran away, almost too intimidated to even look back.

The lady in question, Carlene, had built up quite a reputation in the local area. Despite being here for over 6 decades since 1824 (where she had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.) She seemingly hadn't aged a day and still had the appearance of a woman in her 20s. Any time there was something weird happening she was always there. Still despite the fact that many suspected her of witchcraft or worse, she had the full protection of the police force.

The truth was Carlene didn't belong in this city, or even this time. She had been pulled from her own era by a supernatural force far greater than even she could comprehend and thrust into the early 19th century. She had never really adapted well to this era, but even in her own time Carlene had never really fitted in.

She was a Vampire, specifically of the breed known as the Heklox. Unlike almost all other members of her kind however, Carlene had learned to control her bloodlust many years ago (or rather many decades in the future.)

Over the decades Carlene had helped the police defeat many dangerous adversaries and monsters, but even they still didn't entirely trust Carlene either. Nevertheless the Vampire was too useful to them as she had a greater knowledge of the paranormal than anyone else in the city. Carlene often had a similar relationship with the authorities wherever she stayed for any given period of time.

Even with the protection of the police, many people in the local area would still throw things through Carlene's windows, or refuse to serve her in a local resturant.

Carlene had just been to the police station to help them crack a case involving the zombified corpse of the former criminal mastermind, and evil wizard Doctor Masterik. Carlene had been fighting Masterik for many years (and had even foiled an attempt by the Wizard to condemn all of England to a horrific curse.) She had personally killed him too, but unfortunately the criminals servants had found a way using his own black arts to revive him.

Carlene was sure she had seen the last of him this time however. "Even that bugger couldn't put himself together again after that" she thought as she walked home through the foggy streets of Victorian London.

Carlene just wanted to get home, have a cold glass of cow blood, and then have a long days sleep after the night she had. However when she got home she found two children sitting anxiously on the steps outside her front door.

One of them was a girl about 16 or 17 years old, whilst the other, a boy couldn't have been older than 12.

"Awright is there something I can do to help you both?" Carlene said, wondering if she was going to have get her windows fixed again.