I walked to the living room and switched on the television. I sat down at my desk and watched the news. One of the manservants came running in with a bowl full of blood and put it in front of me.
I sniffed…yummy, strawberry flavoured.
That appalling Prime Minister Cameron was on, giving a press conference about the alien.
God, how I loathed that man.
“The Blue Maiden is as intelligent as you and me and very willing to cooperate. Her name is Veran and she comes from the planet Roke. She has send word to her people of her crash and they are sending a representation for peaceful cooperation and trade between our planets. People, this is the dawn of a new age.” He ended dramatically.
The man was such a drama queen
Teheee, the smurfs were intelligent and peaceful.
Let’s see how they taste.
I grinned when I realized that I sounded like Gargamel.
I took out my phone to contact Gerald.
“Do you have any new information for me?” I asked him.
“Oh, that sounds very promising.”
“Can you get close to her?”
“I see. That is not acceptable. Send Magnus to me. I’ll contact you afterwards.”
The blood work looked similar to humans. So they were probably ingestible. Good.
But she was in this high-security facility in Cornwell. That was difficult to get into unseen. If not impossible.
Not so good.
I leaned back in my chair. Impossible wasn’t in my vocabulary.
We just needed to meet her alone at some point when outside the facility. I bet she at some point would go out and meet her friends when they arrived. I only needed a few minutes, just to glamour her and take some blood.
If their species was glamourable.
I shrugged. Otherwise, I’ll just force her.
But I needed more information to estimate the risk.
How strong was she?
How clever?
Did she have any capabilities that I should now of.
Just the blood work results were not sufficient.
Humans were clever and opportunistic. I bet they talked her into all kinds of tests. For sake of cooperation and peace. Little tricksters.
I called Gerald back and instructed him to get more information from some doctor working within the facility.
Magnus came walking in grinning like an idiot.
“I guess you’re happy about finding new prey?” I asked him smilingly.
He nodded. “Yes, your majesty. I hope she is eatable.”
I nodded. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
Magnus was my strategic advisor. He planned and orchestrated all my defensive and offensive actions.
“Arrange it so I can meet her in private.”
He nodded. “It isn’t going to be easy. The facility is like a fortress. ”
“Gerald is working on getting information from the inside. Team up with him and see if you can find out more about the logistics of the upcoming events that they have planned for her. Find out when she is outside and if she is vulnerable at some point. We don’t have to break in if we can access her during a press conference or something. Keep me updated.”
He nodded.
He bowed and left.
I sighed. Magnus and I had known each other for 700 years now and he still addressed me formally. He and Gerald were the only people to which I was close to. And even they were frightened of me.
I grabbed my keys and walked down the hall to the garage. It was time to pay Zea a visit.
I got into my brand new black BMW and speeded towards the highway.
I wondered how Zea would respond to my news about the aliens.
Like her father she abhorred human blood drinking, claiming they were too much like us and took refuge in ‘lower’ animals.
I had never understood this distinction. It seemed so trivial.
But it had pulled us apart when she become off age.
She refused to live under one roof with us blood drinkers and instead she built herself a shack in the desert.
Last time I had seen her she looked like a wild thing, unruly hair that hadn’t seen a brush in millennia, and a pale and caved in face because of the malnutrition.
I hurt me to see our beautiful child do this to herself.
I took a dirt road into the desert and after a four-hour drive I spotted the shack in the distance.
I smiled. She had extended it with a bedroom. The yard was littered by tiny little crosses, marking the graves of the animals she had eaten.
Still the hopeless romantic.
I parked the BMW in front of the shack and got out of the car.
“Mother” she said whilst coming out of it.
She looked boney, not an inch of fat on her body. Her wild read hair hung in dreads across her back, but still shined. She smelled awful and was clothed in rags.
I walked over and embraced her.
She felt bony and breakable, almost making me cry in horror.
“Why are you here Mother?” she asked me.
“Can a mother not visit her daughter without reason?” I asked.
She looked at me sceptically.
“Not you. What do you want?”
I sighed and walked towards the shack, tracing the outline of one of its windows with my hand.
“Something big happened yesterday.”
I turned and looked at her.
“For you to consider something big, that must means something. ” She declared drily.
“Are you out of humans?” she grinned.
It pained me that she hated me so much. I know I deserved it but it stung all the same.
“Haha. No.”
“But we found a new variety to add to the diet.” I added drily.
She put her hands on her hips. “What?”
“Aliens, honey. Blue smurfs.”
She shook her head and returned to the shack.
I followed her in and tried to find a seat that wasn’t covered in dust.
“Have you lost your mind, Mother?” Zea asked me.
“Not quite there yet, honey, not quite.”
I looked up the photo that I downloaded this morning on my phone and showed it her.
“Is this a joke?” she asked me with an eyebrow raised.
I smiled. She resembled her father so much when she did that.
“No. Interestingly not. Her name is Veran or something and she crashed in the Noordzee yesterday afternoon. Apparently she is peaceful and her people will arrive soon to check up on her and set up a treaty with the humans.”
She looked interested at the photo again.
“Mother, she looks like an alien for a bad TV series. Are you sure that this is not a hoax?”
I nodded.
“That’s what I thought, but we managed to get a conformation on her existence and access to her blood work.”
She started laughing and handed me back the phone.
“Mother, you are hilarious. First contact with aliens and you can only think about how they will taste.”
I rolled my eyes. “I am vampire.”
Her smile faded from her face. “So am I, do you see me killing off every human that appears on my path?”
“Child, don’t be so dramatic. You eat every rat on your way. Just a tiny difference.”
She grimaced and stared at me.
“So what do you want from me?”
I smiled. That’s my girl, feeling a catch right away.
“I want you to come with me, clean up and meet the alien of course.”
“Why should I do that?” Zea asked me.
“Aren’t you getting a little bored in your shack?” I responded.
She smiled but shook her head.
“Aren’t you running out of rats?” I tried.
She laughed. “There is an endless supply of rats in this dimension.”
“Oh well. I promise you can go explore space to see them if you like the alien?”
She looked at me stupefied.
“Somebody should go and explore the new hunting grounds. I thought you would be perfect for the job, as you are not likely to eat them on first contact.” I explained.
“Mother, you are insane.”
I nodded. “Yes, but fun.”
“So you just would buy a spacecraft somewhere and send me off into space?” She laughed.
I glared at her.
“Of course not. I will steal the space craft of Veran, set up a space program to copy and improve it and then send you off into space with some backup. Say maybe an attack fleet?” I thought aloud.
She looked at me for a long time.
“You think you can improve it?” Zea asked me.
I nodded. “Our scientists have been alive for centuries and don’t sleep. Guess who is more technically advanced, us or the humans and the aliens?”
“OUR SCIENTISTS?”
“What, did you think the university was only for teaching?” I laughed.
“Why don’t we see any progress then?” Zea exclaimed.
“Vampires like the dark ages. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have the capabilities to be advanced.”
“And knowledge is power and money, where do you think our endless financial resources come from, honey. Farming?” I laughed
She looked at me disbelievingly. “Are you saying that we really could build up a space program?”
I nodded. “Within a blink. The only things that we need are ground materials and building facilities. We have the knowledge, the people and the financial resources.”
“Mother, you are insane.”
“Come with me and I’ll show you proof.”
She nodded and grabbed her coat.
“I don’t believe any of this. Show me. Vampire Queen invading Roke. That would make the headlines” she said sarcastically.
We climbed in the car and drove back to the palace.
“While you’re here, why not meet the alien? Maybe you’ll like her. And if you are good, you can even have a small taste.” I suggested.
“But first a bath and a haircut. And a whole gallon of blood. Or you’ll scare her off.” I joked.
She glared at me.
“As long as it doesn’t come from any humans involuntarily!” she hissed.
“Of course, honey, I wouldn’t think of giving you anything else but the bland taste of donated blood.” I lied.
Fear make the blood taste delicious. And my baby gets the best.
Oh well, what she doesn’t know, doesn’t hurt.
I glanced at her. And her body needs it to return to its former glory.
She cannot lead an army of unruly vampires looking like this worn-out ragdoll.