Enid walked along the second-floor balcony of the mall. The place was gaudy and extravagant. She had her hands in the pockets of her hoodie. She had her pack inside a backpack, her sword was hidden there. The pack that was bigger on the inside then on the outside. She felt naked whenever it wasn’t at her side. But wearing a sword tended to attract mortal attention. And mortal authority attention. She wore a pair of faded jeans and worn combat boots. Her t-shirt was a black and had the words Iron Maiden on the front. It had been a gift from Mariana centuries ago, something she’d picked up in Limbo. Enid wasn’t up on current music, but she’d seen others wearing the shirt but figured it wouldn’t hurt to wear it and fit in. Her red hair, as unruly as ever was pulled back in a ponytail. She stood out from other girls her apparent age. There was no way she’d put that much effort into her hair. She had cleaned herself up, she usually didn’t bother bathing, no need to look pretty when all you’re doing is hunting things. She had other business tonight. She heard singing as she walked towards the center of the mall. She paused when she reached the source and leaned on the railing.

Below she could see a red-haired singer. She was dressed in a stylish white sweater and white leather mini skirt. Super puffy bangs. She was belting out a power ballad, not that Enid knew the term. The crowd gathered around were swaying back and forth completely entranced. She heard a couple of girls talking near her.

“Lizzy is amazing.”

“I know I wish I had hair like her. And her voice it just takes me places.”

The girl clutched her chest.

Enid shook her head and looked back down at her daughter and smiled. It was enough to make a mother proud. Enid swayed to the music, she never quite kept up with current musical themes and styles, but it was her daughter singing that meant it was already perfect. As she finished what seemed to be her last song the crowd roared loud enough to make the floor shake. Eyre waved her hands downwards trying to quiet everyone down. Then she brought the microphone up to her lips.

“Thank you everyone for coming out on a cold Edmonton night and helping me warm up the world a bit. I would just ask your indulgence for one last song, its an old one, its dedicated to my little sister. Who has sometimes been a friend, sometimes like a mother to me, since we lost ours. Everybody give her a hand!”

Eyre pointed up at Enid and the spotlight followed her finger to Enid and there were gasps around Enid and a rustle of appreciation. The crowd cheered. Eyre waved her hands again to quiet them down.

“This is a song that my mother would sing to me when I couldn’t sleep. Enid used to sing it for me after mom was gone. She does it better, so I apologize for the pale imitation.”

Eyre began to sing the song Enid would sing to put her to sleep at night. Enid closed her eyes and listened to the words. For it was only her who understood them. The language had been lost with her ancestors the Picts. Her daughters voice put hers to shame. She sang with no instrumental back up. Her voice was pure. The crowd had been murmuring went silent as they all stared up at Eyre. Her song entranced them and drew them to her. There were many tears. The language may have been utterly foreign but the emotion behind it was unmistakable. When she finished there was a stunned silence then a person started clapping and cheering, and the rest of the crowd of teens joined in. Eyre bowed a couple more times. Enid dabbed the corners of her eyes to conceal any escaping blood. She pushed off the railing and started to head to an escalator. She found her path blocked by a group of teenage girls.

“Like, your totally like her sister!”

Enid nodded and tried to make her way past gently.

“What’s she like?”

Enid nudged her way through, gently for her then noticed a boy, probably nine at the most standing on the edge of the railing and climbing up and swore under her breath as he began to fall.

She willed blood to her legs and with more speed then was humanly possible grabbing the kid by his ankle as he fell over. She pulled him back grabbed him by the front of his coat and held him aloft.

“Don’t be a dumb ass kid. You live longer that way.”

The kid was wide eyed tears streaming down his face kept nodding over and over again. Enid put him down and made her way through the crowd and down the escalator leaving a stunned group of witnesses behind her.

Idiot kids, especially boys never know how to keep out of trouble hasn’t changed in two millennia.

She pushed her way through the quickly evaporating crowd towards the room her daughter had told her to go to, she found to burly security guards in black shirts and jeans protecting it. She flashed the badge she’d been provided. She’d barely pulled it out before the doors were opened for her. She shrugged and walked in, it was a back hall of the mall saw Enid surrounded by a gaggle of teenagers and she was signing autographs for each taking the time to talk to each of them in turn. Enid leaned on the wall at a distance and was still amazed at how socially capable her daughter was even after all these centuries she treated the humans with dignity and respect. Like they mattered. Enid shook her head. She still didn’t understand it, they were food. As the last autograph was signed the fans were escorted out and Eyre waved to Enid. She approached her daughter.

“I thought I taught you not to play with your food when you were a kid.”

“They are people mother, not food.”

The pair entered her dressing room and Enid collapsed on a couch, behaving like the teenager she appeared to be.

“Why can’t we ever meet somewhere quiet, an old burnt out church, graveyard, oh! Mausoleum. You know somewhere traditional without a thousand witnesses.”

“Because you never come out in public, and I have to get you involved with the humans somehow. Otherwise you’ll go all heart of darkness sharpening a knife somewhere in Vietnam.”

“The Heart of Darkness took place in the Congo.”

“Have you never seen Apocalypse Now?”

“No, I don’t watch movies, it’s a waste of time.”

“Oh mother, how much you miss.”

“How do you keep up with every single generation of these humans? Don’t you get exhausted trying to keep up?”

“No, it’s invigorating. I get to keep re-inventing myself.”

“This time you’re Elizabeth Stuart, pop star?”

“Yes.”

“You know at the rate the humans are going its going to be harder and harder to conceal you’re still thirty after a hundred years.”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“Why bother? Aren’t you rich enough already?”

“Never rich enough mother. Besides money has never been the point, it does bring a certain amount of comfort though. Its about being out there, being part of humanity instead of hiding from it. We are keepers of their history; We have a duty to share it with them.”

“They don’t care.”

“That is why we have to.”

Eyre wiped away her make-up and looked at herself in the mirror.

“So daughter, why have I been summoned forth?”

“Grandfather stopped by my penthouse in Toronto a few weeks ago, he asked if I knew where you were. I said no, I had the understanding you wished to stay in hiding?”

“Well yes, but he knew you were lying.”

“I got the feeling, but he nodded and said, as it was foretold, we won’t see each other again. Then he gave me a box for myself, and another for you. He told me he was proud of me and that I had done his bloodline proud. He hugged me and left. I asked him to stay and talk, tell me more about himself and your family and he shook his head. He looked sad. The box is in the bag there.”

Eyre pointed to a canvas duffel bag. Enid unzipped it and pulled out an ornate box. She saw the curse seal on it and smiled. She opened it and inside lay a letter and an blackened silver amulet. She pulled out the amulet and looked it over and was about to put it on when Eyre grabbed her wrist.

“Don’t do that here, do it somewhere private. It hurts a lot and frankly you will scream.”

“How do you know?”

“He gave me the one that belonged to your mother.”

Enid nodded and put the amulet in her pack. And pulled the letter out. As she read it blood tears formed in her eyes.

“He’s gone. I’m empress now.”

“Are you going to go back to Prague?”

“No, that is exactly what the Black Sun is counting on.”

“You’re still on about him? There hasn’t been attempt on your life in what a hundred years?”

“That is no reason to get careless.”

“Can’t the council protect you?”

“They are probably shitting blood right now at the thought of me in charge. I promised I’d kill every single one of them. They’d rather me dead then in power. And Lucius cannot be trusted.”

“But then who will be in charge?”

“Lucius, the council? He’s still my husband so he’ll be Prince Regent until I show up.”

“Why didn’t you just divorce him?”

“Vampires getting divorced is harder the Catholics getting divorced. You are only free once one you dies. I’m going to remedy that one day. But I’m not ready to take on the whole of Prague.”

Eyre nodded.

“So, what does this little trinket do anyway?”

“Makes you immune to staking and the sun.”

“Oh, that’s nice. What’s it cost you?”

“If you’re in sunlight you’re mortal.”

“Who thought that was a good idea!”

“I don’t know, it’s just what the letter from Grandfather said. I can verify the mortal in sunlight thing, having experienced it. It was nice to not want blood for a whole three hours, the being hot and cold thing was kind of a downer though.”

“Wait you willingly made yourself vulnerable?”

“Why wouldn’t I? I can go out and enjoy the day. I can be human half the time.”

“What if you get hit by a bus? Shot? Stabbed?”

“What if? Mortals deal with that all the time.”

“Yes, but you have immortality, why risk it so frivolously?”

“We’ve had this talk before mother, is hiding from the world and cowering in the dark corners really living?”

“You are careless child.”

“I’m not a child, I’m seven hundred years old, and if I die tomorrow then seven hundred years was enough mother.”

“Sorry, I keep forgetting you’re not the same little girl I used to bounce on my lap.”

“I haven’t been that for centuries mother.”

“I’m sorry Eyre.”

“I know, you’re just being a mom, remember I had children too.”

“I remember them, and your grandchildren. I may not have been visible to you or them, but I never stopped looking out for you.”

Eyre laughed and started pulling on a new set of clothes. Enid quirked an eyebrow at her daughter.

“You realize we’re related to three quarters of the nobility in Europe.”

“Yes.”

“Wonder if that’s why the English queens live so long.”

Enid shrugged.

“Could be.”

“What are your plans for the rest of the night mom?”

“I have no plans besides get out of this mall as soon as I can.”

“Let’s go see a movie.”

“That sounds like a ridiculous idea.”

“Well I was planning on going to The Breakfast club its opening night. And I have two tickets.”

“You were already planning on dragging me there weren’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Fine. This is stupid but I’ll go, you are a nuisance sometimes.”

“Without me you’d never have any fun! And we can go someplace quiet afterwards you can put your amulet on, and we can share breakfast with sun streaming through the windows on us.”

Eyre pulled on a heavy coat and started to lead Enid to a side exit. She paused at the doors.

“You’re not going out like that are you?”

“Why not?”

“It’s minus twenty with the windchill if you were a mortal you’d freeze.”

“I’m not mortal.”

“What happened to fitting in?”

“What are you? My mother?”

Enid reached into her pack and pulled out a coat pulling it on and putting her pack back over top.

“If I need to be.”

“I miss the days when children were seen and not heard.”

“When was I ever not heard?”

“Point taken.”

Eyre pushed the door open and lead her mother to her car. It was a bright white Ferrari 308 GTB. Enid looked at her daughter with narrowed eyes.

“I don’t drive much but isn’t that a bad car for snow?”

“Only if you’re not immortal.”

Enid rolled her eyes and got in the car. Eyre started the car and backed out of her spot.

“I didn’t think you liked cars or other human technology.”

“Well sometimes the vampires I’m hunting have cars and run, and while I could easily catch them on foot that would be strange to an outside observer. So, I had to learn. I still think they’re death traps that catch on fire too easily for my liking.”

“We make excellent drivers, good night vision, fast reflexes the ability to slow time.”

“Just do the speed limit would you, I don’t want to deal with an accident tonight.”

Enid’s hand grasp around the arm rest and she had her seat belt on.

“Mother you’re so uptight. I have snow tires.”

Eyre slammed her foot on the gas causing the car to spin sideways slightly then shot forward. Enid’s eyes went wide, and share glared at Eyre. She laughed and skidded around a corner without slowing enough and shot forward again reaching double the posted speed limit easily even on the snow-covered streets.

“Red light!”

Eyre slammed her foot on the gas and sped through the intersection nearly missing a couple of cars but then she slowed down laughing at Enid’s response. A police car drove across the road in front of them.

“Mother we can both see seconds into the future I knew I wasn’t going to hit anything.”

“That doesn’t mean you act like a dumb ass!”

“You need to loosen up.”

“Eyre, I swear...”

“Shh. I love this song, one day I’m going to make music like this.”

Eyre turned up the radio. Phil Collins was singing In the Air Tonight. When the song finished Eyre had a sad smile.

“I am so thankful I lived to be able to hear all this new music. And now they record it for the ages.”

“You really love the humans and their art, don’t you?”

“Of course, it all makes me feel alive again.”

“I liked that song, it was better the other stuff you were singing tonight.”

“Oh, that’s all teen pop music. Super popular right now and it sells. My manager and record label pretty much dictate what I produce.”

“That’s not art.”

“I need to know the industry, once I understand it better I will make my own record label and do whatever I want, and I will sign artists who want to perform their art, not pre-fabricated plastic music.”

“Why not just use your vampiric powers to tell them the terms?”

“Because that’s not how mortals do it, I need to get their perspective before I can understand the challenges they face. I plan on keeping up this Elizabeth thing for four or five more years then I’m going to use the money from it to make a record label. It will be amazing, you’ll see.”

“Its your life. What are they going to think of that last song you did?”

Eyre shrugged.

“I don’t really care what they think about it. That was something for you. I wanted you to hear it and see the humans hear it. That song only exists anymore because your mother sang it to you, you sang it to me, and I sang it to my children.”

“Actually, if you remember what I told you in Italy, it wasn’t my mother, it was another woman from the tribe. My mother died giving birth to me. I will always remember what she did for me. That is why I remember the song and sang it for you. She’d use it to make me feel safe when my father wasn’t around.”

“You never translated it for me.”

“It is about a mother’s love for her daughter and how she will always protect her. A prayer to a mother goddess who is no longer even a memory. Look I appreciated the song but I just…I don’t want to think about my childhood okay?”

“Oh. Are you okay?”

Enid had gotten a faraway look in her eyes. Then snapped back to the present.

“It is ancient history.”

“From what I understand from psychology books, it is never ancient history. Look at the soldiers who fought in the world wars, and Vietnam. It broke some of their minds.”

“I was involved in the World Wars too. The Nazis were up to some evil shit. Some even started working for the Black Sun.”

“You need to tell me about that sometime!”

“I was in Canada during the wars.”

“It was ugly. Uglier than any war I have ever seen. So many human’s dead. Then the atomic bomb. To think I was worried about what Nour could do with her power and now the humans can destroy cities by pressing a button.”

“We’ve stopped them every time they tried since.”

Enid waved her hand dismissively. Eyre pulled up to the front door of her hotel and handed her car to the valet.

“We’re not driving to the theater?”

“Why? It’s only a block that way.”

Enid pointed towards downtown. Eyre shrugged and walked with her daughter to a theater called The Odeon. Eyre walked inside. It was crowded inside one of the ushers noticed Eyre and motioned to her.

“Ms. Stuart, we have your seats reserved, please follow me”

He unclipped the rope for the pair to enter.

“We’re so happy to have you here please let me know if you need anything.”

Eyre handed him forty dollars.

“Popcorn, large cokes and some candy you pick, keep the change.”

“Yes of course, right away ma’am.”

The pair sat down; The theater was already crowded. A few murmurs rippled through the audience around them. The name Elizabeth kept being said.

“Price of fame.”

“Sure, looks like a hard life.”

Eyre laughed.

“So, what is this movie about anyway?”

“Detention.”

“What the fuck is detention?”

“Oh, if kids are bad in school it’s a punishment.”

“So, it’s a teenage movie.”

“Yes.”

“Great.”

“Well being your age I thought you’d appreciate it.”

“There’s a special place in the hells for people like you.”

Enid glared at Eyre. Her daughter laughed.

“Just shut up and enjoy the movie.”

******

“I enjoyed that movie. Gives a good perspective on the decade and the place of the kids in it.”

“It was a distraction.”

“Well that is high praise coming from you.”

Enid nodded and put her hands in her coat pockets. It was right out of the sixties, because that’s when she acquired it. Nineteen-sixty-five, London.

“You going to be in town long?”

“I haven’t decided. No one is screaming for help through the normal channels. So, I technically have nowhere else to be.”

“Great! I’m here for until the twenty-fifth.”

“Why?”

“Two concerts in Calgary, but I can get there and back in one day.”

“Then concerts here on the twentieth and twenty-first. And I have hockey tickets for the Oilers game on the twenty-second. We’ll get to meet the team!”

“I suppose I can hang out here for a while. If you need me.”

“I always need you mother. That’s what you want to hear right?”

Enid laughed.

“Yes, it’s nice to hear my child still needs me.”

“We can go shopping tomorrow, your coat is twenty years out of date and that shirt is for an album that isn’t even out yet.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I’m a fan of Iron Maiden and they have not put out album called The X Factor.”

“Funny.”

“Where did you get it anyway?”

Enid shrugged.

“It was with the rest of the stuff Mariana brought back from Atlantis. Which reminds me have you been studying the spells on the tablet I left you?”

“As best as I can, that language is complicated.”

“You’ll get it, you’re my daughter after all. And what is it with you trying to meet every famous human you can and hang out with them?”

“I told you before mother, we’re the keepers of history for the humans, how can we say we truly studied when we haven’t met people of importance.”

“I hardly think a hockey team is important.”

“Well, I’m a Canadian now, we’re all about hockey.”

Enid rolled her eyes and the pair entered the hotel.