Vampires Among Us [Vampires Among Us 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)

just backing up my son, that’s all.” He continued. “I understand you two are here for a history lesson on vampires.”
    He gazed into Erica’s eyes a long moment before continuing, as if trying to gauge her receptiveness to what he was about to tell her. He frowned slightly before beginning. “What I am about to tell you is not common knowledge. I happen to think you deserve the truth, and well, I am hoping you’ll eventually become part of my family, in which case, you’ll need to know this information anyway. And on the off chance you don’t, well, you won’t remember any of it, anyhow.”
    Erica wasn’t sure what Charles had meant by that last statement, but decided to keep quiet and let him continue.
    “I’m just going to start at the beginning. Vampires have co-existed with humans for thousands of years, simply because only a small handful of humans know of our existence. As with the human race, we have had some bad apples also. There are those vampires that are resistant to obeying the rules. They believe they are above that. We consider these vampires to be “rogue” because they refuse to blend in and insist on causing trouble. They pose a great threat for the remainder of us. Most of us just want to live life as normal as possible. About 125 years ago, the first vampire society and the VCTF were set up.” Charles glanced over at Kevin before continuing, “I assume you’ve told her the real reason for the VCTF?”
    “Yes, we discussed that this morning.” Kevin replied.
    “Good, I just wanted to be sure everyone is on the same page,” Charles finished addressing his son, and then turned his attention back to Erica.
    “There are a group of elders, including myself, who originally set up the foundations of our little society. Prior to this, we had to rely on humans for our blood supply, and animals of course. We tried to help the human population by getting rid of their bad apples, and soon realized that we were taking the law into our own individual hands. This found some of our kind playing the role of God, and that was simply unacceptable. It is not our wish to come across as better than humans, just a different type of breed. We realized we had to find another way to survive. It became harder and harder to continuously cover up what we were doing, and many of the local townsfolk were starting to get suspicious. Most of the towns and cities were fairly small back then, so when people started going missing, it was noticed. It was not a good time to be a vampire.
    “The elders and I envisioned a society within the human society, and so we started placing vampires in key positions working together with the humans on an everyday basis. Basically, the main point, of course, is to blend in with humans. The number one rule for vampires is to never do anything intentional that could or would result in the secret being exposed. Now, of course, that rule is broken down into a hundred different facets. We set out to develop a society that was self-governing. We felt that in keeping our kind living together, our numbers would help strengthen us. That took some time to accomplish. Most of our kind tended to be territorial at that point, and so most of us lived in isolation.
    “Eventually we developed our own schools, medical facilities, crime task force, legal system, food sources, etc. And, with vampires mingling with mortals on an everyday basis, it actually helps our society from being exposed. Things tend to get easier for us as time passes, and mortals have evolved over the last hundred and twenty-five years. We are finding that your kind is not as suspicious as they once were. Of course, plastic surgery being as popular as it is, and humans developing an ever-burning desire not to age, these things have helped us out tremendously. Combine that with your human teenagers who are dressing in gothic black these days, and wearing white face powder and bright red lip stick. People don’t pay as close attention to details anymore. As time goes by, humans are becoming much better at just accepting what they see, and not being nowhere near as prejudiced as they once were.”
    Charles stopped for a moment and studied Erica, wanting to ensure she was handling everything he was throwing at her. She was, but it was still a bit of a shock to hear everything. She had been totally in the dark about any of this, even though she had been married to a vampire for four years. She wondered why Shawn hadn’t