2028-The Present

"Lieutenant Perguson, stop daydreaming"!

Officer Puguson shook her head, trying to forget the tragedy she faced four years ago.

"Sorry Chief Rojas. Bad thoughts.

"The world hasn't changed too much, since that fateful day.

Saffice Perguson let down her hair after walking away from the usual debriefing. Now that vampires have been living among them, the NYPD's upgrade into the SNYPD seemed to her like a safe bet when she joined after college. More body cameras, some sort of peace between vampires and humans after all this, and to give another voice in the unit that could promote peace was the very thing that got her to enlist in the police force. Well after finding some purpose in the new world. Today however was an annoying one: despite working hard for her status, seeing the other cops howl about several of their shiny new death tools while she was genuinely going around attempting to help the citizens of Manhattan post "integration". At this point she was sure that she was the only one there that didn't want to stick a bullet into a vampire's face. A few bad seeds wasn't helping the situation, but for her, it was the same coat of paint with a new flavor. She could take two days off, Saffice moaned, partly since she didn't have many friends in the police department at all. Then a familiar face popped her interest as she looked up.

"Officer Perguson?" A young woman around her age called her. She wore about the same police uniform, though with slightly less clothing armor, her hair in a ponytail.

"Officer Choi?"

She had a devilish smirk on her face. "Good to see you again Lieutenant loser."

Saffice was quick to fire back. "I see your temperament hasn't changed in the slightest. Guessing all of those parole tickets is the size of how much you've accomplished."

The tension between the two flies up, eagerly waiting to stun each other with their baton as their faces line up. They twist their heads around, itching for a fight, lung at each other....and proceed to hug.

"Saffice!"

"Gwain!"

"I've missed you."

The two embrace for a while before Saffice pulls back.

"I wasn't expecting to see you at the Station house."

Gwain sucks her teeth. "You've been underestimating me since we've first met."

"I've been underestimating myself for years. I just took it out on you."

"Its fine girl, I still love you. Besides", taking out a deputy bag, "I've got my own surprise for you." She whips out a document for Saffice to read.

"You-"

"Are no longer a ticket disturber, now I can go on patrol just like you. I gotta thank Chief Rojas for the update. Well I could, but-"

Saffice cuts her off. "Gwain, I'm so proud of you!"

"As you should be. Pane and Gain are back together again!"

"I never called us that, and I never will."

"You know you like it Pane", teasing her.

"Sheesh, you're the only one who calls me that now."

"You're the one that scared people off with it back when you said to only call you that in freshman year."

"I was going through a lot before I came to college, alright? At least you had two parents supporting you."

"Saffice to say", grinning, "I never would've thought you'd ended up a cop."

She groaned. "Never use that joke ever again."

"No promises. And now we could finally be on a patrol together. We could stop a ton of bad guys, save lives, be on the news and pretend to be super humble and shit, and even win a medal of honor or valor or some crap. And at reunions, we can shove it down those Columbia elites!"

"With your track record, you're more likely to be on a Bad Cop highlight reel than a medal of valor."

She watched Gwain point her arms like a finger gun at herself, shooting herself, slowly, yet overdramatically crouching to the ground with every second and holding the left side of her chest.

"Your words", dropping to the floor, "have destroyed", "my fragile heart", lumping her head to the other side as if she was dead.

"You should've been a theater major", pulling her back up.

"Oh, i know. I could commit pseudocide and you wouldn't even know it."

"Yeah, sure. Speaking of the dead, have you seen him yet?"

"Who? You mean the star himself?"

They turned around to see fellow patrol officers John Burn and Jaiver Kling in an argument, only for them to stop at the sign of a tan skinned individual, wearing the standard police uniform, belt, and bulletproof vest. who paid the two no mind as he passed them. They saw Burn and Kling stop whatever banter they engaged. They took out their batons and slowly approached the young man, only for two wings to prop from behind and smack the weapons away.

"Forgive me, my wings tend to do that when they are alerted to danger. Is there something I can help you with?" They saw him reach closer to the two cops, with Burn attempting to remain calm while Kling appeared to have wet himself.

"Is that?"

"Yup, Edumondo Kaiser, Prince of the Vampires."

"Wow, he's much hotter than people have told me. And less scary.

"If you think he's so hot, why not ask him out?"

"Because I believe in the power of love, and that is the power of boners...well hormones. I have more dignity than that.

"Have you worked with him before?"

"Not yet. He does nothing but just sit by himself."

"Hey, you used to do the same. Still, I wasn't expecting you to be a cop after high school or college."

"And I wasn't expecting you to graduate, but here we are."

"Ouch, the hot takes, it burns! Come on Saffice, you've had mad opportunities, you're both lieutenants at this point."

"Its not that I don't want to, but I'm not sure if I can trust him."

She rests her head on her hand, trying hard not to see Skya through him. Shouldn't a prince be good at protecting his subjects or his people?

"Why, is it because of...you know?"

She doesn't answer. Gwain, lifts her head up as Edumondo continus to stare the other two down.

"You know Pane, they're gazing into each other's eyes", leaning close to her. You think one's got the hots for the other? I'd want to see them make out."

It broke her out of the thought for a bit. "S-shut up."

"Why, you wanna take their place? He is a hottie after all. I'd take the chance if I were you, fang boy or fang girl."

Her cheekbones inflated. "I d-do-do not have those levels of emotions whatsoever, my only love is the badge! Besides, I thought you said you were straight."

Gwain whispered in her ears. "So is spaghetti until it gets wet", rather seductively.

In response, Saffice non-violently pushed her, who bawls out laughing much to her dismay. I hate her so much. But she mentally giggled, as it managed to calm her down.

"But seriously, I know you've been working hard at this for a while now. Ever since that night you've slaved away to graduate, be a cop, and deal with all this vampire stuff. But don't act like your-"

Saffice "Yeah, but I'm."

"Not the best with working with others, yeah yeah hashtag outcast cuz society said so. But there are other cops that want to help this vampire-human coexist project. So just open up a bit more. You've got your best friend backing you up. One more couldn't hurt. You're not alone."

"I guess. It just feels that way"

She feels Gwain poking at her. Responding, she doesn't reply until the shadow of her fellow lieutenant and the subject of their discussion appear in the corner in her time.

"Good afternoon Lieutenant"

"How was your last patrol?"

"Quite quaint. The amount of violence towards me has limited lately, to some extent."

"If you'd ever like to go on patrol together, I'd appreciate it".

"I'm not used to the idea, but I'll consider it. Until our next encounter."

He leaves, heading into the chief's office, as Saffice sighs.

"That went better than I hoped."

Gwain just gives her a glare.

"I'm only doing this for more companionship. It's been eight years and we've got a couple hundred living among us and like a thousand others living elsewhere in the world. If I want to make it safe for everyone to be peaceful, I'll work with anyone."

"Including a handsome young prince."

"Aren't vampires immortal? He could be like a thousand years old or something. What if he's planning an invasion or something?"

"Okay A, if he was, wouldn't humanity have been enslaved by now? And B, now you get a sugar daddy who's probably rich and you treat you better than everyone else."

Unsure whether or not to pout, doubt or get angry, the announcement speaker quickly roars, calling for Gwain to come into the office.

"That must be Chief Rojas. I really gotta thank him for giving me a chance. We'll talk later, but trust yourself!"

Gwain heads off, leaving Saffice to her own devices.

She's right, I gotta get over myself.

A couple of nights later, Saffice and Gwain began walking around Hell's Kitchen on a patrol together, later driving around. Not seemed out of the ordinary, random people minding their own business, and one or two people most likely vampires who would naturally run or fly away. She heard the accounts from other cops, innocent vampires being slaughtered by police mobs, kids being attacked for just having sharp teeth, and something much worse at times. And at the same time, she wanted to punch the lights out of the cops who gloated about doing this. However, Gwain's disposition worried her.

"What happened to you?"

Gwains sighs. "Saffice to say, I'm not feeling too great right now."

"Your jokes are still as corny as ever". However, they did evoke the same half-cringe, half-humorous vibe that came from her. "Tell me bestie."

"Nothing. Guess I'm just having an off day. Let's just get off here and look around."

Saffice stopped the car. "The warehouse district? Why?"

"Chief Rojas recommended it, said something about sketchy stuff happening every now and then."

"You sure about this? You don't even have a bulletproof vest."

"Nah nah, don't worry about it. The big boys get to spend their money on all their hard earned guns. They'll give it to me once I've proven myself though. I hope anyway."

Saffice felt awkward. Usually, she was the one who needed the pep talk, but decided to drop it once they exited the car. Though Gwain continued to act a bit unusual, surprisingly hesitant as they rummaged through warehouse after warehouse. Once they reached the end of Hell's Kitchen, they heard a large crash that startled Gwain.

"Okay girl, what is the matter with you today?"
"Alright, maybe I'm just a little scared alright?"

"You said the same thing at the first party we went to back at Columbia and 20 minutes you were the life of the party. You can trust me. Right?"

"Yeah, I guess. Look its just starting to feel like we're in a horror movie or something. And girls like us don't survive."

"You'll be fine. Even if we were, you'd probably survive. My chances are pretty low."

"That is not true and you know it! You've got Urban Legends 2, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Escape Room, that Black Christmas reboot no one watched and Us."

"Oh yeah, forgot about those. Still you're overreacting a bit."

"Okay, now name a horror movie made in America where the asian survives."

"Hatchet III and Victor Crowley?"

"Asian girls?"

"Jason takes M..no that girl died. Unfriended Tw...no she died too." Uhhh", Saffice tries to think before a thought hits her. She nervously asked, "Wish Upon?"

Gwain folds her hands. "That movie sucked. She was good though. Besides, what moron who makes the Jason movies kills Kelly Hu? Everyone loves Kelly Hu!

"Who?" Saffice joked. Gwain briefly pinched her cheeks in response.

"Well my odds are screwed anyways."

Her voice goes somber.

"Anyways..there's something I should tell you. We'r-"

A screech from one warehouse nearby cut their conversation off short. The two of them then heard screaming, almost like a fight broke out. They maneuvered around, inching closer to the voice. Suddenly they saw a crate burst, a vampire having broken out. Its bodies were bleeding, dragging around their arms and slicing through the wind. Gwain flipped out but Saffice urged her to stay calm. She dealt with several situations like this before. An awakening could either lead to disaster or death depending on which officer was around. For her, a minor disaster was better than watching someone else die in front of her. Though having vampires as a part of her arrest rate wasn't comfortable, there were still a lot of heinous crimes being committed in the world. Nothing really changed all that much, except there was one more group, and she was on the other side of the fence.

They waited for about five minutes, the usual time for an awakened person to revert back to a humanoid state. However, Saffice reared her head to the continuing carnage. One was beating down on the other, and she saw the person beaten down to be slightly conscious. Rushing over despite Gwain's protests, Saffice takes out a gun to break off the fight. She shoots at the attacker's arms, who staggers back from the pain. Paying attention to their victim, Saffice tries to help them up, but she soon finds herself quickly knocked aside by them. Not facing too much pain thanks to the sturdy gear she had on, Saffice tried to puzzle what was going on.

First they attack each other and now me?

The two walked and crawled towards her rather abnormally. She tried to roll away, but the one she tried to help out quickly caught up.

Suddenly, a pistol shot roared in the warehouse. Above them, a series of crates above them began falling down. Saffice felt her body being grabbed and tossed further away as the crates quickly crashed down on the basement. Amidst the rubble and the smoke, Saffice got up, and kept a close distance. When it cleared, she spotted the attacking vampire deep within the rubble attempting to move, heavily injured. There were no signs of the other one. She pulled them out of the rubble and carried them on her shoulder, clicking her police radio.

"Requesting medical treatment." She clicked it off, only to realize someone was amiss.

"Gwain, Gwain? Where are you?"

She quickly realized the damaged clothes on the vampire as they reverted back into a human form, dropping them to the floor

What the hell is going on?

Hours later.

"What do you mean she went missing?"

Chief Rojas slammed on the desk, causing his coffee to slip. Saffice was annoyed, having explained what happened thrice now.

"When I detained a vamp who attacked us, they had on parts of the uniform on and there was a baton laying on the ground. The doctors at the hospital confirmed it. It was Officer Burn."

She took out an extra stun baton, turning it on lethal mode and placing it on one of the lightbulbs, frying it and making the room darker before it slowly started flickering. Ever since the portal opened, only the police have been allowed to carry these. Chief, something's up."

She watched him think over the options. In the back of his office, she heard something, assuming it was the tv.

"Fine, I'll take care of it."

He took out his police radio. "Calling out all officers, be on the search for Detective Choi. There is reason to suspect that she may have been turned vamp or has been turning innocent cops into vampires! Bring her in dead or alive!"

Confused, Saffice immediately reacted.

"Chief, you're ordering a manhunt? Why?"

"Look, they had torn up cop outfits on, so it had to be too recent. Detective Choi talked to me about choosing the place for you two to go on patrol there. I agreed. Looking back on it, that might have been a mistake."

"But G-, Detective Choi only recently started. Even if she was doing something like that, there's no way she could've done something like this alone."

"That doesn't mean anything. Anyone could be turned. All they gotta do is call and we'll handle the rest."

"By that you mean killing them?"

"It's not killing, if we believe they're innocent, then we believe they're innocent."

"Without any sort of investigation?" This time Saffice slammed her fists on his desk. "Gwain wouldn't just force people into becoming a vampire! And even if she was, its a death order? Even if someone forced her, she's still a cop. We can't just turn one of our own, she's still a cop. Are we going to fire Burn too?"

"If she's a threat, she's a threat!"

"But you let the prince of the freakings vampire in?"

"He's an exception to a rule always on the verge of breaking. It's not our fault his family signed a treaty with President Trump in 2020. He could just be responsible for this too, I'm just trying to get rid of this situation. Saffice, I'm on your side. I just want all of this to end and find that snake in the grass."

Saffice takes a deep breath. Gwain would've told her to just calm down or overthink it.

"Fine, but if I'm involved in this search, it's under one condition."

"Shoot."