A weird awakening (1)

Anageropoulos was ready and on his way in a matter of minutes.
He wore his usual suit, a symbol of his lineage and held his usual hand-bag, a symbol of his way to convince friends or foes.
Inside the hand-bag were the parts of his favorite weapon, a barrett.
He had learned how to assemble it in just a few seconds and after that he could shoot a human from almost a kilometer away with zero chance of missing.
He had chosen this weapon not because of its firepower, only a few bullets per minute, but for the accuracy it provided.
Hidden on his back covered by his coat were two long swords, one more curved than the other, both mementos of a story that he would like to forget but he was sure he wouldn't.
In his short immortality he had done many mistakes, most of them irreversible.
Even his title was a mistake or, to be honest, the result of a mistake.
He didn't want to be Sheriff especially having lived only two years among the vampires.
He also found the title silly. It reminded him of the american movies about the wild west and the fastest gunslinger in the town.
Well he might have been the fastest gunslinger but that was not the point.
"Sheriff" was an ancient title still used by the vampires to describe the man or woman who would be the Prince's personal assistant, entitled to enforce the law and responsible for the security of his town.
It was generally a position many would crave since it provided almost limitless possibilities.
The Sheriff was the law and he could bend it to his will.
He had a partial licence to kill in order to ensure the safety of the town and he had the permission to investigate or question anyone.
Younger vampires were afraid of him and older ones seeked his favor.
Still it was a dangerous position.
One could make mistakes and disappoint his Prince or irritate many of the elders who in their turn could have the Prince replace him.
Also being in control of the security lines the Sheriff should be the first one at the front of any battle.
And the enemies were many and some of them were even weirder creatures than he.
And Paul was only two years old according to vampiric age.
He didn't want this position, he should have refused the offer, but this position was never offered to him.
It was either this or death.
And he didn't want to die either.
He was not the actual Sheriff, he knew that. The previous Sheriff, a monstrous vampire called "Faceless" was still the real Sheriff. But he held another title now, he was the Prince's personal bodyguard.
Ah, Faceless was perfect, he never made a single mistake to disappoint his Prince.
He was always there to diffuse a situation or to clean up a messy one.
From what he had been told, no one ever escaped his verdict.
Paul was sure that Faceless was monitoring him, watching his back so he wouldn't make a mistake, not from sympathy but rather by the Prince's orders. Prince James was a man who liked to give people chances to prove themselves but HE rarely forgave mistakes.
No, Faceless was watching his back so that he would not have to intervene later and displease his Prince.

Well many things had changed since the day he had first met all those other vampires.
Prince James would rarely be seen anymore, letting the council of elders guide the city and Faceless was attending his Prince's affairs whatever the hell they were.
Paul was working together with the council of elders and that's why this urgent Prince's summoning made him anxious and took him by surprise.
Either he had done something wrong or something very important was going to happen.
And he certainly did not want to displease Prince James. For a strange reason he respected that vampire.
He knew very few things about HIM but he was sure Prince James knew how to lead.
HE was a winner and whoever stood by his side could count only gains but whoever dared to stand in his way would be a long forgotten memory.

And there he was now, almost running to get to his Prince.
He hadn't called HER yet and he was sure SHE would be very angry when he finally would.
He hadn't even called his friends, if he could believe that friendship can exist between immortals.
That's how much of a hurry he was in to reach his Prince.
''How did i get involved in all that?'' he asked himself for the millionth time.
The answers were too many and too complicated to go over them again.
But in the end it all lead to him.
His burning ambition to live this immortal life on the very edge and taste every forbidden fruit this life had to offer.
He tried to clear his thoughts once more, he needed his head clear and his wits about him.
Danger and enemies could be lurking around every corner.
IF HE HAD TO BE A SHERIFF TO HAVE A SHOT AT LIVING HIS NOCTURNAL LIFE THE WAY HE WANTED, THEN HE WOULD BE THE BEST SHERIFF THERE WAS.