Back at Jacob's home, he knew his boys would NOT be happy about moving, again, it was the burden of being part of a monster hunter family. But they went where the threat was... which was another burden for having having his family nearby instead of far away from the danger. Then again, that just meant he was farther away from protecting them. Which was why teaching them all how to fight was also a tradition. Though it helped they also had an absurd number of protective runes shielding them from collective mind-wipes to monsters going back in time to shoot them in their cribs, to glass made to withstand a round from the world's most deadly sniper rifle.
And there was 'Jim' (Jacob had nicknamed him that when he was five), the skull of an immortal skeleton warrior his grandpa taken prisoner ... who'd make several promises to devour their flesh dispute lacking a stomach or anything else... then his master tried to blow him up along with Jacob's grandfather ... and then 'Jim's' master kicked 'Jim' away when 'Jim' offered to return to his service ... It was at that point 'Jim' had grabbed a American flag in his jaw and began waving it around fanatically shout, 'down with the monarchy!' ... 'Jim' still had plenty of gambling buddies among the undead realms, and decent enough information sources. (His screen-name was SkullKn1ght!!! on the online gambling sites).
What shocked most people was there weren't just a few or a dozen magical realms... like children learning there more countries than the USA, Mexico, Canada, England, Russia, France, Japan, China, and Germany. There were hundreds of magical realms, some the size of entire universes, other city states in a bottle, and plenty the size of galaxies. Jacob knew only a handful had been fused with Earth, and then separated again. Which was part of why the dream of delusional lunatics of 'wipe all magic and all things magical from existence' was a mad fantasy.
Jacob tapped on a glass jar on a shelf... inside was a magically shrunk down GameStation-12 with an internet connection, along with a bed, bathtube, couch, fridge, bed, closet...
"Hey Spark," Jacob said.
"Not now!" The tiny fairy inside snapped not even looking at him. She was nude, had bright green skin, silky blond hair, had beautiful blue insectoid wings, antenna, and her eyes were a solid sapphire color. She was also wearing a magically shrunk down headset with micro phone with a Player's Pro controller in her hands.
"I'm one drop away from getting the 13 Headshots In a Row Achievement with a shotgun in Gloom Eternal 5 Remake Reborn!"
Spark broke out into cussing throwing her controller at the screen as her shapely space marine amazon was head-shot herself from behind. "DANGIT!" She huffed and looked up at him. "So what's the problem? Evil mushrooms take over the brains of your family?"
"No. We're moving. I've figured out at last where the magical invasion came from, and from where it was magically covered up."
"Pst. About time."
The Van Helsings family had killed fairies, but they were all Unseelie. Meaning for Spark, a Seelie, those Unseelie were blood enemies of hers from the moment she were born as far as she was concerned. That Unseelie tended to use humans as helpless playthings to twist the minds and forms of. When people warned NEVER to 'give' your name to fairy, it was the Unseelie they were warning you of. Promises were the equivalent of money for fae, and Spark had promised to serve Jacob's family as an informant and a portable medic as long as she was provided with all the comforts of the modern first-world and given basic respect of a sapient being... She'd still ended up playing the fairy in the kids' school play with the flying boy and his shadow... the dress had itched like heck though.
"It means we're moving."
"Good riddance! No offense, but I've had enough of Wyoming for one for one of my lifetimes, than you very much!"
-
Prince Miro Tepes couldn't help but admire the glowing billboards, the advertisements everywhere, the ever shifting screens of the big city. Heh. Western dragons had assimilated into the elite of human culture, and most humans didn't even realize it.
Younger western dragons that got with the time understood little slips of paper meant they now owned fields of liquid gold, and humans would fight to the death to protect those fields for their draconic owners!
And dragons were always on the look out for new recruits, since it took centuries for a dragon to actual grow to adulthood. A new greedy CEO equaled a new dragon.
And their entourage of sycophants meant the new dragons always came with their own new family of Kobolds servants ... their only real change in behavior was when they called their boss the greatest thing to ever walk the Earth, the new kobolds now MEANT it. Needless to say, Eastern Dragons were not fans of their Western cousins.
Prince Miro Tepes had to admire this, after all, it was what vampires had done for centuries among Europe's aristocrats until revolutions and vampire hunters had toppled them from their perch.
But first things first, Prince Miro Tepes wanted to try out the local flavor.
"Hello sir, you called for 'room service'?" A young woman asked, not unattractive and already trained to boot.
"I most certainly did."
The hotel room door shut on its own, and locked. The drapes pulled and the light switched turned off. The woman only had time to gasp in confusion and tried to turn and run before Miro was upon her.
She struggled of course, but it was like pulling at an iron statue. She felt two things sharp and cold pierce her neck. She tried to scream, nothing came.
Miro fed, and fed, until she was bone dry. Yes, the local flavor was certainly satisfying. He dropped her to the ground.
A while later, the woman moved, she struggled to get up like a toddler, learning motor skills from the ground up. The pale woman looked at her hands and feet like she was seeing them for the first time, she was.
Vampires were different from the liches, mummies, and other undead... They were not originally living souls who made their vessels remain.
The woman's spirit had already fled her body to the afterlife... The newborn vampire spirit that now used her body as its host went through the memories in the corpse's brain like they were pages in a book.
But she also knew basic truths, mortals were cattle, fear the sun, fear any symbol of faithful divinity, and above all else, obey thy sire.
The new vampire spirit's first words were, "Master, how may I serve you?"
"Theatrical my lord," said a mortal man, stepped into the room turning on the lights. He spoke with a slight european accident, and moved with a limp. The prince thought of his kind's long tradition of recruiting the deformed and disabled as their mortal servitors during the day, it was often more than their fellow humans had ever done for them.
He wore a fine tuxedo and slick back hair. Around his neck was a golden key symbolizing he could wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted in the hotel. "We could have gone out of you wanted food that desperately."
"Spare me Romi. Theatrical would have been for me to prow like some common thrall and grab a random woman to make my newest bride. I made sure she had no immediate family or friends. Just another woman devoured by this city, I've merely been less farcical about it."
"Very good my lord," Romi bowed, not so much as flinching at the woman's life who just been snuffed out and replaced with an lifeless imitation. "My family is honored that you grace us with your presence at last. May your reign be eternal."