The office was, as usual, a hive of activity and Roxanne Ritchi felt as if she was a ship drifting through unfamiliar waters. Even though she had walked these halls, and this floor, countless times in her past five years in the industry today it felt as though it was like it was her first day all over again. How would those around her react to the knowledge that she was now living in the oldest house in Metro City, with not only vampire slayers, but aliens, and a werewolf?

A mere week ago she would have thought herself insane to think such things even existed, and yet as she made her way to her office and set her bag down on the floor, she and she alone knew that the lunch inside her bag had been made lovingly by a talking fish that got around in a robot gorilla suit. It felt like something out of a dream.

Sitting behind her desk she sighed, and leaned back in her chair, and covered her eyes with her hands. How much life had changed in such little time amazed her, sometimes. Had she not gone out to that party to celebrate her promotion, that vampire would never have attacked her, nor would a man have rescued her whose head was twice a normal humans size, with skin the color of the sky on warm July day.

And what skin it was. As Roxanne turned on her computer and picked up the papers that had been put into her inbox, she couldn't help but think back to the nights before. How he had stripped in her bathroom and how scarred his skin had been. Some of the scars looked like they had come from serious injuries, obvious claws had dug into his skin to the point of ripping open his blue skin only to heal, leaving horrendous scarring. His back, his sides and his chest…

If she had those types of scars she would have felt nervous showing her skin off but he acted as if it was no big deal. Heck, Megamind acted like everything he did wasn't a big deal. Glancing up, and thanking her assistant Elliott for handing her some new documents, she had to remind herself he had been raised from such a young age to believe what he was doing was the right thing and that it got no thanks. Who could thank a man like him after killing a vampire?

Did he ever 'get out' just for getting outs sake? He could disguise himself any way he wanted yet when she had asked him if he ever just went out he just shrugged the question away. Wayne looked normal, as did Bernard, and could go out amongst the world and see people. Sit in the sun without needing disguises, meet people, eat food... socialized. All Megamind seemed to do was eat, sleep, study, and go out to fight vampires. Nothing else.

"I should ask him out." she said as she checked her e-mail. "What's the harm in it? No big deal. Just say, hey, I've got time why don't we just go get dinner out on the town or something?" Roxanne thought about his reactions and could all but see the apprehensive, unsure look on his face. He could go out at night, slaughter vampires without blinking, yet could become incredibly nervous and shy if she mentioned something. Or got too close to him.

Wayne had told her that Megamind hadn't been around women outside of the family. He had saved them, of course, but they would scream endlessly when they saw what he was so the memory wiping was almost a relief to the man. Roxanne couldn't help but fear that if she got too close to him, too quickly, it might scare him.

"Scare him. And he fights freaking vampires..." she laughed to herself.

"Who?"

She jumped, and looked up to see Elliott standing in the door way.

"Oh, just. Just a TV show I caught last night." Roxanne covered quickly. "You know, vampire vs. vampire?" she asked.

"Ah yeah. I know that show." he nodded.

"So how are you today, Elliott? Anything new?" she asked.

"Not really." he shrugged as he set down her morning tea on her desk. "How about you?"

I'm living with alien vampire hunters and a werewolf who's dating one of them.

"Nope. Same old boring me." Roxanne chuckled.

"You're not boring, don't say that." he grinned. "Anyway we got a few things that need to be finished by noon so here we go..."

And so began her workday. She wrote up reports for the newspaper to print, checked out the sources for her video reports that would be filmed and sent out to all televisions in Metro City, and checked with her publicist and fashion editor who told her what she should wear for what story. It was all so tedious sometimes but it was the life she loved, and the one she had studied hard forever since she had been a little girl.

Though it felt so different now. Knowing that any information on missing people, and bodies discovered, was no longer related to gang violence but possible vampire attacks. She squirreled away any information that Megamind and Wayne might find interesting.

Even tough she had been reporting for years now, she now began to feel as though she was really helping people out unlike she had been doing before.

With an exasperated sigh Minion walked into the dining hall.

Megamind was where he left him three hours ago, sitting at the dining table. But now he wasn't sitting, he was sleeping again. A few dozen books lay out before him, some of them open, most of them shut but their place was saved by book marks and scraps of material. His blue arms were folded under his chin, and his large forehead rested against the wood of the table.

"Sir you need to stop doing this to yourself..." Minion sighed as he approached, and began to pick up the books and look through them. Most of them were of course on vampires and their habits, but some were also religious. This wasn't at all a surprise. Another book had details on the various Gods of old that had been the basis of Religion that still functioned today, but some had been long forgotten.

"No, don't..." Megamind mumbled as he slowly began to sit up, blinking blearily. "Don't take them."

"This isn't right, Sir. You work all night, you sleep less and you spend more time reading... you're going to give yourself a grey beard!" Minion fussed.

"A grey beard isn't that bad. Father had white hair and he looked fantastic." retorted the alien.

"That's because he was at least fifty when he took us in, Sir."

"Bah!" Megamind waved his hands in Minion's face, startling the fish before he scowled.

"It's Miss. Ritchi isn't it? That's why you're working this hard." frowned Minion.

"What? No it isn't." Megamind replied hurriedly, looking down at the books in front of him.

"Yes it is." replied Minion, setting his hands on his hips. "I know you like her, Sir. Even Wayne and Mr. Dunning see it. You want to protect her, don't you? Protect her like how Father protected us?"

Megamind said nothing, instead he picked up the book and focused on the old carving of a man ripping open another mans throat.

"You want to do for her like what Wayne is trying to do for Mr. Dunning." Minion continued. "Which I find admirable, truly I do Sir. But not if it means you're going to be this tired every day. You can't do everything, and you know this..."

"Father could." Megamind finally said quietly. "He could work all night. Read and do his research. Train me, teach Wayne... he even helped me fashion your first suit... he could do anything. And now he might be alive. Alive, Minion, and I've felt he was dead all these years. It feels like I gave up on him... that I let him down."

"You did no such thing, Sir, and you shouldn't feel that way." Minion said, dragging a chair over to him and sat down besides him at the table.

"I have to save him. I have to find out where they are, where they're coming from, kill the children and save him." Megamind said through clenched teeth.

"...What if they turned him, Sir...?" the fish asked quietly, though he hate to imagine it.

He watched as Megamind's face turned from an angry glare to one of utter heartbreak. His eyes seemed to well with tears that refused to be shed, before tossing the book he had been holding away from him and pressed his hands over his eyes. His shoulders shook violently, and he shook his head. "Then I have to kill him. L-like he.. he told me..."

The memory was as bright as day.

Megamind had been ten years old, and had been training with his uncle Nguyan who was teaching him proper fighting techniques that his Father didn't know. His cloths were thick with sweat and he was taking a breather, while Wayne was reading under the tree out back. Father had slowly approached him, and smiled down at him.

"Every day you grow stronger don't you?" he asked.

"Mmm-hmmm." Megamind nodded his head proudly. "I'm going to be the best."

"You will be." Father said before taking a slow sip of his tea. They were silent for a moment, a comfortable silence that the two often found themselves sharing when Megamind wasn't training or studying. "You remember the story, of your great-grandfather?" he asked, suddenly.

"Great-grandfather Eustace? Yes... that was sad." he looked at his hands. "He was turned into a vampire."

"And what happened to him?" Father asked.

"Grandfather Simon had to destroy him." Megamind mumbled quietly. "It was the right thing to do... even if it hurt him."

"It did. Your Grandfather battled with his guilt over doing that for the rest of his life. But I want you to know something son. If I ever befall the same fate as my Great-grandfather, I don't want you to feel guilty if you have to kill me." Father said, not a man to ever minced his words. "You know how I feel towards the living undead, and it would be an insult to the Family if I were to become on. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Megamind had stared at his Father with wide, horrified eyes. "You want me to... to kill you?" he asked.

"If they get to me, and change me, yes. I might beg you otherwise, I might threaten you, tell you I'm content but a vampire looses their mind once they become one. Who they were before becomes nothing but a distant memory and the hunger for blood and death of humans overcomes them. Promise me, now, today, that if one day I turn to end my suffering." Father was kneeling in front of him now, hands on his shoulders tightly.

He had never seen such fire in his Father's eyes before. It scared him, and a part of him wanted to cry and pull away, say he could never do that to his Father but he knew such things were childish. They were fighting a battle, a war that had been ongoing ever since Hecate, mother of all Witches, had come to being. To think things would turn out all right was foolish.

"I promise Father." he had whispered.

"I promised Father." Megamind said in the here and now, hands still covering his face. "I made him a promise and not... not following through on it would be an insult..."

Minion watched Megamind quietly, before reaching over and closed the books in front of him. "Father asked many things from all of us. He asked me to watch you, just like your parents asked me to as well. You, Sir, are going to go rest. Properly. In your bed, and no more arguments, all right?" he asked.

Sighing, Megamind admitted defeat. "Yes. You're right."

"After all, you're no good to us exhausted." reminded Minion before gently taking hold of Megamind's hand and helped him to his feet.

"Guess I'm not..."

Another day, another busy work life. Bernard was once more the last man at the library. Mrs. Brown had already gone home, as had the temporary workers and cleaners. They had gotten a large shipment of audio tapes and books that needed labelling and lucky Bernard had been chosen to put the covers on the books, and barcode everything else. This meant working late, later than usual.

The library was eerie to some this late in the day. The long shadows seemed to follow him as he walked through the large building towards the entrance to lock up. He was almost to the door when the stench over powered his senses and he stood dead in his tracks.

Lifting his head he looked towards the doors, and he saw somebody standing outside in the fading sunlight. It was a tall man, wearing a trench coat and hat, and had an umbrella held up above his head despite there being no threat of rain. The man lifted his gaze, and he and Bernard stared at each other through the glass doors.

Bernard bared his teeth, and growled from the depths of his throat.

For being such a large man, the stranger moved fast. He was through the doors seconds later, his heavy jacket falling off of his shoulders as he burst through into the building. His hand was out stretched and gripping around Bernard's throat as he opened his mouth, baring viciously sharp fangs, and snarled right back.

The force sent the two men tumbling backwards, crashing through the newspaper stands, and landing against the sofas where so many people had sat that day.

Glasses knocked away Bernard lashed out with his hands, his nails making contact with flesh and he dragged his nails across the vampires face. It was enough to deter him, allowing Bernard a chance to give his attacker a swift kick in the nuts. The man choked and doubled over in pain, grasping at the family jewels. With the moment appearing Bernard rolled away from the vampire and grabbed the couch tightly in his hands. Taking a deep breath he hefted it up above his head, the two seater couch, and slammed it down on the vampires back.

He was going by smell and sounds alone now. Since as he had complained for eight years, despite becoming a werewolf his eyesight wasn't any better than it had been before that horrible blood transfusion.

The vampire staggered to his feet before swiping out again, and slashed Bernard's face with his own nails, cutting open wounds on Bernard's forehead, cheeks and nose. Bernard staggered back but quickly pushed himself forward again, going by smell since his sight was now blurred with his own blood, and grabbed the vampire by the shirt. Another surge of strength and power rushed through him and he threw the vampire with all of his might.

He heard the collision, the vampire slamming against a wall. But then the vampire spun, grasping at the walls, and climbed them like a bat. Bernard stepped away from the mess they had already created, growling as the blood stung his eyes.

"Not my library..." he shuddered as he turned and ran for the door. "NOT MY LIBRARY YOU BASTARD!" Bernard growled.

He leapt out into the streets, chest rising and falling. The sunlight was all but gone, the only light being offered to him was that from the street lights and car headlights as they drove past him on the main street. The scent of the vampire was almost upon him again, and despite knowing he might have a chance on more equal ground being blind in a battle was never a good thing.

Bernard ran, putting all of his strength into his legs and hoping on the disease would help keep him ahead of the demon at his heels. Car horns hailed, tires screeched, and the scents and smells of the city crashed over him. It was dizzying, maddening. People screamed insults as he ran by, some people were screaming about calling the cops, but he had no time to stop. The vampire was after him, and him alone.

Claws suddenly dug into his shoulders and Bernard let out a sharp, loud scream at the pain before being thrown into a wall. He felt the bricks smash against his shoulders and arm, and couldn't contain a sudden yelp as he fell badly onto one of his arms. But he was on his feet again as the vampire slammed into him, and Bernard saw stars as his head came in contact with the wall.

"Pathetic little flea infested DOG." the vampire snarled. "You thought you stood a chance against us? You're barking at a GOD."

"God... funny how... is Dog spelt... backwards..." Bernard strained as he felt those hands around his neck again. "You're scared."

"Who says I'm scared?" demanded the vampire.

"I can... smell it... on your stinking... breath..." the librarian felt dizzier now, and his hands gripped at the wrists of the vampire but his strength was fading.

"And it's the last thing you'll ever smell you pathetic mutt!" the vampire's breath really was rotten, and Bernard could smell blood.

"It's why you're... all coming at us... afraid... scared... scared of... disappoint... loos... ing... every... thing..." Bernard's voice trailed slowly into silence as his eyes began to slip shut.

"You're the one loosing everything." the vampire whispered. "Everything."

Bernard suddenly thought of Wayne, his knight in shining white armor, like he had always invisioned him. Though Bernard was not a weak man, the feeling of Wayne's arms around him, their hearts racing and breathing short, suddenly made him feel weak in ways not associated with his loss to the right of breathing.

He had been a help to him all these years; it was only his luck that not a few days after he had finally told the man how he felt about him, that it would end like this.

Just his luck.

He heard a hideous screaming shriek and everything fell into blackness and the world fell out of his mind, but Wayne was the last thing he saw before it was all lost to him.

To be continued