Jake McCloud stood on the top of the Herring Point Cliffs. He was imagining what sunrise would look like. It was hard to admit, but in his over two-hundred and fifty years as a vampire, he\'d forgotten what the sun looked like, when it rose over the horizon. He\'d seen pictures, movies and art. It was these images he was using to imagine. He remembered one thing about the sunrise. He remembered that it was always different. The shades of orange, red, and purple would create a piece of splendid art on the soft, dewy grass or the rigid, firm rocks. Ireland was a long way aways from the city. Sunrise was a long way away too.
It was Jake\'s night off from his full time job as a ruler of the city. His job was secure. Well, Jake at least felt secure. He felt like he finally knew what he was doing. This was something that had taken about a year to kick in. He was still lousy at paperwork. Vomas seemed to be good at that part of the job. Jake had no idea if his fellow Oligarch was or not, but he assumed he was based on the fact that everything always got done.
Jake the Ventrue was a happy father of two. He had a girl and a boy, and they both made him proud. The boy\'s name is Scott. Scott is a Toreador and the child of a vampire named Jonathan. Jake had taken the vampire as his charge after Jonathan\'s death. They\'d been inseparable ever since. The girl\'s name is Sam. Sam is Jake\'s child by blood. She is her sire\'s daughter. Stubborn, hotheaded, yet smart and caring, Jake had grown to love his child. She\'d trained hard the last two years and was slowly becoming an amazing kindred in her own right. The two still often disagreed, and Jake was no stranger to giving executive sire orders regarding Sam\'s behavior. But this had lessened. They had learned to love one another. Better than that, they\'d learned to respect each other.
Conner was still living in Dante\'s, and although Scott had moved out of Jake\'s guest room he hadn\'t left the building. He was living with Conner, and although Jake mostly let them have their privacy, he knew enough to know that they were in love. Jake was happy for them. Benny was still in the picture. He constantly delighted on pissing off the Oligarchy\'s other main spy, the elder Brianna. Benny could out sneak, out snoop and out stealth any vampire in the city. Jake was proud of this fact. He had good people.
Jake\'s life was going very well. He was happy. His little family was happy. All was well with the Anarch Baron. Peace doesn\'t last forever. Jake\'s peace was about to end. Life was once again going to be drowning with difficulties. Jake looked out toward the cliffs and heard the sound of a woman singing. His keen vampire sight picked up a human girl singing on the beach. Her voice was lovely. Jake was entranced. He could have listened to the mortal girl sing all night. His concentration was broken however. Something was coming that would require his focus. So it goes.
