To The Bar!

Several days have passed since the incident in the cafeteria and Aurik has finally started to adjust to life as a vampire. After many long winded conversations he came to learn the answers to many of his questions, as well as the answers to questions he didn't even think to ask.

Among the information he received were thing's regarding Vampire society as a whole, such as how their finances and businesses worked in relation to himself getting a job among their ranks, what the rules he needs to live by are, as well as the proper etiquette he needs to have when speaking with a Vampire at the level of a Knight or higher.

As promised by Horace before, Aurik was able to use a car to retrieve his belongings and ultimately decided to let the necessary people know that he would no longer be living in his old apartment. During this trip he went by the restaurant and quit his job, severely angering his old boss and improving his own mood immensely in the process.

He attempted to speak with Thea while he was at the restaurant, to say a temporary goodbye as he wasn't sure if or when they would meet again but for some reason she refused to speak with him and avoided him completely. In the end he could do nothing about it and returned to his new home in the estate and went on with life as needed. 

It is now the end of Aurik's fourth day since becoming a Vampire and he is currently standing outside of a what is very clearly a bar. The sun had just set roughly 20 minutes before his arrival and even though he had yet to enter he could already see that the bar was quite lively.

Standing at the entrance was a man just as tall as Aurik but built like a brick wall, whenever someone would arrive he would check them in some way before deciding to let them in or turn them away.

Although Aurik couldn't tell from this distance what kind of criteria the man used, he knew it wouldn't be a problem for him since he wasn't here as a customer. With that in mind he strolled up to the man with confidence and upon coming closer he realized the man was a Vampire Soldier like himself.

"Hello, I was-" Aurik began saying but was cut off instantly by the man.

"You can enter."

Aurik was expecting the man to ask him a question or check a list but he just looked at him and decided he could go in instead. 'Is it because we're both Vampires?' He thought while walking passed the man and into the building.

The moment he stepped inside his nose was assaulted by the smell of different kinds of liquor, to the point where it felt hard to breathe.

'I know my senses improved from when I was human but even then this is too strong!' Not only was the smell intense but Aurik couldn't identify what any of the alcohol actually was, he had never smelled anything like it before.

He was never much of a drinker but he knew enough to recognize what different alcohol smelled like, especially since the restaurant he worked at before served alcohol as a choice of beverage.

Putting the smell aside, Aurik scanned the room and found the person he was looking for, the bartender. He walked over with haste, avoiding any of the waiters and waitress's who were delivering drinks to tables, and arrived at the counter.

"Excuse me, I need to speak with the manager." It felt sour to say such words but Aurik was instructed to do so upon arrival.

"The manager?" The bartender turned around and asked. "Is something wrong? I'm happy to help if I can."

"No it's nothing like that. I'm actually supposed to start working here today." Aurik replied while taking note of the man's appearance.

The bartender was a young man of average height, which made him slightly shorter than Aurik. He had short, curly blonde hair and grey eyes that identified him as a Vampire Soldier. He was a good looking man but nothing out of the ordinary as far as Vampires are concerned.

"Oh, you're the new guy right? The one that Knight Horace brought in the other day. I heard from the manager that you would be working here but I didn't realize you'd be starting today. My name is Jake." Jake stuck out his hand with a friendly smile on his face.

"I'm Aurik, and yeah I'm the new guy." Aurik replied as he accepted the handshake and leaned closer to whisper. "I have to ask though, isn't it a bit strange working around humans all the time?"

"Humans? There aren't any humans here though." Jake replied, clearly confused.

Aurik, just as confused, looked around the room. There were plenty Vampires here and there, all of them Soldiers, but at least half the people in the room must have been human.

"Did nobody explain what this bar is? Who our clients are, I mean." Jake asked with a sigh. "Look, apart from one or two human Mages and the Vampires you can see, the rest of the people here are Therians. Regardless, this isn't a place that a normal human can enter, that's why we have someone outside checking people."

"Human mages and Therians?" Aurik asked curiously. Of all the things he had been told recently, this was one of the topics that somehow didn't come up. He had naturally heard of Therians but this was the first time he heard someone use the word 'human' in front of the word 'Mage'.

"You're kidding me." Jake looked defeated as an exasperated sigh left his lips. "Not only did nobody tell you what this place really was but you don't even know about Therians and Mages? I thought Knight Horace would have... Oh, right, that's why you don't know."

"Knight Horace dumped me on his disciple the first chance he got and I haven't seen him since." Aurik said, feeling slightly disgruntled.

"That does sound like something he would do, from what I've heard... Well there's nothing to be done about it now, just know that everyone here knows what a Vampire is. I would explain more but we don't have the time, so just start taking orders and we can talk about it all later." Jake smiled and turned around to get back to work, leaving Aurik to essentially fend for himself.

'It's a good thing I have experience with a job like this... I guess that's why they sent me here.' Aurik thought as he looked at the various servers and tried to figure out how hey did things. As he watched for several minutes, he couldn't help but feel disappointed as a realization struck him.

'This is no different from my old job...'