Ed seems impatient to get going when I arrive back at the SCU after dusk.
"We kept him up all day, so he'll be less able to influence you when you read him."
We go down to the basement and I catch sight of Julien sitting in the chair through the two-way mirror. My heart does a little flip-flop and my palms are already starting to sweat.
"Go ahead," Ed says, a hand at my back. "Might as well get it over with. Sooner you write him up, the sooner I can tank the monster."
I take the clipboard on which is attached the declaration form I'm to fill out, detailing the 'confession' if there is any and whatever I witness when reading him.
Julien raises his eyebrows when I enter the room. He tilts his head to the side, a tiny bit of a grin on his face. Blood spatters his cheek and he looks even more undead than before but I see no bruising or damage to him. Of course, he heals so quickly, any wounds would be gone in a matter of minutes.
"Hello, Eve. How'd you sleep last night? I hear you were back in your apartment. I'm sure you have good surveillance on you, so don't worry your little head about it." He nods briefly as if reassuring me. Does he have his own security on me and this is what he's telling me?
I smile back, trying to play whatever game he wants me to play, and take my seat, then focus on my work, flipping open the witness report file, reviewing the directions.
"Where did we leave off? You were bragging about your superiority, if I recall correctly."
Julien says nothing, just nods slightly as if confirming that I'm right to play along. Then he smacks his lips suggestively.
"I'm going to enjoy tasting you again," he says.
Ed steps into the room and slaps Julien across the face.
"The only thing you're gonna taste, asshole, is tank gel, you animal. I'm gonna enjoy shoving the tube down your throat and filling you full of it."
"You see what kind of human he is?" Julien says and lifts his chin towards Ed. "He wants to kill us all, every last one of us. Doesn't that sound a bit -- genocidal?"
After a moment of silence passes he smiles.
"I was wondering why they sent you in to interview me instead of putting me in stasis and waiting until a more experienced witness is available. You can't seriously think they sent you in because you're so skilled."
He's playing a game, pretending to be a real asshole. I have to play along, and do my best, but it's hard because half the time, I'm really not certain it is a game.
"I'm not skilled," I say. "Not yet. But I am fascinated about why you choose to break the treaty that protects your kind from vigilante justice."
"The treaty keeps us in servitude," he says. "We aren't free to be true to our nature."
"Your nature as serial killers."
"As hunters," he says. "Keeping the prey population in check."
"Immoral killers who kill with no concern."
"Oh, I don't kill with a lack of concern," he says and shakes his head, then gestures with his chin as if to draw me nearer. I lean forward. "Exactly the opposite," he says, his voice soft. "I kill with deep concern. I cherish every single kill. When I'm sucking the life out of my victim?" He sighs audibly and leans back. "I know that God is good."
"Get on with it. I know you hate having to do it," Ed says to me from the observation room. "Please read this monster and let me do my job and put him away."
Julien shakes his head. He glowers at Ed and then turns back to me.
"These idiots think that if they can understand vampires they'll be able to kill us all off. That's what you really want, isn't it Ed?" he says and turns to the two-way mirror. "You want to control us. You want power over us. Mortals are weak, and vampires strong, and you're afraid. You can't and you won't destroy us because God himself ordained that we're to be punished forever." He leans forward and whispers to me. "God himself condemned us all and any that we love."
He says it with all earnestness and I almost believe him. He tilts his head to the side and examines me.
"He condemned you, didn't he, pretty little Eve. Pure little Eve, full of promise, child prodigy on the piano, little ballerina, weren't you, before all this caught up with you? Made your father weep when you played so well when you were only five. Father had big plans for you to become a modern-day Mozart, but fate intervened, isn't that right? Fate in the form of a vampire who killed your mother and sent your father into an institution."
"I said shut the fuck up," Ed said and punches Julien once more.
I shake my head and look away from them, turning pages in my file with a shaking hand, wondering at what a great actor he is or whether he's serious about all the God talk.