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He hadn’t taken his eyes from mine the entire
time that I had perused him, and when I met his gaze once again
without flinching he gave me a slight nod that I took to be
grudging respect. I nodded in return as I wondered if I had just
passed some kind of test or something considering that at our first
meeting I had been less than civil to him.

I climbed back into my chair as Dellar took a
seat next to Akira on Maria’s bed, though he didn’t share that
space for long as Akira got to his feet, and resettled on the floor
near where I was situated. I had the absurd thought that we had
just paired off into some kind of battle alliance, us vs them, and
fought back an insane urge to giggle.

Another thought entered my head and this time
I couldn’t prevent the giggle that escaped, though I tried and it
wound up sounding more like a strangled snort than a laugh.

“What?” Maria asked, her eyebrows scrunched
over her nose in her typical “have you lost it” expression.

“It’s like,” I snickered, paused to regain
myself and tried again. “It’s like one of those horrible jokes, you
know? ‘A
tengu
, a vampire, a zombie and a human walk into a
bar…’”

Dellar stared at me like I had lost my mind,
again
, and that look helped me to regain some semblance of
control, though every now and then a little snicker would escape as
I continued to mull over the potential bad joke that could come of
this encounter. I was a little more than slightly hysterical. Time
might have dulled some things, but others were still very much
alive and kicking in my mind.

“I need to know a few things,” Akira said
when I gave no indication of being able to form any kind of
coherent sentence any time soon.

“We are supposed to be here to share
information,” Dellar agreed, “but I need to know first and foremost
who you are working for, young
tengu
.”

“How do you know that he’s working for
someone?” Maria asked as she grasped one of Dellar’s hands. The
site of her skin, still slightly warm and golden from the summer
sun of so long ago, being clasped in his pale dead looking hand was
enough to kill my minor attack of the hysterics, and I quieted down
as I stared at their contrasting colors.

“Because any type of paranormal being that
interacts with humans usually falls under one of two categories,”
Dellar said. “They’re either working for an organization, or
involved in exploiting humans for their own purpose or that of a
Master.”

“What category do you fall into?” I couldn’t
help but ask, and he smiled, cold and humorless, at me.

“The second one, of course. Humans are, after
all, my food source even if it’s the dead ones that provide me with
nourishment.”

My stomach lurched slightly, but I ruthlessly
fought it down. I had no idea what Maria saw in this guy, but
considering her altered state of being perhaps she wasn’t seeing
things clearly the way she should have.

“Guess that could be true for most vampires
then, huh?” I asked curiously. I figured that since most vampires
had to drink blood to survive, then they were probably firmly
rooted in the ‘every man, or vamp, as it were, for themselves’
category.

“Perhaps,” Dellar said calmly, though I knew
I had hit a nerve because his hand tightened slightly on Maria’s.
“But before you go and label us monsters, know this. I have seen
humans perform some of the most vile, vicious, and hideous acts
upon other humans in my lifetime. I would suggest that you go
looking for your monsters within your own species, human, before
looking for them in others, especially when you understand nothing
about them.”

My muscles locked up and a red rush roared
through my head. Before I could register what I was doing, I was on
my feet and had shoved my face into his. I glared into his milky
eyes and refused to back down even after he drew his lips back to
expose canines that had grown a good inch in length and were
lethally sharp with tips that looked like they had been dipped in
fresh blood. It was a threat, much like that of a dog I once had
been forced to face down when it had tried to attack my little
brothers while we were on a walk years ago. Like then, I refused to
yield and glared right back into his eyes while I ignored the
threat of his teeth. I could feel Akira behind me and Maria’s
sudden startled inhalation as she clutched Dellar’s hand alerted me
to the fact that they were prepared to pull us apart. I didn’t
care.

“Listen up, Pale Man,” I hissed darkly, and
the pure venom in my voice actually made him pull back slightly and
away from me, though he never once looked away, “I wasn’t about to
label anyone, paranormal or otherwise, under the general term
‘monster’ because to do so would mean that I thought the same of my
best friend. Someone, I might add, that I’ve known my entire life
and you’ve only known for two months, if even that. So might I
suggest that before you go judging me based on your own narrow
perception of humanity, that you look inside and judge yourself
first to see if you’re being fair or just jumping to
conclusions.”

I continued to invade his personal space for
a few more heartbeats, and then I slowly pulled away, all the while
I retained eye contact. I saw something that looked like grudging
respect flash across his face, and he lowered his eyes first to
glance down to where Maria had a death grip on his hand. I glanced
at Akira, who had taken up a stance behind me that looked like he
had been planning to reach out and grab my arm to yank me away if
Dellar made a threatening move. He looked perplexed.

“You just . . .,”

“Stared down a vampire,” Dellar finished.
“Not an easy feat considering my clan origins, either. We are not
known to back down easily. I will think upon your words, young
lady, for there is truth in what you say.”

“Young lady?” I quiped with a raised eyebrow.
“I know Maria said you were older, but really, you can’t be that
much older than us.”

“I am currently in my 250
^th
year
on the physical plane,” he stated calmly, and my knees went weak.
Luckily, I had sat back down in my chair so I didn’t fall onto the
floor, but it was a near miss.

“Y-your 250 years old?!” I squeaked.

“Give or take,” he said. “I’m the youngest of
my clan, and we have longer life spans than most because of the
fact that we drink the blood of the dead as opposed to the living.
We tend to not be hunted as often as our living blood
brethren.”

“Y-y-y-,” I stuttered as I pointed first at
him, then at Maria, and then back at him, my finger shaking almost
uncontrollably. “YOU PERVERT!” I finally thundered.

That startled him. “What?”

“You cradle robbing pervert!!!” I yelled,
beyond incensed. “You’re macking on a girl who’s 233 years your
junior?! What kind of sick bastard are you??? Maria, really?! Grave
robbing never seemed to be your thing before, what the hell is
wrong with you?!”

I had worked myself up into quite an
indignant fit when the fact that Maria had started to shake caught
my attention. I stopped mid tirade and stared at her, worried that
she was about to burst into tears, throw something at me, or
both.

“Maria?” I asked, tentatively. “Akira, is she
ok?”

Maria suddenly threw her head back and let
out a huge guffaw; one of those massive laughs that start in your
belly and works its way up until it can no longer be contained and
has to be released all at once before your head explodes. She then
bent over and pressed her face into her upturned knees and
continued to cackle and wheeze. I was now thoroughly confused,
especially when Dellar let out a slightly dusty chuckle.

“Um,” I said, at a total loss and looked to
Akira for inspiration, only to find that he looked as confused as I
was.

“I’m sorry,” Maria snickered as she sat up
and wiped tears from her eyes, “but you were just so self righteous
after being so deadly serious I couldn’t help myself.”

She looked like she wanted to say more, but
broke out into laughter again and had to turn her face away.

“What she’s finding so amusing,” Dellar said,
his voice light with his own laughter, though he was able to keep
himself under control much better than my friend, “is the fact that
she just recently learned my age and that, in terms of my clan’s
years, I am the equivalent of a twenty-one year old human because
we mature at a much slower rate than our brethren. Still, her
reaction before I explained that part to her was about as
spectacular as your own, just a little lower in terms of
volume.”

“You’re the last of your clan to be born?”
Akira asked, finally joining the conversation with a totally
blatant attempt to change the subject away from age and robbing
anything.

“I am, yes,” he answered.

“Born as in born born?” I asked, curious now
because I had always heard that vampires were made, not born. Or
maybe they considered being made born or . . . I had just totally
confused myself.

“Yes, another way that my clan is different
from our brethren is that we are born the same way that humans are
born and can not make another of ourselves the way that our
brethren can. Most Living Blood Vampires are made in the manner
depicted in Bram Stoker’s Masterpiece, though there are a few
pureblood clans who are able to bear children. But my clan is the
only one in existence that can’t create another one of us through
an exchange of blood. And you, Mr.
Tengu
, have yet to tell
me what organization you work for.”

“I hoped you had forgotten about that,” Akira
sighed as he rubbed the back of his head wearily. “Especially since
you’re already being forthcoming, but I suppose it’s only fair that
I share some of my secrets, as well. I work for G.O.O.P.S.”

“Goops?” I asked, my eyes wide as I imagined
huge globs of . . . things that were better left unidentified.

“It stands for Guardians of Our Paranormal
Society,” Akira explained.

“They’re something like the Interpol of the
paranormal world, and the institution is very well respected and
known,” Dellar said and gave Akira an assessing look. “Pretty
prestigious for someone your age.”

“Well, I’m still considered a rookie,” Akira
admitted. “I’ve been on a personal mission for the last three
years, anything extra happens because I’m in the right place at the
right time or there’s a possible case in the vicinity of my
location, and they pass the information along to me.”

“Is G.O.O.P.S. the reason you’re so
interested in me?” Maria asked.

“Partly,” Akira admitted, and I gave him a
sharp look that he refused to meet. “Part of my job is
investigating attacks and reporting any new paranormal society
members, such as Maria. I do have to admit, though, and please
don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re the liveliest zombie I’ve
ever met.”

“You’ve met others?” Maria asked.

“Yes, though they’re very rare. Usually a
dark sorcerer or sorceress is needed to create zombies. They do
this so that the zombie can carry out their darker tasks because
most zombie’s I’ve run across have no will of their own, no
personality, they’re just human dolls without the soul. This makes
them easy to control and when they’re not off doing their master’s
dirty work they’re doing menial tasks like house cleaning and such.
You hear a lot about zombies in Hoodoo and other similar religious
practices. This is what makes me think that you’re more than just a
zombie, though it will take some research to figure out just what
you are. But according to you both, your body is no longer living,
yes?”

“That’s right,” Maria said and shot me a
worried look out of the corner of her eye. “Dellar has fed from me
twice now, and he receives the same nourishment that he would from
any other dead body. But I’m still here, awake and sort of alert on
most days.”

“How did you get past the physical exam?” I
asked, curious despite the slight queasy feeling in my stomach that
resulted whenever Maria talked about being dead. It just didn’t
seem right with her speaking a few feet from me.

“If I concentrate hard enough, I can actually
make my heart beat for up to ten minutes at a time,” she said. “I
do this a few times every day to try and keep my blood circulating
some, too. Keeps me in practice and helps Dellar out.”

“Feeding?” Akira asked.

“Yep, keeps my blood from settling and
becoming stagnant. I have no idea how I still have any blood left,
though. It’s like my body replaces it, but if my body is dead then
it shouldn’t be able to do that, right?”

“Technically,” Akira said thoughtfully as he
rubbed his chin with his hand. “This isn’t my field, though.”

“How is it your mom hasn’t figured out that
something is going on?” I asked. I desperately wanted to change the
subject before I wound up bolting to the bathroom to lose what I
had eaten that morning if they continued to talk about dead
blood.

“I can still eat, but I don’t know what
happens after I swallow the food. I guess it nourishes whatever it
is that’s keeping me mobile, and it’s kept Mom from suspecting that
anything is really wrong. The fatigue is new and weird. It’s why
I’ve been able to convince my doctor that I have mono despite the
inconclusive testing, which I think is probably because of the fact
that my blood is altered, but I don’t know how they haven’t picked
up on that.”

“Fatigue?” Akira asked and his eyes sharpened
as he latched onto that word over everything else Maria had
said.

“Yeah, I seem to run out of energy really
quickly now when I didn’t before. It reminds me of mono, but as far
as I know there’s no way I really have it. I haven’t kissed anyone
other than Dellar, and he says vampires don’t get human
diseases.”

“They don’t,” Akira agreed, “but I wish to
hear more of what happened the night you disappeared.”