R: "I'm still not really sure I should be here."
G: "You are safe with us."
"Yeah I know that, but I don't belong here. I'm not like you, I don't think I ever will be."
"Do you want to go home?"
"No. I mean not yet. I just..."
"We are impossible, but we are here."
"Exactly."
"I will wait for you."
"Oh, sorry, which way?" He smiles and starts walking.
"This way." There's barely anyone around. It's only just getting dark so Rachel can still see easily. There's a man with a dog, which runs over to them. R: "Hello doggie. Pretty doggie." It looks up at Glade, and sits down in front of him. Glade smiles and pats it's head. G: "Good boy." The owner comes over to get the dog back. "Sorry about that, he jumps up at everyone. Odd, he didn't jump at you."
G: "Dogs are always calm around me."
"Yeah, I see that, maybe you could train him sometime."
R: "He's all right, he probably just want to run around. What's his name?"
"Max."
R: "There's a lot of Max's around."
"It works, when he listens. Come on Max, time to go home. Maybe I'll see you again."
"Maybe. Bye."
"See you." The dog looks back to watch Rachel and tries to pull his owner home.
R: "Looks like the dog is walking him."
G: "He is. He wants to go home for a treat."
"Yeah, probably. Why are dogs so calm with you?"
"We do not know. Wild dogs move away from us but domesticated dogs like us."
"Maybe they know that you're a man inside."
"That is possible."
"How did it happen?"
"How did what happen?"
"How did you get turned."
"Do you mean what happened just before I was changed?"
"Yeah."
"I was working on my teacher's farm. No others would work for him because there were too many stories about him. I did not believe the stories, so I went to work for him. It was a very good arrangement. I would care for the animals, and work the irrigation system-"
"The what system?"
"Please do not interrupt."
"Sorry."
"Irrigation means watering. Malise saw how well I worked with the baby animals, so he offered to mate our mare, Ginger. We were all surprised at the foals colour. Jet black. It was stormy on the afternoon he was born, and there was a flash of lightning just as he arrived. We could never name a black foal lightning, so he was named Thunder. He had a temper and he was terrified of his namesake. So much that he kicked me when there was a storm. I already knew what Malise is, so he offered to heal me. There was no way I would survive the damage caused by Thunder's kick, so I had little choice. We lost Thunder and we could not care for the other animals properly, so we had to pay people from the towns to come to work for us. After a while we could not live there because nobody would work for us. The demons of the valley. We had to move. Malise went to others he knew, but I started to wander. A young adult with no home. I had enough money to find a house, but not much knowledge of how to keep or even make a territory of my own. It is something which must be learned alone because it is different to every one of us."
"But you did learn."
"Eventually." Rachel stops and looks into the trees.
"Did you see that?" She points at a shadow between the trees. "There."
"Bats. They are harmless."
"I didn't know there was bats in the city."
"There are always bats in cities, particularly when there are parks like this."
"Can you hear them?"
"Barely, but yes. I knew a woman who could hear them."
"I don't hear anything."
"It is unusual to be able to hear them, but they are very noisy."
"Do you know what type they are?"
"Not from this distance." There's a group of teenagers in the park now, but not on the path they're going to take. Lana and Mako are waiting for them so they start moving again. When they catch up the boys stare at each other for a few second, and Glade nods. R: "What's going on?"
L: "The teens aren't nice."
M: "We could smell something on them."
L: "They're gone now, and as long as we don't see them again we should be fine."
R: "What's the problem? You're all strong enough to deal with them."
L: "Its' best we don't need to deal with them."
M: "We don't want the publicity, especially this close to Glade's home."
G: "Did you see the bats?"
M: "Yeah we did."
L: "Heard them too. Noisy little things." They all start moving again and stay together to talk easier.
R: "What's it like being a vampire?"
L: "It's different for everyone. I quite like it, but I do get a bit upset sometimes when I lose an old friend."
M: "I don't tend to make friends, unless you count people who like playing."
G: "I rarely have regular playmates. Only Leanne."
M: "She's nice.
G: "She would be seductive to anyone unlinked."
R: "Unlinked?"
M: "Without a mate. It didn't work on us but any human guy would want her. It almost felt like our abilities."
G: "I think it is like some of our abilities."
R: "I thought your abilities were all about pheromones?"
L: "Most are, but when you're around people enough you get to know what works on guys. It's common for humans to learn it too, particularly women."
R: "Is there anything other than human that you can call me?"
M: "We're sorry, we didn't realise you didn't like it."
R: "It's not bad, not really, it's just when you say that it reminds me of how different you are."
M: "Vampire or not, people are people."
R: "Thank you."
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