The First Mark
I open my eyes and somehow, I have rendered a perfect replica on the page of Nick’s talisman. Surprising as I don’t remember being able to draw even stick figures well. I finger my own amulet, the infinity symbol held tightly in place over my throat by old worked leather straps. Given to me as a ward against vamps, it has no special abilities. Other than granting me the occasional solace.
The exercise of entering Nick into the book has sapped me and I feel completely drained. The feeling is welcome. Along with excess energy is gone the worry, the doubt, the fear, the regret, and the guilt. Not even the shred of karmic resistance remains. I push the book away. It is a vampire of sorts. It’s stealing my memories. Or making copies, rather, so that I 
might connect back lifetime over lifetime to what I had been before.
I check the time. 10:11 PM. After meeting with Morena, then finding the office space and meeting with Nick, running errands, checking out that dumpster for any more UVA, and doing a haul through the library for any further vamp sign, I have no further work. I contemplate a quick email to my professor and guru Dr. Kaga. Something is working its way out. But the fatigue wins out and I make my way to the bed. nothing to do this night but sleep.
I pass the window, see the new construction across the street, its cranes lit up in the darkness. Throughout my traveling, I’ve never seen a place in such a hurried state of decay and rebirth, struggling to craft steel and shine while older times crumble slowly beneath it. It feels all apropos, like the book coming awake after so many years.
Dinner tomorrow night with Skovajsa. Well, meeting anyways. What does a vampire do in a steakhouse?
And the next night, the mysterious vampire dreamer. I do indeed wonder, my Shakespeare ringing in my muted head: What dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause?
Vampirony 
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