Vampirony

“Morena?” I ask her as she stands with me on the corner, waiting for my cab.  She’s huddled herself together as if it’s forty below out here instead of a pleasing summer night.  The glow is gone and every remnant of cuts or bruising she had.  No favoring of her limbs either.

“All vampires can do that?”

I sigh.  “No, not exactly.  The healing, that’s the first time I’ve seen it done that way.  Usually blood has to be exchanged not just saliva.”

She cringes as I say it.  “How about their speed, strength, their….other powers?  Jesper can do all that too?”

I realize now I should have probed more about how she and Jesper met.  I didn’t realize things would get forced into her face like this.  Four vampires in a metropolitan area like this, none of them related, I’ve never seen this.  Not since the Old World.

“Jesper likely has strength and speed, likely much more than Maurice who is young in vampire terms.”  I can’t think what could explain their aging.  “Other abilities will depend on their maker, their strain, their type.  There are lots of types of vampires.”

She nods just as the cab rolls up.  I hesitate just a moment, maybe I can reschedule Skovajsa.  She answers that idea by opening the back door for me. 

“I didn’t know you were so unaware.  I’m…I’m sorry.”

She shrugs.  “It’s not your problem.”

“Well,” I say as I slide into the car.  “You can bet Jesper’s going to get a piece of my mind about setting you the task of watching over me.”

She slams the door shut but I can still hear her say, “Not if I get to him first.”

I lower the window.  “Don’t see him tonight.  Promise me.  You’re not ready for that.  Wait…”

She grabs the window frame, “For what?”

I pat her hand.  “For when you’re stronger.”

She slips her hands off the door and I pat the driver’s seat to go ahead.  Vampires.  They complicate the living as well as the dead.