Aidan got up, leaving him there, and wiped the blood off of his mouth with the back of his hand. He looked around to see Flame Song staring at him, her own muzzle stained with red. “Better him than you, love,” said Aidan, and leapt back into the sky.

Already, however, the battle was ending. Between Lavasida’s gifted swordsmanship, Flame’s ferocity, and the sheer unnerving quality of the invisible Belak the attackers had had more than enough. Brianna, Lon and Seymore too had done their part, and only a handful fled back into the dark woods.

They regrouped by the wagon to assess their injuries. There were a few cuts and scrapes, but nobody was seriously injured. Brianna had been run through by one lucky swordsman, but being a zombie apparently had its good side, because she seemed to be just fine. She was trying to convince Lon of that, and he wasn’t cooperating. Aidan left the couple to their argument and wandered away from the battleground. Flame Song, who’d reverted to human form, tagged after him.

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m ok. You?”

“I’m fine,” she answered.

Aidan looked at her. “How come you’re back in human form so soon? I thought you preferred being a firecat when you could.”

“I do. But I couldn’t keep the firecat shape going. There’s something about this world that just won’t let me. It was all I could do not to change back in the middle of the battle.”

“Huh.” Aidan filed it away as just one more weird thing about this world. The wagon was getting back underway again, the driver having reappeared from wherever he’d been hiding. They walked alongside together for a while and then Flame spoke. “Aidan, it keeps nagging at me, how you killed that man. What did you mean when you said, ‘better him than you.’ What did you mean?”

“I don’t want to have to depend on you for… for blood the whole time I’m here in this crazy world. You can’t afford to lose blood that often. So, well… better that I take from people like that. I didn’t kill him, you know.”

“You didn’t?”

“No. He may still die, but he was breathing when I left him.”

“Oh. I just assumed… well, I shouldn’t have.” She went silent again.

“What’s bothering you, Flame?”

“I… You’re a gentle man,” she said softly. “And I mean that in the most literal sense. It’s part of what I love about you. Underneath that cocky surface you’re kind, and gentle. I don’t want that to change. I don’t ever want it to change. I thought… I was afraid that you’d killed that man, that you were starting to change.”

“I have killed a man once. I might have killed that man too.”

“I don’t like that thought. I don’t want you to be a killer.”

“What about you? You’ve killed.”

Flame sighed. “I’m a hunter, Aidan. I always have been. And yes, I’ve been a killer too. It’s part of what I am. Sometimes I wish I could be otherwise, but it can’t. You were different though. So light-hearted, so… I don’t know, almost innocent. I don’t want you to change.”

Aidan took her hand, holding it gently as they continued to walk. “We all change, love. There’s no way to help it. And I don’t know if innocent is the word.” He added with a smile.

“Possibly not,” she agreed, smiling back. “And I know changes will come. But… I don’t want you to become somebody I don’t recognize. Promise me that you won’t start to enjoy blood and death Aidan. Just promise me that.”

“I can promise that without reservation. I hate being a vampire. I hate liking blood. I can’t wait until we find the shard and can leave this horrible world.” That was all true, but what Aidan tried not to admit to himself was that there had been a certain undeniable pleasure in taking the vampire hunter’s blood. He hadn’t needed to hold back, hadn’t worried about consequences, and it had been good. Too good. It would be so easy, he thought. There are enough thugs out there for me to justify it. I could say I was doing the world a favor by ridding it of criminals. But I would be just as much in the wrong as those vampire hunters. They thought they were doing the world a favor by ridding it of the evil undead. In the end I would become what I was fighting.

Flame smiled at him and squeezed his hand. He returned the gentle pressure and the smile too. “I agree,” she said. “Though who knows what the next world will be like. Maybe it will be worse.”

“Don’t say that! Ugh… I don’t even want to think about what could be worse than this.”

The remainder of the night and the next day passed without incident, and when Aidan awoke with the sundown they had arrived at Castle Almaric. Aidan could hear the distant rumble of waves and smell the scent of the sea as he stepped out of the wagon. The driver didn’t wait any longer than he had to, no sooner were the two vampires out of the wagon he turned it around and headed back the way he’d come.

“Guess we’re on our own now,” said Brianna, watching the gypsy man drive off.

“We’ve been on our own all this time, lass,” said Belak’s voice out of the darkness. “He’s not been much use thus far.”

“I suppose so. Well, let’s see about finding a place to stay for a bit. The big party isn’t until tomorrow night, so there’s not much we can do until then.”

A little scouting turned up a suitable campsite, far enough from the little town below the castle to avoid notice, but near enough that they wouldn’t have far to go the following evening. Aidan wasn’t looking forward to the next day with no more shelter from the sun than the shade of a tree, but he figured he’d live.

The next day was indeed unpleasant, but Flame kept him company, distracting him from his pain with stories of her homeland.

“You’ll have to write those down someday,” said Aidan. You’re quite the good story teller.”

“I ought to be, since I was the tribe’s story teller back home. But story telling isn’t the same as writing. I’m still not very good at it. I mean I didn’t even know there was such a thing as writing until I left my people. Firecats don’t write. No hands you see.”