Aidan noticed a young woman, about the same age as he himself, watching his exchange with the innkeeper. She caught his gaze and quickly looked away. Aidan wondered what he’d said or done to cause her interest. With a mental shrug he turned back to the innkeeper. The atmosphere was warm and friendly here and Aidan decided he wanted to stay and enjoy the company. But a man without a glass stands out like a sore thumb in a bar. Even if he hadn’t just told the innkeeper he didn’t drink he couldn’t pretend to drink ale. Experience had shown him that alcohol fumes actually made him feel sick and he’d have a hard time not showing it. But he could pretend to drink water, or some other non-alcoholic drink.

“Excuse me again, but do you have anything that’s not alcoholic here?”

The innkeeper shook his head. “Nothing but water.”

“Could I have a glass of water then?”

The innkeeper shrugged as if he found the idea strange, but poured a glass of water and slid it across the bar to Aidan.

“Thank you,” said Aidan. Then, taking his glass he went over near the fire where a group of young men were drinking and telling jokes. He felt eyes following him, and guessed that the young woman who’d shown such an interest in his conversation with the innkeeper was still watching him. He decided to just ignore her. He found a chair, and was welcomed into the group, with a few predictable bird jokes. He smiled good-naturedly, careful to not show his teeth. As the night wore on, he wet his lips from time to time from his glass; occasionally finding excuse to spill a little so that nobody would notice that the water level wasn’t going down. He told a few jokes of his own, and just generally enjoyed being in human company. However much he loved Flame Song and their home in the north, it did get a little bit lonely at times. He had missed being around people. Gradually he began to relax and really enjoy himself.

During a lull in the joking by the fire he heard a soft-voiced argument off to one side. With a quick glance he realized that the girl who’d been staring at him was arguing with an older man. Curious, he turned back to the fire, but kept his ears open. His keen hearing made it easy to make out their conversation.

“Look Brandon, I know you don’t want to believe it, nobody does, but it’s the truth!”

“Now Shauna, I know how seriously you take this sort of thing, but honestly, a vampire? There’s never been any such thing in these parts. Not as far back as anybody can remember. It was just some accident, that’s all.”

“An accident? Really? There’s a whole family gone missing, and Jason found dead just last week with teeth marks on his neck. What do you want, for the vampire to leave us a neatly signed note? What else could it be? And you saw that stranger sneaking around town last night yourself.”

“I’m sure there’s some other explanation. Sure, I admit I saw that guy, probably a thief or a brigand, nothing more. And we don’t know that the Greenholts are dead. They could have just gone on a trip.”

“Without telling anybody? I don’t think so. Why will none of you see reason about this?”

Aidan’s heart sank. Great, there’s another vampire in town, and not one that practices the same self-control as I do, by the sound of things. Just what I need. One slip and I’m going to have a torch-wielding mob after me because of him. Maybe I should just give it up and head on to Aerievale tonight. But the thought of rest in a warm bed was too alluring. I’ll be fine, he convinced himself. It sounds like nobody really believes that there’s a vampire about, and I’ll just take care that I don’t give them any reason to think otherwise.

He returned his attention to the young men by the fireside. Somebody was telling a funny story, and Aidan found himself smiling as it went on. Then the young man telling it got to the punch line. Aidan burst out laughing. That kid sure knows how to tell a story! Suddenly he remembered that he was supposed to be being extra careful. He pressed his lips together and looked around. The other young men were all too far-gone in drink to notice much of anything, but the girl was looking intensely at him again. He met her stare and this time she didn’t look away.

Crud, here I go telling myself to be careful, and I’ve gone and given myself away to the only one in here who actually thinks there’s a vampire about. I’m sure she noticed my fangs. Problem is, I’m not the one she’s after. But it doesn’t look like she’s going to go fetch that torch-wielding mob, at least not right now. What should I do? He shook his worry off. Best to just act like nothing happened. She can’t cause me much trouble on her own, and I don’t think she’ll have any easy time persuading anybody else to help. I do think I need some fresh air though. I’ve gotten myself all worked up. I should go walk it off.

He got to his feet and made his way through the crowd and into the night. Once outside he took a deep breath of clean cold air. Physiologically speaking he didn’t need to breathe anymore, but he found that psychologically he still wanted to sometimes. He wandered in a circle around the inn, trying to relax, but he still felt tense. He had a bad feeling about that girl. She was going to cause him some kind of trouble, he just knew it.

He was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice the soft footsteps behind him. He did hear the swish of a club whistling through the air, and spun around just in time to see the face of the one swinging it. It was the girl from the bar. He had time to think, what the…! but not to do anything else before it connected firmly with his head and everything went dark.