When Aidan awoke the next night he found Shauna already sitting beside him with the lantern lit. “Well vampire, are you ready to tell me what I want to know?”

Aidan shook his head tiredly. “I can’t tell you what I don’t know myself.”

“Why do you persist in this nonsense? Just tell me!” Her frustration was evident.

Aidan remained silent. What point was there in arguing with the girl? She wouldn’t believe him no matter what he said. He was starting to slip back into depression. He had struggled so much, come so far, and now he was going to end his life in this dark hole with only a stubborn girl for company.

“What loyalty could a vampire have? Why save the other vampire? You know I’ll catch him sooner or later?”

“I’m sure you will,” Aidan said tiredly. “But I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”

She looked at him. “You know, you almost have me believing you.”

Aidan didn’t respond. An uncomfortable silence stretched out. Shauna broke it at last. "You look very young to be a vampire. I suppose you're actually much older."

"Heh. No. I've been one for only a year now. I'm only twenty-three."

She looked surprised. "How did it happen?"

Aidan looked up at her. What reason did he have to share his life story with her? But then what reason did he have not to? With a mental shrug he said “I didn’t want to become a vampire. It was the last thing I wanted, in fact.” He remembered the dim shack, the crazed Lord Jander, and his fear and terror. He shivered. "There's not really that much to tell. I was kidnapped by a vampire. He changed me. He was... the kind of vampire you seem to think I am. He liked killing things." The two dwarven scouts, lying dead in the snow, flashed through his mind. "I managed to kill him, and escape. That's it, really."

Shauna was looking at him with a kind of unwilling fascination in her eyes. “Did it hurt, being turned into a vampire?”

"Some, yes. It... I was afraid more than in pain though."

“How...” she hesitated over the question, and then asked, “How did he do it? How do you make somebody a vampire?”

Aidan looked at her. Why was he sharing this? She didn’t care; to her he was nothing but a threat to her precious village and an object of horrified curiosity. But he felt the desire to talk about it. He’d never really discussed that night with anybody, not even Flame Song. At first he hadn’t been ready to deal with it, and then it just hadn’t come up. He took a deep breath, and answered. “He drank my blood. That was the part that hurt.” His eyes went dark, turned inward, remembering the horrible touch of that crazed mind. “He drained me to the very edge of death, but stopped just before he killed me outright. I was still dying though. I wouldn’t have lived out the night, if he hadn’t...” He stopped. The memory was still almost too painful.

“Hadn’t what?” asked Shauna.

“He cut his wrist and made me drink his blood. I didn’t want to, but I was too weak and he forced me to. Then I passed out. The next thing I remember was waking up the next night, a vampire.”

After he finished there was another long silence. Then Shauna said, “That’s horrible.” Aidan didn’t reply. Shauna’s eyes narrowed as she looked at him. “But how do I know that’s the truth? Maybe you’re just trying to win my sympathy again.”

Aidan shrugged. “I can’t make you believe anything. But it’s the truth.” He leaned back against the wall as best he could, suddenly very tired, and suddenly aware of being very hungry. He could hear Shauna's heartbeat, smell her blood. He closed his eyes, but couldn't block it out. "Shauna... I know you won't let me free, but I'm worried about what I might do if I get too hungry. I don't want to hurt you. Could you bring me something?"

Her expression of sympathy vanished completely before a look of total horror. “You want me to bring some helpless victim to you? Are you crazy?”

“No! I told you I live on animal blood. All I need is some animal. Bring a rabbit, a chicken, anything. I told you I don’t drink human blood and I never will.”

“No.”

He was pleading now. “I beg you, please. I’ve never been more than a few days without food. I’m afraid I’ll lose control of myself. I don’t know what I could do if I were starving. And if I hurt you, or anyone, I’d regret it forever. Please!”

“No! I told you I’ll leave you here to starve to death if you don’t tell me where the other vampire is, and I’m not going back on it.” She snatched up the lantern, bolted to her feet, and stormed out of the cave. Aidan slumped against the wall. His heart felt as dark as the utter black of the cavern around him. He was going to die here and Flame Song would never know what had happened to him. Littlespark would have to grow up without a father after all.