A pair of boots stepped into his field of view and then the winged vampire was crouching in front of him. "Are you all right? Did they hurt you?"

David took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "I... I'm okay. They didn't do anything to me."

The vampire reached out to him and he flinched, half-falling backward to sit on the dusty road. The vampire looked at him for a moment, his expression unreadable, then sighed softly. "I swear to you that I won't harm you. I'll swear by whatever gods you worship, if you want. I said I owe you a debt of honor. I meant that. I will allow no harm to befall you." His voice was soft, sincere, human-sounding.

"Sorry," said David inanely, still shivering. His brain was running in mad circles. I almost died! He saved me! He's a vampire and he's right there! I'm inches away from a vampire, I'm going to die! But he saved me! He took another deep breath, closing his eyes.

There was a soft rustle as the vampire stood up, and David looked up to find him reaching out a hand. The vampire's eyes were a deep, startling blue that seemed to almost glow in the dim starlight. His expression was calm, friendly. David took another breath and extended his own hand upward. The vampire clasped it, his flesh cool to the touch, and pulled David effortlessly to his feet.

The vampire smiled. It was a close-mouthed smile that didn't show his fangs at all. "I must now resist the urge to quote cheesy old movie lines. Though I doubt you've seen the movie in question anyhow. But if you wish to survive the night, it might be best if you came with me."

"Where would we go?"

"To my home, eventually. Though it's more than a single day's travel on foot. But it is the one place where you would be safe both from vampires and from your fellow humans." He looked at David regretfully and gave another soft sigh. "And for that latter I apologize. You attempted to do a good thing, not knowing that I was in no danger, and in return you were cast out to die. I regret my part in that greatly, and I am sorry."

"I... um... it's okay. I guess we're even now, since you saved me. And I was really in danger." He shivered again, involuntarily, and tried to push out the too-bright memory of the female vampire's lick, of the feel of her cold body against his. "How far away is your home?"

The vampire pointed to the west, where the black of the nighttime desert was divided from the cold, deep blue of the darkened sky by a jagged line of mountains. "It's in the mountains, there. None of the other vampires will come anywhere near it, so you'd be safe."

David hesitated, then shrugged. "What other choice have I got?"

The vampire smiled regretfully. "None, I'm afraid.

"My name is Aidan, by they way," he added as he turned to lead the way across the barren desert. "I'd say 'nice to meet you,' but it's probably not appropriate to the situation."

"Er... no, I guess not. I'm David."

"David. A good, classical name. I knew another David once, quite a few years ago. He was a rather nice fellow. A bit prone to depression and melancholy, but still quite engaging."

"Um," David found it more than a bit surreal to be making small talk with a vampire, but what else was he going to do? "I don't think I've ever met anybody named Aidan before," he said.

"It's not a terribly common name. I'm told it's Irish in origin, though I wouldn't know. I've been to many places, but it happens that Ireland isn't one of them. And these days such trips are rather too difficult to make. A shame really. I'd always wanted to visit Ireland, because of the name, if for no other reason. Not that I've any particular Irish heritage, mind. My mother went through a period of being far too fond of Irish culture. I think I had a narrow escape with being called Cu Chulainn, or something equally difficult to spell." He chuckled softly.

David couldn't think of anything to say in response. You didn't think of vampires as having mothers. You knew they did, that they'd once been just as human as anybody, but that was something you didn't think about, didn't speak of. They were them, inhuman and other. They weren't like you.

"You're... not quite like... er..."

"Not like you expected a vampire to be?" Aidan asked.

David nodded wordlessly.

"No, I'm not."Aidan's voice hardened, and when David glanced over his expression was grim. "I've said you can trust me, David, and it's true. But the other vampires are not like me. Not at all like me. Never trust one of them. Never come anywhere near one of them, if you can help it." He paused for a long moment, then chuckled. "But you hardly need me to tell you that. You've been raised, no doubt, on stories of the evils of vampirism. Trust those stories, they're all true."

There was a long moment of silence, then David asked hesitantly, "What makes you different from them?"

Aidan stopped walking for a moment and looked at him. Then he shrugged and continued. "That is a very, very long story, and one you probably wouldn't believe anyhow. I shall just say that I was like them once, long ago, but I learned that a life of pure selfishness is very unrewarding in the long run, much fun as it might be in the short term."

"Oh."

There was a long silence after that as the two made their way through scrub brush, up hills and across small dry washes. Once they crossed a stream, and David stopped to fill his water bottle. Once he halted to eat some of the food he'd packed. As the night passed, David began to stumble and trip, weariness overcoming him. The third time he fell and began to slowly pick himself up, Aidan looked at him, and then glanced at the clear night sky, full of stars, overhead. "You're tired. You've walked all day, and half the night. But I want to get as far as I can before sunrise, and we're nowhere near a safe place for me to spend the day yet. We would go much faster if I carried you. Would that I could carry you and fly, but you probably weigh twice what I do."

"Yeah..." said David wearily. He wasn't especially tall, but he was compactly muscled, and the slender vampire was a full head shorter. "But how are you going to carry me? I'm still bigger than you are on the ground too."

Aidan smiled, the very tips of his fangs showing. "I'm a great deal stronger than I look." Then he stepped forward and almost before David knew what was happening, he'd been picked up and slung over the vampire's shoulder. He let out a yelp of surprise, and then yelped again as Aidan started to move, not quite jogging, but walking very rapidly, as though completely unaffected by his burden. David found it wasn't terribly comfortable to be carried, but he also found he was tired enough he didn't much mind, really. He fell into a kind of half doze, not quite able to fall asleep, but not quite awake either.

He was jolted out of this state by the vampire setting him down and saying, "We're here."

David blinked groggily. "Huh? Where? Wait, I thought you said we couldn't reach your home tonight."

"We can't, and we haven't, but this is one of my bolt-holes. There are places like this all across this desert, some natural, some made by vampires, all used by us to hide from the sun during the day." David looked around. They were standing on the floor of a dry wash, like countless others they'd crossed during the night. This one was, perhaps, a bit deeper than most they'd encountered, but there seemed to be nothing special about it. Rocks, some sand, a few scrubby plants here and there, nothing out of the ordinary. Then Aidan stepped up to one of the massive boulders that lay on the floor of the wash and pushed it aside as though it was made from Styrofoam. Behind it an opening gaped black in the bank of the wash.

David blinked again. "Good Lord. No human could move that. No wonder nobody ever finds vampire hiding places."

Aidan nodded. "Yes. This is why, even though you still have them terribly outnumbered, you may yet lose the perpetual, undeclared war between your kind and mine. I am stronger than most vampires. But the weakest of them is still stronger than the strongest of you. There are ways, still. There have been humans who hunted them down successfully. But that only happens once, or twice, before a few of them band together, and then..." he shrugged again. "But enough of such depressing topics. Come in and rest. You are weary, and dawn is coming." And with that he stepped into the blackness of the hole.

David followed, too tired to feel nervous. He had to duck to get into the tunnel, and inside it was pitch black, but then there was a scrape and a flare of light as Aidan lit a match. He touched the match to a candle, and then continued on down the narrow corridor. It made a sharp turn and ended abruptly in a tiny oval chamber. There was a nest of blankets against the far wall, and a small stack of candles, but otherwise the room was bare.

Aidan dropped down to sit on the floor, and leaned against one wall. "I shall let you have the bed, such as it is," he said with a wry smile.

"Thanks," said David wearily, and dropped down into the pile of blankets. They seemed to be clean enough, and he was too tired to really care anyhow. Moments later he had curled up and fallen sound asleep.