David woke precisely at sundown. He sat up. Megan had already gotten up earlier, she usually did. There was no sound from the storage room.

He got to his feet and went through the door to find Megan and Jeff standing there, looking at Mack, who was still lying on his cot, unmoving.

Then Mack's eyes opened. He blinked and slowly sat up. He surveyed himself for a moment. "It worked, I guess."

Megan suddenly ran to the side of the cot and hugged Mack. "We were all worried!" she said. "It was really creepy seeing you lying there, just looking dead."

Mack smiled. "I guess I had the easy bit then." He blinked again, several times,as if trying to clear his eyes. "Why is it so bright in here?"

David smiled. "It's not. Your eyes are just a lot more sensitive now."

"Heh. I can live with that, I guess." He ran his tongue over his teeth. "Man, this is weird."

David chuckled. "Tell me about it."

Mack slid his legs over the side of the cot and stood up.

"How do you feel?" asked David.

"Pretty good, actually."

"Why don't we go outside then?" said David.

"Okay." Mack took a couple of steps and almost immediately tripped. "What the hell?"

David chuckled. "You're moving faster now. It takes a little getting used to. You'll want to go slow, and," he looked more serious, "Be very careful with Megan and Jeff. I had a worried moment there when she hugged you. If you'd hugged back you could have hurt her without meaning to. Don't be punching Jeff on the shoulder or any of that until you're completely used to your strength."

Mack nodded and picked himself up. He started walking again, taking every step with careful deliberation. He still nearly tripped several more times before he got outside. "This is nuts. How long will it be before I stop falling over my own feet?"

"Not long. It only took me a few days to get completely used to it."

"Oh good."

"Now that we're out here, take a look around." David grinned to himself.

Mack looked around the starlit clearing.

Then he looked up. "Wow."

David smiled. "Almost makes up for missing sunsets, doesn't it?"

"Yeah..." Mack trailed off, staring at the incredible brilliance of the stars which now crowded the night sky thickly with millions of points of light. He could see vivid colors in them that he'd never seen before, and there were so many of them! And he could see other things, swirls and spirals and clouds of light, faint and tiny, but there. The Milky Way was a glory of incredible incandescence, and for the first time he could see not only the stars, but the dark clouds that blocked the rest of it from view. "Wow," he repeated.

"Let's go take a walk," said David. "The more moving around you do, the faster you'll adjust. We can go find some rocks to throw or something, to get used to your strength."

"Right."

They set off into the cool summer night. Mack was awkward at first, but it wasn't long before he could at least manage to walk without tripping over his own feet.

"Here, try lifting this," said David, indicating a large boulder.

Mack eyed it dubiously, but he knew how easily the much smaller David had been able to lift rocks that were larger yet, so he went over and heaved at it. He almost fell backwards when it came up like it weighed nothing. He dropped it back to the ground.

"Careful," said David. "You're tougher than you used to be, but if you drop a big enough rock on your foot, you're still going to have broken bones like anybody else. And they're a real pain to heal."

"Right," nodded Mack. Then he laughed. "Man! This is great! I want to... I don't know, throw a rock to the moon, or... something! Want to arm wrestle?"

David grinned. He has already felt the strength of Mack's mind, and given his past experiences he suspected how this was going to go. "Sure."

They knelt on opposite sides of the boulder Mack had lifted and locked hands. "All right, go!" said David, and then they began to strain against each other. For a long moment nothing happened, then Mack started losing ground. He gritted his teeth and put everything he had into it, but still David pressed his arm down until his hand touched the rock.

"What the hell! You're still stronger?" Mack eyed the much slighter vampire with incredulity.

"Yep. Strength isn't just physical when you're a vampire. It depends on your age, and on other things too. I'm not really sure what sort of other things, but..." he shrugged. "So far I'm the second strongest vampire I've ever met. The strongest was half my size and could put my hand flat in about half a second. You're a fair bit stronger than average, far as I can tell, and your size does at least give you the advantage of having more mass to throw around in a fight, but you're not guaranteed to be stronger than somebody smaller than you." David grinned. "So don't underestimate skinny guys."