Andrew gulped. He could hear the number of people milling around down on the ground floor of the studio. It was a lot more people than he had expected. He'd never been to a gallery show. He had been expecting perhaps a dozen guests to show up. It sounded like closer to a hundred. That was good, but... he was going to have to go out there in just a few minutes.

The door opened and Marian came in. “Ready to go?”

“I th-th-th-th... damn.” He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “I th-think so. I'm j-just k-k-kind of nervous.”

“They're here because they like your stuff. I've already heard a lot of good things said, and had a few people ask about buying, and most of them have only just arrived.”

“Y-yeah. I'll b-be okay. I j-just hope th-they d-d-don't change th-their m-minds about the art when th-they hear I st-st-st-st-st... damn it. That I c-can't t-talk right.”

“Andrew... if you really don't want to go out there, you don't have to. It's not an absolute requirement for the artist to be present. I've done shows for people from overseas before, and very few of them ever came in person. I can make up some excuse for you.”

Andrew shook his head. “No! Th-this is what I w-want to do. I've wanted to have an art show my whole life, since I was just a kid. I want to be there for it, and not hiding in a back room! I'll be fine, even if I do kind of look like an idiot. I only stutter when I'm nervous or when I'm thinking too hard about talking anyhow.”

“All right. In that case it's time to go down.”

Andrew nodded. He took another deep breath and followed Marian when she opened the door and stepped out onto the landing at the top of the stairs. The room was full of people. It wasn't packed, exactly, there was plenty of room for people to move around and look at the paintings, but it was still amazingly crowded compared to most times Andrew had been there, when there were at most two or three people browsing.

He swallowed. That was a lot of people. And as they noticed him standing at the top of the stairs they began to fall silent and look up, dozens of faces turned in his direction.

I've been killed. I kicked a predator in the face. I'm a freaking vampire, for heaven's sake. I can deal with this. This is easy, these people want to like me. The thought helped, but he still felt butterflies multiplying madly in his stomach.

Marian started down the stairs, and Andrew slowly followed, conscious of how his hooves rang on the steps in the near-silence. About half way down she stopped. “Ladies and Gents, thank you all for coming this evening. My name is Marian, I'm the one throwing this little party. But none of you are here to meet me, I'm sure. So I'll introduce the star of this little show. Meet Andrew Chen, the vampire painter.”

There was a smattering of applause, and most of the faces looking up at him were smiling. And he'd already rehearsed what he would say with Marian. He could do this. “H-h-hello. Th-thank you for c-coming.” He paused to take another deep breath, then continued. “Th-this art show is a little b-bit unusual. You might have heard that I'm a vampire and that I paint my own blood into these paintings. That's true. Most of the red there is just paint, but every one has at least a little of me in it. Strange, I know, but it's how I say what I want to say with my art. I hope you enjoy it.”

There was another round of applause, a little louder this time. Andrew grinned. He'd done it! Marian started down the stairs again and he followed her into the crowd.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur. Andrew mingled with the people who had come to see his art, and answered the same half dozen questions over and over. After the first few his stutter vanished completely and by the time Marian began shooing people out he felt he could probably explain about the blood in his paintings, about life as a vampire and how he'd become one in his sleep.

“That's the last transaction,” said Marian with a smile as she waved goodbye to a middle aged feline who had purchased several paintings. “About half of them are outright sold, and another quarter have been spoken for, so most of those will probably be paid for in the next few days. It went very well! Usually you don't actually sell that much at the show opening. You'll have to get painting fast to replace these when people start picking them up.”

Andrew grinned tiredly. “That's terrific.” He felt like he should be bouncing in excitement, but he was too tired. He hadn't done anything other than talk, but he felt incredibly drained and worn out. He'd fed late the day before, from one of Marian's odd friends, so he wasn't actually hungry, but he was all out of energy all the same.

“I'll just go lock the door and...”

The door chime interrupted her. “Excuse me. I know I'm too late, but I was hoping that somebody would still be here.”

Andrew and Marian both looked up. Standing in the doorway, looking a little bit nervous and hesitant, was a young female muntjak. Andrew gaped at her. It was the girl he'd bitten all those weeks ago.

“I'm sorry,” said Marian. “We're closed. You'll have to come back tomorrow.”

“I have to work nights, this is the earliest I could get here,” she said. Andrew was still staring. “I was just hoping... uhm.” The girl looked at him, and her ears twitched. “Uhm. I just wanted to tell you, er...” MOThe muntjak girl stepped inside, and Marian locked the door, then went up the stairs to her office, leaving the two cervines staring at each other in nervous silence. At last Andrew said, “I'm s-sorry about... about b-biting you. I d-d-didn't...”

“It's okay,” she said. “That's, uhm, that's why I came. I'm Mary. Uhm. There was a story in the paper about the show, and I knew it had to be you, because there couldn't be two vampire muntjaks, I don't think. And... uhm. It said how you didn't like, uhm, didn't like feeding from people.” Her ears flicked and she shifted, looking uncomfortable. She's so nervous, he thought, feeling guilty. She must be terrified of me. “I wanted to say that you didn't need to feel bad about me. I was scared at the time, but I'm okay now. I kind of thought... I kind of thought even right after that you had to do it. I talked to a therapist a couple of times, and she thought so too, and that I shouldn't be scared of things. So I wanted to tell you...” she trailed off and stood, scuffing the floor with one hoof.

“I'm glad you're okay. I really am sorry,” said Andrew. “I didn't really mean to hurt you. But I did... I did have to, like you said. I'm sorry I scared you.”

“I'm not scared anymore,” she said. “I... uhm. I kinda...” He suddenly became aware that he could hear her heartbeat and it was going very fast. If she wasn't afraid, why...? “I kinda think you're interesting. I, uhm, I'd like to get to know you. If... if you wouldn't mind, that is.”

Andrew blinked. Had she just asked him out? “I w-wouldn't mind at all. I felt so b-bad after I attacked you. I'm really glad you're all right. And I w-would like to g-get to know you too.” He felt his ears heat. He'd never been asked out by a girl. Heck, he's never asked a girl out!

“That would be great. I work late usually. I guess that's okay, since you're awake at nights, right? I could, uhm, I could come over tomorrow about this time?”

Andrew found himself smiling. He'd had a real art show. He was going to go on a real date. All the horrible things that had happened since he'd been bitten that long ago night seemed dim and distant memories, and his old, boring, depressive life seemed almost as though it belonged to another person. “Tell me where you work and I'll meet you there. After all, there are predators out on the streets after dark.”

Mary giggled, and Andrew grinned at her, and everything was right with the world.

Blood and Fire:
Prologue
Chapter 1,
Chapter 2,
Chapter 3
Chapter 4,
Chapter 5,
Chapter 6,
Chapter 7,
Chapter 8,
Chapter 9,
Epilogue.

Further adventures of the Rhiannon family:
Serapha's Tale.
Ariana's Story.
First Flight.
Father and Son.

Blood Choice:
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4,
Epilogue.

Dragon Child:
Prologue,
Chapter 1,
Chapter 2,
Chapter 3,
Chapter 4,
Chapter 5,
Chapter 6,
Chapter 7,
Chapter 8,
Chapter 9,
Chapter 10,
Chapter 11.

Other Stories:
Night Shift.
Son of the Cat.

Blood And Fire (old version)
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Epilogue.