Nathan looked chagrined. “I did not believe Celia could have been responsible for what you reported. I…I suppose I was too arrogant to think she might have escaped Kiefer and myself.” He paused, looking into Jessica’s eyes. “I regret that. Please accept my apology.”
Jessica frowned, but she only contemplated him for a second before her eyes went soft and her irritation seemed to melt away. Her mouth pulled to one side, and she flapped her hand. “Oh, it’s okay. I guess it was a pretty weird story. Thanks for ordering the elixir for us anyway.”
“Yeah, about that.” Kiefer stepped over the rubble of his office to reach a toppled cabinet. “I did mix it up for you ladies, but the Snacks smashed the bottles when they showed up. They smashed everything in here.” He pointed to the sticky, luminescent substances spilled all around the cabinet, smeared amid shards of broken glass and crumbled cork stoppers.
“Can you make more?” Nathan asked him.
“I left some of it at home. It’s not far, as you know. I can go get it and meet you guys wherever you’re headed next.”
“We should go back to Dara’s place,” Jessica said. “Based on what we know, we think her husband, Jason, was bitten before Aaron was, which means we should probably give him the medicine first, right?”
“Very well,” Nathan agreed, and started herding them all toward the doorway, “one of you give Kiefer the address and we will be on our way.”
“Um, Nathan?” Kiefer paused, patting at his crusty hair. “I know this is an emergency and all, but is it okay with you if I take a few minutes at home to wash some of this blood off me-?”
“By all means,” Nathan nodded at him. “Just hurry.”
Chapter Eleven
“What’s a Snack?” Lucy asked Nathan, once they were back on the road, heading to the Donovans’ apartment. She had twisted to the side so she could face the vampire through the gap between the front seats of Dara’s SUV. One hand clutched at the seat, and she peeped at him over her knuckles.
“A human who allows a vampire to feed off them whenever they like, and who performs their bidding,” Nathan said with distaste. “Your basic pathetic lackey.”
“Do all vampires have those?” Lucy wondered. “The bad ones, I mean. Not you, obviously.”
Nathan smiled briefly. “I honestly do not know. But many people on the internet have reported such arrangements, so I suppose it is at least common.” Seeing Lucy’s look of confusion, he explained, “Between us, Kiefer and I have only ever interacted with three other vampires, including Celia. Much of what we ‘know’ about the species, we have gleaned from old texts we have tracked down, and from the internet, by conferring with others who claim to have, collectively, hunted far more of these creatures than we have.”
Lucy watched him by the light of the streetlamps as he spoke, noting the tension in his handsome face. “You don’t like talking about this,” she realized.
“No,” he admitted, “not at all. But I understand you have questions. I will tell you as much as I can.” He punctuated this with another small smile which, although strained, seemed genuine.
Lucy smiled back and adjusted her glasses. “How long have you been a vampire?” she asked.
“Forty-two years.”
“That’s not very long,” Jessica interjected with obvious surprise.
“It seems like a long time to me,” Nathan told her, but with a rough laugh.
“Forty-two years and you’ve only ever run into three other vampires?” Dara asked, cruising to a stop at a red light.
“I have only ever run into two,” Nathan corrected her. “First the master who made me, and then many years later, Celia. The third vampire to which I referred was Kiefer’s kill, which he accomplished prior to meeting me. It took him several years, but he tracked down and destroyed his own master.”
“His own master?” Lucy’s pulse picked up speed. “You mean…”
“He used to be a vampire,” Dara said cautiously.
“But he isn’t anymore,” Jessica finished, sounding excited.
“Correct,” Nathan said. “He is very much human once again, as you all just witnessed.”
Lucy’s heart leapt at this revelation and, judging from the eager look on Dara’s face, she was just as happy to hear it.
“So it really can be done!” Lucy was ecstatic. “If we kill the thing that bit Aaron and Jason, they’ll be normal again! Um, no offense, Nathan.”
Nathan said, “None taken. Believe me, if I could change back and be ‘normal,’ too, I would.”
“But,” Jessica said to him, “you do seem normal. You’re not running around attacking people, like this Celia character. Are there different kinds of vampires or something?”
Nathan thought for a moment. He said, “While I cannot tell you for certain why some vampires are feral and others are not, there is a popular theory that attempts to explain it. Some hunters believe all masters are descended from one of two original vampire families, both related to one another, and both now long extinct. The masters—like Celia—are their ‘first generation,’ so to speak. And while all masters are generally mad as a function of their great age, the vampires they produce are influenced by the blood of their ancestors. The descendants of one original family tend to be rational, while the descendants of the other tend to be feral. If this is true, it could mean that my maker originated from the more rational branch of the family tree, and that this is why I am not prone to aggression or violence. Personally, I feel this is just wishful thinking. It is preposterous to me, the idea that there has ever been such a thing as a ‘good’ vampire. Almost every hunter’s report I have ever seen, has told of an encounter with a rabid nosferatu or an evil master. Which leads me to believe there are only those vampires who are bad and…those of us who have, for whatever reason, yet to become
