“How much have you told him?” demanded Jordon, his voice rising with anger.

Luca bolted back to reality, his thoughts returning to the present.

“You risk not only our existence but his life. It’s just a matter of time before they come here, come for you both,” explained Jordon.

“Everything,” replied Luca. “He knows everything.” With Kyle in the next room, he kept his voice low.

“You knew the rules and you broke them anyway.” Jordon shook his head in disgust.

“Damn the rules!” Luca felt anger rise inside him. “If I’d wanted to live with rules forced upon me by others, I would have stayed human. Who are they to tell us how we should conduct ourselves? You speak of them as if they’re gods. Well, are they?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes. Without them and their rules, rules which you adamantly despise, anarchy would reign. There are many out there who aren’t as civilized as you and I. You need to understand this. They would out us along with themselves just for the fame and attention it would bring.”

There was truth in Jordon’s words. Luca couldn’t deny that.

“I will never allow them to harm him.”

“And how do you expect to prevent it? They’re stronger than any of us, and no one would willingly go up against them. To do so would mean certain destruction. In case you haven’t realized it yet, even the undead can die.”

“Then if that’s my fate, I’ll face it head-on.”

“Why are you so adamant about protecting this…human? What hold does he have over you? He’s nothing.”

Luca resisted telling Jordon the truth. That they had both known Kyle before.

“Take him away from here,” ordered Jordon, throwing both hands in the air. “I don’t want him under this roof. I refuse to support this.”

****

“It’s time for you to go home.”

Kyle sat on the edge of the bed watching him.

“Is everything okay?” he asked. His voice held concern.

“We’ll talk about it later. I’m going to put you in a cab, and I want you to stay put for a couple days. You still need to rest.”

“Something is wrong. I can tell. Is it because of me?”

Weakness sluiced through Luca. He needed to feed. With dawn only hours away he had to make haste.

“I inadvertently put you at risk. It’s not safe for you to be here. I’ll come to you tomorrow night to check on you.”

“I’m trying my best to understand. You’ve told me some crazy things. I know it’s the truth, I feel that, and I see it in your eyes. If I’m in danger, I deserve to know everything.”

“I broke rules that, once broken, cannot be undone. I wasn’t thinking straight. I wanted to save you, and the only way I could do that was through my blood.

“Now you must go. I have things to tend to.”

****

Often Luca planned his hunts weeks in advance. He would stalk his chosen victims, watch them from afar to get a sense of who they were and how they operated.

For the later part of the night, he found himself outside a trailer park which skirted the city. The divide between the rich and the poor was more pronounced here than any other area.

Inside number twenty-two Ms. Miranda Lewis had drunk herself into a stupor once again. She lay in a pool of her own vomit while Bradley, age six months, lay crying in his crib, hungry and frightened.

Some people could be saved, but she wasn’t one of them. Chances were, little Bradley would grown up to fall into place, in the same circle unless he found a way to break the vicious cycle.

The door was unlocked, Luca wasn’t surprised. The first thing that hit was the stink of vomit and other unsavory things. He winced as he looked around at the mess surrounding him.

First he went to Bradley. “Hush,” he said, soothing him, before placing him back down in the crib.

Off to the side, the so-called mother lay sprawled on the pull-out bed. For someone barely thirty, she didn’t look so good.

Luca slid to her side, being mindful of what he touched. It was quick and painless, the last chapter in her life written in blood. The end.

Taking one last look around the trailer, Luca picked up the phone and called the police. They would come, discover her body and, hopefully, little Bradley would be whisked into a much better life. There was always hope.

Back on the street, footsteps followed him. “Déjà vu,” he said, not needing to turn to see who it was.

“Come again?” asked Jordon, emerging from the darkness.

“You appear to have a penchant for following me on my nightly rounds.”

Jordon nodded in agreement. “Like it or not, I feel responsible for you as your maker. Though to you, I must seem to be an utter nuisance.”

“Well…I’m not a child.”

“True, yet you do childish and fool-hearted things. You killed that woman, drained her, and then called the police. They’ll find the puncture wounds. They’ll question it.”

“There was an infant. I couldn’t walk away and leave him helpless.”

Jordon rolled his eyes, a high-pitched laughter emerging. “You’re all heart. And the boy, explain that.”

In the distance they both heard the police sirens.

“You don’t recognize him?”

“Should I?” asked Jordon.

“This isn’t someone I took a random interest in. Call it karma or whatever. But we both knew him before.”

“Before?”

“Think back a hundred years or so.”

“That’s impossible,” scoffed Jordon, dismissing him. “He’s nineteen, give or take a month, and not immortal.”

“Think about it. Try to remember his face.” He allowed Jordon time to reflect. “Do a memory scan.”

Jordon closed his eyes and went silent. After five minutes had passed he opened his eyes. “Johnathan?”

“Yes, Johnathan,” said Luca, his thoughts drifted to the second night he met with Johnathan.