Spring had come to Silver Creek early, giving us a warm, sunny day for the Spring Fair. Even though I didn’t need to, I still reminded my clan to go to the fair. Talk. Meet people and form alliances. Gain their trust.
The usual. We wanted to fit in.
It helped that the newest member to join our clan knew many of the locals because of his position at the hospital.
Behind the dark lenses of my sunglasses, I watched him with Jonathan. Two men I’d turned. Two men that had my immortal vampire blood running through them.
I’d changed Jonathan because I’d felt compelled to, and the other, David, because I knew I’d lose Jonathan if I didn’t.
His love for David had come swiftly and fiercely. I might have doubted they were Fated before, but now I couldn’t deny it. Everything they did was for each other.
Even in our small town, where people were still getting used to progress and diversity, they wore their relationship like a banner. I hardly ever saw them when they weren’t hugging, kissing, or touching each other in some way.
“Are we still watching him?” a voice asked next to me.
I looked over at Chris, breaking my watchful stare. He was talking about David. It had been several weeks since he’d been turned but new vampires could still be unpredictable. Or most of them. Not only that, but I wanted to make sure David was adjusting.
With a reluctant sigh, I decided he was not only adjusting, he was excelling.
Right now, he was heading the blood drive at the town’s Spring Fair, which was an idea he’d come up with that I grudgingly respected. It was his idea to hold more blood drives around town and at the hospital. On the surface, to help the community, but secretly to provide for the vampires in our clan who wanted to feed without influencing anyone.
Two members of our clan had already latched onto the idea and stopped feeding from humans directly.
Even I had considered it. Being able to get blood easily without making waves and making anyone suspicious was appealing. I could influence anyone I wanted anywhere I went, but this made things even easier and less risk for everyone involved.
There were few vampires in the world who had my level of expertise at hunting and influencing people. I used to revel in it. When I’d first become a vampire, I’d lost myself for a little while.
Then I’d turned Jonathan and things had changed. I’d shown him what it was like to be immortal and have the world at our hands.
He’d shown me what it was like to be excited about life again. For a while, we’d been unstoppable. We’d traveled the world by ship, by plane, by car—even by horse sometimes.
But things changed. People changed, too.
And suddenly, I didn’t have Jonathan anymore.
I realized I still hadn’t answered Chris’s question. I only shook my head. “No, we’re not watching him anymore.”
Chris scuffed his shoe on the ground. If I didn’t know he was a vampire, I might have believed he was human. He was the best out of all of us at pretending to still be mortal. Probably because he was our youngest vampire.
I had changed him myself after he and his girlfriend had been mugged and left for dead on the Los Angeles streets. He completed our clan, a handful of us who understood each other, stuck together, and had the same beliefs for the most part.
“Seems like he’s doing better than most of us did,” Chris said, nodding his chin at David.
“Sometimes it’s almost like people are born to be vampires. Ironic, isn’t it?” I murmured. “Born to die.”
“He’s perfect for Jonathan. Maybe that’s why it seems so fluid for him.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “Perfect.”
Chris’s radio squawked, and then a man’s voice came out of the speaker. “Greg Parker’s kids are down at the fountain again.”
Chris rolled his eyes at me. “Last time they threw paper towels in there. Probably scaring the ducks this time.”
“Small towns,” I said with a smile. “Gotta love them.”
“I do.” Chris headed off in the direction of the fountain.
I knew he did, without a doubt. He’d come from a small town, after all. He was the most excited out of everyone when we’d decided to settle here.
I watched him as he walked down the hill of dead grass and didn’t waver until someone else came into view. Someone unfamiliar.
Pulling off my glasses, I peered closer, even though the sun made my eyes ache.
The man walked with confidence, but not in a hurry. He was scanning the fair, eyes landing on everything and everyone. After a moment, he pulled out something that looked like a recorder. He spoke a few words into it that I shouldn’t have been able to hear from this distance if I’d been human.
But I clearly picked up the murmur of words as he spoke them. “Silver Creek, Colorado,” he said, with a hint of amusement in his voice. “The last place on earth I expect to find a vampire. But if they’re here, I’ll find them.”