“Careful of vampires!” Jade calls as I’m halfway out the door.

_Just one more step. C’mon. You can do it._

My body turns back into the apartment anyway. _Curses._

I can’t help it and she knows it.

“There are no such thing as vampires,” I grit out to the beaming psycho.

It was endearing at first, the random roommate I was assigned being so into the supernatural. Less so after months of made up creatures being the sole topic of conversation until I snapped last week.

Jade found my consternation adorable, just like she does now. Her long, straight, silky black hair slides over her shoulder with the head tilt she gives me, openly admiring the twitching muscle under my eye as though it’s evidence otherwise.

“It’s a new moon,” she informs me as if I asked.

The leather strap of my handbag squeaks in my tightening fist. “So?” I immediately regret asking.

Jade rolls her dark eyes like my question is ridiculous. “Vampires go out on the new moon because it’s the only time it doesn’t reflect sunlight!”

I blink slowly at her. She scoffs.

“Sunlight _burns_ them!” the woman who knows where I live exclaims, like it’s my fault.

My eye twitches violently. I turn wordlessly away.

Tuning her out, I march out the door, down the rickety stairs to our apartment, and burst into the cloak of darkness outside on a deep inhale.

I’d never call the city sane, but the air is distinctly less crazy out here.

I’ll never tell Jade this, but her warning does get to my head a bit. I rub my hand down the side of my thigh in a mindless soothing gesture I’ve had to implement more often lately.

The shadows in every alleyway feel a touch more sinister as I pick up my pace past them. By the time I reach the bar where I work, I’ve got a fine sheen of sweat and am more out of breath than socially acceptable.

I distract myself readying my station behind the bar. My shift moves quickly when every patron yelling their order over the booming base of the DJ is familiar. Not a one has features I can see living for millennia with, nor does anyone boldly order blood.

By the time it’s cleared out, I’m laughing to myself at my irrational reaction. With my restored confidence, I even let the bouncer leave early instead of waiting for me to lock up.

I should’ve known not to test fate. Should’ve at least checked the alleyway before turning my back to the darkness.

“And who are you?” A deep voice croons.

I scan the wall of the building with a frown as if I’ll find a benevolent entity above, inquiring about my existence, but no such luck. The owner of the voice is behind me and brushing my sweaty hair from my neck with their fingertips.

Without turning, I calmly answer, “I’m someone who’s going to break whatever part of your body touches me. Choose carefully.”

His throaty laugh indicates that he finds my warning delightful. I personally find the sound of his feet shuffling a step backward even better.

I turn then. The limited light reveals my creepy neck assesser to fit the criteria I’d feared. Handsome, dark, chiseled features that don’t seem to match the modern shirt and jeans he’s wearing. His slight smile reveals the tip of elongated canines peeking out.

But then he seems to relax. Like he recognizes me. That sends off more alarm bells than anything.

I knew my roommate was psycho, but didn’t think she’d go as far as hiring an actor to pretend to be a vampire. I lean into the suspicion and say, “Oh, it’s you! Jade said you’d be here.”

He looks confused. “She did?”

I just nod. “Yeah, to walk me home because of the ‘vampires.’” I tell him with air quotes and a snort.

He smirks a bit at that like he finds this gig as ridiculous as I do. I tilt my head in encouragement for us to head out of the alley. He looks at me like he doesn’t know what to make of me, but follows my instruction anyway.

We’re halfway back when I realize we haven’t spoken, yet I’ve felt his eyes on the side of my face.

More accurately, my neck. “You can drop the act, buddy.”

His perfect features furrow. Ah, well.

Here I was hoping he was pretty and smart.

“The vampire thing,” I explain.

He’s more confused now.

Maybe we should start over?

“I’m Luna,” I offer with my hand out to shake.

He eyes it like it’s poisonous.

“Vlad,” he introduces himself, which makes me laugh.

“Alright then. Keep your secrets.”

We finally reach my building but I hesitate, turning to him before reaching for the door. “What reaction was she was expecting?”

He gives me that inscrutable look again before drawing out, “Just… act… normal?”

I give him a once over one last time before shaking my head. “Thanks, _Vlad_, you’ve been pretty cool for a vampire.”

That perks him up. He leans into my personal space again & asks in a way that almost gets him a positive response, “Can I come in?”

I shake off his question with a laugh. “Nice try.”

The door closes in his astonished face.

Jade isn’t even home when I get inside.

I decide to yell at her the next day, but she’s still not back before I return to work.

Maybe a real vampire actually got her? I shouldn’t feel so relieved by the idea, but alas.

Work goes the same as the night before, as does the emergence of my apparent protector in the alleyway as I lock up. He’s wearing a silky dress shirt, really committing to the bit this time.

“How much did she pay you for this?” I whisper mostly to myself.

He looks confused again, which I shouldn’t find so cute.

“Well,” I say at a normal volume.

He startles.

“Let’s go then.”

He nods, hesitates, then nods again as if deciding something. I’m too curious to be quiet as we begin our short journey.

“So, how’d you become a vampire,” I ask like I’m inquiring of his major.

“It’s a bit embarrassing,” he answers sheepishly.

A shy fake vampire. How cute.

“Your secret’s safe with me,” I promise.

He seems to see the truth of that.

“I fell into a sacrificial pit,” he says quickly like voicing it was worse than experiencing it.

Great method actor, I have to admit.

I wince apologetically. He shrugs.

“Seems pretty accident prone, those pits.”

His eyes widen dramatically.

“Like you wouldn’t believe!”

My laugh makes him laugh, but he doesn’t seem to know at what.

We reach the door to my building. Again, he almost persuades me to invite him over the threshold. Again, he remains baffled on the sidewalk.

There’s proof Jade came home at some point – new awful doodles of werewolves, of all things, littered about this time. The nightmare herself nowhere to be seen.

Over the next week & a half, Vlad & I enter a routine. He meets me outside work & walks me home despite knowing he won’t be invited in. He sticks to his apparently rigid script, enthralling me with detailed descriptions of historic events his character lived through.

Five days in, he started coming into the bar instead, concerningly slumping further onto it as the days progressed.

It was difficult to ignore how worn he began to appear while fully committing to Jade’s apparent instructions, even staring accusingly at the gradually waxing moon as if it were the source of his exhaustion.

I worried it had more to do with all the research he was obviously doing to keep up with his character, but he waved away my concern in lieu of commenting playfully about me rubbing my thigh again.

The instinct reemerged out of my guilt because, well, I felt great.

Better than I ever had before.

I’ve never had anyone consistent in my life. Now, even as strange as the circumstances are, Vlad made me feel safe & was fun to banter with, even though it was all made up.

Maybe that’s where the relief was, in being each others escape from reality.

Maybe I was an energy vampire...

Oh, I can’t wait to tell him that one.

But as I smiled up at the last of the waxing gibbous moon on the way into work, I knew tonight would be different. My shift felt emptier without him around. I entered the alley with the assurance that he wouldn’t be there either.

It was short, but his presence had given the impression of some level of permanence. I hadn’t even had a chance to mention him to Jade, whose blessed absence also attributed to my refreshingly pleasant attitude.

I both resent & rejoice in the light of the full moon guiding my way home, especially when it illuminates the slumped silk adorned figure on my stoop.

My hands are on Vlad before I’m even consciously aware of closing the distance. He lets out a pained groan at the contact. I curse as he sits up.

He looks like he just got back from a mission to the sun. It did not go well.

“Can I,” he croaks, “come in… your apartment… now?” He smirks as best he can, which only seems to pain him further.

My laugh is a choked sob, “Yes,” I relent as I’m forced to drag him in the entryway. We drop down unceremoniously in the lobby under both our weight, his shoulders land in my lap.

He looks up at me almost apologetically.

My hands are suddenly empty. There’s a loud boom upstairs. I scramble and slip, taking them two at a time, just as a female scream rents the air.

Jade’s scream.

I reach our floor & carefully step through the shards that our door used to be. The light of the full moon easily illuminates Vlad in the shadows, his very real fangs threateningly bared against Jade’s neck.

My hands reaches down to absently rub my thigh as I assess this impossible situation.

“L- Luna, he’s a real v-vampire!” Jade exclaims through teeth chattering in fear, belied by a face painted in excitement.

“I noticed,” I shoot back dryly.

Vlad’s skin, restored by night, barely moves with the grin he gives as he pulls his mouth away from her neck. “I thought I’d take care of this nuisance for you. She already knows too much,” he says, shooting a pointed look at my nervous movement.

That’s why he specifically asked permission to go in my apartment? How sweet.

I eye my annoying roommate and lift a shoulder. “Can’t she die in less cool way?”

We ignore her shrieking.

“Like a sacrificial pit?” He jokes.

My laugh cuts off as an uncomfortable sensation roils through me. Vlad notes the change and eyes me in concern.

I wave off his worry with a sigh, step toward the window, & fully immerse myself in the light of the full moon. The bite on my thigh throbs one last time before the curse of it overtakes my body, fur replacing skin and facial bones breaking to accommodate my snout.

My roommate’s whimper is louder now to my lupine ears, as is my snarl. I turn & close in at her front, Vlad at her back; boxed in by the creatures she obsesses over.

“I knew it,” Jade breathes in wonder.

I did, too. Her werewolf drawings were obviously meant as acknowledgement of my secret, which is upsetting, because they were super unflattering.

At least her fear of interacting with me this close to the full moon kept her away. I’ll take it.

I roll my wolfy eyes at the actual vampire standing over her shoulder, which is a pleasant surprise.

“You just couldn’t leave us alone, could you?” I growl down to the human between us, and for the first time in many moons, she’s speechless.