“The mother also saw that intermingling with other species could possibly help the vampire race as a whole to thrive for eternity. And she was basically right, because many years in the future to where we are now, vampires are the third largest population next to regular human beings and humans born into magic.”

They sat there for a good while waiting for a response from one of us. Question, comment, anything. I personally couldn’t think of anything to say, since my mind tried to do the math of how many vampires existed in this world.

It really made me question whether I’ve ever met any vampires or not throughout my life. And now that I am one myself, I wondered if I would know the difference between someone who is human or something else. It was a lot to think about.

“Did they teach you all that at the Academy?” Mila asked. When I looked at her, she had this look like she was really interested in what Travis was saying.

“Most of it, no.” Travis had a smile on this face as they answered. “I’ve actually done my own research on this story, and more on black magic.”

“Because it’s illegal?”

“Yeah.” Travis almost sounded disappointed when saying this. “Professor Starratt has tried to get the Council to allow teaching the history of black magic while also avoiding actual spells that are within the Book of Dreyke, but they believe it would be too much of a risk, like we were capable of going the same route as Dreyke.”

They looked down at the notecard and pen in their hands. “I’m hoping to become a teacher or something of the sort, so I can probably one day convince the Council myself to allow students to learn about the history instead.

I heard the door open, and turned to Mila and Travis. They were both still talking about black magic stuff and didn’t seem to notice that someone had entered the apartment.

I tried to pay attention to the footsteps and noticed that there were two sets of them. One sounded like Monroe while the other I was unfamiliar with. And then I heard a conversation going on outside of the room, which seemed to have caught the others’ attention. One of the voices was clearly Monroe’s while the other was a lighter, more feminine voice.

“That might be Monroe and Mal,” Travis told us as they were already up and about to leave the room.

Mila and I followed without thinking. I thought Mila was probably interested in continuing the conversation with the others.

I felt a headache coming but couldn’t tell what was causing it. Was I hungry? Was I stressed? Overwhelmed? Tired? A mix of all or some of that? There was no way of knowing.

I was met with hazel colored eyes as soon as we entered the living room / dining and kitchen area. The person with the hazel eyes—Mal—noticed me and Mila once we walked in and started walking towards us.

“There she goes,” I heard Monroe say under his breath.

Mal looked up at me and extended a hand. “Pleasure to meet ‘ya,” she told me. “I do have to say, you’re much… taller, uh, than I expected.”

I grabbed her hand and gave it a quick shake. “I get that a lot,” I said. I’ve heard all the tall jokes and comments about my height that life had to offer. “Nice to meet you, too.”

I watched as she looked over at Mila, and her vibe suddenly shifted. Her voice and attitude had almost immediately shifted from confident and calm to something more awkward and shy.

“You’re Mal Li, huh?” Mila asked, watching as Mal slowly moved her hand away from me and extended it out to her. I kinda wanted to laugh at how suddenly nervous she was toward Mila.

Mal nodded. “Th-that’s me, heh.” Mila shook her hand, and we watched as she just stared at her hand as if questioning what had just happened.

Monroe cleared his throat, catching all of our attention. Mal quickly turned away from Mila and walked back to him and Travis.

“I’m guessing Travis told you guys I was coming,” she said, suddenly sounding cool again. I watched as she grabbed a bag that was sitting on the dining table and shoved a hand inside. A phone was in her hand once she removed it from the bag.

I thought she was about to ask us for our numbers or that she was about to give us hers, but she stuffed the phone into a pocket on her leather jacket. She reached inside the bag once again and took out a stack of what I assume were business cards (mainly because of the size and shape of the cards, and my eyes caught a glimpse of a phone number and email on one side. Totally forgot that my hearing was not the only enhanced sense I had).

“I wanted to come by and talk with y’all about a lil’ business of mine.” Mal started to explain this business as she handed us some cards. “I was about to drop these off at your house at first, but Travis told me that y’all were over here instead.”

I took a quick look on both sides of the card. Mal was running some sort of charitable business to provide vampires with affordable blood in their own dispensaries or in grocery stores. This seemed like a good idea to me, instead of having to go through suspicious sellers at the black market (which I assume is where vampires were originally buying blood from, unless they were going around town and asking the humans for a quick snack).

It suddenly hit me that I literally would not have any idea how to get blood outside of Travis and Monroe’s place. They seemed to be stocked up on the stuff, which I guess they needed to keep some stored with the current vampire situation they’ve been dealing with. And with me staying here on top of that.

My headache was getting worse, and I was beginning to feel nauseous. I felt Mila tug at my sleeve as Mal started taking more things out of her bag.

“Con,” she whispered to me. “You’re starting to sway a little. You good?”