Nico’s eyes seemed to glow red in the dark. I’d never seen a vampire feed before--not off a human, at least. Somehow watching my classmates drink blood from their nalgene bottles didn’t have the same effect.

Blood dripped from Nico’s fangs. His cheeks, formerly pale and sunken, filled out as I watched. A healthy flush started in his cheeks.

“It’s been a long time,” he said, and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

I looked at Toby. He was pale, like Nico had sucked the life out of him. Right… Nico had sucked the life out of him. I dragged my eyes back up to Nico’s face, almost fearing what came next.

His red eyes held mine.

“We have to dig him a grave,” he said.

“I thought you were going to turn him,” I said. My voice cracked. I started to slide one foot backwards--calculating how far to the school, how fast I would have to run to beat a vampire.

Nico saw my foot shift.

“It’s part of the process. Just a shallow grave. He has to lie in the earth.”

I hadn’t exactly brought a shovel on our sylvan tete-a-tete. Nico gestured to a spot that looked clear of brush, and we started to dig.

I sank my fingers into the soil, pulling back handfuls and breaking up dirt clods. The earth seemed to fill itself back as I went, but after some time working in silence I noticed a dent starting to form.

I glanced at Nico. His eyes were fixed on his work, diligently scooping at the earth.

“You were very calm,” he said. Like he could feel my gaze. I quickly focused back on my hands in the dirt.

“I’m used to blood,” I said, and it was my turn to feel his gaze flicker my way.

“Used to it?”

“I took a summer course. I’m an EMT. Campus job. Helps pay my student loans.” I wiped at the sweat starting to form on my forehead and felt dirt from my hands mix with it.

“EMT?”

“Emergency medical technician.”

“You’re a doctor?” he asked.

“No.” I couldn’t help laughing. “No. God, no. I’m--I patch up drunk college kids so they can get to the doctor.” The dirt on my forehead itched, and I tried to wipe it against my shoulder as I worked. “I’m not even… not even that good, to be honest.”

“There was a medicine woman in my village,” Nico said. I kept digging as he spoke, trying not to think about Toby’s very still body just lying feet away. “She worked miracles. They burned her at the stake, I think, because she helped too many people. But I’ve never met a woman doctor before.”

“I’m not a doctor,” I said. My shoulders were starting to cramp, and my hands--it took a moment for my brain to catch up with what I’d heard. “You’ve never met a female doctor?”

I stopped and stared at him. I couldn’t tell which stains on his white clothes were blood and which were dirt.

“Where have you… been?” I asked.

I didn’t say, under a rock? But in my mind it echoed through the trees.

Nico didn’t falter.

“My family… the Averus Clan. When humans discovered vampires, my clan was on the front lines of the war that ensued. My brother, Draven…”

“I learned about this. In history class.” I could feel the lesson buried under years of AP Algebra and French Lit. “Vampires and humans warred for a century before an accord was reached. The Human-Vampire Accord of seventeen…”

“Seventeen thirty six. My brother was furious. He said the terms were insulting. Unreasonable. A denial of our power and potential.”

“He rejected the accord, right?” I remembered the shape of it, but the details escaped me. Toby would have known--but I pushed that thought away. “The Averus Clan rejected the accord. Fought back. Kept hunting humans as prey, instead of registering to unite with them. Humans and vampires came together to… Wipe them out.”

I eyed Nico.

“I’m not proud,” he said. “At the time, I agreed with Draven. I didn’t understand… And then our family was being attacked. Draven had turned all of us, so we were all at risk. We went into hiding. We let the world think we’d been killed off.”

My heart pounded in my chest. I was sure Nico’s vampire hearing could register it, so I dug faster--maybe if I worked hard enough, it would seem like exertion and not terror that was making it race.

“After some time, I started to see Draven’s pride for what it was... Cruelty. He loved hunting humans. Thought it was the natural order... Found pleasure--” He spat the word out like it burned his tongue. “It wasn’t until we’d been in hiding for decades that I saw my mistake. The horror we’d created. And the world at peace, without us…”

I could hear the longing in his voice. He broke off, looking at the hole we’d dug for ourselves.

“This is good enough,” he said. I backed up, and didn’t offer to help with Toby’s limp body. I didn’t want to feel him cold to the touch. Nico scooped him up like he weighed nothing, and laid him gently in the grave.

I started pushing dirt back over Toby’s body, grateful for the darkness that hid his pale face.

“So… you’ve been in hiding?” I said, trying to distract myself from the task at hand. Nico’s mouth twisted.

“When I challenged Draven’s choice to fight the Accord, he warned me what he’d do. When I challenged his authority again, he made good on his promise. Chained me in a steel coffin.”

“How long were you in there?”

Nico looked at me.

“Three hundred years.”

I stopped shoveling dirt.

“Three hundred?”

“He visited me from time to time. To make sure I didn’t disappear into madness.” Even in the darkness, I could see his jaw tighten. “Don’t mistake that for brotherly love… to lose myself would have been a blessing.”

“That’s horrifying.”

“I escaped a few decades ago. I’ve been on the run--he catches up to me every few years. Tonight was an unlucky night.” Nico looked at the moon. “I feed on animals occasionally. Whatever scraps I can find. Even at full strength I’m no match for him, but without having fed--it’s a miracle I got away.”

I shivered, and looked around the dark forest. “Where is he now?”

“He retreated for the night. No doubt snatched away some poor innocent to feed on.” Nico finished piling dirt over Toby’s body, and leaned back against a tree.

I didn’t want to think about Draven wandering the woods.

“What do we do now?” I asked, brushing dirt off my hands.

I could feel mud caking over Toby’s blood, drying into my jeans. Guess I needed to add shopping to my to-do list. These jeans weren’t going to survive the night.

“Now?” Nico looked up at the moon, edging towards the horizon. “Now we wait.”