In the early AM hours of a quiet Sunday morning, Vic watched a shadowy figure approach the cabin on the outskirts of town. Though the hooded man did not seem surprised to see him there, a slight hesitation in his motions told Vic that the elder vampire was not quite back to his full strength yet.

“Why are you here?” Vic asked, tone low as to not wake the sleeping herbalist that rested soundly a few feet away, blissfully unaware of the fact vampires were just outside his door.

“I could ask you the same, Victor,” Carliel noted with a taunting sense.

Vic didn’t have a tangible response.

“I’m merely curious,” Carliel explained after a beat of awkward silence.

“Not a good enough reason to trespass on someone’s property at—” Vic looked at his watch, “Three in the morning. You should also be resting, you starved yourself to near-second death and you didn’t even finish a full blood bag.”

“I needed to know what it was.”

“The smell?”

“Yes.”

“That’s none of your concern, Carliel. He’s ill, he doesn’t know with what and it’s not our place to try and figure it out.”

Carliel turned his eyes to the forest and studied the warbling shapes in the distance, “And yet you’re keeping the Wylders at bay like it is our place.”

“That’s part of my job as mayor, keeping people safe is my job.”

“I’m a threat?”

“You’ve always been a threat, Carliel. You can change your name, but this town still knows you, its spirits still know you, and I can’t help but think the long gone Wylders are agitated because of you, not Rhys. So, let’s not give them any more reason to linger. Go home, Carliel, while I’m asking nicely. You are welcome in the Wood, you have safe haven in the Wood, but you scare people—you scare me—and I won’t hesitate to make sure your body is never found if you start harming my townsfolk.”

Carliel, eyes locked on the wispy spirits in the woods, studied the atmosphere with a longing, tender gaze. He nodded—only slightly—and vanished like a whisper into the night. Vic, white-knuckling the railing, listened for a moment as silence returned to the area. One by one the spirits vanished like candles being snuffed out and, with a sigh, he resigned himself to another long night of uncomfortable unrest to ensure the newcomer slept soundly.

This time, however, he would be gone before sunrise.