Seth’s printed face disappeared in front of Juliet’s eyes as she slid her closet door open. The poster slid neatly between the two doors, remaining hidden behind the blank door. No one would be the wiser, especially not Seth, who she was expecting at any second.

She wanted to do something special since this was his first night visiting her room. She thought of changing into something prettier, but that seemed like going overboard. Then she considered ordering food, but he had warned her not to try to cook for him, he hated everything. So, she carefully selected some music to play and got a couple of chocolate bars out of the vending machine. Surely he liked chocolate.

It was three-thirty when Seth’s gentle tap on the door roused her. She hadn’t been sleeping. Juliet shut her laptop and turned on some music before going to the door.  

“It’s me,” she heard Seth whisper.

Opening the door, she invited him in. “Welcome.”

Looking around the room, Juliet felt confident and she was no longer embarrassed to have him in her room. There was nothing there to be ashamed of. The bed was spread with a white duvet without a cover on it. Her pillowcases and the rug in front of her bed were still purple but now appeared tasteful because they weren’t augmented by stuffed animals. The only picture that was left on the wall was a monstrous poster of a red moon with a white feather in front of it. 

“I’m glad you’re still awake,” Seth said as he entered the room. “That’s lucky. I thought you would have passed out by now. What time is it?”

Juliet took his coat and discarded it in a corner. “Three-thirty. Is last call at the bars really not until three in the morning?”

“No. It’s at two. I apologize, but I had a little fight with Nixie. She didn’t want me to come here and settling her down took some time. We normally close up shop at three. Plus, she was a little afraid to go home alone.”

“Do you normally walk her home?” Juliet asked, remarkably without the slightest hint of jealousy.

Seth nodded. “Yeah.”

“So, tonight you let her go home alone?” 

“Don’t look so horrified. Like I would do that. I called her father and asked him to come get her.”

Juliet smiled. “Then she’s taken care of.”

“Yes,” Seth said, rolling his eyes. “Taken care of.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Seth shrugged. “It’s nothing. She’s just not particularly fond of her dad, even though he’s the type that will come to pick her up at three-thirty in the morning without complaint.”

“She’s lucky to have such a cool-headed father. My parents would come to get me, but I’d get an earful. I guess since she’s working at Safewalk and not out clubbing he wouldn’t be mad. So, he’s normal, right?”

“I don’t know.”  

“What? Wouldn’t your parents come get you in that situation?” Juliet pressed.

He sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall. “No. I didn’t grow up with the crayon drawing of a mom and a dad and a house and a dog.” His voice trailed off and he began examining the room more carefully.

Juliet sat down on the bed and waited for him to elaborate. She knew he didn’t want to talk about his past, but if he volunteered anything she wouldn’t discourage him.

Finally, he turned his eyes toward hers and said, “I like your room. It’s pleasant. And what are we listening to? It’s mellow.” Then he stretched out his legs and changed the topic. “Well, I have to keep my end of the bargain if I expect you to keep your promise to stay out of trouble. Vampires,” he said in a melodramatic tone and then suddenly stopped.

Juliet arched an eyebrow. “I don’t need all this bravado.”

He laughed, “All right. I couldn’t help myself. After all, a little dramatic flair never hurt anyone, right? Anyway, there are lots of cursed humans in this world. Vampires are one of the lowest, partly because of how common they are, so it’s not completely unlikely that you might run into one.”

“You said they followed different rules. Care to explain?”

“Sunlight doesn’t hurt them, but they would never be seen in the light of day.”

“Why?”

“They’re dead. Their flesh is as cold as the fish you watched me eat. They are not beautiful or sexy. They are foul, loathsome creatures that feed off human blood to keep themselves animated. If they stop, they will fall off that precipice of life and death and that’ll be the end. That’s their curse.”

“But they’re fast, right? And strong?”

“No. They are ordinary people that are dead. Their limbs hang on by mere threads. They move in the darkest parts of the night so their victims don’t notice that they are off-balance, that they’re not normal.”

Juliet felt a chill come over her. Somewhere in her mind, she had been prepared for him to tell her about vampires like her interest in them was ridiculous. That was what Rylan had done earlier with the crop circles, but Seth did not sound like he was joking. The way he spoke was serious. Either he meant what he said or he was the most talented liar she’d ever met.

He continued. “The most beautiful thing about them is their voices. They sound lovely—beguiling.”

“You saw one on campus?”

“From a distance. He was at the bar a couple of nights ago. I don’t think he knew me, but those monsters have incredible noses for danger. He bugged out, and I’ve sensed him around a time or two since then, but he won’t come into the dorms. There are too many lights that never turn off. You have nothing to worry about here.”

“What was he like?”

“Mostly bald, with a few braids in the back,” Seth said reflectively. “His eyes were lifeless, almost like he had no soul. But he has one. I know he does. It may be mutilated with age and spilled blood, but it’s there.”

Juliet waited for him to finish, but he stared at her computer desk with his jaw clenched. When it seemed like he wasn’t going to go on, she got up the courage to ask her next question. “What were his fangs like?”

“Blunt. Vampires don’t have fangs. They have teeth just like yours. Like I said, they’re human beings. The only special thing about them is the curse that keeps them animated even though they’re dead. They don’t even have the power to turn someone else into a vampire. All they do is murder.”

“And what do you have to do with it?”

Seth snorted. “Honestly, nothing. If he recognized me, he would run, and if I got my hands on him, I would kill him.”

Juliet suddenly made a sickening connection as she compared the way he spoke of a vampire’s flesh and the fish he ate at the pub. She swallowed a hard lump in her throat. “You don’t eat vampires, do you?”

He raised his eyebrows like he was considering her question and then he smiled; his lips spread enough for Juliet to see his razor-sharp canines. His expression was a snarl. “I don’t think so,” he said heartlessly. “However, the idea isn’t without its charm. In fact, it makes my mouth water.” He swallowed.

The chill that had begun spreading across Juliet’s body curled its way down her legs and arms. She was breaking out in goosebumps. She told herself she was merely cold and cuddled a purple pillow in her arms.

“What are you?” she whispered.

He licked his bottom lip and grinned. “I’m not like them.”

“Are you a vampire hunter then, since you want to kill them?”

“You misunderstand me. I don’t want to kill them especially. Let me see if I can come up with a good comparison. Hmm... I got one. If a mosquito landed on your arm, what would be your reaction?”

“I would kill it,” she said slowly, trying to understand his logic.

“Yet, even though you would kill it if it landed on you, you aren’t a mosquito hunter. See?”

“I think so.”

“They’re just disgusting. That’s all.”

Juliet took a deep breath. “So, why do you have fangs?”

Seth chuckled and for a moment, Juliet thought he looked smug. “Ah, but that wasn’t part of our bargain. I promised that I would tell you about vampires, not that I would tell you about myself. Besides, I thought we covered all that. You don’t want to tell me about yourself, so you acted like it was all right if I didn’t either. Remember?”

Juliet recalled their conversation in the pub. “I guess so,” she mumbled. “Regardless,” she continued, her enthusiasm picking up. “I still want to unravel your mysteries.”

He nodded. “I feel that way about you, too. You have your secrets. I think I have revealed a lot more about myself than you have. Sly little devil, aren’t you? Tricking me!”

“I’m not trying to be sly. I know it’s probably more fun if I play a little hard to get, but I want the playing field between us to be fair, so you can ask me any question you want and I’ll answer it.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Seth asked, surprised. “I always feel more comfortable in a relationship when I’m at a disadvantage. It makes me feel like a gentleman... if such a thing were possible.”

“No. I’m fine with it. Ask me anything you want.”

Seth rested his chin on his knuckles and peered at her face as he formulated the perfect question. His focus moved contemplatively from the gravity of her eyes down her throat and the length of her arm. He seemed to be lost in the labyrinth of his own mind and, even though she was the subject of his reverie, she had no idea what he was formulating, not to mention how uncomfortable she felt with him looking her over so carefully. It wasn’t like there was anything much to see. Even though she felt like she had seen the door to womanhood, she knew she still hadn’t crossed the threshold, so there wasn’t anything there for him to explore. He was right about her. She really was a blank sheet of paper.

She sighed.

Seth’s eyes met hers as though he suddenly remembered what it was he was supposed to be doing. “There’s only one question. I wanted to come up with a different one, but there is only one question I would ever want to ask you. Why are you so innocent?”

Heat flooded Juliet’s face and she threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t see how I could be so much more innocent than your average eighteen-year-old.”

“I see,” Seth said calmly. “I asked my question in an overbearing way. Let me rephrase. Have you ever been tempted to do something that you know is wrong and done it anyway?”

She ran a hand through her hair and ruffled it. “You’re here, aren’t you?”

He laughed. “I know I’m wrong for you, but I don’t mean that. I mean before we met. Have you ever been so tempted to do something that was wrong that you couldn’t resist? Didn’t resist?”

“Like lied or stolen something?”

“Sure.”

“There was never any room for that sort of thing before. In the life I lived before I came to university, there was no reason to lie or steal. You don’t know my parents. It was the hardest thing in the world for them to let me come here and live in dorms. I never even went on a sleepover before this. That’s a story and a half.”

“Ah, that’s the story you’re trying not to tell?”

She shrugged and shifted so she was face down on the bed. “Overprotective would be a gentle way of putting it.”

“Then I guess that’s it. Mommy and Daddy kept you locked up at home?”

Juliet groaned.

“And now you’re away from them at university. What would they say if they could see you now?”

“They would take one look at you and Rylan and feel sure I had gone straight to the devil.” She laughed.

“Wait. You’re still hanging out with Rylan?” Seth asked abruptly.  

“Yeah. You picked me up from my Occult’s Addict meeting tonight. Didn’t you realize? Friday night after midnight at the library? What else would I have been doing?”

Seth gawked. “You should give that up.”

“Why?”

“I already said. That guy, Rylan, is not normal.”

“What do you mean? Surely he’s not the vampire.”