Carter sighed and sat heavily on the old leather couch, “A vampire.” He was used to people calling him crazy but seriously would a normal human turn to ash if stabbed with an over grown toothpick? Hell no. Vampires did exist; people were just too ignorant to understand that they were not at the top of the food chain. They were a food source. “Not the sparkly fuckers that people think about nowadays, the real ones. Kinda like Dracula—gonna suck your blood and not marry you.” Well there were a few cases of vampire-human relations but those were overlooked for the most part and not glamorized like Hollywood made them. 

“Did you see anything strange or out of the ordinary? Like a man or woman behaving oddly; fidgeting, staring at someone like they were a hunk of steak…that sort of thing?”

Carter would be called a disgrace for not taking any of this seriously; well he did but his language spoke otherwise. Carter was more laid back than most, giving an impression that maybe he was this sort of underdog with noting going for him other than a quick death. But when it came to his work the higher ups were pleased that he met every deadline or dealt with the situation appropriately. As Carter waited for her answer he took off his t-shirt to reveal a simple wife beater underneath and he kicked off his boots before going into the small kitchen, barely big enough for one, and made them tea. The man wasn’t crazy about coffee so tea was his go to for a bit of energy.

He wondered if he should let someone in on the secret? 

He'd have to keep an eye on the girl, there was something about her that didn't sit right with his gut instinct.

---

Luciana had perfected the act of appearing to be human; she had lived long enough to do it. She walked to a nearby park and chose a bench to sit and read at. Luciana rarely had a moment to herself anymore and she cherished the silence. Silas was going to meet her soon at her small rented home further from the center of the city so she had time to kill. Her book was an old dog eared copy of her favorite book “Of mice and men” by John Steinbeck. She liked the easy read that it was and that at one point she had lived in a similar situation to George and Lennie. 

Luciana flipped the page and smiled softly. The book wasn’t the happiest in the world but she enjoyed it. The life that she lived was very similar to that of the transient workers of the Great Depression. All too often she would have to move when hunters caught wind of her, to them she was a dangerous entity that needed to be destroyed. She guessed that they were right but to her this life of taking her food by force was all that she knew. Humans did the same so why was she the one being hunted for it? She knew that there was a man following her but Luciana hoped he was fooled by her false act.