Now that she had called, now that he had picked up, Alina wasn't sure what to say. She was... nervous too. She could just say one word, give him a confirmation, and then hang up, couldn't she? But there were questions too. Things she wanted to ask, because this night didn't seem real. The words that came out of her mouth weren't quite her usual self, strange because she wasn't sure how to start. Too harsh. "No. I'm standing here while some stupid vampire sucks my blood, actually." She wasn't usually sarcastic. It wasn't right.

Matthew huffed, a sound of both frustration and amusement. "You don't want to believe. Probably for the best."

She couldn't read him over the phone. What did that huff mean, annoyance? A suppressed laugh? This was why talking over phones wasn't a good idea. If she couldn't see the person, she couldn't react properly. "I..." She still needed to know. "I didn't say I didn't believe." Did she or not? Her voice took on a slightly apologetic tone, though still rather tight. "It's rather a heavy revelation, wouldn't you think?"

"It is," Matthew agreed, softening his tone somewhat. "You're taking this quite calmly, truth be told." Then again, she hadn't been turned; the abrupt paradigm shift that was waking up to a new unlife did tend to exacerbate the situation. He wasn't entirely certain he had ever gotten over it, personally.

"Mmmmm..." Calmly. Yes, the key to everything was remaining calm, at least on the outside. It was a... good thing to hear that he thought she was taking this "quite calmly". If vampires really did exist, then what about werewolves? Fairies? Ghosts? Spirits of nature and the wood? Angels? "Where does the line get drawn?" she mused, not realizing that those thoughts had been said aloud until it was a moment too late. Irritation sparked through her, and knowing that she could not be seen, she allowed it to show by swinging a loosely fisted hand through the air at her side. Bad idea. She hissed through clenched teeth.

"Where does the line get drawn?" he echoed in amused confusion. "You'll have to clarify that, I'm afraid." He wondered idly if the conversation would be more or less awkward if held in person. Ask her out to a café on the weekend? That sounded an awful lot like a date.

"Never mind." She leaned back in her chair, trying to figure out where exactly this was going. Why was she still talking to him? Because it wasn't easy to pass up conversation with a vampire, because they... didn't normally exist. Except they did. "Okay, wait." Alina's voice became more businesslike. "Since vampires apparently exist, are there other supernatural beings out there? How many people get attacked by you guys, and how are you dealing with this? Just now it was luck that you were there, but is there some special group that is actually dedicated to dealing with this?"

"How many people know the... reality?"

Matthew exhaled a quiet laugh. "Here come all the questions," he commented, not unkindly.

A reply popped up on his laptop screen, which he typed a reply to one-handed, thin fingers spidering quickly across the keyboard. Then another; he scowled briefly at it, even as he was amused at the knowledge that Alina couldn't see his face right now. Another reply. "This may be a very, very long conversation to have over the phone. Are you free this Sunday?"

Oh yes, she had questions. Alina waited impatiently as she thought she heard the clicking of keys on the other side of the line. What was he typing? Did he have to actually look the answers up somewhere? When Matthew spoke again, it was not what she had been expecting. Far from it.  She shifting uncomfortably on her chair, thinking about meeting The Vampire again. But she already had her answer, though she took her time giving it. It came at last though, accompanied with a sigh. "I can make time. When and where?"

Matthew repressed a nervous shiver, and recited the address of a church. It never gets easier. At lease it wasn't too out of the way to get to from where she lived, but then again, nothing in this tiny country was 'out of the way' to him. "Let's meet at 1pm. Service will have ended and people will be having lunch there; a nice, safe public place."

Alina grabbed a nearby sheet of paper (though not one of her student's) and jotted down the address along with the date and time. She loosely circled it many times till the circle was dark on the paper, then set it apart further down the table. "Yeah, okay." Nice, safe public place. That did mean a lot to her. She hesitated. "Well, I need to get back to work now."

"Sure, go ahead. Take care." He hung up before it could get any more awkward, and fixed his gaze back on the screen. His fingers drummed on the tabletop nervously.

For a few seconds even after Matthew had hung up, Alina hung on to the phone. Thinking. Sunday, one in the afternoon. She would be there. Then at last she ended the call on her side as well, putting her phone down and taking red pen in hand instead. Back to work.