Rayth shrank a bit when Lune scowled at his question. Apparently she didn’t want to share [i]anything[/i] about herself with him. He hoped he hadn’t crossed a line. He hadn’t meant to make her mad when he’d asked why she had joined. Honestly, he’d just assumed she would give him the same spiel everyone else did: that she was looking for the circus’s protection or on the run from hunters. It was why he and most of the other members had sought Frieda out when they’d found it, after all.
	Not wanting to get snapped at for being rude, he opened his mouth to change the subject but didn’t get the chance before Lune surprised him with an answer. Her explanation didn’t clear anything up either. The way she talked about “controlling parents” reminded him of the runaway kids he’d heard about who would join the circus to escape their lives. It definitely wasn’t what he’d expected to hear anyone say about a group like Cirque du Sombre.
	He studied her a little more closely, red flags raising in the back of his mind. Something was off. Lune didn’t speak or act like any other creature he’d met before. He was starting to wonder if she was even a monster at all. If she was, she had to have been hiding it, but he couldn’t fathom a reason why she would want to do that.
	He didn’t have time to chew on the thought when the girl suddenly stumbled, latching onto his arm for stability. “Whoa,” he caught hold of her wrist with his opposite hand, steadying her like a rider might do with a horse. It was a stupid gesture, he knew, but he hadn’t been expecting her to lose her balance like that. If he didn’t know better, he might have thought she was feeling the effects of the incense even more than he was.
	[i]She’s feeling the incense.[/i] His eyes widened as the realization struck him. Now he was certain of it. Lune was human—at least partially. She had to be if the drugs in the air were affecting her. He had so many new questions: Why had Frieda allowed her to join? Was she a half-blood like he was? Did she even know what she was walking into? He had to bite his tongue to keep from spilling everything on his mind at once.
	“Don’t worry about it,” he assured her as she stepped away from him. “It takes time to get used to.”
	Thinking over everything she had said to him so far, he was starting to get the impression that she was just a normal girl who’d run away from home. She probably had no idea that supernatural creatures even existed. He glanced over his shoulder nearly pleadingly, hoping Frieda was still around. The ringmistress had to know she’d just accepted a human into their ranks… didn’t she? He wasn’t sure how to handle this.
	As Lune complimented his “costume,” Rayth could only gawk at her. He didn’t know what to say. Part of him was tempted to play along and pretend the vampire bit [i]was[/i] part of his act to preserve her innocence, but what was the point? It was only a matter of time before she learned the truth about the circus members. She might as well find out before she was surrounded by monsters of every shape and size.
	He took a steeling breath.
	“Um, well, you guessed right,” he started slowly. “But only in half.” She was going to run away when he told her the truth. He just knew it. Still, she deserved to know what she was getting herself into. If she decided it was too much to handle, it wasn’t his job to change her mind.
	He met her gaze with a resigned shrug, “Let’s just say when the Reaper costume comes off, the ‘contacts and fangs’ stay on.”