Rayth could practically see the wheels turning inside Lune’s head while she processed what he’d said to her. He stopped with her as she ceased walking, keeping his mouth shut so he wouldn’t interrupt her thoughts. It was hard to tell where her head was at. She hadn’t burst into laughter, so she was at least taking him seriously. However, she hadn’t run away screaming either, so he couldn’t tell if she believed him or not.
	At the start of her challenge, he prepared himself to insist that he [i]was[/i] implying what she thought and that he wasn’t just trying to haze her or anything. It turned out he didn’t need to though as she seemed to make the connection on her own.
	At that point, he expected her to either question him or bolt, but instead, he tensed instinctively as her hand flew to her belt, where a large knife hung against her hip. Apparently when it came to fight or flight, she was a fan of the former.
	He watched her carefully, wondering if she was actually stupid enough to wield a blade against a guy who manipulated swords and knives for a living and had just confessed that he wasn’t even human. If she was, all he needed was half a second to remind her who she was up against. Compared to the monster hunters he had faced before, disarming one untrained teenager would be child’s play.
	Fortunately—for her—fright seemed to give way to reason, and he relaxed again as the processing continued. He was starting to think he understood why Frieda had asked him to welcome her into the circus. Having spent a large portion of his life living among humans, he was more patient than the pureblooded creatures would have been with her. The confusion on her face was familiar to him. He’d already seen it in the eyes of the other people whom he’d told about his supernatural half in the past. All she needed was a little time to absorb it and—
	Nope, that was wrong.
	Rayth blinked as Lune suddenly backed away from him, keeping him in her sight as if she expected him to suddenly turn on her. Her caution was unnecessary. He had just fed on another human during the after party, so his appetite for blood had already been sated. Besides that, Frieda had said she was the newest member of the circus. That meant she was off limits, even if he wanted to bite her. She was perfectly safe in his company right now.
	He was about to explain this to her, but she spoke first.
	[i]Again?[/i] he mused, bewildered. What did she mean by “again”? Had she run into another vampire before? He suddenly found himself curious to find out what she was talking about. His kind were solitary creatures of the night, so he hadn’t met very many others.
	Absently, he wondered if the girl had been bitten before. If she had, it would make it harder for him to convince her that he wasn’t going to hurt her.
	Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to ask her about it when she began inching toward the gate. His eyes flicked down to her hand as she gripped her knife, but it looked like she still had enough sense not to draw it. Regardless, the gesture told him that she had no intention of relaxing around him; and if she couldn’t handle learning that he wasn’t human, there was no way she could keep a level head if she found out about the rest of the troupe. Cirque du Sombre was too much for her after all.
	At her following words, he only grew more confused. [i]Two?[/i] He’d never heard of any vampires traveling in groups. Even families only stayed together long enough for parents to raise their children to maturity. He was the only one in the circus too. They just weren’t very good at sharing territory or prey, so it was better for them to keep their distance.
	Despite Lune’s threats, Rayth had no intention of going after her. Instead, he remained where he was as she fled the back yard, reminding himself that it wasn’t his job to make her stay if she couldn’t handle it. Why Frieda had thought she would make a good addition to the troupe was beyond him. She was obviously just a human who had mistaken their group for a normal traveling circus that would help runaway teens like herself. She didn’t belong in a community full of monsters.
	“Got a runner, huh?”
	Rayth blinked at the sound of a gruff voice behind him and turned around to see Oscar waddling over from the party. The brownie looked bloated, but he knew his friend had just stuffed his clothes with wallets, keys, jewelry and whatever else he could loot from the drugged humans’ bodies.
	“You didn’t even try to stop her,” the small man went on, scrunching his face as he eyed the open gate. “Why’d you bring her close to an exit anyway? You’re supposed to [i]corner[/i] your prey. It’s hunting 101. Pretty sloppy, Rayth.”
	“She wasn’t my prey,” Rayth rolled his eyes. He crossed his arms and leaned his weight into the brownie’s side just enough to make him stumble. “And since when did you get the authority to lecture [i]me[/i] on hunting? You’re just a thief who scurries around to loot the bodies after we’ve made it easy for you to pickpocket them.”
	“I prefer my food cooked and served on a plate,” Oscar huffed, bending over to pick up a gold watch that had fallen out of his lumpy shirt when he’d lost his balance. “Excuse me for having a more refined taste than you bloodthirsty savages.”
	“Don’t knock it ‘til you try it,” Rayth grinned at him teasingly.
	Oscar snorted, “Alright, Fangs. I think I’ll stick to meals I can actually process.” He paused, glancing at the gate again. “Anyway, if that human girl wasn’t your prey, what were you doing with her?”
	“Frieda invited her to join the circus.”
	“What?” Oscar’s caterpillar eyebrows jumped. “So she’s not a human?”
	“No, she is,” Rayth frowned. “At least, I think she is. She smelled mostly like a human.”
	“Mostly?”
	“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “There are a lot of different scents in the yard right now, and the incense is messing with my head, so it’s hard to tell. I could have just caught a whiff of something else and thought it was coming from her.”
	“Okay,” Oscar mused. “So if she’s a human, why would Frieda want her to come with us?”
	“Beats me,” Rayth sighed. “Either way, she’s gone now. I mentioned that I’m not a human, and it freaked her out, so she bolted.”
	“She’d be crazy not to,” the brownie scoffed. “It’s too bad though. She was just my type.”
	“Every girl is your type.”
	“That’s because they’re all beautiful.”
	“And it’s hard to have standards when you’re only three feet tall, right?” Rayth added with a smirk.
	“That was uncalled for,” Oscar muttered, shooting him an indignant glare. “Besides, you’re one to talk, tall guy. If you think you’re so much better than me, why did she run away from you?”
	“When did this turn into a competition?” Rayth laughed.
	“When you claimed you were better than me.”
	“You’re ridiculous,” the half-vampire shook his head, stepping over to make sure the latch on the gate had locked. Now that Lune was gone, he didn’t want any other invitees to notice the exit and try to flee as well. One human on the loose who knew about them was bad enough, but as long as there weren’t multiple witnesses, she would probably be written off as a lunatic if she tried to tell anyone else the truth about Cirque du Sombre. The only people who might believe her were the hunters, but he suspected they knew about the circus already. They just hadn’t attacked so far because of the sheer number of supernatural creatures in the troupe.
	“Well, I guess I should tell Frieda the news,” he exhaled, not looking forward to admitting to the ringmistress that he’d lost their newest member in less than ten minutes. Even if the girl had been human, the faerie had obviously seen some sort of value in her since she had offered her a spot. “She’s not going to be happy about this…”