Arla watched the ringmistress stand. For a moment, she’d forgotten exactly how tall the woman was. She gave a nod of her own at Frieda’s light command and followed the woman. She kept her eyes on the ground ahead of her, trying to put her thoughts and worries in place. 
	Laughter, chatter, and music blended together in the night. It floated out from the awning covering the afterparty a few yards to their side. The scent of the incense filtered out beyond it, fighting against the night’s fresh air.
	She took another breath, this one shorter and more careful just in case the wisps of smoke would be enough to reignite the worst of her reaction.
	As they neared the back fence, Arla glanced up. A set of three chairs with mismatched cushions formed a tight triangle, but they were all empty. Her gaze fell instead to the ground where Rayth laid on his back in the grass against the fence, his eyes closed. 
	Arla took a deep breath, steeling herself as well as she could for her nearing encounter. An encounter with a vampire she’d willingly agreed to.
	If it wouldn’t mark her a hypocrite, she’d call this whole thing crazy.
	Trying to keep Frieda’s confidence in Rayth’s harmlessness at the front of her mind, she stopped with Frieda as the woman called the vampire’s name. 
	Arla's muscles tensed as his eyes snapped open, instinctively readying to fight or flee. She took another breath and curled her fingers into a fist to keep them from going for her hunting knife. Her brows raised slightly as Rayth groaned and stretched, a very human reaction to being disturbed during a nap.
	[i]He’s half human,[/i] she reminded herself. Curiosity sparked at the back of her mind, the concept of someone being only half supernatural a strange thought. 
	Arla held her breath as the boy stood. Though diluted with the smoke, she felt the fog from the incense slowly trying to creep back into dominance over her mind. She suppressed an irritated scowl. A clouded head was the last thing she needed right now. 
	She cast Frieda a quick, half-hearted smile in thanks at the woman’s final words, but instinct kept her from looking fully away from Rayth. Her heart quickened at being left alone, but she refused to let the fear of him own her.
	She eyed him calculatingly for a long moment, mulling over what Frieda had said about him and what she’d seen of Rayth so far. She startled when he cleared his throat, making her realize she still hadn’t said anything.
	She hesitated before answering. As reluctant as she was to be somewhere more isolated with him, it was better than staying out here, fighting an allergic reaction. Besides, as she'd told the ringmistress, she didn't need babysitting. And staying close to others was basically the same thing.
	“Yeah, sure,” she said with a stiff nod.
	 She put her thumbs in her pockets, both keeping herself from going for her knife and keeping it close enough for a quick grab. If worse came to worse, it was at least [i]something.[/i]
	She moved so she stood between him and the partygoers, and strode back toward the Big Top. She kept a cautious distance between herself and Rayth, her eyes never straying from him. Her gaze flicked to each of his movements, watching him with the calculation of a rabbit eyeing a fox.
	“So, a half-vampire,” she began, her voice lowered cautiously. She doubted the others of the festivities could hear her between the distance and music, but better safe than sorry. “In a circus.” Despite the unease in her tone, a smirk betrayed a hidden amusement at the concept. “I imagined circus performers would be colorful people, but that takes the cake.”