“For more than half my life,” Rayth said, amused by the surprise in Lune’s tone. Even though he was just as human as he was vampire, it was obvious which race she associated him with the most. She wasn’t the only one though. It was interesting to him that the reaction to whom he associated with was always the same. No one ever looked at him funny if he said he was living among a troupe of circus monsters, but both humans and supernaturals alike often gawked when he told them he’d spent decades among his own blood relatives. There was a stigma in there somewhere, but he’d grown so used to being an anomaly that he’d never cared enough to figure it out.
	“Well, don’t forget [i]mi familia[/i] is Latino,” he laughed at her remark. “We’re a lot more family-oriented than white people are. I liked living with them, and if anything, they’re the ones who put up with me.”
‘Tolerated’ was probably the best word for it. Being a vampire put him at odds with his relatives because he slept on a nocturnal schedule and fed on the neighbors. Being immortal made him stand out because he remained young while all of his cousins grew wrinkled and old. If he could have made the living situation work, he would have stayed in Albuquerque for generations, but unfortunately, his relationship with his father’s side of the family eventually grew too strained, and he’d uprooted himself when it became clear that he was more of a burden to them than an asset.
	Thinking about his now-estranged family was always uncomfortable, so he happily dropped the subject when Lune joked about her interpretation of vampire culture.
“That’s exactly what we are,” he agreed with tongue in cheek, holding up his hand in acknowledgment when she brushed off his offer to help her into the car.
He waited for her to climb inside before he followed suit, stepping into the train behind her. He could find his way around the blackened room just as easily as he could underneath the moon and stars, but he knew humans had poor eyesight in dark spaces, so he gave her a wide berth to keep from startling her.
	The smile he saw on her lips was reassuring though, and he wondered to himself if she was starting to feel more settled around him than she had been before. He hoped so. Just based on their brief interaction so far, she was definitely someone he wanted to get to know better, but it would be hard to do that if she stayed afraid of him.
At the moment, he was docile because he’d just fed, but even when he was hungry, he liked to think he had a decent handle on his bloodlust since he’d lived among humans for so long. As long as he drank blood regularly—which he always did in Frieda’s circus—he doubted there would be any problem pursuing a friendship with the new, mortal member of the troupe.
	“There’s no one around to wake up right now,” he shrugged in answer to her question. “But it wouldn’t matter even if there was. The lights don’t work.”
	To demonstrate, he stepped over to the wall and flipped the light switch on and off. Even if Lune couldn’t see the gesture, the soft clicking sounds the switch made was enough of a cue to give away what he was doing.
	Quick on his feet, Rayth explained the odd detail simply: “The power generator is broken, and we haven’t gotten it fixed, so we’ve just been leaving it as it is. There’s plenty of light during the daytime because of all the windows anyway. It’s only an issue if you need to charge a phone or something, and most of us don’t have those.”
	Ambling back over to her, he looked her down and up, taking advantage of the fact that she couldn’t see him very well inside the train. There was rarely an opportune time to stare at someone, especially as a creature that preyed on humans compulsively, but the lack of light in the car gave him enough cover to get away with it.
He thought she was an attractive girl. Even in her ragged clothes, his eyes were drawn to the shape of her figure and features of her face. While he had no intention of acting on his passive interest, he could still appreciate beautiful people for what they were and couldn’t help indulging himself in a benign way.
	“I think all the beds in this car are taken,” he mused, sliding his gaze away from her to rove the cots around them. “We can check out the next one.” Turning back to Lune, he paused for a moment before carefully reaching out to touch her arm, hoping not to startle her. “If you can’t see, I can help you get around. Just hang on to my hand or my shoulder… Think of it like one of those stupid trust exercises companies like to do at corporate social events.”