TW for extensive, though not especially graphic, discussion of an injury
Danny flew invisibly through the night sky, looking for his school group. Fortunately, one of the chaperones was carrying a very distinct umbrella, whose express purpose was to make it easy to find the group should one become separated. Unfortunately, Danny noted when he spotted the umbrella, the group was in the middle of a crowded street, surrounded by other, also crowded streets. Danny was going to need to land somewhere else to turn human, then run to catch up with the group before they got back to the hotel and realized he was missing. Based on his limited knowledge of the city layout, he had a few minutes, and maybe a bit more if Tucker could stall for him.
He flew vaguely in the direction of the hotel, scanning the ground for any unoccupied area. Even the alleys weren’t totally empty, with the occasional homeless person sleeping or hurried local taking a shortcut. Eventually, he found a small stretch that seemed good enough. He only needed a few seconds of privacy, after all. He landed and took one last look around before allowing the white rings to pass over his body, changing him back into his less conspicuous but flightless human form.
It was certainly more difficult to navigate from ground level, but Danny had taken note of the direction he needed to travel, so he took off at a brisk walk toward the end of the alley, then turned left. At the end of this alley, he would turn left into another alley, and then finally exit onto the street his hotel was on. He didn’t see anyone else as he walked, but he could hardly be blamed for that. The man that grabbed him from behind was very used to hiding in the shadows.
Danny didn’t have time to react to the hands on his shoulders before he felt the sting of teeth slicing into his neck. For a second, he was too startled to do anything at all. Then, while his conscious mind was still working to process the new situation, his instincts kicked in, and he turned intangible as he spun away from the unseen assailant. Now facing his attacker, Danny ran through his list of priorities.
One, don’t let him grab you again. That shouldn’t be too difficult, Danny thought, given that the man looked as surprised as Danny felt. He was simply standing there, eyes locked onto Danny’s but otherwise in exactly the pose he had been when he grabbed him, hands raised and curled around arms that were no longer there, head tilted down. There was blood dripping from his lips and, Danny noted with an odd detachment, fangs.
Two, make sure there isn’t anyone else around. Danny flicked his eyes to the sides and then risked one quick glance behind him. No one. By the time he turned back around, after a fraction of a second, the man in front of him had straightened up and crossed his arms over his chest. His expression remained neutral as he looked Danny up and down. Danny noted with that same detachment that the man’s eyes flashed, reflecting the tiny amount of light from the distant street.
Three, stop the bleeding. Danny had two choices - either close the wound with the semi-solid ectoplasm that he sometimes used to create ropes and other malleable constructs, or remain human and rely on his limited first aid skills and even more limited first aid kit, a tiny travel version that fit inside his fanny pack alongside his wallet. The ectoplasm would be faster, but it would remove any doubt as to his half-ghost status.
Though the vampire (the word sprang unbidden into Danny’s mind, but he saw no reason to challenge it at the moment) didn’t look like he was about to attack again, Danny recalled how quickly he could move and decided that he didn’t have time for discretion. And, anyway, the vampire had clearly already seen him go intangible, so it was probably a moot point.
Later, Danny knew, he was going to need to bandage himself properly and think of an excuse to explain the injury to his classmates and chaperones, but he couldn’t worry about that right now. Danny placed a hand on his neck and created a simple bandage, covering and sealing the wound. He noted the vampire’s raised eyebrow with satisfaction. Though he hated for anyone to learn his secret, he hoped that it would at least make the vampire think twice about attacking again.
The moment stretched on. Danny stood there, tense and ready to fight, while he and the vampire stared each other down. Well, Danny was staring down. The vampire was just … staring. He looked entirely unconcerned. Eventually, Danny got tired of waiting for something to happen.
“You can’t attack someone like that and then just stand there, man.” Danny spread his arms into a sort of half-shrug. “What are we doing? Are we fighting? Because, if not, I have places to be.” The vampire nodded slowly, but it seemed more like he was simply acknowledging the question, rather than answering in the affirmative.
While the vampire apparently considered his response, Danny took stock of the situation and noticed details that he had missed earlier. For one thing, the pain, or, rather, the lack thereof. The wound on his neck stung, but it didn’t hurt nearly as much as it should. The vampire’s fangs had cut deep - the initial pain and the amount of blood confirmed that. But it felt more like a bad bruise than a severe puncture wound.
Danny also really looked at the vampire for the first time, seeing the person rather than just an immediate threat to his life. He had short, dark hair and lightish brown skin, and his features seemed to suggest Arabic heritage. He stood about Danny’s height, maybe an inch or two taller. But what was most striking was how young he looked. He couldn’t have been much older than 23. Indeed, he wouldn’t look out of place in Danny’s senior class.
“I didn’t come here looking for a fight,” the man said, reminding Danny that he had asked a question. Danny rolled his eyes.
“No, I suppose you were looking for an easy meal.” The vampire shrugged, unconcerned by Danny’s harsh tone.
“For what it’s worth, I wasn’t going to kill you. There’s a soporific in my saliva; you would have merely fainted, and then woken up some minutes later feeling weak and dizzy, but otherwise unharmed. Actually … hm.” He tilted his head, and his eyes narrowed suspiciously. Danny gestured to the ectoplasmic bandage on his neck.
“Unharmed except for the holes you punched in my throat you mean.” The vampire slowly nodded again.
“Perhaps. If you were human, the wound would be healing as we speak, but, if you were human, you would also be feeling the effects of the soporific. I’m not sure.” Danny didn’t necessarily know what the word soporific meant, but he certainly didn’t feel like fainting. At least, not more so than he would expect to after losing a not insignificant amount of blood. As for the wound … he poked it experimentally. It was uncomfortable, but not painful. Dany had always healed quickly, but this was something else entirely. He knew he probably shouldn’t, but he peeled away the layer of ectoplasm, which quickly dissolved in his hand. Then he ran his fingers over the place where, a moment ago, there had been a potentially life-threatening wound. The skin was smooth, and the only indication of the severity of the injury was the tacky blood surrounding the area. Danny went intangible for a second, and the blood fell to the ground, leaving him perfectly clean and, to all appearances, uninjured.
“Interesting.” Danny had never taken his eyes off the vampire, carefully watching his face. Unfortunately, he was either very honest or very skilled at deception, because his expression betrayed nothing more than moderate curiosity. “What are you?”
“I’m nothing that you need to worry about. Now, I actually do have somewhere to be, so are we done here?” The man nodded, bowing slightly as he did, and his eyes, always fixed on Danny’s, flashed again. Danny wanted to roll his eyes at the drama of it all, but, instead, he opted for turning on his heel and walking away at a pace that suggested that, though he was in a hurry to get somewhere, he wasn’t running away. He didn’t know whether the vampire was convinced, but Danny certainly wasn’t.
The whole ordeal had taken less than a minute, and Danny was able to catch up with his class just as the front of the group was filing into the hotel lobby. He found Tucker, near the back, and fell into place beside him. Tucker glared at him.
“Dude, what the hell? What was I supposed to say if you hadn’t been here?”
“I’m sure you could have thought of something.”
“Oh, is that-”
“But,” Danny said quickly, “it doesn’t matter because I am here, so there’s nothing to be mad about. But we do need to talk.”
“About what?” Danny started speaking, but he was silenced by one of the chaperones, who was asking everyone to number-off. Everyone said their number and no one was missing, so the group was dismissed to their rooms for the night. The students were reminded, as they had been the previous night, that they were forbidden from going into any room that wasn’t theirs, and that there were common areas if they wanted to hang out with friends they weren’t rooming with. Luckily, Danny and Tucker were roommates (it hadn’t been too hard to swing as nobody else requested to room with either of them), so they walked silently up to their room. As Danny closed the door, Tucker sat down on his bed and asked,
“So? What do we need to talk about?” Danny sat on his own bed, across from Tucker.
“I don’t … I don’t really know how to say this.” Danny looked down at his hands and realized that they were clenched into fists. He opened them up and took a deep breath. “I … Vampires are real, I guess is the takeaway.”
“Vampires … like ghost vampires? That drink ectoplasm or whatever?” Danny shook his head, still looking down.
“No, Tucker, like real vampires. Like, a real vampire with fangs and cat eyes and shit attacked me, and bit me, except, apparently, he had magic healing spit or something because, obviously, the bite healed.”
“So … like Steven Universe?” Danny looked up, meeting Tucker’s curious gaze with a bewildered one.
“No, Tucker, it’s not like … You need to focus, dude.”
“Right.”
“I was bitten by a vampire. Vampires are real!” Danny covered his mouth. Hopefully, no one had heard that. More quietly, he added, “what the hell am I supposed to do with that information? How is that even … How can there be vampires and I’ve never heard about it?” Tucker shrugged.
“Well, you’ve barely been out of Amity, aside from some family trips to the middle of nowhere and Vlad’s place in Wisconsin. So, if vampires can only survive in big cities, it kind of makes sense that you never would have met one before. Unless …” He scratched his chin. “You don’t think Vlad is a vampire, do you?” Danny was getting frustrated, but he managed to keep his voice down to a sort of whispered shout.
“No, I don’t think Vlad is a vampire, Tucker. That doesn’t even make sense. Vlad is half-ghost; how could he have a ghost if he was a vampire? Vampires don’t have souls.” Tucker leaned back on his hands, and he somehow managed to make the action seem sarcastic.
“Huh. You went from not knowing vampires existed to a veritable vampire expert pretty fast.” Danny threw his hands out and gave Tucker a look of sheer bafflement. Tucker leaned forward again and raised his hands placatingly. “Look, I’m not saying Vlad is a vampire, I’m just saying we have a lot of unanswered questions, here. Like, for example, are you going to turn into a vampire?” Danny’s eyes widened.
“No, I can’t … No, no definitely not. No way.” Danny thought back to his conversation with the vampire. “He would have warned me, right? He would have told me if I was going to turn into a vampire. He wouldn’t have just let me walk away.”
“Didn’t realize you were on speaking terms with the guy. What was his name?” Danny shook his head.
“I didn’t get his name, and I didn’t give him mine. But we talked for a second, and then he let me leave. It would be wildly irresponsible of him to do that if he thought I was going to turn. So, I’m probably fine.”
“Fair enough, but we should probably still keep an eye on it. And don’t eat any garlic for a while just in case.” Danny rolled his eyes.
“Sure, thing, Tuck. And I’ll watch out for holy water and poppy seeds while I’m at it.”
“I’m just saying it couldn’t hurt.”
“Yeah, well … yeah. I guess so. Look, I’m tired, can we turn out the lights? And you can just play on your phone or whatever until you wanna go to sleep?” Tucker nodded, now looking concerned. Danny rubbed his eyes. He wondered if the soporific was working after all, or if he was just exhausted because of what he’d been through. After a moment he decided that it didn’t matter. He started changing into his pajamas.
“Hey, man …” Danny turned. “Are you okay?” Danny closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Was he ok? He was exhausted, and confused, and more scared than he was letting on. But he felt physically fine, just a bit weak, as the vampire had suggested he might. And he knew that, emotionally, he was still feeling the acute effects of the extremely stressful situation he’d just been in, and the potentially life-changing revelation about the nature of the world. He was sure that he would feel better in the morning.
“I’m fine, Tuck. I just need to sleep.” Danny finished getting ready for bed then crawled under the covers, switching his lamp off as he did. Tucker, now sitting partially under the covers of his own bed, looked over at Danny with that same concern.
“Seriously, Tuck, I’m okay. I’ll be right as rain in the morning.” Tucker nodded and turned off his own lamp, leaving the room in darkness except for the dim bluish glow of Tucker’s phone screen. Danny rolled over, closed his eyes, and tried not to think.
