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“Are you going to drink that?” asked the waitress. She directed a disapproving scowl at him, one hand on her hip, the other holding a pot of hot coffee. She was only twenty five years old, but had the harried appearance of a woman ten years older. The shock of fuscia in her brown hair, carelessly applied, bright pink lipstick and garish rainbow earrings the size of bracelets did nothing to dispel the illusion

“It's gone cold.” he said evenly. “A fresh cup, s'il vous plaît. Cafe au lait like this one.”

She glared at him. “Are you going to drink it if I bring it to you?”

“Only one way to find out.” he pushed the cold cup of coffee across the table in her direction with a weak smile then pulled a cigarette from the pack on the table before him and put it between his lips. The lighter flicked open with a practiced motion and flared to life, but paused halfway to the cigarette. The waitress had not moved. She had not taken the cold cup of coffee away. She was staring at him expectantly. “Oui?”

“Look, that's the fourth cup of coffee I've brought. You haven't taken a sip from any of them! You better show me some money or get the hell out, eh?” she set the pot of coffee down on the table and crossed her arms before her, her foot tapping with agitation.

He lit the cigarette and exhaled smoke from his nostrils dropping the lighter next to the pack of cigarettes and placed a $50 bill on the table with his other hand. “Will this cover the next four, as well?”

The waitress sneered at him then picked up the coffee pot and cup, turned on her heels and stalked off muttering to herself about weirdos. Etienne took a another drag from the cigarette and blew smoke in her wake. He pulled his phone from his inside coat pocket and grimaced at the dried blood on the screen. “Ripper...” he cast a furtive glance around the room for observers then licked the screen and wiped it on his pants. “Connard!” he chuckled and shook his head as a grin spread across his face. Some things remain unchanged no matter how much time has passed.

“Merci.” he said when she returned placing the steaming cup before him.

“Whatever.” she rolled her eyes and hastily left to start clearing an empty table.

“People used to be so nice in this town.” he mused to himself. “Must be an American. Canadians are usually so polite.” Smoke curled from his nostrils in blue tendrils toward the ceiling as he wrapped his death cold hands around the steaming cup. The heat of the cup quickly warmed his hands then spread slowly upward. It's heat relaxing him and easing the tension that had him bound tight as a spring. He wanted his bath. A bath of hot water would be amazing right now. He'd feel almost....human. The water had been turned off to the apartment again. No power either. He was surprised that his belongings had not been touched this time. His lawyer must have kept at least some things from changing in his absence. Yet, had he really gone anywhere? It was as if he had lay down to sleep at dawn and just not awoken. Slept for over two years. He'd even stirred with the same book he had been reading just before he dozed off. It had been covered in dust just like himself when he became conscious. A text on the Islamic Sufis and their use of dance to enter spiritual trances. Fascinating. Well, he had thought it was fascinating, but perhaps not. Could he really blame a book that read like poorly translated stereo instructions for a two year coma? Surely not. It was a dry read, but not coma inducing

Etienne, took a long drag on the cigarette then blew a smoke ring and sent a smaller ring after the first. The smaller ring shattered the left side of the wobbling larger ring, creating a writhing jumble of blue smoke serpents that slowly expanded to hover over the table. The phantasmal serpents seemed like an allegory for the environment he had left behind only yesterday. His relaxed mind showed him scenes and faces from his recent memories. The “children” he had made were all gone save for one who had turned her back to him. A wave of emotion struck him and he wiped at his eye quickly leaving behind a crimson smear. His hand came away red. He looked around embarrassed and wiped at his face with the napkin then stuffed the ruined white cloth in his pocket.

This had to stop. These thoughts would only turn to memories of happy times with someone he refused to think of because the happy memories would be followed by the remembrance of loss and betrayal, guilt and pain. He could have done more. Been more. He could have been a better father to Prudence or sire or whatever he should have been. How the hell could he have known? He had no biological children from his human life. No paternal instinct or manual to go by. He was a professor of myth and archeology. No wonder she wanted nothing to do with him and ran the moment he opened his mouth to give his unsolicited advice. He was a pretentious, middle-aged fool and she was a young woman in her early twenties who was certain she knew everything. Young people. Rot them. Why was it that everyone younger than thirty infuriated him so?

A crack brought his attention to his hand at the table edge where he gripped it. “Merde.” he muttered, seeing the deformation of the table edge in the odd drape of the table cloth. Etienne closed his eyes and forced himself to relax his hand. Splinters of the broken table fell to the floor hidden by the shadow of the tablecloth.

He thought of her then. He couldn't stop himself. His hand groped in his pocket spasmodically and retrieved the napkin to hold it to his face. Perhaps the other patrons of the restaurant would think he had a nose bleed or something. It didn't explain the silent heaving of his back as he buried his face in the napkin and then in his hands, elbows braced on the table. He could have been a better husband. Perhaps if he had been more understanding or more present for her instead of involving himself with the Council and all that wasted energy. Maybe if he had spent more time on the household they'd built together things might have worked out differently. Maybe if he had just tried harder to understand she would have waited longer for him when he had gone into the shadows. Maybe she would have forgiven his strangeness when he'd returned. Yet, no matter what he might have done, no matter what he had done before when their love was at its strongest, it couldn't change the simple fact that the woman he loved so much was insane. Not a bit eccentric like a dotty old grandmother with a predilection for collecting teapots, but hiding dismembered corpses in the potted houseplants insane. Yet he had loved her.

Was he insane? Maybe. Probably. How could he not be. He was supposed to be dead, afterall.

The cup had overturned with his movement. Warmth flowing onto the tablecloth in an expanding cafe au lait stain like blood from a wound. People were looking at him. He had drawn attention to himself. To hell with them anyway. It didn't matter what they thought. To hell with these accursed humans in this pathetic restaurant that didn't even rate a single star and the surly waitress who he was definitely not going to tip. At that very moment he considered summoning a Fade Beast right there in the middle of the restaurant. The thought of it rampaging amongst the patrons, overturning tables and sending dishes, glasses and sub par cuisine flying made him smile behind the bloody napkin. Then he realized what a monster he was for thinking such a horrid thing. These innocents didn't deserve a fate like that. He sighed heavily and looked over the napkin at the other customers in the restaurant. They looked away when his eyes met theirs.

Her crooked smile and liquid blue eyes filled his mind and gripped him like a giant's hand. This was just a memory. She was not in his head. Even though she had that power as long as he had known her and had communicated to him that way in the past. Even though he had felt the touch of her mind inside his, more intimate than a lover's embrace, this was not that. This was just a memory. What was this? Memories were flooding back , assaulting him with sights and smells, sound and emotions. He wanted to scream. Maybe he should summon the fade beast. He could fight it here and now, his sword and fangs against it's claws and teeth. The ridiculous human patrons could bear witness to a battle of supernatural creatures and expand their experiential horizons a bit. They would love it. Better than cable television.

No. No, he wouldn't do that. He dropped the bloody napkin in his lap and shook another cigarette from the pack of Gitanes and lit it with the dragon engraved zippo lighter. It was a gift from Serendipity given years ago. He'd managed to keep it this whole time. More smoke serpents slithered from his mouth and moved slowly above the table. The sight of them soothed him somewhat. The waitress was coming back. She looked unhappy.

“Seriously? Now you make a mess?” she said with unveiled irritation then looked from the spilled coffee to his gore clotted face and was taken aback. “What's up with your face? You're bleeding! From your eyes!” she paled visibly and retreated a step her hand covering her mouth in astonishment. Something wasn't right with this guy in the tweed suit and crooked nose who didn't drink the numerous coffees she brought him. The man whose eyes were weeping tears of blood that clotted on his cheeks. A niggling horror was beginning to grow in the back of her mind.The thought that she needed to get far away from him was growing with that horror.

Their eyes met. She couldn't break his gaze. “Sit down, Julie. You look exhausted.” the man said in a sing song voice that she couldn't resist. He wasn't scary now. Why had he frightened her so? She sat in the chair across from him and slumped in it. Her eye lids were so heavy. “I think you are working far too hard.” he crooned to her. The last thing she remembered was seeing him place another 50 dollar note on the table next to the other and the coffee stain spreading under both of them.

Moments later Etienne was standing on a corner several streets away. He watched a bear as it ambled along the sidewalk headed towards the river. Perhaps it was going home. The night was young. He turned and headed towards the train station and whatever the night might hold.

Corin had been walking down the street not being able to hear most sounds like the cars going by till they got to close to her. She always watched where she was going if the small voices in her head would shut up at times which they did but not always. On her neck was a cross that burned her but she did not take the thing off and in her hand was a bottle of blood that she snitched from a store. She did not remember much of this place but that was okay she would in time kind of like she knew she liked blood but thought it was just a form of something she was going though. She had seen a man in the coffee shop not drinking coffee but thought nothing of it. She walked on and all of the sudden tripped on something causing her to fall into on coming traffic and she did not hear the 18 wheeler coming at her.

The hour hand seemed to be at a stand still as the minute hand barely crept around the face of the clock that hung on the wall in the office of the gallery. This was always how the last hour of Astrid's work schedule played out, especially when she had something she wanted to do right after work.

The new gun needed to be sighted in and she couldn't wait to try it out. Guns were something she wasn't a stranger to, having grown up as the only kid to a man that made black powdered guns as a hobby. She was definitely well acquainted to the subject. The first time she was taught to fire a gun, she was six years old and the rifle was almost as big as her. In fact a picture of the moment was framed and sat in the living room of her father's house.

Finally nine thirty rolled around. Astrid quickly ran through the closing procedures and was out of the mall before it was 10 p.m., just enough time to get in a good round of practice after sighting it in her gun.

Once outside, she took in deep breath of the night's air. It was warm and a little damp from the humidity of that evening; a typical summer night. Before she left the gallery, she had quickly changed into a pair of cut off jeans and a black tank top. With her hair pulled up into a quick ponytail, a welcomed breeze could be felt against her neck as it blew past her. Her fingers curled around the strap of the leather messenger bag she had flung over her shoulder, that was where she kept her gun. Eventually she would buy a proper holster.

After a train ride and a mile of hoofing it, Astrid was just about to cross a street that was a block from the indoor 24 hour firing range. She was watching for the walking signal to light up when she caught a glimpse of a bear walking on the other side of the street.

"What the hell?" Astrid muttered to herself.

A bear walking the sidewalks of Harper Rock was the last thing she had expected to see. Yes, life, or unlife rather, was becoming stranger and stranger for her. She started to cross the street so that she could get a better look when another unexpected event happened that was even more alarming. A fellow pedestrian, that was also on the opposite side of he street from her, had tripped and fallen into the path of a semi truck.

She yelled out as loud as she could to the girl that seemed to be completely unaware of the danger that she was facing. "HEY There's a truck coming!" Not waiting for the girl to take notice, she had already started to run toward her. Astrid's goal was to get to her before the truck did.

A change of venue didn't help dispel his musings or quell the flood of memories. The faces of his “children” accused him in his mind's eye, their faces contorted by his own guilt and feelings of inadequacy. It was as if they called to him from the shadows, holding him accountable for the devastation of their human lives. It was he that had made them the abominations they had become when he had shared his tainted blood with them. It was he that had brought about their ends either through his actions or failure to act. How many had died at their hands? He was just as culpable in those murders as they were and the other atrocities they had commited.Yet, why were they haunting him now? What had brought about this strange paroxism of recollected sins, his failings laid bare?

His family back in France must have given up hope for word from him by now. No word had come from him in over two years. How were his parents? His brother and his wife? Their daughter? What must they think of his fate or did they just think he didn't care about them at all? At least he could do something about that situation. A simple phone call could clear up some things.What would he say? “Sorry for not calling. Lost my teaching position when I became a vampire and and was killed by a rival faction which caused me to miss work for a couple weeks. I'm much better now. Just woke up from a lengthy nap.” No. That wouldn't go over well at all. His brother Henri would be on a plane to Canada before he hung up the phone.

A shout behind him in the distance made him pause.

“Hey! There's a truck coming!”

He turned in the direction of the sound. A blonde woman lay sprawled in the street, illuminated by the lights of an oncoming semi truck. Opposite her, a red haired woman was rushing to her aid. She couldn't hope to make it to her in time. With a thought he vanished from where he stood and reappeared next to the blonde. He scooped her up and dashed towards the redhead barely avoiding the semi.

“Imbécile maladroit!” he growled at the blonde as he set her on her feet at the sidewalk. “Stay out of the street, woman! Did you not see the great truck thundering down the boulevard?” Etienne had no idea why he had acted to save the woman and now faced the red haired woman whose path he had blocked. Had she seen him teleport?

Corin was picked up and moved and then saw the truck. Shaking her head her hearing aids not in today she watched the man and read his lips not recognizing the first thing he said. The thing about the truck got to her. She turned and saw the truck go by and growled at it. "Damn it I hate the fact my hearing aids are dead. I did not hear the truck coming at me." It was true with loosing her hearing not that long ago she could not hear anything till it was right on her unless she had her hearing aids in. She looked at the man that helped her and then the woman that was there. The woman looked familer like she was family. How was this woman family though and why the hell had she tripped in the first place.

Looking across the street she noticed what she tripped on and growled again. Why she did not see it the first time made her mad. It was a piece of trash that should have been picked up long ago a dumb banana peal. Then again she soon laughed softly because that was the oldest pratfall in the books to slip on. She looked at the man again and the woman. "I am thankful for you for saving me. Also trying to warn me if you did."

It is interesting how an intense moment can seem to go in both slow motion and at the speed of light, at the same time. It felt as if Astrid couldn't go fast enough, as if time had stopped, and yet the arrived juncture seemed to be over in a flash. She stood there staring as a man appeared out of no where and had scooped the blonde woman up from out of harm's way.

She could have sworn the same man had been standing on the sidewalk earlier. She shook her head, as if that movement could break up the confusion that had settled in her mind. Since she had been turned, Astrid had witnessed and experienced situations where she was whisked from one location to another. Looking the man over, she noted little nuances that she would have overlooked when she was human. The way that his skin was a tad paler than most and the fact that a his neck held no signs of a pulse beating beneath it's skinned surface. Beneath his dark lashes, smudges of what appeared to be dried blood could be seen. Yes, he must be like her; a vampire. That would explain his ability to move from the sidewalk to where he was standing with the girl, so quickly.

The man began to yell at the one he had just saved. His words were french and thanks to her mandatory french classes she knew exactly what he had said, but then again, it wasn't too hard to figure out the translation without the knowledge of the french language. She thought what he had said was a bit harsh. Before she could administer any of her feelings on the situation, the blonde spoke up.

She mentioned something about her hearing aids being broken and not being able to hear the truck. This brought about a sense of sympathy for the girl and only caused her to think the man was rather rude with his comments, even more so. Her blue eyes cut over to him as the blonde started to laugh. Astrid looked back to the blonde a bit confused on what she had found so amusing, then the woman growled. The growl caused Astrid's eyebrows to arch. She looked between the two others and then around them. They were still standing in the street as the woman thanked them for their help.

"I think the best thing to do right now is to get out of the street." Astrid exaggerated her lip movements as she spoke and had also raised her voice for the benefit of the woman. Just as she finished her sentence a yellow cab drove around them, honking as the driver yelled obscenities toward them from the open passenger window.

Astrid did her best to coral the other two toward the sidewalk as she looked over her shoulder at the driver and shot him the bird.

Even as the redhead suggested it, Etienne bruskly ushered the blonde woman to the safety of the sidewalk. She said her hearing aids were dead so he supposed he shouldn't be so annoyed that she'd almost gotten herself killed in traffic. Anyone of legal age to drink should know that most freight traffic moved at night to avoid the heavier commuter traffic of the day. If she was really hearing impaired she should be more damned cautious in crossing the street anyway. Continued risky behavior like that would find her selected out of the genepool.

Her hair fell away from her face as she straightened. He knew her. One of the apex predators of Harper Rock had already removed her from the genepool. “Corin.” he breathed. The annoyance vanished to be replaced by...what exactly? Gladness at seeing a familiar face? An itching homesickness for the family he had helped create here then lost? He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. Whatever he was feeling would likely escalate to exasperation quickly. The redhead had joined them now. Pretty, petite...and undead. You couldn't swing a dead cat in this town without hitting seventeen vampires, eight zombies, a bear, two mountain lions and a fadebeast. Hell, if you even looked at a manhole cover a hunter would shoot you. With all the supernatural activity in this town the human inhabitants must be either under some sort of mass hypnosis that made them oblivious to the constant battling and bloodletting of vampires or maybe it was a side effect of all the legal marijuana. Too high to care?

“Good evening. I am Etienne.” he said to the redhead with a perfunctory nod of his head. “This clumsy one is Corin.” he indicated the blonde with a gesture and arched eyebrow then brushed dirt from her clothing. “What is this about you having to wear hearing aids, cheri? I don't recall you being hearing impaired.” The patch of dirt was stubborn so he brushed at it more vigorously, clucking his tongue like a disapproving father tidying up a dirty child just coming in from playing outside. Then he realized she likely hadn't heard him “Cheri! When did you lose your hearing?” he shouted in Corin's ear.

That was probably not appropriate, he realized and felt embarrassed. Corin might forgive his awkwardness. She had experienced it before, but this stranger would likely think him a daft weirdo. What was it the waitress had muttered about weirdos? He tried to cover his embarrassment with a lopsided smile that he hoped would be disarming and shrugged apologetically. “I've been.... away for a while.”

They got off the street and she smiled at the people then the man introduced himself and seemed to know her she recognized the name. Yep she was reading lips again which was a good thing though when he yelled in her ear she shuddered. "Lost it about a year ago in a bomb blast I was to close to and it took most of my hearing. I am sorry I did the oldest prat fall in the book. I slipped on a banana peal it would seem. I hate this I am going to have to find something to help me when my hear aids are dead and I do not have the batteries that make them work. That was where I was heading to the store. She winced slightly as the cross she was wearing burned her skin in a new spot. The bottle of blood she had was nothing but a smudge on the pavement and she let out a sigh. Now she would need to get more because she would not bite people or even animals to get the blood she needed. "Dang it now I need more." She did not realize that the people would not know what she was talking about.

With a cursory nod to the both of them, she introduced herself. "I'm Astrid. Nice to meet you both." As she spoke, small thin wrinkles formed on the corners of her eyes. She couldn't help but smile at the comical absurdity of the situation at hand. Collectively they had a woman who tripped on a banana peel (does one really do that?)and falls into oncoming traffic, and then there was herself and Etienne yelling at someone that was deaf, as if that would some how break through to the damaged auditory nerves.

As the comicality of it all struck Astrid , her hand moved upward to her cover her lips and she tried to stifle her giggles. The man kept wiping at the front of the woman, who was identified to Astrid as Corin, trying to clean her off as he continued to yell in her ear.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh." She tried to move her hand from her lips but found that she wasn't able to do so, just yet. Another fit of giggles had come over her. "It's just...I'm sorry." Then of course the inevitable snort escaped from her nose.

"So, you two know each other then?" She did her best to straighten her face and to become serious once again.