on another note

Book Three is completed! Woot! And I think I know how to make book four work. Not sure if I'm going to start that or my high fantasy book next, but either way, I'm just happy that my third book is FINALLY finished. It's a bit short, but at this point, I just don't care anymore. It's a good book, even if it is shorter than the other two. The next one should be hella long, so that works out just fine. Happy day!

I'm busy you fuckers

Jay sat, staring fixedly at his University owned terminal. It was old, it actually smelled weird, but it was Jay's favorite place to code because it was in the deepest corner of the lab where, theoretically, he would recieve the minimum of distractions. Jay had been working for hours on a project for his Computer Algorithms class and he simply could not get it to work.

Actually, Jay had completed the assignment within fifteen minutes of it being assigned. Jay, while strange, is a very good programmer, and it wasn't all that hard of a problem. Unfortunately Jay had shown his answer to K, who had finished the project within two minutes of the project being assigned. K had nodded his approval.

"Yeah, that's how I did it," K told Jay, who groaned. You see, Jay is not a programmer like K. Programming doesn't not come as naturally to Jay, so he really has to work hard at it. Unfortunately, he also refuses to do any project the same way K does, because, inevitably, K's answer is perfect and everyone in the class who gets the answer the same is viewed with suspicion. So Jay always has to do things differently, because if he gets it to work differently from the way K did it, Jay feels he really learned the material well. Getting to annoy teachers and TAs was just a bonus.

K wasn't really aware that the reason Jay worked so hard at programming was partially to be different from K. K also wouldn't give two shits if that was his reasoning. All K really knew was that Jay's answers to computer problems were creative, bizzare, or just plain incomprehensible. But they almost always worked, which pleased and sometimes amused K, which immensely pleased Jay. Jay's work was almost universally hated by his professors and TAs, but that didn't slow Jay down in the slightest. Professor Bissell, one of Jay and K's favorite professors, had laughed so hard he fell down after seeing one of Jay's projects. When Professor Bissell let class out immediately after getting his breath so that he could continue to laugh, Jay became something of a hero, and Jay tried that much harder to make his projects needlessly complex.

So Jay had actually been working on this project that he had completed in fifteen minutes for several hours so that he could get a different answer from K while possibly irritating a different professor. He hadn't expected coming up with an alternative answer to be so difficult and now the project was due in under an hour so Jay was starting to get impatient. Being bothered now was the last thing he wanted.

"Hi Jay, what's up?" asked Megin, a friend of his. Jay tried to ignore her, staring fixedly at the line he was positive was the problem.

"Uh... Jay?" Megin didn't give up that easily. Jay sighed.

"Hi Meg," he said, reluctantly turning away from the programming dilemma.

"Am I interrupting something?" Megin looked slightly pouty, which was a sign that Jay needed to talk to her or else he'd have to listen to her whine about it later.

"Nothing I can't ignore for a minute or two," Jay told her. "What's up?" Megin beamed.

"Well, I was wondering if you'd read the passage for our english class," Megin told Jay. When Jay nodded, she continued, "What did you think about that part in the middle when the two pigs were talking?"

"I actually didn't like that part at all," Jay told her. "Whatever concept it was we were supposed to get from that set of dialogue was way above my head. I couldn't even find it funny it was so confusing."

"Good, I thought I was the only one who didn't like it," Megin smiled at him. "I just thought it was such a convoluted mess that it-" Megin did continue talking, but Jay just stared at her blinking and thinking. Megin noticed after a few minutes.

"Jay... You're staring," she blushed slightly.

"That's brilliant!" Jay congratulated Megin, and turned to his terminal to type furiously. "If I just clean up this mess... and that... Yes! I think that will work!" Jay turned to smile at Megin. "I think you just made my life much easier!"

"Well, I'm always glad to help!" Megin smiled a cheery smile. "Even if I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You don't need to understand, just understand me equals happy," Jay laughed.

"Ok, I guess I'll let you get back to it!" Megin told him with a happy smile and walked away.

"See ya," Jay called after Megin, turning back to his now much improved program which he compiled. And it didn't work. "Aw, son of a..." Jay went back to scouring his code for these elusive damn errors. He sat, scrolling up and down in his code for several uninterrupted minutes.

"Hi Jay," interrupted Jason the shadowmancer. He and Jay were not the closest of friends, but they still got along well enough.

"Mmm..." Jay replied not looking up from his code. Jason gave Jay a sidelong glance, then slid into the seat next to Jay and logged into the network. Jason busied himself with email, which let Jay sit and continue his seemingly futile search. A moment or two later, a new mail notification appeared on his screen, and without thinking about it, Jay switched to his mailer to check the new message. It was from Jason.

Jay, do you have that stupid pig book on you? Jason

"Yes, I have the book," Jay sighed, his concentration defeated, and dug into his backpack for the book. After locating it, he turned it over to the slightly smug looking Jason. "Why do you need it anyway?"

"Normally I wouldn't read the stupid assignment at all, but I heard there was going to be a quiz on it today, so I thought maybe I should actually read the stupid book," Jason replied.

"Well, don't get your hopes up, the chapter sucks," Jay reported with a smirk.

"Every chapter of the book sucks as far as I can tell," Jason grumbled. "I swear, whoever wrote this book was insane. He can't put two subjects together in the same sentence without it exploding in his face."

"I'll say, he..." Jay started to reply laughing. Then he paused, realizing something. "Two subjects in the same place... Yes!" Jay turned triumphantly to his terminal once again, typing furiously.

"What's wrong with you?" Jason asked curiously. Jay ignored him just long enough to finish what he was doing.

"I think you just helped me figure out what was wrong with my stupid algorithms project!" Jay grinned at Jason. "That's the second time that book has helped me figure something out!" Jason gave Jay a strange look.

"You're insane," Jason told him, not in an unfriendly manner. Jay just laughed as Jason got up. "I'm going to go suffer through this crap now. Later."

"See ya," Jay waved to Jason before turning back to the project. He compiled and... fuck, it didn't work. "Aw, not again." Jay growled to himself and went back to staring at his code, searching desperately for that error. He glanced at the clock and found that he only had fifteen minutes to finish the project. Jay sighed, but kept searching. That error had to be somewhere.

Several minutes later, Jay found an error and corrected it, but didn't bother to compile since he knew it wasn't the error he needed to find. But he was almost certain that the error was near that line so he double checked the logic of that section of code. He had nearly finished mapping all of it out in his head when...

"Hey Jay," came Omar's friendly voice.

"What?" Jay snapped, not looking away from the code.

"Woah, sorry, what's up your ass?" Omar sounded irritated.

"Sorry, Omar, I didn't mean to snap at you," Jay sighed and smiled weakly at his friend. "I just can't figure out what this fucking code error is and it's driving me crazy."

"More crazy," Omar corrected with a laughed. Jay didn't bother to deny it.

"You need something? I really need to get this done in like ten minutes," Jay asked hopefully.

"Nah, I just wanted to see if you and blondie would be at coffee tonight," Omar told Jay, glancing at Jay's screen.

"I think that's the plan," Jay confirmed. Then he frowned noting Omar's raised eyebrow. "What's up?"

"Well, I'm no computer guy, but does it matter that you misspelled continue?" Omar asked pointing to one of the very lines Jay had been inspecting. Jay stared at Omar in amazement. Then he turned and looked at that loop.

"Son of a bitch! I did misspell that!" Jay laughed. He turned to Omar with a big smile, "Thanks dude! I never would have caught that in time!"

"Wow. I helped you do something computer related. That's a switch," Omar laughed. "Ok, I'll catch you at coffe tonight."

"Sure thing," Jay replied as Omar left the computer lab. Jay noticed that K was gathering his stuff behind the tech support station in the lab, which meant his time was low.

"Work dammit," Jay demanded of his program before compiling. And now there were more errors. "Oh god fucking dammit." Jay frantically looked through his code again, trying to find these tiny errors. The fifteen tiny errors. He heard K walk up behind him.

"We're going to be late," K said.

"I know, I know, I just have to find these last few errors," Jay said, again not looking away from the code. K sat in the chair next to Jay, and looked at the code Jay was staring at.

"Compile it again," K commanded, and Jay complied without thought.

"Ok, why did I compile it again?" Jay asked of K.

"Because now you should be able to find the line that is missing a semi-colon," K explained. Jay glanced at the compiler messages.

"There's no missing semi-colon," Jay insisted. K gave him a look.

"Look harder," K told Jay, who sighed a frustrated sigh and looked at the error list more closely. Then he noticed an error out of place. He pointed to that error and glanced at K for confirmation, who smiled and nodded.

"Ha ha!" Jay said triumphantly, fixing that error and compiling again. Success! But when Jay tried to run his project, it looked like nothing was happening. "God dammit."

"Well, now you're really close," K told him while checking email for probably the hundredth time this day. "Just finish up those two logic errors and you're in the clear."

"Logic errors?" Jay asked, killing his project's process and looking to his code again. In six minutes they would be late for class. K probably didn't mind, but Jay was insistent about being on time and usually managed it. No pressure.

"Your second loop," K said after one minute of searching. Jay glanced at him, then the loop.

"Nothing's wrong with the loop," Jay said, confused.

"Nope, nothing's wrong with the loop," K agreed. "Just one question. When will i ever equal seven?"

"Well it..." Jay started to say. Then he smacked himself in the forhead. "Right, if I always add by two, it'd be awful hard to get to any odd number, huh?" K grinned and nodded. Jay compiled and ran the program again. Again it seemed to freeze. "What now?" Four minutes to go.

"Check your final loop," K suggested. Jay glared at the final loop.

"Ok loop, you don't like me, and I don't like you, but if we work together, we can go our separate ways," Jay told the loop. It didn't bother to reply. Jay looked closely. Three minutes to go.

Two minutes.

One minute.

"Oh," Jay said ruefully. "I suppose it would help if I actually incremented my counter, huh?"

"Now you've got it," K laughed as Jay frantically tested (successfully) his project, printed it, and ran to get his print out. K met Jay on the way out of the lab.

"So let me get this straight," K said, sounding curious.

"What?" Jay asked.

"We were asked to make a simple functional red-black tree in code," K said.

"Right," Jay agreed.

"And you decided it would be a good idea to make a wildly over complicated red-black tree actually builds the red black tree in a directory structure in the directory that you run the program in and eats up huge amounts of memory?" K asked. Jay laughed.

"That's fairly accurate," Jay admitted. K laughed and shook his head.

"I think the TA might kill you for this one," K told Jay. "Especially if he tries to run it with the values the professor said our projects had to work with and it takes as long as I think it's going to take."

"Exactly thirty three minutes and thirty three seconds?" Jay waggled his eyebrows.

"Sounds about right," K shook his head, smiling.

"He might," Jay admitted. "But no one else will have any project nearly as creative as mine." K laughed.

"Yeah, he's gonna kill you," K told him. Then they walked into the classroom. When K turned in his single page print out, the TA grunted. When Jay turned in his six page print out, the TA groaned and glared at Jay. Jay grinned. Mission accomplished.

Old Flame

"And I still think you're bloody crazy," Aimer said to Jay. Well, technically Aimer didn't say anything, since dragons have a terrible time properly prounouncing english words while in their native form. Dragons have developed a form of short range telepathy for communication with non-dragons. It used to be "for communication with lesser races", but after a few humbling battles through the ages, the phrase was changed.

"I'm telling you I smelled her," Jay insisted, peering over Aimer's side in an attempt to see. Jay was perched on Aimer's back, and Aimer was flying in a cloud to avoid being seen. It was the black of night, but...

"If I get seen because you thought you smelled a girl you once knew, we are in a heap of trouble," Aimer pinted out to Jay, only a hint of his Irish accent coming through. After spending enough time with the likes of Jay and K, his accent had nearly disappeared. Jay took great pleasure in pointing out how he'd helped "Americanize" Aimer. Aimer sometimes fantasized about chewing on Jay's head. They had a wonderful friendship.

"Look, I don't know how good your sense of smell is, but mine is frankly incredible," Jay told Aimer. "I have to be able to tell, by smell, if my prey is actually safe to drink from with very good accuracy. It's usually strong enough to let me know if I'm drinking from another vampire's flock. I can tell when K is walking towards me from blocks away if he's upwind, because I can recognize nearly everyone by smell alone."

"Great," Aimer laughed. "All my impressively large olfactory glands let me do is locate a carcass at several miles, or the general location of what are probably prey herds."

"You eat roadkill?" Jay laughed, then grabbed desperately for a hand hold when Aimer "forgot" Jay was on his back and dove into an aerobatic flying roll.

"Not normally no," Aimer informed Jay while returning to gliding. "Pushy, obnoxious vampires aren't on my usual menu either, though perhaps tonight I'll make an exception."

"Bah. If you did that, who would help you through your intro to computers class?" Jay laughed.

"K would," Aimer said dryly.

"Ahh, yes, but who would make it more fun?" Jay asked with a big superior grin. Aimer sighed, but did not reply. They flew quietly for a while, the only sound being Jay's deep breaths.

The night was beautiful. It was dark and clear and ever so slightly cold. Premium flying weather except for one, minor, detail. There were almost no clouds. That makes flying stealthily a little difficult for a dragon with a thirty-five foot wingspan, but Jay had called in a favor that Aimer could not ignore. Besides, even with the sparse clouds, the night was wonderful for flying. This time Aimer really did forget that Jay was there when the aerobatics began.

"Hey!" Jay protested, clinging desperately to a pair of scales. Aimer snickered, but said nothing. Then Jay froze and took several quick breaths.

"Now, dive! Get me down there!" Jay insisted. Normally this would be harder, because Aimer would have had to look very carefully to find both a safe place to land and a place where he could get from sky to ground in as little space as possible. It's hard to miss a dragon diving from the skies. However, thanks to their wizard friend K, Aimer had learned to make himself invisible for short spans, just long enough to land. Seconds later, Jay and Aimer, now in his familiar human form, and horrible pants, were on the ground in a lightly forested area.

Aimer rolled his eyes as he followed after a rapidly sniffing Jay. Jay moved now, not so much like a dog on a hunt for a bone, more so like a wolf on the hunt for dinner. Given that Jay was supposedly looking for an old flame, Aimer wasn't quite sure how to take that reconcile that mental image. After a few minutes, Jay froze.

"Don't move," Jay told Aimer. "Give me five minutes. If a girl runs through here, grab her till I get back, ok?"

"I'm not very fond of holding lasses against their will," Aimer pointed out. The red-glowing glare Jay turned on Aimer was enough to cause even the dragon to take a step back.

"Just do it," Jay commanded before running into the forest. Aimer shook his head. Jay had even managed to make his command a true command by accident with his mental powers. Aimer was able to shrug the half-hearted attempt off fairly easily, but now Aimer was just worried Jay would go and get himself hurt. Aimer sighed and leaned up against a tree while he waited. After maybe three minutes passed, something ran towards him making a great deal of noise, obviously not Jay.

"Perhaps he's startled a deer," Aimer mused as he stood up away from the tree. His surprise was total when a young woman, dressed as goth as goth could be, stumbled into the clearing eyes glowing a silver color, fangs and claws partially extended.

"Excuse me lass, could I-" Aimer tried to calm the woman down, but when she noted his presence, a desperate look crossed her face and she leaped to attack, swinging her claws wildly. Aimer was used to Jay, who moved with frightening speed and ferocity. This slow and seemingly desperate woman was nothing like the Jay he knew, as far as Aimer could tell. In an effort to not hurt the woman or get himself hurt in the process, he pulled upon a suggestion from one of K's ex-girlfriend, and grabbed the woman by the forearms just under the elbow. This grip made it almost imposssible to reach anything with claws, and was helpful for stoping lunges with teeth. Holding Jay in place like this even Aimer would have struggled, but with this woman it was no more than holding a squalling babe.

"Please calm down, lass. I'm not for hurting you," Aimer assured her, but she still struggled, trying to jerk her hands away. It was only when Jay seemed to materalize next to Aimer with a concerned look on his face, that the woman suddenly froze. She looked terrified.

"Nancy?" Jay asked hesitantly, quietly. Her frantic demeanor suddenly diminished as she looked at Jay. The glow in her eyes dimmed.

"You..." she said, her mouth hanging open in surprise.

"Yep," Jay replied. "Me." He sounded flippant, but Aimer could tell that he was anything but. Aimer was just about to let go and introduce himself to the young lady when she desperatly tried to throw herself at Jay, eye blazing.

"It was you!" she screamed, her feet scrabbling at the ground as she tried to escape Aimer's grip. She even managed to drag Aimer a few feet before he dug his heels back in. Jay's surprised and dismayed face was sight Aimer never expected to see. However, given the angry woman in his arms, Aimer was a bit busy to pay too much attention to his friend.

"Lass, please! No one here wants to hurt you," Aimer tried to calm her down. She snapped her blazing eyes to Aimer and growled.

"You're the one who grabbed me, you maniac," she snarled back at Aimer. She wanted to be angry, but Aimer's nearly magical charm with people was not to be denied.

"As much as I'd like to be grabbing at a lovely young lady, such as yourself, these are hardly the circumstances that I would hope for," Aimer told Nancy in a very reasonable and friendly tone. She calmed slightly. "I only hold you like this, because I'd rather not spend my evening bleeding because of a case of mistaken identity. I'd gladly release you if you would but promise not to attack me again." Aimer smiled a wide smile that softened Nancy's expression. Then her eyes narrowed.

"Can I attack him?" Nancy asked. Aimer wasn't quite sure if she was serious or not. However, Aimer let nothing impede the potential for humor.

"I'm fairly certain he can fend for himself," Aimer replied with a laugh and released Nancy from his grasp. "Though the only reason I've stoped holding you for him is because you've asked, and I have such a hard time turning down such a beautiful woman. I'd rather keep ye all to me own, but a gentleman I must be." Jay smirked and rolled his eyes at Aimer's little speech, but no one could deny that it managed to calm Nancy down enough to not immediately try to kill Jay. Aimer was not an unattractive man unless you looked at how he dressed.

"Nancy, are you ok?" Jay started what was likely going to be a string of questions, but Nancy started shouting almost immediately.

"Do I look like I'm fucking ok?" the young woman sobbed, her eyes glowing as she held up her still clawed hands. "I have claws, and fangs, and everyone hates me! I can't even hide because my stupid eyes glow now. And it's all because of you!" Then she started screaming. "It's all because of you and your stupid problem! Tell me you love me and I find out you want to kill me? What the hell is wrong with you? I hate you!"

"Kill you?" Jay yelled, mostly so he could be heard. "I never wanted to kill you!" Though Jay didn't actually say "you idiot", the implication was very strong.

"Why would he want to kill you?" Aimer asked with by far the most reasonable voice here. "He seems to be quite the pussy-cat when I spend my time with him." Nancy turned her silver glare on the Irishman, but it weakened quickly as her face shot from anger to fear.

"You're one too, aren't you?" she whispered, backing away. Aimer exchanged a glance with Jay.

"One what, lass?" Aimer asked calmly. At least Nancy stopped backing away..

"A vampire," she said. Aimer laughed.

"No, I've a much bigger problem then that," Aimer told her. Jay snickered in the background. "But, you have my assurances that you are safe with both of us. Now, would ye be willing to tell us what exactly is going on?" Nancy's legs seemed to fail her and she thumped to the ground. She wrapped her arms around her knees and sat there hugging herself, silver tears rolling from her eyes.

"Nancy, what's wrong?" Jay asked, moving to touch her, though he backed off when she snarled at him.

"Why are you crying, dear lass?" Aimer asked in a voice that women simply couldn't deny. Jay took a moment to remind himself just how much he hated Aimer's voice when women were involved.

"Because of this," Nancy replied between sobs. "Because of him."

"Lass, that's technically an answer, but as of now, I have no earthly clue what is bothering you," Aimer told the young woman.

"I think I know," Jay said sadly. "She is a vampire, and she somehow blames me for it." Aimer frowned at Jay, thinking he was perhaps jumping to conclusions, but the sobbing Nancy nodded her assent, then buried her face in her hands.

"Did you...?" Aimer gave Jay an inquisitive look, but Jay shook his head emphatically no with a disgusted look on his face. As far as Aimer knew, Jay had never given unlife to another vampire. Aimer had also almost never seen a subdued sad Jay either, so tonight was a night of discovery for Aimer. Nancy's sobs slowly weakened. The two boys waited in silence for her to decide to speak again.

"It's his fault," Nancy moaned, eventually breaking the silence.

"How is it my fault?" Jay asked a bit hotly. Oh, these two have history, Aimer thought to himself. Nancy glared at him through her tears.

"How long did we date before I found you out?" she demanded. "How many times did you tell me you loved me before you turned out to be a liar?"

"I wasn't lying!" Jay insisted. This merely incensed Nancy.

"You were going to kill me!" she screamed at him. Aimer took a step back after that shrill scream. "That's what vampires do. That's what they all do." Nancy was starting to cry again, but Jay managed to cut it off this time.

"Like hell they do!" Jay yelled. "I have never, ever, killed someone I was feeding from. Ever! Not once. Less than ten have ever even realized I was feeding on them, and only one still has that memory. And I wasn't feeding on you at any point to begin with! My flock and my friends are totally separate. I never feed on a friend." Jay paused, his anger dying down. "I never feed on those I love either."

Nancy looked at Jay, mostly in disbelief, but glanced to Aimer for confirmation. Aimer nodded his asscent. Nancy, frowned, essentially asking Aimer to confirm aloud without actually saying anything. Aimer sighed.

"Lass, I have never seen him feed," he told her. "Not once. His very best friend in the world has only seen him feed once, and even then it was only in a time of duress. I couldn't point someone he's fed on out in a crowd if you paid me a pot of gold coins."

"And he's never fed on you?" Nancy asked quietly.

"Oh, he'd find me a difficult meal if he tried," Aimer laughed. Jay smiled at that, and punched Aimer in the arm.

"Why?" Nancy asked. Jay and Aimer both hesitated. In the way she asked, they both knew she was very serious and very desperate. Her stability, even her sanity, hinged on this question being answered just right. Aimer sighed, and looked to Jay for permissions. Jay's eyes widened, and he shrugged.

"You're no help," Aimer grumbled, then he looked into Nancy's eyes. They were desperate, but for the first time, almost hopeful. Aimer never broke eye contact as he changed. When he was done, Aimer's long lean body circled the small clearing they stood in. Aimer cringed and shuddered, which on a his size dragon involves millions of scales ruffling, worrying that he had frightened this timid young woman. But her open mouth and eyes filled with wonder calmed him down. Aimer gave his body a little shake and preened his wings a bit.

"No wonder you aren't afraid," she said, tentatively, then more confidently running her hands over Aimer's scales.

"I'd have nothing to fear, even if I wasn't a dragon," Aimer told her again, firmly, not using his mouth though. Trying to speak in english in this form out loud scared even Jay.

"Why not?" Nancy asked, looking up into Aimer's eyes again.

"Because Jay's an soft-hearted idiot," came a harsh irritated voice from the edge of the clearing. Aimer looked up as K crashed into the clearing muttering curses to himself. Jay grinned.

"Nancy, meet my best friend, Kristoph," Jay told her. K scowled.

"Call me K," he insisted. "Anything else is far too much typing." K joined the group, gave Aimer a withering look, then turn a slightly friendlier glare on Nancy. "Now, tell me why I had to find my way out here in the middle of the goddamn forest in the middle of the goddamn night so I can find some chick oggling a dragon who should know better than to be in this form." Nancy looked slightly worried.

"Don't worry," Jay leaned in closer to Nancy, who for the first time didn't back away, "K's not always like this. I kinda woke him up and called him here." K snorted.

"There was no 'kinda' you asshole," K told Jay darkly.

"Why did you call him?" Nancy said to Jay, actually continuing to remain calm. Aimer took this moment to return to his human form.

"This should be good," K said, while glowering at Jay.

"Because he's a plain old human," Jay replied. "He can vouch for me. Also, he's enough of a jerk when he's tired that he's distracting your irritation with me onto himself."

"Have I set you on fire lately?" K said, mostly to himself.

"You're human?" Nancy demanded, turning to K.

"Uh-huh," K responded shortly.

"He's never fed on you?" she asked, referring to Jay.

"No," K responded shortly again. Then, after taking a look at the young lady's tear stained face, he sighed and continued. "And I've only ever seen him feed once, during an emergency. Jay was very embarrassed about it too. He never wants his friends to see him feed. Not that I get why, but that's just him I guess." K seemed to be a bit more reasonable now that he realized why he was here. Nancy stared at K for a moment, then burst into tears again.

"Oh, great, I'm making chicks cry," K rolled his eyes, then glared at Jay. "This was totally worth getting out of bed for, asshole."

"Lass, why are you crying?" Aimer asked gently, this time touching her arm. When she didn't jerk away, he sat down beside her and hugged her to him. She sobbed for a moment. Jay looked a bit jealously at Aimer till K swatted him in the back of the head, prompting an irritated look, followed by a look of understanding, followed by a look of contrition, followed by another swat to the back of the head. Jay glowered at a suddenly beaming K.

"I'm such an idiot," Nancy said quietly. This quieted the letters of the alphabet.

"How can you say such a thing?" Aimer gently rebuked her.

"No, I am," she insisted. "After I found out what Jay was, I never went anywhere without a cross and garlic. Then one day another vampire found me, listened to my story, then turned me into this as some kind of sick joke."

"What, unwillingly?" K broke into the conversation. He looked pissed. Nancy nodded mutely. Jay's eyes suddenly blazed red.

"Who was it?" Jay asked in a horrible voice. Nancy cringed away from him, and Jay visibly had to control his anger. When the glow left his eyes, he looked to Nancy again and asked, "Who was it that changed you?"

"Why?" Nancy asked.

"Because no wise vampire ever turns a person against their will," Jay told her. He was trying to control his anger, but red was starting to seep into his eyes. "That is unforgivable."

"Weren't you going to turn me?" Nancy suddenly asked nastily.

"No! I wasn't!" Jay insisted hastily, mortified. The red glow had totally dissipated. "I would never curse anyone like this."

"What was his name?" K asked this time, his voice had a deadly serious quality to it that stopped everyone in place. When everyone looked at him, they found a very intense and angry look on K's face.

"I think it was something like... Raz," Nancy told him, her voice soft and hesitant.

"Rasputin?" Jay asked. When Nancy nodded, Jay shot to his feet and stalked away, shaking with anger. K growled, and pulled a pda and portable keyboard out of his pockets. After attaching the two, he began typing furiously.

"What's going on?" Nancy asked Aimer.

"Now, my friends are overreacting," he told her calmly. "But if I'm not mistaken, Jay is facing away from you because he's too angry to think and doesn't want to scare you. K, on the other hand, is signing Rasputin's death warrant."

"You're goddamn right I am," K replied, not looking up from what he was doing.

"All because Ras turned me into this?" she asked. Jay stormed back up, somehow controlling his anger.

"Because Ras took your free will, turned you against your will, then obviously let you out on your own after playing with your mind," Jay replied. "He's probably been stalking you and watching you blunder through unlife." Then Jay froze. "Have you ever fed on anyone?"

"Only animals," Nancy replied, starting to cry. "But I had to kill them to do it. I didn't want to, but I couldn't stop myself." Jay tightened his fists so hard that his claws burst through the backs of his hands, he stalked away again, lighting up the forest with his rage.

"Don't worry babe," K spoke up. He had a self-satisfied look on his face as he returned his geek-gear to his pockets. "Ras won't be around much longer. He'll never do this to anyone ever again."

"See, it's good to have friends like us," Aimer told Nancy giving her a friendly squeeze." She smiled. Jay started to say something, probably comforting and friendly, but then he froze and looked into the air.

"Except when old friends show up," Jay informed everyone with a snarl before suddenly seeming to disappear as he ran up a tree so fast neither Nancy nor K could follow. Aimer looked up to see Jay fighting with a white shade floating above the trees. Whatever he was fighting threw Jay into the ground hard enough to break several bones. A ghostly white monster floated down from the sky, his claws streaming with Jay's blood.

"Rasputin I presume?" K asked in a very dangerous tone of voice. Aimer had guessed that based on how Nancy had suddenly started panicing, desperately trying to crawl away from the white monstrosity. Rasputin looked much like Nancy, very pale, with silver eyes. Rasputin, however, was much better dressed, all in white, and practically glowed in the dark.

"Silence mortal," Rasputin turned his silver eyes on K. At first nothing happened, then K clenched his fists. Aimer realized that the vampire was trying to dominate K's mind.

"Stay here, love, this won't take but a moment," Aimer told Nancy, who looked to him in fear. Then her eyes widened as she realized what Aimer had in mind. Rasputin and K were locked in mental battle, Rasputin clearly the stronger, but as yet unable to break through K's formidable mental defences. Their fight was so intense that Rasputin did not notice Aimer take his true form until he saw Aimer's tail whipping through the air. To his credit, Rasputin caught Aimer's tail and held it away from his body, but to Aimer's credit, the ground was much harder than Rasputin. Though the broken monster healed quickly, as soon as Aimer's tail was clear Jay pounced on the vampire and the two tore at one another with a vengence.

K shared an irritated glance with Aimer. With Jay in the way, dealing with Rasputin became difficult. Aimer could not breathe fire, nor K use his considerable magical repetoire without possibly endangering Jay. And it appeared Rasputin had the advantage. He was likely older, looked to be faster, and stronger. His wounds healed faster than Jay's, though both their sets of clothing were fast being destroyed. Things looked bad for Jay.

Then Jay tore Rasputin's head off and kicked the body away. The head gasped horribly and the body disolved to ash. Jay growled at the very surprised looking head and pulled back his hand for one final blow.

"Jay!" K called sharply. Jay stopped instantly, and looked to K as he stalked over. By the time K had reached Jay's side, all Jay's wounds had healed.

"Give me that," K insisted, swiping the still living head away from Jay. Jay was so surprised he only stood and blinked.

"Can you talk?" K asked the head. Rasputin's eyes swivelled grotesquely towards K and his face crinkled in confusion. K rolled his eyes, and looked at Jay. "You. Translate." Jay blinked more, then shook his head and stared at the severed head of Rasputin.

"No, he can't talk, but yes, he can understand you," Jay told K with something of a smile on his face. "He's in quite a bit of pain, so concentrating is difficult."

"Whatever," K shrugged, and turned back to the head of Raz. "Did you turn this girl against her will?" K was never one for mincing words. And this time it was likely with good reason, since Rasputin's neck was slowly healing downward. In time Rasputin could have completely regrown his body. And Rasputin knew it.

"Answer him or I'll tear out an eye," Jay told the head. Rasputin's silver eyes turned to Jay filled with fear, then unfocused. Jay growled and reported, "Yes, he did, and he's proud of it. It was the most amusement he's had in a while, as he described it." K nodded and pulled out the pda again. He poked at it for a moment.

"Lass, why have you not put your claws away?" Aimer asked the strangely calm Nancy, trying to distract her from the horrible sight of a living severed head.

"How do I do that?" Nancy asked, confused. "I thought they were permanent."

"Rarely they are, but normally not," Jay informed her. "You should be able to do anything Rasputin could, so theoretically you can put your claws and fangs away at will, do his creepy eye thing, float around, all kinds of stuff." Nancy stared at Jay open mouthed. Then she looked at her claws. Nothing happened initially, but after a moment or two they slowly slid back revealing normal human hands. Nancy followed the same tactics with her incisors, and shortly her teeth looked perfectly normal.

"I doubt flying will be that easy," Jay laughed, "but I bet you'll pick it up." As Jay spoke, K beeped. Or more accurately, his pda beeped. K took it out again and poked a few times. Then he grinned evily.

"Put Ras on the ground please," K requested of Jay. The eyes of the severed head took on a terrified expression and began to cast about, looking to the others in the clearing, probably begging for help. They found little sympathy.

After Jay dropped the head unceremoniously to the ground, K stood over the head. He thought for a moment, then elbowed Jay and glanced at Aimer. When he had both their attentions, he spread his fingers wide, thumbs touching, and pointed his fingers at Rasputin's head. Jay and Aimer, both recognizing what K was up to, laughed.

"I don't know, K, do you think 1D4+1 damage will be enough?" Jay chortled. K gave him annoyed smile, but a smile nonetheless. When K looked down, his expression turned serious, and a gout flames shot from his fingertips completely enveloping the severed head in fire. When the flames ceased nothing remained of Rasputin's head but a fine pile of ash. As K turned back to the group, a stiff breeze blew all the ashes, both from the head, and from the body, into the air and out of sight.

"As you can see, Rasputin won't be doing that to anyone else, ever again," K gave Nancy a little bow. "Now I'm going back to bed." And with that K turned and crashed back out of the clearing. K was not a master of the covert.

Aimer turned and watched as Nancy and Jay shared a moment of intense embarrassment, then turned and walked several yards away so they could have some privacy. Aimer grinned at Jay's fortune. His grin faded as he listened.

"We can't be together can we," Nancy asked of Jay. They were hugging, they had been kissing, but that was what she asked first. Jay sighed.

"No, we can't," Jay told her. "The only thing I can think of that you can guarantee in a vampire is that no vampire wants to spend any more time than is absolutely necessary in the presence of another vampire."

"So even though we're able to spend eternity together, we aren't," Nancy sounded disappointed.

"Yeah," Jay replied. They were silent for a moment.

"I'm sorry I tried to kill you," Nancy said quietly. Jay chuckled.

"It's ok, I get that a lot," Jay replied wryly. Another quiet moment, then, "I love you Nancy. I'm sorry things turned out this way."

"It's not fair," Nancy whined. Then she sighed and looked deep into Jay's eyes. "But you did something tonight that I'll never forget. Even if we can't be together, I'll think of you like I always should have: fondly." Jay smiled.

"That means a lot to me," Jay told her, and they separated. "Be careful out there. And try to find some friends like us, ok?" Nancy nodded mutely, then she turned and walked softly away. Aimer, ever the soft-hearted one, stood blinking away the moisture in his eyes.

"I take it you heard all of that," Jay asked when he walked over to join his dragon friend.

"Aye," Aimer said huskly. "I'm sorry, my friend." Jay shrugged.

"After this long, I'm getting used to not getting the girl," Jay said, sadly. Aimer clapped him on the back.

"Well, there's only one cure for a situation like this," Aimer said, "One that is mystical, magical, and has been passed down for generations in my family." Jay raised an eyebrow, as Aimer grinned. "Home-brewed whiskey." Jay laughed, and the two friends walked out of the clearing and into the night.

My Flock

"Don't say anything and I won't hurt you," began the scene about to unfold. A grimy man with a gun, down on his luck, and desperate for a lay lied to the woman he'd pulled off the quiet street into his alleyway. Raping a woman hurts her immesurably, but anything to keep her quiet. The woman lay quietly whimpering under the gun, obviously too frightened to move. The man grinned a dark grin and began removing the neccesary bits of clothing to get what he wanted. When the woman realized his true goal, she began to thrash wildly attempting to escape.

"Stop that, bitch!" The horrid smelling man held her down with one hand for a moment, but when he realized she would not stop struggling without an object lesson, he pistol whipped her face. She was not totally unconscious, but her feeble attempts to resist were no longer an impediment to this desperate man's goals.

"No... Please...." came her quiet moaned plea. The woman was crying as the blood from the wound on her temple bled down into her eyes and her mouth. "Please don't..."

"Shut up," the dark man insisted as he finally reached the point where he could get what he wanted. The woman tried to fight, but there was nothing to stop him now. He growled as he got what he wanted, ignoring the feeble cries from the woman. When she tried to push him off, he pistol whipped her again, this time knocking her totally unconscious.

"You shouldn'ta struggled, bitch," the man laughed at the unconscious woman as he pulled up his pants, satisfied with his work. He turned away and began to walk out of the alley. Then he gasped as a hand plunged out of the shadows and grabbed his chest. He felt like he'd been punched. He looked down and realized that the fingers on the hand in his chest had punctured to the first knuckle. He was then lifted off the ground by his rib cage, and few of his ribs survived the trip.

"And you shouldn't have raped one of my flock," snarled the horrifying creature that melted out of the shadows, still holding him in the air. It looked like a man, but his skin practically glowed white. The creature's hands ended in wicked sharp claws, his incisors were as long as fangs, and his eyes glowed firey red, as if flickering with the rage of the creature holding him.

"Fuck you!" the grimy man said before pumping the two bullets in his gun into the creature's chest. The creature snarled and stumbled back with each impact, but after the gun clicked empty, the grimy man felt himself fly though the air before he felt a sudden impact with the alley wall. It was a short, but bone crushing trip.

The man looked up in horror as the monster stalked after him, shaking with rage, licking the blood from his claws. The creature cast about before finding a short piece of rebar and retrieving it.

"No! Please!" the grimy man begged as the monster approached. "Please don't-"

"Funny hearing those words coming out of your mouth, isn't it?" the monster snarled with a glance towards the woman. "Do they sound familiar?" Then the creature drove the rebar through the grimy man's shoulder and into the alley wall. The pathetic man screamed as much as his traumatized body would allow him, which wasn't much. The tiny punctures in his lung left behind from the creature's claws didn't help.

The monster, confident that the rapist could not escape, turned his attention to the woman. She was regaining consciousness, but slowly. She was obviously groggy from the pair of blows to the head, but the horror of her situation was returning. She started to desperately scuttle backwards with her feet and hands till she thumped into the alley wall.

"It's ok, now," the monster, who now looked like nothing more than a sad young man, told her. "He can't hurt you anymore." The woman, looked at the young man with bleary eyes for a moment.

"He... that man... he..." the woman started to say before bursting into uncontrollable sobbing.

"Shh... I know what he did," the young man replied. The woman noticed that, a dark note entered his voice. When she looked up she saw a simmering red glow in the man's eyes, and watched as the man's face turned into a monster's face when he growled at the greasy man, now whispering bubbling screams.

"What..." the woman started to ask though her tears, but the monster's face turned to her and all she saw was a sad young man again.

"He won't hurt you," the young man told her. "Never again." The woman took some comfort in that reassurance. For some reason, those words spoken by this young man held in them a promise written in blood.

"You... Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Jay," the sad man smiled slightly. "I am your friend Karrin." The woman blinked away tears, surprised, but before she could speak, Jay continued.

"There are a couple of ways we can proceed from here," he told her. "I could go, call the police, and let them handle this. You'll say that after he finished and stood, you kicked at his legs, and he fell onto the spike on his own. He will see normal justice, and so will you. The evidence here is farily incontrovertible." Jay's eyes began to glow again as the woman began to cry, the enormity of the situation beginning to overwhelm her again.

"There is another option," he said quietly. The woman cried for a moment, but sniffed loudly, pulled her self together again for the moment, and looked at Jay.

"What option?" she asked shakily. The glow in Jay's eyes burned darker.

"Two things will happen," Jay replied. "I will give this... creature... what he deserves. He will die terrified and alone without hope." The woman's face hardened as Jay spoke. She liked that idea. "The other thing is that I will make you forget."

"What?" Karrin gasped. "How can you think I could ever forget this!" Her rage held off her horror momentarily. Jay, eyes blazing red, replied by turning to the whimpering man.

"Pull the rebar out," Jay commanded casually. The grimy man's hand shakily reached up to grasp the rebar, then slowly pulled it out of his body. The man shook and rasped with agony, but the man did not stop until the rebar was completely out of his body. The man curled into a ball as the rebar clanged to the alley floor beside him. Jay turned back to Karrin with a sad and compassionate face.

"I will make you forget," he told her quietly, gently. Karrin looked at him in shock for a moment.

"But..." she touched her head, the blood. Jay looked away from her wound.

"You will remember him grabbing you, trying to take your purse," Jay told her. "When you resisted, he hit you, twice, but ran off when you didn't let go. You'll be woken up by a good samaritan who will take you to the clinic down the street." Jay turned back to her with his sad eyes. There was no unearthly glow, just two brown sad eyes rimmed with tears of blood. He blinked and a blood tear ran down each cheek. Karrin reached out to touch his face, but he turned away, hiding his tears.

"You're a vampire?" Karrin asked. Jay wiped his face clearn and nodded, still not facing her. "Why would you do this for me?" she asked, confused. "I thought vampires were bad people."

"Vampires are just people," Jay told her as he turned to face her. The slightly bubbling breaths and coughs of the man dying in the alley were getting shorter and his eyes getting more desperate. Blood had begun to dribble out of his mouth after his racking coughs.

"But why me?" she asked. Jay sighed.

"Because you're part of my flock," he replied. He looked her in the eyes. "Because I feed on you." Karrin's eyes widened, but she blinked and regained her calm. Jay sighed before continuing. "I don't want any of my flock hurt. If I did nothing for you, I would be that evil vampire you thought I was. I had to do something."

"You feed on me, but you also protect me," Karrin more stated than asked. More tears fell from Jay's eyes.

"I was too slow," Jay said to the floor. "I'm so sorry, Karrin, but I was too slow." This time when Karrin reached out to touch him, Jay did not shy away. He simply sat silently as she rubbed his tears away.

"You did what you could," Karrin told him. She took a deep breath. "And I can forget." Jay looked up at that comment, his face stained with blood.

"That's what you want?" he asked. Karrin nodded.

"But one more thing," she said. Jay nodded, wiping his face clean again. Karrin's face grew hard. "I want to see what you do to him." Jay leaned back in surprise, then a truly evil grin spread across his face, any hint of tears or compassion buried under the cruel face of a monster. Karrin almost took back her request when she saw this. Jay, no longer a young man, but a terrible monster, rose and stalked to the man who had gathered the will to try to crawl out of the alley. Jay kicked the man in the chest hard enough to throw him to the alley wall again. Then Jay crouched in front of the man claws bared, fangs dripping, eyes blazing red.

"I'm not going to kill you," Jay informed the man. While the man gasped, Jay cupped his hands under the largest wound and gathered a mouthfull of blood, drank it, then started to get more. "Killing you is too easy, and I don't kill my food. I'm going to take you into the shadows and let you die. And I don't mean pull you out of sight; I mean take you into the world of shadows. You will feel nothing but your pain, see nothing but shadow, hear nothing but your own dying breaths. You won't be able to escape or do much ov anything else. If you are very, very lucky, you will die before the living shadows find you." Jay drained the remainder of the blood from his cupped hands and stood, licking his hands clean. The man began to cry helplessly as Jay grabbed him by the collar and started to drag him to the back of the alley. As he walked into the shadow on the wall, Jay paused to look back to Karrin. She had a horrified, but satisfied look on her face. Suddenly sleepy, the last thing Karrin saw was the dying man's shoes disappear in shadows.

  *  *  *  *  * 

"Shit lady, are you ok?" The young man asked as he gently shook Karrin's shoulder.

"My head... got hit..." Karrin gasped through the pain. She tried to explain as quickly as possible. "Mugger."

"Well, you still have your purse," the nervous looking young man told her while looking around. "Looks like he ran off without getting what he wanted. But anyway, we have to get you some help. I think there's a clinic around here."

"Down the street," Karrin told him, feeling stronger. "About two blocks." Karrin wasn't sure why she remembered that, but she didn't question it.

"I'll get you there," the young man promised her. "Can you stand?" When Karrin nodded, the young man helped her to her feet as gently as he could. After a few hobbling steps, the young man said dubiuosly, "I could try carrying you." Karrin smiled.

"It was just a couple of bumps on the head," she scolded her samaritan. "He didn't hit me in the leg."

"You must be feeling better if your sense of humor is back," the young man smiled at Karrin as he helped her towards the alley's mouth.

"I'm just lucky you happened by," Karrin smiled weakly and stopped hobbling for a moment. "What's your name, oh knight in shining armor mine?" Jay smirked.

"Actually, my armor is in he shop," he told her jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "Jousting accident, you know. But my name is Jay."

"Thank you, Jay," Karrin told him firly. "Thank you for helping me."

"I live but to serve you," Jay replied almost seriously as they walked, together out of the alley. Karrin glanced back into the alley, feeling strange for a moment, but as they walked away from the alley, that feeling disappeared.

As they walked screams Karrin could not hear, reached Jay's ears. He smiled an evil smile. Apparantly the man did not die before the living shadows found him. The screams followed till Jay walked Karrin into the clinic. His smile did not die for some time after.

Crunch

It wasn't so much the cracking of bone or tearing of flesh as it was the bits of brick and mortar that fell down from above that reminded Jay just how strong drunk men could be. Two large men, one scrawny looking boy, and a toss down an alley; clearly they had expected Jay to be at least somewhat winded by the throw, but Jay's vampiric body had fully healed before his attackers could take two steps.

"Come on guys, lighten up," Jay said in a mollifying voice, holding his hands up half peacefully, half defensively. "I didn't know she was your girlfriend, sister, mother, aunt, fiance, cousin, friend, or newphew." That provoked a few seconds of blinking.

"She's my girl!" one of the men insisted loudly, to which the other man grunted firmly in agreement.

"Of what type I'm still not sure, but I'm certainly willing to let that go and stop talking to her if that's your goal in dragging me out here and throwing me into a wall," Jay smiled amicably. Jay hadn't so much been talking to the girl as feeding on her, when the men took offence. All they saw was a pale young man talking quietly to a girl who was in close. If she was a girlfriend, Jay certainly saw how that could be taken in the wrong way.

"I don't think we're quite through with you boy," the larger man said with a dangerous glint in his eye. "I don't like it none when you young fellers come in and try to take our women."

"Your women?" Jay raised an eyebrow a bit too calmly. "I'm beginning to wonder if they're even aware of that honor you've bestowed on them." And there, as usual, Jay's mouth got him into trouble.

"Don't matter if they're aware," the smaller one growled and pulled out a knife.

"They're our women because we say so," the larger one grinned evilly and slipped on a set of brass knuckles. This situation had just escalated from slightly upsetting to dangerous. To most people it would appear that Jay merely shifted nervously and pulled his hands in towards his body, but to anyone watching closely enough, they would have seen his eyes narrow slightly, his canines extend, and his fingernails begin to delicately sharpen into claws.

Normally Jay would have tried to simply dominate the minds of these not quite gentlemen and force them to back down without a fight. However, they were drunk, which makes controlling them much more difficult, they were angry and already planning on violence, another wrench in the wheel of peace, and lastly, Jay really doesn't like men who treat women badly. It's one of his very few easy hot buttons.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" came a sharp voice, cutting into the scene and breaking the tension. Jay's teeth and nails instantly returned to normal as he assumed an innocent expression. Before the two men could turn all the way around, the very woman in question stormed out in front of them and placed herself between the men and their prey. The bigger man scowled.

"This doesn't concern you, woman," he told her sharply.

"Yeah, leave us men to our business," the shorter man chimed in, gaining strength from his larger friend's presence.

"No no! Feel free to intervene!" Jay insisted with a nervous looking smile. The woman glanced at him with a smirk, then turned back to the drunks with her hands on her hips and an unimpressed expression.

"You boys should get smart and get out of here," the woman insisted. Jay smiled as he gazed at his ally. He congratulated himself, while checking out the woman's ass, for picking such a fiesty bit of lunch. The tight jeans, leather chaps, and heavy leather jacket, while all quite fetching in a biker sort of way, should have told the drunks something that apparently they weren't listening to.

"Here, get you gone," the shorter man insisted, walking up as if to grab the woman. She took one glance at the knife in his hands and swatted it contemptuously away. Jay's eyes widened as he watched the knife thud into the wall of the alley. The shorter man did not miss the implications and quickly backed away from the tough woman. The larger man, however, was unimpressed and advanced on the woman.

"You best be leavin' fore you stick your nose too far into man's business," the large man sneered. The woman took two hip swaying steps closer to the man and put her face an inch from his.

"And you should have backed off when you had the chance," she informed mockingly him before she kneed him in the balls hard enough to lift him to his toes. Jay winced at that blow, but winced further when he noticed that the large man was not falling down as he should have been.

"You bitch!" he yelled as swung his brass knuckled fist back for a huge hook punch. The woman sneered in return and drove a straight punch directly into the man's solar plexus, another blow that should have driven him to the ground. However, some combination of arrogant, drunk, and stubborn let the man weather the second blow as well, though he stumbled back to be caught by his crony. After shaking his head once the man roared and stepped into a powerful hook punch that would have crushed the woman's face. Even as she tried to block she closed her eyes and turned away.

For a moment everything was silent. Then the large man and his intended target both looked at the fist that Jay's small, pale, and clawed hand had caught mid-swing. Then the both looked at the livid face with red glowing eyes of Jay, his true nature revealed.

"You should have gone down," Jay told the man before hurling him bodliy into the same wall Jay had been thrown into at the start of this debacle. This time, however, the crunch of bone and tearing of flesh wasn't remotely as negligable. When Jay turned with a snarl to glare at the smaller man the knifeless wonder took a moment to scream then run aimlessly and desperately away. With a deep breath Jay calmed and the harsh glare in his eyes dimmed.

"You didn't think I could take him?" the woman asked shakily, partially out of pride, partially out of a need to say something instead of screaming. It is not easy to stand firm and confident in the bared presense of a vampire. Jay looked at the woman as the red flowed from his eyes.

"I just really wanted to hurt him," Jay shrugged before relaxing back into himself and smiling at the woman. She looked him in the eyes carefully for a moment, then smiled back.

"Wow, you really tore him up!" Jay congratulated the woman, who sneered down the alleyway at her defeated foe. Then she laughed.

"Ain't you gonna be a bit embarrassed to tell people how a woman came to your rescue?" Jay smiled at the woman who now believed that she had thrown the man down the alleyway.

"I could have helped, but you didn't even give me the chance!" Jay laughed. "You're too fast, and tough, and I was far too distracted by your stunning good looks to react quickly enough." With a starry eyed smile he coaxed hearty laughter out of his recent prey.

"Well, you be more careful about who you talk to without his permission," the woman snickered as she jerked her head to indicate the fallen man.

"I don't reckon that'll be a problem," Jay winked and smiled. With a final parting laugh, the woman returned to the bar they'd all left. Jay waited till she was inside before approaching the man who looked on in fear. Jay's eyes glowed once again, and he extened his claws and his fangs and kneeled before the man who was now whimpering in fear and pain.

"I would love nothing more than to tear out your throat right here," Jay coldly informed the terrified man. "But I won't. Leaving you here broken by a woman is almost as satisfying." Jay stared into the man's eyes for a moment while returning to normal, then suddenly grinned.

"Damn, boy! You got knocked the fuck out!" Jay laughed in the man's now confused and pained face before turning and walking out of the alley. Though he'd rather have gone back into the bar and back to his meal, he had a loser to catch. It wouldn't do to have vampire rumors starting up. With one final glance at the man in the alley, Jay stepped away from the bar and into the shadows with a feral grin. It was time to hunt.

Entropy

"Entropy does what now?" K asked of Jay, who laughed a familiar and ever so slightly irritating laugh. K rubbed his face knowing that the coming explanation was going to be partially truthful and interesting, but largely grandiose and fictional. He glanced up at the grinning vampire who was leaning over the computer help desk at an unnatural angle to get a view of K's computer screen.

"I'm just sayin', is all, that entropy and vampires makes a lot of sense," Jay insisted returning his body to a more normal angle as a student walked into the computer lab. Jay had taken a physics class to fill one of his required classes for graduation. K had declined Physics for Chemistry, as it was by far the easier class, but with as much Jay liked to talk about his Physics class, K felt he was learning almost as much if not more than Jay was, excepting of course that K could never really be sure which parts were true without actually borrowing Jay's always conveniently missing Physics book.

"Since I'm fairly certain there's no way you'll let me get out of this conversation, and the general lack of people bothering me with questions right now, why don't we go take a smoke break?" K suggested, locking his computer. Normally, leaving a computer locked in a college computer lab was a sure way to get your information stolen, but K's eight digit password would take a Cray super computer eight hours to crack. Both K and Jay had learned some valuable lessons from their Intro to Cryptogrophy class.

"Yay, smoke break!" Jay grinned at the inside joke. K didn't smoke and neither did Jay. Not that either of them found smoking particularly objectionable, that is. Jay had smoked from time to time before, and probably would again, and though K never smoked, he never minded it either. But it was an excellent excuse for taking a five minute break from the computer lab. And, like all true smokers, those five minutes were taken in perspective of a smokers five minutes, that being, "I'll be on break for as long as I god damn well feel like it."

"So entropy," K prompted as he leaned comfortably up against his favorite place on the wall in front of the lab's building, ironically right next to the ashtray set out for smokers.

"Entropy affects vampires, as it does with many apex predators, in that to create a more balanced eco-system vampires need to be spread about to keep their respective packs safe from over feeding," Jay explained. "This works similarly in hunting and killing in that leopards and panthers and the like have large and non-overlapping hunting ranges, such that no one group of prey is over hunted.

"Of course, there is the occasional overlap, and since no one is getting killed, vampires have to be extra careful to keep to their territory. Since we don't really have to fight to figure out who the stronger person is, and we can be reasonable, normally these border disputes get quietly and quickly handled when the other vampire is found.

"But most interesting is-" K cut Jay off with a beleaguered sigh.

"Jay, you do remember that you only need a D minus to pass this frickin' class, right?" K reminded Jay purposefully. Jay only laughed again.

"Just because you're not enjoying your Chemistry class is no reason to steal my fun from having taking the more interesting hard science," Jay, ever the gentleman, stuck his tongue out at K, who rolled his eyes and sighed. K glanced left as a female student entered the building.

"Hi K, Jay," the young lady smiled at the two letters of the alphebet. Her smile widened as she noted the pained expression on K's face. "Smoke break?" K nodded while massaging his temples which provoked a peal of laughter as the young lady continued on into the building.

"One of these days you're actually going to let me get her phone number," Jay commented, leaning right so he could watch the young lady walk into the building and down the stairs to the lab.

"And one of these days you'll believe me when I say she would set you on fire as soon as talk to you if she knew what you were," K shook his head and smiled, his first smile in several hours. "We'll find you someone nice who isn't going to freak out when you off handedly comment on the flavor of male blood versus female blood." Jay scowled.

"You've been promising me that for months," Jay pointed out. "And I see her on her way into this building far too often to continue to be patient."

"If I didn't think I'd have to help you recover from burn wounds, I assure you, I'd be pushing her at you," K shook his head helplessly.

"She's pursuing you then?" Jay asked, eyebrow raised. He was always shocked how K's seeming total lack of interest in girls was like a beacon in the dark to them.

"She's certainly trying," K admitted.

"And the fact that you currently have a girlfriend gives her no pause?" Jay asked, pursing his lips.

"None whatsoever," K sighed.

"Well, you do kinda go through girlfriends like fasion fads," Jay teased. K affixed Jay with a glare.

"You don't make fun of my girlfriend habits and I won't remind you what president was in office when last you had a girl," K grumbled. Jay held up his hands in defeat.

"So anyway, because of the apex predator status..." Jay started again.

"Oh no, not this again! Break's over! Back to work!" K waved his hands around in a futile attempt to get Jay to stop talking, even as he realized it would be a wasted effort. K stalked back into the office with Jay spouting his physics/vampires theories the entire way. The fact that this was so normal that not a single student so much as batted an eye should tell you something about the usual smoke break conversations Jay inflicted upon K.

So who's this Jay fella?

Jay is a character I created for the first book I ever wrote that is thus far unpublished. I love Jay as a character, and as I have some free time at work, I figured I'd try putting up short stories to amuse myself and keep my creative juices flowing, or some such. Since you may not know, Jay is a vampire set in a world that is exactly like normal life. Just with like wizards and shit who try to hide from the public eye. Jay is also a very strange if amicable guy, with an odd sense of humor. That's probably enough to get the idea across. I will probably have him interact with existing characters from my world as well as have stories from all walks of his life. If I get bold enough I might even get some back story written for a character I have precisely zero back story even thought of. Who knows?

I don't expect these little writing forays to be good. In fact, I imagine they might be very bad, or at least uninteresting. Writing take a lot of work, this is some of the work that need to be done. All writers have to learn how to take any scenario and make it interesting. Doesn't mean I'm good at it yet. So if you plan to post a comment about how bad the writing is, don't bother. I probably know already.