It was as if the world thought that I needed more drama in my life. To the list that was growing, I added that I'd kissed a vampire. It was barely there, just a tiny peck but it was enough. The intent was enough to show me what he wanted.

I had to be logical about this, and I couldn't let emotions get in the way. It wasn't to say that I would be against going down that path, I just didn't think it was the right time. Aside from the fact that we couldn't communicate properly, it had only been twenty-four hours.

Of course, a lot of people had done it in less time, but I wasn't one of them. I didn't want to be. We had more significant issues to deal with, and one of them was a white van that was still out there.

After I'd shut the door in the witch's face, I waited and listened to her. She huffed with indignation and then walked down the few steps to the sidewalk. A slammed car door and then the rev of an engine. Within the minute, she was gone. I hoped that she did not come back.

Turning back to the room, I saw Constantino watching every move that I made. Was he waiting for me to over analyse the kiss and start babbling like I had? There was little point to anything in our conversations, and I spoke to him normally because I hoped that it would help him learn. No baby talk, no broken English. Just a normal conversation from me.

I said nothing as I returned to making my breakfast. As I pulled the packet long-life milk out of the cupboard, I turned and saw that Constantino was drawing something. The laptop was pushed aside, and the scribbling was fast, almost like he thought that time would evade him.

I said nothing as I sat down at the table, hoping that it was a one-time thing but knowing that it wasn't.

"Luuu-ceee." He said, tapping on the picture.

"Okay," I drawled out.

I had wavy hair around the smiley face. He tapped the next picture which was obvious because he'd drawn his fangs.

"Con-stan-teen-o."

"Gotchya."

He frowned for a moment and then picked up the marble box.

"Luuu-ceee."

"I ain't getting in there."

He passed it to me, raising an eyebrow with a whole lot of hope. It was wasted.

"Luuu-ceee." He said, tapping the box. "Ohwn."

Constantino was struggling. Picking up the pen again, he drew a shape in the image of himself and then an arrow to me.

"I have a piece of you?"

"Ohwn." He repeated.

"I own a piece of you?"

He nodded, and I frowned. Retaking the box, Constantino mimicked what he did last night.

"Magika."

"Magic?"

"Kaarsse."

"Curse?"

Constantino's eyes widened, and he nodded, smiling slightly.

"So, I'm cursed to own you? What are you like some genie in a bottle?"

Scrabbling through the papers, he found the one from last night and pointed to the image of him being buried.

"Is this like the legendary Pharaoh's curses? Because we opened your tomb, we suffer your presence in our life forever?"

He shook his head and began drawing again. Beneath the images of his demise was a new path, this was of his future.

The tomb opened and the small box found. Constantino pointed to the photo of Nelson.

"Ohwn."

"Okay, so Nelson owned you when he found the box. Now that I have it, I own you?"

He didn't respond, just pointing to the next picture of the sarcophagus opening and bodies on the ground. I must have missed that one. Constantino pointed to his fangs.

"Gotchya, you fed."

Next was a house, he tapped on it and repeated my name.

"You followed me home. Nice. A pervert and a stalker."

Beside the house was two figures. One with wavy hair and the other with fangs. Now they had bodies, stick figures standing next to the crude drawing of the house. The next image progressed, and the smiley face with wavy hair soon gained a pair of fangs.

"Well, that's certainly interesting."

Then she gained a bump on her stomach.

"But not nearly as interesting as that," I muttered.

I looked up and wondered how we would get through this conversation easily. It seemed impossible. The only way that I could effectively communicate with Constantino at the moment was through pictures. So, taking a stack of papers, I began to draw lots of stick figures doing things. It took me a few minutes, but I had a lot to get through to him.

"Okay, we shall start with the important stuff. This is you sitting at the table with the computer. You're learning how to speak so that we don't need to draw our conversation. See here, you're talking to me, and I've got a smile on my face because I can understand you. Does this make sense?"

I got the stare again.

"Moving on. This is me somehow taking you out to kill people. Not sure why you'd want to double the kills by making me a vampire too, but I suppose that there's probably not a whole lot of choice, right? The curse and all that."

Who would have thought that opening a tomb would result in this? Definitely not me, that's for sure.

"These are the changes that you're suggesting but see how there's a lot of clocks, that means that a lot of time has passed because we have issues that you're not aware of."

I'd tried to draw a 'men in black' style government official.

"Government, bad people. They will take Constantino away and lock him up or maybe even kill him. Does this make any sense to you?"

I looked up, and it was a resounding no, given that I was faced with a blank look. There was an innocence to him that was surreal, I didn't think that I'd ever see a vampire like this. Of course, I didn't think that I'd see one full stop, but we all have those moments where we delve into a moment of fantasy, and we ask that question, what would I do if I came across a vampire?

My answer was run. Beg or barter for my life. Do whatever was necessary to survive. None of those were needed, and I was unsure if anything that was going on was normal. Vampires were portrayed as cold and unforgiving, they lusted for the blood and to kill their victims. It was possible that Constantino was like that and I wouldn't see the darkness until I saw him feed.

"I guess not," I whispered, staring at him.

At that moment, I knew that another item had been added to the list. Protector of a vampire.