Monique arrived home and, before entering, felt something strange. She noticed a rose in a small glass vase with a card below it. She grabbed the small black envelope and the vase with the rose. She placed the rose and the envelope on the table. She noticed the envelope opened, meaning it wasn't sealed.

Smiling to herself at the fact she could look at the contents without getting in trouble, she picked the envelope up. She noticed the envelope said "to you" in silver print. She wondered why it hadn't said Bryanna.

"Cute," Monique said aloud. She knew Bryanna wasn't going to be home for a while. Bryanna had texted her.

Monique took out the white card inside. She paused as she opened the card and began to read.

You really are a special girl. You've been on my mind longer than any other girl has. It might be the way your brown hair danced in the soft wind as you walked home. It might be the way your eyes were flickering around for any sign of danger, which I assure you I am not.

I ask nothing of you as I cannot. However, I hope you enjoy gazing upon the rose the way I enjoy thinking of you. To show my affection, I've written a poem on the other side. Please forgive the giant blotches of scratched out lines from the card's original poem. I only liked one of its lines in my poem. I hope you like it. I'm new to this secret admirer thing.

Most say I'm dead and very mental
Yet love, for my mind, is beyond my head
Not heartless just because as a vampire I am dead
A lot less human he is, and his corpse is a rental (shell)
May I ask that you speak to me for you seemed to cast a spell
Entranced, I hope I do not come across as creepy
"Simply as this sounds, I can't break your spell"
Terrible as it be, I tend to act sheepishly
Regard this poem as an example
Aching for more, for now
Vividly day dreaming
I simply adore you
See you later                    

Monique slowly put the card inside. She couldn't believe Dimitri. She couldn't believe what she just read. Dimitri was supposed to be ruthless and cold. He was also supposed to be her puppet master. How dare he say he loved her? Dimitri had no right to say he loved her, and she could say that she did not love him.

Monique rolled her eyes and walked to the kitchen, ready to throw the letter in the trash. However, she noticed the trash was overfilled. She cursed herself under her breath for letting it get that far. She threw the letter on the counter and took the trash out of the apartment to the dumpster.

Monique paused as she noticed the large amount of flies around the dumpster. She noticed a few bracelets scattered along the dumpster. "Oh my god!" She jumped back and started dialing nine-one-one. She looked around quickly for any potential attackers as the phone rang.

"Nine-one-one, is this an emergency?"

Monique looked at the body of the girl. She froze as she gazed at the words "dog shit" engraved in the gir's chest. "I've found a body."

                                                        ~~~~~~~

"And there he is," Dimitri said as he pointed through the cafe window to a man standing in front of a bar across the street. "Stupid green shirt and brown jacket."

Bryanna stared at the man and watched him walk in after a woman. "So I have to do this alone?"

"He'll immediately remember me as the janitor from the hospital who stared at him while he doctor was examining him."

"Why can't I take Alex?"

"He and I have important vampire things to talk about." Dimitri looked at Alex, and Alex stared at him in surprise.

"I thought you said he was on his own," Bryanna said.

"I want to help him a bit before I leave him on his own. There's more to being a vampire than just being a vampire."

"There's more to this," Alex asked.

"Of course there is." Dimitri looked back out the window. "Bryanna, you might want to hurry. I don't know too much about him or how long he's going to stay there."

"Just answer me one thing," Bryanna said. "When you told that vampire doctor or whatever that we needed to know because you wanted to cure me, why did he laugh? Is it because he knows the cure doesn't work?"

"It is because no other werewolf has tried it, and if they have, they didn't know where to start looking for the werewolf who turned them." Dimitri looked at Bryanna. "Now, I don't mean to sound harsh, but I don't know how long he is going to stay in that bar."

Bryanna looked out the window. "That whole my dried blood on his clothes and you could smell story... is it really true?"

"Yes. I'm not trying to trick you."

"But why are you helping me?" Bryanna glared at Dimitri. "Why me?"

"Don't flatter yourself too much. I'm helping you because it's part of the deal I made with Monique."

"But why all this?"

"Don't get any wrong ideas." Dimitri looked at Bryanna. "You should go."

Bryanna glared at Dimitri for a moment and stood up. "Thank you." She walked out of the cafe without another word.

Dimitri's gaze shifted to Alex. "Now you. You and I have quite a bit to talk about."

Alex faced Dimitri. "I guess we do."

"The first thing you have to know is you don't have to be a ninja to be a vampire. You don't have to know how to a fight, and being a vampire doesn't automatically make you the best fighter in the world."

"Okay. That's kind of a bummer and great false advertisement in movies."

Dimitri let out a small laugh. "Speaking of that, your life will be nothing like Twilight."

"Thank god." Alex smiled. "What happens in Twilight anyway?"

"I don't know." Dimitri shrugged. "I think we're supposed to sparkle and be masochist boyfriends according to that shit, but whatever. The truth is we don't fall in love. We're almost incapable of it."

"What do you mean almost?"

Dimitri stayed silent for a moment. "It won't be long before you discover that you will tend to try to drink from people you believe are attractive. You will flirt with them, but it won't be out of the intention of becoming their boyfriend. You will simply attract them to drink from them. It's like a venus flytrap or a corpse flower. We trick them towards us and then drink them."

"I thought you said you never trick people." Alex grinned.

"I don't. They trick themselves."

"How do you make them trick themselves?"

"Look at me. What vampire needs glasses?"

Alex looked Dimitri over. "Okay, but glasses don't actually attract people."

"For some it does, but anyway you're right. However, how many times have you heard of a vampire wearing glasses?"

"Do you actually need those glasses by the way?"

Dimitri rolled his eyes. "Look, people see me and expect certain things. It's not my fault they do. They are the ones tricking themselves." He sat back in his chair as he sipped some of his drink. "Those woman just tricked themselves into thinking I loved them."

Alex smiled. "Well, didn't you lead them on?"

"No. I kept them at a distance, and for some stupid reason they wanted more. Eventually, it led to their deaths." Dimitri took another sip. "I don't blame them, and I don't blame myself. It was just nature taking its course."

Alex scoffed. "You're pretty ruthless."

Dimitri shrugged. "Guy's gotta eat sometimes." He stared back out the window.

Alex looked out the window, eyeing a few girls walk by. "You said we're almost incapable of falling love. Does that mean we have a slim chance of falling in love?"

"Don't get your hopes up too high. We can fall in love with other vampires. This is because we don't view them as food as often as we see humans that way."

Alex lowered his eyes in thought. "So we can never fall in love with humans."

"It would really difficult to. How often does a human fall in love with lettuce?"

Alex stayed quiet and looked around at the girls in the cafe. He began realizing he almost didn't recognize the difference between some girls. "They're just food." 

Dimitri nodded. "I don't have to go in depth about defending yourself from werewolves too much, but I should tell you about a doté."

                                                      ~~~~~~~

Bryanna watched the man as he finished another bottle of beer. He had stopped looking around at the waitresses half an hour before. He now seemed very too himself and lost in thought. Bryanna decided he was drunk, and now she could get any answer out of him.

Bryanna made her way to the man. "Hey." She sat in front of him. "What's your name?"

The man smiled. "What's your name, pretty lady? You're supposed to give your name before you ask mine."

Bryanna smiled. "Bryanna. Now, what's your name?"

"John Everson. Friends call me Evers." John frowned. "When they were my friends anyway."

Bryanna paused. "Why did your friends leave you?"

John laughed. "I think it was because I went to rehab. They're such shitheads. I told them I didn't have a problem."

Bryanna nodded. She stared at him, trying to get the convesation moving into her direction. She wanted to know if she should kill this man. "What more about your life? Did anything strange happen?"

John paused. "You know, I went to an asylum once because I told people something crazy."

"What did you tell them?"

John smiled. "I'm not telling you. You might go and tell them." He laughed. "I don't feel like going back. I had told my sister that Cali was a bad idea."

"Cali as in California?"

"Yeah. My sister lived in Lancaster. Can you believe there's two Lancasters? One in Arkansas and one in California. Fucking had to go all the way over there to visit her." John nodded.

"Why did you go over there? Or was it just visiting?"

"Three years ago I went there. I had a... condition one night. I drank to ease the pain of the... condition. It worked because I didn't remember anything. Well, one thing, but it was weird."

"What was it?"

John's brows furrowed. "You know, why are you talking to me?"

Bryanna froze, trying to think of an answer. "I... I like you."

John's eyes widened.

Bryanna swallowed and placed her hand on John's hand. "I want you."

John smiled as he sloppishly swayed to one side. "Is that so?"

"Yeah. You can take me to your place once you answer all of my questions." Bryanna cleared her throat. "Now, what do you remember?"

John sat back, crossing his arms. "All I remember was a girl screaming. She screamed and screamed. I don't remember much of what happened. She's probably dead, but it's okay because we need less people in this world." 

Bryanna glared at him.

"Over popluation and shit. Damn girl probably was the one who broke my leg that night. I had to drive all the way back here that morning because my fucking insurance is over here." John leaned forward. "So, uh... any more questions?"

Bryanna glared at him for a moment. "Rehab huh?"

"Yup. I sold drugs." John looked around and leaned forward. He whispered, "Do you want some? It could make tonight more fun."

Bryanna slammed his face down against the table. "Sorry I lied. Then again, I'm not. Slug." She walked out with everyone staring at her. She ran towards Dimitri and Alex on the other side of the street. "We got to go."