Connor had greying dark blond hair and a face carved with lines of the stress he had endured throughout his life. I found I liked the older man and his practicality reminded me in some ways of Hadron. The difference was that talking with him increased my belief that they might actually manage what they were trying to accomplish, since he had a gift for breaking the situation down into pieces that seemed somehow achievable.

She was quiet for a long time while we talked, but it seemed she had enough of quietly listening.

"Well, Connor, I'll send Jamie back to you after I've finished giving him my little tour," she promised. "But I'm not particularly interested in waiting to continue until the sun will burn me to ash."

"Apologies. Of course, Vienne," Connor said. "When you're done, Jamie, we'll show you the ropes."

She smiled her usual satisfied smile and looked at me. "There's still more to see before we're done."

* * * * *

She enjoyed showing me around New Haven, and with every new person she introduced me to, she managed to somehow work in a reference to how I had staked her. She had told me to forget my guilt, but there was a small part of me that still regretted it what I did to her, and I had been an utter fool in the face of what I was now seeing.

It was impossible to miss the reactions at the reminder of what I had done. Unknowingly, I had almost harmed this rebellion, and while it was her fault I did not know what I was doing, the feeling was sour and unpleasant.

Watching her interact with the humans here, all of who were in on the secrets, it was obvious that she had earned their respect and gratitude. Even the humans who were not in the know seemed to generally appreciate her protection, but these people were truly devoted, even if they could not all entirely avoid their wariness at the nearness of a bloodsucker.

And they obviously also did not approve of my attempted escape.

"He actually managed to stake two of Ivan's fledglings, an impressive feat indeed. Not as impressive as staking me, of course, but still very good. Thanks to Jamie there're quite a few less vampires we're going to have to deal with later."

She turned to me, looking as amused as ever. "Well, the sun's almost up. We need to keep moving."

Once we were out of earshot, I said, "I can't tell if you're trying to help me or get me killed."

She grinned. "By simple process of elimination you can tell I must be trying to help you, because I believe I've made my preference for your continued existence clear."

"Have you?" There probably wasn't a human in this compound today who had not been reminded of what I had done to her, and it was still before dawn.

"Of course I want you to live. You're a very aesthetically pleasing male, are you not?"

I wasn't going to let her get going with her games again. "Don't even start that again, Leech."

Her eyes widened a bit before a smile crossed her face. "Even when Leif nags me, he couches his words in terms of suggestions and advice. Never does he simply order me what to do. But you dare?"

"You said yourself you'd at least try not to play your games."

"Fair point." She gazed at me with a wide-eyed expression of what had to be fake innocence. "Don't you want me to find you attractive, Jamie?"

What was I supposed to say to that? She had messed up my mind so much I had no idea what I actually wanted from her. Everything else was clear, but she was a muddled mass of contradictions, a beautiful and charming leech.

She didn't wait for my answer and changed the subject. "I think I've shown you everything important and introduced you to enough people for now, except for one more thing."

She led me back into the large building that seemed to house the population of New Haven. I didn't ask her any questions, but simply walked up flight after flight of stairs. At the end of a hall she unlocked a door leading to a final staircase.

The door at the top of the stairs opened to the sky and the few brightest stars were still fading in the growing light of the sun. We were on the roof of the building. Glass enclosures held a variety of vegetation within them, and a railing stretched around the exposed edges. I walked forward along with her, feeling extremely exposed out here where anyone could see me for miles, if it weren't for the natural barrier blocking us from view of the outside world.

"So, this, Jamie, is New Haven," she said, indicating the buildings surrounding us. "The safest and simultaneously most dangerous place for a human to live in this vampire's world."

She was not wrong. People were walking between buildings and I spotted a pair of children running together, all as if they had not a care in the world. The bloodsuckers could not touch them here, but if it were ever discovered, they—we—would be wiped from the face of the earth.

Urgent desire to prepare for the moment we humans could begin to actively fight rushed through me. This was something I could wholeheartedly support, a new goal, nobler than my last.

In that moment, I was sold. Whatever had happened in the past, this was my future.

I turned towards her and was unsurprised to see that she was watching my reaction. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.

My first instinct was not to respond, but I ignored it. "I want this to work."

"Then we are of one mind on the matter, because I do as well. Everything that I do—well, everything that isn't directly related to keeping myself entertained—has been in service to this cause. My favourite activities serve both purposes."

Gradually, more people began to move around, none of them taking any notice of us standing high above. This place was humans working together towards the goal of freeing ourselves from our oppressors. Humans and one leech.

"Who were you when you were human?"

"There's a dangerous question to ask a vampire."

"Is it?"

"It's considered rude to remind an indefinite monster of the mortality from whence they came. But fortunately for you, I'm not like the others, so I will indulge your curiosity. You might be rather surprised to find that I was not entirely different than who I am now and that I came by my intrinsic arrogance quite naturally."

She laughed at her own words.

"I was born into a world of glittering indulgence. My family was titled, and both my father and my grandfather had been shrewd businessmen, so by the time I was born, my family was in an excellent situation, sitting in a position of great power amongst most other humans. My father, in particular, had a certain talent for utilizing human potential. He was an arrogant man, but his arrogance did not blind him to the possibility of making use of diverse abilities."

She smiled ruefully as she spoke, her eyes sweeping the scenery below us.

"My mother, on the other hand, appeared to be a sweet creature on the surface. She had a true ability for getting her way without others being aware of what she was doing. She managed our family socially, always projecting a kind facade while maintaining our family's social supremacy. Together, my parents were a force to be reckoned with.

"I had three siblings, a brother and two sisters. My brother's role in the family was to carry on our family's legacy. We girls also had certain expectations. As members of our most prestigious line, we were raised to one day entice a suitable man into marriage and further solidify our family's dominance.

"My elder sister secured a good match easily enough, and then the pressure was upon me. I was rather good at attracting suitable candidates in the eyes of my parents, but I never wanted to waste my life on any of those fools, so I would scare them away in the end.

"It was not until my younger sister got engaged that my parents finally lost their patience with my reluctance. I was informed that my father would secure me a good match if I did not find one first. I was to the point where gossips had begun to whisper about what was wrong with me, you see. I was livid at the idea of being forced to spend my life with some idiotic bore. My ill humour remained, even until the next ball we attended.

"It was there, that I met him. He was not the first man to catch my eye, but he was the first not to ruin my interest immediately by opening his mouth. He looked to be only about ten years older than I had been, and I was pleased at the possibility of a witty, handsome husband close to my own age. What irony, indeed.

"We danced several times, and then he took me out to get some air, but once we were out of sight of any watchful eyes, he dragged me away to one of the guest bedrooms. I was quite outraged and terrified and I tried to scream and flee, but no one heard and no one saved me, even if any of them had been able to act against him. He bit me and drank my blood until I could no longer even struggle, and then even longer still until everything went black."

My anger increased at her account of what had happened to her. As aggravating and confusing as she could be, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the young human girl she had been so long ago.

She brought her eyes up to meet mine. "And when I woke up, I was in my own bed and no longer human, looked over by servants with their dreadfully loud hearts and breathing sounding in my ears, and a ravenous hunger filling me like I had never known. I wanted something and food did not satisfy.

"I had wondered if it was all a dream, but then when I tried to go outside I discovered the sun hurt, so I claimed myself ill and hid inside the house. And then, that night, my sire returned, offered marriage, explained what I now was to me in whispers and I had little choice but to accept his proposal. He taught me how to survive as the creature he had turned me into, and then, before anyone had time to notice that we were not properly aging, we died in a fire."

I did not know what I was supposed to say in response to her telling me about herself, but as ever, she seemed perfectly content to simply talk.

She shrugged. "It was easier to fake a death in those days. I followed the news of the lives and deaths of the people of my human life from afar. I kept a distant eye on my siblings' descendents until the human suppression wars, when I lost track of their lines. With the lack of records afterwards, there was no way for me to pick up where I left off. I like to imagine their descendents are still out there, somewhere. But, I suppose, that's not what you originally asked, is it?"

"That's fine."

"I suppose you've found the true danger of asking a vampire about their human lives, because we tend to go on and on like we have all the time in the world." She laughed again, and then focused on me. "So, Jamie, what was your childhood like? Your parents? I expect they were humans I would have liked to know."

My first instinct was to tell a bloodsucker nothing, but she was not the one responsible for their deaths. It was more and more obvious that she was not like the others and perhaps it was unfair to treat her like she was the same as the rest when she continued to demonstrate that she had some redeeming qualities.

"You don't have to tell me, if you don't wish to. I'm merely curious," she said breezily.

It was becoming harder to escape the fact that vampires were not all the same.

"My childhood was fairly happy, considering everything. We travelled with a few other families and moved around a lot, trying to always keep one step ahead of the bloodsuckers. My parents were both strong and capable. My father defended us, a skilled hunter. My mother had a talent for foraging edible food and taking care of our health. She was a nurturer in her own way. Yeah, there were times that we were happy."

"And you once told me you had sisters?"

"Yeah. Two older sisters. I don't know what happened to them."

She was quiet for a long moment, and it was obvious she thought it unlikely that they had survived. I knew it, too. "I'm sorry, Jamie. For what happened and for bringing up the memories."

I shook my head. "No. I'm going to move forward. I killed two of the leeches that attacked us, but the others are still likely out there and I have no way of knowing who they are. The best justice now is breaking their hold on humans in the future."

She smiled. "I am indeed glad to hear that. I need all the help I can get."

While we had spoken, the sun had continued climbing higher in the sky and it finally broke the rock formations, hitting her face. "Do you need to go inside?" I asked.

She glanced at me, and then towards the sun and smiled, a very human expression. "Oh, I will need to, of course. But I can endure it for now. It doesn't even hurt this early, not like it once did."

"Don't you usually wear more? When we went to the capital, you wore sleeves and gloves." As she had the day she had intercepted me in the gatehouse during my escape.

"Ah, yes, I recall. Mostly for show, unless we happened to arrive later. I don't want the others to know how resistant I have become to the sun. Covering my skin does help later in the day, although there is a point of intensity in which I assume the sun will kill me if even a tiny reflected ray of light gets through, although I hardly have spent time testing that theory."

"Why does the sun affect bloodsuckers?"

"No one really knows. If I follow my theory that we are suspended in time, perhaps there is magic in the sun as a symbol of the passage of moments, but truly, it makes little sense. It was suggested often in entertainment media that it was the UV radiation that harmed us, but the humans tried that during the human suppression wars and discovered that it affected us not in the slightest. A shame for humans, because it certainly would have given them an advantage."

Again, I had no idea what she was talking about. "UV radiation?"

"A wavelength of light, invisible to the human eye, found in the sunlight. Nothing for you to worry about, since it didn't work anyway. Still, it was ingenious of humans to make the attempt. Which reminds me, I have something for you."

She grinned that fanged smile that she so often made when she was about to say or do something to amuse herself at my expense. I wasn't about to indulge her by asking so I just waited for her to continue.