Stephanie, Johnny,” I heard Vaclav’s voice call out. Our connection broke and The vampiress released me. Stepped back, she looked over at Vaclav, a look of embarrassment and shame on her face.

“Is everything all right,” he asked.

“I-”

“I’m sorry.”

Stephanie looked back to me, something akin to fear in her eyes, then retreated back to Vaclav, turned to him.

“I’m sorry,” she told him. “I have a very busy day tomorrow. School meetings, you know. I must leave, darling, I am sorry.”

Stephanie looked back at me, something roiling under the surface of her face, emotions way out of whack.

“I should go,” she said. “It was very… nice to meet you Mr. Smith. Good night dear.”

And before I knew it there was only a rather surprised Vaclav, not to mention me standing in his study. Well, and a still burning fire in the fireplace.

“What exactly were you and Stephanie talking about?” he wanted to know.

“I have no idea,” I told him, feeling quite shaky, I fell back onto the cough.. “She seemed to get very bothered at how hot I am.”

“How hot?’

“I think she was talking about temperature.”

“How very odd,” he noted. “But it does take some time to adjust to a new life. Perhaps she was just going through part of her conversion tonight.”

“She was going through something.”

“There is something different about you tonight as well,” he told me. “What exactly did go on at the apartment building. You seem… ”

“I don’t know,” I told him. “Just some tenant who went off the deep end. That’s all I know. Fingers called me down to the apartment. And I was stupid enough to go and see it.”

“What was it like?”

“There was a lot of blood.”

“Ah” he said. “Don’t’ worry about it. When we are first, turned, as it were, we’re very sensitive to the smell. It can linger. If I had known I might have told you to have a shower before you drove up.”

I took a few more breaths, in fact I think I was starting to hyperventilate..

“Just that,” I replied. “Some sensitivity then.”

“Sure Johnny,”: he replied. “What else could it be.”

“I don’t know,” I told him, “she seemed pretty freaky – freaked out.”

“I’ll talk to her later,” he replied. “But relax, she wasn’t going to do anything, we had a full meal before you arrived. I made sure of that.”

I looked down at my hands. They were shaking.

“Perhaps I should put on some music,” he offered. “To help you calm down before your drive back to the city.”

I nodded

“Sure.”

He turned to his shelves, started pulling out some compact discs. Then turned back.

“Stravinsky?” he suggested. “Mendelssohn.”

“No classical music, please,” I begged.

“Oh, yes, you are younger,” he reached into his collection again. “Perhaps some Hall and Oates? I have their Rock and Soul, Volume One.”

I nodded. Classic Rock, sure, why not.  Then I remembered the title of one of their hits.

“Okay,” I told him. “But you can maybe skip Maneater?”

He started up his CD player. I could barely concentrate on the music. First thing tomorrow morning, I told myself. I would get all I needed. I had to stop this before it got worse. Part of her conversion, my ass. I had experienced something like that before, a long time ago. I had to stop it before it got any worse. Before I got myself killed. Or worse. A lot worse.

***

And we've reached the 1/4 way pointy of the Thirteenth.  I hope you've enjoyed the story so far.  I am currently polishing up the next batch of chapters and will have them ready in the next 7-10 days for you to continue reading.  In the meantime, feel free to check out my other works here on Royalroad while you are waiting to find out what trouble Johnny is going to get himself into next.