“Water, snacks, SPF, cash… we got this.”

  Michael took inventory of his cross-body bag. He had dragged me to the nearest Walmart to get travel wipes, hand sanitizer, and other so-called “essentials” for the faire before we got to the venue.

  We were early and there was already a significant line to get in, winding like a dragon’s tail along the gravel path. I had left my pepper spray in the car and I felt naked without it. I couldn’t shake the knowledge that I was spending my Saturday hunting a possible vampire at a Renaissance Faire.

  “Do you see @c0unts anywhere yet by chance?” It can’t be that hard to spot someone with albinism.”

  “No, not yet. But he might not be here yet, or he could be further up the line where we can’t see, but I know that he’s coming to this Ren Faire. He said so in his last post.”

  A sudden stroke of genius hit.

  “Wait, he’s an influencer. What are the chances he’ll do a live video or post something during the event showing where he is? It’d help narrow the search down at least, right?”

  Michael nodded, smiling.

  “There’s a pretty good chance. I’ll keep my phone at the ready, pulled up on his Instagram page. I’ll see any new posts immediately.”

  In the meantime, it was the waiting game to get in. A half hour later, the line started moving, admitting people into the faire. It didn’t take too long after that to get inside.

  It was like stepping into one of my fantasy novels. Women in dresses and stays, men in shining armor, fairies, pirates, barbarians; it was as if someone put a bunch of books in a blender and shook them out here. The immersion was disarming. Too bad the stakes weren’t pretend.

  There were food vendors selling some delicious smelling pastries to my left and my stomach grumbled. Oh, no matter if we found him or not, I planned on enjoying my time as much as possible, starting with one of those mincemeat pies.

  Glad that we had gotten cash to pay for things, it didn’t take long until I had my own pie in hand. It was delicious, the crust flaky and buttery, the filling savory. It filled my stomach and gave me the fuel to continue searching for our possible vampire friend.

  The wares that were in the different booths were obviously made with care for quality. The smell of leather would occasionally waft from the stalls, the musky scent bringing its own memories of my dad when he was into leather working for a while.

  We passed a stall selling crowns of various styles from fanciful flowers to the more streamlined wire tiaras and metal crowns.

  I couldn’t help but smile as a little girl picked up a headband of bright pink flowers with ribbons streaming down the back. She turned to the man beside her.

  “Daddy, can I pretty pretty please have this crown? It’s so pretty and it's pink and pink is my favorite.”

  The father smiled down at her, reminding her of the various crowns she had waiting at home.

  “But Daddy, I don’t have a crown for here, for now! And how can I be a princess if I don’t have a crown?”

  The little girl frowned, disappointment plain on her angelic face.

  The father smiled down at his daughter, kneeling before gently taking the crown from her hands.

  “Sweetie, you are always a princess, crown or no crown. Being a princess is about being kind and fair to those around us, not what’s on your head. But you are right, it is a travesty that we are at Ren Faire and you don’t even have a crown. Let’s remedy that, shall we?”

  He smiled, placing the crown on his daughter's head, ribbons streaming down the back of her hair like a waterfall. He grabbed her hand and got the attention of the stall attendant, intending to purchase his daughter that crown.

  I felt something touching my head.

  Nope!

  My whole body jerked like I’d been zapped. That touch triggered every alarm my nervous system had to offer. I spun, ready to strike, only to find Michael frozen with a crown of sunflowers and daisies in his hands, a sheepish look on his face.

  “What’re you doing?” my voice squeaked from surprise.

  Michael stood frozen in place as if my movement had stopped his.

  “I, I uh, was putting this,” he gestured with the crown, “On your head, ‘cause it's pretty?”

  His stilted words came out, and he swallowed a lump in his throat.

  My face must’ve been disbelieving because he replied, “Oh come on, it’s Ren Faire! A place where you can let go of inhibitions and be as blessedly strange as you want to be. Besides, I saw how you looked at that little girl with the pink crown. You were jealous.”

  The heat rose in my ears, the blush visible thanks to Michael’s braiding, damn him.

  “I am not jealous of a child, Michael. That would be, well, childish.”

  I blushed harder, embarrassed at my own choppy voice.

  “Shut up!” I whined as his mouth quirked up in a smirk.

  “Okay, okay. But I don’t blame you, these crowns are really pretty. You should get one. Come on,” he said to my face as I looked skeptically at him, “Don’t give me that look. Besides, it would look pretty with your braid.”

  For whatever reason, that last reason was what broke me.

  “Fine,” I said, “But I’m picking my own.”

  I looked back at the colorful array of flowers and garlands, handkerchiefs and drapes, all arranged to make the stall feel more like a tent. The table in front of me was nearly overflowing with the variety of flower crowns there were.

  I grabbed one with tiny forget-me-nots twined with baby’s breath, much less showy than the one Michael had picked but it definitely fit me better. The small blue and white blossoms sat atop my ash brown hair as I turned to look at him.

  “What do you think?”

  “I think it suits you,” he said with a smile, his eyes soft. “May I buy it for you?”

  He quickly paid the artisan and we continued on. I wasn’t about to complain about his generosity.

  Back to looking for @c0unts amidst the throng of people. We passed stalls selling tankards and canteens, others selling clothing from simple skirts to full costume dresses. A group dressed like their own D&D campaign passed by us, positively complementing Michael’s outfit as they went by.

  “Ah, I love Ren Faire! The people are just so nice.”

  “You didn’t drag me along just to be a buddy while you have fun today. Focus.”

  I looked around, hating my short stature once again. Spying a hay bale, I went over to it and climbed to stand atop it, hoping that the additional height might help me see better.

  Fairies with mushroom cap parasols and hats, elves in graceful white with pointed ears and silver or gold faux finery, barbarians with war paint on their faces and arms, pirates and wenches with dark eyeliner and scarves tied like belts. A sea of bodies. We just needed to find one. Where was he?

  I can’t wait to get away from all these people I thought as I continued scanning. After this I’ll go home and tell Husker all about it. Not that he’ll care, but I don’t care that he won’t care. Besides there being this many people, this is actually pretty fantastic.

  “It’s already been a couple hours, maybe he left?”

  Michael didn’t respond, staring around for a moment until he shook his head.

  “Sorry, I thought I heard someone I knew.” He seemed haunted, like he did when he was talking about that voice when he turned. Before I could ask, he turned with a wry grin. “You’ve obviously never been to a Ren Faire. People will stay at these things all day. Knowing how nerdy he is, he’s definitely still here. We just need to look in the right place.”

  I sighed, sitting down and letting my head fall back as I breathed in a lungful of festival air, instantly regretting it.

  Too close to the porta-potties! Who’s brilliant idea was it to set up seating next to the bathrooms?

  I grabbed Michael’s wrist, trying not to hurl.

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  “We are moving, now.” I gagged. “Why would someone put seating so close to the bathrooms, that’s nasty!”

  The door to one of the nearby porta-potties creaked open, and out stepped our quarry, dressed in a plague outfit complete with mask in his hands. Finally. He put his mask back on and began walking away. He moved with an eerie elegance that made the surrounding festival goers look like they were playing dress-up.

  “Michael, there he is! Hurry up and go talk to him.”

  No wonder we couldn’t find him, he was completely covered up from head to toe.

  “What are you waiting for, another invitation? Just go!” I said, shoving him in front of me and pushing as we walked.

  “Counts! @c0unts, hey! Wait up!” I yelled.

  He turned around, his plague mask dark and foreboding. He took off the mask, revealing a questioning face.

  “Hi. Do I know you?”

  He seemed friendly enough, if a tad more cautious than the rest of the festival goers right this moment.

  “Hi, no you don’t. This is Michael, he follows you on Instagram and wanted to meet you.”

  I gave Michael a nudge, urging him to say something. He stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face.

  “Hello, Earth to Michael.”

  He seemed to snap out of it at that.

  “Oh, uh yeah, um hi.”

  Real smooth, you sound so intelligent.

  “I love your content. But I actually have a bit of a personal question if you don’t mind me asking. Could we go somewhere a little more private?”

  Privacy? At a Ren Faire? Good Lord, he really is an idiot.

  I raised my hand to my face, pinching the space between my brows and my nose with my forefinger and thumb.

  But @c0unts didn’t seem to mind. A smile lit his face.

  “Oh no worries. I think I know just the place.”

  He replaced his mask and we began to follow him through the crowd of people, keeping up as best we could. The crowd started thinning out as we went on, further and further away from the bustle of the Ren Faire. His steps were nearly fluid despite the long robes he wore.

  How does he see at all in that mask?

  He went behind a group of trees that was, actually, quite private. He turned back, taking his mask back off. His white hair glowed greenish in the light that filtered through the canopy.

  “How can I help you guys?”

  Now that we had been with him for a minute, there did seem to be something else that was different from him beyond his appearance. While in the plague doctor costume, he had moved rather fluidly, not seeming to trip up on his costume at all despite the long robes and odd mask. It felt a bit eerie. My stomach churned, the mincemeat pie doing somersaults as if it too sensed danger. No matter how nice this guy was, he was still quite possibly another vampire.

  “This is going to sound rather strange but please bear with me,” Michael started. “I think you and I have something in common. A condition, I guess. Obviously it’s not on the outside–”

  I slapped my hand to my forehead.

  Michael’s eyes widened, “I-I mean, uh, I think maybe you might be like me.”

  Michael cleared his throat then lifted his lip, elongating his teeth for just a moment before closing his mouth again.

  Silence in the trees. Even the birds and bugs all seemed to take a breath as we all waited for his response.

  Antun’s silence was ambiguous, until he let out a huff of air.

  “So there are more of us.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his head, “I always wondered if there were more of us left out there. I’ve been accused of being a vampire several times before but never by another vampire.” He chuckled, “I suppose maybe I ought to introduce myself properly, given the circumstances. My name is Antun, Antun Morina. Nice to meet you Michael and…”

  He looked at me.

  “Drew, name’s Drew.”

  “Nice to meet you, Michael and Drew. Now, how can I help you? I assume you were looking for more than just a fellow vamp?”

  Michael seemed to come to himself the rest of the way from whatever hero worship or shock he’d had.

  He nodded, “Yeah, I’m still fairly new to the whole being a vampire thing. I’ve been getting by on blood from a slaughterhouse but if you’ve ever had it, I’m sure you know the difference. You know…” he cleared his throat, almost mumbling, “How human blood tastes so much better. I don’t like having to take blood from other people but I don’t want to have to only have subpar blood. What do you do?”

  Antun nodded in understanding.

  “Ah, yes. How to get blood. That one took me years to sort out. Anymore I prefer hunting wild animals for their blood, better than domestic animals’ for some reason, and when I’m feeling particularly… peckish,” his eyes gleamed, “I’ll go out, sticking to shadows and waiting until I see someone acting like an asshole. Best if they are also hiding in the shadows, that’s where the dregs of the city tend to coalesce anyway. And I hypnotize and feast on the shitheads of the world. They don’t deserve the blood running in their veins. That said, I’m no murderer. They may feel a bit woozy and not recall what happened, but I always let them go. Except once.”

  His pink eyes darkened to near red for a fraction of a moment before he brightly said, “But that’s not a pleasant story and I don’t want to ruin Ren Faire.”

  Antun said it so casually. My breath caught as he grinned. Every inch of my body was urging me to bolt. This wasn’t folklore. This was an apex predator rationalizing his appetite.

  Michael didn’t seem skeptical at all, continuing with his questions. “Do you have any other powers besides hypnosis? I’ve only developed the power recently, still pretty new to all this, like I said.”

  Michael really wanted powers.

  “Well, not that I’d tell anyone else,” he looked around, making sure no one else was around to hear, “But yeah, and it’s awesome.” He quietly giggled like a child.

  “All my senses have been enhanced. I can hear, see, smell, feel, and taste so much more than before. Along with that, my body seems to be more resistant to damage and heals faster than ever.”

  Well, that sounds pretty nice, actually.

  “And get this: I. Can. Fly!” He emphasized each word with quiet gusto. “I can fly so fast, it’s amazing!”

  Antun settled himself a little before finishing, “Lastly, and this one is a bit of a doozy: I can read minds. I block it almost all the time now, but when it first manifested, phew,” he puffed. “I could hear everybody’s minds all at once, trying to pin down a mind to read was hard. And blocking out other peoples’ thoughts was something I had to learn. Now I can easily pick out which person I want to listen to out of the crowd. I don’t use it often, you know, invasion of privacy and all that. But it does come in handy. And it’s easier to keep safe. You’d be surprised how many people want to beat me up just for looking the way I do.”

  Mind reading? Creepy. But it’s not his fault he has these gifts. Was I being too harsh?

  A roar of approval over something happened behind us, and I turned around. A lot of people were heading in one direction.

  “Jousting and duels,” Antun said, answering my question before I could ask.

  The hair on my neck stood on end. I looked at him, eyes narrowing. “I thought you said you didn’t read minds often.”

  “I didn’t read your mind, I read your face.” He smirked. “You’re a bit of an open book, Drew.”

  I didn’t like that. Despite the mask I managed to create for work, I always struggled to hide my thoughts. My face was just too loud, announcing to the world how I felt at any given moment. I scowled at him, eyes narrowing even further.

  “Okay then,” Michael intervened before my tongue could get in the way. “Let’s exchange numbers really quick, Antun. I just remembered that Drew needed to leave for another appointment. Do you mind if we exchange numbers before we go?”

  The men switched phones and added themselves to each other’s contacts.

  “You better believe I’ll be in touch, Antun.” Michael smiled, setting Antun slightly more at ease before we left.

  I waited until we were out of earshot of our new acquaintance before grumbling, “You didn’t have to do that, you know.”

  “Do what?” He looked down at me.

  Stupid, tall hobbit.

  I glared up at him, “Rescue me. I didn’t need rescuing.”

  “Perhaps, but Antun might’ve if your face was saying what I think you were thinking.”

  I crossed my arms. “Oh yeah? And what was that?” I lifted a brow in inquiry.

  He looked ahead as he replied, “That you wanted to climb onto his back and put him in a chokehold until he apologized.”

  I felt sheepish. I had wanted to do that. Not that I’d ever admit it.

  We walked in silence for several steps, since being outright honest about my inner thoughts with someone who was still mostly a stranger was definitely not an option.

  “Maybe I have mind reading powers too,” Michael commented, giving me the side eye.

  I held his look for about four seconds before snorting, my smile tightly closed, refusing to deign that joke with a full smile or laugh.

  We were headed in the opposite direction of the crowd as we had accomplished what I had told Michael I would help him with. My feet were killing me and I needed to get them up.

  Many of the vendors had closed shop for the day, wanting to catch the jousting tournament themselves. They’d open again in the morning for the next days’ customers and have an oddly magical day all over again.

  Lucky.

  I’d never admit to myself that I was a little jealous that they got to work at places like this as opposed to the writing department of a midsized corporation. If I were a crafter for these events, I’d get to spend most of my time making awesomely whimsical stuff and then I’d get to sell my products to the exact marketer who’s looking for, say, a flower crown to commemorate their first Renaissance Faire.

  As a completely random example I think as I softly touched the side of my blue and white crown.

  We finally got to the car in what felt like a small eternity, my feet and calves barking in protest at walking on the uneven ground for several hours.

  Maybe Michael had a point about footwear, after all. My feet!

  At least I had followed his advice about sunscreen and pain killers, otherwise I would have been in even greater pain. I sank into the passenger seat, grateful that Michael had driven in the first place, needing to let my legs have a reprieve.

  “So, what did you think of your first Ren Faire?” Michael asked as he put the car into drive.

  None at all

  “I am pleasantly surprised that I didn’t hate all of it. Too many people overall, but the booths, the friendly vendors and cosplayers, the awesome stuff that I am amazed these people actually made, I liked all that. Perhaps a bit smelly,” I laughed as I recalled the portable toilets incident.

  Michael grinned, also remembering the unpleasantness turned fortune. He drove through the last of the cones demarcating where faire parking was.

  I sat up all of a sudden, slamming my hands on the dash. The seatbelt bit into my shoulder, trying to hold me back.

  “We’re both idiots!” I shouted, my eyes wide.

  Michael’s brakes squealed from his surprise but he couldn’t fully stop as there were other cars behind us.

  “What, what is it? Why are we both idiots?” he looked at me, his own eyes wide with the question.

  “We forgot the most important question!”

  His blank face gave me the answer that he, in fact, had also completely forgotten.

  “How did Antun get turned! That’s the big question!”

  His groan of annoyance mixed with disappointment told me just how he felt. He bumped his head on the headrest in frustration.

  I sat back in my seat, annoyed at myself.

  “Well, maybe the Ren Faire isn’t the best place to have a private conversation anyway,” I sighed. “You guys swapped info, you can text him when you get home and set up a time for him to answer your questions.”

  I was determined to not place myself in the middle of Michael’s affairs.

  “Oh, that’s probably better than asking you to text him for me right now. Not like he’d be able to look at that text in public anyway. I’ll message him tonight and let you know when he’ll be available.”

  “Why?”

  Michael looked almost hurt by my words. He kept his eyes forward even as his face turned slightly toward me.

  “I don’t know about you, but if I just found out my coworker was secretly a vampire, I’d be keeping my nose in that business. Besides blatant curiosity, wouldn’t it be safer to keep in the loop with a vampire on the loose?”

  I… could not argue with that point. I did highly regard my safety after all. I felt for the pepper spray I had brought along.

  He waited for my response.

  I nodded my ascent.

  “Okay, that makes sense, I admit I was wrong.”

  I grasped my shoulder, massaging it. Walking really does work out the whole body, especially when it's on uneven ground. My everything ached from my head to my toes, and I was already planning on having a nice Epsom salt soak when I got home.

  Michael glanced at me once more before turning to keep his eyes on the road.

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