As wary as she was of the tunnel, Saketa saw no reason not to go just a short distance inside, enough to escape the rain as it began pounding down. They sat down in the red glow of one of the emergency lights, and Vanaka put down her heater to keep them warm.

“As I said, we live in... communes, essentially,” the girl said. “Spread out, although we keep in regular contact with kin. And yes, our bodies do not generate enough blood. So we drink from people. And yes, the venom erases a little bit of recent memory, if we do it right. So we can feed discreetly, from people we get a chance to be alone with or in dark, loud night clubs and the like.”

Vanaka looked up at her.

“Just a little at a time. No harm done. We... look, I have studied sociology a little bit, and societies create the rules they need to survive. Bloodless bodies or disappearances risk endangering our whole community, so the rules are very strict on not taking too much. It is ingrained in us from very early on. But drinking from strangers is always a bit of a risk, and... not satisfying. Emotionally. It is so meaningless.”

“So you keep flocks,” Saketa said.

Vanaka didn’t like it.

“That is degrading,” the girl said. “They are... companions? Our word for it is ansoti. Most of them live with us in the communes. It was all just perfectly normal to me as I grew up, them being around. My father has two who are married. I used to look after their children on occasion.”

“You said most,” Saketa pointed out.

“Yes, most. I have a best friend. She still lives with her parents, but we have known each other since we played with dolls together. I started biting her a year ago. She was the first one my parents trusted me to select for myself. She still does not know. She just knows that we are closer than ever, that she is always eager to hang out, and that sometimes I like to pull her in for a tight hug.”

“And why have you not told her?” Saketa asked. “From what I understand you will not need to worry about her exposing your community.”

Vanaka didn’t answer immediately. Saketa supposed she was looking within for an answer she had sought before.

“I suppose...” the girl eventually said. “That I simply did not wish to change our friendship. Into...”

She hesitated again.

“Mistress and pet?” Saketa suggested. Vanaka again didn’t like her summation, but seemed a bit conflicted over refuting it. “I am not trying to be hurtful, Vanaka,” Saketa continued evenly. “But that venom does put people under your control.”

“It does,” the girl admitted. “But have you owned pets? Did you not love them?”

“I am not condemning,” Saketa replied. “Simply facing facts.”

She rubbed the side of her neck.

“You have bitten me three times so far, correct?”

“Ye... es,” the girl admitted. “But I am young. My venom is not that potent yet. It should clear out of your system in a few days.”

“You know, if I am to be your bodyguard I do need my blood,” Saketa pointed out.

“I do know,” Vanaka said. “I only took a little. I was mostly going for getting venom into your system. Haven’t you noticed me getting tired?”

Now that she thought about it, the girl’s strength had visibly waned a bit since they set out.

“How much longer can you go without feeding?” Saketa asked.

“It is nothing dire yet,” she replied. “Ideally I would bite someone in the city, but I can tolerate the weakness until I meet my father.”

“Good.”

The girl fell silent and started idly picking at one of her upper eyeteeth.

“They extend, do they not?” Saketa asked.

Vanaka replied by opening her mouth wider and showing her. The change was a far cry from dramatic, but still noticeable. She didn’t retract the teeth, choosing instead to continue picking at them with a thoughtful look.

“As I grow up I keep wondering why we are this way,” she admitted. “Conventional wisdom holds that most of the human subtypes were created by the First Civilisation, through mastery of genetic engineering. I do not lament being what I am, but I still have to ask why.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“The First Civilisation supposedly created and bred Chanei exclusively to serve as concubines,” Saketa replied. “They did not necessarily use their vast knowledge with great wisdom.”

“No,” Vanaka replied, still looking distant. “Some say we were created to be some sort of ruling class in a particular area, what with our venom. Some say we were designed this way to save us from the blood deficiency. But... well, it is just all too perfect.”

“Perfect?”

“Our teeth. The venom. Our saliva doesn’t cause infections the way it normally would.” Vanaka touched her own throat. “Our esophagus absorbs blood as it comes down. It gets converted to more of our own, regardless of blood type. And our immune system is virtually unassailable. We are strong and fast and we heal quickly. How could someone be able to build all of this into baseline humans, but not fix our bone marrow?”

“Thinking begets wisdom,” Saketa said. “Just mind you do not let it turn into navel-gazing.”

“I think perhaps we truly were meant to be... regional leaders or something. Limited by a built-in flaw. And there are stories of our long-ago days after the Big Flash.”

She now looked at Saketa with those dark eyes, bathed in that red light, sharp teeth on display.

“It is said we were indeed overlords, in the days of slower space travel and isolated planets. Using our venom and our other advantages.”

She stroked the fangs with her tongue.

“But I do not fancy myself some queen. However much my mother needs to remind me not to be too bossy with my ansoti.”

The girl cleared her throat.

“But tell me, how do you know about us? People like to use us as spook monsters, but you know actual details.”

“Are you worried?” Saketa asked.

“A little.”

“I am not the most well-travelled of my people,” Saketa told her. “But we Wardens bring tales back to Kalero. Tales of what we have seen, the people we have met, the threats we have faced. Collectively it all adds up to an enormous body of oral tales we call the Shallelo. And some generations ago, one of my brother Wardens encountered one of your people.”

“I have a sense I am not going to like this,” Vanaka mused.

“The Vylak was an assassin for hire, and just a general villain. He did not leave drained bodies in the streets, but he made liberal use of his advantages to kill and steal and get ahead in the underworld.”

“Every group has its criminals,” Vanaka said with a hint of defensiveness.

“Of course,” Saketa said.

“Did the Warden kill him?”

“No. By the time he tracked the assassin down, your own people had already slain him. But overall the Warden gathered a fair amount of knowledge about your people.”

Vanaka went through another bout of thoughtful gazing at nothing.

“I suppose I knew. Well, I did know. It is something of an open secret that the elders cull Vylak who threaten the community with that kind of behaviour. No one ever brings it up, but it is there, along the edges. Societies create the rules they need...”

“So they do.”

Her eyes slowly returned to the current place and time, and she looked back at Saketa while again idly probing her fangs.

“It is a very surreal feeling, discussing all this openly with someone who is not in the fold,” the girl mused.

“From what you have said, I would imagine so.”

“Saketa...”

Vanaka hesitated, looking awkward.

“Are you angry with me?”

“Slightly,” Saketa said. “Look, my people do not believe in denying and suppressing their own bad qualities. We believe in facing them, and accepting them as a part of ourselves, without acting on them. Because that way they lose power over us.”

She held the girl’s gaze with a sympathetic look.

“I do not appreciate having my volition messed with, but I understand why you did what you did. It will clear out of my system long before your venom does.”

Vanaka lowered her head and nodded slightly.

“I am... I am glad. I really do appreciate your help. And your... your tolerance.”

Then she chuckled humourlessly.

“People are afraid of us. But we are afraid of people.”

“Your kind are just people,” Saketa said. “Your physical needs do not mark you as anything else. You are every bit as human as I, and so I have the same duty towards you as I do towards myself.”

Vanaka lowered herself very slightly more, was silent for several breaths, and Saketa then saw her dab at her eye.

“You are going to make me emotional...” the girl said in a low voice.

“You are at an emotional age,” Saketa reminded her.

“So I am.” She cleared her throat. “And since I am being emotional in the first place, let me say that I honestly have come to admire you very much in very short order.”

Saketa wondered if the girl wanted to hug her but worried it would be unwelcome. She just gave her a smile.

“Thank you. You know, as I consider all of this... this whole situation between us...”

“Yes?” Vanaka said to fill the delay, dabbing at her eyes some more.

“I have never before had reason to wonder what I taste like.”

Once she realised it was a joke Vanaka’s laughter came out in a loud bark, enhanced by high-riding emotions.

“Well, you... you taste very good, actually,” she said, smiling. “All that fitness and healthy eating.”

“That is good to know,” Saketa replied, and Vanaka laughed some more. Saketa hoped this meant a breaking of any lingering tension.

She looked towards the tunnel entrance.

“This rain will not let up any time soon. We had better endure it rather than suffer the delay. Have you recovered?”

Vanaka stood up, showing no signs of pain from very nearly having her kidney ruptured just earlier.

“Yes.”

“Then we set out. Overland.”