She realized that finding a vampire guardian wasn’t as easy as it sounded, but Donner insisted it would be worth the effort.

“Their familial connections are untraceable. They are dead. How they survive is still a mystery to me and I studied it, as you might expect, in the hopes of using the ability to live forever. I didn’t make inroads in that area, but I know more about how their biology works than most.”

“So no one can check if we’re related?”

“Exactly. They ingest blood and it allows their bodies to continue. I wouldn’t call it living, however. They exist in something of a fog. Memories deteriorate and eventually, they fall into a state similar to dementia. That is when they require the most blood to continue existing. Most of them choose annihilation at that point. Or, what we’ve assumed was annihilation.”

“What does that mean?” She had little knowledge of vampires as she’d never been interested in them before. She never thought they were real. “How do they die?”

“A wooden stake through the heart. However, with the knowledge of the bridge, I no longer believe they simply lose themselves to the darkness. I would assume they go on as well.”

As night fell, those who walked the street changed. It was a noticeable shift. No longer did adults walk with children in tow, no longer were there ladies with faded cloth shopping bags. The usual stores were closed now and others opened in their stead.

Luna stood in shadow, away from prying eyes.

“The witches and wizards do not like to acknowledge this level of Society, but it lives on without them,” Donner told her. “Rarely is there crossover. Pieces of this world exist together, yet the inhabitants of the day and those of the night avoid contact with one another whenever possible.”

“Why?”

“Because those of the darkness have chosen to use old ways. They have not forgotten as so many others have, though I’ve found there isn’t much power among them either. Whatever it is they do, it is still lacking.”

“If everyone is missing what you think they used to have, then doesn't that mean you could be the messed up one? Maybe they're right and you’re wrong.”

“There is no right and wrong, Luna. There are choices that are socially acceptable or objectionable.”

“Can you really say that anymore? We don’t know if choices here affect the afterlife or the next life or whatever happens. And if I’m Life,” she still didn’t think she believed that, “then I sure as heck care.”

A spot in her mind squiggled. A worm beneath the door.

“Oh! That felt gross,” she said. “Did you feel that?”

“No.”

“Something happened in my head, in the back.”

“I don’t want to know. Try to ignore it, we’re focusing on other things now.”

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“You don’t want to think about what I might do to you when you die for real next time,” she accused. “Because you’re wrong. There are some rules about what’s good and what’s not and I make them.”

“I highly doubt the rules are down to you. There are possibly hundreds of other deities who all have functions.”

“We don’t know that. We know me, maybe, and Father Time and Ink Pen, whose doom or something, and that’s it. I don’t know what else would be necessary.”

“Death, I would think. A yin and yang scenario. Time and the End. Life and Death. And my past research leads me to believe there are others.”

Well, she didn’t know about all that, but it made enough sense to accept it for now. “What am I looking for again?”

“A pale man or woman. They will have dark eyes and dark hair. Their skin will appear paper thin.”

“And a human kid walking into a government building with a vampire won’t raise alarms?”

“It’s not that it won’t, it’s that they won’t do anything about it. Ancestors do remain with their living family members when possible, though it isn’t always. Plague and disaster tend to strike the households of vampire descendants. A curse. The exchange of the future for the convenience of the present.”

“That’s super selfish.”

“There is no telling what may befall the future,” he said dispassionately. “This curse is surmised, not known for certain. It happens often enough that I think something has been done to the ancestral lines of the vampires, but it is impossible to know for certain.”

“Does that mean they can have kids?”

“No. There is no procreation, it is not possible after the change. However, some had families before they turned. Whether of their own blood or brothers or sisters.”

“But if they know bad things will happen, why do they do it?”

“Some are vengeful. Most don’t consider the future concrete to begin with. You call it selfish, but then so is driving a car. Do you have any idea how many people are killed in traffic accidents? They are almost dooming themselves and others to misery each time they get behind the wheel of a car. A dog, a cat. A child. A mother or father. An elderly person. They are all at increased risk of death with every car on the road, yet there is no call to remove the vehicles. And this is true for countless daily choices and that doesn’t even take into account natural calamities-”

“Okay, okay,” she broke in. “You can’t know the future so you shouldn’t worry about it so much. Whatever. I’m just saying. If you pretty much know that what you’re doing is going to hurt other people, then why do it?”

“That is a human failing and inescapable this side of the afterlife. Why do they set fires? Why do they raise their fists? You may as well ask why they exist at all. There is no good answer, it simply is. Those who’ve become vampires realized that and had some reason to believe that it was better to choose life unending, such as it is.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” she argued. “Who would want to live like that forever? You said they start to forget everything and then die!”

“I have no insight into the mental health of those who choose vampirism and it is possible to avoid those effects to some extent, though I’ve not found any who managed to do so indefinitely and without special effort. Suffice it to say, it was a choice they made and there’s no undoing it. It has consequences like any other decision you will ever make and others will be subject to what you’ve chosen to do. Such is life.”

“So you’re blaming me?”

She felt him getting irritated.

“I am not blaming you, I am telling you the natural progression of the world. If you are Life, as I suspect, then not even you have a say in this. Which, incidentally, is why I think there must be more to it than you and Death, whoever that may be.”

“Yeah, I wonder who Death is?” she considered it. “And where Death is.”

“Lurking I’m sure,” he said. “Forget it. The future is not yet and the present is before us. If you want to get into the Annex to find that list then we’ve got to get you a stand-in guardian.”

Which was when a hand came down upon her shoulder and almost scared the life right out of her.