Much to my dismay, the Vampire was there bright and early, almost right as we opened the next day. This time, he was alone. No Lion to warm his chill a little.

Except today, Olive wasn’t there to eagerly take his order. It was Carter, Patrick, and me working that day, and the two boys were busy, so I had to run the register.

“A pot of English Breakfast tea and a chocolate croissant.” He muttered, lilac eyes trained on me.

I gave him his total, pretending like nothing in the world was wrong or different.

He pulled out his wallet, handing me several bills, and as I reached out to take them, a pair of what seemed to be…claws? Slipped from his fingertips.

I didn’t flinch. I didn’t jerk back. I didn’t react, by some miracle.

I took the bills, calmly, like all was normal. “Thank you, sir. Here’s your change.” I handed him the coins.

“You’ll make the tea?”

“Yes sir.” I nodded, keeping my eyes down, as if doing something on the screen. It was hard to meet his gaze for very long.

“Good.” he walked towards a table, and took a seat.

I wanted to relax, to sigh in relief or something, but I could feel his gaze trained on me. I couldn't let him know I was keeping tabs on him. I just had to keep on like nothing was wrong.

Except everything was wrong. He’d tried to trip me up again, figuratively, by popping out those claws, wanting to see how I’d reacted.

“He’s here early today.” Carter muttered to me as I was putting tea leaves into the strainer.

“I guess.” I shrugged, pretending that I didn’t know that he usually didn’t come in until around ten or so.

Several customers came in, so I had Patrick take the pot of tea to the Vampire while I dealt with them, so he could get back to mopping the storage area, as Carter was busy trying to fix the espresso machine, which seemed to have a mind of its own.

“There. I think it’s fixed now.” he sighed.

“Good.” I nodded, already feeling exhausted from trying to pretend that I didn’t know that the Vampire was watching me, now more surreptitiously from his table.

Then suddenly, I started hearing this incredibly loud clicking noise. On an instinct, I knew it had to be coming from the Vampire, so I didn’t look.

“What’s that noise?” Patrick asked, looking around. I used this as an excuse to look around as well. Conveniently, the Vampire was looking away as I did so, but as my eyes swept over him, since I was pretending not to notice anything unordinary about him, I saw that he’d taken off his jacket, rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, and was tapping the opalescent scales on his arm very loudly with his extended claws.

Oh that was just irritating!

“I have no idea.” I frowned. “Maybe the AC unit is acting up again. That’s what it sounds like to me.”

“I hope not, it was miserable in here when it broke.” Patrick grimaced.

“Yeah, it was.” Carter agreed. “I’ll look at it later.”

"God, I hope it's not that, I can't handle the heat. It gets so hot down here!"

"You gotta get used to it!" Carter laughed.

"Nope, that's what AC is for!" Patrick shook his head stubbornly.

"Well, we can't air condition the outside." I rolled my eyes at him.

"I don't see how you all stand it!" he fanned himself, clearly just thinking about the heat had made him warm, though the cafe was a very comfortable temperature.

"Well, Mercy and I have both lived in the area for a long time." Carter shrugged, "Right, Mercy?"

"More or less. I'm not originally from the city, but yeah."

"How far away did you move from?" Patrick asked.

"I lived about an hour south of here. Not eight hours north, like you did!" I laughed. "Down here we know that air conditioning is God's gift to man."

"Preach, sister!" Patrick sighed, stepping forward to take a customer's order as I wiped down the counter.

After a little while longer of the annoying clicking noise, the Vampire stopped, apparently bored of that trick now.

“I’m heeeeere!” Olive sang as she burst theatrically through the door.

“And that’s my cue to leave.” Patrick said, taking off his apron and clocking out, then letting Olive clock in.

"Any plans for the day?" Carter asked.

"I didn't, but whatever I do will involve the air conditioning cranked all the way down!" Patrick told him seriously, shaking his head.

“Thanks for covering for me, Pat!” Olive chirped, ushering him from behind the counter.

He nodded, “No problem! Can you still take tomorrow afternoon for me?”

“Yep! See you later!” Olive waved as our coworker left.

“How are you?” I asked her.

“Oh just fine!” she chirped. “I had a doctor’s appointment.”

“Everything alright?”

“Yep, just a check up! Finally got some more migraine meds, too."

"I'm glad you got some more, I know they're awful."

"They really are!" she sighed, grimacing.

Suddenly, a flash of blinding light temporarily robbed me of my vision.

I jerked in surprise, gasping, “Oh!”

“What’s up?” Olive asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Something just blinded me.” I muttered, rubbing my eyes and shaking my head.

“That’s weird.” She looked around, “What was it?”

“I don’t know.” I glanced around the cafe, but had a sinking feeling that the answer lay, once more, with the Vampire. I'd managed to momentarily forget my worries about him during the air conditioning conversation, but they came back full-force, now.

His scales were still visible, and his hand lay on the table. He’d be able to reflect light off those suckers in any direction he wanted to, just like a watch or a phone.

But I let my eyes pass over him like I hadn’t seen a damn thing.

As I looked away, it happened again. “Oh goodness!” I blinked, rubbing my eyes.

“Again?” Carter frowned, having overheard our conversation.

“Yeah, I think it’s someone’s watch.” I muttered, then went around the counter to tidy up the table that had hot water, and various creams, milks, and sweeteners for anyone who wanted it. That meant my back was to the rest of the sitting area, and the Vampire couldn't use his scales to blind me anymore.

“Excuse me!” A young girl's voice said from behind me.

I turned, “Oh, sorry!” I stepped away, seeing that the little kid had an open cup of cocoa. She probably wanted some milk to cool it down. It was so easy to burn your tongue.

As I stepped back so the little girl could reach what she wanted, I felt a strange burst of…something, from the Vampire’s direction. It was some kind of strange energy.

I felt it slam into the hot water dispenser, which caused my head to jerk up in surprise before I’d even realized that I’d reacted. Although my reaction was what he wanted, and likely was watching for.

There was a sharp cracking noise as the water dispenser’s leg broke suddenly. Almost in slow motion, I saw the dispenser tilt to the side.

On instinct, I pushed the girl out of the way, and reached out to catch the dispenser before it totally fell, but by some twist of misfortune, the lid toppled off, dumping the contents everywhere.

The scalding water spilled down, directly onto my hands.

I screamed as agony seared across my fingers and palms.

“Oh my god!” Olive cried, immediately by my side.

I sobbed. “M-my hands!”

“Come here.” She helped me up.

I had collapsed to my knees, and was now totally soaked in hot, but quickly cooling, water.

Carter appeared beside us, swearing and full of panic. “This is bad!” Nothing had ever seemed to ruffle him before, but this clearly had him bent out of shape, even though it wasn't his hands that were miserably painful.

“I-it hurts!” I sobbed, curling up around my hands a little.

“Should we call an ambulance? These are pretty bad burns.” Olive’s done was full of worry.

“I-I can’t afford that!” I whimpered.

“But-but your hands, Mercy! You write and make art with them! You have to get them taken care of!” Olive protested.

“I can take you to the ER.” Carter said urgently.

“N-no, I-I can’t afford that either!” I sniffed. “I-I don’t have insurance!”

“Well, you can’t keep working today. You need to have someone look at those.” Carter told me firmly. “Go ahead and clock out and get yourself to a doctor!"

I shrugged, but didn’t commit to anything. I didn’t have the wiggle room in my funds for a doctor, at the moment.

Olive helped me to the computer, where I was able to clumsily, and with much wincing, clock out.

“Go to an urgent care or something.” Carter urged me, expression tight with concern. I appreciated it, but there was nothing I could do. If there was no money for it, there was no money for it.

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“I-I’ll deal with it, I promise.” I mumbled, sniffling as I walked towards the door, my hands throbbing miserably.

As I passed the Vampire’s table, I realized that it was empty. At some point in the chaos that had just happened, that he’d caused, the Other must have slipped out.

What that meant, I had no idea. It’s not like I could accuse him of making the hot water dispenser fall over. He hadn’t been anywhere near it. Although it had been him that had caused it, however he’d done so.

Something told me that no one else had been able to feel the strange energy that had pulsed through the room, either. Just like no one could see him as he actually looked, scales and all.

I made my way, in a pained, miserable sort of daze, towards my bus stop at the end of the street, wondering what on earth I was going to do.

I couldn't afford a doctor or an ER trip. I also couldn't write or draw or anything until my hands were healed. Hell, I probably couldn't even do anything useful at work for a while! But surely Carter wouldn't take me off the schedule over something that wasn’t my fault...No, he wasn’t a bad manager, he wouldn't do that. He'd likely just find easy stuff I could do so I could keep coming to work, and thus be able to keep a roof over me and my cats’ heads, I hoped.

A cold, unwelcome voice suddenly addressed me, drawing me from my anxious thoughts and making me jump. “You can see me.”

I whirled, and saw the Vampire standing in the entry to an alley just behind my bus stop.

Well, shit! Why wouldn't he leave me alone?! What did he want from me?!

All I could do was stick to the bit as best as I could. Gaslight, gaslight, gaslight.

“What? Of c-course I can see you.” I muttered, frowning and trying to wipe my eyes without hurting my hands too much, though they were starting to blister badly.

Annoyance flashed across his sharp, ridiculously attractive features. “Tch. Don’t play dumb. You can see me as I actually am. My scales. My fangs. My claws.”

“Please leave me alone, y-you’re scaring me!” I cried, hoping to attract the attention of someone, anyone. But a quick glance around me told me there wasn’t anyone else around to hear me.

“Drop the act.” he snapped, taking a step forward.

I pulled out my phone, trying not to wince at how much it hurt to hold something. “I’m calling the cops if you won’t leave me alone!” I shouted, hoping that someone, anyone would hear me. Maybe even someone inside one of the buildings.

The strange energy he’d used to break the water dispenser surged suddenly, and with an almost lazy flick of his wrist, the phone jerked from my burned hands, drawing a whimper of pain from me. It flew through the air, landing neatly in his clawed fingers.

“There. You can’t pretend you didn’t see that.” he replied mildly.

“I-I…I-I…” I tried to think of something, then sighed, and looked away, hugging myself as best as I could with my hands burned as they were. “Wh-what…what do you want from me? I-I…P-please just leave me alone, h-haven’t you done enough damage for one day?!”

“What are you?” he persisted, taking another step forward.

The bus was just down the street, and on the way towards my stop.

I took a step towards the bus stop. “I-I don’t know what you mean.”

“If you can see me, you’re not human. Hardly anyone can hide their true forms from me. I’m too strong for that. What are you?”

“I-I’m h-human!” I squeaked, then heard the roar of the bus as it arrived. “I-I swear!” The doors opened, and I raced on board.

Only once the bus was pulling away did I remember that the Vampire still had my phone.

Shit.

This was bad. This was really bad.

Not only had I managed to attract the attention of one of the Others, he had my phone now, too. And my phone had a lot of personal information on it.

Well, it was pass-code protected, but something told me that a pass-code wouldn't keep someone like him out of it.

My mind floated to the strange energy that had definitely come from him. Was that…some kind of magic? What else could it be, if not magic? Nothing else even made sense.

This was bad. This was bad bad bad.

I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself from spiraling into a panic attack.

First, I needed to figure out how I was going to get my hands taken care of. Then I’d deal with what to do about my phone, and possibly my personal information, being taken.

One thing at a time.

No urgent care or ER or any kind of doctor. Did I know of anyone who was a nurse who’d be willing to help me out? I wracked my brain.

Wait, there might be a way to deal with two birds with one stone. Was Michael working today?

I thought for a moment, desperately wishing I had my phone to call him to see if he was home.

From what I remembered of our last conversation, he had today and tomorrow off. I also knew he had some first-aid experience, given the summers we’d spent as camp counselors during our teen years.

Michael would listen to my story in its entirety without judging. He was the only person in the whole world who believed me about what I saw. He knew what it was to be bullied for who he was, and didn’t believe in confining the world to what only he could see and understand.

A true gem amongst flashy, loud, out-and-proud gay men, he was my platonic soulmate. He'd probably even let me crash on his couch so I didn't have to go home, in case the Vampire did search through my phone.

Yes. That’s what I’d do. Michael would help.

Why hadn’t I thought of that sooner?

Soon, I found myself knocking (as best as I could) on his apartment door, praying he was awake.

The door was thrown open, “What? Oh! What’s up, babe?” Michael yawned, still in his pjs. “Did I miss a call or text or something?”

“N-no.” I glanced around me, still feeling paranoid. The Vampire might have followed me somehow, after all, but I was hoping not. “I-I lost my phone.”

“What’s wrong?” he frowned, seeing I was upset. “Come in, we’ll have some tea. I thought you had work today?”

“I-I do. Or, I did, rather,” I stepped into his apartment, and started to cry, “m-my hands!” I sobbed, holding them out for him to see.

Michael swore, “Oh sweetie! Why didn’t you go to the hospital?!”

“I-it’s too e-expensive!” I sniffled, shaking my head.

“Fair.” he sighed, then pointed at the couch. “You sit. I’ll deal with those burns.”

I sat on the couch, and let myself cry. I was safe now.

Michael was soon there with a very well-stocked first-aid kit, settling down beside me. As he gently cleaned and bandaged my hands, I told him the whole story, starting with how I’d accidentally caught the Vampire’s attention the day before.

“Wow. That’s crazy, doll! And he still had your phone when you escaped on the bus?"

“Y-yes!” I sobbed, taking the pain pills he offered me, and swallowing them with a gulp of water.

“Hm.” he frowned. “You should spend the night here, just to be safe.”

“Wh-what about my kitties?”

“I’ll go get them, they can have a sleepover too!” He smiled at me, standing. “I’ll go get them right now, actually. The creep might not have had a chance to get into your phone yet, but we won’t take any chances.” he paused, frowning, “So it is probably better if you stay here, just in case. He won’t recognize me, and won’t necessarily know it’s your apartment I’m going into, depending on how much info he can find on your phone.”

“Th-thank you!” I hiccuped. “I-I don’t know what I’d do without you!”

“Me either!” he laughed, grabbing his keys, which contained a spare key to my apartment. “I’ll be right back with the babies.”

“Bring their food and litter box too!” I requested.

“Will do!” he nodded, then frowned and said, “You should start changing all the passwords for, well, everything.”

“Oh, good point. Although some of them I can only change with my phone.Two-factor identification and everything.” I frowned.

“Change the ones you can without it, then I’ll help you figure out to do about how to change the rest when I get back."

“Right. Thank you, Michael!”

“Sure thing, doll.” he winked, then left.

I grabbed his laptop, and got to work changing all the passwords that I could. Finally, I shut his computer and set it aside.

A sudden exhaustion filled me, and I closed my eyes, falling almost immediately asleep.

I jolted from my nap as the door opened, admitting Michael, who had my kitties in their animal carriers.

“My babies!” I sang, rubbing sleep from my eyes and staggering to my feet to meet him.

He sat the cases down, “I’ll go bring the rest in.”

“Thank you so much, Michael.” I bent and opened the cages. Stroopwafel be-bopped right out of her carrying cage, and immediately began exploring, while Sidhe was more cautious, taking his slow time to sniff around before slowly venturing out of the cage.

“It’s no problem, doll!” he smiled reassuringly at me before leaving again, only to return moments later with the litter box and a bag of cat food, and an overnight bag. “I also brought you some clothes and toiletries.”

“Thank you!” I hugged him tightly.

“You’re welcome!”

“Let’s order in dinner tonight, my treat as thanks!”

“Sounds good to me! Let’s do Indian food.”

“Ooh, good choice!” I couldn't afford a doctor, but I could swing Indian food for Michael as thanks. Forty bucks was alright, three hundred plus wasn't.

We settled down on the couch and put on the TV to play in the background as we talked over what had happened. Stroopwafel eventually hopped up onto my lap for lovies, and Sidhe settled himself down between Michael and me, both purring contentedly.

“So you said he’s good-looking?"

“Hilariously good-looking!” I snorted, shaking my head, “All of the Others who look like humans but aren’t, and can still be seen by humans, tend to be extremely attractive.”

“That must be nice, huh?” my best friend laughed, but before I could answer, his phone rang. Michael blinked, announcing, “It says it’s you!”

I sighed, “I guess he figured out how to get into my phone.”

“I’ll answer it and pretend nothing is wrong.”

“Sure.”

Michael paused, then answered the phone, quickly putting it onto speaker so I could listen. “Hey doll, what’s up?” That was a very usual greeting for him.

The Vampire’s voice spoke over the phone, making my blood chill. “Is this Michael?”

“Yeah, who is this?” My friend sounded appropriately disgruntled at it not being who he expected it to be. “Where’s Mercy?” Him using my name was a moot point by now, since the man would have been able to have figured it out by a little bit of snooping through my phone.

“I’m sorry, your friend seems to have lost her phone.”

“What?” Michael played dumb. “Who is this?”

“Your friend lost her phone, and I found it. My name is Fen. Your contact was the most frequently called, from what I can tell. I can bring it to her, if you could help me work out a way to do that?”

“Oh! Oh no! Okay. Um, sure, I’ll have to get in touch with her somehow! Thanks for letting me know! Poor thing! I'll get back with you once I get in touch with her and we can work something out.” Michael chirped. He was very believable.

“Sure.”

Michael hung up, then turned to me, “So what now?”

I frowned. “I don’t want to meet up with him. At least, not alone.”

“I can go with you. You could meet at your work. It’s a public place you both know and are often at, so it won’t be unusual. And I can be there without drawing suspicion.”

“I-I guess."

“And once you do get your phone back, we’ll take it to my tech guy to check for any bugs this creep may have put on it.”

“Speaking of your tech guy, how’s Tom doing?” Tom, or Thomas, was Michael’s older brother, who worked in cyber security.

Despite being a massive nerd, he’d always been big into soccer and was pretty fit. I’d had something of a crush on him for years when I was a kid. He’d made it pretty clear that he wasn’t into me, and he’d been right to, I’d been just a kid when I’d had a crush, and he was five years older. That said, I’d been over him for years, now. In fact, it had been a few years since I’d even seen him.

“As boring as ever!” Michael laughed. “But he’ll do this for an old friend.” He smiled at me.

“I’ll have to bake him cookies as a thank you.”

“That’d be good.”

“I’ll bake you cookies too.”

“Nah, you’re already buying me dinner. Dinner and a sleepover on the first date, dayum, I must be good!” Michael grinned at me.

We threw our heads back and cackled. I'd spent plenty of nights at his house before now.

“Do you have tomorrow off?” I asked after we’d finally stopped giggling.

“Yes, I do!"

“Can we try and arrange it for tomorrow?”

“Sure thing! Want me to call back and set it up?”

“Yes. And make sure he knows you’ll be with me. Then when we go tomorrow, will you stay for a while with me?” I chewed my lip nervously.

“Sure thing, hon.” Michael nodded. “I could probably get Tom to come with us, if you’re really worried.”

“No, there’s no sense bothering him. He’d just think I was being stupid.”

“No, he’d come. He’s not un-fond of you, Merce.”

“Eh, I’d rather him not be more involved than he needs to be.” Part of me didn’t want to see him, as it would only bring up embarrassing memories. “We’ll already have to come up with a cover story for when he checks the phone.”

“All we have to say is that you lost your phone and we got it back from some rando. It happens often enough.” Michael shrugged.

“I guess, but still.”

“It’s all good.” he waved his hand. “Alright, I’ll call back now. When do you work tomorrow?”

“From ten until two.”

“Alright.” Michael called my phone back, putting it on speaker while it rang.

The Vampire, or Fen or whatever his name was, answered. “Hello?”

“Yes, this is Michael. I got in touch with Mercy. She’s gotta work tomorrow at ten in the morning at the Thistle and Thorn cafe. Do you know it?”

“Yes, on the corner of Second and Sixth.”

“That’s the one!” Michael smiled, winking at me. “We can meet you there before or during her shift, it’s whatever.”

“When does she work?”

“From ten until two.”

“I can be there at ten.”

“Alright, we’ll see you then.”

They both hung up.

“Well, doll, that’s that!” Michael sighed. “Now, about that Indian food…”