An Apple for the Creature

That was the plan, anyway. Except that when I joined the wolves frolicking on the front lawn, it took about three minutes for the captain to figure out which wolf was me—I wasn’t sure if it was a ghostly talent or if another wolf squealed. Either way, as soon as he latched on to me, the other wolves found other places to be.

I ran into the forest as fast as I could, but Captain Bob had no problem keeping up, and when I ducked between trees and through underbrush, he went through it all as if it weren’t there. Or as if he weren’t there. Basically he sucked the fun out of the run, so after a frustrating hour, I decided it was time to give up.

Since the last thing I wanted was to lead him to my cabin, I doubled back twice and shifted forms three times to be reasonably sure I was safe. Once I was again among the two-legged and dressed I called David, and tried to convince both of us that I was having a good time.

—

After I hung up the phone, I tried to decide if I should go to bed and skip the buffet, go to the buffet and eat so much food that there wouldn’t be enough to go around, or just pack up and go home. I hadn’t made up my mind when there was a knock on the door. At first I was afraid it was Captain Bob, but I then remembered that he couldn’t touch anything and opened the door to find Dr. Hogencamp.

“Hi.”

“Joyce, isn’t it? I don’t know if you remember me from today’s presentations, but—”

“It’s not a session I’m likely to forget.”

“I suppose not. If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to you.”

“Sure, come on in.”

This was the closest I’d been to the woman. She had a sturdy build and tight gray curls, and she was wearing glasses, which was unusual for a werewolf. The Change cleaned up a lot of health issues, which is part of why we live so much longer than humans. Now that I noticed it, she didn’t smell like a werewolf, either.

“Dr. Hogencamp—”

“Call me Angie.”

“I’m probably being inexcusably rude, Angie, but I don’t know the proper way to ask this. What are you?”

“Just human.”

“Isn’t that against the rules?” One of the first things that had been impressed upon me when I was Changed was the importance of keeping the existence of werewolves secret. American society was still coming to terms with gays and lesbians—throwing werewolves into the mix would have been a bad idea.

“I’m in a unique position. My husband, Carl, and I were bitten by a rogue, just as you were, and the local pack found us and told us about werewolves and the other supernatural beings. But only Carl Changed. We didn’t understand why and that led us to discover the arcane gene. We found that Carl had an incomplete penetrant.”

“That sounds painful.”

“An incomplete penetrant of the arcane gene. He barely survived the Change.”

“What about you?”

“I don’t have the gene at all. Still, I can continue the research, even now that Carl has passed away.”

I wasn’t sure how long he’d been gone, so didn’t know if I should express sympathy or not, so I went with a noncommittal nod.

“I imagine you noticed that in my discussion of the arcane gene, I didn’t mention vampires.”

I hadn’t, actually—I’d been too busy wondering if I could use an electric fan to try to blow Captain Bob away.

“The fact is,” Angie said, “I don’t know much about vampires. Nobody does, except presumably other vampires.”

“You could ask Captain Bob. He seems to know it all.”

“I’m sorry about that. I had no idea he would take your living arrangements so personally.” She did look honestly embarrassed. “I consider your relationship with a vampire a valuable opportunity. I’ve studied werewolves, and have spent considerable time with witches and ghosts, but I’ve been unable to make any kind of connection with a vampire. I was wondering if you could tell me about your experiences.”

“I guess. What do you want to know?”

“I’m most interested in reproduction.”

“When a Mama vampire loves a Daddy vampire very much . . .”

Angie blinked.

“Just kidding,” I said. “I assume you mean how to create another vampire, not vampire sex.”

Again she blinked. Apparently she was also missing the sense of humor gene.

“Basically, the vampire drains the human almost to death before allowing the human to suck on him. His blood, that is. The human then dies, but after three days, rises as a baby vampire.”

“Very much according to legend,” Angie said. “Do you mind if I take notes?”

When I shook my head, she pulled paper and pen out of her shoulder bag and scribbled intently. “How does the vampire choose the human who will become his offspring?”

“I really couldn’t say. The relationship is pretty intense, like a marriage or a parent-child relationship. Even when they go their separate ways, there’s always a connection.”

“I assume the human has to have the arcane gene.”

“I don’t know. From what David has said, vampires can bring over anybody they choose. He thought it was odd that werewolves can’t.”