Humanity grew restless.

It didn't matter how logical the confinement was. It didn't matter that of the few million who had caught the virus, the deaths were still listed in the hundred thousands versus more than a million who had successfully recovered. It didn't matter that the plan was working.

The long siege was taking a heavy toll on hearts and minds.

Like in any war, there were people who had been waiting months to go home, there were crops being destroyed, and there were people who were starving. If the populace could have fought the enemy with weapons, armies the like of none that had yet walked the world would have risen to raze all that lay before them. But the current battle was not like any war between people.

Even so, there were those who woke up and put on their armor and fell, exhausted by long days of service, many hours later. The old fashioned laces and bindings, that held their gear to their bodies throughout the day, were just as knotted and sweaty as those of any knight. The masks and gloves of the average worker were only the beginning for those who fought for the lives of the millions who had fallen to the new foe.

Those who understood feared the restlessness that could destroy the fragile balance. If the balance tipped too far, the hard won successes could become nothing but a memory of hope.

And yet, humanity was restless.

--

Chris smelled like french fries every time he came home. Mac would ask him how work had been, just as seriously as if the dragon had been working a respectable career. Anne just couldn't bring herself to follow the old man's example, even though her job was no better, even worse in some ways.

Something was horribly WRONG with a legendary being working in a fast food joint.

Sometimes she wanted to shake him and scream, "You're a freaking DRAGON, why would you lower yourself this far!?"

Amaru wasn't much better though, even though he didn't work a day job, and brought them small nuggets of actual gold to pay for his share of the electricity they used, his data plan, and more tablets. Actually, the gold was kind of cool. A dragon with gold was right. A dragon who grumbled about wasting time swimming through the Earth and calling gold into his claws just so that he could have unlimited internet access was just wrong.

Anne couldn't bring herself to complain about the evenings when Chris sang at the bar though, even if it wasn't an activity that she'd ever associated with dragons. Elves maybe. His voice was inhumanly beautiful. Not in any obvious way, nothing that you could point to and protest, 'That's not possible!' It was just… legendary.

Bobby, the senior bartender at the place, had Chris sing on a completely illogical seeming schedule that greatly amused Mac and Chris. Mac claimed that she was using the random schedule to keep the place at maximum capacity every night, since nobody knew when Chris would sing. Since the current maximum capacity of the bar was only 36 people, Anne was more than a little doubtful that any incentive beyond alcohol was needed to keep the place full.

The bar served food, and restaurants were still considered essential in their city, but Anne suspected that most of the patrons were getting there illegally. Everyone now received one free trip pass per week, in addition to work and shopping trip permits. It was a compromise that had been issued state-wide by their governor, but Anne was pretty sure that Mac wasn't the only one who went there almost every night.

Chris came out of the bathroom after his shower, looking like a dragon. He walked to the open area at the center of the living room and then curled up like a cat and closed his eyes. He'd been doing it all week, except when Mac had stayed in for the evening. The wavering that shimmered across his skin seemed to strengthen.

He was mostly green, unlike the colorful rainbow of colors that Amaru wore in his dragon form. He had four small limbs and a long tail, like a crocodile, but he didn't resemble one at all. He was scaled and serpentine like a snake, but he looked more like some kind of aquatic creature. He shimmered in her odd vision just as much in his dragon form as he did when he looked like a human.

Anne's eyes still insisted that the wavering was like ripples of water unless she blocked the windows and covered every source of light. She opened her mouth to ask what he was doing, but closed it again without asking. He seemed bigger and more dangerous in his dragon shape, even though his curled form would barely come up to her knees.

"What is it?" Chris asked.

Anne was startled into asking, "I wondered what you are doing? Can you see me with your eyes closed?"

"I can hear you," Chris explained. "I'm learning the essence of this shape."

"I thought, I mean, I thought this was your real shape?" Anne asked with surprise.

Chris opened his eyes and nodded. "It is." He hesitated for a moment. "But I had lost it."

Anne stared at him blankly. "What?" she asked after the silence continued for a little too long.

Chris looked embarrassed, and she wondered if his expressions were so much more human than Amaru's usually were, because he used human expressions all the time. "I forgot that I was a dragon for a long time. Amaru thinks that someone sealed my memories, but… I'm not so sure."

Anne hoped that her face was conveying her intense interest, because she was afraid to ask.

Chris smiled at her, which wasn't as reassuring as it might have been. His teeth looked very sharp. "Apparently after I drank from the still beating heart of a human, I should have gone mad, instead I stole his place and lived in his shape for most of a century."

He was watching her with a measuring look, and after a moment she remembered to breath. She would have been more afraid if she hadn't recognized his expression as one she'd used a thousand times. His words said, 'I am a monster.' His eyes said, 'I am different. I am strange. I am not like you. Are you scared? Will you hate me? Do you want to know?'

"Why?" It was a single word, but it was difficult to speak the simple question.

"Amaru calls it an echo, he says that intelligent beings are not safe to consume because their echo is strong, and that a strong echo can warp your pattern and drive you mad. I think the patterns he speaks of are like DNA, but at the time, I thought that I had simply drunk the boy's memories with his blood," Chris explained. "As for why I killed him? I was hungry, and he hunted me, so I hunted him."

"Oh…" People did not eat people that they killed in self defense, but… people killed animals that hunted people with pride, and often ate them too.

Chris said softly, "The true story of my life is long and complicated, and I have done many questionable things over the years."

Anne swallowed, but lifted her chin and told him, "I would like to hear the life story of the dragon who saved me."

His mouth curled with amusement as he replied, "It was a vampire."