I blinked at JJ in surprise before my lips widened in a grin that matched his. “Whatever is your plan, I’m sooo in.”

He smiled wider at me, our minds united in this moment by an idea of not paying loan sharks anything. I took notice again in how handsome he was, even with the gaunt cheeks and sunken eyes. I wished there were more people like him around. Maybe then my personal life would’ve been less desolate.

The computer picked that moment to finish booting, and the change of image on the screen tore my attention from JJ’s face. I hurriedly opened the browser and typed in the address from Avarice’s note. It was conveniently short, “www.cotn.com”. I knew JJ was looking over my shoulder when I felt chills on my back.

The page met me with only a black background and two options: either login or register.

“Secretive,” I said and picked the second one.

Registering form asked for a username, a password and a referral code. I looked again at the note Avarice gave JJ.

“I think I know where that code goes,” I said, typing it into the last field. Then I looked at JJ. “Now, what username you are going to get? I assume that not your actual name.”

His face turned pensive. “Can I choose… Sleeping Beauty?”

I snickered in my fist, and a moment later JJ joined me. “No problem!” I said and went back to typing, still smiling from ear to ear. “Beauty, you sure are, JJ…”

“I’m glad you think so, ma chèrie.”

His response caressed my ear with sensuous notes and a hint of his breath. I swallowed, suddenly realising that we were a little too close for my comfort. “Hey, can you move a little? Away, I mean.”

“Are you uncomfortable, ma chèrie?”

I gave him a sour look. “Well, for starters, you are literally freezing. Which is weird, really. Shouldn’t you have room temperature, at least?”

JJ blinked in surprise, but leaned back. The relief was momentary, though, because the next thing he did was to put his palm on mine. “Does that feel freezing?”

I pulled my hand away from his. “It feels like you put ice on it.”

He nodded thoughtfully, his eyes serious now. “It shouldn’t be. Vampires’ bodies can’t be colder than the air around, and we become warmer with fresh blood in our veins. I think… I want to test something, if you don’t mind, Diana.”

I frowned. “I might mind. What that ‘test’ will entail?”

“I want to explore your aura, and to do this the best I can, I will need to embrace you.”

My frown deepened. A passing touch was so cold I wanted to put on a winter coat, but to let JJ hug me? “What do you want to find?”

“You see, Diana, everything in the world has its own aura. Humans, vampires, earth, even air… everything, except for people like you. You only have void instead, like holes in the world, and through it channel the auras and power of the world around you. I fear, my ignorant witch, that your lack of any training makes you channel my aura whenever it touches yours.”

I gave him a sour look. A hole, really? HE was a hole! Sucker.

“But I don’t know if it’s even possible,” JJ added. “My knowledge of witches is limited. They aren’t the best friends with vampires. So the test is to feel for myself.”

I took a glance at the computer screen. Maybe someone there knew an answer with no tests needed. “Let’s check out this site and then talk about again, alright?”

“Of course, ma chèrie,” JJ said with an amiable smile. “What else do we need for it?”

“A password,” I said. “I’m going to remember this one for you. You will probably be able to change it later, anyway. Just don’t forget it, or you won’t be able to get on this site again. It doesn’t even ask for an e-mail to restore a password…”

I typed in several choice letters and numbers, made JJ remember them and wrote it down in a txt file just in case. Now, as long as no one hacked my computer or just sneaked in, it was safe.

Then, out of paranoia and my penchant for immature jokes, I changed the file’s name from “password.txt” to “naked furry.jpg”. Now even I wouldn’t want to open it.

JJ watched at my actions with confusion that made me giggle. Bless his innocence.

After that the only thing left was to login (strangely, there was no mention of any rules)—and we were in. Instead of the pure black background, a sight of a forum met us. It had a modern and dark design, and the top part of the page read in ‘bloody’ red letters, “Creatures of the Night”.

“How… corny,” I said, raising a brow. “I hope Avarice didn’t send us to some site of wannabe vampires. I know these exist. Oh, well… Let’s explore, shall we, JJ?”

“Lead the way, ma chèrie.”

The forum was separated into sub-forums based on geography. I picked one for Russia and several more met me. From there I picked St. Petersburg. It appeared that the community of vampires was quite a big one.

The sub-forum of my city was full of active topics. Trade offers, claims on territories and posts like “Do you deal with organised crime on your territory and how?” were all mixed together.

“This is… amazing,” JJ breathed out. “This century truly gives our kind what it needed for so long.”

“What do you mean, JJ?”

“The way to communicate without a risk to tear each other throats out, ma chèrie. A hundred years ago we would, at most, send each other letters. I had several pen pals myself, but this,” he gestured at the screen, “This is a level of cooperation I’ve never seen before, ma chèrie. Look, there are warnings about dangers to our kind and even advice for youngers. What a time to live in!”

“Huh. Well, great for you, I guess,” I said, scrolling through the topics. “I wonder if there are just vampires or witches, too. Oh, and we can make a post about selling your coffin right now…”

A notification about a new private message interrupted me. Curious, I went to open it.

The sender’s name read, “Hand of Midas”. I instantly had a sneaking suspicious about who it could’ve been.

[Hello, Dragonslayer. I see it didn’t take you too long to find this place. Did your pet witch help you? Now that you saw it, I hope you realise better how easy it will be for me to sell the information about you to all interested people if you choose to avoid your part of our deal.

Nice nickname, by the way.]

I snorted. “I hope that plan of yours is real good, JJ, because now I even more want to see this Avarice’s face when you execute it.”