Those images of the Viennese streets kept playing on repeat in my head on my walk home, while I was still trying to figure out what exactly the meaning of them were. Maybe this was just another one of those crazy things that started happening to me because I turned into a vampire. But then again, whenever I thought about Ria-chan, a similar feeling would fill my chest.

I threw my hands in the air in frustration. “What the hell. Why is this so hard!?”

-Could it be that perhaps I’m…-

My thought process got interrupted by something suspicious I caught in the corner of my eyes. A black SMW sedan and a black Persephone van both turned on their headlights in the alley on my right. They both started their engines and drove off, taking a turn into the street and passing me. I could catch a quick glance of the driver of the sedan. A short-haired man, mid-30’s dark brown hair with a shortish beard. But the most remarkable feature was the eyepatch covering his left eye. We made brief eye contact before it was broken by the tinted glass on the side. Before the cars drove off in the distance I could just notice their lack of license plates.

A bad feeling made my stomach churn as I thought back to the person who was spying on me and Emma.

-Could they possibly be connected?-

I shook my head. The spy, whoever they were, was clearly interested in not being seen at all, while these people… Their modus operandi was just way too different. I might have to take Ria-chan on a different route on Thursday, just to make sure.

I spent the next seven minutes thinking about it when I finally passed the snackbar at the corner of my street. -I should try to give them the books I promised tomorrow...- I put a hand on my stomach. Even though I was looking forward to eating their food so much yesterday evening, today I couldn’t feel anything, not even the desire for one heavenly bitterbal. To make it even worse, the thirst that had been quenched since this morning had been slowly creeping back after I parted with Emma. Our little race must’ve taken its toll after all. I sighed, turned the corner and walked towards good old number 24. Again that blasted gust of wind made me shiver.

-Should give the European space agency a call, they could use my street as a windtunnel…-

While imagining a huge rocket on its side in the middle of the road with dozens of aerospace engineers around it I took my key and walked up to my front door.

“Shima! I’m home!” I called out to Shima, who almost immediately came running towards me. “Sorry I’m a little late, kitty.” I patted her head.

“Welcome back, Aurora.” Viktor came walking up to me as well, with his already quite familiar German accent.

“Ah, right. You’re still here too.” I groaned.

Viktor ignored my greeting and went on. “I already gave her her evening dinner too.”

I got up as Shima walked back to the living room with a happy prance. “What did you give her?”

“Some beef with tomato sauce.”

I nodded. “Good.” and followed my cat along, plomping myself down on the sofa.

“Aurora, have you been feeding?” Viktor had taken a seat at the dinner table but was facing me.

His question surprised me and I started blushing a little thinking back about Emma. “Maybe… Can you tell?”

He nodded. “Your aura feels stronger than this morning. More fest.”

I sighed yet again and leaned back on the sofa, which Shima saw as an invitation to come and sleep on my lap. “Me and my best friend had something happen....”

“Ah, how did he react?”

“She.”

“Ah, interessant…”

I squinted my eyes but decided to ignore that comment. “She reacted pretty well. We tested out my strength in the gym after school, that’s why I’m late. And also why I’m a bit thirsty again...”

He smiled and lifted his finger. “That’s why I have something for you.” Viktor walked towards the fridge and came back with a bag filled with red liquid.

“Is this…?”

“Ja, it’s blood.” He put a glass down in front of me and poured a bit of the bag in it.

“Seeing it like this really doesn’t make it look appetizing.” I frowned while swirling the blood around like if it were a glass of wine.

“Just imagine it is, uh, tomato juice!”

I rolled my eyes and hesitantly drank from the glass. The taste was completely different from Emma’s, it just tasted incredibly dull and acidic. “I can’t say I like it. Well, at least it’s better than milk...” I put the glass back on the table.

“And what about this one?” He pulled out another bag and again filled my glass a little.

Almost immediately the smell hit me. “Now this at least smells nice.” Again, I took the glass and swirled it around. I sniffed it, the odor making my mouth water. And when I put the glass to my mouth and drank it, it didn’t disappoint at all. While it wasn’t just quite on Emma’s level, it was very tasty. “Dang, I really like that one, what’s the difference with the other bag? It’s like night and day!”

“Hmm, das dachte ich mir…”

I tilted my head. “I, uhm, thought so...?”

“Yes! Your school teaches you well, Aurora.” He nodded happily. “So, that first bag I gave you was from the collection I have for visiting vampyrs, generally for vampiresses, but not exclusively so. The second bag was from my own personal collection.”

“That explains very little, Viktor.” I frowned at him.

“Patience Aurora, I was still explaining.” He coughed. “As Vampyrs our taste in blood is quite peculiar you could say. As you have noticed yourself, while the blood from bag one wasn’t undrinkable for you, it didn’t taste right, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“And that’s because Vampyrs generally like the blood better from people we are attracted to. There are exceptions to this, but it’s rare.”

“So what you are saying is…”

“The blood you liked is from a woman.”

“Huh, that doesn’t make any sense, I’m not g…” A series of images shot through my head, first going back to Vienna with Emma, then to the park with Ria, the way my heart jumped for the both of them. And what I talked about with Claire.

My eyes shot wide open with revelation. “It can’t be...” I touched my lips with my fingertips as my face went beet red.

“Aurora?” Viktor looked a bit concerned.

“Leave me alone, I’m having a bit of an identity crisis right now.”

“Oh…”

“You said there were exceptions, right?” My mind was trying to grasp anything that could prove the contrary.

“Well yes, but no.”

“And what does that mean!?”

“Calm down, Aurora. The exception I know is a friend of mine who is aromantic and asexual, she generally likes both. Ah and there’s non-binary people’s blood too, but I have not drank any of theirs yet so I don’t know much about that personally.”

“Aaaaargh.” I groaned while Viktor walked around the couch and sat down next to me.

“Is it really that bad to find out you are gay?”

“No, it’s not! But I’m just so stupid.” I covered my face with my hands. “How did I not figure this out earlier!? Oh my Goddesssss!”

Viktor patted me on the back. “For some people it just takes a while. Another friend of mine denied he was into men for almost two entire centuries, or so he told me at least. I blame heteronormativity, that thing is, excuse my language, Scheiße.”

“What must my friends think of me? I've practically been acting out a relationship with my friend this entire time without me even realizing…”

“Sounds like a lucky girl then, nein?”

“No, you don’t understand, what if she isn’t into girls!?”

“Are we talking about the girl you fed on?”

“No, my other best friend…well, I guess with her too...”

“Hmm.” Viktor nodded. “It’ll probably all turn out just fine.”

“Urghhhhhhhhhhhhhh.” I groaned again and bowed down so I could bury my face in Shima’s fur, who promptly started purring from it.

I heard Viktor get up from the sofa again, grabbing his jacket from one of the living room chairs. “I’ll have to leave you for now, Aurora, I’ll leave the blood here and some money for the trouble. If you have any questions...”

“You are going?” I took my face away from Shima’s fur.

“Ja, I do have a house myself and work to take care of, you know? Ah, and before I forget there are people who would like to meet you soon, we are still discussing a date though.”

“Uh, okay, who?” At least this distracted me from my current predicament for a while.

“You’ll see, no need to worry about it. So no more questions?”

My mind quickly went over the entire day, resting at Emma’s hunger rush. “Uhm, my friend Emma got really hungry after I bit her, is that normal?”

“Ja, that’s completely normal.” Viktor started buttoning up his jacket. “Your saliva makes her body produce more blood, but for that she also needs a lot more nutrients otherwise it’d take away too much energy from the body.”

“Oh… and is there something else that can happen to the people I bite?”

Viktor thought for a second, staring blankly. “Hmmm… most are exceedingly rare that I can't really give you a lot of info from the top of my head. We’ll bring it up at the meeting.”

-So this meeting is with other vampires...-

“I also left my Handynummer next to the money, so if you need me, just call, ok?”

“Uh, ye, sure…”

Viktor nodded and swiftly excited my house.

“Maybe he has a deadline coming up or something? Well, at least I won’t have to ask him to beat it so Ria-chan can come and visit…” I blushed when I thought about that last part. After my revelation; Ria visiting my home alone now looked a lot more intimidating.

Shima rubbed my hand with her head and mewed for attention.

I responded by scratching her under her chin and behind her little ears, her favourite spots. “Yes, yes, I know you want to see her too.”

Shima started purring loudly as I smiled and looked over to my living room table, where instead of the expected envelope of money, there was a black briefcase.

“No way… sorry Shima, I need to check this out.” I scooped her off my lap and put her on her cozy blanket next to me.

When I got closer I saw a piece of paper laying next to it, presumably Viktor’s phone number, although I was too fixated on the briefcase to pay too much attention to it. It was already in the perfect position to get clicked open, so with both my hands I cautiously opened both locks and slowly lifted one side of the briefcase. I almost fainted when I saw what was inside. Stacks of Euro bills, neatly ordered from 100 Euro bills on the left to bills of 5 on the right. When I took out one of the packs of 20 with shaking hands, I could see beneath it were rolls of Euro coins too.

“Holy mother, just how much does a vampire have if he can just hand this out like it’s pocket change...” I sat down on the chair behind me, just looking at the open coffer.

"Where the hell do I hide this…"