doesn’t have to take long.”

“Ooh, are we going to get to watch the master at work?” Melissa’s voice was merry as they tramped through the woods.

“If you’d like, though I’ve never claimed to have mastered this particular aspect of our lives. We can return to the town.”

“We’re pretty deep into the woods. It’s a thirty minute walk back to the town. Should we go get the cars and use them?” Two asked. She didn’t really mind one way or the other, but it seemed impractical.

“Impractical? None of this is, or particularly needs to be, practical, Two. It’s for your edification mainly, and now is an opportunity for another lesson. Keep up!” Theroen turned, grinned, and took off like a shot through the woods, moving faster than seemed possible. Two felt her jaw hanging open, and closed it with a snap. Melissa laughed and ran after Theroen, crying out for Two to follow her. Two took a deep breath, and ran.

* * *

The sensation was like nothing Two had ever before experienced. She had no idea how fast she was moving, but surely it was well beyond what a normal human was capable of. And such dexterity! It was as if she ran not through moonlit forest, but on solid pavement. Her feet seemed to cope with the imperfections of the ground by themselves, no longer requiring any conscious effort. Theroen was far ahead and clearly not even making any effort. Melissa was roughly halfway between him and Two. Both of the older vampires occasionally turned their head back, making sure they hadn’t outdistanced Two.

They reached the town square in less than ten minutes, and Two found that she wasn’t even winded. Melissa was laughing, the noise pretty and bright in the quiet streets, and Two joined her.

“That was amazing!”

“Only the tip of the iceberg, Two. I’ll take you through a vampire obstacle course sometime. You can’t imagine what it feels like to take a five-story jump.” Melissa sat down on the curb and looked at Theroen. “You find one yet?”

“Yes, that one.” Theroen pointed to a small white ranch home to their left.

“What’s special about that one?” Two was confused.

“When I don’t have the time or inclination to be choosy about my good, I go with something easy to attract. Young women, usually. Normally I would spend some... how should I put it? Quality time with her, and then feed.”

“I’m not sure if that should offend me.” Two was smiling when she said it. Theroen returned the grin.

“Another thing you learn after several hundred years, Two: sex is sex. Love is love. The first is a raw biological process, the latter is something more.”

Two considered this. “But love makes sex something more.”

“Certainly. Which is why the sex without love is merely gratification. Insignificant in its implications. That much more pleasure, in addition to the blood. Sex is sex. Love is love. I love you, Two.”

“Oh, and how many guys would like to be able to say that to their girlfriends, I wonder?” Melissa had taken out a compact and was checking her eye shadow.

Two sat down next to Melissa. “A lot, I think. How many girlfriends would be okay with it? I don’t know. Probably not many.”

“So are you okay with it?”

Two looked at Theroen, who returned her glance with the same cool grin which had so intrigued her on the night she had first met him. She felt herself warming. The memory of Sean was fading, and thoughts of how she might spend the rest of the night were cropping up in her mind. Theroen, sensing this, laughed slightly.

“Yes,” Two said. “I’m okay with it. He just watched me give the world’s deadliest hand-job, after all...”

Melissa burst into howls of laughter, dropping her compact to cover her mouth. Theroen shook his head, grinning. Two smiled, stood up, reached out on tiptoe to give Theroen a brief kiss.

“Let’s do this and go,” she said.

Theroen nodded, closed his eyes, breathed deeply. In a moment, the front door of the house opened, and a young woman in her early twenties stepped out onto the porch. She looked around, caught sight of the trio, and made her way toward them. Dark hair, dark eyes, she was generously proportioned under her nightgown. Two felt a momentary twinge of jealousy, so ingrained she barely noticed it, as the moonlight caught the swell of the girl’s ample breasts.

She stopped in front of them, seeing and not seeing, swaying slightly. When Theroen touched her cheek, tilted her