"They left her, Ericka."

"I know, Drac."

"They left her… A hunter came for them and they left her to him."

"I know…" Ericka murmured, rubbing the space between her eyes.

The girl - Aislin, her name was Aislin, they had her name - had fallen asleep half an hour ago. They didn't get to finish her chapter, Drac felt that all things considered, they really shouldn't. In fact, they'd probably find a different book to read. But instead of reading, he'd instead spent roughly six minutes whispering and rocking her, assuring over and over that nobody's sending you off and we won't leave you, the words just spilling out before he could consider the full ramifications of what he was promising .

And, because it was all he could think of to do, another action brought on by years of experience, the girl had fallen asleep as he quietly sang a slower În pădurea cu alune over her head.

He didn't let himself freak out until after he'd left her room and gone back to his and Ericka's own. Then he'd started to frantically, almost manically, explain what had happened.

Any excitement at knowing the girl's name was stomped to nothing by what else they knew now.

"-she's all alone, they left her-"

"I know, honey," Ericka repeated, sounding tired.

"I'm sorry. I just - How can someone do that? To a child?" Even with his own childhood, with his own father, as awful as it was… He couldn't imagine he'd have just been left behind if a hunter was there.

Drac finally approached the bed and sat down heavily on top of it. Ericka was already seated, legs drawn so her knees were to her chest, blanket over them. She leaned forward on her knees, pressing her fingers to her temple as she digested everything. "No wonder she was so afraid and alone…"

He didn't say anything in response. Neither of them thought there was much else to say.

This whole time… this whole time there had been a possibility that the girl had a family who was looking for her. That maybe she'd been taken from them, and they'd simply have to find them for her. That when she was well again, she could tell them where to take her.

But she didn't.

All she really had now was them.

They'd both been starting to suspect… had been starting to feel… The girl had been there for weeks now, and there had been nobody trying to find her, she'd given no indication of wanting to return to someone. So that possibility had been starting to grow, like a tiny sprout in the ground.

But to hear it confirmed? That was shattering.

"This changes a few things," said Ericka, at the exact same time Drac said "I told her we weren't sending her away."

They both lifted their heads to look at each other.


It was dim. And chilly. And damp.

Aislin sneezed, hugging herself and rubbing her arms to get warm. She had been given new clothes, baggy jeans and a tee shirt with a picture of a fish on it, but they were too big for her and hung awkwardly off her wiry form. She sniffled, the dampness and the chill still affecting her.

"You're lucky," a voice said in front of her. "You're lucky it was me who found you and not a monster."

She shivered.

"They eat little things like you, you know. They'd have snatched you right off that beach and eaten you alive!"

She shuddered, not entirely from the cold and damp this time.

Her captor took one of her arms, straightening it out in front of her. She felt the sharpness of a needle in the vein, for another blood drawing. Selkie blood was useful, he'd said. It burned monsters, he said.

"You're lucky. You're very lucky."

"Aislin," a soft voice interrupted the raspier one. A hand touched her shoulder and gently nudged her. "Aislin, it's time to wake up."

She blinked, and the dark and sinister appearance of her old prison faded away, replaced by a more comforting and warm room. She blinked again, and everything else came into focus - she was facing an empty armchair, a small table with a book atop it sitting next to it. The person waking her up was behind her.

Aislin took a few seconds to let everything settle before she attempted to roll over. She wasn't with the hunter. She hadn't been for a while. She was here, in a huge and warm bed in a huge room…

…living with monsters.

The thought still sent a chill up her spine, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it'd been the first night. There was apprehension, knowing there were dozens of them on the floors below, but the ones she knew here were okay. They hadn't tried to harm her, or eat her, or siphon her magic or anything else.

She rolled over onto her other side, looking at one of the humans who'd been looking after her. Ericka, she remembered.

Ericka smiled at her, her expression slightly guarded. Aislin didn't have much time to wonder why before she spoke again; "We're all going to be busy today, so if you're feeling up to it, we want to try to bring you downstairs. It's probably getting boring seeing the same few rooms every day."

"...it's not," Aislin whispered.

She saw Ericka's eyes widen just a bit, but that was all. "Aw, come on," the woman laughed, nudging at her shoulder. "It'll get boring eventually, trust me, I know."

"Mr Johnny took me downstairs once," Aislin whispered again. She pushed the covers back and started to climb out of bed. It was easier now than it'd been before; two small stairs had been placed next to her side of the bed, so she didn't have to jump down or lift herself up. "I've been out before."

Ericka bit the inside of her cheek at the "Mr Johnny" part. Ohhh, would he hate knowing she'd called him that. "Yeah, but then Count Grumpypants told you to go back upstairs, didn't he?" she pointed out, approaching the bureau and pulling out the child's outfit for the day. "This time you'd have permission. If you wanted to do it," she quickly added, looking over her shoulder. "If you want to stay up here, that's fine too. Whatever you're comfortable with."

Aislin quietly took the clothes Ericka offered, her big dark eyes staring up into hers. She looked a bit troubled, several different flickers of emotion warring in her face. "Who… who else is going to be up here?"

"Johnny is going to be up here for another four hours, then he's switching with Mavis. We'll be downstairs until lunchtime. Johnny doesn't mind sitting with you, but if you'd like to see a bit more of the place-"

"Will…" Aislin looked down. Her tongue poked out as she thought for a moment, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "Will it be safe downstairs?" Her voice was still barely above a whisper, but it was the most Ericka - or any of them - had heard her say at once.

"Of course, sweetie! You'd be with Drac, sitting behind the desk. Nobody would even know you were there." Not entirely true, Ericka thought. Some monsters would be able to smell her. But nobody would do anything about it, and it was a slow time of year anyhow. So the possibility of that happening was admittedly pretty slim. "And the second it looked like you'd be in trouble, he'd throw them out."

"He would?"

"Right by the back of their shirt!"

Aislin giggled quietly, a hesitant sound that she tried to cover with her clothing.

Small as it was, the sound made Ericka's smile a bit brighter. "Well, what do you think? You wanna go downstairs til lunch, or stay up here?"

Aislin's smile faded, and she looked at the ground as she deliberated.


Drac stood behind the desk, elbows braced against the top, hands clasped behind his neck.

This was surprisingly nerve-wracking, he noted, glancing at his phone, then down the still-empty hallway.

He was down here early, earlier than usual - if the girl chose to come down, they had to do it before any guests could wake up and start coming out. It was safer for her that way.

Now he just needed to know if she was coming down at all.

It seemed so much easier during the day.

"Okay, how are we doing this?" Ericka had asked, looking around the room.

After their conversation in their room, they'd texted the younger couple to meet them in the drawing room for a quick meeting. There, they'd been filled in on what exactly had just happened, and what it meant.

The girl had nobody.

She had escaped a hunter, a captor, Johnny had been right.

And they couldn't just turn her out now. Not with nowhere to go.

"Jeez…" Johnny muttered, shaking his head. "Poor kid..."

"So she's staying here?" Mavis asked, taking his arm.

"There's no other choice, hon."

"And that's fine!" Mavis answered Ericka quickly, almost too quickly. "That's fine," she repeated, "But she can't just stay up here forever, can she? Will she?"

"That's what we said," Drac said, sounding tired. "We need to bring her out."

"Not all at once," Ericka added. "But we have to start. You don't learn to swim by being thrown to the alligators."

Mavis and Johnny briefly glanced at Drac. She ignored it.

"So we need to start bringing her out of her comfort zone, and bring her around to everyone. Here's what we're thinking…"

A sudden buzzing interrupted his reverie. Drac glanced at the phone's screen, then straightened abruptly.

It was from Johnny. heads up! she's coming your way!

A few moments later, there was a ding from the elevator, and Ericka appeared in the hallway, leading Aislin by her hand. Aislin stayed closed to her, looking around the lobby with huge eyes. She'd changed into her long-sleeved white shirt with the yellow stripe and green shorts that Ericka had bought, but this time she didn't have her hoodie. Under one arm was a thick coloring book and her crayons.

She continued to look around until they reached the desk, then looked up at Drac. She appeared to wilt just a little, but it seemed to be more of shyness than outright fear.

Good. That was good.

"Hi, Aislin," Drac said quietly, leaning down to meet her eyes better. "I see you came prepared."

She nodded mutely.

"Will you be okay down here?"

"Yeah…" she whispered.

Ericka squeezed her hand. "I'll be close by," she told Drac. "If she needs to leave, text me." And then she stood on her toes to kiss his cheek.

When she pulled away and walked off, Drac saw Aislin staring again. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open a bit in surprise.

Was she not used to seeing such a thing?

"Come on," he said instead. "Down here, there's a little clubhouse for you."

"Huh?" Aislin ventured closer, and saw what he was talking about. Under the desk, in one of the spaces where a sitting person's legs would go, there were a few floor cushions set down, a copy of Treasure Island, and a plastic container of…

"Do you like muffins? They've got bananas and walnuts in them."

"I haven't had it before…" Aislin muttered. But she dropped to her knees and scooted into her little nook. She settled herself and opened her coloring book, visibly trying to be calm.

This was natural, Drac told himself. She hadn't been quite so… out in the open, like this. But this would be fine. She'd be safe down here, and he could keep an eye on her. The floor wasn't ideal, but it was a good place for her to hide and feel like she was safe.

If she was able to hold it together until lunch, that would be a good thing.

"'scuse me…" her voice piped up, catching his attention again. "Uhm… would you really throw someone out if they tried to eat me?"

"Of course I would."

"... You wouldn't eat me, would you?"

"Never."

She fell silent again.

For about two minutes, anyway.

"Do you bite your tongue a lot?"

"Do I - what?"

"Because of your fangs." She bared her own teeth, pointing to them. "Do you bite your tongue? 'Cause they're so big?"

"I don't bite my tongue more than you do."

"Oh."

Another pause.

"Uhm. Do vampires really say-"

"No."