Thanks again for the reviews! They're fantastic motivation.

I mixed up Haydn's name in the last chapter. Started calling him Handle at some point.

Emily; I did know that Joseph Haydn was a famous composer. We've been studying him in music. I liked the name so I decided to use it. ;) Handle is actually also a composer, so I'm getting them all confused.

"A proposal?" I repeated, completely distracted by his teeth.

"Yes."

"Is it just me, or are those fangs?" I asked. I didn't want to be rude, but this was just to weird. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed before hand.

"They are fangs." said Teivel, and then the strangest thing happened. He just retracted them. They sank back into his gums, and his teeth were normal again.

"What on- How did you-?" I was at a loss of words, completely confused.

"I'll explain." He waited a moment, probably for me to stop ogling at his mouth, and then continued, "To stay alive and sane, I need to drink human blood. I use the fangs to bite." He said this slowly and carefully, measuring my reaction.

Hold on. Rewind. Had he just told me he needed to drink blood?

If this was some kind of joke, it wasn't very funny.

"What do you mean you 'need blood to stay alive'. That's ridiculous. What do you think you are, some kind of vampire?" Which messed up cult did he belong to?

"That's exactly what I am." He replied quietly.

It took me a moment to register what he was saying. I looked him over. Was he messing with me? It certainly didn't look like it. The fangs were pretty convincing.

"You're a vampire?" I squeaked. I knew that vampires existed, just like goblins and warlocks did. But they were supposed to exist in far away lands. Mystical places. Not right here in Corenthia.

"Afraid so."

"Shouldn't you, I don't know, look scarier or something?"

He smiled, in a very un-scary way.

"Well... I'm a nice vampire. Most are." .

"How so?" I couldn't believe I was having this conversation. If he truly was a vampire, I should have been running for the hills.

"Well, I helped you out, didn't I? And I always ask before I drink from anyone."

"I should certainly hope so, but what does this have to do with your little proposal?" Why was he telling me this?

"It's obvious, isn't it?" He raised an eyebrow.

"No, it isn't" I said lamely.

"Alister, I want to drink from you." He enunciated every word, as if I were hard of hearing, "In exchange I'll provide you with an adventure. There's a whole world out there you don't know much about."

"So, you want me to give you some of my blood?" As if that was going to happen. Nice of him to ask so politely though... Not.

"Yes."

"That's disgusting. I barely know you."

He looked taken aback for a moment, and then tried a new approach.

"It may seem digusting to you, but it's perfectly normal to me." He stated this as if it were a matter of fact, "Every vampire needs one or two blood donors. It's illegal to take from them without permission. We switch pretty frequently though, usually every few months. Haydn was my previous donor. He gave me his blood in exchange for a trip across the desert."

Well, that explained a lot. But Haydn wasn't travelling with us anymore. He'd wanted to stay in this village for a while. Then it dawned on me.

"Did you kill Haydn?" I whispered, more than a little horrified.

"Of course not!" He seemed completely insulted.

"Both of you went off in the woods, and then you came back without him! That's pretty suspicious, Teivel." I exlaimed. Did he take me for some kind of idiot?

He frowned at me for a moment, and then chuckled.

"Ok, I see why you're concerned. But as far as I know, Haydn is still alive and well. It was just getting to be a little much for him. He'd said he hadn't been feeling well. Sometimes older people don't regenerate blood as..." He struggled for the right words, "fast as I need them to. It leads them to feel light headed and tired. Haydn figured I could use you as a new donor."

This upset me a little.

"Well, how much blood do you need?"

"About a half-cup every 2 days."

A half-cup every two days? A person only had so much blood.

"That's alot."

"Yes, it is. Normaly, when a person loses that amount of blood, it takes them a couple of weeks to regenerate. However, donors eat asper leaves, which speeds up the regenerating process by quite a bit."

Of course. Asper leaves. It didn't take a genius to figure that one out. They were well known for their healing properties and packed with nutrition. Mothers always forced their kids to eat them.

I didn't ask anymore questions. We both sat there in silence. Teivel was still watching me, probably wondering weather I would make a run for it. I wasn't planning to, though.

A lot of things were running through my mind.

I had escaped my home town for an adventure, and I'd definitly found one. Spending a few months with a vampire would probably teach me some incredible things about the world. Maybe even more than I wanted to know.

I thought about my family. How would they have reacted if they'd known about my current situation? Had they sent out a search party yet? I hoped not. I got a knot in my stomach.

I did feel guilty for leaving them. Making them worry. It was extremely self-centered of me.

I didn't want to go back though, not after getting this far.

I took in a long, shaky breath.

"You don't have to make a decision right now." Teivel said gently. His voice brought me back into the present. "Why don't you sleep on it? But please eat the fruit before it goes bad." he teased, trying to get me to loosen up.

"You won't try to eat me in the night or something?" I asked, only half joking.

"Nope"

"How do I know that?"

He put a hand on my shoulder.

"Alister," he smirked, "If I'd wanted to eat you, I would have done so by now."

I grinded my teeth. His ego really was through the roof, wasn't it?

Teivel got up and stretched a little.

"I'm going to get the ox moving. You can sleep or whatever." He said as he got out of the cart.

I took the quilt and spread it over the mat, before lying down across it. The cart began moving, slowly dragging along the sand.

I lay there for a long time. I had a decision to make; become a donor and continue the trip with Teivel, or go off on my own.

I liked the idea of a good adventure. Teivel was right, there was an entire world out there that I didn't know anything about. But the concept of giving my own blood grossed me out. It was wrong, totaly unnatural.

It scared me a little too.

But this is what it's all about.

Taking a step on the wild side.

It was true. This was what I'd been looking for.

Tomorow, I'd tell Teivel. I wanted the adventure.