“What do you see that makes me different?”

“Nothing,” she mumbled, crossing her arms over her middle.

Frowning, I pulled out one of the chairs from the table and sat down, remaining near the door so that she had nowhere to go. “We both know that’s a lie. You apparently know a lot more than anyone is willing to give you credit for. You know that vampires are real. What else is real?”

She gave a soft snort, glancing up at me for only a second. “The fucking tooth fairy.”

“Watch your language,” I grumbled. “You know about the vampires and the werewolves. You can tell one just by sight, can’t you? I’ve seen you squinting at both me and my friend James. You squinted just before you spotted that creature that killed Abigail Bradford. You can see something no one else can.”

The girl continued to stare at me, but some of the tension seemed to have left her skinny frame. She cocked her head at me as she looked at me, but for some reason it didn’t seem as if she was looking directly at me but at something just past my left shoulder.

“You see something when you look at me, too,” I said, leaning forward a little to rest both my arms on the top of the table. “What is it? Do you think I look like a vampire? I can show you now that I’m missing the necessary fangs.” I flashed her a broad smile, revealing a set of normal-looking teeth.

“No, it’s your look, really. You…your aura is similar to a vampire,” she finally admitted in a low voice.

“Really? You can see auras. That’s interesting. I’ve never met anyone who could read auras. At least, not with any accuracy,” I said, folding my hands together.

“You believe me?” she said, surprising filling her voice. She leaned back into the corner, her shoulders resting against the two walls. She slipped her hands into the front pockets of her jeans, striking a pose that reminded me far too much of Mira.

“Of course. I’ve met creatures far stranger than you in my time. Why shouldn’t I believe you?”

“I’m not some creature! I’m a human being!” she suddenly shouted, pushing away from the wall.

“So am I.”

“No, you’re not,” she snapped. “There’s a black shadow that streaks across part of your aura. It’s exactly the same kind of shadow that I’ve seen on those vampires. You may not be one of them, but you’re definitely not human.”

“My name is Danaus. And you’re right. I’m not completely human. I’m nearly two thousand years old and I have many of the same abilities as a vampire, but I don’t drink blood and I don’t burn up in the sunlight.”

“Whoa!” she said, stepping back to lean against the wall again.

“What’s your name?” I asked, trying not to think about what had her so impressed. I didn’t like it being pointed out that I was a freak of nature. I liked it even less that my aura had such a similar marking as a vampire. It was just another similarity to the race that I could do without.

“Runt,” she said, putting her hands behind her back.

“Your real name?”

“No one ever uses it,” she hedged.

“I would like to. I’m not going to call you Runt.”

The young girl huffed softly, her dark brown hair falling in front of her eyes. “Lily.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Lily. Would you like to sit down? You look exhausted.”

“I’m not tired,” she snapped, forcing herself to stand up straight.

“That’s a lie. I can feel your fatigue from here. Your knees are about to give out. You’ve got nothing to gain by forcing yourself to stand when you can sit at the table with me,” I said, motioning toward the chair she had been sitting in when we came in at the opposite end of the table. “I just want to ask you about the person you saw at the apartment building.”

“He wasn’t a person,” she said.

“I didn’t think so,” I replied. “It wasn’t human, was it?” Lily remained leaning against the wall, staring down at her dirty and worn sneakers. “Something about it scared you; enough to convince you to come to the police. They told me that you live on the streets. I imagine you already know how to take care of yourself pretty well, but this thing scared you enough to want some protection.”

Lily pushed off from the wall and slowly walked over to the table. Without looking up at me, she slid into the chair and put her hands on the table. She picked at her fingernails for nearly a minute before she finally spoke again. “I don’t know what it was. I’ve never seen anything like it. Its aura wasn’t like anything I had ever seen before. It was like a black, endless shadow, one that could hold the whole world within it.”

“Besides the black aura, what did the creature look like?” I asked.

She shook her head and sat up as she finally came to look me in the eye. “Its aura wasn’t black. It was a shadow like the one across your aura. I can see color and depth beneath your shadow, the rest of your aura. This thing’s aura was a bottomless pit.”

“Okay, I’m sorry. Besides its shadow aura, what did it look like?”

“A regular man,” she said with a shrug. “Thin, about six feet tall, with blond hair. The only thing strange about him was that his eyes glowed when he looked up.”

“And he saw you, didn’t he?” I asked softly, though by the way her hands trembled when she spoke of the creature I had no doubt that he did.

“Yeah.”

“The shadow creature possessed the blond man the same way it possessed that other man that morning when we were all on Factors Walk,” I said, and she nodded, dropping her head into both of her hands as she rested her elbows on the table. “Has it come after you since that morning?”

“Not exactly, but I’ve seen it from a distance like it’s stalking me,” she said in a low, shaky voice. I’ve tried hiding in churches and in crowds in broad daylight, but it doesn’t go away. It keeps finding me. I didn’t have any choice. I had to come here. I keep saying no, but it’s not listening to me. It doesn’t care. I think it wants to take me over like it did those men.”

“It’s only natural that you came to the police for protection. It’s their job,” I said, trying to ease her fears and her obvious dislike for what she saw as weakness for turning to someone else for help. She had lasted out on the streets a few nights, but her fears finally got the better of her, or worse, she had actually been cornered in a lonely alley by the creature. She wouldn’t last but a couple seconds in a fight with Gaizka.

“So much for protection,” she scoffed. “They’re planning to send me off to Family Services again. No one is going to be able to protect me if that thing comes looking for me.”

“I can help you,” I offered before I could stop myself. She was a young child, lost in this world, and surrounded by monsters at all times. It was only a matter of time before one of them finally swallowed her up.

“How?” she asked skeptically.

“Like I’ve said, I’ve been around for a long time. You don’t live that long without learning a few things. I also have some friends that could be of help as well,” I replied.

“And you’ll help me stay alive?” she asked, still sounding doubtful. And I honestly couldn’t blame her. A total stranger who wasn’t quite human, offering to help protect her against something dark and evil. Why would she believe me?

“I’ll do everything within my power, but that also means trusting a few vampires,” I said. I knew that I would have to introduce her to Mira, which would most likely include Tristan and possibly Knox as well. Hell, if she could point us in the direction of Abigail’s murderer, I was willing to call together all the nightwalkers of Savannah in order to protect this young girl.

“Not all vampires are bad,” she quickly said, surprising me.

“Yeah, they’re just misunderstood,” I retorted, earning a soft giggle from my young companion.

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” she said, a small grin starting to show on her pale, dirt-smudged face.