“Are you familiar with my kind, Garrin?”  It was a genuine question because Dyne had no idea how much mortals knew of vampires and their varied breed.  She didn’t understand the first thing about them until she was ‘graced’ to live the life.

            “A little.  I know there are different kinds.  Some more powerful than others.”

            “And what would be the most powerful of all vampires?” She asked.  All mortals knew this story.

            “That would be a Greater Vampire Overlord,” he answered confidently.  “The so-called, ‘first vampires’. I hardly believe they ever existed.”

            “What makes you say that?” she wondered, and then got up.  She walked closer to him and he seemed to tense a bit, but quickly relaxed.  Dyne sprawled across the comfortable panther skin rug and stared up at him, never looking away.  She arched her back and gave herself a good stretch that she much needed after pouring herself into the books in the library.

            “There’s no proof that they ever reigned on Mystyria.  Vampires that powerful could not have existed in the shadows of the world for so long without arousing attention.”

            “And how would you suggest I’m sitting here now,” she pointed out, resting a hand across her chest.  Garrin seemed confused, so she clarified.  “How did I come about?  How did any vampire ever come about?  They had to have a beginning at some point in time.”

            “I don’t know . . . they are an ancient race that’s been passed down–passed on, like a disease or–”

            He froze in mid-sentence, realizing he had gone too far.  The air seemed to thicken and every small sound of the mansion vanished.  Dyne stared at him but it would be too dark for him to see her eyes.

            “Disease?”  She asked, calm.  “Is that what you think I am?”  She could feel her finger and toe jewelry tighten, constrict.  But before she allowed herself to become a terrifying monster again, she fought back the urge and let the issue drop. If she killed the mortal, she would be back where she started.

            The air around the two seemed to cool and the tension seemed to lessen, if only a little.

            “We’re not a disease, we’re a plague.”