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China was dramatically different from Romania, that's for sure. Xiao lived in a small Romanian settlement, which grew into a town, for several centuries (the vampire himself did not remember when he left his homeland), but was never used to the equally moderate temperature during the year, warm winters and a calm summer. Contrasting temperature swings were clearly lacking.

But Dejun always enjoyed nature like the first time. Vast thick forests fascinated the vampire's consciousness, manted by the unknown, and begged to explore all their hidden corners. In the forests, Xiao felt like a master. Not that he did not feel confident in his castle on a hill or in a town, it simply did not make any comparison with rich nature.

Brad was a quiet and fairly secluded place, a perfect place for a lonely and wandering vampire. The only problem that the vampire faced was trying to exchange strange coins with funny holes in the middle. And although Xiao heard and felt the presence of a large cluster of relatives, no one suspected an evil spirit in the Chinese. In this way the fifteenth (or sixteenth) century began for a lone vampire.

Dejun was much calmer than his fellow relatives, wild and greedy to blood. Xiao sought peace for the remaining part of the soul, which he managed to preserve. Therefore, having settled in Romania, the vampire did not risk neither reputation nor security. He drank the blood of recently deceased people who were being prepared for the funeral. Of course, such blood was not any comparison with fresh blood, but Xiao never considered himself a gourmet.

In this way years and centuries were passing by. The eternal life of a supernatural being hasn’t been considered as uncomfortable for a long time. On the contrary, Dejun learned to benefit from it: the vampire had unimaginably much time for improvement and knowledge, constant development; he could change the course of his life in a fundamental way, and even have time to live it several times. Which Xiao did by running away from China centuries ago.

However, eternal life had one significant minus, which cut off oxygen to all significant advantages. A vampire couldn't get close to anyone. It would be necessary to witness the death of one whom he decided one day to let into his soul. Dejun almost stepped up once, but more of such a mistake he vowed not to allow.

So the vampire carried his burden (or, as he once said, the curse) of eternal solitude, repelling everyone and closing in his own cocoon more and more.

Dejun has realized long ago that it is useless for him to count time, because it doesn’t make any difference what a century or a year is now if the endless series of them is coming. But, let’s say, in three hundred and fifty years after the vampire settled in a castle near the town of Brad, a terrible smallpox epidemic broke out in this very town. Of course, no disease could affect the condition of the vampire, but still, in order not to spread panic among the inhabitants with his too healthy appearance, Dejun reduced his already short outings beyond the castle territory.

And when sitting locked up became quite unbearable, Xiao turned to a rapid black fog and flew out of the window as a lightning-fast bat. Flying through the cold night air, the vampire seemed to feel alive again.

A black fog slowly fell on the small edge of the forest along the shrouded branches of the trees. Some of its clouds were drawn to each other as if by a magnet, mixing into an upswing whirlpool and forming a vampire figure. Dejun stretched, and breathed full lungs of fresh forest air, not yet tainted by the rot of the sick town. But in a moment, the vampire 's sharp sense of smell caught sour notes mixed with a sugary stink. Death smelled like that.

Xiao was carefully following the trail, trying to be very quiet. It was like hunting, but the predator was not afraid to miss the victim this time.

Finally, the vampire moved away the branch that didn’t let to see properly and noticed a young guy, who was leaning on a strong tree trunk. The body was covered with small ulcers, the forehead was sweaty, despite the cold night, and the look in his eyes had lack of understanding. A terrible disease struck a poor kid who was dying a terrible death alone in the woods. It was unclear how and why he got into the forest, but the guy's fate was no longer a thing you can be jealous of: after death, and maybe earlier, his body would have been devoured by forest predators.

Dejun wanted to go back to the castle when the bottom of his cloak hooked up to something that prevented him from going away. It was the fellow. He firmly grabbed the fancy tissue, spending the last power on it, and turned his eyes to the frozen vampire, praying to help. Xiao sat down quite near, right in front of a face distorted by illness. The vampire looked into the daring lights at the very bottom of the pupils, they almost disappeared because of the disease, but the strong desire to live was still boiling inside a very young man.

Somehow Dejun felt sorry for the dying youth and therefore he reached out to the neck wet from sweat grabbing hands of the guy stronger so that he couldn’t get out. After licking a sweat drop, the vampire released the fangs right under the gentle skin into a pulsating vein. The blood of dying people was always bitter and just disgusting to taste and this case was not an exception. Xiao held out as hard as he could not to vomit right under the tree, and the young man squirming like a fish in the air was broking out of his hands. After a lot of long moments, when the body in the hands of the vampire became weak, Dejun moved away from the guy and began to examine his work. In truth, Xiao has not turned anyone into a vampire for a very long time, so the painful and unpleasant process has been prolonged.

Barely Dejun managed to lick small wounds on the neck, the young man began to tremble in the strongest fever. The appeal always started with death and it was incredibly painful.

The boy's body was wriggling like a wounded snake and the gentle skin already covered with ulcers was covering with abrasions and bruises. Finally, bent like an arc from his head to his toes, the young man made the last rattle and fell breathlessly.

The vampire got up from the cold ground. Faintly wobbling, he relied on the trunk of the nearest tree and started to wait. After a whole eternity, as Xiao seemed, the young man opened his eyes widely and breathed in greedily the full lungs of air, as if he swam up from the bottom of a deep lake. The guy was looking around stunned, unable to move he stared at his savior and asked with his lips what had happened.

"You're a vampire now."

Dejun cursed that day a hundred and fifty years ago. The vampire asked himself why did he do that way and what moved him then, but the answers didn't come. One night the eternal existence turned from calm existence to ongoing hellish agony. Now the vampire could find some rest only in his favorite forest, but even there he wasn’t able to have the privacy for a long time.

If Xiao had known, if only he had known what a great curse he put on himself, he would have never-

"Father!"

Something dark and huge hung from the branch. The moonlight barely illuminated a little forest clearing, which Dejun turned into an altar of his patience, and therefore the face of the troublemaker was not visible. But this voice... This voice vampire recognized over kilometers and run like hell from him.

"Father, why are you leaving the castle so often?"

"How many times I asked you," Dejun rubbed a bridge of his nose wearily, "no, I demanded not to call me so."

"Forgive me, father..."

Xiao's eyes flashed dangerously in the dark with red lights, causing something to fall heavily on the ground.

"I 'm sorry, mentor."

The vampire's eyes flashed again, but not so bright.

"I'm sorry..." it came from somewhere below. Something slowly got up and dusted himself off, looking at a formidable vampire from the top down "just... You gave me my life, you let me live with you, told me to get out of the castle less often, but you fly out of there very often on your own instead. I don't know how to thank you."

"Yukhei," softened, Dejun began, "it seems to be the moment you just opened your eyes after turning, I told you to call me by my name. And not in a different way! And you can express your gratitude to me just by obeying to me!"

Turning away from the younger, he quietly added:

"I have already regretted a thousand times that I turned you into vampire back then."

But it seems Xiao's words were heard by Yukhei. From behind there was a choked sobbing and the rustling of leaves. The young vampire already disappeared when Dejun turned around in panic. The vampire learned that Yukhey, a young man rescued a hundred and fifty years ago during a smallpox epidemic, was incredibly wounded just the same night they met. The guy almost tasted death for the second time in a night from angry residents back then when he panicked and flew to the town without controlling the powers. Xiao managed to save Yukhei at the last moment. Since then, the vampire has tried to pick words neatly, but even the calmest creatures lost their patience.

Dejun flashed into the anxious night air and headed on the trail of a younger vampire. Yukhei did not have time to fly away too far, tears caught eyes, which forced him to land on the crypt of the city cemetery. Xiao found the ward, as he called him deep down, curled uo in a large crying ball. Dejun sat next to him and began to move his hand gently on the back of a young vampire, trying to calm him down. Surprisingly, this miracle remedy worked and Yukhei lay on the laps of the older vampire, hugging his leg under his knee to make it more convenient.

"See, I'm not your father," Xiao said quietly after a while, "your parents died a long time ago, you saw them buried. And I let you into the castle initially because you might have put me in danger of being exposed. I couldn't risk it, so I took you in."

"But you liked me."

Yukhei turned to face Dejun, looking directly into his eyes and looking for a positive answer in them. The older vampire couldn't deny it, as he got really attached to a noisy and restless young man because he was tired of being forever alone.

"I feel you as my father."

"I see."

"What?"

"It's better to say that way."

"All right, I see you as my father. You take care of me…" but having seen the wrinkled face of the older, Yukhei hastened to make it up, "or a mentor. You taught me how to turn into a lilik*, you taught me how to bite skin in the right place, you taught me how to live a new life."

"All right, let’s go on with the mentor then."

Dejun shook the heavy junior off himself and, turning, hurriedly flew back to the castle.

"Yeah!" Yukhei said and turned too. "You gave up so quickly!"

The sun came out from harsh clouds for the first time in a few days and now bathed the ground in unusual heat. Baby Guanheng stuck his head out of the window of a small carriage with a roof, which replaced a house to the family of stray artists, and putting his head on his crossed hands he admired the forest wealth: soaked tree trunks, juicy foliage, that played with dew in the rays of the sunshine.

"Dad!" the boy called his father, who was driving a slow-moving carriage, "We haven't seen the sun for so long. Why?"

"The weather in these places is much better and warmer than where we came from, son," answered the man, "the sun shines here almost always and the air is fresh and pleasant."

The boy took a deep breath and covered his eyes with pleasure, the air in the forest was indeed incredibly clean and fresh, a bit wet, and also as if fabulous.

Guanheng liked to travel. The big curious eyes of the child tried to examine every corner of the streets which their carriage passed by. And to perform as a whole family in front of the crowd surrounding their improvised arena could not compare to any feeling that a child can only experience. The head of the family was one of the strongest people in the world, Mom had incredible flexibility and was able to fly with ropes high in the sky, and the older brother and sister showed magic performances, tricks, as they themselves called them. It was still too early for baby Guanheng to join the family craft, so he loudly announced with his high voice the forthcoming performance and walked through the enthusiastic crowd during the action, collecting sparkly coins donated to stray artists.

The whole family was now moving to the next city to see new places and show new people what the Juan family was managed to do. And Guanheng was beside himself with impatience, as he wanted so hard to see people's enthusiastic eyes again, hear their rumble of approval...

"Hendery!"

A rude voice pulled a guy out of dream. Kun didn’t ever stand on ceremony with him when the younger one fell asleep while working. Hendery would for sure shout so much at his apprentice, who refused to work, but Hendery himself was this apprentice and therefore it wasn’t his turn to complain.

"You’re such a brat!" Kun continued to scold, while Hendery was itching his sleepy eyes. "That's how you help yesterday's beggars off the street and arrange them in your workshops."

"You know, I was trained in another craft."

"Yes, but here it is not yet too demanded" anger slowly faded and Kun amicably patted Hendery on a shoulder, getting to his workplace.

The young man was really lucky, as once he knocked on the right door. Kun was a simple but highly respected blacksmith in the town. The man has been engaged in this craft since he was a child, and it is not surprising that by the age of seventeen he had become a professional.

Sometimes Hendery seemed to know the kind soul of the blacksmith along and back, but in a particular bad weather, when rain did not allow to melt the open forge, Kun turned into an aloof and angry monster from a simple good man, the life of the party. This unknown side of the newly minted comrade Hendery discovered a couple of years ago and was frankly struck by such a revelation. Anyone who had known Kun only as a sociable and willing to help in any second man before, would say it was an evil twin or a weird nightmare when he saw the man's hidden side. But not Hendery. He realized that there was not just hell at the bottom of a quiet whirlpool, but a whole legion of demons.

What else surprised the young guy in his friend: Kun in his thirty-seven was single. There lived only three living beings in the large house of the blacksmith: the owner himself, Hendery, who almost became the blacksmith’s younger brother in five years, and wolf. The last resident of the forge became involved in the daily life of two men all of a sudden. Just once Kun came back from the woods with a massive package in his bosom. The package was moving lazily inside the blacksmith's clothes hiding from the winter cold and started to woof with a protest when he was brought to light. To Hendery’s stare full of misunderstanding and reproach Kun responded with a one-word "he got hurt". So Lee, as the blacksmith called him, stayed in the house even after a full recovery.

"Lee began to disappear more often," Kun noticed with a heavy breath, coming back to work with the anvil.

"Well," Hendery answered, stretching, "he is almost an adult wolf, he needs to run more in forests and fields, not in our house."

"Yes, right, but…"

"I know you love him as your child, but all the kids once grow up and leave their father's house. Especially," the young man slightly lowered the voice, "our fighting male surely has a period of courtship for cute wolf females."

"God, Hendery, stop."

"What? The girlfriend is necessary to everyone. Even an old wolf like you."

"I said stop!"

Heavy silence occurred in the forge. One hearth cracked with firewood, wishing to occupy all the terrible silence.

"I'll go look for that naughty boy in the woods."

Hendery took off a leather apron and sleeves, heading straight to the way out of his forge.

"And bring more firewood!" came from the depth of the house. "November is going to be cold."

And yet, whatever quarrel happened between these two, the eldest of them remained an old kind and caring Kun.

November was going to be cold. Dejun felt it by the dramatically changed flows of air that touched his webbed wings. The warm flows were hardly felt in the gusty wind, and the sun went behind massive clouds it seemed for a couple of months.

Having again escaped from the castle that became his native, Dejun tried to hide from thoughts that were biting his mind. Still, living more than seven hundred years in this world is not so easy. Yes, Dejun liked his castle, which became dilapidated in several centuries but did not lose its luxury and sophistication; the vampire genuinely enjoyed his walks in the woods, though he knew every millimeter of it as himself; Jun loved the town near which he settled, as well as the residents who lived their measured lives. But for a long time, the vampire hasn’t seen any sense of continuing to enjoy all the splendour of the life going on around him.

Dejun lost track of the years when he buried the last person to whom he had the negligence to attach himself. Since then, the long-standing heart has become completely rough and the enthusiasm from eternal life has been replaced by apathy.

And while the last century and a half his monotonous existence is eased by the company of the hyperactive Yukhei, it does not help Dejun at all. And therefore he ran away again from the dear stones of his fortress to the limitless, life-breathing nature.

The vampire flew to one of the tallest pine trees, turned into a vaguely black fog, and went down along the hairy branches to the ground. The strong wind did not pass through the reliable protection of the branches of centuries-old trees standing on the guard of the forest, and for that reason there appeared as if a whole new world below.

All of a sudden, the calmness that reigned around was cut by the high-pitched cry from somewhere in the south. Dejun recognized the human voice, but what happened? What the man yelled was not possible to understand, so the vampire carefully made his way through the greens to the source of the screams trying not to make unnecessary sounds. At a distance of ten meters the sharp vision caught a young man, who was looking around, puzzled. According to the clothes, he was a resident of the town, but the appearance and the dialect told that he was a stranger. The man called someone and this Lee still didn’t appear.

The young man was powerful. And that power was great as the wave of cold run through the vampire's skin every time a man screamed at the whole forest. It was definitely an unusual human, only looking like an ordinary one. Black eyes, like deep ends, dragged deep into themselves, a red face breathed with youth and a pair of deep wrinkles and one gray lock told of a difficult past. Usually, the vampire immediately understood what kind of man was standing in front of him, but not in this case. The young man from the forest was a closed book for Dejun.

Deeply immersed in thoughts, the vampire did not notice how the bush hit his hand, thus causing a rather loud rustling sound that came to the person.

"Lee? Is it you? Come out, dull dog, I'm cold. Otherwise I'll drown you in the lake personally and tell Kun that you drowned yourself, idiot!"

Dejun grinned and walked out of his makeshift shelter, raising his hands up.

"I think I'm not the one who you're looking for, but the threat worked."

The stranger exhaled disappointingly and then responded with a smile to a smile.

"Yes, you're definitely not him. I'm looking for my wolf, his name is Lee, he's been missing for too long in the woods lately."

"Wolf? Has progress gone so far that dogs are no longer honored as pets?"

"No," the young man grinned at the witty answer, "it is all because of one too soft-hearted person, who once couldn’t let the cured lupus go away."

"I think now everyone in town is afraid of you and avoids your house."

"No way! You should see how handsome Lee is! His soft fur worth a lot by itself, the kids are crazy about it."

The young man smiled at the memories again and then looked at the vampire with a sly glance.

"You're not from Brad, are you? I would definitely know you."

"I live not so far from this wonderfull town."

"Really wonderful," the young man thought, looking again at the person in front of him. "I am Guanheng."

"Xiao, nice to meet you," the vampire extended his palm and shook the warm hand of a new friend.

Without breaking hands, the two men looked closely at each other, as if trying to find something inside the eyes, behind a protective mist. Dejun felt excitement for the first time in hundreds of years. He understood that the young man did not introduce himself by his own name, that’s why practically a manic desire to reveal all secrets was boiling in veins.

But here behind the dense forest cover there was a fierce growling near the men, and at the same moment a huge grey wolf with brilliant green eyes jumped on them. The beast roared and hastened to attack both Dejun and Guanheng and then at all passed them and fled in the greenery, whining with embarrassment.

"Damn it," Guanheng said loudly, being the first to come out of the stupor, "it was Lee!"

And the vampire did not have time to pronounce a single word, as the young man dived into the thick of the forest right behind the wolf.

Due to a strong blow to an unknown object, the boy flew out of the carriage window. Landing could have been worse: the fragile body fell on the soft spruce branches, easily dropping off to the grass.

From the carriage, which still contained the mother and brother with the sister, there was a handed-in growling, and then a loud scream of the sister.

"Guanheng, run!"

The father kept screaming it to the boy, getting out of the carriage after the fall. Quickly taking the axe hanging near the carriage, the man looked seriously at his son once more, telling him to run away fast, and went inside.

For a moment, the boy looked at the carriage, from which the screams of his family continued to come. Guanheng struggled to find the strength to get up, he nearly fell into someone's hole, and then he ran as hard as he could, scratching the tender skin of his hands with stiff branches.

"Finally," Kun came out of his forge, wiping his hands with an apron, "I thought I'd go looking for the two of you."

The man squatted in front of the wolf and pulled his scruff. The beast closed his eyes with pleasure and began to fawn on the master. Hendery looked a bit with detachment at the nearby picture of the reunion (the sixth in the last month), in front of his eyes there was a dark forest, blood-torn knees and elbows, nightmares that haunted more than one year.

"Hey, hero," called the blacksmith, "where was our naughty boy this time?"

"I don 't know," Hendery also sat in front of the wolf and scratched his neck, "just..."

During the troubled pursuit of the wolf and the suddenly fallen memories, Hendery completely forgot about a new friend. A pleasant, tall, aristocratic Xiao aroused trust and immeasurable respect as a venerable aristocrat, though he looked like a guy's peer.

"What?"

"I just accidentally met a man deep in the woods. We had a little bit of time to talk, but this little brat ran right between us and I had to run after him."

"The man, you say," Kun thought, "what may be needed in the depth of the forest in the beginning of November..."

"Roots? Grass? Who knows him, but he looked like a venerable aristocrat who knew a lot."

"Didn't you meet the vampire?"

Hendery was turned pale in a heartbeat and stared at the blacksmith as if he saw the death. Kun, having seen an unhealthy reaction of a friend, hastened to turn thoughtless words into a joke.

"I was joking!"

And he did it pretty bad.

Hendery got up from the ground and headed to the house. The events of almost 20 years ago were carried in a messy series in front of his eyes, covering them with the sacales of tears. In a sharp move, the guy swept unsolicited salty droplets and headed to his room.

Already upstairs the young man pushed aside the bed, taking out a massive rifle. Carefully wiping it from the dust, Hendery placed it aside into a corner, and pulled on two carved revolvers. The silver bodies of them were as if covered with the same silver lace, which covered revolvers from handles to barrels. Bullets of the same noble metal were ringing in a handbag of strong leather.

After a little thought, Hendery left behind one revolver, plugging the other behind the belt and hiding the bullets in the vest pocket.

Several stakes lay apart from the weapons. Over time, they lost their sharpness, so the young man took out a knife from the belt and began to sharpen the wooden stakes.

Everything was ready.

Two green eyes flashed from somewhere in the interior of the corridor.

Dejun had been running around erratically and slightly feverishly from one part of the forest to another for several days. Burning like an autumn fire, the thoughts were not left by the young man. There was something in him that attracts victims into the paws of predators. Calm on the surface, but in the eyes behind the sacles of melancholia there were thousands of stars. And his name. Guanheng. Dejun could say with certainty, he didn't know anyone with that name in town. A vampire who has lived in these places for more than a hundred years has indirectly known every resident.

After losing his vigilance, the vampire did not notice how a low figure approached him from behind. And it was only when a light push was felt under the left shoulder blade that Xiao turned rapidly, exposing the fangs.

"Lose your grip, grandpa."

This mocking high voice sometimes took Dejun mad. Ten didn’t ever stand on ceremony when it came to his human side. That's when the werewolf rocked out in full. He made jokes about the vampire, his new cohabitating partner Yukhei, even sometimes over the residents of the town.

"Soon you won’t be able to notice the moment when a wonderful wooden stake will stick out from your chest."

"I never mention that you now live as a pet dog at some blacksmith."

"And here it is already a blow below a belt!"

"Only after you hit me in the shoulder blade."

The vampire and werewolf were old friends, of course, they had more fights than just normal talks, but they never offended each other.

"So, I came after all," said Ten.

"Don’t hurry, we have not one hundred years at disposal."

"Got it!" without paying attention to a prank. "You better stay away from Hendery."

"Whom?"

"He's been living with my blacksmith for five years. He came one night, the rain then was terrible, Hendery was all wet as a mouse, but only behind the back he had cast gun and two silver revolvers."

"I don't see anything wrong here," shrugged the vampire, "maybe he just likes to hunt."

"That's what he's doing..."

Ten didn't have time to continue. He led his nose from the leeward side and, quickly turning wolf, fled in thick overgrowth. Dejun didn't attach much importance to it, he knew the werewolf too well. The latter could easily take off from his place and start chasing prey right in the middle of the conversation and do a lot of other things.

The only thing the vampire was surprised by was Guanheng. The young man aimlessly went in an unknown direction along a narrow forest path. A couple of times he angrily kicked the stone lying in his way, that even the vampire felt the anger in his chest.

"The truth is still told that this forest is magical."

Guanheng instantly turned to the source of the sound, putting his hand back, where the revolver was hidden. When he saw who had spoken to him, the young man relaxed.

"What are you saying!" Guanheng cried in a faint surprise.

"Yes, it is. I was speaking to an unwelcome wolf just a couple of minutes ago, and right now I met a beautiful forest elf."

All the barriers refused to work. The vampire seems to have forgotten his vow not to be attached to people anymore. Never. But this man inspired strength and confidence in the best outcome.

"I've never seen wolves talking before," Guanheng smiled cunning.

"It is the pain, I must confess to you," continued the vampire, "they do not listen to what is said, sneak from the back, speak riddles. A nightmare company, generally speaking."

"I am sure I would find common ground with such a wolf."

"For some reason I am sure of it too."

Dejun suddenly forgot what else he wanted to say, and now he was just admiring how a quiet breeze was playing with a young man's hair.

"What about the elf?" Guanheng's glittering eyes said that he was incredibly fond of having such veiled conversations.

"Of course."

The vampire came very close to the young man. In the head there was a complete mess, thoughts were not going into something adequate and therefore he had to improvise.

"Guanheng," the vampire took one hand of the man, "meet Elf de Pădure **," Dejun gently took the second palm of the young man and connected them together, continuing to hold in his hands.

"Oh, do you even know the dialect?"

"Of course, after all I live here already for h..." the vampire hesitated, he couldn’t afford to expose his essence, "since I was five."

"So long... But I'm not from here."

"By your pronunciation, I will not say."

Dejun politely pointed to the path, inviting to walk through the woods.

"Thanks. My family didn't have a specific home, we traveled to different countries until... We had to settle down here."

"I bet, you had a nice family," the vampire lived for more than one century and for the whole existence saw more than one person whose family died, it easily read in the eyes and voice, however the person tried to hide it.

"Yes, I had."

They continued their journey in silence. Guanheng was fighting the ghosts of the past, unwittingly summoning them again, and the vampire tried his best to surround the young man with a light, almost transparent, dry fog to make it easier.

"The first time we met, you were looking for your wolf here," the vampire returned a playful note to their conversation, "did he run away again?"

"No," Guanheng grinned, "not this time. I thought and my feet brought me here. It is well to have some thoughts here."

"I can't argue with that," the vampire breathed full lungs of clean air, "I'm calmed down by this forest too. I often go missing here, especially when you need to be distracted from the vexing neighbors."

"Tell me," the young man's eyes lit up again.

"Well, I just recently met him," Dejun stopped, mentally transferring vampire lettering to human, "five years ago. I found him dying in this forest, I went out, I wanted to send him back, but he was quite clingy."

"It turned out as with our wolf," Guanheng smiled, remembering how Kun brought Lee to their house for the first time.

"The neighbor also reminds me of the wolf sometimes," having caught the asking glance, the vampire explained: "he yells at certain times of the day, runs away from the house often, is clowning."

"Who would you compare yourself to?"

Dejun thought. Yes, he was, in fact, a bat, but he didn't feel that way at all. Though...

"Lilik. I feel like Lilik. I choose from my improvised corner mainly in the dark, I circle through the forest as much as I want."

Guanheng, without noticing the second bottom, listened carefully to someone else's speech. The man was carrying a lot more mysteries than the young man suggested in their first meeting. How did such a young body from the first sight literally breathed with years of experience, how could the look of black eyes be directed to the depth of the forest, and its owner himself as if at this moment he was going through his long life?

"Well, it's getting dark."

Guanheng shuddered. For a second, he seemed to see a sharp fang looking out from under the thin lips of a man nearby. Shaking his head, the young man got better into his cloak and turned to the companion.

"You need to get to the town before the unsightly darkness comes down."

"Well," Guanheng spoke quietly, "see you next time."

And when he turned, the young man hastened further along the path alone. Already almost hiding behind a steep turn, he managed to hear "I will wait for you here at the same time".

So, there passed a week. To Kun's surprise, Hendery stopped literally sleeping while he’s walking and swimming in his apathy. Initially the blacksmith perceived such joyful changes in the friend as that the younger one would help more in the forge, but the young man, on the contrary, began to disappear in the forest. At first, caring Kun worried about his friend. Yeah, that man made Hendery happy, but what kind of a normal person would meet for nearly two weeks in the woods? And then remembering that Hendery was quite adult and independent he calmed down.

Having come from another walk with Xiao, the encouraged Hendery did not expect to see the worried head of the town, who was nervously drinking the Kun’s chamomile otter at their dining room.

"Hendery, there’s a work for you," the head told darkly and said to follow him.

The middle of November was getting closer and the night air was quite freezing. The young man was wrapping up into a cloak, although he knew he wouldn't have warmed up. With excitement and anticipation, the heart was beating like crazy, fingers were cold and breath was getting fitful as they approached to the outskirts of the town.

In the depth of the passage in which Hendery was brought, in an unnatural pose a young girl was lying more like a mummy. Her white skin seemed to stick to the bones, her once beautiful face was distorted by the grimace of horror, her mouth curled in a postmortem cry. The young girl now resembled a devastated vessel. They drank all the blood from her.

A local medic circled over the body melancholically. He closely examined the victim's neck measuring the distance between the holes from the bites.

"Leave her," Hendery said with a strange voice, asking the medic to leave.

The young man squatted in front of the girl's body. When he examined her, he interviewed the policeman who found the girl.

It turned out it was a prostitute taking a shortcut home after another working night in a brothel. She was attacked just an hour ago, judging by postmortem processes in her body.

After thinking about an approximate height of the vampire who killed the girl and measuring the distance between the fangs, Hendery ordered to place the body in the basement of the hospital in a coffin with a tightly closed lid but before that stick an wooden stake into her chest.

Hendery returned home a very late night. After leaving the scene of the murder, the young man walked through the dead end streets of the city for a long time in expecting to catch the vampire eating another victim. But the miracle didn't happen and the hunter had to go home with nothing.

Being very mad at nature, which produced the creatures such as vampires, on himself, as he was unable to protect people from bloodsuckers, Hendery spent all the next day, evening and night on a patrol. He hid silver crucifixes in particularly dark dead ends, not visible to ordinary eyes, but harming vampires to secure the inhabitants of the outskirts a little.

But the vampire who decided to terrorize the town turned out to be more violent and cunning. The day after the first murder, a second bloodless body was found. And it was a sign to the hunter: a very young kid was found almost on the central street of the town when the residents started waking up. A sneer. Slap in the face.

Hendery couldn't think about anything else in the next few days. Day and night, he personally patrolled the streets, set traps, hid garlic among the stones in the houses, silver and other attributes that scared off vampires. But everything was in vain. Two other bloodless bodies were found.

Diving into work with his head, Hendery completely forgot about Xiao, the only person capable of pulling a young man out of his own swamp of melancholy. The man felt guilty for missing so many meetings, so (as Kun advised) he decided to get away from work for some time.

Hendery practically ran to the forest, on the cherished path. He was a little late, but still hoped Xiao would wait for him.

The man was looking around, heavily breathing because of the run, he was throwing from one part of the trail to the other. Is this really the end? Have meetings and warm conversations come to an end?

Only Hendery started preparing for the worst right in front of him, as if from the air, Xiao came. He looked sadder than usual, but the question was read in his eyes.

Instead of words Hendery exhaled with relief, came to the man quite close and firmly hugged him, hiding his face in folds of clothes.

Xiao clearly did not expect such a turn of events, looking at the other's back of the head very near him. But then neatly, afraid to scare, hugged the young man in response.

"I already managed to be afraid that we will not see each other again," came from depth, "I don’t even know your real name."

"Dejun."

"What?" Hendery rapidly raised his head and almost faced Xiao’s nose.

"That's my name."

None of them were in a hurry to release their hands. Hendery felt such a rush of power for the first time in a few years, just being near someone. And Dejun... He had not felt human warmth so close for five hundred years.

"Did something happen to you? You've been missing for days."

"Happened..."

Hendery was the first to put his hands down, walking away a little bit. He was thinking if he should open his soul to Dejun? And eventually:

"Almost twenty years ago, my whole family was killed by a vampire."

Dejun was dumbfounded.

"But I managed to escape. I went through villages and towns, but no one wanted to shelter me, a foreign orphan, until I accidentally hit a lonely hut. There lived a big man who seemed terrible to me. His heart turned out to be a lot kinder than all the people that I prayed for help had. That man took me in, raised me. He also taught me one craft, a skill. To hunt for vampires. Fate itself led me to him."

Dejun listened and understood with horror whom he had fallen in love with. It's ironic, he'd think, to love his killer.

In the thoughts of the vampire there ran memories of the second sudden conversation with the werewolf.

"I didn’t have time to continue back then," Ten adored to appear suddenly in the field of view, "stay away from Hendery, he is a vampire hunter. If you get attached to him, you will die the most horrible death!"

"And here I am," Hendery continued, "and in my second home there is an insatiable vampire that I cannot catch!"

The last words the young man screamed all over his throat and the echo was spreading his rage through the woods for a long time. Guanheng tried to swallow his emotions, but when he was again put into arms, he became completely melted. And it was only pretty alarmed Dejun who thought it was vital for him to be the first to find a vampire terrorizing the town.

Dejun and Hendery met less and less. The hunter could not calmly go to sleep, knowing that perhaps somewhere in the dark street the monster was killing his next victim. And therefore, when the lights were already lit and all people disappeared from the streets, a pale ghost-like vampire hunter wandered down the pavements.

Dejun, having more acute feelings than people, was able to find the trail of the fierce vampire the night after their last meeting with Guanheng.

Flying one day over the red roofs of the town's houses, Dejun noticed some movement in one of the nooks of the streets. With a black fog getting down to the ground, the vampire sneaked to the corner to avoid giving out his location. Only a few meters away there were snarling sounds and quiet groaning. After realizing it was the one, he was looking for, Dejun wanted to lash out on a vampire who didn’t notice anything, but suddenly he heard hasty steps. Smelling a familiar smell in the air, Dejun turned into a bat in panic and flashed into the sky away from here. A couple of moments later, Guanheng went to where the vampire was standing. Unfortunately, the second vampire also smelled the hunter and managed to escape and therefore all Hendery found that night was another bloodless body.

November passed through the middle, freezing the killer's tracks. Guanheng ran into the forest, practically without noticing the roads. Never before has a hunter had such a terrible hunt. He let a vampire enjoy the blood of six innocent people in the last week and a half. Unprecedented overeating for a vampire.

Hendery never felt so weak and helpless before a supernatural creation. The old hunter taught Guanheng to mobilize his hidden resources even in the darkest times, but what should he do if even they were already empty?

The young man fled to his refuge, which became almost native to him in three weeks. Forest always kindly opened its hugs and let Guanheng into his subsoil, trying to calm the raging nerves with the smell of needles and the softness of the greens. And the forest also sheltered two crippled hearts under its cover.

Why did the hunter trust this stranger so easily? Why did he, knowing Xiao for only three weeks, entrusted him with the secrets of his family and gave him the name given to him with birth, which even Kun did not know? Guanheng could not answer these questions. He was used to hide everything he had before he met an old vampire hunter all his life. From that moment on, a new life of a young man began, it was the old hunter who gave him the name Hendery, with whom he had lived for the last twenty years. So why did Guanheng think it was important to tell everything Dejun? Guts said it should have been so.

But Hendery knew nothing but Dejun's name. The latter always said evasively that he lived near the town, but not in it itself. He never talked about his family, but only once mentioned his neighbor. Dejun remained a huge mystery in three weeks and still Hendery felt Xiao could be trusted.

And here the man, wheezing from running, threw himself into the strong arms of Dejun who was waiting for him. Guanheng was mumbling something, cursing that fateful day, all the vampires, the old hunter who taught him the craft, himself for not being able to help the town.

Once he was in strong hands, Guanheng unleashed his feelings and burst into tears with impotence. The fabric of the man's cloak was already wet from tears, but Hendery stood, sticking his face in Xiao 's shoulder. The last time a young man cried was when he listened to his parents being killed... And now, having opened his soul, Guanheng just wanted to feel a reliable support nearby. And Dejun listened silently and patted the young man’s back and hair in a calming manner.

Suddenly Guanheng, having listened to his feelings, realized that he felt no heat but his, gradually disappeared. The young man moved away and took Xiao's face in his hands. The skin under his fingers was unnaturally cold, smooth, pale, he wanted to rub it lightly to return natural color and warmth, but... Guanheng raised his eyes and faced Dejun's unreadable gaze. Two absolutely black deep ends were looking at the young man, just extend a hand and you will immediately be caught in.

A vampire had a dizzy head with such a proximity to a man. Red Guanheng was breathing heavily right in front of him, touching the face of the vampire with his hot palms. Dejun was drunk because of the smell of forest herbs and needles coming from a young man, the vampire literally fought with himself to avoid going mad from the look of a vein pulsating on his neck. The vampire had already prepared to bite, but at the last moment looked into Guanheng's trusting eyes and carefully leaned to his lips instead of his neck.

The contrast between the heat experienced by the young man and the cold that burned the gentle skin of the lips generated herd of goosebumps wandering through Guanheng's skin. Despite the cold November, the young man felt like he was melting in strong hands.

Dejun kissed carefully, afraid to scare or push Hendery away. The vampire put a lot into this kiss: his love, which came back to life hundreds of years later, the powers so needed by the hunter, tenderness and respect for Hendery’s feelings.

Guanheng was excited by his own failure to work, and therefore explored Xiao's ice lips with pressure. The young man was trailing the slightly cracked skin with his tongue when one of the vampire's fangs suddenly hit his tongue. But because of the storm of emotions, Hendery did not pay any attention to it.

Dejun stopped the kiss first. He breathed heavily, frowning at not the most joyful thoughts. Vampire flair felt the faint smell of blood shed by a distraught vampire.

"You have to," Xiao strictly said making the excited young man to his senses, "run in the town now!"

Guanheng could not understand anything. He was still under the spell of the first kiss and didn't understand why he was being chased away so soon. But the inner flair told him to flee.

After waiting for the human figure to escape in the thicket of the forest, Dejun turned in a bat and directed to the place where he felt the presence of a distraught vampire catching the right air flows with his wings.

Dejun looked closely into the darkness of the city streets from the sky. The flair couldn't be wrong, the vampire was really nearby. Lowered, Xiao landed on one of the roofs, trying to hear something now. And here the silence of one of the streets broke the scream, which lasted only one moment, but which was enough to determine without error where it came from.

Landing as a black fog to the pavement right in front of the killer, Dejun exposed the fangs. The distraught vampire was a tall even slightly sympathetic creature whose look was capable to paralyze any person. The vampire managed to eat the seventh victim, and therefore thin streams of the remaining blood flowed from sharp fangs. The beast grinned and said:

"Sorry, brother, there's nothing left for you, go look for your own dinner."

The vampire already wanted to turn and fly away, but Dejun instantly reduced the distance between them and the fangs fell into his shoulder. The vampire cried loudly and threw Xiao off. Dejun made another attempt at attack, but that strike was also reflected. Then the monster finally got mad and jumped on Xiao, knocking him down to the ground. He put his curved fingers on his opponent’s throat, scratching out feverish patterns with his nails. Dejun almost tipped the vampire off himself, but he rolled over to the other side himself. After getting up rapidly, the vampire breathed and turned into a bat dodging Dejun’s kick.

In the moment, when the distraught vampire flew away, an angry Guanheng ran to the pavement around the corner, finding his target in the loud screams of both vampires.

The hunter directed the gun victoriously on the bloodsucker who was lying on the ground, but when he saw who he had caught he almost lost his consciousness. Right in front of him, there was a bloodied Dejun. And Hendery would have convinced himself that he was almost the victim of a distraught vampire if it weren’t naked fangs that dripped rare drops of blood.

"You..." his voice cracked, "it was you all this time, freaking dovgocrilitz***!

"Guanheng, stop."

"Shut up!" said the hunter. "Don't talk to me! You've been cheating on me this whole time..."

"It wasn't all I lied to you about..."

"Oh, what are you saying! I opened my soul to you, I told you something what no one knew except me. I..."

"Guanheng, please, let me say." Dejun slowly stood up and tried to get close to the hunter.

"Don't call me that! Stand still, otherwise you will get a silver bullet in the chest," Hendery issued two short sobs, tears were running down from his eyes, and in there was a burning hatred and resentment in his look.

"Okay, I 'm not moving," the vampire raised his hands as a sign of submission, "now let me say a word."

"You’ve said enough," Guanheng sighed, swallowing unsolicited tears, "what a fool I am! I trusted you, told how difficult it is for me to catch an elusive vampire and it turned out, here he is, standing right in front of me! Reach out a hand and..."

"If I wanted to, I would have killed you in our first meeting, Guanheng."

The hunter became silent. He stared at the vampire without believing in his words. He might have killed him a long time ago, but he didn't? How that could be?

"I will not hide when you were so close to me today," the vampire continued, "I suddenly wanted to bite you, but my love to you was stronger."

Hendery raised his eyes on Dejun full of new tears. Deep down, the hunter also felt that he was loved, he felt the awe that the vampire was experiencing at the moment of their kiss. But...

"You murdered people!" the hunter directed a gun on a vampire again, faith in his business was stronger.

"I didn't murder them, and you know it. After you told me about the vampire in town, I went looking for him. And I found. And if you'd come a few minutes earlier, you'd have made sure of it! Now let's not waste time or we'll lose track of the real murderer."

"How can I trust you? I don't know anything about you. What if your name is a fake?"

"Well," the vampire sighed. "My real name is actually Xiao Dejun, I was born in China in eleven and fifty. At the age of thirty, I was turned into a vampire as a punishment for the sins of my family, as I was the only heir, since then I had wandered around the world until I settled here five hundred years ago. Twenty-four miles from here on the hill stands my castle. A hundred and fifty years ago, during the epidemic, I found a dying guy whom I turned into vampire out of pity, saving from a pathetic death. His name is Yukhei, I told you about him as my neighbor. And three weeks ago, I met a forest elf I fell in love with."

During the last words Guanheng frowned harder and almost pulled the trigger.

"I drink the blood of people who have recently died, I cannot murder. And if you still don’t believe me, ask yourself why a vampire doesn't kill a man? I love you, Guanheng."

The hand of the hunter trembled.

"Back in China I forbade myself to be attached to people, especially to love anyone. But it was just impossible not to fall in love with you."

It seemed that Hendery would put down the gun now. But his eyes became even more ferocious. The shot was distributed. The bullet flew through a black fog and stuck in the wall. And a bat flashed to the roofs.

Dejun was trying to track down a distraught vampire for an hour. The thoughts that Guanheng no longer trusted him prevented him from thinking sober and acted not as a sobering slap in the face. On the contrary, the vampire started to beat himself up harder and harder. Nothing is more painful in the world than losing the trust of a loved one.

Determined to cheer himself up a little, the vampire dived rapidly directly to the town square and flew through the jets of the fountain. The water procedure helped but for a short time.
Having circled the half of the city, Dejun was already going to give up, when the sharp sense of smell caught very weak notes of stranger’s bitter blood.

"Got you."

And yet the fact that Xiao managed to injure the vampire made it much easier to find the latter. The slightly bleeding vampire was preparing to attack the new victim, following her among familiar dark streets of the night-plunging city.

The distraught vampire turned from a bat and continued slowly and as quiet as possible to follow another victim. After accelerating the step, the vampire almost caught up the young girl and exposed the fangs to ultimately bite and drink all the blood.

Dejun, prepared to attack, caught a sharp iron bar in his legs, lying next to the destroyed fence, and lightning-quickly flew to the vampire. On the fly, turning into a human form, Xiao stuck the sharp end of the rod into wound that he made before. There was a deafening cry and both vampires fell back to the ground, clutching together.

Dejun, being powerless because of nerves and a long flight, was obviously weaker than even a wounded vampire. The distraught monster rolled from the back and turned out to be on top of the vampire, trying to bite with his fangs as much skin and meat of the rival as possible. Leaving deep wounds, the distraught vampire himself remained practically intact, so the outcome of the battle was obvious.

But here Dejun gathered the remaining powers and hit the rival in the stomach as hard as he could, and with a free hand ripped a rod from a wound and stuck it again even deeper into the bleeding shoulder of a vampire. Turning over in such a way as to be on top, Xiao dived his fangs into the chest of his rival, trying to get to the heart.

The distraught vampire broke out with a terrible scream with a wheeze. The deadly pain mad the monster angry: the vampire, being in an incomplete phase of transformation, leaked with a crimson fog from under Dejun and already raised his hand with a bar ripped out of his back, as suddenly the body above Xiao became weak and fell on him as a dead load.

Dejun was unable to throw the body off and therefore just lay on the ground, heavily breathing. Everything ended.

Suddenly the heavy burden disappeared from the back, and in front of the eyes there was a reached out hand. The vampire struggled to turn to the side and saw Guanheng leaning over him, looking at him with regret and bitterness. Dejun had never felt such a relief. Even avoiding execution a few centuries ago didn't cause as many waves of reassurance then as the vampire felt looking at the hunter.

Hendery helped the vampire stand up and even let him rely on himself. Rising, Dejun saw the bloodied body of a rival with a large bullet hole in the heart area. Guanheng shot him.

They walked or rather crawled in the night town in complete silence. Xiao did not know where they walked and it was absolutely irrelevant, the main thing was that he felt the warmth of a very special person near him.

After a rather long period of time, the two reached a large house in which Dejun recognized the family dwelling of the blacksmith. At home the guests were met with the delicious aroma of home cooking and a fuss wolf, which interfered under their feet. Here was the owner of the house. He had already opened his mouth to ask an obvious question but Hendery with one look asked to delay the interrogation until at least the morning and carried the wounded vampire to his room.

Guanheng treated all the wounds in the same silence. Having lowered his head, he wetted already red cloth in healing liquids for an inhuman and again washed the tear cuts with it. When he gathered to treat the wound on the shoulder, Hendery came closer to the vampire and the latter, taking advantage of the position, kissed the hunter. The kiss turned out to be torn, quick but significant to both of them.

"I was so scared that you wouldn't let me be near you again," the vampire said quietly, trying not to dive out the right mood.

"Do you know how scared I was to see you alone in the blood next to the corpse? My world collapsed in an instant... But it was even scarier to see this monster almost killed you. "

"Peace?" Dejun reached out a shaking palm.

"Peace."

"I told you I'd never be a vampire in my life!"

Two years have passed, Guanheng moved to live in the castle to Dejun, leaving the old house at the disposal of Kun and his dearie. The vampire did not calm down, he offered Hendery to turn him almost every day, but here Yukhei intervened, telling in detail a terrible story about the nightmare pain he felt when he was turning to the vampire. And every time Xiao threatened to evict a young vampire from the castle away, and every time Guanheng ran away in horror himself, but each time he was in their forest.

Xiao almost despaired. Human life was compared to the flash of a vampire's life. Dejun has been burned more than once, falling in love with people, but now he has clearly decided that everything will be different. All that remains is to persuade his loved one to transformation.

"Tell me how to persuade Hendery?" in his desperation, Xiao asked a long-time friend.

"Is he so bored living with a grandfather like you that he still refuses to share eternity with you?"

The werewolf was in his repertoire. Dejun regretted again asking him at all.

"Should I remind you how foolishly you destroyed your almost ten years of disguise?"

Ten got pale right away. The way he accidentally turned from wolf to human form right in front of Kun's eyes was still a nightmare for the werewolf, though it's been a year and a half. The blacksmith, of course, was very shocked to know that his beloved wolf was a werewolf. Incredibly attractive though. Surprisingly to everyone, Kun didn't kick Ten out of the house, on the contrary, he seriously talked to him for a few hours, listened carefully and said that everything would be as before, it is just necessary to get used to the fact itself. And six months later, Hendery saw this couple sleeping in a hug in the same bed.

"Well, well," the werewolf gave up, "try to find out why he does not want to turn. I'm sure it's not because he doesn’t love you."

So Dejun did it, but Guanheng turned out to be a strong nut. And only after a month of interrogation with addiction the hunter shyly admitted that he wanted to wait until he was thirty to live forever as peers. Xiao burst into tears from cuteness and his love to Hendery, and Ten and Kun laughed for a very long time because of this couple.

Hendery was shaking a bit. Yesterday he was thirty years old, which means the last day of his human life came. Turning on the years lived, Guanheng suddenly realized that he was forever breaking up with something incredibly important. Yes, he became an orphan at the age of five, was growing up without parental love, experienced many terrible events on his skin, but life is life to experience ups and downs and then die in deep old age. But now, having agreed to give away his life and become an eternally living being, Hendery has condemned himself to endless life wandering.

Suddenly someone slightly squeezed his palm. Guanheng looked up at his vampire and there appeared a pleasant warmth in his chest. Near such a support it was not scary to break up with the usual way of life.

They stood in their bedroom in the castle, the window was opened and fresh September air, tickling bare feet, penetrated into the room. Dejun came close to the hunter, such proximity long ago ceased to embarrass, now they felt united.

The vampire led the tip of his nose through the gentle skin at the base of his neck, noisily breathing in the body smell. The man's legs immediately became weak, and chill ran along the spine.

"It will hurt a little bit," Dejun tickled tender skin with breathing.

The vampire breathed once more, and then the tip of the tongue led a short path along the clavicle and stopped at its end. After a moment, as if asking for permission, Dejun bit the skin through with his fangs and held Hendery who was trying to escape the hard grip. Held back from the temptation to taste the blood of a loved one, the vampire left his fangs in the wounds for some more time, letting his saliva penetrate the human body.

Finally, having moved away from Guanheng's neck, the vampire pressed the suffered in pain harder to himself, trying to take away part of the pain. Within minutes of trasformation extended for Dejun as a few eternities. But everything has its end, and here Hendery slowly opened his eyes. Dejun lovingly wiped sweat from his face and even moved him to the bed.

Guanheng said nothing. He was lying in silent, listening to completely new sensations. Suddenly he put his fingers into his mouth, and then, after touching sharp fangs, shouted from the excitement. Dejun expected the worst, but not what his loved one had said in the next moment:

"When can I turn into fog? You're doing it so mesmerizingly."

Dejun breathed a sigh of relief and caressed a newborn vampire’s cheek.

"We have an eternity for this."