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Despite Warriors’s reluctance, he really did need a drink, so he hung back for a moment to suck a few vaguely repugnant mouthfuls of blood from a cooling corpse. He stole a handkerchief to clean up and rejoined the group as they piled into an enclosed truck.
Whoever Legend had cajoled or bribed into driving this truck remained in the separate cab and pulled into the street as soon as Time slammed the back door, shutting them in darkness. The truck rattled around them, and Warriors slid down the side until he sat firmly on the bottom of the truck, sorting through the several distinct smells winding through the air. There was the blood on Wind, of course, drying bit by bit. Several scents of plants that Warriors couldn't identify joined the oddly fresh air and the human smells.
A loud click preceded the back of the truck filling with light. Time stood in the center of the group, a single lightbulb near his head, swinging from a chain with the truck’s movement. His open eye fixed on Wind, who stared back.
In the quiet of the truck, everyone caught their breath. A quick glance told Warriors that not everyone looked entirely human right now, but either Wind hadn't noticed or didn't care, because he just tilted his head at Time.
“Thank you for coming,” Wind said.
Time nodded once, and Warriors knew enough to tell that Time was wary. “Are you all right?”
“I am, now. It'll take a bit more than three days of beatings to bother me.”
Warriors coughed. “Five days,” he muttered.
“Huh?” Wind turned to him.
“It was five days.”
“Oh. My point still stands.” Wind looked back up at Time for a few seconds, but nobody spoke. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Time frowned, but moved to sit down near the door, beside Twilight. That put everyone at the same eye level, except Hyrule who was still just a few inches tall and perched on Legend’s knee. Wind definitely saw him, but still didn't comment.
“Warriors told us that you’re older than he is,” Time said.
“Obviously,” Wind said, then paused, turning his eyes but not his head to Warriors in suspicion. “Did you lead with that?”
Warriors felt himself begin to blush with his recent meal. “I was worried about you, and worried about everyone’s potential reactions to the news. I didn't exactly plan out a speech.”
Legend chimed in helpfully. “He said that he had heard information about you, due to the fact that we've all been out looking, and then he looked like someone had given him a fish’s head on a plate—worried and confused. And then he said that you’re older than him.”
“There are a plethora of better lines you could have used, Wars,” Wind said, a smile tugging at his mouth. He lifted his knees and wrapped bloodstained hands around them.
“I know.”
“So you did participate in the war?” Sky asked from the far corner, a shadow over his face.
Wind nodded. “If you're talking about the Great War, yes. I did. I picked up my idiot there.” He gestured to Warriors.
“Hey,” Warriors protested. “At least I finished puberty.”
“You've wounded me!” Wind put a hand to his chest, mouth falling open in false offense. “Oh, cruel world, which hath produced such a child as this, who wouldst verily murder his own sire in cold”—he paused, scratching off a few flakes of blood from his temple—“dried blood! Thy evil knows no bounds!”
Warriors rolled his eyes, though he couldn't resist a smile. He noticed the others relaxing too, with the clear evidence that Wind was pretty much the same as he always was.
“I bet you can ask Legend to knit you a beard,” Warriors said.
Wind turned a raised eyebrow on Legend.
“A beard,” Legend repeated flatly.
“I'm fourteen,” Wind said, “and I will be until I die. All the best pirates had beards. It is seriously demotivating to know that I'll never get one.”
“Pirates?” That was Four, hidden in one of the dark corners of the truck, but watching with bright eyes.
“If you're older than Warriors, just how old are you?” Wild asked.
“Were you a pirate?” Legend added with narrowed eyes.
Four shook his head. “That would make him older than every vampire elder in America, at least as far as I'm aware. My guess is seventy, past the Civil War.”
Wind grinned, though without his fangs this time. “Do you know a lot about vampire history?”
“Not as much as I'd like,” Four said carefully.
“How about you?” Wind asked, turning to Wild. “You're a dhampir, aren't you? You must have heard some stories.”
Wild blinked. “I didn't tell you that. And some, yes. But you didn't answer my question.”
Everyone rocked when the truck went over a bump. Warriors looked at his nails, picking a bit of blood from underneath one of them. “He’s doing his best to be dramatic about the answer.” Wild opened his mouth again, but Warriors cut him off. “I'm less than fifty years old, altogether, so don't expect that information to help you.”
“At least I'm still older than someone,” Time sighed. “By birth date, anyway.”
Legend groaned. “Just answer the question, Wind. Or say that you don't want to answer it.”
“Hold on,” Wind said, looking up at the ceiling with a twisted face. “I have to subtract a nine from a one, so that six turns to a five…”
Hyrule spoke up for the first time, his voice quiet but audible even over the rattle of the truck. “You're all forgetting that he mentioned avoiding hunters in the 1750s.”
The truck went quiet again as everyone remembered that at the same time. Four stared off into the distance as if doing mental math or recalling details. Time shook his head. Warriors waited.
“Two hundred thirty-five,” Wind finally finished. “That’s how old I am.”
“You're older than every lord I've ever heard of,” Four said with a faltering tone.
Legend huffed. “He's just kidding. No way.”
“I'm not kidding,” Wind assured them all. He lifted his chin. “I was a pirate. I suppose you can still call me one. I died in 1710.”
Wild rubbed a disbelieving hand across his face. “You're the Phantom,” he said. It wasn't a question. “No wonder hunters wanted you.”
“Nah, they just got lucky. They meant to catch a vampire, sure, but not one like me. I would’ve broken out eventually, they weren't prepared.” Wind sat up a little straighter. “Now, has everyone satisfied their curiosity?”
“No,” Four muttered.
Wind just laughed, and everyone else snickered along with him, familiar with Four’s inquisitive nature. “But, seriously, is anyone here actually human? I've wondered that for a while.”
Twilight sighed aloud and raised a hand. “Just me.”
“It's just you?” Wind repeated. He looked around at everyone, then shrugged. “This feels a little coincidental.”
Legend groaned. “I hate coincidences. And you're very right, what are the chances that all of us would come together? While I'm no two-hundred-year-old vampire, I'm well-known among my people.”
“Me too,” Four muttered. “Who else?”
Hyrule swung his legs against Legend’s knee, still small. “I think I count.”
Sky raised his hand halfway up. “Yes.”
“Thankfully, no,” Twilight sighed. “Wild and I can slip under the radar pretty much anywhere.”
“That's useful,” Wind said. He paused, then smiled. “Next question: is anybody squeamish?”