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shrugged and related the story of running into John and taking off before he could see her. Or at least she thought she got away. Then how she hurt herself and fixed herself up. She smiled. "Turns out healing myself wiped me out."
    "I'm impressed that you could do so much, so soon," Penny said. "You're strong. I knew you would be."
    Penny grinned. "I had no idea! Except I didn't feel strong after that. I could barely see anything around me. I could barely think either, except about how to make myself feel better."
    "The thirst."
    Beth nodded. "Fuck yeah! I had to find somebody and I had to do it now! I got lucky, there was this homeless bitch in the alley that I hadn't noticed before. With my blood goggles on she stood out like a sore thumb though."
    "Blood goggles?"
    "Yeah, you know, beer goggles make ugly people look better because you're drunk. It's a figure of speech. Well for us when we're thirsty the living look so bright they glow. So blood goggles."
    "Interesting," Penny opined.
    "Thanks. So, um, I fed on her. I don't know if she saw me or not before, but I don't know if it mattered, she was pretty strung out on whatever she'd taken. I think I saw some needles in her pile of shit. Probably heroin."
    Penny groaned. "That explains it."
    "Explains what?"
    "You're high."
    "High?" Beth laughed. "How can I be high? I'm dead! I mean, I don't work like that. You said that stuff doesn't affect us. We can't get stoned or drunk."
    "I did say that," Penny admitted. "I meant by taking those things directly. You did not, you drank the blood of a person that was under the effects."
    "I— oh shit," Beth stared and then laughed. "I guess that's why I feel so good then?"
    Penny frowned. "Yes, but don't make a habit of it."
    "Can vampires be addicts?"
    "It won't change your body physically," Penny said after a delay. "But you were reckless, weren't you?"
    "Reckless? How?" Beth protested. "I went out of my way to not be seen! You should have seen me, I was jumping from building to building like some kind of superhero. Then I pulled a spider-woman trick and climbed up a few others, including this one, to get up here. We can do so much cool stuff!"
    Penny closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them. "Yes, we can. But we can be seen and we can be discovered. That's why we don't do that sort of thing. Now what about your victim? What did you do to her?"
    Beth pouted at the rebuke but found she couldn't stay upset for long. "Oh, well, I don't have wings like you do and there was no place to stash the body, so I hid the wound as best I could and left her buried in her pile of crap."
    "Hid the wound?"
    "Yeah," Beth nodded, dodging the question as much as she could.
    Penny frowned. "How?"
    Beth smiled. She had a hunch Penny wouldn't be as impressed as she was. She held up her hand which still sported the black claws for fingernails – they'd come in handy when she needed to climb. "I tore her head off."
    Penny blinked and then muttered a short phrase that made no sense to Beth. She couldn't even figure out what language Penny had spoken, the words were so strange.
    "Penny? Didn't I do good? I mean, I shredded that bitch's throat good, nobody will be able  to tell I drank her dry."
    "You tore her head off," Penny repeated. "There should be a lot of blood. You drained her."
    "I did," Beth admitted. "I found if I match my heart to theirs I can time swallowing and everything so I don't look pregnant when I'm done. Plus it's cool, our hearts stop beating at the same time, but for me that's not a big deal."
    Penny smirked in spite of her frustration at Beth's actions. "I forgot to tell you about that. I am impressed. You amaze me one minute and remind me the next that you're young and inexperienced."
    "Stupid?"
    "No, inexperienced," Penny stressed. "Tell me, where was this homeless woman?"
    Beth frowned. "Four or five blocks away to the south. In an alley. I think there was a Greek deli in one of the buildings?"
    Penny nodded. "Wait