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surprise you?”
    “I guess not.”
    If anything, it made complete sense. He had no false ideas about himself. He came from hardy peasant stock. Here in the melting pot, he didn’t exactly stand out, but back in the Old Country, he’d blended in seamlessly. If Harvey liked him for his lack of refinement, that was nothing unusual—everyone had their kinks.
    So he turned the conversation back to the matter at hand. “How did you become friends with this Dill? And what kind of name is that anyway?”
    “Stan and Ray met Dillon about a year ago and became besotted with him enough to give polyamory a try. I hit it off with Dill. He makes me feel old sometimes, but he’s a lot of fun.”
    “Did Dill meet your friends at a place like the Nightcrawler?”
    “Nah, somewhere much more upscale. Stan and Ray are very classy these days. Right now they’re going around their sort of places looking for Dill, though honestly, I don’t know what good that’ll do.”
    They spent the rest of the night driving everywhere from dive bars to fancy clubs; anywhere vampires or Dill might show up, in Harvey’s estimation. The entire night of rushing about got them a whole lotta nothing. A quick call confirmed that Stan and Ray hadn’t fared any better.
    They returned to Harvey’s place close to dawn, worn out. Harvey was in low spirits, clearly worried. Gabe was too much of an outsider to have much of an emotional reaction to any of it. However, Harvey’s moods were getting to him. Chewing his nails and pacing around room, Harvey looked so very human. Gabe wanted to gather him up and tell him everything would be fine. Unfortunately, Gabe didn’t know if it was true.

Chapter Four
    The sex was different this time, slow and tender, and they fell asleep in each other’s arms. However, when Gabe woke up again, he was alone. Despite being daytime, the apartment was shrouded in darkness, except for the hallway light. Harvey lay on the sofa, supine, body straight, hands crossed over his stomach, and extremely still. He could’ve been a dead body laid out for a wake. Spooky . When his eyes popped open, Gabe jumped, startled.
    “Hey, are you all right?” Harvey asked.
    “You scared the pants off me.”
    Harvey ogled Gabe’s briefs with a leer. “Too bad your underpants are less easy to startle.”
    “You didn’t have to leave the bed.”
    “When I’m asleep, my heart rate slows down to about a beat a minute. My breathing too. It would be like sleeping with a corpse. I didn’t want to freak you out.”
    “It’s your bed.”
    “Doesn’t matter, I can sleep anywhere.”
    “How come you knew I was standing here?”
    “My senses don’t sleep—except when I drink my nutritional tonic. That knocks me out.”
    “Okay, that’s freaky.” Gabe shuddered. Harvey seemed perfectly normal sometimes, but other times…not so much.
    Harvey prattled on, oblivious to Gabe’s sudden unease. “Did you know that dolphins sleep with half their brain at a time, so they can stay alert to predators?”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    Harvey got off the couch and pulled the curtains open, letting the afternoon sunlight in. Being a basement apartment, the windows were high above, just under the ceiling.
    “Doesn’t it bother you?” Gabe asked, surprised.
    “What, the sun? No. Direct, full sunlight is a bother—like getting a sunburn but faster. But this room gets about ten minutes of direct sun a day. This is fine. Why, did your commie vamps burst into flame, like in the movies?”
    “It never came up. Why do you keep the curtains closed, then?”
    “Because I see just as well in the dark, and it’s weird to think that anyone could look inside.”
    “I see.”
    “I’m gonna call Stan to see if they’ve heard from Dill yet.”
    Gabe went off to take a shower. When he returned, clean and dressed, he found Harvey on the couch, chewing his fingernails.
    “Any news?” Gabe asked.
    “Nothing. I wish I knew where the little idiot got off to.” He