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the insult in his wording. "I didn't mean to be rude."
    "It's okay, sweetheart. Most
paranormals are used to humans being frightened of them." Adrian continued
to filter his fingers through Tyler's hair as he spoke. "You're coping
much better than most humans would."
    "If you say so," he said quietly.
    "I say so," Adrian said. "Now,
get some sleep."
     
    ~*~
     
    Adrian woke Tyler and Logan several more
times during the night. Each time Logan grew a little stronger, opened his
mouth a little wider, and seemed more likely to survive. The biggest test would
be if he woke tonight when the sun went down. Adrian felt confident that if
Logan woke after another day sleep that his chances of
survival were much higher.
    Keeping Tyler close, Adrian watched Logan's
body slowly change from what appeared to be a sleeping human to a vampire in
day sleep. Logan stopped breathing, his metabolism shutting down as his body
quickly fell into a type of extreme hibernation. In a vampire as young as Logan
everything stopped—everything, including the flow of his blood—leaving him in a
state of suspended animation.
    As vampires got older the shut down of their
body's systems was less extreme. It was likely why William had been able to
turn Logan during the day, but it was also what had killed him.
    As with the other murders, the attacker had
tried to slice open every major artery so that when night fell and the vampire
woke, their metabolism started and they bled out almost immediately. But Logan
had interrupted the killer and William had been older and able to move enough
to help him. Judging by the huge amounts of blood at the scene, when William
had woken his heart had started pumping as well.
    It was very likely that the killer had run
from the scene in panic. The other murders would have been similar to an
autopsy—no flowing blood, no victim response, plenty of time to do what they'd
planned without the chance of being interrupted. It was one of the reasons
Adrian and his siblings were having trouble tracking down the killer. With such
control over the murder scene it was far easier to cover one's tracks than what
had happened at William Danker's home.
    His brothers, Gavin and Derek, had gathered
as much evidence as they could from the crime scene before calling in a
discreet cleaning crew. It wasn't a perfect system, but it was necessary to ensure
the safety of thousands of other paranormals living in this town. If the human
population ever learned who was really living next door, history suggested that
the reaction wouldn't be pretty.
    Protecting their secret took priority over
preserving the scene where a paranormal had been murdered. It was very handy
having the sheriff's department aware of their presence, but Sheriff Lansdowne
and his dispatcher were the exceptions to the rule. The more humans who knew,
the less safe the paranormal community became.
    Unfortunately Adrian had too many years
behind him to know that was true.
    He glanced at the man sleeping in his arms.
Tyler had been truly amazing in the way he'd handled everything in the past ten
hours, but now he was essentially one more link in an ever weakening chain.
With the advent of modern technology it was becoming harder and harder to live
in plain sight. Sooner or later things were going to change. The only question
was: Would paranormals survive it?
     

Chapter Four
     
    Tyler startled awake as Logan groaned
loudly. He seemed to be in terrible pain.
    "Tyler?" Logan asked breathlessly
as he tried to sit up. "Where are we?"
    "At Adrian's place," Tyler said as
he moved closer to the bed. " It's okay, Logan.
Lie back down. Don't push yourself." Tyler leaned closer, trying to assess
if Logan's color was healthy for a vampire or not. "Are you hungry?"
    His best friend licked his lips, but shook
his head in seeming embarrassment.
    "Why are we here?"
    "We're staying with Adrian while he
figures out what happened."
    "Adrian?" Logan shook his head as
if trying to clear it. "Who's