“I am not considered old, although I am far past vampire youth. Living with Tanya her whole life has forced me to adapt to odd hours, plus my bloodline is directly from one of the oldest vampires.”

“Stacia said Tanya is more like an old vampire than a young one?”

“Tanya was born vampire—the only vampire in our entire history to have done so. Regular Darkkin lore does not apply much to her. She is more like an Elder than a regular vampire in many ways, but without the mental baggage that comes with centuries of existence.”

“Elders are like how old?”

“Generally over nine hundred years. There are three Elders: Senka, Tzao, and the newest, Mausya. Senka and Tzao are the oldest, both well over a thousand years of age. Mausya is over nine hundred. Vampires grow more powerful with age. But ours is a dangerous and often violent world. Not many Darkkin get too far past their second and third centuries. Galina, Tanya’s mother, is almost three hundred.”

“And Lydia? Declan talks about her a lot.”

Nika laughed again. “Lydia is very, very special. She is not yet a hundred, yet she benefits from having the same very close blood connection to Senka that I do. We consider ourselves sisters, both to each other and to Tanya. I’m not surprised Declan mentions her a lot. They have a big sister-little brother thing going on.”

“Oh. I wasn’t sure, although now that you say that, it makes sense of a lot of things that he’s said.”

“Lydia is what you would call a wiseass, a pick, mixed with a snarky wit. I love her very much.”

“Declan’s kind of a wiseass too.”

“Absolutely, as is Chris. Hence why the three pick on each other, although it is mostly Chris and Declan versus Lydia. Completely unfair.”

“That they gang up on her?”

She laughed again. “No, she is more than their match even when they pool their wit. You may have to help them.”

“Not sure I want to paint myself as a target this early,” he said.

“Which proves you might be more wise than wiseass. Here comes the house; let’s speak of other things until we are far past it,” Nika said.

The residence in question was clearly in much poorer condition than the student apartment houses around it, not that any of them were in great shape either. Clearly, landlords in this section were not reinvesting any of their rental incomes back into their properties. But this one had garbage piled around the driveway side, mostly pizza boxes and take-out containers. A beat-up love seat with the front left leg broken off held center spot on the big covered front porch and a fairly new Subaru Impreza sat in the driveway, dirty and littered with dead leaves. The house was on the downhill side of the street, and therefore upwind, so a steady breeze fed them all of its scents.