Garekyn could hardly contain himself. He wanted to approach the figure and confess all he knew of himself and beg Benji Mahmoud to help him. But something stronger than instinct kept him many paces behind as he tracked Little Man now, who turned right and started walking downtown.

Garekyn didn’t know what to do! He realized how surprised he was, how positively amazed, and though he knew that nothing like this had happened to him in a hundred years, indeed that he had never seen a being like this Little Man anywhere in the world, nor a being like himself anywhere in the world, this was in fact happening, and this Benji Mahmoud was ignoring him! Indeed, it was worse than that. Little Man picked up his pace. In the thin leisurely crowds on Madison Avenue, Little Man appeared to be trying to lose him.

In fact, it was amazing how fast the little blood drinker could walk without attracting attention. Like many another New Yorker, he darted gracefully past people to the right and left, with his head slightly bowed, and vanished from moment to moment as Garekyn, half a block away, sped forward trying to catch sight of him again.

Garekyn’s mind raced. It wasn’t calculation to have one’s thoughts race like this, and to have the inevitable mammalian emotions clashing wildly in one’s body and brain. And suddenly, he began to repeat the name “Amel” under his breath, repeat it as if it were a prayer. “Amel, Amel, Amel…,” he whispered, as on and on he walked. “I must find out about Amel!” he whispered. “I must know about Amel!” Could the vampire be hearing what Garekyn was saying? “Amel, tell me, I must know about Amel.”

The figure he was following stiffened, and then came to a stop.

For a moment, Garekyn couldn’t see Benji for the passersby, but then he did see him. Benji had turned around and was looking at him, and Garekyn felt the nearest thing to panic he’d felt in years. Danger. Threat. Retreat.

Now, Garekyn had no instinctive fear of humans. He was, by his own calculation with the help of Prince Alexi, about five times as strong as a human male. But every molecule in his body alerted him to overwhelming risk.

He couldn’t retreat. He couldn’t. He had to make contact with Benji, and Benji had to talk to him! Besides what could this “blood drinker” do to him? He walked on towards Benji and he kept repeating that word, “Amel, Amel.”

A car appeared at the curb beside Benji.

Garekyn and Benji weren’t thirty steps from one another.

Benji fixed Garekyn with his sharp black eyes, and then he climbed into the car and the car sped away, rushing northbound past Garekyn and on into the steady flow of cars that choked the avenue.

Garekyn cried out, begging Benji to wait.