Present

          “And,” Jake asked.

          “And, what? That’s it. That’s my story.” Rosa folded her hands on top of the bar.

          “Liar,” Jake laughed. “I know there’s more to it. Come on I want to know everything.”

          Rosa let out a breath. “Ok. After that fight we were left alone for a long time. We encountered two or three more within a few decades. I waited until they found me, then I slaughtered them.”

          “Wait. What happened to Gerald?”

          “Well, during the second fight he lost. He was killed by Perilous. He was what we call a Master. He makes vampires to serve him. He came looking for us when he heard from the Blonde that we were tougher than they expected. Once he found us, we never had a chance. I knew that has soon as I saw him. They weren’t there to kill me, just to keep me for themselves. I was a guinea pig for them, a test rat.”

          “What kind of tests did they run?” Jake got up and poured him a drink from the liquor bottled from under the counter. He came back and sat next to Rosa.

          “Different types of tests. They wanted to develop the ability to walk in the sunlight. Personally, I could have cared less if we walked in the day or not, but they did succeed. I ran away before they had a chance to figure it out.”

          “Sounds like another fun story.”  Jake leaned back and put his hands behind his head. He looked like he was far away, in another state of mind.

          Just then Randen came into the kitchen. “Mama, I’m hungry.” He stretched and rubbed his eyes as he walked toward Rosa and Jake.

          “Ok honey, what would you like?”

          Randen’s eyes grew wide.”Cereal, the one with the funny guy on the front.”

          Rosa pushed her chair back, glanced at Jake, and made some cereal for their little boy.

          That night Jake laid awake thinking about everything he’d learned about Rosa within the last twenty-four hours. He wasn’t sure what to believe or what not to believe. He’d never thought vampires where real and now he had a son to think about. Tomorrow he was going to ask Rosa to stay and they raise their hybrid son together. He just wondered when his son would stop eating human food and start eating humans or animals.