As she listened, she tucked her fingers into the pockets of her pants and hunched her shoulders. “How do you mean?”

“If Vampyres feed regularly on blood that has been tainted with hard drugs, it warps them and turns them bestial. Given enough exposure, the damage becomes permanent.” He turned to the door. “I can see we’re not going to get to any physical training today. Come on, let’s walk outside while we talk.”

She followed him out into the sunshine. “But like you said, most of the time the damage can be stopped before it turns permanent, so it isn’t really a danger, is it?”

“That’s true, but the trick is, the Vampyre has to want to stop it.” He led her to the path that went down to the beach. While a steady breeze blew off the water, the day was sunny and warm, and he turned his tanned face up with evident enjoyment to the sun’s strong, bright rays. “People persist in believing that becoming a Vampyre will solve all their problems, and it simply isn’t true. Vampyrism isn’t a panacea. Who you are as a person is who you will be as a Vampyre.”

“I don’t understand,” she said as she fell into step beside him.

They walked along the beach, while the wild cry of seagulls sounded from overhead. “If you’re an alcoholic when you’re a human, you’ll still be an alcoholic when you’re a Vampyre,” Raoul told her. “You still have the issues that drove you to drink in the first place, only drinking alcohol itself won’t have any effect on you.”

“I’ve heard of that.” She squinted against the bright sunlight. “Vampyres can’t get drunk from alcohol they consume directly, right?”

“Correct. Just as they can’t get nutrition from consuming food. They need blood to carry the nutrients, or the alcohol, in such a way that their systems will absorb it.”

“So they can get drunk if they feed from inebriated humans?”

“Yes, they can, and the same principle applies to drug addiction. If you’re an addict as a human, you’ll be an addict as a Vampyre. Getting turned doesn’t erase personality problems. It only wipes out physical diseases. But once a drug addict become a Vampyre, he can’t feel the effect from taking drugs directly.”

“Oh, wow.” She thought of the possible consequences and shuddered.

“As I said, it can be ugly. It’s against Nightkind law to turn a drug addict, but it still happens. There’s a whole subculture of addicted Vampyres that infest the tunnels that run underneath San Francisco. Every once in a while, Julian gathers enough resources to burn them out, but either they know of places to hide that his forces can’t reach, or the problem simply continues to multiply. Addicted Vampyres pay or prey on drug-addicted humans. Sometimes they supply the drugs, or turn the humans as payment, or if the Vampyre has become too bestial, they might tear them apart. It’s a twisted, feral place underneath the city.” He waved a hand. “But enough about that. There’s one more way to kill a Vampyre. Have you ever heard of brodifacoum?”

She looked sidelong at him. “No, should I have?”

He shrugged. “If you’re an environmentalist you might have come across the term. Brodifacoum is a highly lethal anticoagulant poison that’s been used in a number of pesticides.”

“Anticoagulant,” she said.

He met her gaze. “A derivative of brodifacoum has been developed that affects Vampyres. The progression of the poison is the same as it is for humans. First it attacks a Vampyre’s small blood vessels then it leads to internal bleeding, shock, convulsions, unconsciousness and eventually death.”

“It makes them bleed to death?”

He nodded. “I’ve seen it, and it’s a grim way to die.”

She winced. “There’s no cure?”

“No real cure to speak of. The only thing that can be done is to try to flush out the poison as quickly as possible and not let it get absorbed into the system. That involves a major blood draining and a massive infusion of untainted blood. Once the poison has been absorbed and causes internal bleeding in all the major organs, it’s invariably lethal.” He cocked a sandy eyebrow at her. “Not that you’ll be handing out drugs or poisons in the middle of a fight, but at least now you have a basic overview. Let’s head back.”

They turned to retrace their steps, and after a few minutes, Raoul continued, “We’re going to focus more of your training on missile weaponry—gun training, knife throwing and archery. That doesn’t mean we’ll neglect the close combat sessions, but if you can avoid going hand to hand, you’ll have a greater chance of hitting kill spots with a higher chance of survivability. Most creatures are vulnerable around their eyes, and your best asset is your hand-eye coordination.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You know, you could become a hell of a sniper, if you chose to.”

She had finally earned a compliment, from Raoul? Trying not to show how much pleasure it gave her, she said, dryly, “Good to know, although it’s not a career choice I’d ever considered before.”

He chuckled.

Looking down the shore into the distance, she tried to sound casual as she asked, “What about the more exotic Elder Races creatures, like the Djinn? What’s their kill spot?”

The laughter died from his face. “They don’t have one, not physically, anyway. If you ever run the risk of tangling with a Djinn, you run away. I run away. I’ve heard of them being killed before, but that’s a rare, dangerous event. It calls for a coordinated attack from a team of creatures who are far more Powerful than either you or I.”

The darkness of disappointment overtook the sun’s bright light. Her shoulders sagged. “That’s what I thought.”

When they got back to the gym, they worked through the details of a new schedule that started later in the morning, took into account the time she would be spending with Xavier in the evenings and incorporated more time on the gun range, and introduced archery. Then Raoul sent her off for an afternoon run.

She let herself out the main gates and started down the road, which was striped with intense sunlight and dark shadows thrown by the surrounding, towering redwoods. Watching her feet as she ran, she stepped in light, then darkness, then light again.

Her thoughts followed a similar pattern.

Light: Malphas hasn’t found me yet. Maybe he won’t. He doesn’t know how humans think, or how we can behave.