Eternal by Pati Nagle

told us that at the blood donor center. “Ten.”
    â€œ More than one person’s stomach would hold.”
    My stomach informed me that this was not an appropriate topic for mealtime. Why was Caeran trying to gross me out? That was mid-school behavior. Certainly beneath someone over the age of fifteen. Hundred.
    â€œ She was at the blood center looking for prey,” he said. “I went back and checked the register. The student she killed gave blood about the same time we did.”
    That was why his picture had looked familiar. I must have seen him at the center. I shivered.
    â€œ So we’re either talking vampire or creepy vampire wanna-be. Right?”
    Caeran leaned his elbows on the table and spoke softly. “I need you to set aside what you’ve learned from books and movies. This is real. The alben is immortal but she can be killed. She feeds on blood. She is—”
    â€œ Why do you think it’s a she?”
    â€œ Because the alben often prey on the opposite sex. They use sexual attraction to disarm caution.”
    Oh, ew.
    â€œ So she seduced the guy and then drank his blood?”
    Caeran looked tired. “I don’t know. It is possible.”
    â€œ OK, assuming I accept all this, what do we do now?”
    Caeran glanced at Len. “You should come and stay with us for now.”
    â€œ Why? The al—albino—”
    â€œ Alben.”
    â€œ Whatever—she’s sated, you said.”
    â€œ For now. She may stay in the area, though. And she knows your scent.”
    Ugh.
    â€œ That’s nuts. I can’t stay with you indefinitely.”
    â€œ You need not. Only until my kin and I find the alben.”
    â€œ What are you going to do then?”
    He looked down at the table. “Kill her.”
    He was flat serious. A chill sank into my gut. Caeran, pretty Caeran, Mr. Wonderful. Calmly determined to kill.
    He must have picked up on my freaked-outness. “We will atone,” he said sadly. “But we must keep her from harming others.”
    â€œ Why not just call the cops?”
    â€œ She is alben. She is more powerful than any human.”
    â€œ Oh, right. So, um—she drinks blood, she’s immortal, and she’s got super-powers. What else?”
    â€œ It isn’t a joke, Man,” said Len.
    I raised my eyebrows at her. “You’re telling me you believe this?”
    â€œ It’s true.”
    â€œ Uh-huh.”
    â€œ We wouldn’t be telling you about this at all if your life wasn’t in danger!”
    Len never yelled like that. She really did believe the fairy-tale crap Caeran was feeding me? Had he hypnotized her or something?
    She turned to Caeran. “Just show her, all right?”
    â€œ Show me what?”
    He shook his head, then looked at me. “You don’t have to believe us. Just come and stay at our house for a while.”
    â€œ I’ll be safe in the bat-cave?”
    â€œ Safer than on campus.”
    I swallowed. He had me there.
    The murder was too close to home. The campus killer last fall had taken four students before the killings stopped. And yeah, they’d happened a week or two apart, as I recalled. Same MO.
    Something clicked in my head and a bunch of pieces fell into place. “Wait a minute. You said the guy from last fall is dead.”
    â€œ Yes,” Len said.
    I looked at Caeran. “And both you and Savhoran were injured last fall. Coincidence?”
    â€œ No.”
    â€œ So you were injured by another of these monsters?”
    â€œ They are not monsters. They are alben. They are our kindred.”
    â€œ What?”
    â€œ It’s a disease, Man,” said Len. “They’re all the same race, but the alben have a disease—”
    â€œ That makes them immortal?”
    â€œ No,” Caeran said.
    â€œ They’re immortal to begin with,” Len went on. “The disease makes them unable to digest much of