’ As I started to protest he held up a hand to stop me. ‘Yes that creature was ‘only’ a vampire, but it doesn’t matter. Many among the Circl... consider that a vampiric act as well. You drained another creature’s life to give yourself power. That is the same thing that vampires do.’ ‘Also,’ He continued. ‘The… connection… that the ‘dark essence’ of a vampire gives you with a new form of energy leaves a taint on your aura and marks you as a possible target for demons and evil spirits.’ ‘A taint on. “What kind of contacts?” Saubath wondered.“The hacker kind. From what you’ve told me, they have their own cyber security expert, so we’ll need someone equally as good to get around them,” the human told Saubath.“I see. Is he or she or they here?” the Takharian man asked.“No. It will take me a few days to get him here. I assume that we have at least that much time before the Darkstrider leaves?” Dexter wondered.“More than enough time. They’re here for at least a week, so time isn’t an issue. I. They were both smiling at me, making me feel like a million dollars. Ive always been competitive-sporty and being good at things was important to me, and how here I was with these ski racers! It occurred to me Id better touch base with my friends so I called them and said Id see them for lunch in the mountain restaurant wed used the day before. At that point Id tell them Id been skiing with a local racer and her coach!! We skied on down, then took a different chair up this time and ended up. Remember yesterday?” I shivered. I hated to admit it, but… maybe she was right. Wordlessly, I accepted her help and stood up.“Good job on the review,” I mumbled awkwardly, not knowing what else to say. “I think you’re going to do really well on the final.”“I fucking hope I do,” she said. “Do you wanna go home?”“Yeah, I think I do,” I replied. ***Planning a date is so much easier and less anxiety-inducing when you have already gone on one before. My first final went successfully and to.