Although he was dead himself, in a manner of speaking. He put his hand to his throat, to where his pulse should have beat just beneath the skin, and sighed, for of course there was nothing there.
In some ways that changed so little. He knew it could have changed much more. He’d been very lucky, that Harun had known the scent of vampire. He could imagine another scenario, without Harun, where he’d been found dead, and buried in a pauper’s grave with little ceremony. If he were very lucky he might have awakened on a cold altar in some charitable church, to pain and confusion as he fled the holy space. If he were less lucky he would have been buried swiftly, and left to claw his way up out of the grave.
He shuddered. He was very lucky indeed that Harun had been there when he’d died, and had
