Aveira laughed again. She laughed so hard, tears came to her blind eyes and she doubled over. She ripped off the blindfold. That emotional boost would keep her eyes working for a while. When she could finally speak, she looked at him with mischievous eyes. "Yes, not yet. The people I hang around tend to have...strange...alterations in their lives. I only hang around interesting people. You, unfortunately, are interesting." She shrugged. "It could be worse. You could be boring."

"I don't have the leisure of being boring. After all, if I was boring, I wouldn't publish any books, and so I wouldn't make any of that stuff we call money," he rolled his eyes and continued with his remark, "And I would never have ended up here. I live simply, but I have a large amount of money. I need it for all these international tri-"

"Wait. Altered in what kind of unusual ways?"

She shrugged vaguely. "It depends. But that's not important. The important thing is that you're most definitely not boring and I have no intention of harming you without cause. In fact, I plan on going to somewhat great lengths to avoid it."

((This post brought to you by the 9 minutes of power I have left in my laptop))

"Oh, good. That makes me feel special..." he sighed, stood up, and brushed himself off. "Well, I guess I'll be going...?"

She shook her head. "Not yet, you won't. I explained to you what I was doing. You could get famous from writing a book like this. I want something in return." She smiled as her fangs slid into place.

Risus blinked. And blinked. And blinked one more time. Then closed his eyes. "A-a-and wh-what would th-that b-b-be....?"

"To maintain what little bit of my soul remains, I try to only take blood from those that willingly give it to me. I'm a chigami, you see. My diet is like the modern vampire, but less limited." She paused, thinking of how to continue. "It's very hard to get good blood from willing people. The only people that will let me drink their blood are the goths and druggies. As you may imagine, they taste like utter shit." Aveira looked at him, hunger and desperation barely apparent in her eyes. "You would not taste like utter shit."

"O-oh," he murmured. Obviously, Risus knew, he could refuse. Refuse, and keep himself free of anything that might be too gravitational that he could not escape from. Of course, that also would mean him not leaving here under his own power, or even alive at all. On the other hand, she had been a great help to him so far, trusted him with a few of her secrets, and had even provided the means to add to his funds for more of his ventures. So, in the complex mind of this writer, the choice wais painstakingly obvious. He held his breath for a moment, then sighed. "Not too much, okay?"