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I did. “Josh?”

“Yes, of course.” He smiled as he brushed my hair behind my ear. “I wouldn’t leave your safety up to a human. We’re faster and stronger.”

“Thanks, I guess.” I pursed my lips as I consumed all the information.

“I think we should play it safe for now. Lonzo is dead, but he had an entire organization of people. We don’t know if he came to town by himself. We don’t know if he informed anyone where he was going, and who he was going to see. I want to be cautious where you’re concerned.”

This was something I hadn’t fully thought about. Zand had the same concerns that I had. Lonzo had people. He had family and people that worked for him. It felt like my problems were over, but I couldn’t be sure. His sister, Marisol, had come totown to assault me and maybe she knew her brother was coming to Chicago.

When I thought about her, I got angry. That bitch jumped me. She was a little thing, and I probably would’ve whooped her ass if we fought one on one. After what she did to me, I couldn’t believe she would be stupid enough to put her freedom in jeopardy by coming back here.

I set that aside. I had the ultimate question. “Can vampires die?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“It’s a secret.”

“I thought you said we didn’t have secrets.”

“It depends. Are you trying to kill me?” He joked or at least I thought he was joking.

“That’s not funny. I would never try to hurt you.”

I could tell he was thinking about it. He’d been hurt before, by an ex. He told me that was the reason he came to Chicago in the first place. “Seriously, I want to know for my own safety. When we’re together, I’m the minority. There are vampires all around me.”

“That’s a good point. We can die by fire. It must be an intense, continuous fire. Not just fire by itself. I can run into fire as long as I am able to run out. But I can’t stay in the flames for minutes, a few seconds perhaps.”

“What about a stake through the heart?”

“No, that doesn’t work. Knives and bullets don’t kill us. Knives make us bleed, but aren’t very painful. Getting shot is a nuisance, of course, but not deadly.”

“So, what happens when you’re injured?”

“We heal. Not instantly like in horror films, but sooner than humans, depending on the injury. It’s a shock to our system, but nothing that stops us completely.”

I took a few seconds to let the knowledge sink in.

“Have you made someone into a vampire before? You know, like turned them like you.”

“I have.” Zand looked from my eyes across the room. “My ex. I turned her.”

Oh, hell no! His ex-girlfriend is a vampire.“She wanted it? Or you just did it because you wanted it?”

“Oh, she wanted it. She wanted to be like me. She begged me. I tried to talk her out of it, but I was served with an ultimatum. She pleaded with me to change her. I had to, or she was going to leave me.”

Why would she want that? I wanted to ask him, but the question probably wouldn’t give me an answer that made sense. “You’ve been a vampire since 1977. That’s a long time. Did you turn anyone else other than your ex?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, did you have a wife and kids back in the seventies?” That random thought popped into my head.

“I didn’t have a family.”

“Are you sure?”

Zand chuckled. “I’m very sure. If I had a child, they would still be alive, and I would never abandon a child, my child, a human child. That’s something I can never have.”