“If it turns up,” I sighed, remembering how I had been waiting for answers for eighteen years, and how I still haven’t received some.

But I still had some clue. Madame Pelisay said that I am Dragon on my father's side. I wonder if he's still alive? And if so, why have I never seen him? Even if their relationship with his mother was truly accidental and for one night, had he really not been overcome by curiosity over all the years to find out who was born to him?

Or did his mother simply not tell him that she was pregnant?

– Listen, but it turns out that vampires can have children? – this fact perhaps struck me most of all.

This is the complete opposite of what was described in books and films!

Fun sparkled in Nirel's eyes.

– Naturally. We need to reproduce somehow. Any questions?

– But of course!

Sitting more comfortably, I turned my whole body to the guy.

– When we entered the library, it was daytime, but we left here at night. What's going on here? Are time zones different?

In response, he rolled his eyes, as if I had said complete nonsense. But I decided not to be offended, because it’s interesting.

– You could also say time zones. It is immediately obvious that you are one of the Coming Ones. It's always night on the Dark Side, Sally. All day long and at any time – and this has been the case for more than two centuries. It was the witches who cast witchcraft because those who were born exactly at midnight – at the junction between the days – do not feel well in the light of day. But vampires react to the sun more sharply than others. Our concentration decreases, drowsiness, loss of strength, and vulnerability appear. We are weakening before our eyes. And, by the way, about the eyes: they are sensitive to the sun. I heard that our people on the other side wear dark glasses or special hard lenses.

Lenses… I almost jumped on the spot with realization, because the guy told the absolute truth. Since childhood, my eyes would water and hurt terribly just by looking at the sun. I didn’t even remember when I first put on lenses: I was too small, but since then I haven’t gone outside without them.

The first thing I did in the morning was wash my face and insert my lenses. But even with them, our windows were always covered with thick curtains.

Nirel was right about everything. Even though these lenses were made of hard matter. They felt somewhere between glass and plastic.

Twitching, I wanted to show him the lenses, peacefully waiting in the wings in the pocket of my overalls, but I stopped myself in time. If I wanted everyone around me to consider me an ordinary person and let me go on all four sides in peace, then I shouldn’t show off my features.

Because any of these features already made me a vampire, and therefore a prisoner of the Midnighter Academy.

Since my guide turned out to be so talkative, chewing his lower lip, I nevertheless decided to ask a frank question:

– Nirel, are we monsters?

Thoughts about hunters haunted me. It’s not for nothing that they decided to exterminate vampires? Maybe there was something in history for which toothless vegetarians still felt ashamed?

– Sally, do I look like a monster? – they asked me unexpectedly softly, but quite seriously.

I defiantly looked him up and down.

– You? You are not.

– And you don't. So we are not monsters. Your mother said it right: we maintain balance in the human world. We help those who are on the verge of disaster, you know?

Taking my hand gently, he lightly stroked the back of my hand with his thumb. I froze in shock, afraid to even take another breath.