The Raven and the Vampire

Edgar's feathers shone in the moonlight, his curious black eyes looking sideways at the enby vampire that had been his companion for half a decade. He had become accustomed to the moonlight, though his species was not naturally nocturnal, because this was when Evelyn was awake. They—Evelyn was neither a he nor a she—kept a refrigerator stocked with bits of chicken and liver and fruit, and it was all for Edgar because Evelyn didn't eat food of that kind.

"Never more" Edgar croaked the first phrase Evelyn had ever taught him.

The hint of a smile creeped across Evelyn's ashen lips. They reached out and stroked Edgar's head feathers. Edgar leaned in at first, relishing the affection until it became presumptuous, then he lunged forward, aiming to bite them with his powerful beak. The vampire's unearthly fast reflexes did not allow him to make contact.

Evelyn laughed. Edgar knew how to mimic that sound too, so he laughed back.

"Edgar," Edgar said. He then flew across the small apartment and perched on the chair next to the refrigerator. His claws rested in old scratches in the wood.

"Are you hungry, Edgar?" Evelyn asked.

"Are you hungry," Edgar repeated.

"I am," said the vampire. There was sadness in their bright green eyes, eyes that glowed even in the dim light. Edgar understood that Evelyn was a predator but he was not afraid. Ravens had always been friends to predators.

Evelyn took a white china plate from the cupboard above the sink, and then a knife and fork from the top drawer. She placed these on the table as though setting it for a human guest. Edgar didn't need these things but he had learned over the years that this ritual meant food and he shifted excitedly from foot to foot.

They opened the refrigerator and produced a small piece of uncooked chicken breast and a handful of blueberries and lay them on the plate. Edgar hopped on to the table and began tearing at the chicken.

"You know all my secrets, Edgar," Evelyn said. "You're the only creature in all my days who has known all my secrets and chosen to stay." They paused and looked wistfully out the open window while Edgar crushed a blueberry in his beak. "People hated me, called me unnatural, even before I was changed," they said. "Because I'd been born a girl but dressed in men's clothing. Because I dared love a woman. That was centuries ago, when it was still illegal for two women to love each other. They wouldn't listen when I told them that though I was certainly not a man, I had never been a woman."

Edgar had heard these words before, though he didn't understand them all. Evelyn often told this story when it was time to hunt. They knew they had to kill a human to feed themselves and it helped them to remember how cruel humans had been to them when they were still innocent.

"It was Elizabeth, my own fiancée who turned me in." They breathed her name as though it had its own unearthly power.

"I had passed as a man for years. I didn't even change my name. Evelyn is considered a feminine name now, but back then there were many men called Evelyn. I was named after my father, actually. But as Bet and I became closer she began to see that I had been born with a female form. She told her priest that she suspected I was female and the priest told the authorities."

"All my secrets," Edgar croaked.

"I loved her with all my heart, Edgar, I never dreamed she would betray me. I thought she would understand. That she loved me enough to forget taboos. I nearly died the night I found out it was her. I hid in the barn with the cattle and used a cleaver knife to try to hack off my own breasts. I hated my body so much. I hated myself when I should have hated her. I was barely conscious when the undead found me, following the scent of my blood. I was born again that night as something between living and dead."

"Never more," said Edgar.

"Never more," Evelyn agreed. "I will never love another person. People are only prey to me now."

Edgar watched curiously as a single tear traced a path down the vampire's pale cheek. He was the only creature who ever saw this, who ever knew that the predator could feel pain.

"Ridiculous, isn't it? That I would still shed tears for her. It has been centuries, Edgar. She lived to be eighty years old and she never looked back for me, not once, no matter how often I watched her from the shadows. I thought that if I could take her as my prey I would be free, but I could never bring myself to do it. I suppose now we'll never know."

"Edgar. Edgar," the raven croaked. The plate was clean except for a blueberry juice stain and a smear of chicken blood.

"I think you've had enough, my friend."

"Never more," Edgar croaked and flew to rest on Evelyn's thin shoulder. He tugged at the top button of Evelyn's black silk shirt, a garment that perfectly matched Edgar's feathers.

They unbuttoned their shirt slowly, unveiling their pale scarred chest to the moonlight. Then they bared their fangs and uttered a piercing shriek, halfway between demon and animal.

Edgar shrieked too, mimicking the sound. Then flew to rest on the window sill. He looked outside then back at Evelyn expectantly.

"Time to hunt," said the vampire.

"Time to hunt!" The raven replied.

In a woosh of night wind, Evelyn's human shape was gone and they had become a small black bat, darting this way and that in the small apartment. Their bright green eyes were the only sign that the creature was not a natural bat, that they were still Evelyn.

Edgar spread his wings and he and his companion flew out into the night.