The versation with Felicity had gone on lohan that before I finally got some rest, but it was less iing, and I'll get to the results of it in a little bit.

  For most of my shift, Greg worked the till in front of me, and Ayden behind me. And Cassy mostly did stog.

  Normally, this would mean that when there was a lull in ers, I could turn one way to talk about Star Wars and the other way to talk about dinosaurs. And that would be quite a choice, because while I find that dinosaur versations are more mentally stimuting for me, Star Wars versations have a greater ce ering inteion.

  If Cassy had been there, we might have talked folklore and urban legends, which was always a hoot for me.

  But there was more Christmas music, of course, so both men were ined to whine about that. Well, Ayden whined about people whining about Christmas music, but same effect, really.

  The human iion of holidays has always fed me pretty well. It didn’t really matter the culture or era, people have always allowed themselves to really feel things during their special days. And, also, wherever there are crowds there are flicts. Especially, little wordless frustratioween people that just fester and radiate nutrition for me. But, sometimes, also, there’s quite a bit of joy.

  But whatever the overall mood and how it might affect my outward demeanor, a well fed Synthia is a, graceful, fast, aerous Synthia, and that usually makes me happy underh everything.

  And a part of me was definitely preoccupied with Felicity’s proposition, and what I was going to do about it. But not so much so that I couldn’t rex and focus on what I was doing.

  Now, the thing about dinosaur versations is that I’ve seen dinosaurs. I’ve evehem, in a manner of speaking. I mean, besides the ohat are alive today. The big ones.

  So, even in the midst of traditional Christmas whining, I could spark a versation about dinosaurs by turning to Ayden and saying the most itle truth I khat I couldn’t possibly know if I was human, and it would set him off about how paleontology works. And even though he k was my habit to do this to him, and assumed I was just teasing him with ridiculous statements, he always rose to the occasion.

  It was delightful.

  If you’d never seen someone grin and frown at the same time, that was one way to witness it.

  “OK, guys,” I said. “Enough about Little Drummer Boy.”

  “Oh, no,” Greg grumbled.

  I pushed on, knowing that they both yearned for the distra, “You know that heron that’s married to her zookeeper for life?”

  “Oh, don’t even go there, Synthia,” Ayden muttered.

  “Sounds like this one’s on you, kid,” Greg called over both his shoulder and mine.

  “The other day, I learhat T-Rexes were like that, too,” I boldly stated.

  I heard a thump behind me and turo see Ayden leaning over his bagging ter, head in arms, vulsing with what I happeo know was silent hysterical ughter.

  Feeling that radiate from him was gratifying.

  “That sounds reasonably pusible,” Greg said.

  “Mmph!” Ayden protested.

  But a er pushed their cart into Ayden’s checkout aisle and said, “Oh. I read that article! It’s totally true!”

  Ayden straightened and faced the person, “Oh, please don't ence her! Hi! Did you find everything you wanted?”

  “Yep. Thank you.”

  Then, as he started ringing things up, Ayden expined, “It’s a cool idea, and we 't disprove it. I'm sure the article you read had all sorts of quotes from ahusiastic stist. But as far as I know, and I stay on top of this, all we guess is that at least one species of Tyrannosaurus teheir s. That's based on fossil evidence. Everything else is jecture based on simirities to extant life today, like birds.”

  “No, I get that,” the er said. “But this article said there was new evidence!”

  “I didn't read the article,” I said.

  “Oh,” said the er.

  “Synthia…” Ayden groaned.

  “I have a T-Rex for a husband now,” I said smugly, then turo take care of my own er.

  The fusion and amusement that bloomed behind me was delectable.

  “I think she likes to hear me talk paleontology,” I heard Ayden saying. “But theeases me like that when it's time to cut out the chatter. One of the perks of w here, really.”

  Then I lost myself in work and dining, and pretty mujoyed the rest of my shift.

  Lunch, break, and after work banter was basically more of the same and pretty routihough I tributed a little more.

  At one point, a bit ter, Ayden asked me, “No really, you were just teasing, right? Or was there a heory? Was there really an article?”

  I was so distracted by my evening pns that it took me a moment to remember what he was talking about. But when I did, I turned and smiled at him.

  “Oh, of course I was teasing, Ayden,” I said. “I like making you talk about dinosaurs and I needed an intellectual break from the music.”

  “I thought so,” he hen he looked up at me, squinting his eyes. “It’s just, maybe not today, but sometimes you say things with such authority, like you were there somehow, it’s half ving. And you really know your stuff. You have to in order to tease me like you do. What was your major in college again?”

  “Oh, I haven't done school yet,” I replied, truthfully. “It seems like a good idea someday. But I do pretty well listening to people like you.”

  Even if you're faking ay, it's good to use truths when you . It makes it easier to speak with vi. Also, I've found it fun to see what I get away with. Whatever you tell somebody, they will make up a story in their head to make it fit their idea of you.

  “Ah, I get that,” he said. “And, it's not like a degree pays for itself anyway. Loans destroy your life.”

  “Sure,” I said.

  “Well, I'm gd you work here,” he told me. “Greg's OK, and I love Cassy, but you're the only person who actually listens to me rant about stists and dead animals.”

  “Mm,” I replied. “I'm gd I get to work with you, too. It's fun. I guess you could say, I grew up with dinosaurs in my life. Everyone around me was into them for a while, and I kind of miss it.”

  “Oh?”

  “Not much of a story to tell, really,” I said. “Just got caught up in one of the waves.”

  “Oh, like ba the ‘90s leading up to Jurassic Park.”

  “Kind of like that, yeah. Dinosaur mania's been a periodic thing for a while.”

  “Right!”

  And that's all the time we had for that exge.

  But having to mask my true identity and motives while expining myself to Ayden got me thinking about Felicity’s gig, and why I was going to actually try helping her.

  She hadn't even offered me a reason or iive to team up with her. It retty obvious what my share of the take would be. Her host would have emotions I could harvest while she was makitack, but the real reward was that in order to be her bait I'd have to put myself in riskier situations. Which meant going to pces with more intense crowds experieng excitement. I could feast just before the a, in a way that I usually denied myself.

  She'd be my bodyguard, in a sense.

  And besides the extra food, it would also be more fun for me.

  For instance, I love movies. I watch quite a few of them on my own. Alone, I get to feel my owions in a way I don't normally notice when surrounded by life. And movies also give me a glimpse into the human psyche while not feeding, and I just think about it. But I avoid theaters with rge audiences because they bee feeding frenzies all too easily, and it’s harder to avoid getting preyed upon in that situation.

  Which was the crux of the pn that night. I'd go see a movie and then hang out in a restroom afterward, to tempt a predator to e after me.

  And Felicity would tail me, and hopefully poun anybody trying to predate me before they make their move.

  It made me really nervous, but we'd agreed to what should be a more subdued showing. One where the crowd would be smaller, and easier to b for likely targets and threats. Less fusion than a big theater with a bunch of blockbusters in it.

  And I'd been mulling and fretting over houtive we were going to be.

  The pn was to lure another monster out into the open so that Felicity could eat them. That monster would die and never exist again. Just like what would happen to me if Felicity wasn’t there.

  But, while my usual methods of feeding don't result ih or even injury, I do manipute the heck out of people.

  I'd just then had to expin away what I'd been doing. Because my usual habit of slinging quips and teasing people was sort of predatory in itself. I had been provokiion from everyone around me. I always did. And sometimes that prompts people to ask why I am the way I am.

  What I do is maybe more akin to an ant tig the butt of an aphid to get a droplet of glucose. And I feel protective and appreciative of my people. But I'm not one of them, and I don’t talk to them for the same reasons they talk to me.

  I feed on them.

  And those of my kind who have fewer scruples than I do ofte called energy vampires while using a lot of the same teiques.

  It's just that I prefer to provoke amusement and camaraderie instead of frustration and irritation.

  So, was I bothered by this new modus operandi I was sidering?

  Kind of.

  I was risking my existence, which is something I usually take great pains not to do. And I articipating in the murder of another monster, which I have done before, actually. A lot. But not usually in coordination with anyone else. I’ve just knowingly led a pursuer to their death at the hands of another who wasn't really expeg it, as an act of self defense. And it’s not really something I like doing, actually. But, I do admit, I have a tendency to view teratovores as deserving of an early demise.

  It’s hard for me not to think that way, after eons of being their prey. I might be able to verse aiate with any of them, and even cut a deal like I was doing with Felicity, but I could never afford to trust them. Not on a personal level, at least.

  Mind you, I see their importan the bance of everything. I’ve observed ecosystem after ecosystem develop and evolve, from germination to extin, and apex predators are every bit as important as the ti bacteria.

  But anyway, the thing I’ve bee used to about existence is that it is an exercise in revisiting and reviewing old dilemmas and situations, them, re-evaluating them, and ag anew upon them, over and over. That’s all there is, after you’ve outgrown your juvenile years whehing is discovery.

  I’d done something kind of like this before, many, many times. Just not amongst huma, and not with the plexity of nguage that living amongst them could afford me. I’d spent the several million years of human evolution coasting on fortable habits of safety and security, so I could soak up as much culture as possible. And humanity kept bringing me hings to occupy myself with, so I’d had no trouble with boredom. Though, not being a predator myself, I just didn't really experience boredom.

  And maybe I thought I was ready for some risk, to apply my new rhetorical tools of thought and examination to see if I could learn something new about the a dance of eat aen.

  One might look at the length of my existend my history of stig to the reliable and stable for extraordinarily long periods of time and question how I could jump right int with Felicity the very day after she’d presented her proposal. And one would not be out of lio question me about it.

  But what one might not know is just how long I’d been preparing for something like this.

  After work, I went bay home to rest in safety for a couple hours and to ge into a new disguise. And to make other preparations.

  And then I went to the movies.

  theInmara