The Vampire's Apprentice

Moments before official sundown, Sam went to the living room window, and his hackles rose. A low growl emanated from his chest as he stared at something in the gathering gloom. He was not going wild like he had the other night, but he was warning something not to get into his territory.
 
Sam growled again and sat, but he didn't take his eyes off the darkness. Something was there, and he was not happy about it. Slowly, though, he relaxed and turned to Kitty, looking up at her with serious doggy eyes. Everything was fine now. He'd taken care of things!
 
"Hmm...." She looked between the dog and the window a couple of times before rubbing his head and heading back to what she was doing.
 
Kitty finished the sentence before she looked up from her book. "Nothing really interesting. There's a note on the table for you from Mrs. Mooney."
 
"Oh? Excellent!" Clancy smiled. He picked up the envelope and looked it over before setting it down again. "I am afraid I have a lot of work to do this evening, so perhaps we can start the questions?" He moved to his bedroom to change.
 
"I suppose...." She considered questions for a second. "Can't really think of anything to ask off the top of my head. Let me get my notepad."
 
"Alright," CLancy agreed. He stepped into his room and changed quickly. He was in the living room fussing with the furniture as he waited for Kitty.
 
Kitty returned with her notepad—pencil tucked behind her ear—and with a new question in mind. She looked to him, waiting to ask.
 
She sat down on the couch again and spoke eagerly. "A while back, do you remember when I asked if you had any unique vampiric abilities? You said there were some that presented themselves later in life, but from the sound of it you don't have any currently. The question is, why you haven't looked into it more?"
 
"I have been quite satisfied with the abilities I already have, and none of the ones I can think of off hand would be of much use to me in my current lifestyle," Clancy replied calmly. "In my early days, I would have done a lot to get some of them, and perhaps if I had stayed in that type lifestyle, something would have presented itself to fill a need."
 
Clancy hesitated as he tried to find the right word. "Primative," he finally settled on. "There was a lot more pure survival, and a lot less civilized life."
 
"Hmm, a bit of both," Clancy admitted. "History tends to forget how harshly the Irish were treated when they first came to this land. It focuses on the blacks, quite rightly, of course, but there were also the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Irish among others. Granted, the Irish had the easiest time of them all, but it was still a hard, uphill battle to be anything more stevadores, bouncers, and housemaids. I was not only Irish, but without family or any other support group and poor with a strange schedule. There were stretches of time where I had no job or anything other than my body and whatever rags I wore on my back. But as the times changed and I learned new skills, I was able to slowly raise my status in life."
 
Kitty nodded thoughtfully. "Even though your life isn't the way it was, wouldn't it be practical just to have another skill? Even if it's not applicable in the current circumstance?"
 
"Likely, yes, but it is far more efficiant and beneficial to make use of what you have than it is to waste time bemoaning what you do not have," Clancy pointed out patiently. "Besides, most of these skill develop naturally. They are not really something to be learned."
 
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