"So you want to stay here and... something about ozone?" he says.

"Patch the ozone layer, catch the field of medicine up to 2159, maybe get you started on space colonization, save the honeybees."

"...Sure," says Ripper. "Knock yourself out. Don't get eaten by a vampire."

"...You had neglected to mention those."

"They're a kind of demon. Sort of. They look like humans most of the time, but they bring out the fangs when they're about to try to drink your blood. Mostly they drink human blood, but you might run into a stupid or adventurous one."

"Okay, do they do anything else interesting, and do they usually bite to kill?"

"Usually, yeah. I don't know, what's 'interesting'? Is catching fire in sunlight interesting?"

"Mildly. Does it have to be natural sunlight?"

"I'm not sure. I think I've heard of someone using a sunlight spell."

"Garlic, crosses, running water, spend daylight hours comatose in coffins...?"

"Garlic yes, crosses yes, running water no but holy water gives them nasty blisters, and I hear coffins are getting old-fashioned. Modern vampires squat."

"Okay. Do they listen to reasonable attempts at talking to them, and is there a way to check if holy water counts short of flicking it at one?"

"...Not usually, and... I've never heard of a magic shop selling fake holy water... but you can make things, right, no I have no idea how to check if yours holds up without giving it the smoke test. So to speak."

"Okay, that should be exciting, I suppose. Are they common? Do people know about them, by and large? For that matter what do people in general know about magic and demons?"

"You were telling me about the general population's knowledge of things. Do you want me to just make you tea?"

"Right. General population doesn't know a thing." He puts down the kettle. "Yeah, go on then. You're very helpful. Did I ever get your name?"

Cam makes him a cup of tea and hands it over. "I'm Cam. How do you exit the general population in that respect, in what way are you non-general?"

"Thanks. Well, the way I did is I grew up with it. Not sure about Rayne. But it's the kind of thing you learn from a friend or relative, or maybe picking up the wrong book and accidentally doing some magic, or being lucky enough to survive a vampire attack."

"And this has managed to escape someone going public with it how?"

"I'm supposed to know?"

"Well, for example, why don't you?"

"I have better things to do with my time. I'm not powerful enough to easily prove I can do really real magic and not some kind of trick, people can be amazingly skeptical when they don't know. And I wouldn't see the point if I could, what would I get out of it?"

"Aha."

"This is good tea," he says.