Presence is simple enough to try—something they can do with no more needed than additional company and trust that they will not be harmed as they sleep (if sleep they manage at all). An awkward arrangement, should it fail, but no more awkward than social calls may demand. Mayerling has lived many periods from his carriage when he must travel. It offers no separation between sleeping quarters and any other. Admittedly, few companions have ever joined him.

"Sleep is a necessary call of biology," Mayerling notes, "even without outside influences, the lack of it will eventually drive all who need it mad. Presuming, as I do with most people, that you wish to continue living, you must then do what you need, as opposed to the urge otherwise." Not the same, by any means, as drinking human blood, but the parallel is what it is. The urge is not helpful, in the end, even to the one who has it. Some urges cannot be removed, but they can be denied.

"Be it your natural time to sleep?" Mayerling asks. "Night is when I naturally rise. If you trust me enough to sleep first, I can watch you sleep. Else"—his lips purse, not entirely approving but then... it is not his place to enforce behavior—"you can watch me come sunrise."