Free Ripper by Lexi Blake

class.”
    “We meet twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for an hour and a half per class, but it’s a late afternoon class,” the professor explained. “I’m afraid some of our discussions run long. We get involved in the work. We often move from class to the pub across the street where we argue long into the evening.”
    “Sounds like you have some dedicated students.”
    A smirk crossed his face as he sat back. “I’m grateful I’ve instilled such loyalty and passion in my students.”
    If he were female, I’d have started counting up the cats. I wondered briefly what male spinsters filled their houses with. I was betting a whole lot of well-organized books. His shelves here were full of them. There was the requisite literature by luminaries like Joyce, Forster, and Dickens, but there were other less obvious choices. There was a large volume titled “The Encyclopedia of Vampire.” I was unaware that vamps had started writing reference books, but I was willing to go with it. There was a field guide to identifying demons. I could have saved him the hours reading that one. Demons are the ones who try to eat you. I turned my attention back to the professor. “This is the second class Joanne has taken with you?”
    He nodded shortly. “Yes, Joanne is an excellent student. She did her final essay last year on the relevance of Bram Stoker’s Dracula to today’s genre fiction. It was a good paper. I invited her to join us for this class. It’s mostly made up of sophomores and juniors, but there are a few seniors.”
    “Her roommate said she spent more time than usual on this class.”
    He shrugged. “It’s a rigorous class. I know some people think there isn’t a lot of value in what I teach, but I think we can all learn from history.”
    “History? I thought you taught English.”
    “I do, but you can’t study literature and the minds of the great authors without understanding history. My class is contextual. I teach freshman English and any number of literature courses, but over the last ten years I’ve become interested in lore and mythology. It was my Classical Mythology and Urban Legends that Joanne was in.”
    “So she was studying Greek gods and stuff?”
    He shot me a dismissive smile and I knew my intellect was coming into question. “So much more than that. The religions of the past are the ‘mythology’ of today. Zeus and Hades perform the same functions as the gods of today’s religions do. They were a way for people to explain the unexplainable. They were a conduit between humans and the divine. But our lore, our stories are even more important. They seek to unveil that which is hidden.”
    “And what is hidden, Professor?” I asked, interested in his answer to my question. He had the look of a man who truly believed.
    And then it was gone. He smiled and it was a smooth expression. He was back to lecturing. “Our hidden desires, of course. That which we desire is what mythological creatures represent. And our fears. Do you know that to this day, true Romany gypsies still bury their dead standing up?”
    I returned his smile with one of my own. He was speaking my language. “Yes, they do it so when their dead relatives become revenants, they will only be able to walk forward through the dirt rather than clawing their way to the surface and giving in to the insatiable desire to consume living flesh.”
    He clasped those super soft hands together. “Very good, Ms. Atwood. I’m rather surprised. It’s a small folk legend, but still practiced in some areas. The dead consume living flesh to become immortal.”
    “Like vampires?” I tried to lead the discussion to my place of interest. Joanne was obviously involved with a vampire. At least, according to Darren, she was. It would be interesting to see if she was studying them as well.
    He shook his head and frowned. “Not at all. A revenant is nothing more than a zombie with reasonable intelligence. It insults the vampire to put the