Aqua Vita by A Giacomi is a delightful piece of vampire lore. And though the style should be jarring, it has an elegant rhythm. I cannot say whether it is written in past or present tense. Both are merged in a way that feels seamless and timeless. Usually this would annoy the hell out of my inner editor, but somehow it seems to work in this piece. It shouldn’t but it does. Not only the immortal narrator, but the prose itself, gains a sense of timelessness from the mismatched tenses.