“Watch your mouth, boy.”
“I’m not a boy,” I said with the little dignity I had left. “I’m almost thirty.” This prompted the little blonde and Mr. Sinclair to burst out laughing. So they were significantly older than thirty. “And you don’t have to worry about me. I knew about vampires before your sister outed you.”
“Oh?” The little blonde came closer. Her body language was pure deference, but her eyes missed nothing. I wondered how many people looked at her curves and her sweet face and never saw the knife. Or the fangs. “Would you like a drink while you explain yourself?”
“Please.” I didn’t even have to think about it. Whatever I needed to do to stay as long as I could. If she’d offered to give me a tattoo, I would have agreed just as quickly. Did they want their basement cleaned? Did the dogs need baths? Anything. “Hey, are you guys drinking smoothies? That’s not very sexy-scary. You’re going to ruin vampire reps everywhere.”
This time Betsy laughed. “Want one?”
“Sure. Raspberry and . . . strawberry!”
“And blackberry,” she added glumly.
“Uck, those things are all seeds. But I’m sure they’re delicious in drinks,” I added.
She beamed, which made everything weirder. Out of everything I’d done and said, dissing blackberries made her warm to me?
Who cared? Whatever it took.
In a few minutes Dr. Taylor had left, so I could relax a bit. Marc pointed out the idiocy of being afraid of a human and not the vampires, or whatever Marc was, and I replied that I couldn’t explain it, it just was. This pleased them all, but I’ve no idea why.
“I don’t believe in vampires because of what I overheard, or what your sister said,” I explained, sipping at the best smoothie I’d ever had in my life (the secret, the little blonde explained, was real vanilla and fresh fruit). “I always believed in them.”
“Why?” Betsy asked, and though she’d warmed to me a bit, she was clearly still suspicious. So, not a complete idiot.
“My sources told me.”
“And they are . . . ?”
“Spirits.” She just blinked, so I elaborated. “Ghosts. I see dead people, pardon the line.”
“See?” she cried, pointing at me, and then at them for some reason. “That’s how screwed our lives are. That thing he just said? Didn’t sound insane!” She stopped pointing and calmed down. “You should be careful when you say something we can actually test.”
“It’s true. When I found out where you lived, I went to the Griggs Mansion and checked with my sources and they confirmed you’re a vampire.” I looked at Marc and then looked away. It was too tempting to just stare helplessly at him. “They didn’t know what you are, though.”
“Well, that makes sense.” Marc, who’d spent most of the time looking stunned, finally warmed to the conversation. “It’s considered the most haunted house in the Twin Cities. People have seen—let me think—a maid, a gardener, a Civil War general—”
“Yeah, that’s bullshit. ’Scuse me, ma’am,” I added politely to the little blonde who looked like a teen but wasn’t. “He’s a union soldier who deserted.”
“And you know this because . . .” Tina (she’d introduced herself while pouring my smoothie) paused delicately.
“He told me himself.” I looked around at all of them. “It’s all on my website.”
“The G-Spot,” the vampire queen said and snickered. At my beleaguered sigh she added, “Simmer down, Haley Joel Osment. If that’s what you’re gonna name something, you have to be resigned to getting shit for it.”
“Fair enough.”
“Do you know why we’ve been sitting here for an hour drinking smoothies instead of running you off or draining you dry?”
“No.” I gulped. “I know it’s not because you’re worried about negative publicity.”
“I could give a shit. If I thought you were a danger to anyone I loved, you’d be so much cooling meat on a slab somewhere. I haven’t disappeared you because I believe you when you say you’re grateful to Marc.”
“I am! He didn’t have to help me. And he’s the only man I’ve ever met who has a bigger crush on John Cusack than I do.” I have no idea why I said that. It just slipped out.
“Okay, I’m not commenting on that at all, or we’ll be here all night.”
“John Cusack?” Tina asked while Marc groaned and buried his face in his hands. “Really?”