“Alvin calls it a biological imperative,” Dahlia cut in. “He says that the vampire virus exists solely to perpetuate itself, and that requires being a huge asshole sometimes. And beingreallyinto having kids. So watch out for that.”
“Oh.” Francesca really didn’t know what to say to that. Desperately uncomfortable for a myriad of reasons, not simply due to the fact that she was practically naked in front of two glamorous women she didn’t know, she said, “I’m sorry. This is all a little overwhelming. I’ve had a stressful couple of days and I really don’t know what to do with myself.”
Marietta perked up immediately. “What do youwantto do?”
Francesca rubbed her forehead. “I really don’t know. I haven’t had free time in… Well, a long time.”
Dahlia patted her knee. Standing up on her sky-high heels, she asked, “How about we start with some food? I’ll make you something. It’s really important you eat regular meals if you’re supporting a vampire.”
Following her purposeful stride into the kitchen, Francesca ventured to ask, “You know how to cook?”
Marietta took up a spot on one of the stools arrayed around the kitchen island. “Allegedly. Cecilia says she is really only good for putting frozen things in the oven.”
“Ha! Like you could even manage that!” Dahlia opened the refrigerator and began to pull out what looked like the makings of a decent breakfast. This included an enormous block of cheese, tomatoes, eggs, pre-chopped onion, and a handful of those frozen pucks of hash browns one could acquire at any grocery store.
Francesca watched from the doorway, befuddled, as the fashionable blonde vampire hiked up her sleeves and placed oneof the brand new pans on the cooker. “Not to be rude,” she finally ventured, “but I’ve never heard of a vampire cooking before.”
Dahlia wiggled her ring-encrusted fingers over her shoulder. “Sit, Frankie. I’ve got this.”
Unable to do much else, she meandered over to the island, where she took up a spot beside Marietta. The dark-haired vampire gave her a cheeky wink. “Dahlia used to be arrant,” she explained.
Francesca’s eyes widened. She knew that the vampire virus could be caught intheory,but it happened so rarely that it never popped into her head as a possibility. As far as she knew, almost all vampires were born with the virus.
“How did that happen?” Francesca slapped her hands over her mouth, horrified that the question slipped out. Mumbling behind her fingers, she apologized, “I’msosorry. That’s super insensitive. You absolutely donothave to tell me.”
Dahlia turned to wave a spatula at her. “If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me that, I’d have, like, twenty to thirty nickels. I’m used to it.”
“Still,” Francesca insisted.
The blonde turned back to the pan, where the hash browns were beginning to sizzle. “It’s fine, I promise. But it’s a long story, so I’ll give you the quick version. I worked in a vampire bar in San Francisco, where I met my husband Felix. That’s also where his aunt?—”
“A stone-cold cunt. May she rest in piss,” Marietta grunted.
“—a stone cold cunt, decided to hold a meeting with Alastair Bowan to talk about uniting to take out the Amauris. Well, next thing I know, some idiot?—”
Marietta helpfully supplied, “Zahir, and he still feels terrible about it.”
“—throws an explosive into the bar and I find myself skewered to Mr. Bowan himself.Wham, bang, boom,I’ve gotvampire blood in me, my teeth are falling out, and all of a sudden everyone’s very interested in the fact that I’m venom neutral.” Before Francesca could ask, Dahlia added, “Means I can mate with another vampire. It’s a big deal to them.”
“Oh.” Francesca took a second to try and wrap her head around the abbreviated and yet terribly complicated story. “So… how did you end up with Felix?”
It was Marietta who answered this time. Gleeful, she slapped both hands on the island’s counter top when she exclaimed, “They’d been dating in secret formonths!A long distance thing, you know, since he was over here and she was over there. But then we got the news that she’d been vampifiedandthat she was venom neutral, so Felix hopped on over there to get her. Had to blast another guy in the face first, but he snagged her and brought her home. It was allverydramatic.”
Francesca really couldn’t tell if it made her feel better or worse that her experience with Amauri men blasting heads to smithereens wasn’t singular. She was still processing when Dahlia dropped a steaming plate of egg scramble in front of her.
Stomach rumbling, she picked up her fork with more enthusiasm than she thought she would only a few minutes prior. Turning to give the blonde a look of sincere thanks, she said, “This is really sweet of you. I didn’t know how hungry I was until now.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Dahlia dismissed. Settling down on the stool next to Francesca, she added, “You’ve been through a lot. The body forgets how much it needs to eat when you’re in crisis mode.”
It was true. Francesca couldn’t even recall when her last full meal had been. She shoveled the delicious breakfast into her mouth as the ladies chatted, entirely unbothered by either her silence or her chewing.
When her stomach was full and the plate cleaned, Francesca folded her arms on the counter and laid her head on them with a sigh.
Dahlia placed a hand on her back. “Better?”
“Almost.”
“What do you need?”