At first, I thought this girl was afraid to ask anything, but now I know that she's definitely not. It took a lot of courage to come to my place like this at night, especially for a girl like Katie. And that means that she simply feels ashamed to ask.
I raise an eyebrow and give her a slight smile, encouraging her to continue.
"Aren't you supposed to only drink blood?" she asks finally. "And aren't you supposed to be afraid of the sunlight?"
I laugh. "You watch too much TV, beautiful."
"Wrong. I read books," she says proudly and finally starts cutting her meat again. "Paranormal romances are not really my thing. I love historical ones. Still, sometimes I read paranormal, too, because our town library is not as well-stocked as I wish it was."
"You read only books available at the library?" I ask with surprise, but then I realize that Katie probably has no money to buy new ones.
"Yeah," she exhales, and it sounds so sad. I regret I asked that question already. "Since I can smell garlic oil in the salad, I believe that you're not afraid of garlic either," she adds cheerfully, and I smile in response.
"I also cannot morph into a bat or a wolf." I’ve heard too many tales about who vampires are, and none of them are true.
"So...whatcanyou do?" Her eyes are glittering with excitement. This topic must be exciting for her.
"I am immortal, as you already know," I begin, trying to speak between chewing. I never do that, but with Katie, it feels so natural. "And my senses like sight, hearing, and smell are much more developed than humans, and they are only getting better with age, unlike with people."
"Wow, lucky you," she says, and I can see genuine fascination in her eyes. "What else?"
"Mmmm...nothing, I guess. Well, I run faster and fight harder, but you already know that."
"Do you...eat people?"
"What?" I almost choke when I imagine that. Is she serious? "Where did you get that from?"
"I meant, do you drink people's blood?" she clarifies, laughing at my reaction.
"No, ugh. That's kind of disgusting, don't you think?" I raise an eyebrow.
"You're a vampire," she insists.
"Vampires used to drink people's blood a long time ago. Some still do that, but no one I know. They used to do it at approximately the same time when people still ate people."
"Ewww, gross." She grimaces, putting her cutlery aside and covering her mouth with her hand. "I think you just ruined my appetite."
I laugh, continuing to eat. She's too young and inexperienced. If she only knew what atrocities I've seen through all these years, she wouldn't be able to eat ever again—or sleep, for that matter.
I pour myself more wine, almost a full glass, and then add a little more to Katie's glass.
"Hey, you filled up your glass almost to the top while adding only a few drops to mine. That's not very generous of you," she protests, offended, pouting her lips so that they seem even bigger.
"You've had enough." I smile, ignoring her reproach. "If I knew you got tipsy so fast, I'd have made iced tea."
"I'm not tipsy!" She frowns, making a fake angry face.
"Yes, you are, or you wouldn't dare to ask me all those questions."
Silence follows as she starts thinking about my words. I'm almost done with my food, while her plate is still half full. She is tipsy, almost drunk, to be honest, and I really don't want her to be. I'm not going to make love to her when she's like that. She needs to finish her food and drink some water.
"By the way, I never get drunk." I break the silence, hoping she hasn't fallen asleep already, considering how much she works and the fact that she is already tipsy from the wine. "You may add this to your list of facts about vampires."
"How's that possible?" She laughs in response, and I wonder, does she really find it funny, or is she just drunk? I smile back because it really doesn't matter. I'm happy as long as she's happy.
"Well, I have no blood, so there's actually no way I could get drunk, even if I wanted to."
"No blood, wow," she repeats, sounding more concerned than surprised. "You look kind of tanned."