Page 73 of My Vampire Plus-One

I stared at him. “I had no idea Frederick was a vampire.” More pieces of the puzzle were sliding into place. If Frederick was a vampire, that meant Sam’s best friend was dating one. That might explain why Sam had been so obsessed with my nighttime safety.

“Oh, shit,” Reggie said, burying his face in his hands. “I assumed you knew about Frederick.” I had never seen him look this anxious or caught so flat-footed. Not even having to put on a show at a dinner party full of my family members had made him lose his composure like this. I began to wonder whether the picture Reggie presented to the world might just be a carefully cultivated façade. Right now, it seemed the mask was slipping. For the first time, I thought I was catching a glimpse of the real Reginald.

It made him seem more human, I realized with a start.

How ironic.

But because he wasnotactually human…“I have questions,” I said.

He nodded. “I expected as much. Ask whatever you want.”

I grabbed the list I’d just created from my Internet research and started at the top. “So. You drink blood.”

He looked at me. Nodded again.

I recoiled at the confirmation, even though I’d already known his answer would be yes.

I checked that question off the list and moved to the next. “And do you drinkhumanblood? Or do you drink other kinds of blood?”

“Always human blood,” he said. “Only human blood. I literally can’t digest anything else.”

That would explain his avoidance of food at Aunt Sue’s party and his vague references to hisdietwhen he wouldn’t drink wine with me at that bar. “Do you ever drink animal blood? I thought some vampires drank animal blood.”

He snorted. “Twilight?”

I blushed. “Um. Yeah.”

“Listen, as kickass as I’ve always found Edward Cullen, an entire family of celibate vampires living only on animal blood…well.” He smirked, his mask of cool indifference back in place. “None of those details apply to me.”

My face went hot at the innuendo. I hid my face behind my list, focusing on the next question. Which was probably the most important one. “Since you drink human blood, can you explain how you get it?”

His eyebrows lifted in confusion. “How I get it?”

“Yes,” I said. “Wheredo you get your blood from, exactly? I assume you need to kill people, but do you have criteria for who you kill, or something?”

“Oh,” Reggie said, understanding. “I don’t eat that way anymore, for the most part. A few years ago, I started getting takeout from blood banks.” He shrugged. “I’m sure there are ethical issues involved in stealing from medical facilities, too, but itfeelsless cruel.”

It certainly made me less frightened at any rate. Curiosity got the better of me before I could stop myself from asking my next question. “Does it taste the same that way?”

Reggie hesitated. “No, it doesn’t. But it’s fine. Though I’ll admit that if I don’t warm my meals to the temperature of the human body first, there’s always something frustratingly missing from the experience. Drinking it cold is like having sex while wearing three condoms. Or watching Hulu with commercials.” He shook his head in disgust, apparently oblivious to the way I once again felt ready to burst into flames. “I have no idea how Frederick stands drinking it straight from the fridge. Then again, I have no idea how or why he does lots of things.”

“Oh,” I managed, lamely. “I see.”

“Can I ask you a question now?” Reggie asked.

My eyes widened. “Me?”

“I’m sure you have other questions for me, but before we get to them, I have to know. What did you think I meant when I told you I was a vampire?”

A reasonable thing for him to wonder. “It was the same night you’d told me you loved playing practical jokes.” I shrugged. “You called me in the middle of the night to tell me some dark secret you were embarrassed about. When I asked if you were a vampire, I only meant it as a sarcastic joke. When you latched on to it, I assumed you were joking, too.”

He stared at me. “Why would I joke about something like that?”

“Because there’s no suchthingas vampires.” At the incredulous look on his face, I added, “At least, not in my world.”

That earned me a wry grin. “Fair enough. So, what did you think myrealdark secret was?”

“When we emailed each other details about ourselves you told me you were between jobs. I assumed your dark secret was that you were unemployed,” I said, sheepishly. “In hindsight, it makes no sense. Especially since being unemployed is nothingto be embarrassed about. But at the time it made more sense than anything else.”

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