Page 47 of B Negative

A bread bowl.

And not even a garlic bread bowl, which I might have been OK with.

The waiter never offered a drink menu, which I took to mean they didn’t actually have anything to drink.

And when dessert finally came, a supposed slice of strawberry cheesecake, it was somehow too sweet and on the chalky side.

How did they manage to make cheesecake bad?

B and I got out of there as fast as we could.

“Never again,” I vowed.

“Agreed. Vampires who don’t need to eat definitely don’t know how to cook. Next time we’ll stick to the human restaurants.”

We wandered the streets of Cypress City, and at some point, we quietly compared our made vampire experiences. “Did you go through a faze where you stopped showering because you couldn’t get the water pressure not to sting?”

He nodded. “I had to ask my maker what was wrong with me. I thought it was my fault, that I was vampire-ing wrong. Turns out, he’d just forgotten to mention how to shield your senses in a world made for humans. Got a real kick out of it too.”

I smiled to myself as we approached the tower. “I wonder if Odette would have been like that. If she would have found my missteps funny or if she’d make sure I was so well-prepared I didn’t make any.”

B squeezed my shoulder. “I’m so sorry you never got the chance to find out.”

“It’s OK. I’m learning how to live with who I am and stop mourning the person I think I should have been.”

B looked at me for a long while before finally nodding. “What do you think? Should explore the tower like Sunny suggested?”

“I think if we go anywhere in the tower, the guards will likely show up and get in the way of finding anything super interesting.’

“Maybe you’re right.” B aimed for the elevators, but I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“But what if we just see what we can see?” I asked and tugged him over to the main directory.

One of the first floor rooms, the floor we were on, caught my eye. “Exhibit Room. What do you think that is?” I asked.

“Only one way to find out.”

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