Page 19 of Blood and Bonbons

Research papers were strewn on about every available surface. The two-person dining table. His battered sofa. The three-legged coffee table propped up with a cinder block.

Shaking my head, I crossed the space between the kitchen and living room and knocked on the closed bedroom door.

“Hey, you need to get up. I think your sister made everything worse.”

When there was still no answer, I cracked open his door.

“Miles? Wake the hell up.”

No answer.

With a muttered curse, I peeked inside to find the room empty. The rumpled bed indicated it had been recently slept in. Despite the chaotic mess of research papers in the rest of the house, Miles was a tidy type who made his bed and folded his clothes.

The papers were still spread everywhere, though, which probably meant he’d pulled an all-nighter again. Not unusual with his passion for research.

Most likely, he’d left for coffee and something to eat.

I returned to the main living space and peeked out the curtained window to confirm my suspicion that he’d left. However, the fairy was now flying around like a drunk with one wing jutted at an odd angle, momentarily distracting me. I felt no guilt.

After a quick scan of the vehicles lined in front of the complex, I didn’t spot Miles’ yellow piece of crap car.

Turning toward the kitchen, I sent Vena a text.

Me: Miles isn’t here. Car’s gone. Looks like he pulled an all-nighter and is getting breakfast. I’ll wait here for him.

I got her auto-reply stating that she was driving and would look at the message when she was done.

Feeling a little calmer now that I knew she was no longer running, I glanced at Miles’ sad kitchen. The likelihood of finding something to eat was slim, but my stomach was growling, and I had nothing better to do.

I opened Miles’ refrigerator, not expecting much. The sight of a very delicious-looking wedge of chocolate cake surprised me. The alternating layers of cake, mousse, and cream were repeated three mouth-watering times. Other than looking like Miles had dropped the box it had come in on its side, it was unmistakably an expensive splurge.

Miles didn’t do expensive desserts. That was my deal.

Maybe it was a peace offering for his accomplice role in the whole Everly-fell-down-the-fairy-hole debacle. Miles was a good sport like that. But, even if the cake wasn’t for me, it was still mine. He owed me.

Listening to its beckoning, I appeased my eager taste buds and pulled out the cake, grabbed a fork, and sat at his scuffed kitchen table.

A partial drawing peeked out from under a pile of papers. It looked like one of those really old drawings where all the people had crazy bags under their eyes.

Curious, I pulled the paper out while balancing the plate in my other hand.

The page was covered with information about vampires. Miles had crossed half of it out and wrote “lol” next to a few lines. Like the one about sacrificing a goat on a full moon in the vampire’s lair to protect a person’s home, and the one about vampires turning the sun red right before a killing spree. However, the one about splashing a vampire with an infusion of garlic and virgin’s blood to sedate them he’d marked with a question mark.

Did Miles even know any virgins? I sure as hell was glad I wasn’t one, based on the number of ideas I saw that involved the use of a virgin in some way.

After leafing through the pile, I frowned at the repetitive vampire theme. Had Miles been that worried about Vena taking the ring? The previous day’s whispered conversation teased the back of my mind.

As Vena had said, what were the odds of the vampire waking up after a few centuries of hibernating? One in a million, right?

Maybe before you bled on him,I thought to myself.

To drown my worry, I skewered a bite of cake and stuffed the bite in my mouth. The flavor made me moan. Definitely an apology cake. Miles was winning brownie points back.

Chewing slowly and savoring the goodness, I continued to look over Miles’ research, taking care not to rearrange the papers too much.

The bits of information that the public already knew were marked “common knowledge.”

Such as…vampires were made, not born. Turning a human into a vampire was risky business, and the majority didn’t survive the transition for whatever reason. Public hate and persecution kept them in hiding and their numbers low. The human populace didn’t like identifying as livestock.

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