Page 57 of How to Stake a Vampire
MEAT AND GREET
“God,I can’t believe I wasted twenty years of my life avoiding meat. This is incredible!” Ellie stabbed another chunk of her steak and practically moaned as she bit into it.
Bo and I studied her warily where we sat opposite her.
Caroline and Kent had gone home to their kids and the rest of us were having breakfast.
My best friend looked the picture of health as she enthusiastically devoured beef so rare I half expected it to moo.
Bo leaned over.
“Is she even chewing?” he hissed.
“I don’t think so.”
“I am chewing,” Ellie protested, though this came out as “Gnf hrf gnuhaffhrf.” Something seemed to strike her then. She swallowed and beamed, blood oozing down her chin in a thin trail. “Hey, I can hear Bo!”
“Congratulations,” Pearl offered scathingly where she sat on a high chair next to Victoria. “I’m sure your life will be thoroughly enriched from the experience.”
“Fur Ball, I can’t help but feel that was an insult,” Bo protested.
“Oh.” Ellie made a face. “I can hear the kitty too. Rude much?”
Pearl hissed.
Samuel sighed and bit morosely into his toast. Victoria and Hugh were doing their best to pretend this entire situation was completely normal. Bernard looked like he needed a drink. Virgil was watching Ellie with a fond expression that did little to mask his feelings for her.
“Maybe you should slow down,” Barney advised Ellie coolly as he watched her eat.
“Slow down?” Ellie narrowed her eyes while Virgil dabbed at her chin primly with a napkin. She pointed her fork at Barney. “Dude, I could eat a whole cow right now.”
I blinked. I don’t think I’d ever heard my best friend call anyone “dude” in my entire life.
Virgil scratched his cheek guiltily at my expression. “Yeah, about that. Ellie, er, might inherit some of my mannerisms for a while.” He shifted uncomfortably under our stares.
The sight of my formerly vegetarian best friend enthusiastically devouring what appeared to be barely cooked steak for breakfast was bad enough without that little morsel of perturbing knowledge.
“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” I asked Ellie carefully.
The smell of blood was making my wolf restless, though probably not for the same reasons as Ellie’s newfound enthusiasm.
My best friend nodded. “Fit as a fiddle.” Her eyes brightened. “I mean, aside from the whole wanting-to-bite-people thing and the weird urge to sleep hanging upside down in a closet, I feel amazing. My senses are incredible, I think I’m stronger than I’ve ever been, and”—she paused, fork halfway to her mouth, and blinked at Virgil—“I’m having some very inappropriate thoughts about jumping Virgil.”
My eyes bulged. Victoria choked on her bagel. Samuel looked at the ceiling and muttered something. Bernard swayed and clutched the table.
“Wow,” Hugh said in a disgusted voice as he sipped his coffee.
Barney curled a lip in equal revulsion beside the werewolf.
Virgil had turned bright red. “I—that’s?—”
“It’s not just because I drank your blood, Virgil,” Ellie told the vampire in a deadly serious voice. “I mean, sure your heartbeat sounds like a lullaby and you smell really,reallygood, but I liked you even before I became a vampire.”
I narrowed my eyes a little. This was news to me. But then again, I had been rather preoccupied lately.
“Really?” Virgil asked hoarsely.
Ellie nodded a little shyly. “Really.”
