“Please, eat,” Julien said, “we don’t stand on ceremony here.”
Luis picked up his fork.
The first bite was warm and delicious. The spices were vibrant, the coating on the fish crunchy and perfect with thesoft inside of the fish. As someone who regularly subsisted on microwave meals and takeout, it had been a long, long time since Luis had had something this good.
So focused on enjoying the meal, it took him far too long to look up and remember he was sitting at the table with two vampires. Vampires who… weren’t eating?
His eyes went to the two other settings. Karim and Julien’s plates were the same size as his own, but the servings were miniscule, tiny cuts of fish with a spoonful of lentils at most.
Julien smiled and elegantly speared his bite of fish. “Don’t mind us,” Julien said, “our anatomy doesn’t allow for a lot of regular food digestion, so it’s small servings only.”
Oh. Luis looked at his own plate. Was it rude to eat in front of them? But they’d set this up…?
“Please enjoy yourself,” Julien said, as if picking that worry out of the air.
Right. “It’s um, it’s really, really good,” Luis said.
Karim hadn’t touched his fork yet, was just watching Luis.
“Karim, you’re going to make him uncomfortable,” Julien said when he finished his bite. Then to Luis, “He used to be a chef, so feedback is very important to him.”
“Oh,” Luis said. Karim had been a chef? “Well, it’s amazing,” Luis said, “really. I don’t think I’ve had this dish before, but it’s delicious. I didn’t know you cooked.”
Karim shrugged.
“Are you not eating?” Luis asked.
Karim looked him up and down, “I will in a few minutes.”
Luis’s heart tripped over itself.The blood.
“Solid foods are tricky for vampires,” Julien supplied. “Most of us can have a little, but solid food is best paired with blood for digestion. Karim has a more delicate stomach than myself, so often he forgoes solid food.”
“Then why the plate?” Luis asked.
Karim shrugged, “Julien doesn’t like to feel like he’s eating alone, so I just always serve myself. Sometimes I eat, sometimes I wait for something better.”
The implication of that was clear.
“Oh. Right.” Luis could feel heat on his face.
“Don’t feel bad about eating with us,” Julien said. “We don’t have the same feelings about solid food we did as humans. We don’t get satisfaction from it; we don’t desire it.”
“Do you want more?” Karim asked, glancing at Luis’s plate that was half cleared.
“At least not first hand,” Julien added.
Karim was watching Luis like he was the meal at the table, and Luis supposed that was true. Heat broke out along the back of Luis’s neck, and his skin prickled like Karim’s gaze was a physical touch.
“I’m not finished,” Luis said.
“Willyou want more?” Karim asked, and his voice had dropped a register.
“Careful,” Julien said.
Luis lowered his eyes to his plate. It was really, really good. “Yeah,” he admitted, “if that’s okay?”
“It is. You can have however much you want,” Karim said.
