"Mmrn." He nodded. "The blood of diabetics. Aunt Marguerite really likes those," he added before continuing. "Then there is high iron or high potassium blood. Oh, and High Times. That's a drink made from the blood of pot smokers."
"No way!" Rachel gaped at him.
"Sure. Get the buzz without the damage to the lungs that smoking causes." He chuckled at her expression.
Rachel stared at him for a moment in disbelief, then asked, "So, do they have one with a high alcohol content?"
"Oh, yeah. It's called Wino Reds. Etienne's dad was big on that drink. Real big."
The way he said it made Rachel ask, "An alcoholic?"
"Yeah." He nodded solemnly. "We have alcoholics and druggies just like the regular population. We just have to consume it through blood."
"Alcoholic vampires," Rachel muttered, hardly able to believe it.
"I'll tell you a secret." Thomas leaned across the table again so that their heads almost met. "They were all worried about Lissi following in her father's footsteps for a while."
"No." Rachel sat back in shock. "Etienne's sister?"
"Yes." He nodded solemnly. "She was a hemophobic from childhood on."
"Yes. Etienne mentioned that. So, was she drinking to get over it, or--"
"No. She didn't drink. At least not the way you mean. Lissianna had to live at home and take her blood intravenously for the first couple hundred years. It was so bad she couldn't even hook herself up. Marguerite had to control her mind and put her to sleep to do it. But then, when old Claude died--"
"Claude?" Rachel interrupted.
"Marguerite's husband. He drank too much Wino Reds, passed out with a lit cigarette in his hand, and burned to death."
"So fire can kill us?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah. Fire. Having your head cut off and destroying or stopping the heart too," he informed her. After a moment, to be sure she didn't have any more questions, he returned to the story. "When Claude died so suddenly, Lissianna was really shook up. You know, death happens so rarely to us that it shakes everyone up. Anyway, she decided she needed to be more independent. She needed to 'live her life,' she said. So she took social work at the university, got a job in a local shelter, and moved out on her own."
"How did she feed if she--"
"That was the problem. We're not allowed to bite as a rule, but in some instances--emergencies, for instance--it's allowed. And because of her hemophobia, Lissianna was allowed." He glanced toward the men's room door, but there was no sign of Etienne. Thomas turned back and continued. "The concern was her choice of victim. She chose clients of the shelter. They were close at hand and easy to prey on. The problem was, a lot of them were alcoholics or druggies. Lissi tried to avoid those, but sometimes..." He shrugged.
"Her family worried, obviously," Rachel murmured.
Thomas nodded. "About a year ago, Marguerite decided enough was enough and kidnapped a human psychologist to treat her hemophobia."
"Kidnapped?" Rachel gasped.
Thomas laughed. "It's all right. Lissianna freed him... eventually. The psychologist was Gregory Hewitt."
"Her fiancé?" Rachel shook her head.
"Telling family secrets, Thomas?"
Rachel and Thomas started guiltily as Etienne dropped into the seat next to her.
"Well, she's practically a member of the family, isn't she?" Thomas answered defensively.
Rachel glanced from one man to the other as they stared at each other. There were undercurrents here she didn't understand, and she had no idea what Thomas meant. Was she now considered a member of the family because she was a vampire? They had obviously taken her under their wing to train and assist with the change, but did she now have a new family? One that would long outlive the family she had been born into?
"Here we go!" The arrival of the waitress brought an end to the uncomfortable moment. "Who gets the Virgin Mary?"
"That would be me." Thomas accepted the drink with a charming smile.