“Do you and your fries need to get a fucking room?”
I open my eyes to see Eliza staring at me with one eyebrow raised.
“As a matter of fact, I’d like that,” I snap and pick up another French fry, dipping it in my vanilla milkshake. I stop right before I put the fry in my mouth and pick up the salt shaker, covering my milkshake-covered fry in salt.
“I don’t eat, but even I know that’s just wrong.” Eliza slowly shakes her head. “And disgusting.”
“It’s so good,” I say, stuffing the fry in my mouth.
“I think it’s safe to say this is your first weird craving,” Lucas says, unable to keep the smile off his face. He’s so excited to be a father, to enjoy every single part of pregnancy—from the outside looking in, that is.
“Imagine every time you drank any blood, you either threw it back up or felt like you were right on the verge of puking,” I tell Eliza as I put more salt on my fries. “And on top of that, you couldn’t drink the type of blood you drink when you’re stressed.” I dip another salty fry in my milkshake.
“And then you could finally eat again.”
“I’m not following this analogy,” Eliza says.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter.” My eyes light up when the waitress brings over the chicken tenders I wanted once I saw someone else get them two tables over. I’m going to come out of this pregnancy a hundred pounds heavier…if I come out of it at all.
“Thank you,” I tell the waitress, who nervously eyes Lucas, Julian, and Eliza. Lucas, with his insane good looks and overall intimidating air, is an obvious vampire. Eliza is so perfectly pretty you might mistake her for a fairy princess, though it’s safe to say most nons don’t believe in fairies.
Julian, though…I have no idea what you’d classify him as.
He breathes, chest rising and falling. He has color in his cheeks and looks alive, much more so than Eliza or Lucas. Yet he’s sitting here with us, no food or drink in front of him, and has this aloofness that is honestly just confusing.
“And that’s all for this table?” the waitress asks, trying to figure out exactly who she’s serving.
“I think I’m good, thank you,” I say.
“For now,” Eliza huffs under her breath.
“Okay.” The waitress smiles, eyes lingering on Julian, and then walks away.
“She’s praying you don’t get eaten tonight,” Julian says, able to hear the waitress's prayers.
“She’s not wrong about you getting eaten tonight,” Lucas says. “Again.”
I just shake my head and pick up a chicken tender, tearing it in half so it’ll cool faster and I can eat it.
“And he thinks you’re in a weird sex-cult with three vampires and is worried about your soul and thinks you’ve damned yourself to Hell,” Julian goes on. “The understanding of what sends someone to Heaven or Hell has become lost on so many humans.”
“Tell that to some of these holy rollers,” I grumble, getting too impatient to wait for my chicken tender to cool. I dip it in barbecue sauce and take a bite. It’s hot but tastes so good. “If I knew pregnancy would make food this much more enjoyable, I would have cursed you myself like the day after we met.”
Lucas laughs. “You hated me the day after we met.”
“That is true.”
“Though I knew you wanted to fuck me the second you laid eyes on me.”
“Lucas! Don’t say that so loud and in public!”
“It’s not like it’s a shock,” he goes on.
“Nearly everyone wants to fuck him,” Eliza says, picking a fry up off my plate and looking at it curiously.
“I don’t want to fuck him,” Julian says seriously.
“I’m glad,” I reply, laughing. “Because I don’t want to have to fight you for him.” I pat Lucas’s thigh. “He’s all mine, and he’s very okay with that.”
“I am,” Lucas agrees, nodding. “Because you are mine.”
“Gross.” Eliza drops the fry back onto my plate and rolls her eyes. “I’d rather be discussing demons than listening to you two profess your love. It was bad enough to sit through it at your wedding.”
“The wedding you had a lot of fun planning.”
“Fun? I had to throw together an elegant wedding in days. That was not my definition of fun. Though I do enjoy a challenge.”
“We should be discussing demons,” Julian says, somber as usual.
“Right. You think the dark prophets might be looking for me.” I dip a fry in my milkshake and then sandwich it between two pieces