Joe flicked the light switch with his free hand and the chandelier lit up the teak table and the heavily upholstered chairs. They looked like they had come from a medieval banquet hall.
"Wow," said Jake around a mouthful of pizza.
"Yeah, Evelyn just redecorated this room."
"I'm surprised she bothered. You know, being the dining room."
"Well I might use it sometimes," answered Joe testily. He rummaged in a massive antique sideboard for napkins.
"Oh," responded Jake, sitting down. Alright, he told himself, she's taken. That's okay, you didn't come here looking for a renewal of what never existed in the first place anyway.
"So how is it you know Evelyn?" asked Joe. Even across the wide table his 6'2" height was impressive. He was all bones, but he had broad shoulders and looked like he could move fast.
"We met, well, sorta by accident, at a party. It was kind of a bad time for me and Evelyn was... well, I guess, a catalyst." Jake frowned. So why had he wanted to see her again?
"Was she with him?" asked Joe, gesturing with his head back at the conservatory.
"Adrian? No, no. She met Adrian through me. She hasn't, uh, talked about any of this?"
Joe shook his head, green eyes shadowed.
"Well, I don't know what I should say. She almost made a meal out of me -- that's how we met. And Adrian, well he didn't like a strange vampire hunting on what he thought of as his territory."
"She almost made a meal out of you?"
"I'm a bloodling. I've ingested vampire blood. It's caused some changes, and Evelyn thought they were... unappetizing."
Joe stared at him until Jake looked away, pretending to inspect his pizza.
"You're not a vampire, but you're gonna be?" he finally asked.
Jake sighed. "I guess."
"Wo-ow."
"Look, it's not exactly glamorous," complained Jake, reaching for another slice of pizza. "I can't stand the sun, I can't sleep at night. At one time, I could hardly eat and I was growing fangs. That was about when I met Evelyn."
Joe looked at his quickly-disappearing pizza. "You can eat now."
"I got some help, from a -- it's too complicated."
They ate for a while in silence. Joe got up for more Coke from the kitchen.
"Can I ask you a question?" he asked, coming back into the dining room.
"Sure," shrugged Jake, hoping it wasn't going to be about his one-night stand with Evelyn, or the witch who'd relieved his him of his fangs, or his relationship with Adrian, or any other complicated subjects.
"Do you want to be a vampire?"
"Do you want to be a vampire?" Jake repeated, snagging another slice of pizza. Joe was in a relationship with a vampire, it only followed that the bloodgift had either been offered or sought.
"I asked you first," replied Joe, shaking back hair from his eyes.
Tomato sauce dribbled down Jake's chin, like blood. He licked it away and tasted garlic, felt the vampire blood in him being repelled. It was a weird sensation. How do I answer? he asked himself.
"Try the truth," Joe suggested.
"What?" Jake stared at him, then shrugged it off. "I don't know," he replied. "It's not an easy question, it's not like 'do you want to be lawyer' or 'do you want to be a folklorist'..."
"A what?"
"A folklorist. A specialist in folklore, you know, myths and things..."
"Is that what you are?" asked Joe, his whole tone expressing boredom.
"It's interesting," Jake replied, feeling a little defensive. "It's how I met Adrian. And that's why I don't know how to answer. I've met a lot of vampires -- Adrian keeps dragging me along to these really wild parties -- and none of them seem very happy."
"Lot of mortals aren't happy either," replied Joe philosophically. "Do you want to live forever?"
Jake looked away from those blazing green eyes and just shrugged. "What's immortality without pizza," he joked.
Joe stared at his half-devoured slice.
"Have you ever seen Evelyn feeding?" asked Jake.
"Only on me."
Jake shook his head. "It's not very appetizing. Even when I had a blood craving for a while...." He shuddered, remembering the tiny dorm room, the smell of blood, and Evelyn's rapturous expression as she drank from her inebriated victim.
They were down to the last slice. Joe gestured for Jake to take it.
"Go ahead," Jake declined, wiping his hands on a napkin.
"You sure?" asked Joe.
Jake waited until Joe had a mouthful. "Yeah, I want to go see what's going on in the other room."
To find out what happened between Jake and Evelyn read "Teething Pains" in Evelyn's Journal, available at Teething Pains.