"I'm a made vampire."

Made vampire? I lifted an eyebrow, wondering where that scary originality had gone. He couldn't have come up with something glitterier than that?

"Is there any other kind?" I asked sarcastically.

When his head cocked to the side like a curious puppy being prompted with a bacon snack, I decided that his acting was a little too good. It was so unsettling that I almost wanted to ask him to dial it back a bit, but this was me. I don't scare easily and when I do, I suck it up.

So, Annabelle, suck it up!

Rolling my shoulders before straightening them I took a deep breath, letting my gaze fall back to James as I waited for his response.

"Of course, born vampires," James said.

I snorted skeptically. "Right," I said, rolling my eyes. "I knew that!"

Maggie bit her bottom lip, her brows frowning, and she nodded. "Yeah, James, I think you went too far with that one. It seems kind of unreal that someone would be born dead, only you know, not."

Maggie was such a scholar.

"I'm a born vampire. Royalty in fact," Dr. Sutter said casually as he started putting away his supplies. "And I assure you, I'm not dead."

James walked slowly past me and I stiffened as his still black eyes focused on me for a moment. He didn't stop until he stood in front of Dr. Sutter. He reached for the vial of Maggie's blood and popped the top open. I struggled to keep my gag reflex under control as he knocked his head back; drinking the blood like it was a shot of whiskey.

Maggie let out a startled scream and gripped the wooden stool she was sitting on. I slapped a hand over my mouth, feeling remnants of my last meal rising in my throat.

"Holy shit! You really drank it. That's so... cool!" Maggie said, her sudden excitement making me forget my nausea as I stared at her in shock.

I gave her a thoroughly disgusted look. "Cool? Maggie! It's nasty and-and unsanitary." I swiftly turned my attention back to James. "You didn't even test her blood, what if she had something?" I said with outrage.

"Hey!" Maggie snapped, raising her pointy chin. "I'm clean as a cucumber."

I rolled my eyes. "It's 'as cool as a cucumber' dumbass and I was just saying that he didn't know..."

He shrugged nonchalantly before interrupting me. "We don't get diseases."

I paused and clucked my tongue, flinging my hand out with exasperation. "Of course you don't. That's why there was a physical and blood test," I said, my voice dripping with the sarcasm I intended.

"The physical was to make sure you could handle the activities physically." He paused for effect, the innuendo went unnoticed with Maggie, but I understood it. I swallowed and averted my eyes.

I knew it! It is some type of sex brothel.

"The tests were perfectly reasonable." James continued. "The blood test was simply a taste test to see which blood we have an easier time resisting," he said, offering the information as if it were common knowledge.

"Oh, well, excuse the hell out of me," I said, mumbling under my breath. "Why does it matter?"

James lifted an eyebrow and gave me a smug look that left me slightly breathless before responding. "If your blood is more intoxicating than we like, we could end up killing you and as much as popular lore likes to make us out as killers, we generally try to avoid that."

Dr. Sutter decided to interrupt. "It's just a procedure meant for made vampires. They have less control, as you can tell by James attitude shift."

"Forgive me, your majesty," James said, rolling the last word with emphasis and sarcasm. "I suppose it doesn't matter that I'm fifty years older than you though does it?"

Dr. Sutter heaved a heavy sigh looking slightly lost as he shook his head and started back at packing his supplies.

James teetered on the tips of his toes, running his fingers along Maggie's shoulders. "Maggie, darling, your blood tastes like honey. It makes me feel like I'm sunbathing."

Maggie let out a nervous laugh. "Well thank you, I think. You can go out in the sunlight? I thought--" She stopped when James nodded at her 'thank you' and reached for the other tiny yellow capped bottles. Her eyes widened and shoulders stiffened as he slipped open the top of another vial of her blood, passing the open bottle under Dr. Sutter's nose. The way he shuddered made it seem like I was witnessing a crack head about to get a long over due fix. My mouth watered, a sign my body gave me when I was about to throw up, as I watched Dr. Sutter take the vial with shaking hands.

"It is born vampires that can't go out in the sunlight," he said, answering Maggie's unfinished question, before inhaling the smell of the blood again.

"It's a lot like drinking wine." James mumbled while he gazed at Dr. Sutter as if he were hypnotized by the mans' movement. Dr. Sutter swirled the blood gently, making it circle as much as it could in the tube. "Don't forget to let it settle on your tongue for a moment," James said his voice like a seductive whisper.

My teeth clenched as my stomach rolled and I closed my eyes before he brought the blood fully to his lips. "Why didn't you do that?" My voice shook as I directed the question at James.

"Born vampires don't know what sunlight feels like. They are born allergic to the sun and it is rare to find blood that can give them that feeling. Though it bothers me, I can go out in the sunlight whenever I like, it's not as important to me as it is to him," James said. "And that is why I didn't do that."

I was actually listening to him like all this was real. What the hell was wrong with me?

"Now, which events will you be participating in my lovelies?" James asked, his eyes roaming over Dr. Sutter's face as the mans eyelashes fluttered against the curve of his cheeks with pleasure.

Maggie answered before I even had a chance to think about it. I was still mildly disturbed at the scene before me, but apparently she remained unaffected. "The vampire and werewolf ones."

James smirked and formed a steeple with the tips of his fingers, "Of course. The most popular ones, which brings me to my next issue...unfortunately, we're low on vampires and werewolves willing to do this. That and we already have over a dozen out on the job, so only one of you will be able to participate in the vampire event for Halloween."

Maggie shot her hand up in the air like a kindergartener. "I want the werewolf please! Do you know when the last time it was that there was a full moon on Halloween?" She practically squealed.

Oh hell no.

"Look Mags," I said, putting my reasoning voice on. "I'm not having some quack trying to pretend to bite my neck for the next week. I don't care that they'll use a needle to really get it either."

"I assure you there will be no pretending," James said. "And this was the only time we were going to use needles. We had to be cautious, what if one of you had blood that just sang to us. You'd be dead on the floor."

I felt my stomach roll again as I remembered his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he'd guzzled Maggie's blood. "And I say again," I turned to Maggie. "I don't want some lunatic biting my neck and sucking blood that he or she doesn't really need. That's a waste of my natural resource."

I paused in my rant when the quiet Dr. Sutter, of all people, threw his head back in laughter. I cast a scowl in his direction, but continued addressing Maggie. Perhaps the blood would change his personality as it had James'. "Besides, pain isn't my thing. So, I'll take the werewolf event," I said, addressing James again. "And my next event will be with either a witch or a fairy. I don't do 'wannabe' vampires. That's a little too much freak in my Halloween, thank you."

James had a smug smirk on his face and a raised eyebrow as if he knew something I didn't. He cocked his head to the side and dropped onto his forearms to lean casually forward. "You don't believe that this could be real for a second, do you?"

I tried not to snort, but it happened all the same. "Don't be ridiculous."

Maggie decided to help. "She didn't grow up here. She doesn't understand how-how "supernatural" Nah'lins is," she said, offering the fake accent again with over exaggerated air quotes.

She sounded and looked ridiculous.

I frowned, shaking my head, wondering what else she was going to do. "You just moved here too. What do you know about New Orleans other than Mardi Gras?"

"I can research as much as you can." She countered with an arrogant smirk on her face as she folded her arms across her chest. "Besides, I wasn't the one looking up 'sex on the streets during Mardi Gras' on Google now was I?"

It was like a match had set fire to my face. To make matters worse, I could feel the burning spreading to my neck and chest. Embarrassment did not look pretty on me. "I just wanted to know if it was true," I mumbled.

"If you're around until February I'll be happy to show you," James said with a chuckle. "I always do enjoy participating in the festivities."

My eyes widened as I met his gaze. No way was I losing my V-card in the middle of Mardi Gras with a fake made vampire that owned and ran a gothic boutique, but it did make for a good story all the same.

I'll have to share it with Mr. Benson.

It was then I noticed a blue hue in James's eyes. The blue started to flush with the black his eyes had changed to and I found myself wondering what type of contacts did that.

"When you take your werewolf and you realize that your reality as you know it, is flawed, will you perhaps change your mind and pick a vampire for your next event?" James asked, his voice showing his curiosity, while his face remained expressionless.

I refrained from rolling my eyes. "For arguments sake, if any of this is real, probably not. I think it would be interesting to see this Fairy Land." I wondered if my answer would have been the same if he'd asked me when his eyes had fully turned back to blue.

James lifted his chin, casting his eyes down to examine my face as he took one long stride towards me. He tapped the tip of my nose. "What a shame, but it seems you have a taste for danger."

I frowned. "What makes you say that?"

His fingers paused on the curve of my shoulder before he gave me an awkward pat. "Fairies are one of the most dangerous supernatural creatures in existence."

I snorted again. What a dumb answer.

"Fairies?" Maggie practically shouted, laughter almost gurgling in her throat. "As dangerous as a hoppy toad I'll bet." She finished with a giggle.

"Yes... a hoppy toad indeed," James said.

The look on his face made me pause, but it disappeared before I could figure out exactly what it was. He turned back to Maggie. "Will you be taking the vampire event then?"

Maggie nodded. "A.B. seems pretty adamant about not taking that particular event. So yes! Hook me up, Scotty."

I couldn't stop the evil cackling that escaped. I hunched over to cover my face, knowing how I looked when I started to laugh hard.

"I do believe it's 'beam me up,'" Dr. Sutter said.

Maggie looked positively defeated. "Oh. Well I was close. Gees Annabelle, it's not that funny."

It was. It really was. Maggie always threw quotes from popular movies, TV shows, even some of those golden rule or moral ones, and she never got them right. It was an ongoing issue for her since she was a kid and it just happened to tickle my funny bone.

I managed to calm down when the three of them started to ignore my chortling and continued to talk about who would go home with Maggie. James won in the end, claiming 'his majesty' had other duties to attend to. In that moment, I almost regretted not taking the vampire event.

"What about me?" I asked, suddenly able to breathe enough to speak.

James smiled. "Her names Arden, she'll be at your house bright and early tomorrow morning with her pack leader."