Elemental Reverse Harem Quartet (part 1: Earth)

Chapter 4

The Red Berry Delight of the Kingsland High Road

Varu Vasile

My teeth ached. It was early evening, and I hadn't had a bite to eat.

Tantalizingly, she walked right up beside me and pulled out the next stool at the counter as if she didn't know what I was. Didn't know or didn't care.

Interesting.

She was no more human than I was.

Well, perhaps a little more human than I.

She had a pulse, for a start. And strangely enough that pulse was racing as she entered but even as she approached is slowed down.

"What are the chances?" The rest of the thought stayed inside my head: Of a woman like that entering my space. What were the chances of a witch like that approaching me without trying to kill me as if I posed no danger to her?

Yet, here she was, alone and pretty much harmless and defenseless, from what I could tell.

"Pardon?" Sitting down on the barstool, she turned to look at me. "Did you say something?"

"I wondered why of all the juice bars in all of the towns in all of London town you had to walk into mine?"

Her eyebrows raised in disbelief. "Yours? This is your juice bar?"

"Why shouldn't it be?" The question was a test. Did she know who I was? What I was? Would she tell me that vampires don't do cafés, restaurants, and bars?

"You're about my age." She shook her head. "I suppose you don't have to be old to run a juice bar."

I smiled. So we were going to play that game. Pretend we were both mundane. Pretend we were of a similar age.

"I'd guess you're twenty, coming up to twenty-one. And I'm just a tad older." Tad older by hundreds of years, poppet. And the youth of today don't say tad, do they? I kicked myself for the error. And they didn't call each other poppet. Keeping up with modern languages was such a bore. "And if the Dalston Smoothie Shack wasn't mine, why else do you think they'd let me sit in the prime seat at bar, here, without a drink?" I waved my hand across the clear countertop in front of me.

The cafe wasn't mine, of course. I threw out the challenge to test her reaction.

Out of sunlight, I could sit anywhere I damn well pleased. As an aged elder vampire, I possessed powers that witches could only dream of. Powers that should have meant she stayed well away from me, if she knew what I was and what was best for her longevity.

I am little arrogant, I will admit. And I have earned the entitlement to be arrogant.

"What can I get you?" Chris, the bartender, interrupted our conversation.

"Um, I haven't decided." She stared up at the chalkboard behind him.

Chris reached out to pick up a laminated menu, but before he handed it to her, I tendered my suggestion.

"May I recommend the Red Berry Delight?" There were few things lovelier than watching the rich, red liquid wash around lips and the residue settle around smiling white teeth. Of course, I wanted to watch her consume a drink the color of fresh blood rather than something like mown grass or, even worse, warm sunlight.

My purpose for visiting the Smoothie Shack was one big ulterior motive. This was the best place to pick up an early evening snack, even for a blood-sucking vampire, because healthy-juice drinkers had the sweetest vital fluid flowing through their arteries.