My Vindicators

Chapter 11-Birthday Dinner

"Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise."

I pout. "Fine. You know, even if you told me, I wouldn't know where you are talking about."

It is a short ride and we are pulling up to a tall sleek-looking building. The driver comes around and opens the door. Kookie steps out first, holding his hand out to help me. The rest of the guys pile out and we walk into the building. As we enter, the woman at the reception desk stands and bows to us. The guys acknowledge her with a tip of the head and we walk to a bank of elevators. Once inside, Jin pulls a key from his pocket and, placing it in a slot on the panel, turns it and we start our ascent.

The elevator dings and we step out into a darkened restaurant entrance. As we approach the hostess, she looks up and her eyes widen. She immediately stands up straighter.

"Your table is ready sirs, right this way."

She walks us past lots of tables where people are enjoying their meal. As we pass, the restaurant quiets down and you can only hear whispers here and there as well as the background music. We are shown to a balcony that is surrounded by heaters and a round table in the middle set for eight. It is beautiful. There are candles everywhere and twinkling fairy lights strung across the gondola above. Jin pulls out a chair allowing me to sit after Joon has taken my coat. With the heaters it is comfortable and we can see the lights of the city from this height.

Once everyone is seated, the waiter comes and pours us each a glass of wine. When he gets to my glass, he leans a little too close for comfort but I try to brush it off as a simple miscalculation by him. We are all given menus. As I look over the menu, I notice that most of the ingredients contain "life essence flakes". Joon, who is seated to my right, must see the confusion on my face.

"It is dried blood flakes." He tells me. My confusion deepens. He chuckles at me. "This is a restaurant run by vampires so all of the dishes contain blood of some sort."

"But you can eat regular food right? I mean I have seen you guys eat at home."

He nods. "Yes, we can but it is...how do I put this? Blood is a necessity of course and as you experienced before, can do more than just sate your hunger when drunk directly from the vein. Aside from that, we still enjoy the taste of regular food and it is not always possible or convenient to drink from the vein. So we use it almost as a supplement in our food occasionally."

I nod in understanding. The waiter comes back to take our order and comes to stand by me, again a little too close for my liking.

"What will it be beautiful?" He asks.

I look up at him and am met with blue eyes rimmed in bright red. I look back at my menu feeling a little uncomfortable.

"Oh, I would like the steak alfredo."

I hand him my menu and when I look at the guys around the table they all have murder in their eyes. The color of their eyes is completely gone, replaced with red. The waiter takes notice and has the decency to look afraid. After everyone else orders, he hurries away. Yoongi shakes his head.

"Can't take her anywhere." He mumbles.

"What?" I look at him.

He sighs. "When we were shopping you attracted so much attention. It was hard to keep my anger under control and it was just people looking. This idiot is actually flirting with you, right in front of us. He MUST have a death wish."

"What are you talking about? The only attention I attract is usually pity or people being disgusted."

He tilts his head to the side. "Wow, you really don't see it do you?"