Dinner With a Vampire by Abigail Gibbs

added, interrupting himself. ‘A born vampire ages normally until he or she is eighteen. As in each year, they look a year older. They are not fully grown yet, so they are slightly weaker and not as thirsty. Cain is sixteen, so he won’t be full-fledged for another two years. Get it?’
    I flicked a crumb across the plate. ‘Sort of. But what happens when a vampire reaches eighteen?’
    I went to flick another crumb, but the plate tipped and fell off the edge of the counter. I cringed, waiting for it to smash. But the sound never came as Fabian reached down and snatched it from midair. Unfazed, he placed it back on the counter, brushing the remaining crumbs onto the floor.
    ‘We get faster and stronger,’ he said in a low voice, watching me watching him, my mouth ajar.
He had moved so fast; so effortlessly
. ‘And we start to age, but very slowly. Centuries pass and it doesn’t put a year on us.’
    ‘So vampires aren’t immortal?’ I asked, feeling a slight spark of interest.
    ‘Theoretically, no. But it’s such a slow process, we practically are. The oldest vampire in the Kingdom is hundreds of thousands of years old and he is still going strong.’
    ‘Wow,’ I breathed. I couldn’t even grasp being that old. A thousand questions popped into my mind, as I buried the initial repulsion. ‘Can you go out in sunlight?’
    ‘Yes, but we’re at risk of getting really bad sunburn. So pushing me outside won’t kill me if you are thinking about it,’ he said, pulling funny faces and making it look as though he was melting. ‘And if you are thinking of bumping me off, feeding me garlic bread will just make my breath smell; buying me a necklace with a cross on it will just make me look religious and giving me a shower in holy water will make me smell rather pleasant.’
    I snorted into my drink at his mockery. ‘How do you kill a vampire then?’
    ‘You can push a stake through his heart and break his neck or break and bite his neck or suck him dry,’ he explained, a wicked look in his eyes. ‘The remains are often burnt, although you don’t have to do that.’
    ‘Brutal. Can you turn into a bat?’
    His lips quivered and I could tell he was trying not to laugh. ‘No.’
    ‘Can you cross running water?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Can you enter a house uninvited?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Because that would be rude. And to answer your next question, the only way a human can become a vampire is if they have their blood drained by a vampire whilst they also drink the vampire’s blood and yes, our eyes change colour according to mood.’
    I crossed my arms over my chest, shifting away again. ‘How did you know I was going to ask that?’
    He tapped his temple with a finger and grinned, his cheeks becoming round and puffed. ‘Psychic.’
    I raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you being serious?’
    ‘Yes, and we’re telepathic too, but not with humans,’ he stated in a matter-of-fact way. ‘And I’ll let you in on a trade secret. As long as you are here, lock everything private in your mind in boxes and just focus on one thing if someone tries to get in your mind. I know, it sounds crazy, but you will stop smiling when you realize there are some here who won’t respect your privacy.’
    I sobered. ‘Like Kaspar?’
    ‘Perhaps.’ He shrugged, spinning around in the seat to look over his shoulder. ‘Speaking of …’
    Kaspar appeared beside the fridge and in the time it took to blink, the dark-haired boy with the glasses had dropped onto a stool beside me and spread the newspaper he had tucked beneath his arm out on the counter. He started to read, peering over the top of his glasses.
    More vampires were not far behind. The ease that I had begun to settle into with just Fabian around disappeared along with the warmth of the room.
    ‘Morning, I told you my clothes would fit,’ Lyla said brightly in my direction. ‘And I hear that this rude bunch have not introduced themselves,’ she chirped. ‘That’s