You must try everything and two bites each.
She shot a look at him.I’m not a child, Amaros.
No, but you are new, and as I explained before, your stomach needs to be trained to digest food again, not just blood.
Michaela’s eyes flashed red but she blinked it away before turning back to her food.
He was proud of her controlling the blood lust that still sat too close to the surface for her.
“Well, she’s here now.Let’s not stand on ceremony.”Velorina picked up a carrot and snapped it loudly with her teeth.“Introduce our delectable new addition.”
Soft guffaws went around the table.
Amaros held his spoon, ready to taste some of the leek and potato soup before him.“Michaela, everyone gathered this morning is a leader in their own right.We ruled continents before the Catastrophes, which forced us all to the same place.However, Asia and Africa were large enough to be divided in two.Before you are Vampires whose ages would add up to more than two-millennium collectively.”
He watched the stretch of Michaela’s eyes as she glanced around the elegantly laid table.
He saw the tremors in her body and reached over to lift her hand to his mouth, kissing the back of her long, elegant fingers.
She released a soft exhale before turning to gaze at him.The corners of her mouth curved into a small smile.She understood what he was doing, which appeared to calm and reassure her.
First because there wasn’t a fiercer motherfucking Vampire here than him.Secondly, she could not show fear.Their kind was all about strength, confidence, and if the leaders for a moment suspected she was weak, they would deem her unworthy and he’d be forced to kill each one of them to keep them from coming after her.
They all knew it, too.Mates meant everything, the only way their kindreallysurvived.
His little angel inhaled slowly, and steadied herself.The shaking ceased.
When he released her, she lowered her hands into her lap below the table as he continued.
“At the other end of the table sits our Coven’s Vice, Marceline.Beside her is Ambrosia, across from him, D’Arcy,” Amaros continued, crisscrossing the table with his introduction.“Jezebel, Athan, and Velorina, Ciaran is beside you, and finally Kenia and Amdis her mate is to my right.Everyone, this is Michaela.”
“Hello.”Michaela glanced at each of the leaders, meeting them in the eye and offered a slight nod, acknowledging them.
“Tell us, Michaela.How have you arrived in our territory?Did you come alone, with family perhaps...are there others?”Ciaran forked a mouthful of the tofu scramble on his plate, but kept his gaze locked on Michaela.
Amaros didn’t miss the gleam in his eyes.The vampire was hopeful that Michaela being there was a sign that they’d all have a chance to find mates.Amaros didn’t fault the other vampire, or any of them for anticipating it.
Michaela began to raise the heirloom tomato speared at the end of her fork to her mouth, but quickly she set the utensil down, using Ciaran's question as an excuse to hold off eating longer.
“I’m in your territory alone.I don’t have any family.I ran from the human compound with a friend, but we were separated.I don’t know what happened to her.”
This was news to Amaros and he found himself curious about what she was saying.In their suite, she hadn’t wanted to discuss her ordeal.He wondered if this was part of the information she’d held back.
“We are sorry to hear about your friend,” Jezebel added.“Maybe there is hope she is still out there and will also make it here.”
Michaela nodded but kept silent.Finally, she brought the tomato to her mouth.She let the vegetable sit in her mouth for a moment, as if she were willing herself to chew it.Finally, her jaw moved, and she ate it.Her brows furrowed, relaxed, and then furrowed again, as if she were trying to decide if she liked it.
Amaros didn’t know if she liked tomatoes before.However, he knew that food to a vampire was neither good nor bad.There was a light taste, but nothing compelled them to eat or reject it.However, it was just necessary for them to blend within the human population, even if that no longer existed now.Amaros also knew that their Prime appreciated being able to share meals with them.
As masters to the Prime, they were responsible for providing for those who served them, even in such small matters.
As for Michaela, he could not imagine how it would feel to know food tastes one way and then to have it taste extremely different.Amaros was a born Vampire, and food was just food.Blood was life.
“What was the urgency, Amaros?We’ve waited this long, couldn't our meeting have occurred later?”Athan stifled a yawn.
“No.”Having finished half of his soup, Amaros pushed it away.Lifting his napkin from his lap, he pressed it to his mouth to collect any droplets.“It could not wait.Since Marceline and I will travel to the preternatural council meeting tomorrow with Michaela.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Michaela pause in the act of swallowing the vegan scramble and spinach she had just forked into her mouth.She was practically choking herself, and she hastily reached for her water.
