West Coast Witch (32 page)

Her little pink tongue flashed across her lips a moment. “Fruits, usually, though
there's several things that will enhance the blood.” She pondered a moment. “In fact,
hold on...Can I get one of the bar napkins?”

“Yea, sure,” I reached over the bar to grab one, and handed it to her.

Teresa took out a pen from her purse and started writing. “There's a website you should
look into. It's run by a vampire and human couple. They've written a...how-to guide,
of sorts, for vampires and humans.”

“A how-to guide?” I asked.

She nodded. “There are some very good drinks there, specifically tailored for synthetic
blood mixes, and there are just some good...ideas for how to proceed.” Teresa offered
the napkin to me. A simple web address was on it.

I entered the address into my phone's browser, and watched the page load. “Oh, my.”
I murmured. “Who are these people?”

“Two very educated people. The vampire is a teacher upstate, his partner works at
one of the biolabs in Davis.”

“Oh, wow.” I looked over the site, scrolling through it. “Uh, seriously, wow. How...”
I looked at the list of links. “I did not know that there was this much study on vamp-human
relationships.”

“Best not to look at it all now.” She winked. “But, some food for thought.”

I looked up from the screen to her, putting my phone away. “So, hey, you want to get
out of here? I think I'm a little partied out right now, and I want to go somewhere
quiet.”

“Quiet,” She echoed, and a wicked look flashed across her eyes. “Did you have somewhere
in mind?”

“Surprise me.” I challenged her.

She offered me her hand. “Well, then, Mister Knight, let's get going.”

As we walked out to the car, Matt called out. “Hey, man, it's your party, where are
you going?”

“Somewhere exciting. Just because I'm a witch doesn't mean I know the answers.”

I thought about that for a moment. Eric Carpenter, witch, Knight of the Bay, bartender.

I should totally get business cards.

Justen Hunter has been a writer since middle school, when he got his start getting
into trouble writing murder mysteries. He lives in San Jose, California, with a herd
of pets. You can find out more about Justen’s other projects and upcoming books at
http://justenhunter.com
, or follow him on Twitter at @justenhunter.