The Elemental Mysteries: Complete Series by Elizabeth Hunter Page B

than the necessary skill set.   Most of the information I need to search for is online now.   Obviously, you can imagine why that is problematic.   Caspar can help, but he’s neither as technologically savvy as you are, nor does he have your background in information sciences.”   He paused before he continued.   “Though he does make an excellent cocktail, and that shouldn’t be overlooked.”  
    “Thank you!” he heard his friend call from the kitchen.   Giovanni and Beatrice exchanged a smile before she remembered she was being suspicious.   She frowned a little and asked another question.  
    “I’m sure there are plenty of people you could hire.   Why me?”
    He stared at her challenging expression before he set his drink down and leaned back into the plush couch.   “Well, you seemed to have handled the whole ‘blood sucking demon of the night’ thing fairly well, so I thought I’d take a stab at not having to meddle with the brains of every assistant I use.”  
    Her expression was carefully blank as she absorbed his words.   He leaned forward and sipped his drink, noticing her watching him carefully.  
    “Go ahead,” he offered quietly.  
    “What?”
    “I can see a million questions swirling around that brain of yours.   Just ask them.”  
    She squirmed in her seat.   “I didn’t want to be rude.”  
    He sat back again and stretched a long arm along the back of the sofa.   Though he was usually a secretive creature, he found himself curious what she would ask.  
    “Go ahead,” he murmured as he watched her examine him.  
    “You drink whiskey.”  
    “Yes.”  
    “So, do you eat?   Do you need to?”
    “I have to drink blood to survive.   Human is the most nutritionally satisfying and tastes the best, of course—”
    “Of course,” she interjected and he smiled.  
    “But I can also survive on animal blood if I need to, and many immortals choose to do that.   They just have to feed more often.”  
    “How often?”  
    “Drinking human blood?   About once a week.”  
    She perked up.   “Oh, well that’s not so bad.   Oh, unless—”
    “No, I don’t have to ‘drain’ a blood donor, Beatrice.   I don’t have to kill to survive.”  
    She paused, a small smile ghosting her lips.   “Unlike us, who kill animals all the time.”  
    He shrugged.   “I wasn’t going to mention that if you weren’t.”  
    She met his eyes, a tentative warmth creeping into her expression.   “So, you don’t need to, but you do eat a little.”  
    He leaned forward and took another sip of whiskey.   “Our bodies are very…slow.   Well, the processes are, anyway.   My hair grows, just very slowly.   My fingernails will as well.   We digest normally, but again, very slowly.   So I can eat and drink, but I don’t need to, though it becomes uncomfortable if I go too long without anything in my stomach.”  
    “So the coffee thing?”
    He shrugged.   “I really just like the way it smells.   I think it tastes absolutely vile, though.   I don’t know how you drink so much of it.”
    She grinned, finally looking relaxed as she sat in his chair.   “I like it.   You drink blood.   That smells and tastes vile, if you ask me.”  
    “Touché.”  
    “Thank you.”
    She paused again before asking, “So, the wooden stake through the heart thing is apparently a myth, but you can be killed by fire.   Anything else?”
    “Should I be concerned that one of your first questions is how to kill me?”
    Her jaw dropped.   “What?   No!   I didn’t mean…I was just curious.”
    He snorted.   “Well, you can remain so.”
    “What about the sun?” she asked.   “Extra toasty?”
    “I’m not going to burst into flames, but I avoid tanning beds.”
    “Silver?”
    “Some of my favorite cufflinks.”
    “Garlic?”
    “Please,” he sneered.   “I’m Italian.”
    She was wearing an almost adorable scowl as he ruined all of her movie