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He took a sip from his mug. “It hasn’t yet, and it’s been five months.”
“What soups can you enjoy?”
“Tomato soup, though you’ll have to experiment around with the consistency. I add a little more milk into mine than most humans prefer. There’s a clear soup the Japanese hibachi restaurants serve, and I highly recommend it. Also, egg drop soup, but again, it has to be a lot thinner than the humans prefer it, and if I eat more than a medium-sized bowl, it doesn’t sit well.”
“Is it possible you can continue eating these things because you keep doing so? If you go without, would you no longer want them or be able to tolerate them?”
“Other vampires are testing that theory, but I find I enjoy having somewhat of a meal with my lioness. We have a dozen of our test vampires locked up so we can be assured we monitor their intake. The first set will be given chicken broth at six months. If the entire group can tolerate it, they’ll be freed and allowed to do as they please. Whether some can or some cannot, or whether none can, the second set will be given the same at one year. We have enough people to go out two and a half years.”
“And if no one in the first group can tolerate it?”
“We’ll test the next group in line. So long as no one can, we’ll keep going. If even one person cannot, we’ll stop and wait another six months and begin testing again.”
“And you’re part of a test group that sees what, if anything, happens to those who continue ingesting what they can without being made sick?”
“I am.”
“Have the cravings gone away for those denied milk and honey, and who can only drink blood?”
“They have not.”
I determined to go a week without and see if the cravings were less, rather than basically be another part of the test group that continued to ingest foods proscribed for a vampire.
“Thank you for your answers. Is there a question I should’ve asked?”
He lifted a brow. “Only you would know the answer to that.”
I shook my head. “You’ve been told which answers you can provide, but you aren’t volunteering information outside of my questions.”
“If it became common for Master Vampires over large territories to have such a suit, so they could offer its use as a reward for their vampires, or a special treat for new vampires who show exceptional control, and if the purchase price meant handing over the cash plus two humans, a male and female so you can offer the reward for all of your people, would you do so?”
Vampires consider the long game. Five hundred years from now, if one needed to own the suits in order to recruit new vampires to your coterie, would I do so?
“I’ll answer as honestly as I can if you’ll tell me the answer to the question or questions I should’ve asked.”
He smiled. “We have a female vampire in her fourth month of pregnancy. She’s worn the skin the entire time. All tests, including a 3D ultrasound, show a normal human fetus. She’s eating all the foods a pregnant woman should eat, and has not consumed so much as a drop of blood.”
“Have you put anyone else into the suit for an extended time?”
“A mid-level vampire, three hundred years old, was in it for one month. He’s been out for two months. He can eat whatever he wants, solid food included, and he in fact craves it and weakens greatly if he doesn’t have it, but he also needs blood.”
“So he’s in effect some kind of hybrid? How about his power?”
“He wasn’t terribly strong to start, and we estimate he’s about half the power he was before wearing the suit.”
“As to your question,” I told him, “I’d consider it, but it’s also possible I’d want to attract the types of vampires who aren’t interested in the suit. I don’t believe I can adequately answer the question at this time, other than to say I can’t say for certain, which means I’m not giving an absolute negative.”
“And do you know my next question?”
“Whether I’d purchase the suit if it meant I could impregnate a human woman and have my own offspring? Or whether I would rent it for a million or so dollars to have it long enough to have my sperm harvested and have them implanted in multiple human women?”
He nodded.
“If the sperm are my DNA and not the human’s, and if there are tests showing the human offspring are completely normal and not some kind of human/vampire hybrid, I would absolutely do so.”
“And if it turns out they are some kind of hybrid?”
“It would depend on a number of factors. Have you impregnated human women with such sperm?”
