Free Prague Murder by Amanda A. Allen

But he answered, “Sort of. It’s in our potion. If the potion is made right and we eat lots of food—usually protein, we don’t need anything else.”
    “So you do drink blood!” Carol backed away and edged behind Emily.
    Emily might have considered being freaked out except he was really pretty. If you had to be a vampire and drink blood, you should be a pretty one. She was pretty sure that everyone would agree on that. Now he just needed to flex and…
    “Look,” Igor the vampire said. “Sort of. It’s in the potion with lots of other things. Lavender is in there too. That doesn't sound so bad does it?”
    “Yes,” Emily said, because it had to be said. “Anything with blood in it is nasty. Lavender does not make that better.”
    “People eat black pudding and blood sausage all the time.” Igor the Vampire glanced back and forth between them in such a way that said they were idiots.
    “And that is nasty .” Emily explained, shaking her head at Carol. “Drink this.”
    Emily handed Igor truth serum.
    “Does that work on vampires?”
    That was a good question. Did it? She texted Hazel and handed him another one. They were going to be out if they kept flying through like this. So Emily asked Hazel where they could get more as well. At this point, Emily was pretty sure it was generally unsafe to be without truth serum in your pocket.
    “I like black pudding,” Carol said.
    Emily couldn’t answer because of the gagging.
    “I do,” Carol said. “I could see drinking blood if I could live forever. How do I become a vampire?”
    “You don’t,” Igor said.
    “You did,” Carol replied.
    “Lady, you aren’t going to get to be a vampire. Let it go.”
    “That’s not fair. I want to live forever, too.” Carol put her hands on her hips. “I have worked hard. I raised seven kids by myself. I deserve to have some time off. I want to be super strong and turn into a bat and enjoy some extra time.”
    Igor looked at Emily as if to ask if she could believe this but Emily could. Seven kids was crazy. Anyone that crazy was probably crazy enough to be a vampire. She didn’t see why Carol couldn’t get the big switch, drink blood, and party until someone staked her.
    Hazel texted then and reminded Emily that she was supposed to be investigating. Turned out that truth serums do work on vampires. Emily pushed the vials at Igor the Vampire again and he shook his head.
    “Look, you need to take these and either confess or get yourself off because you need to eat and I need to eat, and Ingrid needs to eat and also nap before she starts having a tantrum.”
    “Why would I care about Ingrid’s tantrum,” Igor the Vampire asked.
    “You can die by fire right? Because Ingrid sets things on fire, by accident, when she's’ upset. We’re all at risk. Especially whoever she thinks killed that little squat dude Joe, because—let’s be clear—if burning witches at the stake to prove they were witches worked in the olden days, Ingrid might just bring it back to make murderers confess.”
    Igor the Vampire looked at Emily like she was insane. And she got it. It sounded crazy. Even kids could control their magic better than what Emily just described but that didn’t change Ingrid’s reality. She’d set more than one person on fire.
    And, you know, maybe Emily had set a few people on fire as well. She wasn’t perfect . She didn’t pretend to be perfect. She had confessed hadn’t she? To the Presidium types. They deserved a solid punch in the throat ball if they chose to ignore her when she had tried to be straight with them.
    “Drink it or we’ll tell the Presidium doves where you are instead of letting them find you,” Emily said. She raised a brow at the pretty vampire and remembered that she had probably found the one. And just because she’d found him didn’t mean that she couldn’t appreciate how pretty the vampire was. But it did mean she couldn’t do anything else.
    Damn it.
    Dean should not be on