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Mindy’s blue eyes. The dark-haired vampire shook her head. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you stoop to that. But really, Minz, you need to step it up. You know you feel it—the blood thirst. The craving for human blood. Stop fighting it so much.”
    Mindy chuckled as she eyed one of her regulars, and her tongue swept across the bottom of her teeth. Her fangs were retracted at the moment, but she could still feel the little points of her canines. “You know I don’t fight it.”
    It was impossible to fight, even when she wanted to.
    “Then you’ll come with me to the feast tomorrow?” Jewels demanded.
    Mindy’s eyes travelled back to her roomie’s face, and she frowned.
    “That looks like a ‘no’.”
    “I kind of ... I kind of want a traditional dinner.”
    Jewels’ nose wrinkled. “Like human food?”
    She shuddered.
    “It may be the last time I crave it, so why not?”
    “And where are you going to do that?” Jewels’ eyes narrowed. “You’re not thinking about going home, are you?”
    Mindy rolled her eyes, although the desire to see her family one more time remained as a pit in her stomach. “Of course not. That would be stupid.”
    “And forbidden.”
    Yup. And forbidden. A new idea struck Mindy. “I could make my own little Thanksgiving feast at the apartment.” Her excitement grew at the idea. “You could join me, too, and we can eat like human pigs.”
    “Yuek. No, thank you. I’ll be going to the vampire feast. And you should really go with me. It’s much healthier, you know.”
    Mindy laughed. “Healthy and Thanksgiving feast don’t even belong in the same sentence. You really should join me and learn what an American Thanksgiving is all about.”
    “Giving thanks and gluttony. I already know. And that’s what I plan to do—with all of our new vampire mates.” Jewels sauntered down to the other end of the bar, indicating the conversation was over.
    Not quite wanting to throw it away, Mindy shoved the invitation into the back pocket of her jeans. As she served the few customers the rest of the night and even as she drank from one after, she made a mental grocery list. The craving for a traditional Thanksgiving became so strong, her mouth watering so much, she nearly drained her customer dry. She was a baby vamp herself, too young to be siring a newborn, but if she hadn’t stopped in time, her only other choice would have been to leave him to die. So she was thankful she’d come to her senses when she did.
    No, she wasn’t full Daemoni yet. And that could likely get her killed. But for now, she wanted to enjoy these last bits of her humanity. She was thankful she hadn’t lost her soul ... yet.
    “Much to be thankful about,” she happily muttered to herself as she entered the twenty-four-hour grocery store near her apartment, but then she clamped her mouth shut and looked around. Too many Daemoni vamps around to be talking like that. But she could think it. A real Thanksgiving dinner is especially something to be grateful for .

Chapter 2

    “What the hell are you doing?” Jewels demanded when she came out of her bedroom the next morning wearing nothing more than an extra large t-shirt and maybe panties underneath, but the shirt was too long to know for sure. She didn’t really need to sleep—neither of them did—but sometimes a vampire needed some alone time in the privacy of her own room. Jewels’ dinner-date still slept soundly in her bed. “And what the hell are you wearing?”
    Mindy sat on the couch with her knees pulled to her chest, wearing her old pajamas left over from a life she no longer had—pink fuzzy ones with yellow elephants on them. Her eyes didn’t leave the television screen where a four-story-tall Elmo floated by. “Watching the Macy’s parade in my jammies. Thanksgiving Day tradition.”
    Jewels glanced at the TV, then glared at her roommate. “Are you daft? We have a feast to get ready for!”
    “I told you. I’m making my own feast, and the