The Donor House: John: Malted Milk Balls
Written for LJ user ysabetwordsmith’s prompt: the vampires find out they can taste malted milk balls.
John picked up one of the malted milk balls. It had been months since he’d tried eating anything, because being able to taste nothing was always a let down, but the chocolate smelt so nice. Finally, shrugging, he put it in his mouth, waiting for reminder that he was a vampire. Before he’d become a vampire he’d never had a chance to try chocolate, and he’d never been able to taste it previous times when he tried it, so he had to work out what it was he could actually taste. He picked up another, stared at it thoughtfully as he remembered something Alice had mentioned to him before about Issac and malt vinegar, and then put the ball in his mouth. The only answer he could come up with was that he could taste the malt. Smiling, he turned to Blake, and held the bowl out.
“Try one,” John said, as Blake looked at him blankly.
“Why?”
“If I told you it would spoil the surprise.” John smiled. “Just try one, okay.”
Shaking his head Blake picked up one of the balls and put it into his mouth, looking as though he was expecting to be disappointed. “Am I really tasting that or is it just my imagination?” he asked, his eyes meeting John’s.
“I tasted it too, so I doubt it’s both of us imagining things.” John raised an eyebrow. “We can always experiment.”
Blake smiled. “True.” He picked up one of the other bowls of malted milk balls. “We test five vampires each and then come back here to share our results.”
Nodding, John wandered over to a mixed group of vampires and humans. Jean-Luc was talking to Alice while Kisten was having what looked to be a very in depth conversation with Dominic. It took a few minutes of patience, but finally Alice looked up at him. When she saw the bowl in his hand he could see that she knew what he was doing and she smiled, shaking her head at the same time. John shrugged, trying not to smile back, before offering the balls to the vampires.
“Try them,” John said, wondering who Blake was testing his bowl out on.
Jean-Luc looked at Alice, who didn’t bother to say anything, but did take one of the balls. John was certain she’d guessed that they’d be able to taste the balls because they were malt, but as they’d been bought for human trick-or-treaters she probably hadn’t wanted to say anything. Both Jean-Luc and Kisten followed her example. Alice’s lack of surprise told John his guess had been right, and felt guilty that he was taking sweets away from the few teenagers who dared to knock on their door, but at the same time he was glad that he was being able to treat his fellow vampires.
“It’s just as well we have some time before the trick-or-treaters are expected,” Alice said, smiling at John as Kisten took a handful of the balls and Jean-Luc tried to steal the bowl.
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.