John was always reminded of the first time he'd tried tofu when he drank synthetic, but unlike when he'd only had to force a smile and finish his bite
till the cook left it was important to stomach the blood alternative. It had been important to control hunger in the dead world so as not to alarm the
citizens the family of vampires had taken responsibility for. Here, in the City, it was all the more important because the vampires were no longer in
control, no longer the authority. Bringing attention and panic would certainly warrant retaliation, and possibly not from the City authorities alone. As
far as he could tell there were many here who would be upset and cause trouble for the nest if they suspected the vampires were hurting the civilians.
So, John stomached the juice whenever he fell behind in feeding, and didn't complain about the flavor. If anything it gave incentive to practice his
hunting more and in lighter quantities. His skills had improved from all of the practice.
The former soldier sat on the stool and played for a while. He'd been practicing enough coming here that he needed little warm up. He played through a
pair of the songs they'd nearly perfected, then let the notes hang in the air before looking up.
"It occurs to me, we never name our songs," he said, grinning almost boyishly, leaning forward on the guitar as his hand rest-gripped on the neck of his
new guitar. "What are you writing on the recording files?"