As the freezing fog inside the cafe completely erased the world beyond the windows, the faux-teenage smile on my mother's face suddenly distorted into a agonizing, painful convulsion. From the corners of her lips, a dark purple, almost black blood leaked out—a substance that shouldn't have belonged to a living vampire.
For the first time in history, her vacant eyes welled with tears like a living human being as her skin rapidly bruised into a violent shade of pain.
"They filled your drink with a massive dose of vampire venom to poison you... a new formulation," my mother said, her voice shattering piece by piece under the burning, corrosive effect of the toxin in her throat. "They no longer risk biting necks; they poison by ingestion now."
The breath caught in my throat. I stared at the mug on the verge of toppling over on the wooden table.
