THE RED HIBISCUS HOTEL, Manila

Zephyr’s eyes widened at Dani’s accusation. How could she know that? He then started to smell the kitchen. There was a strong smell of garlic which would be unservable for the vampire guests. 

Dani moved around the kitchen looking at the chefs. She moved in an aggressive manner, going through every station and every chef. She sighed. “Nothing here can be eaten by vampires. Someone sabotaged the meals.”

Dani went to the head chef. She leaned into him, glaring into his eyes. “Who gave you these instructions? You know there are gonna be vampires as guests. Were you paid?”

The head chef had beads of sweat. He looked at his fellow chefs then at Dani with fear in eyes. He stumbled on his words. “I swear we didn’t put it there! Check the pantry and stations! There’s no one with any form of garlic in the kitchen.”

Dani and Zephyr looked around. Crap. He was right. “Someone must have sneaked into the kitchen as one of them and put garlic everywhere.”

“Can’t we just take it out?”

Dani tasted one of the soups. “It’s garlic powder. It is already mixed with the ingredients.”

Dani looked at Zephyr. “Whoever did this doesn’t want this ceremony to end well.”

It took around a few minutes for this to be reported to the Secretary. Zephyr and Dani waited in the kitchen for the next orders. Dani had a hardened look on her face. Her jaw was tense and she had a faint wrinkle on her forehead. Zephyr avoided Dani’s eye contact in case he might do something wrong, too.

Zephyr really didn’t want to make conversation so he was relieved when someone entered the kitchen. His coat and tie was taken off, showing him only in his long sleeve button down and slacks. His hair was neatly gelled. He had a tamed wildness in his demeanor. When he spoke, he noticed his fangs. “Xavier Ikapati at your service. We have four hours before the reception. What do we do?”

“Maybe we can change the menu to something still in the pantry? I’m sure there’s some sort of meat?” Zephyr said.

“The Bulan clan is here.” Dani said. “They are vampires who actively consume blood. We need a dish with blood. But where can we get one in less than four hours?”

The vampire gave a careful thoughtful face. “It will take too long to extract blood from animals. Or to get human blood from the Bulan clan. It’s just not logistically possible in the given amount of time.”

They were stumped. Getting fresh blood was near to impossible. Zephyr asked the cook what was supposed to be prepared for the vampires who drank blood. 

The chef in a nervous tone said, “Well, we were supposed to serve dinuguan, a stew made out of pork and its blood along with vinegar.”

Zephyr stopped his thought process and a new one began. Dani noticed his smirk and said, “What are you thinking, Zephyr?”

“It doesn’t have to be blood as it is. It can be products made from blood.” Zephyr said with his enthusiasm growing. “Xavier, you’re part of the mafia, right?”

“Well, yes.”

“Do you happen to have connections to European restaurants in this area? British or Nordic? Maybe Polish?”

“I think so. Wouldn’t be impossible.” 

“But how about the plating? Serving the courses?” The chef asked. 

“Don’t worry about it. I have a plan.” said Zephyr.