Vintage

"Are we flying out?" the one asked. "WE can, but he will not," the second responded. "He's not dieting again - woe unto all of us for his eternal vanity!" the third added (pulling a favorite out of their common rhetoric). The second laughed comfortingly. "No," she said. "He is not dieting; vain, yes, but not depriving himself this time ... simply abstaining." "Really, all of it is beyond me," the third sighed. "Feeding is still feeding to you, so the confusion is understandable," Dracula's second wife responded gently. "At more than 1000 years of age, you might think differently. He does, from time to time, need to let the taste of this world fade away - saving his palate from bursts of fear and anger, the dreary long finish of despair." "The last couple of years especially," the first whispered into their silence. "Not a banner vintage."