Leila was content with just checking out the shops for a while, until almost dark. Then she started to get hungry again, and she looked over at Katherine.

"How odd is the food here? How much will it freak me out?"

Katherine paused for a moment.

"I'm the wrong person to be asking that question to, Lei," she said finally. "I have no idea. I haven't been able to eat real food since 1692."

"Bah. You can still see it." But Leila started walking, peering in at places to see if anything looked (or smelled) good. She looked at two places before settling on a third, glancing back at Katherine to see if she wanted to come in or find her own dinner elsewhere.

Katherine just pulled the insulated thermos out of her bag.

"You get what you want," she said. "I've got what I need. We can sit down and enjoy dinner."

Leila nodded and entered. The waiter spoke some English, so she managed to get them a table near a potted plant and sat down to look at the menu.

"Think more of your kind will be out and about soon? It's getting dark."

"Probably," Katherine said, glancing around for a moment. "It depends on how many generations there are between the individual and Uncle. Some could have been out and about all day like me. Others will probably come out once the sun is down."

"So, what, is your uncle the strongest, or something?" Leila blinked. Now that she'd gotten over the initial shock, she found she was curious. There was a lot she didn't know, and she figured Katherine wouldn't mind telling her some things, at least.

"At the moment, Uncle is the eldest," Katherine said. "Supposedly he had a sire of his own, but whoever it was is long gone. Everyone else descends from Uncle."

"So he's the very top of the food chain among you all." Leila shook her head. She still had problems with that; it was just so odd.

"Essentially," Katherine replied. "Uncle is literally the head of the family. There is only one generation between him and me, so I'm allowed to drop in like this."

Leila nodded. "I wonder how many there are, total," she mused. "And how many he's... sired? Is that the right word?"

"I don't know how many there are," Katherine replied. "Although Uncle probably only has a dozen direct fledgelings. My own sire is one of them, but I know there aren't many. Uncle's fledgelings sired far more themselves."

Leila nodded. That made sense, in a way. "So does he stay here most of the time? I'd think with the time he's got, he'd want to go travel and look at things he didn't get to see before."

"Every decade or two, Uncle travels," Katherine said. "I don't know how much he's seen, but it has to be nearly everything." Absently, she took a sip from her thermos.

Leila nodded, absorbing that, and ordered something when the waiter came over. She had no idea how anything would taste, so she picked something at random that didn't sound scary.

Katherine waved the waiter off when he asked what she wanted, and just gestured for him to take Leila's order. She took another sip from her thermos once he left.

"So can you tell what type it is?" Leila looked at her, morbidly curious. She'd noticed that earlier, during the exchange between Katherine and Vlad.

"What, this?" Katherine asked, glancing at the thermos and back. She took a sip, really tasting it this time. "...AB-negative." She took another sip and nodded. "Yeah. AB-negative. This morning's was O-positive, I think."

"Does it actually taste different or are you just able to tell?" Leila blinked, taking a sip of her water. Because she didn't trust the wine here.

"It tastes different," Katherine replied. "It's kind of subtle, but it's there. A, B, and Rh each has a little... something, and it makes each type taste different depending on what it is."

"Huh. Okay." That made sense, at least, and Leila sipped her water as she thought that over. "I assume it takes time to tell the difference, then."

"Definitely," Katherine replied, nodding. "It was years before I even knew there was a difference, and another couple of decades before I could tell them apart."

"Huh. Okay." Leila looked at her dinner when it arrived, judging for a few moments, before she shrugged and took a bite. "Okay. Tastier than I expected."

"What is it?" Katherine asked curiously, looking at the plate. She thought she saw bits of beef, but she wasn't entirely sure.

"Beef, turkey, some kind of sauce, noodles and veggies." Leila shrugged. "I'm pretty sure, anyway. It tastes good, at least."