It's been a few weeks and I just wanted to update this thread for others that might see the same symtoms.
CPU usage died down to normal after several days so I am chalking it up to indexing after I updated visual studio which is a large install.
It does surprise me that the virtual machine is indexed by spotlight. Is there any way to diable that because I can see no reason for ever wanting to search inside the VM from the host.
Thanks again!