Page 11 of Just for a Taste

“I saw you last fall at a conference in London,” Doctor Ntumba replied so quickly, I wondered if I was only imagining her trying to be evasive.

Last fall—and London—both seemed decades away, but even in the haze of distant memory, that conference was clear. Along with manning the lab’s table, I had given my first and only presentation that day, earned through the luck of having my thesis adviser get sick at the last minute. The booth had been sequestered away in the corner of the dingiest hall, and it was clear I was just taking up space. The paper I was presenting on,Perspectives on Vampiric Syndromes in the Papal Conclave of 1492, was a crowd-pleaser I wasn’t proud of. But none of that had mattered. Drenched in sweat beneath the nicest suit jacket I could rent, I had the time of my life, thrilled at sharing and being heard.

But only a few people had stopped by my booth, and I didn’t remember Doctor Ntumba amongst them. I studied her features carefully in the hopes that some previously unnoted freckle or dimple would unleash a memory, but nothing did.

“We did not exchange words,” she clarified, “but I saw you throughout the night. There was a manner in which you spoke that made me believe Zeno might be fond of you. You were astonishingly vibrant when speaking about your work, only to fade into the background entirely whenever you stopped speaking. You never joined in on conversations uninvited, but I also never saw you with a lack of opinion when prompted.”

She continued on, explaining how she had found my name on the lab website, but I wasn’t paying attention. My mind was already racing, and it couldn’t handle much more information.

Seeing the look on my face, Doctor Ntumba shot me a pointed gaze and stated, “Cora, this position is incredibly straightforward. I was telling you the truth when I talked about your sole duties—you’ll be abeniaminain name and blood bond alone. There are no parties to attend, no formal meetings, and no decisions to make. Zeno may not even speak to you on a regular basis.”

“I see.”

A complex array of emotions washed over me, crossing and knotting like sloppy weaving. The warp was disappointment and the weft was relief, with countless other embedded feelings. But what had I expected out of such a bizarre situation?

“Think about it,” Doctor Ntumba said, organizing her papers but pointedly leaving one behind. “I’ll meet you tomorrow morning with either a contract or passes for a ride home.” With the rest gathered neatly into her arms, Doctor Ntumba rose from her chair to leave.

“W-wait!” I stammered, taking a step toward her.

She swiveled to look back at me, brow raised. “Have you made up your mind so soon?”

I shook my head and wrung my hands, nervous under the intensity of her gaze. “No, I just wanted to know the name of the butler.”

Her confused expression remained, now slightly mottled with annoyance. “There is plenty of help. It doesn’t matter whom you bring it to.”

“I meant the name of the one who showed me to my room the other night. He had dark brown hair and seemed nervous, but he was nice to me. I should at least know his name.”

A strange smile crossed her lips. “That would be Signore Urbino. He will probably be ordered to keep a distance if you choose to stay.”

“What?”

She shrugged and turned back to the door. “I won’t say much further, as it isn’t my business. Good night.”

I muttered my goodbyes as she left and, as before, found myself alone. I lingered for a moment on the strange detail regarding Signore Urbino, but it passed through my mind quickly, overtaken by the more pressing matter at hand. I had a decision to make.

∞∞∞

I ate dinner in the same dining hall I had eaten breakfast in earlier. Like before, there was an excessive amount of food to eat, and like before, I was eating it alone.

Beniamina.I traced the word on the table in front of me until my fingertip felt numb. I mentally combed through the job description that had brought me here:Healthy adult wanted for paid blood donations in rural Sicily. Room and board provided. Long-term gig with a generous salary. Discretion required.

It was an accurate description, wasn’t it? One day out of the month, I’d get a needle or fangs in my arm, and for the remainder, I’d be spoiled rotten by maids and have access to a whole host of treasures. Nothing would truly change for me to decline what seemed to be godly intervention, other than that one word:beniamina.

I dissected the job description again, sentence by sentence.

Healthy adult wanted for paid blood donations in rural Sicily.

Paid blood donations were what I did in college. This wasn’t really so simple, though, was it? Being abeniaminawas something far beyond such a simple thing;beniaminiwere partners to the powerful and elite. Whether that partnership was platonic, romantic, sexual, or solely economic was private information. Many considered the pact between abeniaminoand their vampire to be as deep, if not deeper, than that between spouses. I doubted anyone had ever interviewed for it like this, especially someone like me. And even now, one month after our breakup, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt at the notion of a pararomantic relationship when Emily still existed.

Room and board provided.

That was the easy part, wasn’t it? But why was Doctor Ntumba rushing me and pushing so hard for something so nice?

Long-term gig with a generous salary.

Doctor Ntumba said my position was to be reviewed quarterly, but how long did it have the potential to be? Oculocutaneous albinism and pancytopenia—an inability to produce blood cells—were the core mutations involved in vampirism, and neither was inherently life-shortening if managed. But even with modern medicine, many subtypes of vampirism led to significantly shorter lives, often with much of them spent in hospitals. Would I be wasting their time when I inevitably left after getting all the information I needed?

A trio of sharp knocks shattered my trance. Instinctively, I sat up straight and folded my hands in my lap. Signora Carbone greeted me with a vaguely annoyed glance, so I tried to make myself as small as possible as she tidied up my dishes and cleaned around me.

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