She walked in and was surprised to see not one of the regular blood hosts, but young Katie Brekman, the daughter of the Debrek housekeeper and butler. Alexis knew that she had returned from university but didn’t know she had started work.

“Duca?” Katie said in surprise. “I…I didn’t know it would be you.”

Alexis looked at the young woman silently. She appeared nervous, and Alexis’s exceptional hearing could make out Katie’s heart hammering in her chest.

Katie wasn’t handling Alexis’s silence very well and started to talk nervously. “This is my first time giving blood—well, I did give blood at university for the Red Cross, but that’s a bit different—”

As she rambled on Alexis sighed internally. A blood virgin. Brilliant, that was just what she needed. Alexis wasn’t like some vampires who liked to stop and chat, pass the time of day with their blood hosts. She didn’t much like to pass the day with anyone. She had clan business to take care of, things to do, and people to organize within the clan.

She was clearly the wrong person to guide Katie through her first time and would just have to tell her so.

“I’m jabbering, aren’t I?” Katie said, her cheeks blushing with embarrassment. “I do that when I’m nervous.”

Katie’s innocence and bashfulness lit an unexpected hunger inside of Alexis. Some vampires got off feeding from a blood virgin, to have the first taste of them, to be the one who would always be the human’s first, but the idea never appealed to Alexis. So why this twisting of need in her stomach now?

Katie’s mother and father were well-loved and extremely important to the Debreks, and Katie had grown up amongst them all. Usually, Alexis was barely aware of the human staff’s children, unless they were getting in the way. But she had noticed Katie when she left for university as a young woman, and since she had returned. It was clearly a bad idea to indulge such a strong desire and satisfy an urge with someone so important to the family, so she was doubly sure to turn down this particular host.

“Katie—” Alexis was just about to turn her down when Katie interrupted.

“You want a more experienced host, don’t you?” Katie’s shoulders slumped, and she sighed. “You’re the fourth vampire to ask for someone else.”

“Oh, why is that?” Alexis said.

Katie popped her phone into her pocket, preparing to leave. “They’re frightened of giving me a bad experience, I suppose, because of who Mum and Dad are. They probably think the Principe will be mad at them if it’s not a perfect experience or something. I mean, I know Mum and Dad are close to the Debreks, but I’m still a human like everyone else here.”

Alexis immediately felt guilty at the thought of turning Katie down, even if the vampire in her was a little too interested in drinking from her. She couldn’t do that to Katie and supposed it her duty as Duca to guide her through this first time if no one else was brave enough to.