How to Survive a Werewolf Romance

Chapter 24: A Marvellous Mishap

The talking never seemed to end. I wasn't against socializing as a rule, but I was starting to feel deeply weary.

"And, allow me to introduce you to Vincent, our delegate to the High Vampiric Council."

Vincent smelled like a desiccated corpse. Not so much bad as stuffy and dusty, kind of like a museum, but with the strangest hint of tomato. "It's a pleasure to meet you," I said, trying not to breathe through my nose while I ignored the prickles of unease running down my back.

"The pleasure is all mine, Lady Anne."

As unnerving as his presence was, if I looked at him in a purely analytical way, he was not unpleasant in appearance. Vincent was quite pale, which was only emphasized by the blackness of his hair and the dark red of his eyes. He was lean, but clearly had hard muscles under his clothing, not that I was interested in the slightest.

He smiled with an easy politeness. "I was most pleased to hear that His Majesty found his mate. If anyone deserves the support, it is he." I suddenly understood why Arthur had thought I might like this vampire. When my mate stepped slightly away from me to speak to another guest, I did not protest.

"Do you two know each other well then?"

"Indeed. I've been the council delegate since before Arthur was born. It keeps me busy, when my attention is not on my other concerns."

"What are your other concerns?" I asked. I was a bit curious and when he was talking I wouldn't have to figure out what I was supposed to say.

Vincent smiled. "I'm the owner and founder of Nightshade Farms. We supply sixty-six percent of vampiric sustenance on the continent."

<He grows tomatoes? That explains the smell clinging to him,> my wolf commented.

"That's amazing," I agreed, although in truth it was mildly interesting at best. Undoubtedly it was quite important to vampires that they not starve, though, so I thought listening would at least be polite and quite possibly diplomatic. Maybe I was going to be able to manage this whole princess thing.

"My research and development team has been working to genetically modify other fruits besides tomatoes," he said with an enthusiasm that showed my attention was effective. "We go with fruits with red juices typically, since focus groups show vampires are more inclined to enjoy drinking red beverages, although the addition of food colouring seems to help solve that issue for many other choices. One of our biggest competitors is putting out an apple based beverage, but with the addition of colouring they cannot claim to be one hundred percent natural, as Nightshade Farms can."

"I truly had no idea how complex the topic of vampire sustenance had become."

"Indeed. Countless hours of research and testing went into the development, but now that we've managed to develop fruits that can sustain us, the hardest part is marketing. We've got five strains of tomatoes so far and we named them after former human blood types, but there's no real correlation. AB- is our best seller, but the real joke is that back when there were still humans to consume, vampires couldn't tell the difference between blood types in double blind experiments, even though they thought they have preferences."

"Really? But I thought it was rare?" I asked.

"It was, but rarity doesn't necessarily equal quality when it comes to such things. Still, if you slap a AB- label on a bag of blood—or a bottle of tomato blood substitute—vampires tend to like it better. Marketing." He looked amused, and I could see why Arthur had told me that I would like him.

"Sounds a lot like the way they're trying to craft my princess image," I said.

He nodded. "Very much so. Half of reality is perception, and the other half is largely ignored."