“You will simply die. Your sire must have been very old. Only then will one decompose upon their vampire death, much like they would have in their natural human grave.”
“Yuck.” I shuddered. “The hunters sure went to work on Gordon, though. It was horrible. He must have been very hard to kill.”
Thierry shook his head. “All that is required is a deathblow to the heart with a wooden or silver object. Anything else the hunters do is for their own perverse pleasure.”
I went silent for a moment, thinking about everything I’d just heard. Being a vampire sounded incredibly dangerous. With very few perks. But I just had to look on the positive side. Other than the hunters, being a vampire might not be so bad. There was the whole non-aging thing. I liked the sound of that. Everyone in the crowded, smoky club looked fairly happy to me. They were just like regular people, only they’d be young and pretty forever.
Thierry watched me in silence for a few moments. “I feel it would be best if you took a job here, at Midnight Eclipse.”
I shook my head. “I’m not waiting tables.”
“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. There’s plenty to occupy you otherwise. Perhaps as a hostess?”
“Why are you doing this? Offering me a job?”
He took another drink and made me wait. “You are currently unemployed, is that not so?”
“Yes, but who says I don’t have fifty people banging on my door wanting me to come work for them?”
“What is it that you did at your last job?”
This time I was the one to pause. “Well, it’s not going to sound all that glamorous, but I was a senior executive assistant.”
Thierry stared at me. “You are correct; that does not sound very glamorous.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. “Look, maybe I made a mistake coming here, after all.”
When I stood up to leave, Thierry reached across the table and grabbed my wrist. “You must stay here. Sit down.”
Something about the way he said it, as if it were a direct order from the “master” himself, pissed me off. I tried to pull away, but his grip was too strong.
“I must do nothing. Let go of me.”
He held on for another second, then released me so quickly that I almost fell backward into the booth. “I am only concerned for your safety.”
“What do you care about my safety?” I suddenly felt very annoyed. “You don’t even know me. Just because I interrupted your little suicide attempt last night—”
His eyes flashed, the expression on his face cutting me off from saying anything else.
“You will not speak of that again.”
It was surprising how quickly his handsome face shifted into something scary-looking. This was not a man I wanted to be mad at me.
I swallowed hard and sat back down at the table.
“Look, I’m sorry. Whatever you want to do with your life is none of my business. All I’m looking for…” I paused and decided to rephrase that. “All I’m asking for is a little guidance.”
He stared at me for a moment and I could see his anger fade away. “I thought you already knew it all from your friend Anne Rice. And this Buffy person.”
“That was before I started using my boss’s finger as a chew toy.”
He drummed his fingertips on the tablecloth. “And what can I expect in return?”
I leaned back and presented him with my best smile. “My friendship.”
He took me by surprise by throwing his head back and laughing long and hard. “Your
friendship? Now why would you think I’d want, or need, something like that from you?”
I shrugged. “Just a hunch.”
“Your hunch is wrong.”
I wasn’t about to be discouraged. “Okay, then, how about this? Those hunters were going
to kill me last night. You saved my life. Therefore, you’re responsible for me whether you like it or not.”
That sobered him up a bit. He looked me over then, slowly, from my freshly washed, shoulder-length brown hair tucked neatly behind my ears, down my makeup-free face, along the line of my neck, and finally to my Diva T-shirt. The sparkles must have made him snap out of his sudden daze. His eyes flicked back to my face.
“There is a reason why those as old as I do not sire fledglings.” His voice was serious; any trace of laughter had vanished.
“You didn’t sire me,” I reasoned. “But you’re free to adopt me.”
I tried to look cute. Then gave up. I really should have taken ten minutes to put on some makeup. I felt seriously shiny.
When he didn’t say anything, I became very uneasy. Well, I was sitting in a secret vampire club on the wrong side of town across from a six-hundred-year-old vampire others called “master.” I figured I had a right to feel a little uncomfortable.
I stood up. Better to leave of my own accord than risk any additional embarrassment.
“I guess I’ll go now.” I half expected him to grab me again and demand that I stay.
He didn’t.
I tucked a renegade strand of hair firmly behind my ear and nodded. “I feel like I’m always saying good-bye to you.”
Thierry said something, but I didn’t quite catch it.
I leaned closer. “Huh?”
He looked up at me. “Then don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t say good-bye.”
He glanced around the club. The singer was on a break now, and the band just played without vocals. I waited without sitting back down or heading for the door until he decided to say something else.