Мишель Роуэн - Stakes & Stilettos

I felt a rush of disappointment. "Then what exactly is this interview for?"

She pushed the wad of money in the center of the table closer to me. "It's four hundred dollars now, and another four hundred once it's done."

I eyed her suspiciously. "Once what's done?"

"You need to sire my boyfriend," she said simply.

"I need to what!" My heart began to pound hard enough for me to hear in my ears. "What the hell are you talking about? I thought I was here to interview for a full-time job."

Her smile faded slightly around the edges. "Well, I knew you probably wouldn't immediately jump at a siring opportunity. I wanted you to meet Josh and see how awesome he is and how happy I am with him. And we are paying you for your services."

"For my services!" I repeated. "This is completely ridiculous."

"Please." Josh leaned forward. "I love Heather. I want to be a vampire so we can be together forever. Heather told me that you were a romantic. That you'd understand."

"Oh, I understand perfectly," I said, feeling the seething annoyance building up inside me.

"You want to be a vampire? Then why don't you just get her to sire you?"

He shook his head. "She's the last in a long line. The strength in her blood is way too diluted. If she sired me I'd be too weak. But because of your connection to two master vampires your blood would make me strong, even as a fledgling. You have to sire me."

"Forget it." I shook my head. No way. That would require biting him—possibly on the neck. Something I've never done before nor did I plan on starting tonight. Gross. I'd have to drain his blood while keeping my fangs in long enough to transmit the vampire virus that had changed me from a normal, everyday twenty-eight-year-old into a friendly neighborhood bloodsucker.

Hell no.

Now, I did require blood to live. I was a vampire, after all. But that was why there were vampire bars. Vampires went to these places to get their blood—blood that was available in kegs delivered by companies that got the red stuff from paid donors. It was a business.

The rarer the blood type, the more the blood cost. It worked very well and nobody I knew had a problem with it, especially since it meant that we didn't have to get our blood from the original source. That would be wrong on too many levels to count. No humans were harmed to meet the requirements of my daily nutrition. Amen.

Although, even drinking blood from a keg, knowing I wasn't hurting anybody, had been a hard thing to accept. However, if I didn't want to die in agony—which I didn't—some aspects of being a vampire couldn't be avoided.

"I'm out of here." I stood up from the table and grabbed my coat, ignoring the money completely, and I left the café to emerge into the chilly night without looking back.

Honestly. Some people. What had they been thinking? And lying to me about a fantastic new job? So not cool.

Pay me to sire her boyfriend. Did they think I was a vampire prostitute, or something? I wasn't biting anyone for money. I didn't care how broke I was.

Dammit. I was disappointed. Obviously a job that sounded too good to be true was just that. And to think that I'd trusted Heather—even thought of her as a friend. Talk about adding insult to injury.

I heard two sets of footsteps behind me but I ignored them.

"Sarah, wait!" Heather called after me.

I ducked into the little snow-covered park across the street from Haven. Through the park, up the street, down an alley and I'd be back in the club.

"Please, just listen to us." There was a pleading in Heather's voice now.

I stopped and turned around to face them. "Look, I understand that you two are in love.

That's super. Really. But I don't like being lied to and I don't want to bite anyone. Like, ever. So let's just forget this ever happened, okay?"

"We'll pay two thousand dollars," Josh said with a glance at Heather. She nodded.

Two grand? That was a lot of money and would currently solve a great many problems.

"That's very generous, but no. I can't do it. Listen, don't become a vampire. It's not really that great. Be a human. Stay a human. Less stress, trust me on that."

Disappointment filled Josh's expression. "That's not an option."

"I'm sure somebody will help you if it's what you really want."

"No, it has to be you," Josh said, and he began to shiver from the cold night, since he only wore a sweater, and he wrapped his arms tightly across his chest. "You're currently the only vampire alive who has the blood of two masters coursing through her veins."

"I'm the only one?" I said with surprise. "Seriously?"

He nodded. "There was another fledgling who had the blood of three master vamps, but he was recently set on fire by hunters and pulled apart by dogs. Apparently he saw it coming in one of those prophetic dreams." He shrugged. "I've researched it. It has to be a fledgling and it has to be the blood of more than one master vampire. That's you. You're so lucky. Masters almost never let fledglings drink from them."

My stomach lurched. "I'm going back to Haven."

"You need to bite me. Please, bite me, Sarah."

"Bite him, Sarah," Heather echoed. "Don't worry, I won't be jealous."

The cold wind picked up and I could hear it whistle through the dry branches overhead, shifting the loose snow so that it fell lightly to the ground close by. I sighed with frustration. "How many different ways can I say no?"

Heather's eyes narrowed. "You bitch. How can you be so selfish?"

I glared at her. "Selfish? Because I don't want to bite your boyfriend? How is that selfish?"

Then I felt a hand at my waist and the unmistakable feeling of a sharp wooden stake at my throat. Josh was now behind me.

"We tried to do this the easy way." The friendliness and pleading were now gone from his voice. "Ask you nicely. Pay you, even. But I'm not taking no for an answer."

Immediate panic gripped me as tightly as Josh had. "The easy way? By lying about a job?"

"God, get over it, would you? This is the job. You're going to sire me or I'm going to kill you."

Any move I made would send the stake directly into my jugular so I tried not to budge, even though my entire body felt like a live wire. Perhaps a different tactic would be a good idea.

"The Slayer of Slayers doesn't take kindly to threats, asshole," I growled, trying to sound as tough as I could through the fear as sharp as the stake at my throat.

He snorted at that. "We know it's just a rumor that you killed all of those hunters.

However, everything else about you isn't a rumor. You've drunk the blood of two master vampires. That makes you very special. But you don't have to bite me. The virus is in your blood as well as your fangs. Doesn't matter if you're alive or dead. All I need is enough of your blood." He dragged the tip of the stake along my neck and I felt a stinging pain and a warm trickle of blood slid down my throat. "See? Not so tough after all."

"Let me go right now." My gaze whipped over to where Heather stood, hoping that she would see that her darling boyfriend was actually a violent sociopath, but she just looked at him with love and devotion.

"Kill her," she prompted. "We can save the money we were going to pay her for our honeymoon."

I breathed out, trying not to shake with the fear I felt, and tried to think as calmly as I could. This wasn't the first time I'd been in a life-or-death situation. However, I wasn't quite the victim I'd been ten weeks ago when I was made into a vampire by my blind date.

"Josh," I said shakily. "Listen, we can talk this out."

The stake eased off a bit from my throat. "Can we?"

"Not really." I stomped on his instep and twisted away from him. Then I curled my hand into a fist and socked him as hard as I could in his jaw. Not too much vampire strength, but since he was only human it was enough to knock him back a few feet. Enough for me to get away.