afternoon or overnight. We don’t play favorites, and everyone pays their dues.”
I could talk to him later and attempt to change his mind. For some reason, my glamouring worked perfectly when convincing people to forget I drank their blood. Other times, not so much. Either I flubbed what I intended to say, or I tried too hard, and I’ll just say, I could use a little glamouring on myself to forget those incidents. If you’ll recall I have never killed a human. Let’s enjoy that stainless record and move on.
Someone elbowed me, and I glanced over to find it was Carl. His eyes were round, and the smile was absent from his face. “Say okay, or he’ll fire you,” he whispered under his breath. “He’s in a terrible mood.”
I turned back to the manager. The room lay in silence as everyone listened to the argument play out. “I will work any position,” I said, my voice more deadpan than I had meant it to be. “I don’t work days. I’m a night owl, and it shouldn’t be a problem since most people like the day shift.”
“It is a problem,” he snapped, and I knew this wasn’t going to end well for me, mainly because we were in a room full of his subordinates, and men tended to have that darn thing called an ego that they were bound and determined to protect. He stabbed the pen he held in my direction. “You’re going to take over Lloyd’s hours permanently , or you’re fired.”
Work the day shift in a sunlit lobby, not to mention frequently running out to the driveway to assist guests? He must be joking. I threaded my way through the crowd toward him, but a few people stepped aside. The closer I drew, the more frazzled the manager appeared. I smelled his nervous energy, bordering on fear. While he was a man of larger build and height than my small frame, a vampire gave off such a delightful aura. Humans didn’t know what it was they detected, but they sensed the threat even if they couldn’t pin down its source. I confess it was another plus to my makeup that I enjoyed. See? I said I was different.
Of course, I had no intention of hurting the man. Ian had informed me from night one. Humans feed us. We protect them. We do not hurt them, even if they are pompous blowhards too impressed with their positions.
I drew up before the manager and stopped. He quaked and then straightened his shoulders and stuck out his chest. I let him sweat out my intentions for a moment longer, feeling the rising tension in the room. Then I relented. “I guess I don’t work here anymore.”
As I spun away, Carl grasped my hand. “Rue, don’t go.”
I gave his hand a squeeze but kept moving.
“If you walk out that door, Rue, I’m not giving you a good reference,” the manager shouted after me.
I paused but gritted my teeth together and kept going. The back alley was deserted, and I stopped just outside the door and pressed a hand against the wall. What had I done? My own pride had made me walk out when I could have made nice and changed his mind later. Now, I had rent to pay and no job.
Great.
After frowning at the moon for a while, I started back home. This time, I moved at a less hurried pace. No sense rushing. I had nowhere to get to fast. The loss of my job didn’t get me too down. I had been wondering how long I would put up with the boring position. Of course, I wasn’t looking forward to job searching either. Oh well, I lived and I learned.
Chapter Three
I reached my street all too soon and groaned when I turned the corner and found Almonester on the front, as usual. I considered retracing my steps to avoid talking to him, but decided I didn’t need to tell him anything. Most likely, I would find a new position tomorrow night, and I wouldn’t be late with my rent.
I crossed the road to his side of the street, and he turned his back. Good. We wouldn’t have any conversation. Before I could ascend the stairs leading to my apartment, his scratchy voice reached me.
“You can work at the bar.”
I