"For how long?" I blurted as Jhez drew breath, hesitating. She surrendered the discussion with a glance and a long draught of her cappuccino. "I mean, surely you don't expect us to just..." I waved my hand while attempting to find the best wording for my thoughts. "Blindly enter into an open-ended arrangement, do you? That would be asinine," I added with a smile. Wide, excessive, baring my teeth.
Judging from the considering glint in the vampire's gaze, I hit a little too close to the mark for his tastes. He truly expected nothing less than ignorant acceptance, an indefinite relationship he could manipulate at his whim.
"And while I'm asking questions," I continued, when he didn't immediately offer a rejoinder, "I'm really curious why I didn't recognize you. I know who you are, I knew the moment Muscle escorted me back."
Monsieur Garthelle blinked rapidly. "Muscle? Oh." One corner of his mouth twitched upward. "Your failure to recognize me resulted from my desire to remain anonymous. What has that to do with this discussion?"
"You've the audacity to ask that?" I tilted my head, daring to glare at him. "You didn't want me to recognize you, so you messed with my head. Just mine, because Jhez sure knew who you were. And you can't connect the dots?"
"Black." She laid a restraining hand on my arm, aura lacing into mine, soothing.
"No." I shook her off without breaking the hold I had on the vampire's attention, his eyes locked with mine. Monsieur Garthelle scared me shitless, but the implications had ramifications we couldn't afford to let slide. "If you could do it then, what's to say you're not doing it now? How do we know you're not deceiving us?"
"Because it would be unethical of me to sit here negotiating a verbal agreement while employing such tactics." The vampire spoke softly, his voice even, measured. His gaze slid toward Jhez. "The arrangement will remain in effect until such time as the aural issue between myself and Black is resolved to my satisfaction."
Jhez nodded. That his word sufficed for her actually boggled me a bit. "If he were manipulating you," she said, grabbing my arm again and drawing my attention, "he'd have us working for free, right?"
"I've no desire to withhold compensation to which you are entitled," the vampire assured her with another twitch of a smile.
"And Black?" she prompted.
He arched his brows a fraction. "Has received substantial compensation."
Jhez hissed, her entire body stilling. "You mean your gesture of goodwill?" she clarified, caustic.
"You need not concern yourself. We have, I think, finally established the parameters of my satisfaction in the situation's resolution."
"Black isn't your slave, Monsieur Garthelle." Her exaggerated stress on the title felt more disrespectful than its omission would've. While I understood and appreciated her concern, I recalled again the painfully delicious stretch of my neck, the fiery sting in my scalp sending tingles of pleasure down my spine. Danger attracted me; a negative byproduct of my job.
I knew he restrained himself. I'd reminded myself of that while standing in the shower, watching broken strands of black hair catch and tangle in the drain trap. I didn't want Jhez fueling his wrath. At the same time, my safety was secure; if he killed me, he lost her as well.
"My expectations do not lean in that direction," the vampire said mildly, a faint thread of amusement winding through his tone.
Yet she remained steely and persistent. "Our parameters of employment will be identical."
YOU ARE READING
Dark Baphomet: A Vampire Romance
Vampire"These are not your average vamps, dearie. Not by a long shot." Black and Red have been Nightwalkers for longer than they care to count, and that alone is unusual enough to attract unwanted attention. Life and survival in the Blue Light District is...
