Stakes & Stilettos - Michelle Rowen [3]
He’d have to get rid of her as soon as possible. There was no other choice. Having a woman like this in his life—so young and fresh and filled with vitality—could only prove to be a deeply dangerous mistake.
For both of them.
Chapter 1
My name is Sarah Dearly. Fledgling vampire and part-time bartender, at your service. Welcome to my highly dysfunctional life.
Two and a half months ago I was bitten and turned into a vampire by my blind date from hell, chased across the city by vampire hunters, and managed to meet the handsome master vampire of my dreams right before we had to jump off a bridge together to escape getting killed. And that was all the very first night.
Since then things have been steadily… oh, insane would be a good word. But I’ve managed. Ten weeks as a vampire had changed a whole lot of things in my life, but I was still me. Still Sarah. Still not anyone to be afraid of in a dark alley. Ten weeks without my biting any necks or magically turning into a bat. “Evil” is definitely not my middle name.
I’d been damn lucky, all things considered. Although I do think changing into a bat would be a nice gift-with-purchase for this whole unfortunate vampire deal.
“Sarah, are you ready to meet the man who’ll change your life forever?”
I glanced up from the dirty martini I was shaking and looked across the top of the bar at the grinning redhead. Her name was Heather, a former waitress at Haven, and her enthusiasm was almost contagious. Almost.
“Change my life forever, huh?” I said. “Is that a promise or a threat?”
“Definitely a promise. New directions, new opportunities. A chance at a fantastic future.”
“If I even get the job.”
“You know me. Of course you’ll get it!”
Okay, I had to admit it. I was a little excited. Especially since Heather had asked me personally to interview with her new boyfriend that very night. We were meeting at a café just down the street from the club. We weren’t meeting at Haven because it was vamps-only. It was a rule. Heather’s boyfriend was human, but obviously pro-vampire since he was with her, so it was all good.
I liked Heather a lot. She was fun and funny and never gave me a hard time when I worked the bar and she waited tables. She’d quit two weeks ago after she met the man of her dreams, who had started a brand-new merchandising Web site called Vamp International that was set to launch next month. The job I would be interviewing for dealt with the fashion end of things and it sounded, from Heather’s description, too good to be true.
Plus, it paid big bucks.
I pulled my tip money out of a small juice glass next to the till. A small juice glass was all I needed. Nobody tipped the bartender here. Or very rarely. I’d noticed that on the average, vampires were extremely lousy tippers.
Haven was my boyfriend’s nightclub, which catered to the fanged citizens of Toronto, open from 9:00 p.m. until nearly dawn.
Less than a week from now Haven would be transferring over to the new owners. Thierry had recently made the decision to sell the club, and apparently the new boss wanted to bring in his own servers. A bummer, but not an unexpected one. Luckily, it would still be a vampire club—one of only two in Toronto at the moment—so it was nice to know there would still be somewhere to hang out, but I couldn’t count on getting a semiregular paycheck anymore.
Therefore, this job opportunity had seriously come at exactly the right time for me. I was broke.
I felt a warm hand at the small of my back, and I turned away from Heather to see Thierry now standing next to me. I hadn’t even seen him approach. Master vampires—they were a sneaky lot.
Thierry was, in a word, gorgeous. At first glance, or even second, you’d never guess he was pushing seven hundred years old. He looked more like he was in his midthirties, and super hot with the whole tall, dark, and fangsome thing going on.
A lot of people were either scared or turned off by his sometimes cold and aloof manner, but I preferred to think of that as part of his charm. I