“Vampires have no cause to hurt our employees,” Michael said. “Plus, all our clients are carefully vetted. There’s no riffraff here.”
Because only poor people murder and billionaires never do wrong, I was tempted to snipe.
“Furthermore, the decoys who disappeared didn’t exactly have their heads glued on straight.” Marlena rolled her eyes, accentuating her point.
Marlena’s interjections were really starting to piss me off. Her superior tone also left something to be desired. I threw in the towel on warming to the vampire. I figured I’d done my civic duty by trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. I couldn’t help it if she was turning out to be a real pain in the ass.
I held Marlena’s gaze. “What do you mean?”
She was startled by my question, but it didn’t take her long to recover. “Raquel, for example, was unpredictable—she was the girl who went away back in the twenties. She was a stage actress, forever chasing her next big break in Hollywood. She was sweet but naive. It wouldn’t surprise me if she landed herself in a mess with a crooked man who claimed to be a director. It wasn’t uncommon for actresses to disappear back then. A lot of unscrupulous men took advantage.”
“Poor girl,” I said.
“Indeed,” Marlena responded with the utmost insincerity. She drummed her chin with her red lacquered fingernails. “Then there was Daisy, the girl who went missing in the sixties. She was a beautiful thing, butsucha flake. She was always hitching rides and hopping on tour buses. No telling what happened to her. And Anthony—he was the one to go away in the eighties—was into extreme sports. So, for all we know, he fell off a cliff!”
The woman had an answer for everything.
Judging by his muteness, Michael didn’t buy into the propaganda, but I didn’t fault him for not speaking up. Something told me that Marlena had a knack for rebuking those who dared to contradict her. I’d sure hate to be on the receiving end of her wrath.
Michael clasped his hands together. “But let’s move on to the best part, shall we? The money! You probably want to knowhow muchyou will be paid, correct?”
It’s the only reason I came, I didn’t say.
“At Dignitary, you’d be our full-fledged employee. You would work for us under the guise of being our personal assistant or secretary—something of that nature. Obviously, you cannot state you’re a vampire decoy on your W-2 form, now can you?”
I grinned at Michael. “No, I suppose not.”
“I can assure you that we run a very legitimate business. We pay our taxes just like every human American. It helps, certainly, that we have vampire associates who work within the IRS. Most humans already think the IRS is run by a bunch of bloodsuckers, but they don’t know how true that is.” Michael chortled at his own joke.
“Okay, so I’d be paid . . . hourly? Weekly?” The suspense was killing me.
“You would be paid bi-weekly,” Marlena answered. “We pay two hundred dollars an hour. You would typically work a five-hour shift two or three times a week.”
I quickly did the math. That was a salary of $8000 to $12,000 a month; on the low end, it was nearly a six-figure yearly income.Waymore than I’d make using my psychology degree at an entry level, not that I had any job prospects in that regard, anyway. I could pay my debt down in no time.
Still, I had my suspicions. “And there is absolutely no, uh, hanky-panky of any kind involved? I’d just be hanging out with vampires?”
Michael smiled politely. “That is correct. We don’t run a brothel. I may be many things, Olivia, but I am certainly no pimp.”
I backtracked, “I wasn’t trying to be insulting. It just seems like an exorbitant amount of money.”
“It’s a fair question,” Michael said. “We pay excessively for a few purposes, but our main motive is to ensure your silence. With the salary we provide, we feel confident that you will not risk your job by blabbing to your human acquaintances about the existence of vampires. That is our number one rule at Dignitary. Under no circumstance can you tell anyone what you do—not your family, closest friends, or lovers. And we mean for therest of your life. You can never reveal the vampire secret to another human. This rule is not just in place for our safety, but for yours, too. If you even allude to mortals that you have proof of vampirism, you will be placing your life in danger. And the lives of everyone you love. While we adore humans, the vampire community will not tolerate treachery of any sort.”
I made a zipping motion over my mouth. “My lips are sealed.” I was too scared to ask what they would have done to me if I’d been successful in running away after seeing what Stephano could do.
“You should also be warned that some vampires can read minds,” Marlena piped in, making me wonder if she could. If so, oops. “Those with this gift will most likely have a listen inside your head to discern whether you have been talking.”
“Got it. No blabbing.” Fortunately, I didn’t know a lot of people I could accidentally spill the beans to.
“Another reason we pay well,” Michael continued, “is that decoys do more than merely ‘hang out.’ We expect you to participate in whatever event you are brought to. Socialize, ask questions about and become friendly with the vampires you meet. This isn’t a job for the passive.”
“Is there anything else?”
Michael thought a moment. “No, not that I can—”
“Actually, there is,” Marlena cut it. “We do have another rule about interpersonal relationships. Decoys maynotengage in any sexual or romantic relationship with our clients. This is a policy Michael and I tend to disagree on, butI don’t consider it professional for our human employees to become intimately involved with vampires. It’s tacky. As we’ve said, we don’t work in the business of prostitution. Your employment will be terminated immediately if I learn you’re dating anyone we’ve paid you to accompany. Is this clear?”
I was being spoken to as if I was already guilty of breaking the rule. Or mentally incompetent. She didn’tseriouslybelieve that I’d want to hop into bed with a cold, dead, blood-drinking vampire, did she? I wasn’t even convinced such a thing was physically possible. Maybe humans and vampires were sexually incompatible the same way dogs and cats were. Close, but no cigar.
