I smiled sweetly, wanting to tell Marlena to go fuck herself. “Sounds reasonable. When can I start?”
9
Iwas booked four days later.
The call awakened me twice in the middle of the night: once when the phone rang and again when the message notification bleeped a couple of minutes later, right when I’d managed to fall back to sleep. Now that I was awake, I listened to the voicemail, sitting up with a jolt when I heard Marlena’s voice. I imagined 3 a.m. was a normal business hour to a vampire, so I made a quick mental note to put my phone on vibrate at future bedtimes. I figured I’d probably need to adjust a few more aspects of my schedule, if I was going to work for vampires. Midnight might become my new noon.
I’d been scheduled to decoy for a vampire named Robert Bramson that evening. He was some big-deal business tycoon, but I was still unsure what line of work he was in even after Marlena mentioned it. He had one of those long, confusing job titles that made it difficult to decipher what he did on a day-to-day basis—the sort of job that makes you say, “Oh, how interesting” after a person gives you their business card, even if it might be the most boring job in existence.
Bramson Enterprises hosted a formal gala every year, which was my assignment for the evening. It was a “mixed-race” affair, which in the vampire domain meant that both humans and vampires would be in attendance. The event itself would have sounded a lot more exciting had Marlena not prefaced her voicemail by saying what a bore it was going to be.
She also informed me that I’d need to wear an evening gown for the event, news that made my heart sink. Like most women who lived in the real world, I didn’t have a closet full of ball gowns at my disposal. The reality was that I didn’t even haveone, unless my pink tulle prom dress from high school counted, which I imagined didn’t for the occasion.
To my immense relief, Marlena added that Dignitary had a closet full of loaner clothing for decoys to use. I only needed to drive over at my earliest convenience to pick one out. She ended the voicemail by stating that she’d leave the front door unlocked in anticipation of my arrival. There would be an envelope filled with instructions waiting on for me on the entryway table.
So, that was that. My first night out with a vampire. Marlena had been blasé about the assignment, but I was feeling jumbled about the whole thing, half panicked and half excited. What made the situation even more nerve-wracking was that I couldn’t share the news with anyone.
Not that Liz and I were being friendly, anyway. Neither of us brought up the other night, as if it had never happened, but we were both plainly still upset over it. Things were still tense around the apartment. She was continuing to avoid me and had been spending most of her time at David’s. When she did bother to come home, it was only to do a load of laundry and pick up changes of clothes.
Last time we spoke, our conversation was awkward. She was insulted that I didn’t—couldn’t—tell her more about my new job, which I’d said was along the lines of being a personal assistant to various wealthy people. Michael and Marlena had given me a thousand-dollar advance on my paycheck, which added to Liz’s suspicion. I told her to trust me, but she was having none of that. She hinted that I was participating in illegal activities, and then put an end to our discussion by telling me tobe carefulin a tone loaded with condescension. While it was obvious that I was hiding something major (I’d always had a hard time keeping secrets from Liz), she didn’t have to act as if she thought I was selling drugs to schoolchildren.
With my outing with the hot shot immortal swiftly approaching, I chucked on a pair of jeans, slapped on some lip gloss, and tied my hair back into a messy bun. No need to get dolled up for the trip to Dignitary. Nobody would be awake for my arrival, with it being daylight.
As Marlena had promised, the front door was unlocked. It felt intrusive, letting myself into somebody else’s house when they were sleeping on the premises, or whatever it was vampires did during the day. Maybe it was more like hibernating? I felt better when I found the envelope she’d left for me on the table. Inside were directions to Robert’s home, additional details about the gala, and a note about borrowing clothes from the Dignitary closet; decoys were required to sign out all items and return everything within three days of use. Marlena had also picked out a gown she thought would look nice on me, which she’d left on the rack closest to the door.
The “closet” was bigger than my whole apartment. The walls were lined with rack upon rack of beautiful designer fashion: couture gowns, tuxedos, casual (but still elegant) dresses, skirts, sweaters, slacks, jewelry, shoes, and handbags. There was enough of it to stock an entire boutique.
I located the dress Marlena had chosen, zipped inside a garment bag with a Post-it marked with my name. A horribly possibility occurred to me, that she’d picked some ugly bridesmaid’s dress for me to wear out of sheer spite, but I needn’t have worried. As much as Marlena rubbed me the wrong way, I had to hand it to her for her taste in clothing. Made of midnight blue silk, with intricate beading along the strapless sweetheart neckline, this was onegorgeousdress.
Crossing my fingers that it would fit, I swiftly undressed. I stepped into the gown, being careful not to step on its train or warp the soft boning along the waistline, and executed a reach that was more like a yoga pose. Finally, I managed to get the zipper up. I stood in front of the mirror, feeling as fabulous as a bride on her wedding day. Perfect at every seam, as if it had been made with my precise measurements in mind.
Something hard poked into my ribs. I reached down into the dress and partially extracted a price tag, wincing as I saw $1950—guess that meant no red wine that evening, or eating, or sweating . . . or breathing. Marlena wouldn’t be too happy if I stained a brand-new dress—anexpensivebrand-new dress, I thought nervously.
I nearly fainted, however, when I pulled the tag all the way out and its true price of $19,500 was revealed. It was the most expensive thing I’d ever had on my body.Andit was by my favorite clothing label ever, Seraphim Blythe, not that I could afford anything she made. I’d noticed earlier that many of the clothes were by the designer, so maybe she was Marlena’s favorite, too.
I admired my reflection in the mirror, caressing the dress like it was a living thing. “I may not own you, gorgeous, but you’re mine tonight,” I cooed, perfectly aware of how nutty I sounded conversing with a ball gown. But if a girl couldn’t be nuts while wearing clothing this luxurious, when could she be?
I jumped at a knock on the door. “Is there anybody in here? Hello?”
I opened the door and peered out, feeling like a complete idiot for having been caught talking to a dress. A gorgeous Indian woman around thirty waved at me and smiled. She was petite, with a strong jawline, amber-colored eyes, and dewy caramel skin. For a moment I wondered if she was a vampire, but then I remembered the time.
“Hello! I’m Erika-with-a-KSingh.”
“I’m Olivia Taylor.”The gown whisperer.
“Wow. That’s a great dress!” She flipped her glossy black hair off her shoulders, not a spilt end in sight. I’d have to hate her, if she didn’t seem so nice. “You lookamazing.”
“Thanks,” I grinned. “I feel amazing.”
“You must be the new girl. I’m a decoy, too.”
“Tonight will be my first night on the job, actually.”
“How cool! You’re going to have blast. Are you nervous?”
I held up my wobbly hand for Erika to see. “You could say that.”
“Oh my gosh, don’t be! I was so nervous when I started, you know, because vampires can break our bones in half between two fingers, but everybody was so cool that I almost felt guilty for getting paid. Vampires really aren’t as scary as you think.”
