“Jaquelynn Billings.” I was using my mom’s maiden name instead of Durand. We’d all agreed it made more sense to use my real given name, especially if it turned into a long-term placement.
He clicked on his mouse, muttering my last name over and over, his brows furrowing. “I have a Jack Billings.”
“That’s me.”
“Oh, uh…” He trailed off, staring at the screen and then glancing up at me.
For a moment, I thought he knew who I really was, that my cover had been blown not twenty minutes into my mission, and I’d be back to where I was fighting to be trusted to hunt on my own.
“You’re a female?” he said it like a question instead of an obvious statement.
I glanced down at myself and then back to him arching a brow. “The last time I checked.”
“Oh. You see… we thought you were male.” He cleared his throat, pushing his glasses up his nose. “So we paired you with a male roommate.”
“Alright.” I was beginning to see the problem. “You can’t just switch me?”
He shook his head. “That’s the problem. All the female human servant rooms are full. We might have something later in thesemester. Vampires tend to pull out their humans on a whim, but until that happens, the only place we have for you is…”
“It’s fine,” I answered, giving the guy a break. “I have lots of brothers. I think I can handle a male roommate.”
Not technically true but, when you had seven dads and had bunked with more than a few male hunters throughout the years, one male wasn’t much different from the other. I was more concerned with living with a stranger than their gender. I’d have to hide who I was at all times, and that sounded stressful.
The guy behind the counter gave me a look as if he wanted to protest, but then eventually acquiesced. He handed me a piece of paper with my schedule on it and a key to my room, my room assignment written at the top of the schedule.
“I’ll let you know if anything comes available for you to switch.” With that last reassurance, he dismissed me, looking at the next person in line.
Folding the paper, I shoved it and the key in my pocket before deciding to find the bookstore first. While most books were available in ebook form, my dad, Marcus, had made me fall in love with having a physical book in hand and, with the amount of times I’d broken or lost my phones on hunts, having the physical copy at home had saved me far more times than not.
“Are you looking for the bookstore?” a sweet voice asked next to me.
I whipped around to find a petite, dark-haired girl with golden undertones in her skin and pink tips in her dark hair. Her equally dark eyes peered up at me, curiously. Her head barely came up to my chest and, while she certainly didn’t dress like a vampire in her baby pink A-line skater dress, the familiar stink of blood tinged her floral scent.
“Uh, yes, I am.” I glanced around, searching for some sign to point me in the right direction.
“I’m heading that way, if you want to tag along.”
She seemed harmless enough, and I needed to make friends if I was going to find out any useful information for my mission.
“Sure.” I nodded.
“I’m Xinyi, by the way.” She turned to me before strutting down the wooden hallway with the confidence of someone who knew where they were going.
“Jack,” I offered up.
“You’re a human servant, aren’t you?” Xinyi asked with a sly look. When I nodded, she smiled and did a little jiggle. “I knew it. You just had a look about you.”
“I did?” My lips quirked up. “And it didn’t scream vampire or even werewolf?”
“Well…” Xinyi walked backward as she talked, her eyes skimming over me. “You’ve got the leather biker things down, which screams werewolf, but also a mysterious vibe to you which totally shoves you more toward the vampire vibe. Werewolves are all loud and bluster. You seem like the quiet type. But since my vampire sense isn’t tingling, I have to go with human servant.”
“Ah,” I said as if her logic made sense to me. “You’re right.”
“Another point for Xinyi!” She shot a fist up in the air with a bit of a hip wiggle. “I’m a human servant too, if you didn’t catch on. It’ll be nice to have someone I know in the dorms.”
“Is this your first year?”
Spinning back around, Xinyi eagerly bobbed her head. “Yep! My mistress, Iris, wanted to check out the college and told me it would be good for me to be around other vampires and servants.”
