Fallen: A BBW Vampire Blood Courtesans Romance Page 2

  He looked at me and shook his head as if amused by my comment.

  “Oh, not her looks, miss, her aura. Ugly. Ugly.”

  “Umm, okay.” I knew he wasn’t crazy or even wrong, but I had no idea how to respond to that. Most likely the cute little old man in the suit was a vampire. They tended to have abilities us humans didn’t.

  The only reason I knew that was because my father’s solution to me being raped by the golden boy Matt was to try to have my memory scrubbed by a vampire. For all my father knew, it had worked. Heck, I think even the vampire thought it worked. It hadn’t. I remembered every stupid second before the drugs took over. I also knew that pretending it worked was key to my wellbeing. Thankfully, my father only liked me around for charity events so my weak acting skills didn’t have time to destroy the illusion of happy daughter with no cares in the world but finding a suitable husband.

  The vampire hadn’t stopped with forgetting. He tried to get me to think of Matt as a crush I wanted, but couldn’t have. My guess was that Matt’s father helped pay the vampire and it was his little security in case I remembered anything. The joy of growing up the daughter of a mega church pastor with aspirations to control legislation and amass wealth.

  “Don’t worry, miss. Your aura is beautiful.” He misread my impromptu trip down memory lane of horrors as me being concerned about my aura. That at least told me he was a nice vampire. “A bit cloudy, but underneath it is ready to shine.” He gave his arm a swooping gesture indicating the entryway. “Now come on in. Madame Victoria is waiting for you. I wasn’t even supposed to be working tonight, but with Jameson on vacation and … just step it lively.”

  I followed him down the marble laden hallway. The beauty of the outside in no way touched the beauty on the inside. As we entered a small waiting area, my nerves vanquished. The room felt right.

  I’d always had a feeling about certain places. It was how I picked our apartment, even though the neighborhood shouted “No.” It was how I knew that Martha was going to be an important part of our lives the second I stepped in her apartment. Heck, it was how I knew I shouldn’t have entered the back room that fateful night moments too late. As a child, I was sure I sensed ghosts, but now I knew it was something else. I wasn’t sure quite what, but the undead it wasn’t.

  “Madame, your appointment is here.” The man was talking into what I imagined was an intercom box, but looked to be a book. Clever. “She’s better than the last.” He didn’t even try to hide his assessment of me, and I wasn’t sure if it was for my benefit or hers. Not that it mattered. It was nice to have an ally. “So much better.”

  “As if she could be worse, Jasper.” The sigh of exasperation Madame Victoria let out echoed in the room. That woman must have been horrible. I crossed my fingers that would mean the bar was a bit lower for me than it normally would’ve been. “Send her in.”

  “You may go in now, miss.” He winked at me, amusement at relaying a message I most assuredly heard dancing on his face.

  “Paige. And thank you, sir.” I brushed my skirt down, hoping to smooth out any wrinkles the bus ride had caused.

  “Jasper.” He gave a half bow. The man was adorable. In my mind, all vampires were young and model gorgeous. Jasper defied all of those preconceived notions. He was close to mid-fifties in human years, if I were to guess, and five-foot-five if he were an inch. Yet, there was something incredibly appealing about him, and I hoped to get to know him better. I was drawn to him the way I was drawn to Martha, as if they were important.

  I shook the crazy from my head as I prepared myself for the interview I was counting on to change everything.

  “Thank you, Jasper.”

  “My pleasure. Now go land yourself a job. I have a feeling you need one.”

  He so wasn’t wrong. I opened the door and stepped inside before closing it behind me. I almost knocked, but her directions were specific and told me to come in. If I were to land this job, it wouldn’t be by second guessing instructions the first day.

  “Sit down. I don’t have all night.”

  She never once looked up at me when I walked in. She scribbled away on a notepad instead. Probably for the best since I wasn’t dressed as well as I knew I was expected to be. I scrambled to the seat closest to her desk. The room had far more furniture than my apartment, so I made the assumption that was where she wanted me and crossed my fingers I chose correctly. I sat in the chair, legs crossed at my ankles and purse in my lap waiting for her to begin. And wait I did. She must have written a novel in the time I sat there. I schooled my face, praying she’d see my ability to sit quietly as me being a woman of patience, and not because I was simply too stupid to know to begin.

  “So, Paige, I see here you have no experience, no education, and a young daughter at home.”

  I gulped. I didn’t put anywhere on the application that I had a daughter.

  “Well.”

  Right. I needed to answer her. “Yes, ma’am. If I might, how did you know about my daughter?” If it weren’t for the good feeling I had walking into the reception area, I would’ve been out the door, leaving the city I have come to enjoy with only my daughter and a backpack in my possession. The feeling was strong though and every time I’d ignore it in the past, even momentarily, badness ensued, so I glued my butt to the seat.

  “It’s my job to know all things. All.” There was no misunderstanding her words. She knew I wasn’t Paige. What I couldn’t tell was if she was pissed at me for lying or if it was a different emotion all together. Her face was stern, yet her eyes warm. It was an odd combination.

  “I apologize for taking your time.” I offered my way out and began to stand. If my lying was a deal breaker, that was fine and by far one of the better results I could have asked for at such a discovery.

  “Sit down, child.” She pointed to the chair and gave a look that could only be rivaled by a Catholic school nun. “I said it’s my job to know all, not to share all.” She folded her arms on her desk, leaning forward as she did so. The stance, very unprofessional, something I doubted was common for the woman. “You have very good reasons for being where you are, and I would never allow my power to come between a mother and her ability to protect her young.”

  I sunk back into my chair, relief filling me. Her honesty in that moment was raw, and I knew she had a story of her own hiding behind the powerful woman before me. One I conjectured was filled with heartache.

  “Thank you. Was it that easy to find out?” I needed to know how numbered my days were in this city. In theory, the only people who knew about Daisy were me and Matt, and I doubted he would tell. She was born in a birthing center using my fake IDs and unknown as the father. They tried to convince me to actually name him, and I assured them it was a drunken night with a stranger. The chances that they put two and two together were zilch.

  “Franklin is one of my customers and confidants.” Franklin, the vampire who tried to scrub me. I was pregnant then, but I didn’t even know it at the time. Maybe he used his vampire senses to feel it? Was that even a thing? I fidgeted around in the chair, trying to find a comfortable position, but none was to be had, not in a conversation this intense.

  “He … he …” I didn’t even know all what I was asking. Did he tell? Did he know? What did he know? Did he actually try to scrub me?

  “Yes, dear, he knows it didn’t work and was relieved.” Madame Victoria rose and walked around her desk, choosing to sit beside me. “He told me the day it happened, and when I saw your new alias on my desk, I knew it was kismet.” Her voice had softened at this point and I knew that she was an ally, to what end, I couldn’t be sure, but an ally. How I had longed for an ally who knew the truth. I wasn’t fooling myself into believing she and I were going to be the best of friends, but that was okay. Confidant would more than suffice.

  “He may have scrubbed the person who helped you gain your new IDs.” She threw that out there as if sensing the question would have come up. I had no idea why this Franklin too
k such an interest in me, but I was glad. If it meant she knew who I was, so be it. I felt it in my gut that she could be trusted.

  “So I have the job?” There was so much I actually wanted to discuss, but my mouth opened and out it came. Yes, the job was important, but hardly the most important thing, given my recent discovery, I rotated the slightest bit to face her.

  “Slow down, there. There’s more to this job than you think, so let’s lay it all out and see if you are a good fit.”

  My shoulders sunk. Good fit was probably code for “You’re too curvy for this gig.”

  “If not, I’m sure I can find some clerical work for you. Having a woman who can’t be mind altered would be a handy thing.” Victoria tapped her chin with her pen, idly. I doubted the words had been for me.

  Clerical work it was. I doubted there was anyone who minded having someone filing papers who looked less like a model and more like your sister’s chubby best friend. I had done enough office busy work with my father that I knew picking up their system would be a piece of cake.

  “I’d be happy doing anything.” Wasn’t that the truth. I had one week of crappy wages left to earn, if their daughter didn’t come home early, which the cook was positive would happen. Turned out the little spoiled one was living a lifestyle far beyond her means and was about to get evicted.

  “Listen.”

  I turned to face her to indicate I was back from my brain-wander and she continued.

  “Good girl. The clerical work pays well, but is minimal in hours. So let’s see if we can get you some courtesan work as well, shall we?”

  As well, now that sounded promising. A few hours during the day and a night or two a week would be easier on Martha than the long hours I spent waitressing. The nights would be super easy because Daisy was a great sleeper. This could work.

  “I’m going to be as blunt as I can be.”

  Her voice went from soft to serious in a few short words. I braced myself for what I was sure would be something uncomfortable at best and deal breaking at worst.

  “Blood giving can be very … sexual, and you were a victim of a crime more grotesque than I can begin to fathom. I don’t want you to ever feel like a victim here, while at work.”

  Shit. I hadn’t thought that all the way through. Would it matter? I wasn’t going to sleep with someone for money, so that wasn’t the issue. Very sexual could mean a lot of things. Maybe they liked to drink from my thigh or something equally intimate. Could I handle that?

  I wouldn’t have felt so right in the office if I couldn’t. I’d felt attracted to and even kissed a few men since Matt did the unthinkable. The only reason we stopped was because making out at my then job was very juvenile and I had to be home for Daisy. She came first. Always.

  I read somewhere that my kind of assault is one of the worst because you don’t remember it and imagine the worst. I’m not sure that’s true in my case. Not knowing is actually a relief to me. I remember him giving me my pop, telling me he was hiding from the dilettantes at the fundraiser his mother was throwing on behalf of my father’s latest legislative push, and then feeling odd. He leaned in to kiss me and I told him, “No,” to which he responded that I should simply relax and enjoy it because it was happening anyway. I went to push him away and that was the last thing I remembered.

  I woke up in the morning on the couch with Matt sitting beside me handing me coffee as if nothing was wrong. His threats came next and the realization of what happened hit me. That was the part that haunted my dreams the most. The knowing it all happened when I wasn’t able to defend myself. So no, to me the fear wasn’t in the sex or even in men. It was in the losing control. In letting myself become that vulnerable again. At least as far as the rape was concerned. The Matt trying to murder me thing was a whole other issue and one I wouldn’t be able to handle until he was six feet under.

  “I don’t think that will be a problem.” I believed my words as I spoke them and hoped my self-assessment was spot on.

  “Why is that?” Madame Victoria leaned in a bit closer, not a lot, but enough to have me wanting to inch away myself. I sensed it was a test. She wanted to see if the closeness would bother me.

  “Your website says you protect your girls and sex isn’t required.” I did lean back then with my arms folded, pretending it was me in a challenge stance and not in the more accurate “she is too close” stance I was actually taking.

  “It isn’t, but that doesn’t mean some vamps don’t want it to.”

  “Nor does it mean I won’t,” I countered, knowing I probably wouldn’t because … ewww drinking my body fluids for money was so not smexy.

  “Have you?” She tilted her head quizzically as if the answer was one she wanted to know more than just for a job interview. What had this woman been through? For there clearly was something there. “Wanted it? Sex, I mean.”

  “Well, no.” I made sure to hold her eyes so she could see the truth in my words and that I wasn’t just saying what I thought she wanted to hear. “But I was pregnant and then on the run, so I never really had time to think about it. I did have personal time, though.” I knew I was blushing hard, but she needed to know that I wasn’t going to seize up at the suggestion of a kiss from a client.

  “So you think you will be fine if it …. hmmm … comes up.” She wasn’t asking as much as stating what she had just learned. Madame Victoria was a very interesting person.

  “You know what, I actually do. This place felt right to me.” The last part slipped out before I could stop myself. I knew better than to reveal a secret of that nature, especially in front of someone who knew all too well it’s not because I’m crazy. She worked with vampires, for goodness sake.

  She stood up and grabbed a file from her desk, opened it as if I weren’t there, and flipped through the pages before slapping it back on the desk and retaking her seat.

  “You didn’t put that on your application.”

  “Put what?” The conversation had somehow taken a wrong turn and I no longer knew where we were headed.

  “That you’re an empath.”

  What? I was a lot of things, soothsayer wasn’t one of them. Lucky, maybe. Observant, possibly? Slightly psychic, most likely.

  “Oh, I’m not.”

  “To the contrary. If you feel a room, you are. A rare kind at that.” She sat at her desk, opened a drawer, and started pulling papers from it, placing them on her desk. Once they were all gathered she handed them to me with a pen. “I think you’ll be a good fit as long as you promise me you will trust those feelings and never agree to take a client if it feels off.”

  “I thought you trusted all of your clients.” If she didn’t, there was no way I could. They were beings with capabilities beyond my comprehension, and I already had enough issues with one human wanting me out of the picture. I didn’t need to add a bad vamp to the list.

  “Oh I do, but that doesn’t mean they’re the right fit for you.”

  I exhaled the breath I was holding, glad her reasoning was far less sinister than my imagination had originally led me.

  “Only you know that.”

  “You’re not the woman I expected to be sitting there.” Why would my mouth not stay closed in front of her? Was it the weight of holding my secrets alone being lifted? I imagined it was, but it was also more than that. It was a kinship of sorts, one she dare not speak aloud. Madame Victoria had been a victim too. My heart hurt for her.

  “I’m normally not the woman I’m letting you see. With power, and trust me, I hold a great deal of it, you need to be stern and frankly a bitch far too often for my liking.” She closed the drawer with slight bang and I wondered briefly if it was her way of clearing the thought that had just entered her head and shown in her momentarily sorrow-filled eyes. “You, though. You hold a secret bigger than me actually being a nice woman, so I figure we are even in the secret department. You start tonight.”

  The emotions slammed into me all at once. I was over the moon excited to not be jo
bless in another week. I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to actually follow through on the blood exchange. It sounded easy enough on paper, but the eww factor was still there. I was also nervous that my look might dissuade customers. Curvy was an understatement for my figure, and while I hoped it wouldn’t be an issue, I also knew that people like the woman outside who thought I looked like shit because of my extra pounds was a legitimate thing.

  “Jasper.” Madam Victoria spoke into the call box on her desk. This one wasn’t as adorable as the phone shaped one in the reception area, but did the job.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Are you hungry?” The question seemed unfitting until it clicked in my head. She was offering up my blood to Jasper. At least I knew he was a nice enough guy … uh, vamp … person. It didn’t squeem me out as much as I feared. Thank goodness for small favors.

  “I could eat.” His nonchalant response, more fitting if he were being asked if he wanted a cup of coffee, amused me for some strange reason.

  “Excellent, I’d like you to train Miss Paige.”

  “As you will, ma’am.”

  “Now off with you.” She pointed to the door and I stood, papers in one hand, purse in the other. “Tomorrow come in early, say four o’clock. I’ve someone who can get you dressed for the occasion and ready for your first customer.”

  From training to first customer in less than twenty four hours. I had to wait tables in the morning, so poor Daisy would be with Martha far longer than I’d like, but with waitressing paying cash money and not knowing when I'd get my first check from this, I needed to do both for a bit.

  “So this outfit is a no.” I was mostly teasing. It could easily be magnificent with the right top and shoes. The skirt was amazing, but my lack of things to go with it made it a horrible disaster.

  “Adorable as vintage is, the outfit is a no. I have just the person to dress you up, too.” She winked at me. Madame Victoria wasn’t what her online persona hinted at and I was glad because in all honesty, the accounts of her were not pleasant. “Arabella is our best.”