Chapter 2: An Irrefutable Offer

Touch was the first one of my senses that came back to me as I woke up. The fabulous, smooth silk material was beneath my fingers before my eyes even registered where I was. I felt the material beneath my cheek and groaned at the feeling. The second thing I realized when I opened my eyes, was that I was in a room, presumably one of the rooms from the hotel from the familiar interior. I had spent many hours in these sorts of rooms cleaning up after guests to not recognize it when I saw it. However, the main object of the room, and the only thing that was not familiar to me, was the handsome man sitting in a black leather chair next to my bed. His legs were spread apart, and his forearms rested against his thighs. His head was slightly bent up as he looked at me from his hunched position. Every caliber of my being screamed at me to flee. He was looking at me like I might do just that too. Green eyes stared down at me with a predatory gaze, and dark black hair fell on his forehead as he shifted. Pure-blooded, calm, and inherent, everything about him screamed dominance and power. For that reason, I found myself flipping him off the moment I realized the situation and got off the bed immediately. "Wait." I heard him call after me as I began putting on my shoes, but I didn't stop my movements to listen to what he had to say. "I said hold on." "And I remember clearly ignoring you. Maybe you should take the hint." I heard his footsteps stop for a moment behind me. I stupidly, glanced back to see if he was still following me. The mistake further led to my gaze meeting his again. I shockingly saw that his stare had changed somehow. His eyes were a deep shade of brown, something that was wholly unusual within vampire aristocracy, especially for purebloods. It seemed that his uniqueness, something that seemed to cater to purebloods, was that he was just plain. Yet, he was somehow the most gorgeous thing you would have the pleasure of laying your eyes on. A knowing smile spread across his lips, and I cursed him again, understanding he must have read my thoughts across my traitorous face. "Are you not even going to say thanks?" I huffed and fully turned to him. "Thank you?" I asked mockingly. "You're welcome." He gave another one of those smiles, and the urge to roll my eyes seeped into every pore. "I wasn't thanking you," I childishly shot back. He only raised his brow and crossed his arms. "Sounded like it." Frustration grew in me the longer our conversation went on. I gave out a deep breath of air and raised my hands in surrender. "Okay, thank you. But I'm leaving now. Please don't follow me." "I can't do that." At his reply, an alarm suddenly shot through my entire body. I quickly became hyper-aware of the fact that I was alone in a room with a pure-blooded vampire. My half-blood abilities only took me so far. I would be able to defend myself against someone from being attacked, even humans. However, purebreds were a different league of their own. Absentmindedly, my hands twisted around the leather bands on my arms that protected my wrists. "What protection do you suppose those little trinkets would do against our pure-blooded vampire?" he asked. "I don't believe that's any of your concern." "It is only a flimsy piece of leather. You…" I watched as he paused, his eyes dilating as he watched my face, and then realization passed through his eyes. "You want those pure-bloods to think it's just a piece of flimsy leather." The man was in front of me before I could blink, his hand catching my wrist and sniffing at the leather bands on my wrists before I could think to stop him. I watched as he inhaled deeply, and his face contorted to a fix of disgust and intrigue. Intrigue? "The leather bands won't kill vampires," I spat the collective word out. "But you and I are totally different." I yanked my arm from his grip. "The protective salve laced with silver would burn someone like you, but not me. I had inlaid priest's blessings into it." I pretended to be very calm, though I was scared and felt my heart almost jump out of my throat. "Same as this." I held my hand to the leather choker at my neck. "I'd like to see one of you try to take it off from me." I watched as shock morphed onto his face. He asked in a hushed whisper, "What have you experienced in your little life to make you take such measures?" I gaped at him for a moment, shocked at his train of thought, before my words returned to me. "Well, you are wrong." I continued to speak, "I am quite capable of taking care of myself." "You seemed quite capable of fending off that vampire who had tried to coerce you earlier," he interjected mockingly. "I can resist coercion." I couldn't stop my tongue from expressing my real thought in front of a pure-blooded vampire, the creature I most wanted to avoid having interaction with. "Not always," he said as he shook his head. "You were almost made a meal of because he smelled something on you that he couldn't resist. To be frank with you, I smell it too, and others will. They could be stronger than the one you faced tonight. How will you manage to get away from them if you barely managed to get away from that one tonight?" I felt the frustration quickly growing in me, mostly because I knew he was right. The leather bands had only worked well so far because I had been around vagrants, stray vampires, or humans. My job at the hotel hosted vampires of a higher caliber. It was only a matter of time that I encountered one I couldn't fight off. "You are right. But..." I sighed. "Why do you care about me? Do you owe me money, or do I owe you money?" "I want to help you," he said. Surprisingly, I didn't feel frightened. On the contrary, I couldn't hold back the laugh that escaped me. "A pure-blooded vampire wants to protect a half-vampire ?" I mocked him. "Try again." He looked at me for a short moment without blinking as though he was considering his next words before they fell from his mouth. "I don't care if you are a human or half-human and half-vampire. I think you need help. I don't know why. I just… I want you to stay by my side." That shocked me. I had never met someone as outright about his confessions as he was. Questions upon questions rushed through my mind. 'Why do I need his help? Why does he want me to be beside him? Does he want to keep me as a blood bag?' Logic finally returned to me. All I knew was pure-blooded vampires were dangerous, and I had to go. I put on my coat. "Well, thank you for your kindness, Sir, and thanks for helping me out tonight, but I don't want your help." "Wait! Wait, please just… Just hold on, okay?" I didn't listen to him. I continued to make my way through the living room. I was about to exit the door when his next words stopped me. "You need a job!" "I have a job," I retorted. "No, you don't. You're going to quit working because I beat up the jerk. You won't be safe once the manager finds him. " Sh*t. How was he so good at knowing these things? "You won't find a better one in a short time, especially not one in the lower parts of the city. The only measure that will be safe for you is..." I heard him stepping closer toward me, "being my personal assistant." "Excuse me?" I scoffed, "I don't even know your name. I don't think this is a good way to attract–" "Sol Montgomery," he interrupted me. "I'll pay you twice as much as this job, then I will have enough time to figure out why… why I seem to be so drawn to you." I was tempted by the offer he made. However, my sanity told me that working for a pure-blooded vampire would never end well. However, he would pay me twice as much, which meant I didn't have to work until midnight every day to afford college and rent. ###