Page 10 of Santa's Wish
I couldn't see it. He was hot, yes, and the sweetest variation of awkward I wanted to protect from the world. As I watched him approach, I felt like a dirty old man. I loved the way his eyes lit up when he saw me, though he didn't seem to recognize Colette.
"You interviewed him?" I asked under my breath.
"I was capturing intel for the empress," she hissed. "I wiped his mind afterward."
It always freaked me out that Empress Marcella could pass her gifts of mind reading, mind control, and compulsion to other vampires across such a distance. Her powers gave her advantage over much older vampires, which was how she'd risen through the ranks to become the head of the western vampire council in Rome.
If I had to guess, Boz had interviewed in the late afternoon, when it was already dark in Rome. The empress would have awakened Colette and given her the power to read the job candidates' minds. The empress herself had picked Boz, which meant he was as smart as I'd first thought.
Smart, but awkward. When I introduced him to Colette, he tripped and almost spilled her drink in an attempt to shake her hand.
"Whoa, easy there, sweetness." I leaned across thebar to help him onto the stool and filled a glass with seltzer. "Drink this."
He took a sip. "Thank you."
"Colette tells me you've already met.”
I said it to cause chaos, but Colette surprised me by smiling at him. "You don't remember me, do you?"
He blinked. "Now that you mention it … the proficiency test. How did I pass? I thought I failed."
"No, Boz. You were the only candidate who passed. Empress Marcella was quite pleased with you."
"She’s real?" He glanced at me. I’d mentioned her in a text, but he still didn’t believe.
Colette leaned toward him conspiratorially. "We rarely tell employees this before they sign the NDA on the first day of training, but yes, she’s very real.”
"I work for …" his voice lowered to a whisper, "vampire royalty?"
She laughed. "Oh, you are too precious. Yes, darling, Empress Marcella in Rome and Empress Chu Hua in Shanghai are the head of Imperial Accounting, but Empress Marcella oversees all activity in the Americas and Europe. It's rare for them to put so much stock into hiring accountants, but the empress wanted some new blood after an … unfortunate incident earlier this year. We fired several long-term employees because they helped a council member hide some scandalous behavior." From her tone, I doubted the terminated employees' hearts still beat in their chests.
Now it all made sense, to me at least. Councilor Dobbins had been a shady motherfucker, and we were all glad to see him gone. If he'd corrupted even the humans working for the empress, she probably wanted to turn all her loyal staff to vampires, if she hadn't already done so.
"How soon?" I asked.
"He starts a week from Monday," Colette said. "He's got six months of training and a state board test to pass, and then we'll look into making the position more permanent."
Colette knew exactly what I was asking, but Boz seemed oblivious. "I took the state board exam Tuesday," he said.
"Fabulous. You're ahead of the game!"
"Right. You've finished your finals, too," I said. "What would you like for your celebratory drink?"
"How about an attitude adjustment? Or a Bahama mama?"
"We don't have all the fruit here, but I can make you a mean attitude adjustment." I reached for the ice scoop.
He placed his hand over mine. "Neat, please."
How could I resist those hazel eyes? He really was gorgeous in a nerdy, unconscious way. He wasn't my usual type, but I found myself not caring as I poured alcohol into his glass, layer on layer, and topped it with grenadine and an orange slice.
"Here you go."
"Thanks." He slammed the drink back and downed it in two gulps like it was a shot, after all my hard work to get it perfect.
"I'm not making you another. You're drinking straight whiskey shots or nothing at all, college boy."
He laughed. "That was the plan. The attitude adjustment makes the whiskey go down sweeter."
