I would do whatever it took until I had a job that would protect and provide for Aunt Marie and me.
“I saw you talking to Stiles Trant last night,” Cheryl said as she continued lying on her bed, her blood martini glass balanced in her hand like she was posing for a photo shoot in Vogue Vampires. “I tasted him last month, you know. And not just his blood, if you know what I mean,” she said, wagging her brows. “His cock was impressive too. Not the biggest I’ve seen—shifters are traditionally bigger—but it was big enough to make waves.”
I made a disgusted face at the mention of his...parts. She might not know that he was my brother, but I did, and this was the last thing I ever wanted to hear about. Fucking gross.
“Cool. Are you gonna get dressed or what?” I asked, trying to steer the conversation away.
Cheryl sat up, letting her short blonde hair bob around her jaw. She’d hated it when I’d become her roommate five years ago. She always bragged that she was some baroness in her homeland of Germany, but her family had split off to come live in the states so that she could attend Thibault, since this program was the best for vampires. Baronesses shouldn’t have to share a room with bastards, she’d said. I’d traded out all of her uniforms so they were three sizes too big for her for that.
“He was delicious,” she prattled on, ignoring my attempts at changing the subject. “You could practically taste the superior breeding in him. He was like a fine glass of Pinot Noir from the vineyards of Italy. Have you ever been to Italy? My family owns a chateau there overlooking a cliff...” she went on and on and on, drawing out each word and running her tongue over her fangs like the sound of her own annoying prissy voice was getting her off. “I should invite Stiles there. My family would love him.”
“Do you blow everyone you want to drink, or is that just a paragon thing?” I asked.
Her brown eyes flashed over at me. “Ohmygods, you’re, like, totally jealous, aren’t you?” she asked, drawing out her valley girl accent before giving me a pitying look. “You have to understand, you’re just not really in Stiles Trant’s league, you know? Don’t take it personally. You can’t help that you’re not as pure blooded or pretty as me.”
Oh for shifter shit’s sake.
I sighed and tossed my mascara on the desk behind me. ”What did I do in a past life to deserve you as a roommate?” I mumbled under my breath while smoothing my hair.
“What?”
I turned around to face her. “I don’t care about Stiles Trant or your little suck and fuck session. I care about this internship opportunity from Spector.”
Cheryl rolled her eyes and placed her glass down on the bedside table before standing up and walking over to me. “For how smart you claim to be, you sure are ignorant sometimes,” she said, looking me up and down with a clear dismissal. “You were obviously invited tonight for political reasons.”
I tensed, though I tried not to show that her words made my insides stutter. After five years, I should’ve known better than to engage with her or let her bother me. But fuck, she was a bitch, and it was hard to always keep my guard up. “How do you mean?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” she asked with a blasé laugh. She reached forward to tug on one of my wavy red locks like she was a critical mother fixing her daughter’s hair. “It’d look very good for Spector to hire on a charity case as an intern, wouldn’t it? You know how it goes,” she said with a bored shrug. “They need diversity. Less powerful supes to make them appear inclusive. But no one actually wants you there.”
My gut twisted.
I didn’t know anything about Spector, so I couldn’t know if she was lying or not, but honestly...it was something that happened regularly. Maybe she was right. Maybe I was just offered a charity case position to make Spector Inc. look better. Hell, Thibault had done it.
A knock suddenly sounded on the door, but before I could turn toward it, Cheryl grabbed my arm, holding me in place. She leaned in and grazed her lips against my ear. “It’s better you realize that they’re not actually interested now, rather than embarrass yourself later. I’m doing you a favor,” she said before placing a kiss on my jaw and spinning away to the door.
My fists clenched at my sides.
I suddenly felt very stupid.
But then again...so what if Spector wanted a poster child for underprivileged supes?
Fuck it.
I’d be the best damn poster child vamp they’d ever seen. They wanted to use me? Well, I’d use them right back. There was nothing wrong with mutual benefits.
I fixed a perfect smile on my face, pushing down the disarming disappointment swirling around in my gut. I watched Cheryl adjust her boobs in her bra before she swung open the door. She thrust her hip out and leaned against the frame, eyeing whoever was on the other side.
My eyes widened when I noticed it was my damn brother.
What the fuck was he doing here?
“Oh! Stiles! I didn’t know it would be you escorting us tonight,” she said with excitement.
He gave her a terse nod, sweeping that cobalt blue gaze up and down her slender body. “I’ve been interning for Spector for six months,” he told her before his gaze flicked over her shoulder to look at me.
At seeing me standing there, his entire body tensed. His blue eyes widened for a fraction of a second before flicking over to the door that Cheryl was still holding, as if double checking he’d gotten the right room number.
“Motley,” he said slowly. “Shouldn’t you have moved out of Thibault today?”
“I would’ve...If I hadn’t gotten an invitation from Spector,”
