I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 3 - Let's Rogue It Up

He was as gorgeous in real life (if this was real life) as he had been on the screen with short, white hair, an angular face, and a T-shaped body. There were plenty of scenes in the game that would show all of that off at dramatic movie-style angles.

Yet, if she was being honest with herself, it wasn't his looks that attracted Evangeline to him. Of course, no one in her online friend group who also played the game believed her. The argument had always been that if he had been an ugly half-orc or something, he wouldn't have been nearly as appealing to her.

The truth was, she had hated him the first time she played the game. It wasn't until he started talking about things that were real that her insides began to quiver. Things she recognized and understood about being used and attacked and forgotten. About being broken.

Even now, as she gazed across the tavern room at him, leaning back in a chair with a goblet of wine in one hand, his other arm draped dramatically over the back of his seat, she saw the lie that his confident posture was.

"Excuse me? Are we doing this deal or not?" the impatient voice said before her. "Jurli, you said she was a professional."

"I assure you, boss..."

It didn't matter what the henchman was going to say. This was just the opening tutorial mission. In fact, every class had one in the same tavern. As she turned about to sweep her gaze over the room, she could see each station at the various tables or in alcoves, like it was some kind of high school lunchroom. Rangers were at the bar, wizards in a corner amidst a small forest of their staves, druids were back-to-back with witches underneath the boughs of an actual living tree incorporated into the wall of the tavern, and so on. It was all very organized.

Special Power: Meta Knowledge—activate.

And unnecessary. All of this was skippable in the game, but it wasn't like she could just hit a command button to make it all go away. She was actually here. Actually, living it now.

And, if you succeeded in this tutorial mission, you get a very good piece of starting gear, she thought. A +1 dagger, which getting an enchanted item this early in the game had made so many things so much easier. And all of its specialization slots were still open, so she could add more magic to it later when that became possible.

"Alright, gentlemen and ladies," Evangeline said, addressing the table as she pulled out the seat waiting there. "I don't really want to spend a lot of time on this. You want the phoenix egg, and you are willing to pay well to get it. Along with everyone else in the room."

"Are you sure we can trust her?" she said at the same time as the 'boss' character.

"Like I said she's a professional," she also said along with the recruiter.

Both people blinked at her when they did it.

She grinned mischievously. "Like I said boys and girls," she said, leaning into the devil-may-care rogue character in the way she never would in real life. "I've heard and seen it all before. I'll take your job."

Somewhere a chime sounded, but Evangeline seemed to be the only one who could hear it.

"Excellent," the boss said, leaning on the table with his hands folded. "This job will pay a thousand gold, half now and half upon delivery."

Evangeline chuckled. She knew this part so well. "Right, and this is when I will say, 'that's not enough,' and you will offer slightly more, then I'll say no give me 2000, then you'll say 150 and I'll take it, so why don't we just jump to the 150 reward and not waste both of our time. But if you give me a third of it now, and that special dagger I know you have, we'll call it a deal."

She sat there smugly, only to realize that everyone at the table stared at her in stony silence. They weren't automatically going into the dialogue choices.

Did I break them by skipping ahead? she wondered. She met each of their eyes and realized that there was nothing about them that felt ... artificial. These were living breathing people, and all her false bravado bled away.

Oh, crap. What did I do? she silently panicked.

Then the boss laughed.

Then the table laughed.

And Evangeline's shoulders dropped with relief.

"You were right," the boss said, slapping the recruiter saying words Evangeline definitely hadn't heard before. "I like this one." He reached into his belt and pulled out the dagger, a beautiful silver piece with a slight curve and a bronze-colored edge. The handle and pommel had swirly ruins that were supposed to be "elfish" in design.

The table oohed and aahed at it, clearly more for the boss's benefit than because they were truly amazed or anything. There had been a lot of these creatures at her job sucking up to the supervisor, but she did not want to think about that whole situation right then.

Instead, she smiled with the group and leaned her elbow on the table like she knew this was what was going to happen. The boss slapped the knife on the table. "Then we have an accord, lady," he said.

She took up the dagger. I'm going to need to get a sheath, she realized, only to discover that on her belt was a sheath she wasn't entirely sure was there a moment ago. Still, when she slid her new knife into it, it fit perfectly. "And the gold?" she said.

The boss's laughter dimmed to a chuckle that didn't reach his eyes. He hadn't liked being reminded. But every coin of that money would be useful in about five minutes.

And sure enough, just as he set the bag to clink on the table, the room exploded.

To be continued...

To read the latest chapter join my newsletter at meganmackieauthor.com