The Vampire's Assistant

Chapter One

I rapped softly on Mr. Northman's door with my fingernails. Down the hall, the noise of the staff cleaning and closing up the bar for the night was loud but I knew my boss would hear the knock. There was silence from the other side of the door for a few moments before his gruff voice gave the call to enter. I opened the door just in time to catch an eyeful of bare stripper ass as a faceless red head rushed to pull up her sorry excuse for a skirt on her way out of the office.

I didn't bother to conceal my annoyance, rolling my eyes as I stalked across the small room. I dropped my stack of papers on the desk in front of my boss, ignoring his smug, amused grin.

"Sign these." He arched a brow at me and I sighed. "Please."

His sharp eyes scanned through the documents in seconds and he signed his name to them even faster.

"So what are your plans for the rest of this fine evening, Abby?" he asked as I gathered the mess of paperwork into a neat stack. He was certainly in a good mood tonight, or maybe it was just the feeding and... whatever else he'd been doing in here before I knocked.

"Sleep," I answered succinctly.

"How droll."

"Well, some of us have important things to do in the morning and require actual rest to function."

He looked mildly offended, but not in a serious way. "I rest."

"Not quite the same thing, is it?" With my papers in hand I turned to leave, but his cool hand on my arm stopped me.

"Come on. Stick around for a little while."

I sighed. Mr. Northman had been like this ever since his progeny, Pam, had relocated to Baton Rouge two weeks ago to manage the newest Fangtasia location. Somehow, though I never would have thought it possible, my boss seemed lonely. You would think that in a thousand years he would have accumulated a larger friendship base, but after Pam's departure it became obvious how few people he called close friends. When he had free time, he seemed at a loss of what to do with himself and consequently, "entertain Eric Northman when he's bored" had been added to my job description. Luckily for me, the amount of his time that could be considered "free" was marginal.

"Just a little while," I conceded, crossing the room to plop my tired bones down on the leather couch. Whenever I sat there, I fought the mental images of all the disgusting things that must transpire on it, mostly because it was such a damn comfortable couch. On Sundays, when the bar was closed and I was the only one here, I sometimes entertained the idea of stealing a quick nap on it. I'd yet to give in to that urge though.

"So what do you want to do?" His response was a lecherous grin and I shook my head, more because I'd set myself up for that than at him. "Seriously."

My boss and I had a strictly professional relationship. Well, we'd developed a bit of a comfortable acquaintance as well over the past year, but we never strayed into sexual territory. I had made that a very clear condition of my employment when I signed my contract. This was too good of a job to fuck up like that. Some people may think that working as the personal assistant to a vampire wouldn't be that great of a job, but those people had never worked for Eric Northman.

In my year's employment with him, I had come to realize that Mr. Northman valued good employees and did not hesitate to compensate them in a manner that would encourage their loyalty. I was easily making four times what I would have made in the same position working for a human employer. And the benefits were unbelievable.

Sure, as a twenty three year old, moderately attractive female I had to cope with a good deal of sexual innuendo from him but it wasn't vulgar or persistent. And in all honesty, when it comes from a man who looks like Eric Northman, it's hard not to take it as a compliment. Overall, I felt that we had developed a mutual respect for each other so it was easy to brush aside the lascivious looks and not-so-subtle suggestions.