The Vampire's Assistant

Chapter Two

A year of employment with a vampire had not been the hellish experience everyone had warned me it would be. Granted, it was far from your average job, but I hadn't once even come close to being bitten, raped, or murdered over the past twelve months.

Admittedly, things had been a bit rough at first. Working out of a vampire bar had been a major culture shock. Being from New Orleans, I was no stranger to the undead. But I had never been to any place like Fangtasia before, so working in the environment definitely took some adjusting.

I wasn't naive to all the ways humanity had reacted to the Great Revelation. But I'd never seen the "Fuck yes!" reaction quite so up close before. It definitely made you look at the world differently. Mostly, it just made me sad. If hanging around a vampire bar every night of the week hoping for the chance to have someone consume your bodily fluid was the most you had to look forward to, you had to have a pretty dismal existence.

Vampire temperaments were another adjustment. I quickly came to realize that despite what the AVL would have you believe, most vampires, my boss included, regarded humans as inferior and treated them as such. For the first three months or so, I never once heard the words "please" or "thank you." I was commanded, ordered, beckoned, and dismissed, usually without so much as simple eye contact. I'd wondered if I would be able to sustain working in such a hostile environment, where I was well compensated but treated like a second class citizen.

But then I had realized that it wasn't really all that different from working with the upper level partners of the law firm I'd worked at before. There was only one way I knew of to put a stop to that kind of treatment and it was as simple as garnering my employer's respect. While it was indeed a simple concept, the execution could be tricky. I made it a point to always be on time, if not early, and made it very clear that I was willing to work late if need be. I dove into my work with everything I had, accomplishing tasks faster than expected, better than expected, and doing things without having to be told. Anticipating my boss's needs seemed to make the biggest impact. Mr. Northman appreciated things like coming in to work to find a freshly warmed bottle of True Blood waiting for him on his desk.

I reorganized filing systems, devised new scheduling methods, established better vendor relations, and even worked up the courage to introduce some new ideas for Fangtasia's style. It had been a gradual process, but eventually I had earned myself a modicum of respect from not only Mr. Northman, but the hardest to impress vampire of them all, Pam. And with that respect, came a significantly more comfortable working environment.

Now, just a year later, I could say with all honesty that being the personal assistant to Eric Northman was the best job I'd ever had. This time last year I was in New Orleans, where I had lived all of my twenty two years. I was a casualty of the hard economic times and had been laid off my job as an administrative assistant at a local law firm after only two years. In my months long search for another job, I'd had to give up my apartment, move back in with my parents, and had damn near lost my car. The opportunity to interview with the owner of a growing chain of vampire bars had come just in time.

At one of my family's monthly dinners, my uncle, Bobby, had pulled me aside as I was clearing the dishes. He worked as Mr. Northman's day man and he said that his boss was currently expanding his business and was in need of an assistant. When he'd heard from my father about my "misfortunes", he had immediately thought of me for the job. At the time, I was only two more late payments away from having my car repossessed and was so desperate I didn't hesitate to take him up on the offer to set up an interview.

Surprisingly, my mother and father had expressed few qualms about the idea of their only daughter going to work for a vampire. They were more upset that if I got the job, it would mean my moving to Shreveport, which was about a five and a half hour drive from home. My brothers though, all older and all unbearably overprotective, were less than thrilled at the prospect. They all converged on me, intervention-style, in the family living room one night to talk me out of it. They were not successful, nor were any of the friends who echoed my brothers' admonitions.

My Mema's reaction, however, had given me pause. She'd kept very quiet about the whole thing until the day I was preparing to leave for Shreveport for my interview. She appeared in my doorway as I was packing my suitcase.

"It's not a good idea," she asserted without preamble. "You need to stay far away from their kind. From all the kinds."

I didn't understand it at the time, being unaware of any "kinds" other than vampires and it was generally suspected in my family that Mema's mind was going. She was in her nineties and although none of her doctors had diagnosed her, it appeared from her sometimes erratic behavior that things were not working as they should. So I dismissed her comment as nonsense. But she persisted, shaking a bony finger at me.

"You stay out of their beds, girl!" Her raspy voice held a deadly seriousness. My Mema had never been so blunt with me. I dropped what was in my hands and stared at her, but she only turned and meandered back down the hall to her room.

Even keeping in mind her possible senility, the reality behind her words struck me. Most people would hold the assumption that to work for vampires, I must be one of their groupies too. I'd decided right then that would not be the case. I was raised better than that and, vampires or no, that was a sure way to end up jobless again.

I held firmly to that resolve. Not to say that it was easy, especially upon arriving at my interview to find that my prospective boss was a six and a half foot Adonis with an obvious appreciation for the female form. Luckily, being as devastatingly gorgeous as he was and in no short supply of admirers, he had no need to chase after someone who didn't want to be chased. As soon as I made clear my desire to remain strictly professional, he turned his attentions to the many women who lay themselves eagerly at his feet.

All in all, I was happy with my decision to work to for Eric Northman. I couldn't say it was my dream job, but with all the money I was able to save after my meager living expenses and a little spending money, in a few years time I would probably be able to put myself through college. Or maybe I'd travel, or buy a house. There were a lot of possibilities ahead of me. My present was content and my future was bright.

If I had only known.