“You don’t understand!” I puffed through tears. “I will lose everything. I love my job and my friends and my cat.” Diego stared at me blankly, and I briefly wondered how long Mr. Prince of Darkness had been out of the loop of the real world. Then it dawned on me. “My apartment!” I groaned. “If I don’t go to work and make money, I can’t pay the rent. And if I don’t pay the rent, I will get evicted.”
“We have plenty of space for you to live here,” Diego said, clearly confused by my emotional outburst.
“Do you even get what an eviction will do to my credit? I will never get a decent interest rate again!” I continued my tirade. “And who will take care of Pussy? She won’t survive weeks at a time by herself. You have to let me call Ryan.”
“I do not have to let you do anything,” Diego yelled. His face contorted into an angry snarl and turned a deep shade of purple. His fists clenched tightly at his sides, and his breaths came out in huffs. Despite the multiple threats he made to my life, this was the first time I was truly afraid of Diego.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, silent tears rolling down my cheeks. I hated being yelled at; it instantly brought me right back to being a scared teenager at one of my more unpleasant foster homes. My foster dad was a drunk who got off on terrorizing little kids. He used to make us apologize for making him mad, or something much worse would happen.
“Do not mistake my kindness toward you as weakness,” Diego growled. He leaned in close enough that I could make out flecks of blue in his gray eyes. “I would not tolerate this level of insolence from anyone else, so you had better learn quickly that I will not tolerate it any longer from you.”
“Yes, sir, I’m sorry,” I submitted. As I looked at the floor to escape his gaze, I realized how drastically my life had changed in a matter of days.
“Now, if there is something you would like to ask me, I would be happy to hear you out,” he said and stared at me expectantly.
“May I call Ryan to take care of my cat?” I asked in a meek voice that I didn’t recognize as my own.
“No. But I will send someone to make sure she is cared for. Before you so rudely interrupted me, I was about to explain that we will also contact your friends and job with a reasonable excuse for your absence.”
“How?” I asked, my voice breaking with emotion.
“I’m a fucking vampire king. From here on out, assume that I am capable of everything.”
Cocky bastard. “Fine. I suppose I don’t have much of a choice.”
Diego closed his eyes and let out a sigh of content. “Ahh, your submission is music to my ears.”
Fuck. Him. I scowled and crossed my arms over my chest, deciding to keep my mouth shut.
Diego unlocked one of the rooms and held the door open for me. I took a deep breath before letting myself inside. The room looked like a dated college dorm with a few upgrades. There was a wine fridge on the far wall, filled to the brim with blood bags. The bunk beds were full-sized with luxury black linens on them—probably to hide the blood stains. There was a maroon rug on the tiled floor and a small bathroom with a bathtub.
“Your roommate was just approved and will be joining you soon,” Diego announced.
“Roommate?” I asked.
He let out another sigh, as if it annoyed him to answer me. “The grandmother that turned you has passed her mental aptitude tests. Although her change was unsanctioned, the council wants to see how she handles boot camp. We’ve been considering increasing the age of acceptable applicants, and they feel as though this is a good opportunity to see if she is capable of adapting to the lifestyle.”
I gaped at him. “You want me to live with a murderous granny?”
“I want you to do whatever I say without question.” He adjusted his collar, then continued. “I’m not too happy about it either, but I’m trying to keep the council happy right now. They were unanimous in this decision.”
I nodded. “And what about their decision to keep me?” I asked.
“That wasn’t so unanimous,” Diego replied ominously. “After a quick background check, they weren’t sure you had anything to contribute to the coven.”