Night's Honor (Elder Races #7)(16)

She straightened her spine. “I’m not afraid of hard work.”

He smiled again. “If, at any time, you feel the need to end our liaison, you may do so. If you stay, you will do as you’re told. It’s as simple as that. All of my attendants receive a monthly stipend. While we have an arrangement, I will cover your medical needs, and of course your room and board. Everyone gets time off each month. Should we develop a long-term liaison, eventually I would care for you in retirement as well, although these days, we have a more mobile society than we used to, and people are more likely to want to change professions and lifestyles than they used to.”

“Has that happened often?”

“Not with any of my attendants, but it does happen.” He paused. “Tess.”

It was strange to hear him say her name, intimate in a way that she couldn’t define. She looked at him curiously. “Yes?”

“I will never bite you without your permission.” His voice was soft, even courteous. “I will never take anything from you that you do not want to give, but make no mistake—there are some Vampyres who would.”

Dread had become a familiar acquaintance of hers by now. It pulsed again, sullen like an aching bruise. “I understand.”

His gaze turned hard and piercing. “It’s important you do, because if you choose to leave, some might approach you and offer a liaison merely because you have resided within these walls for a time. I would advise against doing that. Anyone who would choose to offer for you would not have your best interests at heart.”

She swallowed. “I see.”

“One more thing. If you are not able to give a direct blood offering, freely and willingly, by the end of the trial year, our liaison will be over.”

She clenched her jaw, but she couldn’t keep quiet. “Forgive me, but isn’t that a contradiction? First you said you wouldn’t take anything I didn’t want to give, but now you just said otherwise.”

He lifted one eyebrow, and when he spoke, his voice had chilled. “There is no contradiction. Everything you do here will be by your choice, and you are always free to go. I will not coerce you into doing something you do not want to do, but there are also requirements of this job that you must fulfill if you want to stay on permanently. You don’t get a free pass, and you don’t get to change my rules just because you might not like them. I will give you ample opportunity to come to terms with the blood offering, during which time, I expect you to get over it and move on. Does that clarify things for you?”

Folding her lips tight, she forced herself to breathe evenly until her unruly temper had subsided enough for her to answer. “Your job, your rules. Got it.”

“Good. Now there is one more thing you will do for me before we’re done for the night. Come with me.” He rose to his feet.

Curious, she stood to follow him, but he only led her to the large desk across the room.

Standing to one side, he gestured to the chair. “Please sit.”

Complying, she glanced at the large dark screen of the desktop in front of her. It was easily a ten thousand dollar machine. A discreet, thoroughly modern keyboard tray had been added to the antique desk. “What now?”

“Now you will prove to me that you can really do what you claim you can do.” While he talked, he pulled an iPhone out of his pocket and moved his thumb rapidly over the screen. “The Nightkind demesne website is Evenfall dot gov. You said you can break through a firewall, so go break through it.”

She had lost count of how many times her adrenaline had surged over the last twenty-four hours. Gripping the edge of the desk, she said, “No, wait. I didn’t say that.”

“I asked if you could break through a firewall.” His hard gaze bored into her. “You said you were good at it.”

She shook her head. “That was your choice of words, not mine! I just agreed because at the time I didn’t want to get into a big discussion about it.”

He cocked his head, and his expression carried a cool challenge. “Are you saying that you lied in the interview?”

“No!” Frustration made her voice go shrill. “Look, you have to understand what you’re asking and what can actually be done. There’s no such thing as breaking through a firewall, because there is no wall.”

“Explain.” He crossed his arms.

Running her hands through her hair, she tried to come up with the right words to adequately describe a complicated technical concept quickly. “You don’t break through a firewall like you would smash a window to get inside a house. A firewall is a complicated list of configured rules that either lets things pass through or blocks them. One way you can breach a system is if you discover something has been misconfigured. Do you understand?”

“I understand perfectly. You’ve got ten minutes.” He held the phone up to his ear. “She’s starting now.”

Son of a bitch. He meant it.

Son of a bitch.

Galvanized into action, she yanked out the keyboard tray and toggled the screen on, as she muttered under her breath, “Ten minutes? Excuse me, but you’re f*cking nuts. It takes time to look for this kind of thing.”

“Nine minutes now.” He didn’t sound in the least perturbed by her agitation or her swearing.

Her mind raced through various possibilities. She had one potential rabbit in her hat that she might be able to use on such ridiculously short notice—she would bet everything in her inaccessible bank accounts that he was on the inside of the Evenfall security network. That would mean the network firewall would be configured to recognize his IP address and his email program.