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Wait, she’s Tristan’s bodyguard too? The impression I got was that she looks after overall security for Tristan but bodyguards his human employees—like me.

She must see my confusion. “You live in the house now,” she reminds me. “People at the Association know about you, and everyone loves to gossip about Tristan. The news that he’s got a new feeder in the house will have spread through the vampire community.”

Through the vampire community? I clear my throat. “Maybe my parents sheltered me too much,” I begin hesitantly, hoping I’m not giving away my secret, “but are you implying that other vampires might…” I trail off at the incredulous look she gives me. “I mean, of course other vampires are dangerous,” I backtrack. “I just meant… even here in Tristan’s house?” How can I be in danger from Tristan’s colleagues if I follow all the rules? It’s not like I was planning to walk into the meeting and make myself at home.

“You really are sheltered,” Anna teases, and then her smile disappears. “I know it seems like you should be less at risk because Tristan’s the regent, but it’s actually the opposite. He hasn’t been here all that long, in vampire terms, and there are plenty of them who want things to go back to how they were before.”

I have no idea what any of that means, but I nod. “That makes sense,” I say. “Maybe I spent too much time away from the community.” What the fuck is a regent, and what does it mean that Tristan is one? How were things before?

Anna makes a sympathetic face. “You’ll settle back in fast,” she assures me. “Being hired so quickly after you decided to register probably didn’t help you reacclimatise.”

“Mm. Yeah, I kinda just decided the night before last. I was gonna take a few days to sort it out, but then Cat said Tristan needed a feeder, and it made sense not to wait.”

“We’re glad you didn’t. Tristan hates feeding from temps, which means he doesn’t feed as often, and you know how shitty hungry vampires can get.”

I don’t but also, I really don’t want to. It seems like the kind of thing a smart person avoids. “Heh. Yeah. Happy to help.” I’m starting to think I should have asked a lot more questions before I let Cat talk me into this.

“Anyway, I came up to ask if you have some time free. Tristan’s nine thirty call got cancelled, so it would be a good time to talk about security guidelines.”

I was hoping to have more answers before having to tackle this conversation, but I guess that’s not going to happen. Standing, I stretch my arms over my head, then pull up my trackies where they’ve slid down my hips. “I’ve got nothing on this morning. Let’s do it.”

She looks me up and down, hesitates, then says, “Tristan’s kind of… old-fashioned. Maybe change first?”

I glance down at my clothes. Yeah, I’m wearing tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt, but they’re not rags. They’re pretty new and even clean. The T-shirt’s from Kmart, sure, but the pants are Adidas. “He was okay with what I wore this morning,” I point out. If he can handle me in boxers, this should be fine.

“Yeah, but feeding’s different. This is a work meeting. Would you have worn that to a meeting for your old job?”

Well, that’s all I need to hear to know Anna’s never worked in hospo, because the answer is hell yes, if there were no customers. Though… not at every job I’ve had. Some of them were stricter. “I don’t exactly have business clothes,” I protest.

“Just put on jeans and shoes. An outfit you’d wear to leave the house.”

I think I’m offended. “This is an outfit I’d wear to leave the house,” I grumble, but I obediently go into the bedroom and put on my jeans from yesterday and a pair of slides I got half-price at the Puma outlet in DFO. Anna takes one look at them and sighs.

“It’s these or rubber thongs,” I warn. “I’m not putting on socks and shoes just to go downstairs and talk.”

“It’s fine. But if you really don’t have anything business appropriate, you need to get something.” She starts down the stairs, and I follow.

“Why?”

“For when you travel with Tristan. People will see you with him, and you’ll need to be dressed appropriately.”

For what now? I consciously relax my jaw, mentally consign Cat to the deepest pits of hell, and ask casually, “How often does Tristan travel?”

Anna shrugs as we reach the bottom of the stairs. “It depends on how well everyone’s behaving. At least once a month that you’ll go with him. Nadia always stayed behind if he was just going for the day—usually Sydney or Hobart—but anything overnight, you have to go too, obviously.”

“Obviously,” I echo and add a shopping trip to my to-do list. I have black pants that I wore to work at my last job, but they’re getting kind of worn and I don’t think they’ll meet Tristan’s standards. It’s fine. I can grab a couple pairs of dress pants and some shirts, and I’ll be all set. My new wage will more than cover it—I might even splash out and go to the designer floor of Myer.

Anna leads the way into the room next door to Tristan’s office. It’s a dining room, with a long, highly polished table and enough matching chairs with upholstered cushions for twelve people. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a table that big in someone’s home, not with so much space between the chairs. You could probably seat eighteen people if you had to. There’s a sideboard in matching polished wood along the wall beside the fireplace, and opposite are double doors with glass panes that lead into Tristan’s office. They’re closed at the moment, and through them I can see him at his desk, head bent as he writes something with a phone held to his ear. He’s wearing his suit jacket now, unlike earlier. Is that a normal thing people do? I’ve never worked in a corporate office, but I can’t imagine trying to get work done with a jacket on. I always assumed that jackets were for meetings where you want to impress people, and when you’re at your desk, it comes off. Maybe it’s just a Tristan thing. He comes across as the buttoned-up type.

I turn away before I get caught staring and wander over to the bay window at the end of the room. It has the same original leadlight and stained-glass panes that most of the house does.

“This is a nice room.” It is, but mostly I just don’t know what else to say.

Anna chuckles as she pulls out a chair and sits down. I didn’t notice before when I was goggling over the size of the table, but there’s an iPad and a notebook where she’s sitting. I guess she’s more prepared for this meeting than I am.

“Do I need to make notes?” I go to join her at the table, pulling out the chair beside her. Normally I’d leave some room, since it’s not like the room’s gonna fill up, but there’s that much space between the chairs that it would be weird if I did.

“Nah,” Anna says. “I’ll email you anything you need to know. Mostly we’re going to work out scheduling and what your needs outside the house might be.”