Chapter 19 #2
There were no windows; it made sense that a firm of vampires would prefer interior offices.
The enormous table looked to have been constructed out of a single piece of lacquered dark hardwood; if there were joins, they’d been hidden cleverly by matching the woodgrain.
The floor, she noted, was carpeted in a dark gray with enough of a pattern to make spills, whether of coffee or blood, easily concealed.
Indirect lighting flattered the complexions of the occupants, especially if they had paler skin.
The walls were hung with abstract art, largely in shades of red and brown.
Ravenfell did not advertise that their executive team were creatures of the night, but they made sure that if you knew, you wouldn’t forget.
The receptionist who seated them and taken their beverage requests projected cool competence, never raising her voice above a murmur. She wore a sleeveless knit turtleneck.
Morgan clutched her bougie blueberry-pomegranate-scented sparkling water like her life depended on it.
Her eye watered a bit; she dabbed cheap perfume next to the concealer to cover any scent of bruise, but the sweat was making the makeup melt a little into her lashes.
Next to her, Luke jiggled his knee. His invisible tail lashed against her calf and he gave her an apologetic glance.
Under the table, she slid her foot over to touch Luke’s.
It helped ground her a little, and she thought his knee-jiggling slowed a hair.
She didn’t dare leave it long, though, and when she moved her foot back in front of her chair, it felt cold for the lack of him.
Kelly sat quietly, spine straight, her thumb stroking her fountain pen over and over.
Brad paced, bouncing a little on the balls of his feet, ignoring the triple shot of espresso he’d requested.
Everyone heard the heavy oak door open, but somehow no one noticed the vampire until he was standing among them.
His dark hair was tousled just so, a contemporary cut that briefly confused her before she realized that, if the undead were sufficiently wealthy, they could simply have someone on staff to cut their hair every night when they woke up with a previous century’s style.
He was exquisitely dressed in a suit that fit him so perfectly Morgan could tell it had never touched a rack.
She didn’t know the details of what all the pockets and seams were called, but it oozed money.
He hadn’t bothered with a tie; the collar lay open, leaving a hint of clavicle.
He would be one of the few people in the building with his neck visible.
Morgan’s satin bow stuck unpleasantly to her nape when she was outside in the summer heat, and continued to stick unpleasantly now that the aggressive air conditioning had chilled her sweat.
She’d mentioned to Kelly the day before that she’d heard a rumor that decolletage was unwise at this particular firm; Kelly had raised her eyebrows without commenting, but also worn a high collar.
Poor Luke couldn’t wear a turtleneck without looking like a bad Steve Jobs cosplayer, but he’d buttoned his shirt all the way up and wore a tie, giving off painful ambitious intern vibes.
Brad, of course, had his unbuttoned. Morgan hadn’t said a word.
Brad jumped a little but recovered quickly, sticking his hand out with a blinding grin.
The vampire smiled slowly without revealing his teeth.
He crossed to where Brad was standing, gliding with the efficient movements of a consummate predator.
Morgan stayed very still, willing him not to even look at her.
She had not, until this moment, fully appreciated how lucky they would be to leave the room alive, let alone with funding.
Kelly was making her way around the table now.
Morgan tried not to fret. Kelly intimidated the hell out of her, but that didn’t mean she wanted something to happen to her.
She shouldn’t have worried though. Kelly exuded competence without warmth as the vampire tried to turn her wrist so he could turn the handshake into a kiss across her knuckles.
Her wrist tightened a little as she refused to allow it to be turned.
The vampire could have easily overpowered her, Morgan knew, but he smiled a hair and backed off instead.
Kelly might not have knowingly dealt with vampires before, Morgan realized, but she was a female sales executive.
She’d likely dealt with more than her fair share of powerful creeps, and had protocols of her own.
“Auberon Vesper,” the vampire introduced himself, his baritone sending a frisson down Morgan’s bones. “I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to share.”
He sat himself at the head of the table, steepling his fingers. He’d taken the cue from Brad and ignored Morgan and Luke entirely.
The black-haired woman who had followed him in unnoticed did not, however.
She made eye contact with Morgan and then Luke and gave them each a tiny nod.
Her suit was not as expensive-looking as Vesper’s, but was still a lot nicer than anything Morgan anticipated ever being able to afford.
She sat at Vesper’s right hand, placing a tablet on the table.
Brad launched into the presentation.
After a few minutes of intro slides (each of which Morgan anxiously scanned for typos), they made it safely out of the parts Morgan had worked on directly.
Brad mostly talked, with the occasional addition by Kelly.
He was good, she realized, and then felt chagrined at her own surprise.
The bombastic tone that felt so awkward in the office worked in this context.
Actually, he was magnetic. Maybe he wasn’t as completely incompetent as she’d thought.
The vampire watched, fingers still steepled. His eyes glittered. Occasionally, he gave a minute nod, but otherwise said nothing. He reminded her of a large jungle cat, hiding motionless in the shadows, waiting tirelessly for the right moment to pounce.
The question was whether the pounce would be figurative or literal.
The woman at his elbow jotted notes on her tablet.
An assistant? Associate? Morgan wished she’d gotten a proper introduction.
At the same time, she remained grateful that her superiors’ rudeness kept her relatively anonymous.
The note-taker already looked at Luke more often than she would have liked.
Then again, Luke was very good to look at.
Could that be all it was? Someone with a high collar at the right hand of a vampire surely had at least some knowledge of the magical world, but how much did she know?
The faked-up demo looked surprisingly good.
It clearly matched whatever Brad had had in his head, as he proceeded smoothly through talking points that were entirely foreign to Morgan.
Who knew their platform could increase employees’ reported wellbeing by twenty-three percent?
Lying certainly gave him no pause. It was all so high-level that she wasn’t entirely clear on exactly how that wellbeing was increased.
He kept coming back to the importance of driving employee sign-ups and she couldn’t understand why.
There were a lot of pretty analytics with ‘anonymized’ data in tasteful colors, so clearly it had to be true.
Brad wrapped up, and she waited for the vampire to puncture the entire thing with a pointed question.
She herself had so many questions. What did the product actually do?
Why had they wasted two minutes on a generic sign-up screen, other than as padding?
Surely Vesper had seen a thousand bullshit presentations before; he was going to eat them alive.
Metaphorically. She hoped metaphorically.
Vesper leaned back in his chair, finally unsteepling those damn fingers and laying his hands flat on the table.
Everyone held their breath.
“I don’t like teal,” he said querulously. “The little charts shouldn’t be in teal.”
“The platform, of course, can be white-labeled into whatever palette matches the client’s branding,” Kelly said smoothly.
“Hmm,” the vampire said, drumming his fingers. “But why does anyone care about retention anyway?”
“Most companies will spend, on average, a fifth of any given employee’s salary to replace that employee,” Brad said.
“Why?”
Morgan tried as hard as she could to keep her face blank as the vampire continued to ask asinine questions. She couldn’t believe it. Was this a game he was playing? She didn’t think so. He really was a complete airhead.
The woman next to him murmured something into his ear.
“What about the consumer market?” Vesper asked in a less animated tone than he’d used to demand teal. “Isn’t there greater potential for salability?”
“Scalability,” the woman murmured. She wasn’t an assistant, Morgan realized. She was a handler.
Brad shot a glance at Luke, who immediately knocked over his glass of mineral water all over the expensive table.
There was a flurry of activity, trying to rescue various electronics.
When they looked back at the screen, Brad had clicked to a new slide that included a vague timeline with a rollout to consumer audiences.
There were no dates or specifics on the slide, but that didn’t stop Brad from making promises.
Kelly’s eyes widened slightly, but she covered it quickly.
Morgan let out a slow breath. There was one move the GreenField demons could never have made.
Brad and Kelly weren’t stupid. They could tell who in the room needed to be impressed and who merely needed to be flattered. Morgan watched as they deftly changed their approach to match. Kelly was just as good; less inspirational than Brad, but more convincing.
Morgan felt every inch the fraud she was.
“Hmm. I shall have to consider,” Vesper finally declared, rising.
The rest rose as well. Brad shot Kelly a quick glance and she tried to fall back to speak to the handler, but Vesper took her arm in a gesture full of oily gallantry.
Kelly caught Morgan’s eye and Morgan swallowed.
She knew what she was supposed to do, in theory.
Take the temperature of the real decision maker, or at least get her contact info.
Or even just a name. Whether she could pull that off, Morgan wasn’t sure.
Luke was gathering up the laptop and its various cords. Morgan stood, unsure of how to get the woman’s attention. Fortunately, though, her quarry stayed behind as Vesper escorted Brad and Kelly out of the room.
“Renata Aguilar-Ortiz,” she said, extending a hand to Luke. “That was a smooth transition, within certain definitions of smooth.”
“Excuse me?” Luke said, swallowing.
“The slide switch. Your CEO clearly knows what you’re doing, but I’m guessing the sales head doesn’t?” Renata’s eyes flicked at Morgan and then dismissed her.
“I’m sorry?” Luke tried again.
“You can’t seriously work Deal magic in front of me and expect it to go unnoticed,” Renata said dryly.
Weirdly, that made Morgan relax slightly.
“The product is bullshit,” Renata continued. “But you’ve got a Deal with him? Which House?”
“Berith,” Luke said, setting down the laptop.
She smiled a bit. “We can do business with Berith. You’re part of the package?”
“I’m not sure what you mean,” Luke said, eyes narrowed.
“If we invest, you’re going to ensure this company succeeds?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Then it doesn’t really matter that your product is bullshit. Although you’re going to need to rein him in a little,” she continued. “Pardon, I’m sure you know how to do your job.”
“You make the decisions around here, don’t you?” Morgan said.
“Someone has to,” Renata rolled her eyes. “You can see what his Highness is like.”
“You obviously know what you’re talking about,” Morgan probed. “Why are you working for someone like him?”
“I just told you my last name,” Renata said. “I get to make the decisions at this firm, which is more than I can say for most of the white boys’ clubs. I’ll never make partner, true, but title’s less important than money and autonomy. Which are you more interested in, ego or power?”
“But why do you need him at all, then?” she asked.
“Why do I need the ultimate in long-term stability? Ravenfell is, very quietly, the most successful venture capital firm in the world, partially because they can literally wait forever for an investment to pay off. My wife and I have kids, and private school isn’t cheap.
” Renata snorted. “You’re right at the beginning of your career.
Let me know when your job disappears in two years because you’ve gotten laid off or acquired. ”
“So now what?” Luke asked.
“You’ll get a call from our lawyers tomorrow,” Renata said. “And your boss will, as well. Your mortal boss. We have paperwork for both your bosses to sign.”
Brad stuck his head back in the room. “Vesper and I are going for drinks. Would you care to join us?” He caught Luke’s eye. “You, too.”
Morgan had most definitively not been invited. She was pretty sure everyone in the room knew why. She tried not to feel humiliated and failed.
Luke glanced at Morgan helplessly. Brad raised his eyebrows. Luke turned to Renata, his motion oddly mechanical. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
Renata smiled, her teeth mortal but no less sharp. “Pleasure will be all mine.”