This entire affair was becoming tedious. There was no doubt in my mind that if I dragged her out as I wanted to, I'd be doing it with her kicking and screaming. I wouldn't be able to compel an entire club to forget, so I'd have to find another way. "I just wish to speak with you."

She side-stepped out of my grasp and turned her murderous hazel eyes on me. "If you touch me again, I'll scream. You're ruining my night."

"Your night was ruined from the start," I informed her dismissively.

 Amya pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes before pivoting on her heels and marching away from me, her original intention to dance forgotten. She shot me another look over her shoulder. "I'm going to the bathroom, don't follow me."

Annoyed, I watched her snake through the crowd in the direction of the back hallway. As I'd stated to Andrea earlier in the night, Amya was a risk to our very survival. The longer I allowed this to go on, the more time and resources I would be wasting. Even in the week I'd been tracking her, three covens on the East Coast had gone missing. I needed to get back to my own. We were at war, and she was nothing more than a distraction.

***

He had killed my buzz. Bracing myself against the bathroom counter, I stared at myself in the mirror and his eyes were staring back at me. Lifeless hazel eyes exactly like my own. I blinked back the tears and gave my head a violent shake. It had been five years since he died and I still saw him.

You were born for greater things."

"I'd still settle for normal, Grandpa," I mumbled to myself, turning away from the counter and toward the door. "I wish you hadn't left me so soon."

Opening the restroom door, I was hit with the blast of music reverberating throughout the building and winced as I raised my hands to cup my ears briefly as they adjusted to the noise. I peered down the hallway thoughtfully and considered following the music back to the bar. I wasn't drunk yet, and I was positive Cassian had killed any opportunity I'd had of going home with someone. Unless I followed Becca and Shane to The Gold Standard. There was a back door if I moved away from the music toward the opposite end of the hallway. Cassian would never know.

Was it normal to feel this way about your stalker? He certainly wasn't winning me over, but wasn't I supposed to be more afraid of him? Wary? All I felt was annoyance and an intense dislike. I didn't know what his connection was with Shane, I mean they didn't even live in the same city, but there had to be some connection, right? I thought of how easily Shane had turned and walked away after a few short words from Cassian and frowned. Shane wouldn't have just walked away because a stranger told him to...

"That's not the point right now, Mya," I muttered as I turned decisively away from the music and moved further down the hall to the club's back exit. "The point right now is to find yourself a man or get drunk." And that's exactly what I planned to do.

***

I watched her slip out the back less than fifteen minutes after she'd left to find the restroom, and I cursed the day Zeke had discovered her. Andrea's suggestion to use her echoed in the back of my mind, however, we wouldn't be the first coven to attempt to use an Remedium. It was always a mistake; a deadly one. They were uncontrollable and impossible to read. Not to be trusted.

Following slowly behind her, I kept my distance as I mulled over the options. Amya wandered down the sidewalk, her focus divided between her handbag as she dug through it, and the walkway ahead of her. Ahead of her, a group of three men approached, laughing drunkenly. I knew the moment that they noticed her as I could hear their laughter dying to quiet snickers. I stiffened but didn't close the distance as I waited. They were merely human; hardly worth my time. She hadn't bothered to look up or acknowledge the men as they grew closer.

"Hey Beautiful," called one with a grin, finally causing her to look up. "Looking for some company?"

Amya appeared to study the three men for a brief time before returning her attention to her bag and responding in a disinterested tone, "Not really."

Her heartbeat had spiked, however, she kept her voice level and unconcerned. I felt the corner of my mouth quirk up in reluctant amusement. Evidently, her trying personality wasn't specific to myself and Zeke. The men slowed to a stop as she traveled past him, and the one who'd spoken reached out to grip her wrist as she passed, scatting items along the sidewalk as her hand was yanked from her bag, "Wait a—"

He couldn't even finish his sentence before she swung around, following the direction of his grip on her wrist and dropping her bag altogether, striking upward with the heel of her other palm. I smelled the blood from five hundred feet away even before he'd dropped her wrist to clutch at his nose.

"Jesus Christ!" exclaimed one of the other men, gripping the shoulder of his friend to evaluate the damage. "We just wanted to talk!"

Unconcerned, Amya shrugged indifferently and crouched down to pick up her scattered belongings. "Well, I didn't."

"Hey bitch, you broke his damned nose," accused the third, taking a step toward her lowered form.

Before he could grab her as his friend had done, her head whipped up and she extended her arm, the same can of mace she'd gotten me with hours earlier held in her hand. He screamed as she sprayed it in his face and stumbled backward, falling onto his ass. Slowly she straightened up and dusted herself off. "My next move will be to dial 9-1-1," she informed them flatly.

I kept to the shadows, duly impressed by her capabilities. The men kept their distance as they watched her walk away. For a human, she was a force to be reckoned with.

***

Just as before, my original intentions were laid to waste at the whim of men. Instead of following Becca and Shane to the next club, after a run-in with a group of horny and idiotic men, I'd settled for a corner bar and decided a drunken blackout was preferable to falling into bed with someone. I smiled broadly at the woman behind the bar and held up my empty glass. "Another round?"

She obliged but looked pointedly at the clock on the wall behind her. "Last round. Do you have a ride home?"

"I've got her."

I twisted around to find Cassian standing there, frowning down at me, and I grinned. "You again."

"I'll close your tab." I heard from behind me, but I didn't look away from Cassian.

"If you weren't a stalker, you'd be extremely attractive, you know?"

"Exactly how were you expecting to get home?"

Broadening my smile, I shrugged with both shoulders. "Hadn't thought that far ahead, but you're here now."

"You told me to stop following you."

I laughed, turning back to accept my final drink and the receipt. "You haven't proven to be all that obedient."

"Neither have you."

I sipped my drink and fluttered my lashes. "Touche."

Cassian's jaw clenched as he glared down at me, "It's beyond me how you've survived this long."

My smile tightened and I averted my gaze, swiveling my stool back around to face the bar. "By trading in the lives of others." Pressing the glass to my lips, I made quick work of the rest of my drink and ruthlessly pushed away the dark thoughts. Digging out a pen, I signed my tab and slid from my stool, gripping the edge of the bar to steady myself. "How do you know Shane?"

He stared at me with his usual expression of disdain. For the life of me, I couldn't fathom why he'd stalk anyone let alone me; he clearly couldn't tolerate other people. "I don't."

"Of course you do," I said confidently as I pulled my phone out and tucked my bag under my arm. "Did you drive, or should I call an Uber?"

"Do you lack all senses of self-preservation?"

I snorted, shooting him a look as he walked beside me toward the door. "Asked the stalker to his victim. What about me do you like so much anyway? I'm hardly worth this much effort."

"Nothing," he replied flatly. "I find you to be a waste of my time."

"Then stop wasting it," I suggested with a laugh. His only response was to grab me by the elbow when I stumbled halfway across the bar. I let myself lean in, just for a minute. He smelled amazing, like leather and sandalwood. "I wish you weren't the way you are." Still nothing.

I peered up at him, studying his face. It was full of harsh lines and gave off an intimidating air. His jawline, sharp and unrelenting, could've been carved from marble and his mouth appeared firm and unforgiving. "If I weren't so sure I'd see you again, you could be my one-night stand."

He stiffened beside me and his grip on my elbow tightened. Why did I say that? Self-conscious, I tried to straighten and distance myself, but his hold refused to loosen. "That would be below you."

For a second, I imagined that my heart, long dead, fluttered briefly to life. I smiled brightly up at his profile. "It's all I can manage."

***

She was much less confrontational the more intoxicated she became. I held onto her to keep her from tumbling face-first into the cement beneath our feet and she spoke to me easily, as if we were friends. Though her walls seemed to be down and she had painted a smile onto her face, I felt a quiet misery emanating from her as if, even in her happiest moments, she couldn't shake the emptiness. It was disconcerting to feel sort of kindred to her.

Amya tried again to pull her arm from my grasp, "I can walk on my own now, thanks. Just let me find my phone and I'll call for a ride."

"I'll drive you back."

"I'm staying at a hotel tonight. Will you take me there?"

She looked at me expectantly, and it became difficult to remember just how difficult her existence had made things. I frowned down at her and then nodded off to the right toward a parking lot. "I'll need the address."

The hotel was barely fifteen minutes from the bar she'd been, however, it took half an hour for her to get checked in. Following her into the elevator and up to the seventh floor, I stood behind her as she came to a stop in front of the room door. Sucking in a breath, she turned to me with her watery hazel eyes. "You hate me."

"Yes."

She smiled slightly at my response and tilted her head. "So you won't expect more if I ask you to stay. Just for the night." Her expression turned miserably desperate, "I can't stop seeing him. Please?"