𝔸𝕧𝕒

Four months ago if someone had told me my future would involve dinner at Table, one of the fanciest restaurants in town, with my incredibly gorgeous Siren boyfriend, I would have laughed in their face.

Now, if they had said I'd be wrapped in a comforter on my couch watching my eighth straight hour of Netflix, that I would believe.

Yet here I am, dressed up with Zane, enjoying the best seats in the house yet again.

"So do you use your superpowers to get this table every time or is it just because you know the owner?" I ask.

He smiles and shakes his head. "I know the owner? Is that what I told you?"

"Yesss...?" I say. "That's not true?"

Why would he lie about that?

"Oh it's true. But to be honest love, I'm pretty sure you have more pull with the owner than anyone else."

I have pull with the owner? I don't know the owner... What is he talking about?

"Well, you are fucking him," he says with a smirk.

Wait... What? Either he's accusing me of cheating on him or... Zane owns this place?!?

"Not sure why I didn't tell you the first time 'round," he continues. "I guess I tend to keep my private life to myself."

"You told me you owned some properties around the city, but I didn't realize you owned Table!"

"Well, I had a lot of money and only recently moved to the States. I had to find something to do."

"So you decided to become a professional rich person?"

He bursts into laughter.

"I suppose you could think of it that way," he says, taking a sip of his wine.

"So what did you do in London then?"

"Well uh..." he says, his eyes shifting as he fiddles with the cloth napkin on his lap.

What's with this reaction? He wasn't actually in the mob, was he?

"It's a long story. In London there's a larger, more formal immortal community and my job was to uh... use my powers on people."

Oh. Oh.

"So, you were a sex worker?" I ask.

Is he worried I'll judge him?

"No, love," he says with a bit of a chuckle. "Feeling jealous?"

"No, butthead," I say with a scowl.

"I worked for our kind of law enforcement. There's not really a human equivalent, but I was a compeller."

He takes another sip of his drink. I don't understand what that means, but he's being so weird about it.

"Okay, shifty," I say. "Spill. What does a compeller do?"

"I would touch people and charm them into giving us information or doing things we wanted. Sometimes it felt like the right thing to do but, sometimes they had me do more questionable things. In hindsight, I shouldn't have gone along with everything, but the Immortals I worked for were pretty powerful and I thought I needed to be on the right side of that power."

"Wow, that sucks." I reach for his hand and grasp it in mine. "I'm sorry about that, but I'm glad you got out of there. Why did you move, anyway?"

"Kami caught some heat with the police around there. She may or may not have used her powers on a prominent judge. We decided to move away until everything calmed down a bit."

"Do you guys have any other family there?" I ask.

"We don't have other family," he says. "It's just me and Kami. What about you? You always talk about your mom, but you never talk about anyone else."

Oh crap. I didn't mean to lead the conversation this way. I'm usually always working to push it in the opposite direction and here I am steering right into it.

"Uh well, you know my mom died a few years ago..."

He specifically asked about family besides your mom, genius. Nailed it.

"And um... I have a dad..."

I have no idea where to go from here.

Where is he? Probably passed out at home about a half an hour's drive from here, likely after some ill-advised combination of alcohol and painkillers. It's no big deal, he's just the source of all my self-esteem issues from a lifetime of emotional abuse.

Yeah, that will make me sound super well-adjusted.

"And I have a half brother on my dad's side."

Who, much like my dad, is an alcoholic and a total ass.

"Wow," he laughs. "Your stories are so detailed!"

"Oh shut up," I say, lightly smacking his arm.

"Ooh, kinky! Do it again!" he says with a wink as he reaches out to hold my hand again.

"Shush, mister! Someone's going to hear you!"

"Who?" he says, looking around in our isolated corner of the restaurant.

Okay, good point.

"The waiter? I dunno..."

"Well, so what if he has a problem—fuck him. It's my restaurant." He lets out another laugh.

Suddenly I'm feeling very strange, and I find my eyes scanning around the room for the waiter.

What am I doing?

I stand up from my seat to go find the waiter, but I feel Zane's hand around my wrist holding me back.

"Where are you going, baby?" he asks, tilting his head in confusion.

"I'm going to go have sex with the waiter," I say.

I am? Wait... what am I doing?

His expression shifts and his eyes go green instantly.

"The hell you are," he says gruffly. "Are you having a laugh? 'Cause this really isn't my kind of joke, love."

"Nope."

Wait, why am I doing this?

"Seriously. Not fucking funny."

"I'm not joking. I just... I need to."

His eyes scan my face as his hand stays firmly grasped around my wrist.

"Sit down," he says.

I take my seat and his face falls into his palms.

"Oh bloody hell. Did I just say... fuck..." he says, tugging his hair in his hands.

He reaches out and grabs my hand again.

"Do not fuck the waiter. Under no circumstances are you to fuck the waiter."

"Okay," I say. "Wait, why was I saying I was..."

"I'm sorry, baby, that was a bit of a cock-up on my part. I charmed you."

Oh. Oh.

"I'll be more careful with what I say." He looks up at me through apologetic eyes. "It won't happen again, okay?"

"So that's how that power works, huh? Wow, that's dangerous..."

"Yeah, you can see why I'm usually so careful."

I start feeling extremely nauseous and I find myself bending forward slightly to ease the sharp pain in my stomach. I don't want to interrupt our dinner with this.

Maybe he won't notice...

"What's wrong?"

Orrr maybe he will.

"It's uh, my stomach. It's fine."

"Baby, I can fix that for you. Do you want me to?"

"Would you mind?" I ask.

"Never," he says, resting his hand on my cheek. "Your stomach is feeling much better now."

As he says it, the pain eases and I no longer feel like I'm going to throw up.

"Wow," I say. "That's nifty!"

"Yeah, when I'm not accidentally sending you off to shag the waiter."

I giggle. "Yeah, besides that part."

"I don't find this nearly as humorous as you do."

ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕖

Dreiflüssestadt, Austrian Empire - Summer of 1840

"We shouldn't," Ilen whispers with a slight giggle as I roll on top of her.

"And why?" I ask.

She blushes and squirms bashfully as I stare into her eyes, licking my lips.

"Because I am an engaged woman," she says playfully. "In a week I will be married."

"A week is not today," I say with a grin. "And today, my Ilen, you and I are together."

She bats her eyelashes at me.

"We will be discovered," she says, wide-eyed. "The Count has been gracious in allowing me to stay here at his estate. It would be a betrayal to his kindness..."

"He'll have you for all eternity," I say, planting kisses on her neck. "I only ask for this moment."

She holds my face in her delicate hands before pulling me in for a kiss.

𝔸𝕧𝕒

I take my earrings off and set them down on Zane's bathroom counter in the bathroom beside my overnight bag.

"Your phone is ringing," Zane says from the bedroom.

I walk in to see Zane sitting on the bed with a devious smile slowly stretching across his face.

What is he smirking about?

I catch a glimpse of my phone's screen and see the name on caller ID: Mike.

Oh no.

My eyes widen as I grab for the phone, but Zane has already answered it.

"Hello, Michael."