Lamech

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Crimson looked completely confused at Kyle's words.

"Fortune-teller?" she asked.

"A flagae," I corrected Kyle's choice of word. "And the story is exaggerated."

"Did you or did you not win?" Kyle pointed out.

"I did win, yes. But it was all down to luck. Even a person that can tell the future and what the other will do, can't win in poker if they keep on being handed awful cards." I took a sip of my wine and decided to land on that I didn't want to strangle Kyle for forcing me and Crimson into a date, nor for the fact that he had stayed. Instead, he maybe deserved a raise.

"How much did you win?" Crimson asked. "That's all that matters in the end."

"We didn't bet on money or anything as such. If he would have won, he would have gotten a favor to be taken out later and my promise to not refuse it. And if I won, what I got, was information that he claimed to be of utmost importance to me. Complete deception from his side. I have never had any use of the information or even understood it." I shrugged. It had happened about a hundred years ago and in the beginning, I had tried to make sense of it. But as time had passed it had fallen out of my mind and I didn't place any importance to it as I had when first having received it.

"What was the information?" she asked, her eyes shone with curiosity.

"That three of the five of blood had been born and when I found mine to remember the story of Nyx and the long-lost halo." I sighed. "I tried to get him to be more specific, but he refused. And it's been a hundred years and it makes no more sense now than it did then."

She frowned. "Yeah, that sounds like complete nonsense. But flagae's aren't exactly famous for being specific and helpful."

"What is a flagae?" Kyle wondered. "Never heard of them."

"You know the story of Snow-white, right?" Crimson answered and turned slightly in her chair to be able to look at him as she talked.

"Of course!"

"The mirror would be a poor imitation of what a flagae is. But they aren't stuck inside of mirrors, though they tend to live in mirrors. And their abilities are much more than depicted there. They can basically see anything, past, present, future. Though seeing the future is tricky as it all depends on choices and choices can change."

"Why would they live in mirrors?"

"Because it helps them to contain their powers," she explained and though I knew all she said, I listened carefully to not miss a single word. "From what I've understood it can be quite overwhelming for them to live in the physical world as they are then constantly bombarded with things that has, are, and might happen. But away from the physical world, inside the mirror, it becomes easier for them to control their magic."

"Ah, the more you know," Kyle said and turned back to the counter to do some cleaning from his cooking. Then adding: "It would be handy to have one as a friend. Maybe you should have lost the poker game on purpose, Lamech."

Crimson smiled wide as she turned back to me. I felt my hands twitch. I wanted to reach forward and touch her. Hold her hand or caress her cheek. I wanted to capture her smile on my lips.

I hastily occupied myself with taking a bite of the food.

"What about you? What's your secret talent?" I asked once I had swallowed.

She became quiet and slowly her smile faded.

"I don't really have any," she shrugged and looked away from me. I felt my heart break slightly at her downcast look and again I wanted to reach over to hold her hand, but that time for completely different reasons.

"Are you good at none-magical magic tricks?" Kyle pipped up. I looked at him and saw as he quickly put away his phone. "Aideen mentioned something to me about it."

Once again, I was in two on if I wanted to strangle him or give him a raise. The fact that he had now involved Aideen in his forced date annoyed me, but Crimson immediately brightened at his word.

"I'm not actually particularly good. I only learnt a few," she said.

"Why did you?" I asked her.

"Well, I wanted to earn some money that was mine and mine only. Money that I had gotten outside of the coven. And it just felt like such an ironic thing that a witch would earn money by doing none-magical magic tricks for humans." She laughed a little at herself.

"But you stopped?"

"Yeah, the amount of money I earned didn't make the time spent feel worth it."

"And why did you want to earn your own money?"

She got a look on her face as if she was in deep thoughts or remembering something from the past. Slowly she opened her mouth to answer.

"I think I just wanted to feel independent," she said, the thoughtfulness in her words as well. "I don't have a particularly good or bad relationship with my coven. More just an indifferent one. I think they are annoyed at me, because I don't follow their every whim. Anyway, I just don't care much for them and if it wasn't for the fact that my money comes from them, I would probably have turned myself rouge long ago."

I felt elevated by her words. The fact that she was a member of Starlight and the threat that they would undoubtedly be towards her if they were to find out that I was her mate, had weighted heavily on me. But if money was the only thing keeping her there, then that wouldn't be an issue. Me and the clan had an abundance of money, I had, after all, spent hundreds of years earning it. Saida would have to come too, I assumed. The way Crimson talked about her, I doubted she would leave her behind. But that was all fine by me. It could even be beneficial to have a witch living with us.

I stopped my train of thought. It was a ridiculous dream. Though Crimson seemed to have gotten used to mine and Aideen's presence, she still hated vampires. Hated me. She would never accept a proposal to live permanently with us. I could still give her the money though, give her the chance to find a life outside of her coven if she really wanted that. As long as she was happy and safe, I didn't need to be in her life.

Or so I tried to convince myself.

"Are you alright?" Crimson asked, breaking through my thoughts.

I quickly put a smile on my face to hide the sadness I had started to feel.

"Yes. Sorry. Just a lot of thoughts with the wolves visiting soon," I lied smoothly.

"Well, get ready for the dessert then," Kyle said and cleared our plates again.