Chapter 19

I pinched the end of my straw and swirled it through my glass of iced water. The ice cubes spun around and around, trapped in the current I'd created. What an accurate metaphor for life.

I ran my other hand through my hair and sighed heavily. I remembered a time when water was the only liquid I craved. That had been over a hundred years ago. Since then, only blood could quench this endless thirst that plagued me. It was the current I was trapped in. And there were a dozen humans in this diner ripe with it.

I'd drained several blood bags that I borrowed from the hospital before I came to ease the temptation. It helped. The rich aroma of the blood pumping in the mortal veins around me teased my nostrils and tickled my throat with an incessant dull ache, but I was in complete control of myself.

The late afternoon sun streamed into the windows of the booth I was sitting in, and although I still preferred the darkness most times, it humbled me to know that I was the only known vampire who could survive the sun's powerful rays.

The young waitress with braided auburn hair walked up to my table.

"Sir, you've been here for over a half hour now," she said sweetly, holding a pot of coffee with steam wafting out of the spout. "Are you sure you don't want to order anything else while you wait for your friend?"

Friend. The word bounced around in my head like a ping-pong ball. I'd hardly call Caesar a friend. Sure, we were on friendly terms, but our relationship was strictly business. I had a lot of baggage when it came to shifters, and I knew damn well how much Caesar hated vampires. I still half expected Caesar to kill me one day, just on principle. Or at least attempt it.

I glanced at the waitress's name tag. "No thanks, Vicky. I'm not hungry."

She gestured to the pot of coffee she was holding. "Coffee?"

Persistent, wasn't she?

I feigned a smile, trying to be polite in my dismissal of her. "No, thank you. I don't drink coffee. Maybe check back when my friend arrives. I'm sure he'll love some coffee."

Vicky gave a slight frown as she moved on to the next table a few feet away.

I really hated being out in public, especially during the day. But Caesar didn't trust meeting me in private or at night, so here I was.

The bell attached to the entrance door chimed, drawing my attention to the newcomer.

"Finally," I grumbled, watching as Vicky approached Caesar. The man's brown hair was untidy, resembling a ruffled mess of feathers so like those he wore in his shifted form.

During their brief interaction, Vicky glanced my way with uncertainty and a little trepidation, then pointed at me.

I heard Caesar say, "Thank you," before he headed for my table.

"I see you still have a way with people, Julian," he said as he sat down across from me.

I snorted. "I see your timing still hasn't improved. You're fifteen minutes late."

"Sorry. It's not like I could just fly right into downtown Chicago."

"I suppose," I conceded, then dropped my voice to whisper, "But it's not like I could order human food and pretend to enjoy it. I've been bugged five times, Caesar. By five different waitresses!"

"It was a long day at the school," Caesar said with a sigh. "It's been a series of long days actually."

Vicky approached with her steaming coffee pot, pretending I wasn't sitting at the table. I returned the pretense.

"Would you like some coffee, sir?" she asked in an overly sweet tone.

Caesar quickly slid over the mug that was set on the table, and she poured the dark brown coffee in. "Thank you very much."

She smiled widely, seeming overjoyed to be useful.

I risked a sideways glance and found her looking at me. "As for you…"

"I'm good," I said with a wave of my hand.

Vicky looked back at Caesar. "I'll stop by in a few minutes to check on you, okay? It's dinner time, and we've got a daily special that will knock your socks off."

"Thank you, Vicky, you've been very helpful," Caesar replied. "The coffee is just fine right now."

"You're very welcome," she said, glancing once more at me before walking off to help a family that had just entered.

It wasn't her fault, really. Humans could always sense what I was. Even with a pound of makeup to rosy up my pale skin, there was no hiding the monster beneath.

"Is it really so hard to show a bit of kindness," Caesar teased as he took a sip of the coffee. The smell made me gag a little.

I set my jaw. "The world hasn't been too kind to me, so yes, sometimes it is."

Caesar studied me for a few seconds, then shrugged. "Fair enough."

"Now, what was so important that we had to meet at this dump?" I asked, eager to get down to business so I could leave this den of temptation. "Your text sounded quite urgent."

Caesar set his mug back down on the table, fingering the sides of it restlessly. His brown eyes were heavy, and the wrinkles in his forehead seemed deeper than I remembered seeing the last time we met. He looked older than his twenty-six years, which was ironic because I would always look younger than my hundred years.

The shifter sighed. "I need to ask another favor of you."

I arched an eyebrow. "Does this have anything to do with me tracking vampire activity in the city? Caesar, I swear the school is safe. There hasn't been anything unusual to report."

Caesar shook his head. "No, you're doing great with vampire surveillance. This would be…an added responsibility."

I frowned, eying Caesar warily. "I don't like the sound of that. What would this added responsibility entail?"

After taking another sip from his mug, Caesar sat back in the booth. "In the past, we've talked about the prophecy. The siren."

I nodded, waiting for the punchline. "The mermaid who's supposedly destined to take down Hadrian and end the shifter-vampire war."

"Yes," Caesar confirmed, his tone grave.

I tilted my head. "You know I don't have much faith in that prophecy, right? I've never known any mermaid who would be strong enough to stand against Hadrian, let alone kill him. If you don't mind me pointing out, even you failed at that very task."

A fire lit in Caesar's eyes that made his cup of steaming coffee look tepid.

"Watch it, bloodsucker," the gryphon warned in a dangerous growl.

I raised my hands defensively. "I didn't mean it as a personal attack. You're talking to a guy who couldn't even stand up to Hadrian. I'm just saying that it's hard to imagine the Little Mermaid taking on the vampire dictator when somebody like you—who I respect as a capable warrior—lost doing just that."

The inferno in Caesar's eyes simmered down to low embers, a warning that the gryphon was still a threat if provoked any further.

"You think what you want," Caesar said. "But I believe we have found the siren."

I hadn't been expecting that. "What?"

"Several nights ago, I went to her house to collect her, only to find her mother dead," Caesar continued. "The girl had luckily been out during the attack. Otherwise, she would've suffered the same fate as her mother."

"And this mermaid's mother was killed by vampires?" I asked, wondering how vampires could've slipped through my watch to attack in the city.

Caesar nodded.

"Where did it happen?"

"In Short Grove," Caesar said.

I nodded, letting my shoulders relax once more. "Yes, I did notice some sparse vampire activity in Short Grove, but nothing to ring any alarm bells."

"This particular attack has me extremely concerned. Do you think it's possible that Hadrian knows about the prophecy?"

I shrugged. "How in the world would Hadrian know about the siren?"

Caesar sighed and leaned in closer, his gaze narrowing penetratingly. "I need to know if you have told him anything."

My insides blistered with a burning anger—not for my gryphon companion, but for the vampire leader who'd made my afterlife a living hell. "Caesar, I swear to you that I haven't seen Hadrian since I outcasted myself from the vampires."

Caesar nodded slowly. "Good."

"More coffee?" Vicky said, appearing from seemingly nowhere.

"Sure, sure," Caesar replied quickly. "Top it off, please."

"Anything else I can bring you?" she asked sweetly. She didn't even look my way this time. Thank fuck for that.

"No, thank you," Caesar answered. "We'll be out of your hair in a bit."

"You're such a sweetheart," Vicky gushed, bouncing on her toes. "Your coffee's on the house."

"Are you sure?" Caesar asked, reaching for his wallet.

"Of course," she chirped in an annoyingly high pitch that hurt my sensitive ears. Then she skipped away without so much as a glance in my direction.

Caesar gave me a smug grin. "I just love this place."

"Can we get back to our conversation now?" I deadpanned, not bothering to hide my irritation. "If what you're assuming is true and Hadrian is aware of this mermaid and the prophecy, then there are only two options that would explain him finding out such a thing."

"And they are?" Caesar prompted, stirring creamer into his fresh cup of coffee.

"Well, the most likely scenario is that somehow vampire spies have infiltrated the school and were able to hear about the prophecy."

Caesar rubbed his chin dubiously, his pride in the security of the school no doubt making him skeptical of that likelihood. "And the other option?"

I shrugged smugly. "You've got someone working for Hadrian under your own nose."

Caesar immediately shook his head, jolting against the back of the booth. "That's impossible."

I couldn't help but smirk. Classic shifter arrogance. "And why is that?"

"Because the school hasn't had any vampire attacks," Caesar argued as if the conclusion was obvious. "If there really was someone feeding Hadrian information, the vampires would come in guns blazing."

My smirk spread to an all-out smile, and I shook my head at his logic. "Informants never share everything. If they're smart, they know what their information is worth and only share for an equal reward. I think any shifter would be wise enough to know that selling the location of their only shelter would mean certain death for them as well."

Caesar continued to shake his head. "I can't imagine that kind of logic. If that was the way people truly operated, how could you ever trust anyone?"

"That's why I don't trust anyone," I commented.

Caesar studied me for a moment, seeming to weigh his next words. "Do you trust me?"

I exhaled through my nose and crossed my arms as I sat back against the booth. "No. But I want to trust you."

Caesar frowned. "I need you to trust me."

"And we finally arrived at the point of this meeting: your favor."

Caesar nodded. He inhaled deeply, looking up from his mug to lock eyes with me. "I need you to rejoin Hadrian and the vampires."

I stared at him for a moment, waiting for the joke. When Caesar's serious expression didn't crack, I burst out laughing. "You need me to do what?"

Caesar cleared his throat. "I need someone inside Hadrian's ranks to find out if he's truly searching for the siren. You are the only vampire I know and trust. You're the only person who can do this."

My amusement quickly boiled into rage. "Let me make one thing perfectly clear, Caesar: I will never go back to Hadrian, not for anyone or anything."

"Even if it meant ensuring Hadrian's ultimate destruction?" Caesar asked.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, attempting to regain control of my radically escalating temper. "Listen, I like you shifters. You keep to yourselves and rarely hurt anyone intentionally. But I don't think you realize the magnitude of what you're asking. I'd be better off hurling myself into a wood chipper because it would be preferable to what Hadrian would do to me if I went groveling back."

Caesar looked me straight in the eyes and leaned forward. "If you do this for me, I will aid you in your quest to bring back the love of your life."

Alice.

Her beautiful smiling face sliced across my memory, just as vivid now as it had been a century ago. Those wild emerald eyes that could remove all anger in an instant, and that billowing red hair that shone like flames around her tempestuous features.

The thought of her stabbed into me, with more precision and lethality than any blade ever could.

She was the love of my life, a powerful witch killed by a rogue shifter over a hundred years ago. She was the reason I could walk in the sun. And her memory was the only reason I kept walking at all.

The mere possibility that the magic to bring Alice back to life was somewhere in the world kept me going, foolish as it might be. And Caesar knew it would be the perfect bait to dangle in front of me.

I narrowed my eyes and leaned forward, perching my elbows on the table between us. "If I do this, you must swear that you will not stop until you fulfill your half of the deal."

Caesar matched his stare. "You have my word that once Hadrian is dead, I will go to the ends of the earth to reunite you with your mate."

It wasn't even an option anymore. Caesar's network of shifters was the widest in the world, and it was only growing each day. If anyone could find a shifter or witch with the power to resurrect Alice, it was him.

There was nothing on this earth that I wouldn't do to see my love again, and if that meant offering myself up to Hadrian on a silver platter, I would gladly pay that price.

I extended my right hand to Caesar. "You've got yourself a deal."

The gryphon firmly clasped it, and I held it tight and pulled it slightly toward me. "But if you go back on your word, know that I will go full vampire on your ass."

Caesar nodded, failing to hold back a smirk. "I'd expect nothing less."

Satisfied with that response, I released his hand. "Well, I guess I should get going. I've got a psychotic megalomaniac to sell my soul to."

Caesar chuckled darkly as we both rose. "Keep me informed of your progress with Hadrian. Any knowledge you acquire about his plans with mermaids or shifters at all could be enough to tip the scales in our favor."

I nodded as I hooked my thumbs into the front pockets of my jeans. "It might take me some time. Hadrian doesn't forgive easily, and there's a good chance that he'll just kill me on sight. So maybe start working on your side of the deal now because you might have two people to bring back from the dead."

"I'll start searching right away," Caesar assured me as we walked to the front door. "And, try not to get yourself killed," he teased, slapping a hand on my shoulder.

"No promises."

We exited the diner, no doubt to poor Vicky's great relief, and went our separate ways.

Walking down the sidewalk, I decided to take the quickest way home. The less I had to be around humans, the better—for everyone. I had to get to an alley, out of everyday traffic, so that I could use my vampire speed without detection. I only had a few blocks to cross before I could get to a safe location.

Pausing at the next intersection, I looked across the street.

And my heart completely froze in my chest.

There, waiting at the crosswalk, was the face I'd been dreaming of for over a hundred years. Those same emerald eyes that had enslaved my soul.

"Alice!" I shouted, the rest of the world falling away and leaving only her.

She didn't hear me, didn't stop as she crossed the street and hurried down the sidewalk. My vampire instincts taking the reins, I sped after her, not caring who witnessed my preternatural speed. The Devil himself couldn't stop me.

Finally getting close enough, my eyes detected what my soul feared. She wasn't Alice. Her hair was brown and she seemed to be a few inches shorter.

But the resemblance in her face, those green eyes, was striking. Unmistakeable. And the aura of magic that surrounded her was distinctly familiar. I could sense it just as keenly as I could sense the warm blood flowing through her veins. It felt almost identical to Alice's magic.

This girl may not be my long-lost love, but she was undoubtedly a witch. I may not need Caesar, after all.

All my worries about Caesar and Hadrian vanished, and I was a man driven with one mission. I had to learn more about this girl.