My Immortal Playlist (The Siren Collection #1) (9 page)

A realization hit me.

Maybe this was why Lucas wanted to have dinner there! Maybe his gang or their families owned the place! Was that possible? Did gangs do that? Or was it just the Mafia? I tried to remember the difference when I heard a clear of the throat. I glanced up and saw the same greeter from when I had my date with Henry. He was giving me a bored, glazed over stare and I actually tilted my neck to the side to see if he was looking at me or into my soul.

“Did you make a reservation?” he said suddenly, startling me into a slight jump
ing motion. He wasn’t amused. “Or are you here to meet with someone?”

“Um, maybe,” I said, looking past him at all the empty tables. Lucas was probably in the back, explaining to the chefs how to properly slice through a ham
, or a duck…or a human that refused to give them money.

“So…are you here to eat? The food is particularly good tonight,” he said, his eyes blinking rapidly. He was so greasy looking and his tux was so old and wrinkled that I was insulted by the prospect. Why would anyone want to taste the food when the front of the house took your appetite away?

“Can I ask you a question?” I said, leaning forward, but still at a safe, wont-catch-anything distance. “Is this a front for drug peddling?”

I heard a shrill laugh come from behind the greeter
, and I could hardly believe it when I saw it had come from Lucas. He walked over and offered a hand towards me. I stared at it like it was a spider. I really don’t like spiders.

“Geez, it’s a hand, not the plague,” he chuckled.

“I can walk to the table myself,” I said as he shook his head and dropped the gesture. “That’s what’s wrong with you women these days. No respect for chivalry.”

“Yeah right. This is the age of fetishes and perverts. You probably wanted my hand so you could smell it and feel my skin.”

“You’re weird,” he said matter-of-factly, leading me past the greeter to a table. “And I’m not a serial killer.”

“A serial killer would say that’s he not one. Actually, a lot of serial killers think they’re innocent. They either
have a mental problem, they’re cleansing evil or they’re doing the Lord’s work.”

“You have a lot of experience with serial killers?” he asked, glancing back at me with an eyebrow raised.

“Perhaps,” I said, giving him the best cold-hearted scowl I could manage. He laughed so I don’t think I succeeded. He waved a hand at one of the tables, one that looked exactly like every other, and we both sat down. I took a gaze around the restaurant. If the place had been crowded, I don’t know how anyone could find their way out. It was one big
Pac man
game. An endless maze of rows and tables washed in red and brown.

“So you kill people?” he asked me bluntly, the moment I turned my eyes back to his. I could feel my eyes widen and I nervously patted my hair…for whatever reason. I must have looked like such an idiot.

“Wha-what? Kill people?” I stammered, putting both hands on the table like I was going to be handcuffed.

“Yeah. You said you have experience with serial killers. You must have picked some stuff up.”

“Oh!” I laughed too loudly. I could feel the greeter’s eyes looking back at me. “Oh that! You’re too funny.”

“You really are strange,” he said, unamused by my embarrassment. He just sat back in his seat and
stared at me like we had had the same conversation a million times. He looked away and I found myself immediately examining him. I noticed when he had walked up that he was wearing black jeans, and a brown leather jacket, but now I could see there was a blue dress shirt underneath, and a tie too. I didn’t think people like him dressed up at all so the sight shocked me. Was he actually taking me out to dinner? Seriously? Of course, based on his bored expression, I was blowing it.

Wait. Blowing it? I didn’t even want to go to dinner with him in the first place…did I?
I mean, I did accept the offer, but that was only because he was going to follow me into the cafeteria if I didn’t. Surprisingly, I had forgotten all about the reason I had agreed. Was there something else about him I needed to know? Was it his dangerous lifestyle? His beautiful hair? There was something drawing me to him. Something keeping my butt planted firmly in the seat.

“So, your family own
s this place?” I asked randomly, dying to break the silence. He looked over at me, and I could see a glint of play in his eyes.

“Wondering why I would choose such a dump?”

“Yeah, it’s crossed my mind.”

“Well, I was curious. I wanted to see if you were crazy enough to actually come here.”

“Yep. That’s me. Crazy as they come.”

“No, it’s a good thing,” he said. “Sorry if I was daydreaming just now. It’s just…I’m not used to going out with girls like you.”

“I could have told you that,” I snickered.

“What kind of girls do you think I tend to be with?”

“Girls like Margaret.”

“What’s she like?”

“A 50’s housewife that is stuck in our time. A servant. You either go out with someone like her or the airheaded girls that can only justify their worth by what guy is sticking his tongue down their throat.”

“That’s graphic,” he said.

“That’s how it is.”

“Well, to be honest…though I’ve never met a girl from the 50’s, I can
honestly say that those airheaded girls are usually the bullet points on my dating resume.”

“So where do I come in then?
Are you diversifying? Trying to get some weird chick on there so you can tell people one day, ‘hey, I branched out.’”

“Not at all,” he said slowly. His lips caught my attention for a second, but I quickly diverted my eyes back to his
eyes.

“Then why am I here?”

“Because you’re not like them. I never met a girl that talks to me the way you do.”

“Didn’t think you would be down for that sort of thing. Backtalk.”

“Oh, I don’t care for backtalk at all,” he said, “but there’s always pros with the cons.”

“Explain,” I demanded. He laughed and held up a finger for me to wait. I nearly ripped the finger off when I realized he had done it because a waiter had finally arrived.
Settle down, Alexandra,
I had to tell myself.
No need to be on edge the entire time.

“Are you ready to order?” a girl my age asked him with a dingy notepad in hand. He grabbed the laminated menu from the holster at the end of the table and scanned it quickly.

“Cheeseburger with fries and a water.”

“K,” the girl muttered, writing nothing down. She turned to me and she gasped in horror, dropping the notepad onto the floor. Lucas picked it up for her as she kept a hand over her widened mouth.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked, patting various patches of my face. Did I apply my make-up wrong? No. Surely Lucas would have said…

“He’s not going to attack me, is he?” she asked, taking two steps back from the table and pointing at Lucas with her pencil. Lucas handed the notepad out to her but she refused to take it.

“Oh,” I replied, remembering my date with Henry. I never did find out what happened to the waitress he rendered unconscious.

“Ashley had to get stitches for a cut on her
forehead,” she told me, as if reading my mind. I kept my eyes fixed on her as I nodded, but I could feel Lucas examining me like I was under a microscope. “She quit too.”

“I’m sorry that happened,” I said, my voice cracking. “I didn’t know he was so violent. I…we’re not together anymore and I’ve moved on. This is Lucas,” I said, waving a hand in his direction like it was a magic show and he was the next act. Lucas flashed her a weak-knee inducing smile and handed her the notepad gently. She took it this time, and brushed back one of her bangs with pencil in hand. She couldn’t get her eyes off of him once he put on the charm.

“I’ll take the chicken parm dinner and a water,” I muttered after a few seconds. She blinked back to reality and wrote down our orders this time. She exited the scene with a shuffle of her feet, and I watched her until she was back in the kitchen. When I turned back to Lucas, he was staring at me with so much curiosity, I thought it was going to kill him. You know. Curiosity killed the cat…never mind.

“What was that all about?” he asked with a wide eyes. “Abusive boyfriend?”

“Not exactly,” I said, unsure of what to say next. I didn’t want to bring up Henry. Especially if the emotional wreck was living in my house.

“He wasn’t my boyfriend,” I said adamantly. “Just a friend who lost it. He di
d love me…but it wasn’t meant to be. I had to let him down gently.”

“There is something about you,” he said with a nod. “Maybe I’m here because I want to figure out what that is.”

“So tell me more,” I said. “You were going to tell me the pros and cons of being with a girl like me.”

“Yeah,” he laughed, randomly grabbing a sugar packet from the side and then throwing it
like a mini-Frisbee to the side. “Excuse me, I’m not used to explaining my actions to people.”

“But you’re going to try with me?”

“Yeah, I’m going to try,” he laughed nervously.

“Why?”

“Because I’m trying to change,” he said, his face suddenly becoming deathly serious. “And I think you might be the one who can make that happen.”

Did he know my secret?

That was the thought that ran through my head and it scared me to no end. And yet, it would make so much sense. Why else would such an elegant, gorgeous creature seek me out if it wasn’t for some enchanting song I didn’t know I was producing?

He probably staked me out for weeks, finding out who I was and what I could do. He didn’t care about me. He was just wondering what caught his interest in this ordinary, awkward girl. He probably laughed when he realized that it was not me at all. It was just the power I had no control over.

Like anyone else who would discover my abilities, they would seek out how they could gain from it. They would use me like a tool, without any care for how broken I would become from their use. No doubt he already had a form picked out for himself. How cool it would be to become a vampire, or a ghost or maybe a werewolf. What he didn’t know, however, was that as clever as he thought he was – there was more to me than doe eyes, a bra, and makeup. He had messed with the wrong girl, and it didn’t matter if he was a gang member, or how many crimes he committed in the past, he was going to regret the day he met Alexandra Cain.

“Change how?” I asked, patiently waiting for his answer, and ready to critique every word that tripped out his mouth.
“How are you trying to change, exactly?”

“I’m tired of being with Blood Snow. You heard about me, right?”

“I know it’s a gang, and you’re one of the founding members.” I said.

“Yeah, that’s true,” he said, shifting in his seat. His head was down and he was blinking rapidly. Was he trying not to cry? No. There was no way. “I was young then,” he said, lifting his head. His eyes and cheeks were heavy as his gaze met mine. “I mean, I’m still young…but I didn’t know what I was doing then. Didn’t have much money and me and Reign saw what getting into selling weed could get you. I –“

“- Reign?”

“Yeah,” he laughed, shaking his head. “
His real name is Way, but he likes Reign better. Sounds more like royalty.”

“So you two are brothers? Best friends?”

“Both,” he replied. “But neither by blood. Just circumstance. We were angry a lot back then, but money can soothe you if you let it. Reign didn’t. I was content with the few members we had. Just selling at a discounted price for more customers, but it brought a lot of heat and attention. Reign got paranoid, and instead of protection, he chose to strike the other businesses first. Lots of people got killed, even those that weren’t coming after us. That’s why my mom took me out of there and had us move in with my aunt here in town. Mom died a couple years ago from cancer…my aunt thinks I’m a grown man now. She could care less if I even went back to that old life, but I don’t want to.”

This story was not at all what I was expecting.

“Um,” I said, as the waitress silently put down our drinks. “I don’t understand. You’re not part of the gang anymore, but I still don’t get where I fit in this.”

“I’m still part of that Blood Snow
unofficially. Reign and I will always be friends and he calls me every couple of days to talk. I tell him I want no part in it, but we have a bond. I’ll admit, I don’t want him completely out my life either, but it might take that to get rid of the past. It wasn’t until I moved here to Casper, and I…I saw how things could be different. I didn’t even know people lived like this to be honest.”

“Like this? What?” I laughed.
“Boring? Eat, sleep and work?”

“Exact
ly,” he said. “Yeah, there’s drama sometimes. But it’s not like what I’ve seen. Here in Casper there’s little violence. No murder. If there is drugs, it’s only used in privacy. It’s not in your face. There’s still some attempt at decency. Even if people aren’t right, they’re at least not trying to bring the world down with them.”

“I would love an ordinary life,” I muttered. He laughed.

“You do have an ordinary life,” he said. “But you got just enough spice to help me change.”

Change. There was that word again.

“My mom,” he said, leaning forward. “She told me several times that people don’t change on their own. Don’t have the will power or the strength. Best way to change is to live for someone else. That’s what my dad did before he passed away, back when I was too young to remember. She said he was reckless and going nowhere, but she saw the good in him, and that was enough for him to turn his life around. He lived for her, and she lived for him. And in the end, they were better people for it.”

He paused to take a gulp of water.

“All I know is Blood Snow. It’s all I’ve ever put my time and energy into, and I know it’s not right for me. So…that’s why I’m seeing if this will work.”

“What?”

“You,” he said, looking up at me with wounded eyes. “Me. Us. I want to try living for someone else for once.”

“I’m a nobody,” I said, shaking my head.

“No, you’re everything – that they aren’t. Those airheads you talked about? They’re all the same. From the way they talk to how they dress. There is nothing exciting about them at all. The moment I take them out or to my bedroom, I know exactly what’s going to happen. I want ordinary, not dead.”

He took another drink of water
, and the waitress arrived with our food. She placed the faded plates before us with the piping hot food as I thought about what he said. He might not have told anyone else what he just told me, yet still a part of me wondered if it was a ploy. To get to my music. There was no way to tell for sure. And even if he was genuine, there was so many more questions.

“It’s still about you,” I said. He blinked a few times and waited for me to continue.

“What do you mean?”

“You want to change, so you’re looking for a girl who’s not like the others, but what if that girl…what if she doesn’t want to live for you?” I pushed my poor excuse for chicken parm to the side. “What if I’m not looking for this? You’re making it sound like you want a…like a wife…when I’m just trying to find a relationship that’s real.”

“But I would be real with you.”

“You don’t get it. I didn’t attract you. My differences did.”

“I don’t understand. What makes you different caught my attention. Isn’t that enough?”

“I
t’s still to serve you. You don’t care for the real me at all.”

“Wow this is confusing,” he muttered, rubbing his forehead.

“It’s like this,” I said, placing my elbows on the table. “You like video games?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, so what would you like more? An Xbox or a Playstation?”

“Playstation.”

“You like the Grand Theft Auto series?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, so let’s say you have both systems and I bought you the latest Grand Theft Auto for the Xbox, how would you feel?”

“I would be happy, but I would prefer it on the Playstation.”

“Exactly.”

“I think I’m more confused than before.”

“It’s the exact same game…but you still have a preference over one system than the other. You’re excited to play it, but you’re not as excited as you would have been if I got it for the Playstation. When it comes to love…it’s got to be all or nothing. Otherwise, it’s not going to work. It’s just not. You want to change, and that’s admirable, but I would go into this relationship knowing I wasn’t everything you wanted. You’re coming at me like this is a business plan. There’s no raw emotion, and I want you to want me. I want you to desire me so bad it aches when we’re apart.”

“But that’s what dating is for. To get to know the other person.”

“But even love starts with attraction. When you meet a girl you’re interested in, what’s the first thing that catches you? It’s how they look. Same for us girls. It’s not your outstanding intelligence or whatever. Basically, I’m not attractive to you.”

“Ha!” he shouted, shoving his plate as
ide. “Girls always complain about how they don’t want to be treated based on their looks, but now you’re telling me that the reason you don’t want to give this a try is because I’m only after your personality?”

“B
eing attracted to both would be nice,” I muttered.

“Your problem is that you’ve been watching too many movies,” he laughed, leaning back in his seat. “Nobody’s perfect.”

“Still, guys tend to choose looks over personality.”

“Maybe I’m not like other guys.”

“Your track record says otherwise. The airheads, remember?”

“I told you I got nothing out of
that.”

“Then let me ask you another question. So I get you the latest Grand Theft Auto for the Xbox, and you’re playing it, and loving it and all that. Good times. But then, let’s say later that night, I
buy you the same game for the Playstation. Which of the two games would you return?”

“T
he Xbox version of course. The Playstation version is what I wanted all along.”

“Exactly,” I said angrily, shoving the table into this stomach. He tried to reach for me, but the wind was knocked out of him. As he struggled to catch his breath, I stood up and glared down at him. “Go play house with another girl.
Another Playstation.”

I stomped away without looking back.

“You must be an Xbox fan!” he shouted back at me as I reached the exit. I slammed the restaurant door behind me.

*              *              *

“So how did it go?” Noah asked, stepping into the foyer. Henry was right behind him. I closed the door behind me and practically ripped the gauges from my ears. I threw them to the floor and they rolled under a dresser. Just seeing them disappear in the darkness amongst the cobwebs irritated me to my breaking point. I grabbed the sides of my head and screamed, causing Noah and Henry to jump back in shock.

“I know that noise anywhere,” I heard Elliot shout from the kitchen. “Tell Alexandra to drag her butt in here so I can talk
with her too.”

“I’m surrounded by men,” I muttered, making my way to the kitchen. Elliot was slumping over in a table chair. I absent-mindedly straightened him so he was sitting up, then I walked over to the refrigerator, grabbed a half-gallon of milk and began chugging.

“Hardly sanitary,” Elliot muttered. Henry and Noah walked in.

“Dude, you’re a zombie,” Henry replied. “Your presence is unsanitary.”

“For once a comeback that renders me silent.”

“You’re still talking.”

“Did he try to hurt you?” Noah asked. I finished the half-gallon and threw it behind me as I glared at him. I wiped my mouth with my arm, since I didn’t have sleeves. “Geez, I was just asking.”

“You know,
” I huffed. “You’re the unsexiest vampire I’ve ever met in my entire life.”

“Ouch,” Henry chuckled.

“For the record,” Noah said, clearing his throat and holding up a finger. “I’m the only vampire you’ve ever met.”

“Still unsexy,” I retorted, scouring the refrigerator once more. I found a container of cottage che
ese. The lid was snapped off so I began taking two fingers and getting to work.

“Oh c’mon,” Elliot moaned.

“What are you mad at Noah for?” Henry asked.

“Because,” I said between bites. “He made me think he was sexy and suave when it was only hypnotism.”

“What does it matter?” Noah snapped. “I got what I wanted, and you never had any intention of being with me.”

“That’s the point,” I gulped. “You used me. That won’t happen again.”

“Now who’s playing the victim,” Henry muttered. I couldn’t believe my ears. The container slipped out of my fingers and onto the floor, splattering across the tiles. Henry folded his arms and waited.

“What are you trying to say, Henry?”

“Cut the act, Alex. We all know you here.”

“How am I a victim?” I demanded.

“You’re more scared than all of us combined. Scared of what will happen two years from now. Scared of the next life you have to take. Scared that we’ll turn on you. Scared of love, of trust, of your own damn shadow. And you try to hide it, with this – this act of being all powerful like you’re the Queen Siren when you know just as much as we do. Just stop. We’re in this together. Yeah, we were hurt and burned. But you don’t see us shaking a fist at the world. Get over yourself.”

“Once again,” Elliot nodded. “Henry speaks truth. You sir,” he said, turning to the only other zombie in the room, “are on a roll.”

“Thanks,” Henry said flatly. I didn’t know what it meant when Elliot started giving compliments and accolades.

“Alexandra, what happened tonight?” Elliot asked. I shrugged my shoulders and turned back to the refrigerator, but I didn’t open it. I closed my eyes and sighed, thinking of where I could possibly start.

“He wants a genuine relationship with me,” I said to everyone’s surprise.

“
And?” Noah asked. “That’s bad, why?”

“Because he’s a hoodlum,” Elliot retorted.

“Let the lady speak,” Henry said, with arms still crossed.