Page 69 of Shifting Tides
“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 Idon’ttrust 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 Iwantto trust you.”
Caesar frowned. “Ineedyou 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 dowhat?”
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 willnevergo 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.
