ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕖
My body is draped over Ava's in a blissful exhaustion on top of the dining table. My fingers are gripped tightly into the soft skin of her hips, unwilling to part with her body.
I lift my head up, a wet lock falling in front of my eyes. She takes a deep breath, staring back at me as though she's about to say something.
"Ow," Ava grumbles. "Okay, you're crushing my arm."
I quickly push myself off her, chuckling to myself.
"Don't laugh at me, butthead," she says with a glare.
"I'm not laughing at you, love," I say, offering her a hand to help her up. She begrudgingly accepts and hoists herself off the table with a groan.
"Then what are you laughing at?" she asks with a pout.
"I thought you were going to say something profound or romantic and you say 'ow'."
"Yeah well, it's not my fault your big ol' buff Siren butt was busy crushing me to death."
"Ah, now there's that romance," I say with a chuckle, scooping her up and setting her down with me on the couch.
The room is littered with wet footprints and water droplets. Sopping clothes are scattered about like a trail of R-rated breadcrumbs leading away from the pool.
She lays down on my chest, her hand delicately tracing the edges of my tattoos.
"What's the deal with this one?" she asks, touching the marks at my waist.
"That's not a tattoo. It's my name."
"You got your own name tattooed on your body? Wow, narcissistic much?" She giggles and I ruffle her hair teasingly.
"Very funny, love," I say. "No, Sirens are born with their names written on their skin."
"Wait," she says, sitting up. "This is how you got your name? You didn't choose it or something?"
"Nope. I just read it."
"What is this language?" she asks with narrowed eyes, inspecting the ink on my abdomen.
"Not sure," I say, running my fingers across the characters. "I've just always been able to read it. All Sirens can."
"So this is how Kami got her name too?"
"Yep."
"So what does it mean?"
"It just means Zane. That's all it says."
"No," she says with a sigh. "I mean what does your name mean?"
"Oh... er..."
"Have you never looked it up?"
Oh, I have. The answer is just incredibly pompous and she's definitely going to tease me over it.
"No, I have," I say. "It means Gift from God."
"Of fucking course it does," Ava replies with a fit of laughter.
"You asked."
"Do you have a last name?" she asks through restrained giggles. "Is it You're Welcome Ladies?"
"You're hilarious, love," I say, sticking out my tongue. "But no, I don't have a last name. It's just Zane."
"What do you have on your ID then?"
"Smith."
"Really? That's so boring. You could pick anything you want and you pick Smith?"
"I hardly ever use it," I say. "Kami used to change hers all the time."
"Used to?"
"Yeah, she sticks with her married name now."
"Married name??" Ava asks with wide eyes.
I guess I've never mentioned that before.
"Yeah, uh, she goes by Kami Selim. She got married a long time ago, kind of on a whim. He was an immortal, but he got into some trouble and was killed. They had only been married for a month, but Kami took it hard. Decided to keep the name, kind of in tribute."
"Were..." Ava begins to asks, pinching her lips together anxiously. "Were you married before? Like... I mean... You've been around for a long time..."
"God no," I say.
I would have thought that would be comforting—I certainly wouldn't want to hear that she had a close relationship with anyone like that—but her reaction seems a little more disappointed than I would've expected.
"Well," she says. "I'm learning a lot today."
"Speaking of learning a lot," I say. "Have you decided what to do about Jen? It's been a while since..."
"You mean am I going to tell Jen that her girlfriend is also banging a demon?" she asks. "Well, since she's still working on not hating your guts, I don't really want her hating mine just yet."
"Fair dues."
"I'm secretly hoping they break up before I get around to dealing with it so I don't have to say anything," she says.
I know the feeling. I have my own Kieran issues I'm trying to ignore.
"What?" she asks. "What's that sad face?"
"Oh, I..." I can't find the words. "Well, you know that body they found at Pike's?"
"Yeaaahhh..."
"Well, it was someone we sort of knew—an Immortal. Kami thinks Kieran had something to do with it."
"What?" she asks. "Why? Kieran doesn't kill people."
"I know," I say. "I've been trying to ignore it, come up with some kind of logical explanation. I've been avoiding Kieran, hoping that something would explain it all."
"Holy crap," she says softly.
"Yeah, I'm sorry I haven't mentioned it before. I've just been kind of processing it myself."
"No, I get it. It's complicated. Did you ask him about it?"
"I mean, no, but what's he gonna say?"
"I don't know," she says. "But it seems like you at least owe it to him to ask."
Well, she's got me there.
"As usual, baby, you're right," I say.
"What about your friend, Finn?" she asks. "Can't he just read his mind and tell you if anything is up?"
"Sadly, no. Finn's telepathy doesn't work on demons."
Come to think of it, even though Finn can't read demons, he does have a knack for telling if someone is lying; likely from a lifetime of hearing people's inner monologues. He may still be of use.
"Actually," I say. "It wouldn't be a bad idea to loop Finn in on this one anyway."
"If you fill me in on the details, I can help too," she says.
"Love," I say, lifting her jaw so that she's looking at me. "I do not want you involved in interrogating an Incubus."
"And I don't care what you want me involved with," she says, crossing her arms and giving me a death glare. "We talked about this."
"Okay, fine. You are your own person, but I really don't think we need to put you at risk."
"I don't think Kieran is dangerous," she says. "But even if he is—if you and Finn are there, and we're in public, am I at risk?"
"Probably not."
"Okay then, it's settled. Secret spy mission!"
What am I getting us into?
𝔸𝕧𝕒
"Why am I agreeing to this, again?" Zane asks.
We're sitting in his car outside of Pike's, about to meet Finn inside while Kieran is tending bar.
"Because I'm my own person and you're not going to make decisions for me anymore," I say.
"Yeah," he says reluctantly, "and apparently you can't be your own person without risking life and limb."
"I'm not risking anything, Zane. This is Kieran. It's going to be fine."
"Well, if you start to feel sick, let me know and we can leave."
I'm already feeling really ill today, but if I give that away I know Zane will try to turn it into a reason I should go home. That's not going to happen.
"You're not leaving my side, right?" he says.
"Oh my gosh, here," I say, pulling out my phone. "I'll share my location with you and then you can make sure I'm not dead whenever you feel like."
"Wait, what's this now?"
"See?" I say, showing him on his phone where it shows my location. "Now you can know where I am and relax."
He looks confused for a moment.
"Why didn't we do this ages ago?" he asks.
"Because I don't want to encourage your craziness."
We both step out of the car and close the doors behind us.
"Is it really craziness to be concerned about your safety when you're surrounded by Immortals and demons?"
I ignore his question, in part because I don't have a good answer, and we head inside. Kieran waves to us and points to a set of open seats at the bar.
"So I guess you haven't sexed each other to death!" he says.
"You're hilarious, mate," Zane replies.
"Hey Ava," Kieran says. "How's cohabitation going?"
"We just got everything moved in," I say. "But now we're in that mountains of boxes stage."
"I'm happy to give you a hand if you need a real man to help lift the heavy stuff."
"I'm pretty sure technically neither of you are men," I add.
"Oh snap!" Kieran says, laughing. "Well shit, Z-Man, she's got us there!"
"'Scuse me, miss," a voice says from behind me. "Are these ugly blokes giving you trouble?"
I turn to see Finn as he wraps a friendly arm around Zane's shoulder.
"It's okay," I say jokingly. "I can handle these two."
"I'm sure you can," he says, his eyes slowly scanning the room as his eyes narrow.
"You okay?" I ask.
"Yes," he says. "Sorry, it's just awfully quiet in here."
"You're too used to Irish pubs," Kieran says. "Most bars don't have an endless soundtrack of loud, drunken singing and bottles breaking on heads."
"Oi," he says. "Don't take the piss. An Irish pub is a sacred place."
Finn's eyes continue to rake through the crowd, as if he's looking for someone or something.
Kieran gets us all our usual drinks and I decide to casually throw a question out there.
"So Kieran, what was the deal with the dead person here the other night?" I ask.
Probably not the most subtle route, but effective.
"I dunno," he says. "Nobody ever tells me anything. They didn't even tell me anyone was dead."
"Who didn't?" I ask.
"The cops, or the upper management," he says. "The cops just asked me if I heard or saw anything unusual or if I remembered a brunette Indian girl. I figured some girl got drunk and got into an accident or something. I had to hear from Zane that somebody died."
I glance over to Zane, whose guilty expression tells me he's feeling bad for doubting Kieran.
"Yep," Finn's voice rings in my head.
That still freaks me the heck out.
"Sorry," he says.
"Why is everybody staring at me like I just grew tits?" Kieran asks.
"Well, no amount of alcohol will wash away that particular visual," Finn says, taking a heavy gulp of his drink. "Cheers, mate!"
"Oh you know you love it, you little Irish minx."
Finn laughs and points to his wedding ring.
The guys exchange banter for about 20 minutes. I'm starting to feel nauseous and lightheaded, but I don't want to interrupt the fun, so I try to push it out of my mind.
"Gonna hit the loo," Zane says, downing the remainder of his drink and heading toward the restroom.
"Okay, it is weirdly quiet in here," Finn says. "It's more obvious now that Zane's n-... Oh boy."
Finn cringes and shakes his head as a man approaches the bar and stands beside me.
"Could I get a whiskey, neat?" the man says to Kieran.
"Gotcha covered," Kieran replies, grabbing a glass.
Finn looks at the bathroom door as if he was expecting Zane to emerge.
"Play along, okay?" Finn's voice says within my head.
"Can I get you another drink, babe?" Finn asks, throwing an arm around my shoulders and pulling me in for an awkward side hug. It takes me a moment to understand that his question is directed at me.
"Uh," I start to say, watching the man grab his drink from the bar, giving us a suspicious glance as he made his way back to his table. "No, I'm good, thanks?"
Finn pulls his arms back and eyes the bathroom door again. Kieran looks at Finn, then me, then back again, a smirk slowly growing on his face.
"What was that about?" I ask.
"Sorry, he was um... he was just a creep, basically. He was very interested in you. I thought I'd save us all from having to hold back a very angry Siren. I could see that pretending to be your boyfriend was going to be the quickest way to get him to leave."
"Oh, okay."
"Hey Finn," Kieran says. "Can I be the one to tell Zane about you canoodling his girlfriend?"
"Kieran," Finn says with a warning tone. "I'm trying to prevent a bloodbath, not be at the center of one."
"Bloodbath?" Zane's voice asks. He has suddenly reappeared over Finn's shoulder.
Finn and Kieran both flinch at the sound of Zane's voice.
"What?" Kieran asks.
"Shit," Finn says under his breath.
"You okay there, mate?" Zane asks.
"No," Finn says, his brows furrowed. "It's way too quiet in here. I should've known."
"Yeah, you keep saying that," I say.
"Because it's quieter than it should be for a room with this many people."
"Shit," Kieran says, his eyes widening.
"The only way that makes any sense is if..." Zane says with a pause.
"If," Finn continues telepathically, "about half of them are demons."