quick text. I patted Max on the back. “Thank you. You now own ten shares in the Red Apothecary.”
The look on his face was priceless. I stormed out before he could respond, leaving my date and the chilling feeling of dread behind me.
This was the first night in a hundred years that I had no interest in meaningless sex. Camille showing up in the city had put me in a foul mood and the way Raven left the bar without me getting a chance to speak with her made me even more annoyed.
I pulled out my phone as the elevator doors opened to my floor and dialed Cassius.
“What’s up, Ozi?” His voice was strained and it sounded like he hadn’t been sleeping.
“Camille is in town. I need you to keep an eye on her.”
“Do you think she has anything to do with our account being hacked?”
“I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t put it past her. Just be on alert.”
I clicked “end call” before he could start asking me about my feelings. Cassius was a sensitive brute and I was not in the mood to be probed about the very old and very over relationship with my ex-girlfriend.
I contemplated calling Raven to see if she was all right but stopped myself. Why did I care? Nothing good ever came from caring for humans. They didn’t have the mental or emotional capacity to love the way us immortals did. That was why we never showed them what we really were. They scared too easily and did not understand anything that was different from them. They’d judge us and then want to study us like lab rats.
Why would Raven be any different than Camille? I’d trusted her once. Gave her my heart and shared with her my secrets…and she rejected me. She wouldn’t ever forgive me for turning her and I wouldn’t ever forgive myself for dropping my guard. For letting her glimpse the darkest parts of me only for her to cast me aside. The pleasures of the flesh were all I’d allow myself to feel now. But not tonight. Tonight I just wanted to wallow in my self-pity.
I was going to be sick. Not because the taxi driver was zipping in and out of traffic like we were in the middle of a car chase, which didn’t help, but because of the voicemail. I should have waited till I got home to listen to it. But as soon as I saw the caller ID, I couldn’t stop myself.
They were getting married.
Alex and Meadow. It was bad enough that he had cheated on me with her, but now they were getting married, and he would be in my family forever. What disgusted me even more was I had to hear it from him. Meadow—my own sister—didn’t even bother to tell me that she was marrying the boyfriend she stole from me. How could my parents be okay with this? How could anyone? But she was always their favorite so it was no surprise when they sided with her and blamed me for not being a good enough partner to him.
But marriage?
It was amazing how one phone call could change everything. Spin the world upside down till nothing could ever be the same again, even when the room stopped spinning. I knew in my bones that I would never be going back to Maplewood. It was no longer my home. I bit my lip hard to stop the tears from falling. I refused to lose it in the back of a New York City cab.
There was nothing left to do but cry myself to sleep. I turned the key into an empty apartment and poured myself a glass of wine. The city lights reflecting on the windows did nothing to ease my pain, as beautiful and ethereal as they were. The love of my life had officially moved on and I was in a strange city, nowhere closer to my dreams than I was the day I left.
I finished my wine and crawled into bed, thankful that I had tomorrow off so I could sleep in. In fact, I wasn’t sure I was even going to get out of bed at all.
The loud banging on my door jarred me awake. Was Piper back early? Did she forget her key? There was no one else I could think of that would come over unannounced. I dragged myself out of bed and pulled on my fluffy white robe.
“Coming,” I yelled. My head was pounding from