Chapter 16

Nathaniel's POV

We have been standing in this line, outside the restaurant for only a few minutes. Just a few minutes...

And Delilah Silver is crying.

She is literally weeping because of how 'long' we have been stand here and not inside.

"I want food! We have been waiting out here forever!" The overly dramatic she-wolf cries.

Justin snorts, "It's only been 6 minutes." His twin erupts with laughter, holding onto his shoulder, to prevent himself from tumbling over. "I didn't ask, Horns." Hazel eyes glare into his pitch black irises. He puts his hands up in surrender. Sighing, I say, " I'm gonna go see if there is a way to skip the line, because I can not take another moment of her dramatic antics." Turning away from them, I walk to the security guard at the front of the line.

The second I stood in front of the complaining woman at the front of the line, the man who appears to be in his early twenties; raises his hand in front of me. "Please, wait your turn, sir." At least he's polite. He has dark brown eyes, chestnut brown hair and just a few inches taller than me, with a thick Spanish accent. Damn, I think I just drooled. "How much to skip the line?" I ask, clearing my throat. He is so hot. Lord have mercy. Trying not to stare is an actual challenge.

He caught me staring.

My god, he's blushing! Take me now!

What is wrong with me? Stupid teenage hormones.

"500 dollars..." He says with pink tinted cheeks. Have mercy on my horny soul.

"Hmm, not that bad-" "Per person." He finishes. "Do you take cards?" Not phased by the price, I take my card from my wallet. He grabs a small card machine that was placed on a small table next to him and asks, "For how many?" "For six, please." I smile, flashing my pearly white teeth. He turns the small device around to me and I swipe my card. He waits for a soft 'beep' before nodding. "Enjoy your meal, sir" I notice the subtle raking of his eyes over me before he looks away bashfully.

So. Freaking. Cute.

I did it first, so now we're even.

"Hey idiots! We can go in!" I yell, irritating the woman at the front even more.

"That's not fair! I've been standing here for fifteen minutes!" She screeches, her face turning red with anger, a line creasing between her eyebrows.

"Can you afford the skip fee, miss?" The security asks.

"Well no..." She grits her teeth.

"Then please wait along with everyone else who can't." He says respectfully, shutting her up.

Oh my god, the look on her face.

Don't laugh.

Do.

Not.

Laugh.

Lilah sprints past me before everyone else.

"She is so...so..." Alex searches his mind for the right words to use. "Energetic, annoying, embarrassing, strange, obnoxious, rude, loud, eccentric, brazen, stupid, careless?" Bella lists effortlessly. "Say that to my face, mosquito!" Lilah screams from inside the building, earning disapproving stares from people. "What the hell are you staring at!" She yells at them, causing them to flinch before looking away, mumbling insults among themselves.

She's going to get us removed if she keeps this up and I will never hear the end of it.

"The first and last one." Alex laughs.

We stroll through the enormous hall.

On the walls, are paintings of foods from different cultures of all kinds. The room is dimly lit with lanterns on the wall with beautiful chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. My nose is assaulted by a mixture of aromas and feel my stomach leap with excitement.

Suddenly, a hand is placed on my shoulder.

Looking beside me, my dual coloured eyes meet black ones.

"Yes, Justin?"

"Please talk to Austin, he may not seem like it, but he doesn't like to have unsolved arguments. It's still bothering him."

I look over at Austin.

He's smiling and laughing with Alex as Antares and Bella hold Lilah back from jumping a little boy who is making silly faces at and wiggling his fingers beside his head.

She growls at him, her teeth elongating into pointed canines.

The boy pales before bursting out in tears, running to his parents, screaming bloody murder.

Lilah smirks proudly to herself and Antares fist bumps her, "That was cruel. Respect." Lilah giggles. "Thank you." She says smugly, pretending to brush dust of her shoulder. "You guys are messed up. That's cool, 'normal' people are boring anyways." Austin puts his arms over the girls' shoulders. Antares immediately shrugs him off. "Seriously? Still not there yet?" He asks, distressed.

"Get over it, Halo." She moves away from him.

He chuckles shaking his head.

"He doesn't look so "bothered" to me." I shrug my shoulders.

"My brother is not the type to wear his heart on his sleeve. Trust me, he's upset." The daemon looks over at his twin then at me.

Well, since his face won't tell me, then his mind will.

I pierce into his head, searching for what he's feeling but not prying into his memories.

Those are private.

"Great going, Austin. You just HAD to say something didn't you." He scolds himself.

"I didn't mean to come across as a jerk. I was trying to look out for them!" He argues.

"Stupid Austin, always messing things up. This is all your fault!" He screams at himself.

"I know, I'm sorry ok." It's like he's talking to someone else but it's just himself.

"You should be sorry. Always starting something. You deserve to be ignored." He snarls.

"I know..." He whispers.

I stumble back a little as I retreat from his mind.

"Does he always beat himself up like this?" My voice comes out as soft and sympathetic.

"Ever since we were kids. He was always burdened by his heavy conscience. Whenever he felt like he did something wrong, he wouldn't let it go until he felt like he's made up for it or is punished for it. I guess that's the angelic side of him. Always wanting to do right. I'm not burden by a conscience. If I felt like I did something wrong, my demonic side would tell me to get over it and move on. Right and wrong is a game to me. Either outcome is for kicks and giggles, I never take serious situations as I should."

He sighs.

"People often think that angels are pure. Incapable of wrongdoing. That's not true. They just avoid it at all cost because the guilt that a human feels when doing wrong is multiplied by a thousand, and it eats away at them until they make up for it or they go mad from guilt. After that, they are no longer angels, they are referred to as 'Fallen'. They can only be restored after fixing their transgressions. Some just end up taking their own lives as the guilt starts to build up."

"Sometimes, I wish we could switch. I could take his guilt and he would take my remorselessness, because he's too hard on himself. I am not afraid a many things, but I fear that his conscience will one day be his undoing and as his twin, his other half, I can't allow that to happen- I won't allow it to happen. So please go clear things up with him because it is killing me to know how terribly he is treating himself."

Wow. I always thought that it would be the other way at with the twins. Even though he says right and wrong is a game, I don't believe that he feels that way.

Could it be, that they were raised to feel this way?

I take in a deep breath before patting his shoulder. "I'll fix it."

After all, it's my fault.

Walking up to Austin I grab his arm, "You're sitting next to me." I pull him next to me before he can sit next to anyone else. "Aren't you mad at-" He seals his lips when I shushed him and he sits down quietly.

Across from me is Lilah, who is already reading the menu like a novel, with Bella sat next to her and Alex beside Bella. Justin- of course sits next to his brother and Antares next to him.

Everyone is either having a civil conversation or bickering. You can tell who is doing what. Austin is still lecturing himself in head, brutally, I might add. If I can read their minds, can I talk to the through it too? Let's find out. I've never tried it so, maybe I should start by thinking what to say.

"Austin?"

He obviously didn't hear me because he didn't even flinch. So I try again.

"Austin?"

This is harder than it looks. Movies made it look so easy...as usual.

I try another time, this time focusing only on him and his thoughts.

"Austin, can you hear me?"

His eyes widen and his head snaps in my direction.

"Don't say anything, just listen, please." He nods and looks down at the menu.

"I won't lie. Yes, I'm pissed that you condemned her without knowing her but I'm grateful that that you tried to look out for us, even though you've only known us a few days. Just give her a chance. Even with Antares, give her some time. She hasn't even warmed up to us yet. Don't sweat about it."

I hear him say something back but it's like talking through an echo.

"I'll try."

I smile. "That's all I ask."

"Back to earth you two!" Lilah yells at us. We look up in sync, "Hmm?" We hum. She groans. "Let's go to the self serve before I eat you." She threatens. "Ok, self serve here we come." I say.

Walking to the serving area, I notice the large portions of food that could feed a whole continent.

"Move! Bella, I get it you're dead, but you don't have to move like you are!" Lilah loses her patience with Bella's slow walking. "Rude little mutt!" Lilah growls at her because of the degrading term used by Bella. "If we were at Nate's house, I'd sweep the floor with you." She storms past her. As soon as her eyes catch sight of the food, her entire mood changes.

"Wow! Look at all the food." She jumps clapping her hands. Both twins, smack their palms to their foreheads. Alex is clutching his stomach, tears at the corners of his eyes as he laughs at them. Antares, ignoring everyone as usual; starts to serve herself large portions of food that should be consumed in a day, rather than an hour.

I'm starting to think that it's a wolf thing.

Maybe because they are natural predators, they have a bigger appetite.

We all spend a good amount of time deciding what we want to eat before actually choosing because, there are just too many options and at some point, Alex started tearing up from frustration. He would look at the food, then compare it to something else that he liked but see something else; knowing he can't eat it all, he starts to fidget back and forth between what he wants and what he thinks he wants, making little noises of frustration. He gave up and asked Bella to chose for him, since he can't for himself.

Lilah gets a family sized serving of seafood filled with; shrimp, crab legs, oysters etc. I don't believe it is physically possible to eat it all by herself. Bella took a smaller portion of food. Way smaller. On her plate is a rare steak- dripping with blood, served with potatoes and gravy. Sometimes, I find myself forgetting that Bella is vampire because she doesn't act like the ones that you see in movies, but then she does things like this; eating a bloody steak, like it is the best thing she has ever tasted.

Alex is having spicy wings and fries with sweet chilli dip. For someone so indecisive he doesn't eat much. He will want to try everything but doesn't have the stomach capacity to eat it all. Antares is having chicken nuggets, curly fries, lobster, roasted corn and barbecue ribs. Austin decided on seafood as well, but didn't want much so he only got a shrimp cocktail and sushi with a few crab legs. His twin brother wanted the opposite, in his words, "Seafood gives him a bad stomach." He got jerked chicken drenched in peppers with a salad on the side.

I got peppered medium rare steak with potato salad with fresh vegetables that has lemon squeezed on it. The reason I chose these is because it satisfies more food groups. As much as I love eating greasy foods, I would like something healthy in my diet once in a while.

As we are all eating in comfortable silence, a loud crack echoes in our ears.

My eyes lift from my food, to look at Lilah who effortlessly tore the lobster tail in half.

She smirks at the black, dead eyes of the lobster, eating the meat in front of it's face.

We all stare at her.

"What? Never seen a wolf eat before?" She points the head of the poor lobster at us. Antares raises a brow at her. "Obviously not you." She rolls her eyes, shoving the rest of the meat in her mouth.

Haha, shoving meat in her mouth.

"And what are you laughing about?" The she wolf glares at me playfully. "Nothing." I shake my head dismissively, crunching on the vegetables. "Mmm, sure." Lilah bites into a shrimp, keeping eye contact with me. Strange girl. "You look like when you were screaming at me to buy you spicy shrimp last month at the beach." My lips seal together to stop my laughter.

She smiles sweetly, slowly putting up her middle finger. "Aren't you supposed to be nice to me? I bought you a lot of food today." I narrow my eyes at her. "Not quite. You give me everything I want, kinda like a personal butler. So, if anything, you spoil me by giving me everything I want. So if we think about it, you made me this way."

"Excuse me?" My jaw slackens.

"You heard me." She smiles deviously.

"Oh you little bitch!"

"She-wolf. There is a difference, genius." She winks at me before biting the tail of a shrimp, shell and all.

"Pfft. She got you there, Nate." Antares laughs, pointing her index finger at my face.

I roll my eyes, shaking my head.

After a few minutes of talking and laughing we decided to get some drinks. I don't know why we didn't just get them before but we're getting them now. Lilah decided on Pepsi and Bella takes another bite from her wrist and I wonder, is that going to become a normal thing? Alexander is drinking a blueberry slushy because he's never had one before. Antares is drinking 'Monster', which I don't understand why a hybrid would need an energy drink. Austin is having a Sprite and his brother is drinking a tropical beverage. I'm just having lemonade with ice.

"Is it going to become a recurring thing for Bella to drink from you?" Antares asks. Lilah shrugs. "Easier than going to get blood bags all the time and apparently "I'm delicious"." She makes air quote at the end with her right hand. Bella hums, "Mhm." "Don't do that! I don't like it. I feels- bleh! It felt like your fangs were vibrating inside my wrist." A shudder of discomfort racks her body.

"I'm going to explode if I eat anything else." Alex groans, rubbing his stomach.

"Aww. Is the baby of the group full." Justin coos at him teasingly.

"I'm not used to this kind of lifestyle, so gimme a break." He huffs, continuing to rub his stomach. Will he stay this adorable forever or is it phase. " Well get used to it because you live with an infinite atm." Lilah says, sighing when Bella pulls her fangs from her wrist. "Wow. Is that all I am to you?" I ask, putting my hand over my heart. "No, but's it's a great quality to have." She compliments...I think.

"Are we going to eat some more or go home?" Antares asks. I did notice that she said "home". "I will let endless pit of a girl decide that." I raise a brow at Lilah. "We can...right after I fill this bag with jelly doughnuts." She pulls a plastic bag from thin air. "Where were you keeping that?" Alex laughs. "That's not important, little one." She says. "We are the same age!" He throws his hands in the air in frustration.

"Didn't you read the sign on the wall?" Bella asks, her eyes fluttering slowly. "No. What did it say?" She asks. "You are not allowed to take food with you as you go. You can only eat the food in the building." Austin says, pointing to a poster on the wall BESIDE her head, that she didn't notice this entire time.

"You will get noticed by the security before you can get past him." Bella states in a matter of fact tone.

"Nate, could distract him." She wiggles her eyebrows at me.

"Nate, will do no such thing." I shake my head.

"We saw you practically fuck him to death with your eyes." She teases.

"I am a M I N O R. He is a grown ass man, looking and doing are not on the same wavelength." I lean my head back and narrow my eyes.

"I said distract, not date."

"Drowning. Your life force slipping away as you choke on water." I respond darkly, referring to my threat for this morning.

"Damn!" The twins laugh.

"Calm down, I was just joking." She raises her hands in surrender. I lean forwards, putting my elbows on the table. "So was I." I smile at her. "At least talk to him long enough for me to sneak past." She says. "Absolutely not." I shake my head at her. "Pretty please?" For the love of God, her eyes somehow got bigger and her pupils dilate. "Is she begging?" I lean past the twins, to look at Antares. "Mhm." She nods, delicately resting her chin on the back of her hand. "Please Nate, I NEED those doughnuts." She says sweetly. Lilah slowly pushes her bottom lip out and her eyes starts watering.

My heart twists painfully, falling for her deceptions.

"Ok! Ok! Just stop that." I gesture to her face.

Her face changes and she beams at me. "Thank you!" She stretches over the table and kisses my cheek. "Whatever. You better get going, before I change my mind. Hurry up." I shoo her from the table. She takes off to the dessert section. "She was right. You do spoil her." Austin says. I sigh taking a sip of my drink.

"I know. It's just because she's like the sister I've never had. It's strange, I feel like I've know her for all my life buts it's only been 3 or so years. Yet, every time I'm around her it's like I have another part of myself, however still incomplete . If that doesn't convince you. You yourselves are proof. I have never met any of you before this week and you haven't met me. Do any of you feel uncomfortable around me?" I ask, looking around the table.

They all shake their heads.

"Do you know the reason for that?"

I get multiple "Nos."

"Doesn't that bother you?"

"No. With any other person, I wouldn't even stick around long enough for you to know my name, yet here I am, sitting around the table with complete strangers. Even though I know not to trust you, something in me already does and I don't understand why." Antares says, tapping her fingers against the table.

"It's like..." Bella trails off.

"It's like being around family." The twins say.

"Exactly." Bella nods.

"Have you every felt this with anyone else?" I ask.

"No. If you haven't noticed it yet, I'm not a people person." Antares states.

"Trust me, we have." Alex giggles.

"We had a lot of friends at our old school, but not one of them made us feel like, if we were in a life or death situation, they would save us. They were only friends with us because of our parents status and they were hoping to get some sort of popularity by being around us." Justin speaks for himself and his brother.

"You already know my background, I wouldn't know the answer to this, even if it smacked me across the face." Alex says, his looking and his nails, in front of his face, wiggling his fingers.

"Like I've told you before. The coven is less of a family and more like an army of mindless slaves ready to do as they are told by the elders. In all my 115 years of being in the coven, none of them treated me like family. Hell, I can count on one hand how many people actually had their humanity. The rest are all murders who live despicably." Bella says sadly.

"Then why did you stay with them? I always saw you with other vampires around school. Why not just leave?" Alex scoots closer to her, taking her hand in his.

"I had no one else to turn to. The coven is the only place that accepts me. You were scared shitless of me, when we first met that you panicked at the sight of my fangs. So, I couldn't go to the witches. The wolves would never even talk to me, not that I expected them to based on the history of our species and I never had the courage to talk to you until recently. Not to m I didn't know that Antares existed." Her words are rushed, as if they wouldn't come out if she said it any slower.

"So if that's the case. What's so different about us?" I wonder.

"I don't think it's them, Nate. It's you. You draw us together." Her eyebrows furrow, seemingly in deep thought.

"And that's what I don't understand. Why me?" I ask no one in particular, knowing that they don't know either.

"Why don't we ask your mom?" Alex asks thoughtfully.

"She won't say anything useful." I sigh, a headache creeping up on me from thinking too hard.

After three minutes, Lilah runs back with her arms wrapped around the plastic bag. "Ready!" We stand up and circle her, this way she won't be spotted.

When we got towards the exit, they stop and I take that as my cue.

"Hey." I walk in front of him to get his attention. He looks at me with a surprised expression.

For some possible reason unexplained to me, those morons aren't moving.

Why are they just standing around and watching me?

"Hello sir, can I help you with something?" He clears his throat.

"What's your name." I ask, my eyes flickering between him and the idiots.

I really need to get those dumbasses moving.

"Austin if you guys don't start moving, I'm going beat your asses until all of you go to heaven."

About three seconds later they quickly sneak behind him.

"Matteo, sir." He answers my previous question.

"Well Matteo, here is a two hundred dollar tip for being so polite." I reach for my wallet and pull out a thousand dollars. "Hmm. I don't have any change. Oh well, just take it." I put it inside his shirt pocket then tap his shoulder. "Have good day, Matteo." I wave at him. "Thank you so much. Have a good day too, sir." His Spanish accent seeps through his voice and his smile makes my heart skip at beat.

Dreamy.

I caught up to the group of weirdos that I call friends. "Why did you take so long?" I ask, pointing at them. "We just wanted to watch for a little bit." Lilah giggles. "For someone who likes getting her way, you like to make my life more difficult." I pinch her shoulder. "Oww! That was very unnecessary." She whines rubbing her shoulder. "Was not." I shrug.

"Was too."

"Was not."

"Was too."

"Was three."

"Was t- wait what?"

"Ha! Caught you off guard." I laugh at her.

Finally, we start to make our way back to our cars.

As we are walking back to the parking lot the worst thing happen.

I hear an ice-cream truck.

That means if I heard it, so did Delilah.

"Ah! Ice-cream!" Lilah screams, thrusting the bag of doughnuts in Antares' hands before running off towards the truck. Antares wastes no time eating a jelly doughnut. "Ugh. This is just perfect." I slap my palm on my forehead, groaning. "Nate, I want ice-cream." She yells. "Great! Then buy it yourself!" I yell back. She sends me a death glare. "Lilah, you've already eaten too much, by the end of the day, you will be crying to me about how much your stomach hurts or even throw up and I am not going to deal with you when you are having a fit about it." I state, opening unlocking my car.

She pouts. "But I want it." She whines at me.

"And I want you inside this car, right now." I open the door to the passengers seat. She stomps her feet as she walks. "Pout all you want, but do it in the car." I say, still holding the door open. She sits inside that car and baring her fangs at me. I narrow my eyes at her. "Wanna do that again?" I lean towards her, raising a brow. She closes her mouth and sucks her teeth. "Thought so." I close the door before walking over to my side.

After putting on my seat belt, I wait for the others to get their cars. Once they do, I start my car and drive out the parking lot, with them following closely behind.

Alex and Bella seat in that back seats, awkwardly silent.