-Tobias-

Since I had made a fool out of Nicolai in the middle of the big, busy restaurant, he hid himself behind the menu card, probably in a poor attempt to hide his fuming. I was glad I didn’t have to see his face at that moment. Xander didn’t even open his menu. He snapped his fingers, making one of the mermaid girls come over.

“Good evening,” she said with a smile on her red-painted lips. “What can I do for you?”

“I’d like your number,” Xander stated with a lewd smile.

The mermaid girl laughed, though it was clearly an uncomfortable laugh. She shot a dirty look at me as if I was somehow responsible for his behavior.

“But we can save that for later. We’ve got all night,” Xander continued. “For now: a bottle of your special champagne for the table.”

“What I’d like is for you to check your behavior, Xander. She’s not giving you her number – you’re only making her spit in my food,” I said coldly, but with a smile on my face.

This time, Nicolai snickered while Xander looked annoyed at the interference. The mermaid girl quickly took the opportunity to slip away to get the champagne.

“I’ll get her to give me her number before the end of the night, you wait and see,” Xander said.

I snorted in amusement. “Sure, I’d like to see you try.”

I was so getting spit in my food... I regretted my decision to message these two, but since they were the only ones who even messaged me back, I didn’t have the luxury to be too picky.

I checked my phone again, but there were no new messages. I held back a disappointed sigh and turned my attention to the menu. I soon realized I wasn’t that hungry, after all.

“Anyway, how’s your dad doing, Toby?” Nicolai changed the topic away from the mermaid waitresses, even though he kept glancing at them. “Still convinced rebels are going to storm the mansion and kill you all? I heard he invested heavily in a lab.”

Xander wrinkled his nose in distaste. “A human-ran lab.”

“Yes, he still is,” I sighed. “Now he wants androids as his guards. Apparently, living beings aren’t loyal enough.”

“Cheers to that,” Nicolai said, raising his empty glass since the champagne hadn’t arrived yet. “He has the right idea. People betray. Hire the fucking Terminator and you will never have a problem.”

“They can’t betray you if you don’t trust them in the first place,” I said with a smile.

“It’s the way he and you got big,” Xander said, gesturing around him.

I raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t reply. The way my father got rich and gained his power in this sanctuary was through exploiting the vulnerable supernatural beings, offering them goods with a heavy price tag and even bigger consequences.

But did Xander care? No... He was a naga, after all. Just like my father.

I saw sudden movement from the corner of my eye and turned to look just in time to see a man with a glass of wine and an angry expression on his face approaching me.

“The vampires from Rosegarten send their regards, Mr. Locke,” he spat, uttering my name with the most disdain, the wine splashing into my face.

I’d been half-way lifting my hands up to shield myself, but the vampire was faster. For a moment, I just sat there with wine dripping down my face, listening to the silence around me.

When I finally moved a hand across my face, wiping most of the liquid off, I could hear snickering as the people returned back to their dinner. The man in the tuxedo hurried to me, bringing paper towels and sputtering his apologies.

I let out a sigh. The name, Rosengarten, appeared from my memory. My father had talked about making a deal with them, and it was obvious the vampires were not happy with it. This wasn’t the first time I’d somehow ended up with the short end of the stick after a foul deal, because Dad hardly ever went out in public. If he did, he brought at least three guards who wouldn’t hesitate to use force to prevent wine from being splashed.

I could’ve brought guards, but I didn’t need babysitters.

“Excuse me,” I said, grabbing my stuff. Without giving Xander or Nicolai another glance, I stood up and started making my way to the elevator.

I got plenty of amused looks on my way out. People were openly laughing at me like I somehow deserved this just for being a Locke. As always, I ignored the stares when I walked to my car, entered, and threw the door shut behind me.

I let out a deep breath, trying to recollect myself before starting the car. Could my day get any worse than this?

I fished my phone out of my bag and stopped to stare at it.

I finally had a new message.

‘I’ll see you tonight,’ Gary had replied, and reading it brought a big smile to my face.