Forbidden

Riviere

Luca

This restaurant was nothing like Wanda's. Candles and flowers topped white cloth-covered tables, and the chairs were ornate silver pieces that shimmered beneath the crystal chandeliers hanging low from the gold-gilded ceiling. Instead of raucous rock music, a pianist softly played popular easy listening songs and show tunes. The humans would have trouble picking out the melody beneath the tinkling clatter of silverware and glass, but even across the room, Luca could hear every note- even the wrong ones.

"Would you like to order a drink, sir?"

He looked up at the server hovering near the table's edge. She'd been by three times already, her patient expression never faltering even as her tone took on hints of irritation.

"No, I'll wait for my friend."

"Very well."

Tugging on the collar of the blue button up he was wearing, he considered taking out his phone and texting Van again. He wasn't sure her tardiness was a result of something delaying her or a result of pure spite. After all, he had ghosted her, and if he knew anything about the saucy future Slayer, it was that she didn't let things like that slide.

Luca smiled as he lifted the water glass in front of him for a quick sip. Van's quick temper and tenaciousness were reasons one and two on his list for why she wouldn't skip out on this meeting. She would come even if it was just to berate him for his behavior.

Those were the qualities that first drew him to her. He ran his finger around the cold, wet rim of the cup as he sorted through his memories of her first day at the Academy. Mr. Long insisted on making her come to the front of the class to introduce her, and Luca could sense her discomfort as she trudged to the teacher's side. Still, she'd held her sharp chin high, unnatural blue eyes glaring at everyone through strands of lurid, purple hair as she bit out her name- Van Anderson.

Mr. Long coughed and corrected her. The moment he spoke her last name, the room tensed and went silent- as if everyone ceased breathing at the same time. Even the Unknowing knew the Helsings were a big deal in town, and all of his admiration fizzled out in horror as he realized she was destined to become his enemy.

"I have not and am not planning on changing my last name to Helsing," Van snapped at the teacher, her bold words lashing through the room and drawing gasps from some of the other students. "My legal last name is Anderson, and I won't answer to anything else."

Just like that, Luca decided he wanted to get to know her. She was a fresh breeze in his world of stale politics and maneuvering for power. She hadn't been spoon fed lies and prejudice from her crib like the other Slayers. If he could get to her first, he could turn her against the Slayers and have an ally. That's what he told himself as he walked up to her in the hallway at the end of that class.

"You're talking to the wrong person if you're here to make friends," she told him before he could open his mouth. She slammed her locker shut and hiked her backpack straps over her shoulders. "I won't be here long, and you don't even look like my type."

He laughed, drawing looks from the surrounding diners. God, he had been such a cliche. Her dismissal only made him want to try harder, even with Livy rubbing Van's disinterest in his face every day.

Now, his lies to himself had become a reality. Van had turned against her father. The silver flash drive lying on the table taunted him, like Poe's telltale heart, it called to him, reminding him of the risk he was going to ask her to take. She would do it- he was certain of that fact, but he wasn't sure he could ask her.

The chair across from him jerked back, its legs protesting as it was dragged across the wooden floors. The girl occupying his every thought dropped into the seat and folded her arms over the table, leveling a crooked grin at him.