My Immortal Playlist (The Siren Collection #1) (15 page)

“Yeah, that’s kind of weird, isn’t it?” I grimaced.

“Super weird,” he said flatly. “But…it’s been one of those nights.”

“You think Reign’s
other men back in Blaketon will come after us?”

“Definitely,” he nodded. “But not for a while. They’ll be sorting out the pieces of what happened. Devising a strategy. They have to choose a new leader. That will take time. Not that I’m worried about you anymore. I’m the one that’s going to need the protecting.”

“I guess I can fit you into my bodyguard schedule. I think I can have you watched for one hour every Tuesday.”

“Thanks,” he laughed, nestling his chin back onto my shoulder. “And what is the payment, if I may ask?”

“You already know,” I said, brushing back my hair in the wind. He reached up and our lips met. And I could feel him smiling as soon as we touched.

There was no ulterior motives. No prepping. No pain or heartache or regret
to worry about afterwards.

Just fireworks.

“I would like to introduce you formally to Elliot, Henry and Noah.” Lucas took a step forward and offered a hand for them to shake but only Noah accepted. Henry kept his arms crossed and Elliot was Elliot, still brooding on the
foyer stairs and staring at Lucas like he was a piece of meat.

“And what plans do you have for our Alexandra?” Henry asked, leering at him.

“Would you guys cut it out?” I said. “He’s our guest.”

“Uh-huh,” Henry replied, arms still crossed.

“Lucky, I think that -,” Elliot said from the stairs.

“
– It’s Lucas,” I said.

“Don’t care,” Elliot said, closing his eyes and sighing. “Lucky, I take it you have full understanding of Alexandra’s heritage and what this means should you two decide to carry out this ridiculous course
of action?”

“Um…yes,” Lucas chuckled. “I’m sorry, does he always talk like this?”

“You get used to it,” Henry said. “It probably helps if you read classical literature and watch reruns of shows about the 1800’s. I do neither, so I have no clue what he’s saying half the time, but it would be good for you to get to know us all. We are the only family Alexandra has.”

“She doesn’t like to be kissed on the shoulder,” Noah offered, and I slapped a palm to my forehead. “What?” he said. “He should learn from my mistakes.”

“Yes, we’ve all dated her,” Henry said. “So we can tell you all the dirty details, but first, let’s hear more about you. Just how many girls have you slept with in the past?”

“I hardly think that’s appropriate,” Lucas chuckled, but then he saw the seriousness in my face.

“I would actually like to know,” I said with a stern glare.

“But that’s all in the past,” he said, looking back at Henry. “It’s what you do now that defines you.”

“If you don’t answer our questions,” Henry huffed. “I will have Noah kick you in the groin. Do you have any idea how hard a vampire can kick? Let me tell you. You will be in such agonizing pain that you will beg me and Elliot to eat you, you will – “

“
– I would never lay a tooth on him,” Elliot gagged. “He shampoos with that dollar store generic brand. I can smell it from here. Body wash too.”

“Do you mind?” Henry said, turning to Elliot. “I’m trying to threaten him here.”

“And you’re doing a splendid job. I will make sure you get two cookies tonight after dinner, and a gold star on the big boy chart.”

“Yeah so these are the guys,” I sighed, shaking my head slowly. "They’re very sweet when you get to know them.”

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” Noah said and the two zombies groaned.

“Well, guys,” I said to them. “It’s been a long and eventful day. If you don’t mind, Lucas and I are going to retire.”

“And sleep in the same bed!” Elliot gasped. “But you’re not married!”

“Elliot, we’re just going to sleep.
Literally. I –“

“Not in this house!”

“This isn’t your house.”

“It’s our house.”

“Yes, but not yours. We are all equal here, and my equal side is saying that he can stay here for the night. Come on. It’s not like I have guys over all the time.”

“We’re all the guys you need,” Henry said, and I held up a hand for him to stop.

“Please don’t say that again,” I winced. Lucas took a deep breath.

“Maybe I should just see you tomorrow,” he whispered to me.

“No! Don’t go!” I cried out, but he looked back at the guys and then at me.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’re going to kill me in my sleep.”

“I was,” Henry replied.

“For the r
ecord,” Noah stated. “I was only going to help with the clean-up.”

“Yeah, I’m out,” Lucas said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow in school.”

“Okay,” I whined as he left and shut the door behind him. I scowled at them all. “I swear on everything I love, that you better wear earplugs tonight because I’m going to be casting spells until each of you are ground into dust and then I’ll bake a cake with your ashes!”

“Yeah, right,” Noah laughed. “We all know you can’t cook.”

I clenched my fists together and shrieked so loud that they all scattered. Henry grabbed Elliot’s arm and tried taking him upstairs but it only ripped off, leaving him stranded before me. Elliot waved his last limb at me. I pointed at him in a threatening way before I left the room for the kitchen. I don’t care if they were all technically dead. I would find a way to make it untechnical if I had to.

*              *              *

When we walked into the cafeteria hand in hand, the attention on us was so high, we might as well have been royalty. They were probably wondering what was going through my mind. How I could be intertwining fingers with such a bad boy. Little did they know that it was he who tamed the beast.

“Hope it’s not like this the whole time,” I said as I heard a few people whisper my name in astonishment. Lucas laughed
, and we continued forward until we hit my usual lunch table. Margaret’s jaw dropped, but Theresa started twirling her hair faster than ever as she checked him out. Crystal tried not to make eye contact, and Justin came out of his slumber just long enough to fist bump him. Once Lucas made contact, Justin’s head flopped back onto the table. Lucas sat between me and Margaret.

“Looks like we have a new member,” Margaret cleared her throat, then muttered, “and no one consulted me.”

“Everyone, this is Lucas,” I said, rubbing his upper back. “We’re going out now. He’s my boyfriend.”

Theresa nodded and kept staring at him. Lucas extended a hand out to Crystal.

“I don’t think we’ve met.”

She picked up her binder and hid her face behind it.

“So what are we talking about today?” I asked, looking behind Lucas to Margaret.

“Not much,” she said flatly. “Since we’ve already taken care of the dance. Don’t have to worry about anything
, at least for another month.”

“Well, it’s never too late to get started, is it?”

“Why are you so eager to get involved all of a sudden?”

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” I s
aid, standing up to address them all. “The thing is, I know I’ve been horrible. Making you all do the work while I went off and played. That’s not fair to you, and even though I did you wrong, you still kept a seat for me at this table. I really appreciate that, and I hope I can make it up to you. Please forgive me for not being a sister…and a friend.”

“You’ll always be our sis,” Justin said in a muffled tone.

“What did you do to her?” Theresa said, looking directly at Lucas. “You must be doing something right to get her to apologize like that.”

“She did that on her own,” he said. “If anything, she’s the one trying to show me the straight and narrow.”

“Mm-hmm,” Theresa said, her eyes still locked on Lucas’ lips. “So…what’s so special about Alexandra that it makes you want to repent of your ways? Because I might need a conversion.”

I sat down
slowly and glared at her.

“If I didn’t know any better,” I said to her. “I would think you were jealous.”

“Shhh,” she shooed me away. “The grown-ups are talking.”

“What did you say?!” I shouted at her. I reached out to grab her hair, but Lucas held me at bay. “What’s wrong with you?”

“So what is it?” Theresa addressed Lucas. “You attracted to the petite girls these days?”

“It’s none of your business who I’m attracted to. As long as you know it’s not you.”

“Theresa, you’re making a scene,” Margaret whispered, but Theresa ignored her.

“So what? I’m not woman enough for you?”

“Wait,” I said. “You two didn’t go out, did you?”

“No, honey,” Theresa said, winking at me.
OMG, I hated it when people my age called me honey.
“We didn’t date at all. But we were well acquainted, weren’t we?”

“Stop your lies,” Lucas laughed. “This is the first time we were ever this close
physically.” He turned his attention to me. “She’s been trying to worm her way into my lap for the past year, and she never succeeded.”

“But this one does,” she seethed, pointing at me. “Why is that? What makes her so special?”

“Thanks, Theresa,” I said to her. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that for the sake of our relationship.”

“She’s a Siren,” Justin yawned, getting up to stretch. “But that’s not what attracts him to her.”

“What?!” I screamed at him, but then I immediately caught myself and calmed down. How did Justin know everything? He couldn’t be human. I could tell Lucas was doing all he could to ignore the stoner’s comment.

“Well, Justin’s right about one thing,” Theresa scoffed. “This little…union, will end up in a train wreck. You know what happens to every guy she ends up with? They go missing or they leave the town altogether. You’re no different.”

“Why are you saying this?” I cried out to her. “I thought we were friends.”

“Yeah, we were,” she said, grimacing my way. “But that’s before you got with
him
.”

“How was I supposed to know you were in love with him?”

“If you were
here
, you would have known.”

“Apparently I ruin everything I touch, so al
l you have to do is wait it out, right?”

“Yeah, but then Luca
s will be leaving town or have ended up in a ditch.”

“That’s enough,” Lucas said, glaring at Theresa hard. “The facts are – I’m with Alex
andra. Deal with it. If you can’t, we’ll be more than happy to find another table.”

“No, don’t leave,” Margaret pleaded.

“No, don’t,” Theresa smiled. “I’ll behave.” I didn’t like the way she was staring at Lucas when she said that.

“Doubt it,” Justin said as he rubbed his eyes. “Hey, is this fifth period?”

“It’s lunchtime,” I said to him. He nodded and started looking around.

“Does that mean there’s food?”
he asked, turning back to me.

“Yes. That’s what lunchtime usually means.”

“I’ll drown out your sarcasm with sweet and sour sauce,” he said with a smile, getting up to head to the lunch line.

“We have to talk to him,” Lucas said
, and I nodded. I patted his shoulder.

“You stay here. I’ll do it.”

“You think that’s a good idea?”

“We can hear you, honey,” Theresa said, giving me a fake smile. I sighed and closed my eyes.

“Yeah, stay here,” I said to Lucas. “You hungry? I could grab some food for you too.”

“A perfect specimen such as himself,” Theresa replied. “Wouldn’t need chicken nuggets.”

“Oh yeah?” I said to her. “Well, love makes you fat.” I turned back to Lucas. “So get ready for some calories.” Lucas scowled, but I ignored it and got up from my seat to join Justin in line. As I left I heard Lucas mutter: “I don’t know how to feel about that comment Alex just made.”

I laughed as I stood behind Justin. His shoulders were slumped over and he was scratching his head through his skull cap. I tapped his back and he turned around so slow that I thought the gesture didn’t even register.

“Hey, Alex,” he said, then started turning back to face forward. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back to face me.

“I want
to talk to you,” I whispered.

“It’s chicken nugget day.”

“What?”

“You wanted to know what day it was, right?”

“It’s always chicken nugget day, Justin.”

“Oh, then why are you asking?”

“That’s not what I wanted to ask…I was going to ask you why you think I’m a Siren.”

“You are a Siren,” he said,
then he turned to cough into a fist.

“You sound like you’
re confident in that statement,” I muttered.

“You’re the Siren. You don’t know what you are?”

“No. I know who I am.”

“Then why are you asking me? Alex, you got to get your brain checked. You didn’t even
know it was chicken nugget day when every day is chicken nugget day.”

“No, no,” I said, leaning in closer to him so no one would hear me. “What I want to know is how you found out, and…why you haven’t told anyone.”

“You know what I do after school?” he asked, giving me a wide smile.

“No.”

“I get high.”

“Okay,” I giggled.
“What does that have to do with me being a Siren?”

“People think I’m just a burnout…well,
I guess I am, but no one notices me. I’m like the grass,” he lifted his eyes to stare at the wall behind me. “Yeah. I’m like the grass. I blend in. People can like…trample me or walk by me, and I’m right in their face, but they’re so used to it…oh man, I have to write this down.”