My fingers fidget with the gold band that replaced the heavy crime lord ring. We occupy Times Square so entirely that the streets burst at the seams. 

Not a space amongst the crowd, I stand backstage and try to listen to the melodic tune of my warlord singing. It was deemed unsafe for me to be in public, by Ron or Verando I'm not sure. As much as I know he's aware of my skill, he's also painfully aware of my urge to preserve human life and it seemed fair to assume that I'd allow harm to come to myself before I wiped out a group of people. 

I scan the crowd; the dull hum of thousands of bodies in an ocean of twinkling lights engulfs our small space of what could be the only haven. It reminds me entirely of our time in the dark forest, tracked by the haunting dead eyes of the infected. Faces are illuminated by cellphones and wrist communicators as the crowd tries to capture one of the very few live concerts of this era.

 A true global treasure, here in the flesh. Only in my eyes, I'm haunted and escape to the rear of the massive stage, away from the memory and the prying eyes of the public. I would be weak tonight, I would need a drink. Finding one of the servers that trailed through the VIP section, I snag a beer and down half of it before I can get out of sight.

It had been announced that Red would be here, and I stood on the edge, dealing with memories that hadn't visited me in over a year. It was so painfully disappointing when only an hour ago, I was feeling at my best. It takes all my willpower to keep my feet on the floor and stop myself from throwing a shield up to protect him from the expanse of the unknown.

Verando stands on that stage, alone, save for the live band that plays the background music for the performance. Much to my relief, Tiberius and his gang give me a wide berth so as not to scare off any attempts at communication. I couldn't deal with the extravagant siren on top of my anxious self. 

 steal a peek at my phone and note the time. Nervousness before the battle is not my usual in this aspect, the crowds don't tend to frighten me, the noise or the ambiance used to fade away and the task at hand was all I could envision. 

Yet tonight, I'm feeling suddenly overwhelmed. Did that mean she was here? Was she putting anxiety into the crowd?

I'm connected to him, my death would end his life, and that, alone, keeps me awake at night. Now, my heart is on a stage as an open target in a much more lethal world, and I'm at odds with myself.

Ron casually approaches, standing as if he wasn't talking to me. "Red's manager just called me to say she has arrived. I'm going to switch your speech to after Tiberius. I don't want her to get a chance to attack you before his song can affect her. Here." His hand casually outstretches, and I capture the dropped items that appear to be ear implants. 

"For your ears, it will filter out the effects of the song. There's a good chance Red is wearing them, too, but it's worth a hope and a prayer that she's not." 

I scoff as I place them in my ears. Prayer is not something I have relied on for a very long time, but it's all we have for tonight. An untrained army, few against many, massive odds stacked against us, it makes me chuckle at how similar it is to our previous life.

"Thank you, Ron. Are Helen and Tyler here?" I test the waters. 

He makes a face, and that answers my question immediately. 

"Mr.Matesscu, Mr.Mercer does not tell me much of his dealings. If it involves Ms.Helen, I'd say I'd be the last to know about it. Try calling her cell?" He gestures to the phone in my other hand, and I nod, only mildly embarrassed. 

He winks, "You and your Fiance have similar issues with technology it seems. Once I caught him even trying to write a letter. Have a good evening, Mr.Matesscu, I'll see you once the show is over."

 Leaving me to my business, I quickly pull up my phone only to almost jump out of my skin as an unfamiliar hand touches my shoulder. I wheel around to see Grayson, goofy grin and all. 

"What are you doing?!" I demand of him harshly. "Do you understand I could have killed you for sneaking up on me like that? This is a critical mission."

Taken aback, he backs up a step and gives me room to catch my breath. "I'm sorry, I thought I'd surprise you. We haven't seen each other in quite a while." 

Shaking my head in exasperation at his logic, I call Helen and frown when I get no answer. 

Grayson has an invested interest in my physical person, and it would seem that those affections had not been waived. 

"Where's Helen and Tyler?" I attempt to deter him from getting too personal. He points, and I smack his hand down. "Don't point! Just-" I stop, forcing myself to lower my tone. It's not his fault, he's just untrained and trying to be cute. Was I this naive as a younger man? 

The thought makes me want to roll my eyes at myself, I am still a young man, I'm just about to marry a much older one. "Just tell me where they are, Grayson?"

"Are you mad at me?" His voice is defeated, and I don't have time to nurture him back to logic and reason or willpower. It's best this way, for him to think of me as a nasty individual who is hard to work with. I pinch the bridge of my nose as the realization that I'm turning into my soon-to-be husband dawns on me.

"Grayson, I do not have time for this. Just tell me, please?" I could beg him, I don't have time to ponder what being in such an age gap is doing to my maturity. 

Finally, he nods. "They're on the sidewalks, in the alleyways between these major buildings. My sister and Helen are patrolling the crowd to keep a lookout. No one has spotted her yet, but if they do, they'll text or access your Artifice." 

I nod, grateful for some sort of information, and turn my attention back to Verando, who has started his final song, a somber number to set the tone for the metal band that is to follow. I feel Grayon's eyes on me, boring into my exposed golden ring, and I instinctively cover it. "So you are with him, still? Knowing what a monster he is?" 

"I thought I told you as much?" I try to deflect, I don't want to talk about this, not after last time.

 The hair stands on the back of my neck, warning me to keep my distance. This is not who I thought I'd have to be afraid of as Old Nicolas rears his ugly head, the part of me that tells me not to disappoint anyone, the role of the worthless Prince that says I'm being too sensitive and I should be flattered. 

All I can think of, as he undresses me with his eyes and I huddle in on myself, is the pain and suffering I endured at the hands of my sister. That I was raped, that being coveted and loved could mean that someone would use your being to hurt someone else. I wasn't the same man I was before that day. 

My body rejects him, making me feel physically ill at the thought, at the very notion another man would attempt to force himself on me even if his intentions were nothing but pure. 

Pursing his lips, he shrugs once. "I just hoped you'd change your mind." His hand reaches to touch me, and I stop him with a harsh look. 

Don't touch me. 

The mental damage comes flooding back all at once. Looking frustrated, he snorts at what he must consider prudish behavior. "Lighten up. I like you, alright? I'm trying to get to know you, you don't have to be such a bitch. Are all men like this? You're worse than women."

"Your rank and mine are centuries apart, you'd do well to remember that. Please get back to work, Grayson." My more recent self steps into the light, the part that is sexy and confident, the side of me that is loved and knows my true potential. 

"You heard the man. Leave him alone." The voice is so familiar, and I know Tonic has joined me. Grayson's eyes widened, and the electricity jumped to his hands. 

"Give us time, Grayson. Go take a walk." I soften my tone, my eyes pleading with the young man that he realizes this is why I'm here. Swallowing the rest of my beer, it was time to spring my trap. 

 Rejected, the electro youth departs, and I give Tonic a glance. "You probably have ten minutes before he tells everyone exactly where you are, so if you're here to apologize, I suggest you do it.."

Tonic steps forward to stand beside me, dressed in a suit as well, I note that he's got a synthetic skin over his robotic hand. "How's Helen?"

"Her mother is dead, thanks to you, so I don't think you have any right to ask that." I snap back, my tone struggling to maintain pace with the facade that I'm comfortable standing beside this man. My warlord's voice echoes in the background over the loudspeaker, calming me. 

"I truly hope you came here to apologize. Groveling might be nice."

Tonic snorts, amused. "Nic, there's no coming home for me. I'm afraid I've just really fucked this up. Not seeing many other ways other than this." 

Calmly, I raise an eyebrow, and he mimics that look that my warlord gives me so seamlessly. It makes my skin crawl, and I try to ignore the fact he's simply copying his father down to the hairstyle. Unfortunately for him, the comparison was lost to me. I could no longer see the resemblance, from the scar to the brown eyes to the softer shape of his jaw. 

Legardo had forever broken me; a true Alpha look alike. Never again would I allow the comparison to grace Tonic's likeness. 

"So, what's the plan? Are you going to hold me at gunpoint? Torture me?"

I had all the words in my mouth, ready to come out and seduce him, yet here I stood, astounded at how we got to this point. I thought I'd be prepared for this, but truthfully, I feel overwhelmingly disappointed and upset.

 You have fucked up," I tell him firmly. "But-" I have to try, to fight through the burn. "It's never too late, Tonic."

He watches me, his eyes heavy with regret. "Isn't it?" He snatches my hand with the cold metallic enhancement, eyeing the golden band. "So he finally convinced you? I could kill her..." I yank my hand out of his, and he sighs, shaking his head. 

"She was supposed to stop this... Helen, also, wasn't supposed to bring him back with you." Perhaps it was the fact that I'd stepped out of my youth and into maturity. Maybe it was my status or my power that made me an attractive candidate for these men to suddenly have confessions of unexplainable affection for me. 

I don't step back, and I don't yield. I straighten, setting my jaw. "If you are going to bore me with some garbled story about how you fancy me, I suggest you crawl back into your hole, Tonic, because I'll have none of it. You had Stefan-"

Tonic laughs out loud. "Stefan had me. You and I were friends far before the sadist I call a father dug his hooks into you. When I was out there, alone in those woods, trying to survive, all I could think about was you. You were alone with him, lulled into what they now know today as Stockholm Syndrome. You were conned, to love a man who killed your family. You don't understand what you're feeling; you're sick. There is medicine that will cure you, just like it did me-" 

Anger threatens to spill over at his words. We were dying. We were being attacked around every corner, and he was doing nothing but following behind us. Victor, Temptrest, Marcus, all those patrons. "You should stop right there before you say something you regret. If you truly thought of me, you would not have left your family to die time and time again. You ran when we needed you, you killed innocent elven soldiers, or do you forget things that are inconvenient to the concocted fantasy of your love for me?"

He snarled, grabbing my arm firmly, and I gripped his hand to freeze it, but the metal didn't react to the icy chill. 

"I was doing what I had to do to end up here. Red tried to get you to work with us many times, but you were too invested in this farce that we could have survived. I waited four hundred years for you to come back to me; I watched you die at my damned feet, knowing that I had failed you. Red was supposed to heal you herself so that you wouldn't be bonded to him. So that you wouldn't be trapped with him. It was all supposed to work out differently..." 

I don't believe what I'm hearing. So the 'heart attack' was some forced death, a reset, set by Red? There was a future where they had separated us... there had to have been because it was written that way in history. Only I died, she didn't bring me back.

"Red knew I'd come to the future? How?" 

He hesitates, relaxing his grip, and I force myself away from the thought that I'd rather just kill him. Backing up, I pull him behind the heavy curtains to take us out of the public view. While many patrons might think I'm with Verando, I didn't need word circulating. 

Don't be stupid; he followed you way too quickly. 

I squirm in the cramped space; at least here, I can use without being seen. "You know something? You wouldn't be here if you didn't."

"I'm not an idiot, Nic. I know you very well." He does know me. But not as well as he thinks.

"I suppose it doesn't matter. I am bonded to Verando for life; there is no reason to discuss this any further-" I move to slip past him, and he snatches me once more. I jerk away, "Don't-" I shut my eyes, stopping myself. "He'll smell you on me. Best not to touch." 

"What if I want him to know I haven't given up? That I'm going to keep trying to win this fight." His tone is low as his lips near my ear. He smelled strongly of alcohol and sulfur; perhaps he'd been frequenting the underground where the water hadn't been cleaned yet. 

"Why do I care if you get in trouble? You deserve to reap what you sew." His voice darkens and I know he's just having moments of raw emotion mixed with the trauma and terror of being trapped in his own dark mind. He was still off his medication, he was a wild man at large.

"So, is this what you wanted? To tease me and get me in trouble?" I demand, leaning away from him, and resting my hands on his chest. 

Tonic takes in my scent, and I swallow hard at my restraint. He doesn't know me at all; he mistakes my discomfort for arousal, and I'm lucky he can't tell the difference. I thought I was ready for something like this, but my mind screamed for freedom. 

I'm too damaged, too used, to be good at such an interrogation. Yet, I'm the only one who can do this. I'm the only one he wants. I let the emotion come through, inhaling shakily. "You wish to see me frightened? Beaten, even? Well, here it is, Tonic. You're scaring me."

He narrows his eyes, growling low in his throat. "No. Never. This is what I want to prevent! I just had to see you; to check on Helen and ensure she was alright."

"Then why do you say such things to me? If you did love me as you say, wouldn't you be trying to rescue me?" I press him, glancing at the ground, shutting my eyes to hide from the closeness of his face. 

I feel him hedge and sense the words caught in his throat. "Tonic. Can... you help me?" I manage; my voice is small as I peer up at him. I hear the echo of the metal band in the background and slip a little closer to him. My body heats up, burning from the inside out, and my mind skips to my implants sitting in my pocket.

 I feel his heartbeat through his chest and watch him with the same intensity that he consumes me with unseeing, feral eyes. It was almost as if he was acting on instinct, memories, a cycle he was trapped in where he still needed to protect me and were in war times.

His lips crush against mine as he shoves me against the metal wall of the stage. I fight for control as I kiss him back, not wanting to allow him the upper hand. "I want you so badly." He groans against my lips. 

I try not to allow my actual answer to come out as I tangle my hand in the slicked-back hair and kiss him again. My free hand slips down towards my pocket as I wriggle against him, fighting against the music and his wandering hands. 

"I want to help you." Tonic manages. My body is on a time limit; I can't take this much longer. I could feel the panic bubbling up in my throat; if he touched me, I would be done for. Nothing about this was sensual or intimate; it was forced and clunky, his hands were unskilled, and my body unwilling. 

I feel a single tear slide down my cheek; I never want to do this again.

"How?" I ask breathlessly, tilting my head back so he can catch my neck as he lifts me off the ground. The music plays so loudly as I fumble to get to my ear implants; one of my legs limply hangs over his hip. Unfortunately for Tonic, my default was an apathetic starfish regarding forced intimacy. It appeared that only my husband could turn me into a sexual deviant when it came to a Siren song. 

Here, against my will, I was merely compliant. I curse under my breath, slipping my hand in my pocket finally. "Please, Tonic."

He pops the buttons on my shirt. I grip his hands, fighting with him to keep his hands above my clothes, yet my fingers are weak. I feel drunk and spaced out; my body had chosen not to be here. I was abandoning myself; I couldn't go through that ever again. "What if I told you we could take it away?"

"Take what away?" I slide off of him to straighten my pocket, jamming my hand around desperately as I slip my leg between his thighs for a better angle.

"The celestial being? Your attachment to him. I could give you your independence. Well. Red could." He spins me around, shoving me against the icy metal and grinding against me from behind. 

I yelp as my cheek hits the cold wall and lift my arm to support myself, cursing this damned music and my stupidity. I can't think straight, and I can hardly stand with the intensity of my learned helplessness baring down on me. He wasn't being careful; my human body protested the force with which he slammed me into the wall. 

"Red doesn't have that power." I challenge him. "Don't lie to me."

"She has to make him give it away to someone else. Then that's it. No more Celestial being, no more bond. He'd never be able to hurt you again; he'd be just another story in the sky."

I squirm, the tears rolling down my cheeks, yet I can't make a sound as I fight his hands from touching my belt. "He'd never do that. Tonic, you're out of your fucking mind."  I feel the song winding down as I retrieve the earbuds; my hands tremble as my body threatens to give in. My belt slips to the side, and he jerks at my pants.

"He would for Marisol. I needed some insurance just in case he did come forward in time with you. He loves her just as much as he loves you. We will be together, Nic, after tonight.. he will give it up." 

I place the earbuds hurriedly into my ears, feeling the sweet relief of my mobility returning to me. I didn't have to surrender, but I also didn't have to let him live. 

I blast him backward and storm out from behind the curtain. With a sharp kick, I nail him with a gust of wind to the side and send him down the backstage in a twisting heap.

Tonic moves to swing at me, but I blast his hand with ice, firming it to the ground before I kick him sharply across the jaw. 

"Nic, this is your sickness! It's all about to be over." He coughs, spitting blood. "It's all about to be over. I promise, Nic."

I ice his other hand to the floor before I take the heel of my shoe and stomp on his groin. He screams in agony as I twist. "Tell me what you did, Tonic!" I demand as he writhes. 

Grayson runs towards me, eyes wide, and I already know what he will say. 

"Verando got into a car and left. We were tailing him but lost him in an ambush of cats."