Chapter 2

It'd been a couple of weeks since Iris found herself in a new city for the nth time in the past thousand years. There was no place on Earth that she hadn't been to before, but her agelessness made it impossible to stay in one place for too long. Immortality was a curse, she was well aware of it. But add an evil foster brother to it and eternity is a whole new level of hell.

The first thing she did after reaching this new city was to contact one of her centuries-old friends and ask him to meet her. Seemed like normal days of settling into a new city to anyone, but nothing was normal. And on top of it all, Iris couldn't shake the feeling of always being watched, even in the confines of her cozy apartment.

She was aware of her brother always keeping an eye on her, that was how he made sure to destroy even a single moment of bliss she could gather, but this felt different and she couldn't put her finger on it. Since she couldn't do anything about it, she allowed herself to go on about her messy life.

One fine evening, Iris returned after hours of buying groceries. She had barely put the key in the lock when her phone rang. At first, she decided to ignore it and call back once she was free, but the caller ID changed her mind and she picked it up exasperated, "Do you have any idea how worried you have made us all, Carl?"

Before the caller could reply, she entered her apartment with half the groceries and, without switching on any lights, went to the kitchen to place the groceries, and in the same tone resumed, "Where are you anyway? Edward's been bugging me for weeks to tell him where you are and to my surprise, Carlisle the Great, didn't even tell me this time!"

"Maeve, will you listen to me now?" He used a well-rehearsed tactic.

"How many times have I asked you not to call me that?" She tried to sound upset but they both knew he had her attention, for what he wanted to say next.

"Fine, Iris dear, listen. I am somewhere I needed to be and I didn't tell anyone because I couldn't put any of you in danger." He pleaded.

"We are all immortals here, Carl. Who are you trying to protect us from? Especially me, you know I can't die-"

He interrupted her accusatory tone with his soft sympathetic one, "There are fates worse than death, Iris, and your brother is quite capable of inflicting those."

"You are with Y? Aren't you? You went to him? Why would you go to him? Carl, what mess have you gotten yourself into? Didn't you think about your family? Did you think about me at all? You didn't think this through!" She spoke alarmed and stopped fixing the groceries that she had gone back to collect from the door.

"IRIS! I have something very important to tell you. I don't have much time but-" He started hurriedly.

"Carl, you are scaring me. Whatever it is, tell me in person. Get out of there first. Please, I need you in one piece." She almost begged.

"Iris, I am fine. Don't worry. Just listen, please. You have to get out of that city, even the country, as soon as possible. Iris, are you listening to me?" He had an urgency in his voice.

"Carl, I don't understand. What is it? Please come back safely. Please get away from Y. He'll kill you, Carl-" She had a huge urge to pass through the phone and reach her friend who was clearly in a mess.

"Iris, Forget about me!" He said forcefully, trying to get her attention, "Iris, Y has been biotechnologically enhancing people here. Just a week ago in the files here. Iris, he's gonna send enhanced creatures after you who, God knows, may even have the power to kill you. You need to get out of ther-"

"Carl? How do you know all this? What are you exactly telling? Carl? Carlisle? What happened? Carl?" Her phone call had ended mid-conversation. The phone showed no signal, but how could that be?

She put her hands in her hair and started pacing, talking to herself, "O my God! Carl, what have you gotten yourself into? Please don't die for me. I won't be able to live with myself if anything happens to you because of me. Oh, Carlisle!" She would've continued her terrified monologue if she hadn't been interrupted by a strong unfamiliar masculine voice coming from her living room.

Dom had had enough. He had been waiting for his mate to return from her groceries for a while. During that time, he had enough time to rethink all of his decisions, especially the one he was about to declare to his unsuspecting mate on her return home. But that call was unexpected.

And her care for that Carl guy felt even worse.

Dom could feel the same jealousy he felt when he saw her at ease with that guy two weeks ago. But was this and that guy the same person or did his mate have more than one man in her life? He had gotten a few useful answers on the first week after he saw her when his trusted right-hand man had been sent to do homework on her. But there was still so much to learn about her.

She was so busy getting worried about the guy on the phone that she didn't turn on the lights and went straight to the kitchen without noticing Dom and his right-hand man waiting for her in the living area. They waited for her to get free but the conversation took a drastic turn and the guests had to step in.

On one hand, Dom couldn't listen to his mate getting worried over another man, and on the other hand, the call needed to be disrupted so that the idiot Carl won't spill all the beans to his mate. Dom wanted to be the one who told her the truth. So he got the phone signals cut with one gesture and the call dropped. Then, to stop her monologue and introduce himself properly, he finally got her attention by calling out to her, "If you're done, we've been waiting for an hour."

Iris quickly stepped into the living room area and turned on the lights. The sight that awaited her, made Carl fly out of her thoughts and simultaneously made her heart skip a beat with a strange giddiness and fear.

An extremely handsome stranger sat in her reading sofa chair and beside him stood another man, just as handsome but a little younger, and both vibrated authority. Iris felt like she couldn't remove her eyes from the one seated on her sofa. She didn't know what to say or feel, but there were strange contradictory feelings going through her the more he stared at her with those steel orbs of eyes.

After what felt like an eternity, he broke the staring contest and nodded to the man beside him, who swiftly went outside, leaving them alone. That broke her trance and all her built walls came straight up and feelings of paranoia and threat were the only ones left. Dom felt the change in her as well but waited for her reaction.

"Who the heck are you? and how did you even get inside?" Iris finally decided defensive was the way around this man who only a few moments ago made her giddy with a mere gaze.

"My name is Dominic. Nice to meet you, Iris." His voice held a strange silky authority. This made her try to become even more defensive,

"How the hell do you know my name? and I asked you, How did you enter? This place is-"

He interrupted her, "-Fortified with magic? Well, let's just say, I am too handsome for the magic to work on me, Iris." He smirked slyly at her. Her name rolled sensually on his tongue as she felt confused and slightly threatened about the man who knew about her magical inchantments and even crossed them.

He stood up and she took an involuntary step backward, almost yelling, "How the fuck do you know me? and how did you enter? Answer me!" He held up his powerful hands in surrender, "I am not a threat, Iris, in fact, I am-"

"I don't care whoever you are. If you don't stop with your riddles, tell the truth, and leave me alone, I am going to blast you out across the street." If he knew of her magic enchantments, then she had no reason to keep her magic in check. After the strange, worrisome conversation, she just had with Carl. If magic is what it takes to protect herself, so be it.

"Iris, I understand you have questions, and you are confused but-" He almost smiled mockingly at her. Before he could complete his sentence, she gathered her magic and, with a silent blast spell, hurled her power to knock him down as proof of her power that he did not compare to.

But to her utter shock and his satisfaction, nothing happened. The spell didn't work, the magic didn't even leave her body at all to attack the man standing shamelessly arrogant in front of her, hands casually in the pockets of his dress pants, smirking. This had never happened before. Her magic had never in a thousand years of her existence failed her before.

What was this man? She was about to find out!