“Ah.” The girl flushed bright red and grabbed two menus from the rack behind her. Her eyes darted to his chest. “Of course. So sorry. Right this way, sir.”

My eyebrows shot up my forehead as we followed her to a small corner booth. As soon as she bustled away, I couldn’t help but ask. “What the hell was that?”

“This is a popular locale with the supernatural community. Most of the waitresses here are fae. She’ll know who I am.”

She looks like she creamed herself.

I didn’t say that out loud. Frankly, I didn’t blame her. As long as she kept her hands to herself.

When I opened the menu, I couldn’t help but sneak a few glances around the place. It didn’t take me long to find him. Lars sat in the far left corner in a booth slightly larger than ours. A few other men sat with him. Also vampires, I was assuming. They all wore their brown suits, their tattoos, and their piercings. One of them gazed across the restaurant with red-lit eyes.

Shivering, I ducked behind my menu and wondered—not for the first time—what the hell I’d gotten myself into.

“Why does he have red eyes?” I hissed at Az through the menu.

He pushed the paper down, and it took all my self-control not to grimace. We’d come here to be seen, but the idea of those vampires watching me made my skin itch.

“He’s hungry,” Az said in a frank tone of voice that I didn’t feel properly conveyed the severity of that statement.

“Hungry,” I repeated.

He turned back to his menu. “Sometimes, this restaurant caters to those with varying tastebuds. Have you decided what you’d like to order?”

I swallowed down the urge to jump to my feet and get out of this restaurant as quickly as possible. They served human blood here. No way I wanted to put anything they cooked into my mouth.

“Pancakes,” I said tensely. “With ice cream.”

Az cracked a grin. “I’m afraid they don’t do pancakes here. Mia…”

“Yes?”

“Relax.” He pushed up from the table and joined me on my side of the booth. As he slung an arm around my shoulders, my heartbeat kicked up into the next gear. A moment later, his hand disappeared into the inside of his jacket, and then he fished out a small black box.

It looked like a damn wedding ring box.

“Whoa,” I hissed. “Wait a minute. We didn’t agree to take things this far.”

With a chuckle, he snapped open the lid. The signet ring twinkled at me from within folds of black silk. His seal practically glowed with firelight.

“I want you to have this,” he said as he took the ring from the box and pressed it into my hand. “It will help keep you safe tonight.”