Paragon

⊰❉⊱ 43 ⊰❉⊱

"I met an old lady once, almost a hundred years old, and she told me, 'There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who's in charge?" 

― Elizabeth Gilbert

Ornate doors with brass trim were drawn back by a man in a finely cut suit and top hat. The polite way of telling people on the pavements that this establishment was not a walk-in.

I dipped my head briefly and caught the edge of his voice on a comm notifying them I was here.

The bar was plush and a facade for anyone that had made it this far as a mortal. I saw past the show and met the eyes of a bartender. He abandoned his glass and bowed curtly before gesturing an arm to the double set  doors at the end of the room.

I crossed the marble floor. My boots echoed in the space. A silence all too familiar to immortals. One that was maintained for a reason.

The doors opened before I could touch them.

"Your apparent lack of time management has been noted." A voice stated at the other end of another cavernous room.

I flexed my fingers and kept my expression neutral. I did not bother to throw them glances. A room full of elite immortals with ten times my years on this earth. They had enough ego already.

"You have my regret and apology, sir!" I called, gaining attention of every immortal in the room.

Some lounged, some read, some talked–but I cared not. I was not here for the political niceties. I was here to get in and out. Be told where to go so I could get back to the woman that was my true purpose.

"Sir." The immortal tasted the word wryly. I met his blank look and resisted a shudder.

Something about elite immortals always unsettled me. A detachment from everything. Eyes that had seen too much. A mind that had weathered too much darkness from the world. The ring of gold in his irises were the only thing stopping his eyes from being completely black.

He was adorned in a finely cut charcoal three piece. I tore my eyes off the pocket watch dangling in his fingers.

"So you closed your loopholes?" He drawled.

"Indeed." I said measured.

A few voices murmured behind but they were on different topics. I knew I was not the centre of Paragon's interests by any stretch...

"You kept that mortal in your presence for quite some time." He noted, taking up his watch and closing the distance to me slowly. I stayed in place freezing my body. Aggression was not only pointless but suicidal. You had to be an unmoving, compliant piece of stone to survive here.

"I did." I answered honestly.

"Was she that delicious?" He quipped, arching a dark brow and watching my reaction intently. So I schooled my features well. A small smirk and lazy look in my eyes.

"Exquisite. A shame I tasted the last of it."

A head tilt and a curious look. A dangerous one.

"Yet she is still alive. Interesting."

It took everything in me not to react. One emotional give away was all it would take for her to become an interest for them.

"The mortal was unfortunately high profile. It would give me more complications to remove her in this city."