Fire and Ice: The Volturi Queen (Aro/Marcus/Caius/OFC)

Chapter One

Persy didn't want to be working tonight. It had nothing to do with Carver's Café and more to do with the splitting headache she was currently dealing with. Her ability wasn't making things easy for her and the headache meant she was unable to block out everyone's thoughts as she usually would. Already, she had felt like slapping two regulars for their dirty thoughts about her, especially since their wives were sitting just across from them thinking about how much they loved their faithful husbands. It made her sick. More so when she heard one of the women thinking about telling her husband that she was expecting their first child whilst he was too busy thinking about what he wanted Persy to do with her mouth; and it had nothing to do with asking for his order or giving him a smile.

"Damn, Persy sure has grown up..."

"I can't believe he fired me because..."

"Stupid bitch still doesn't know how much I want a divorce..."

"...I just wanna wrap those long legs around my waist as I pound into that sweet p..."

That last thought had been aimed at her as she walked past a particularly shady regular who only ever seemed to frequent the tables assigned to Persy. She walked past him, not daring to look in his direction as she hurried to the back of the diner and practically flew into Janie's office before she slammed the door shut. Persy covered her ears with her hands, shaking her head as she tried to drown out the sounds like she usually did. It wasn't working, and she felt a tear fall from her eye as the thoughts of everyone in the diner only managed to worsen her headache.

"Persy?"

She barely registered Janie's voice coming from the corner of the room where her desk was and jumped when her slim hands settled on Persy's petite shoulders, squeezing gently. "Persy, hey, look at me," she spoke softly, waiting patiently for Persy's dark eyes to meet her light ones. Through slightly blurred eyes, Persy could see the concern on Janie's as she looked her over. "You okay?" she asked, her voice still quiet and soothing.

For a moment, Persy thought about telling her everything was fine; that quickly came to a halt as when her boss's thoughts rang out in her head.

"God, she looks so much like her mum"

"Poor dear, such a tragedy what happened to her parents."

"It must be hard; living alone in that big house all alone. So many memories in that big ol' place."

"I'm not feelin' too good, Janie," she replied, trying to drown out her thoughts.

"You need me to call someone to come pick you up?" she asked immediately and Persy smiled at her thoughtfulness.

Persy nodded, straightening up and releasing a breath as Janie's hands fell from her shoulders before she stood. "Could you call Tye?" she asked, already knowing her best friend was free tonight.

Janie's nose wrinkled at the mention of her sometimes overly-aggressive friend but nodded and made her way over to the phone in her office regardless. Persy only spoke to give her Tye's number and barely heard a word Janie spoke on the phone as she moved over to the dusty couch in the corner and sat down heavily. She raised her knees to her chest and rested her arms over her knees as she buried her head in her arms and tried to think of anything except the thoughts of others that seemed to be running rampant in her mind.