MEGARA KATASAROS.

"Busy." Meg's hands were doing eighteen different things at once. She wasn't a bartender and made a point to avoid mixing drinks if she didn't have to. It was below her pay grade. Tartarus was short staffed for some reason, however. Nico had been inviting more and more guests and all of the normal workers were sequestered away in private rooms. "Did you need another drink?"

"Oh, Meg--" Nico paced around behind her until he closed the distance between them and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. "Meg, Meg, Meg... But you haven't even told me how our favorite Wonder Boy is doing."

Meg had never minded her name. It was fine as far as names went. When it was Nico's mouth, however, she almost hated it. She hated how his tongue rolled over the syllables and drew out the three simple letters. It felt dirty. "Better than you'd like him to be. What can I say, Nico? The guy's got eyes but he's also got integrity." It was the same answer she'd been giving him, and Meg knew it wouldn't be acceptable for much longer.

"But you have business with me?" Meg's business was Nico's business, as unfortunate as that was. Still, she was intrigued. "What do you need?"

Running errands was below her pay grade. Meg was a lot of things, but a glorified message boy wasn't one of them. Nico wanted her soul wrapped around his finger? Fine. She'd grin and bear it. At the very least, he usually kept her occupied with things that weren't trivial in nature. Breaking an innocent heart was becoming a full time job, but he still had the audacity to ask her to go looking for Jack Spencer as if she didn't have better things to do. "I'm looking for your brother." No time was wasted. "He around?"

megara + hair

MELISSA BARRERA for ELLE | April 2023

"I think this is the part where I tell you that I don't like fish." Meg signaled for the bartender with a tightlipped smile. She knew him pretty well. Most nights, she wasn't a paying customer. Meg could drink for free at Tartarus if she wanted — which she didn't —so she usually only went to other bars if she was picking up a guy for Nico. On this night, however, she had just needed an escape from the club. Her moment of reprieve wasn't supposed to include a siren trying to save money.

"C'mon, I promise I don't bite."

Nico sidestepped her the instant she tried to move past him, and raised his eyebrows with a smile at her attempt. "You're always on the clock, Meg. You know that." His hand reached forward to brush some of her hair behind her ear as he shook his head. "Great. Tell me about it then."

"How could I forget? I'm the luckiest girl in the world." Her jaw feathered as his hand touched her hair, eyes remaining trained on his face even when she wanted to look at the offending hand. "He's a good guy, Nico. A really good guy." Maybe even a great one. "It isn't as easy as seducing some random drunk to get them to pay you back. This wonder boy isn't like anyone else here."

Staring for a moment, Meg reached out and took the bag back. She quickly rifled through it to see if anything was missing. "Pleasant? Sure, kid. It's been pleasant."

Taylor scrunched her nose up at the sight of the lifeless man below them and stepped forward so she didn't have to look at him before shrugging. "Maybe I just wanted a change of scenery. It's not like your name is written on this alleyway." Meg's might not have been, but Nico Dios' sure was. Taylor knew that, but she didn't care.

"So you picked here? I gotta say, you have great taste." There was a scoff. "I'm not territorial, so I don't care. Other Tartarus vamps might not feel the same. Keep that in mind." Sighing, she crouched down to pull the dead man's license from his wallet. The generic name didn't ring any bells. She'd have a bouncer from the club move the body. "This was the last thing I needed."

Leota sighed, worried that she might truly be reaching her limit and in need of a break. Something within her was off, and it troubled her greatly. However, she was yanked out of her own thoughts by the question of a love spell. “Why certainly, my dear Meg, I have my various solutions. The question is: What sort of love problem are you having?”

The my dear Meg definitely earned a look from Meg as she picked up a packet of herbs and sniffed at them. Scrunching her nose, she set it back down. "None. Not yet, at least. We're calling it worst case scenario." She was good at what she did. Meg knew that. Why was she doubting her skills? Was it because Harrison was so disarming? Meg didn't want to hurt him. She really didn't. It was just inevitable at this point. "Like always, Leota, I'm asking for discretion. This is personal."

"Always a pleasure, Cynthia. I'm not distracting you from skinning a werewolf or something, am I?"

"For that to happen you would have to be able to get to me first, which I find, quite extremely difficult to be. I didn't come to cause any harm either, in the end is us girls against the world, but is your choice in the end."

"Great. I'll keep that in mind." Meg tipped her head towards the other woman, already ready to move on from the conversation. "Look, I love the feminism & we gotta stick together thing you have going on, but I'm fine on my own. Always have been, always will be." It was easier that way, easier to avoid getting hurt. "Save yourself some heartache."

"Yeah, I don't want to talk about Ms. Queen." Henley lost the ability to call the wretched woman by her first name a long time ago. Literally, considering the control she forked over the moment she gave her heart up. "You have a question, ask her yourself. She stops by Queen Cosmetics sometimes."

Meg was, as a rule of thumb, vigilante. She liked to pay attention to what was going on. "I was mostly confused as to why a caster's daughter was running around with a pack of vampires." And Perry Kingsley, nonetheless. He came by Tartarus on occasion but Meg refused to engage. "But I'll have to pass. Caster's don't tend to love vampires in their space."