I can sense the rapid departure of the pain, my injuries receding. This is way more powerful than the time I drank from Dru. Perhaps the older the vampire, the more potent their blood. I have no clue how old Dru is, but I imagine she’s a good deal younger than Ethan. There’s something way too modern about her, whereas Ethan sometimes talks like someone out of an old film or a book. He’s a fifty/fifty mix of modern cool and old fashioned sensibilities. Often those sensibilities are a little too old fashioned for my tastes, especially the control freak factor.
These thoughts filter through my brain, while I’m vaguely aware of Ethan’s hand slipping beneath my t-shirt and gripping tightly onto my hip with need as we continue to consume each other with our eyes. I literally am consuming him, drinking down his heavenly sweet blood.
Then all too soon his hand clamps onto my jaw and he eases my mouth away from his wrist. I withdraw with a loud gasp, as the excess blood drips down from my mouth. Ethan’s fangs are still extended and it seems like it’s taking all of his will power to back away from me now.
His hand lets go of my hip and he steps back to sit down on the edge of the tub. We haven’t once let our gazes drop from one another. A few brief moments pass before I gain some level of coherent thought.
“Um thanks, I guess,” I mumble at him and look away. I step over to the sink and turn on the tap, before washing my red mouth until it’s free of Ethan’s blood. I’m shivering all over now, half because of his blood being in my system and half because I’m hyper aware that he’s watching my every movement.
I’ve been getting this feeling a lot the past few days. The feeling that Ethan is watching me when I’m not looking. Like he might actually be finding it difficult to stay away from me, despite his cool, calm and collected disposition. He must be having some sort of internal conflict over whether or not to forgive me for my “betrayal”. He’s definitely very far off from coming to any conclusion about me though. Somehow I can tell that Ethan providing me with relief from my injuries does not a reconciliation make.
“How do you feel now?” he asks, and it looks like he’s holding back a small smirk.
Obviously he knows his blood makes me feel amazing. It’s such a massive high that I might actually have to go and have a lie down for a while. My head is almost dizzy with this feeling of euphoria. Is it the same for blood donors when the vampires feed from them, I wonder? If so, I can definitely see the attraction, even if I’m squeamish about the process.
“Good,” I answer, too begrudging to actually explain to him that I am high as a fucking kite right now. He knows it anyway, and now he does smirk at me.
“I would think that “good” is a slight understatement, wouldn’t you?”
“Well, maybe if we were friends I’d describe to you how I’m feeling in a little more detail, but since that’s not the case, “good” will have to suffice.”
Ethan’s smirk deepens. His eyes trace every curve of my body. I’ve been drowning my worries with a little too much food lately. Dad in hell. Ethan hating me. Theodore back to wreak havoc. Comfort eating has been my only comfort. I haven’t yet ventured into the realm of fat, thank God, but I’m definitely teetering in the balance.
Ethan starts to speak. “My blood is rushing through your veins, invigorating them. Every good feeling you might be having is enhanced ten times over. For instance, if I were to touch the sensitive spot beneath your ear with my lips you would undulate in a pleasure so intense it would be as though I were actually inside of you, plunging hard into you.”
Tingles travel down my spine. Oh, he’s definitely trying to torture me. Two can play at that game. I step over to him and sit astride his lap. I press my lips to the exact spot he just mentioned, only beneath his own ear. A deep growl rumbles in his chest.
“Feeling brave?” he whispers.
“Maybe,” I whisper back.
What the hell am I playing at? This isn’t like me at all. I’ve never been this sexually aggressive before in my life. It’s his blood, definitely his blood. With great effort I draw away from him and stand up.
“Too much for you, sugar?” he asks, a satisfied look on his face.
“Piss off, Ethan.”
I storm out of the bathroom and into the room I’m currently sharing with Amanda. She’s not around though; Noreen must have taken her out for a walk or something. I can hear Ethan chuckling as he goes back down the stairs to rejoin Rita.
I lay my body on top of the clean white sheets and enjoy the after effects of vampire blood consumption. My head is a swirling, multi-coloured mix of euphoric pleasure. My every pore tingles. The feeling radiates through me, and not one single worry pollutes my mind.
This is nice. It’s like when you hit that perfect balance of drunkenness, where you don’t remember why you were miserable enough to go and get drunk in the first place, but better. Way better.
I slip off my shoes and crawl further onto the bed, pushing my cheek against the soft fluffiness of the pillow and grinning like a maniac for no apparent reason at all. That’s the last thing I remember doing, before I’m woken up by the creak of a door opening.
I don’t want to leave this perfect slumber, but I open my eyes nonetheless to see who has just entered the room. It’s Amanda. Her vibrant pink hair is the first thing I see, although the colour is growing out a little bit now. You can see the dark brown roots at the top.
She’s been doing pretty well, considering the fact that Lucas has been sniffing around since he’s living just over the road with Ethan. Delilah has held true to her promise though, and is ensuring that he keeps his distance from my friend. Noreen has been giving her this special medicinal brew several times a day. It’s healing her addiction, as well as keeping a level head on her shoulders. There’s a bit of magic in it, too. Just enough to allow her to get better, because humans can’t recover naturally from the addiction to a vampire’s bite.
“Hey Mandy, where have you been?” I ask, rubbing my sleepy eyes.
“Out with Noreen and Alvie. We went shopping for like, magical stuff.”
She says those last two words with a certain level of awe. Amanda has only very recently had her eyes opened to what is really going on in this city. When she was Lucas’ blood donor she’d been too out of it to fully comprehend her situation. Now that she’s almost better she understands what had really been happening to her. It was a bit of a shock to her system in the beginning, and although the road was rocky, we’re getting there now. She’ll probably be well enough to go home in a couple of days. The thought makes me feel lonely. I’ve become accustomed to having her with me.
She lets out a long breath before she speaks. “So, I’ve been thinking that I might head home tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow, isn’t that a little bit soon?” I ask.
“Not really, Tegan. I feel better, much better. Noreen says I’m well enough to go back to living at my old place.”
“Oh…well, I’ll miss you.”
She frowns a little, then smiles at me. “You have enough on your plate without having to worry about me. I feel healthier than I have in a long time, and I have no intention of going anywhere near “the fanged ones” ever again.”
She gestures bunny ears and puts on a Dracula voice when she says “fanged ones”. I suppose she really must be feeling better if she’s got a sense of humour about it all.
“Yeah well, be that as it may, you need to be careful when you go out at night. Vampires aren’t the only scary things in this city, you know.”
Amanda nods quietly. I hear somebody coming up the stairs and then there’s a knock on the bedroom door.
A second later Finn calls, “Hey Amanda, tell that lazy wagon to get up. We’re having a meeting in the living room in ten minutes. The vamps are on their way over.”
“I’m up Finn,” I say, and at the sound of my voice he marches on into the room.
“What’s the meeting about?” I ask him.
Finn folds his arms across his chest. “R
ita mentioned what happened to you today, about the riot and how you think it had something to do with Theodore. So, we’re having a meeting to discuss that possibility.”
“How very formal,” I reply. We haven’t had any meetings all together in one room since that first time we all decided to team up in Finn’s kitchen. I look over at Amanda. “You might want to make yourself scarce. Lucas will be coming over with the rest of the vamps and Delilah.”
“Sure, I’ll stay up here,” she says, sitting down on the bed and rooting a paperback that she’s been reading out of the wardrobe.
I run a hand through my hair to get rid of the bed head somewhat. Finn’s wry glance tells me that it doesn’t work much. I pay a quick visit to the bathroom, before heading downstairs in my jeans and t-shirt. I’m not going to bother getting dressed up for a bunch of vampires who will barely talk to me.
I’m hungry, so I have a look in the kitchen cupboard for something to munch on. I pull out a packet of tortilla chips and almost don’t notice Ira sitting over by the window. He’s staring out into the garden with a meditative look on his face.
He glances at me then, probably sensing my eyes on him, as you do. I give him a silent nod, because he’s still doing the whole mute thing. I wonder if he lost the ability to speak as a result of the curse that was placed on him or something. Who knows. Finn’s been doing a lot of work with him, although I have no idea what kind of work that is. Mostly he takes him out to get him used to the world as a man again, instead of a dog.
When I go into the living room the vampires are all assembled, as well as Rita, Noreen, Gabriel and Alvie. They must have gotten here while I’d been in the bathroom. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze since the room isn’t so big. Everyone’s silent as I come in, munching loudly on the tortilla chips just to annoy the vamps. I notice Rita holding back a smirk.
There aren’t any chairs left, so I sit down on the floor by the fireplace. I cross my legs in a Buddha-like pose and glance around. When my eyes meet Ethan’s my face instinctively reddens, as I remember our encounter from earlier on.
His face lacks expression, but his eyes hold mine, almost in challenge. I feel like being all nineties and telling him to go take a chill pill. He’s so silent and serious these days, not that he was ever a loose goose or anything.
My gaze drifts to Delilah then. I have to do a double take, because she’s wearing a translucent cream coloured vest top with no bra underneath. Her B-cups are all on show. None of the vampires seem to have noticed this in the slightest, I mean, come on. They’re not like humans in that sense; somebody could traipse in stark naked and they probably wouldn’t bat an eyelid. Lucas might grin in that pervy way of his, but that’s about it.
A moment of silence passes and Finn finally decides to join us. He’s still a little aggressive around the vamps. It’ll take a lot more time for him to overcome his reservations about them, if ever. I hold in my laughter when I notice him do an almost identical double take to my own when he takes in Delilah’s see-through vest. This is one of the main reasons why I like Finn so much; we tend to pick up on the same things when we walk into a room.
I can see him struggle internally to keep his mouth shut about it. Unfortunately, his trap wins out.
“A bit nippy in here, isn’t it?” he says, doing his best to keep a straight face. Without meaning to, I let out a loud snicker. All eyes dart to me as I struggle to keep my giggles under control. Finn smiles widely.
“What’s so funny?” asks Rita. She’s not sitting in direct view of Delilah, so she doesn’t get it.
“Nothing, just choked on a crumb.” I answer.
Finn steps up close to me and glances down, kicking my foot lightly with his boot. “How’s the weather down there, Missy?”
“Oh, just fabulous.” I glance over at the vampires and roll my eyes, not caring that I’m being obvious.
Finn nods in understanding. I peek briefly at Ethan to see him looking between the two of us questioningly. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about vampires, it’s that they’re often oblivious to sarcasm. It just goes right over their heads.
Finn turns to look at Gabriel, avoiding making eye contact with any of the vamps. “So, how do we start this, Gabe?”
Gabriel coughs to clear his throat. “Well, I was hoping that Tegan could give us a more detailed account of what happened to her today.” He glances at me as a prompt.
I put down my tortilla chips, dust off my hands and begin talking. “In a nutshell, I was having a wander around the shops and when I came to Campion Row it was like I’d stepped into bizarro world. People were beating on each other at random like crazed animals. Then this one man, I’m telling you he couldn’t look any more dowdy and average, decided to attack me when I told him to stop fighting with another man. In the end I had to do a runner to get away from the riots. The man kept chasing me though, and when I turned around to confront him he began rambling. He was all confused and couldn’t explain why he was after me. Something dodgy was going on.”
“Wait a second, some man attacked you?” Finn asks, looking angrily at Rita. “You never told me that part.”
Rita shrugs, nonchalant. “Ethan gave her some of his blood to heal her injuries. She’s fine now.”
Finn looks cuttingly at Ethan for an explanation. “You gave her blood, is that some kind of kinky role reversal?”
“Our blood heals human injuries, slayer. I thought you of all people would know that,” Ethan answers, his voice low. I can tell he doesn’t enjoy being questioned by Finn.
Finn laughs joylessly, but doesn’t respond. His coping mechanism with being around the vampires seems to be to ignore them as much as he can.
I break the silence by saying, “Um, I think you’re both missing the point here. The city centre just randomly turned into a war zone today, no explanations, nothing. Has anybody seen anything on the news?” I glance about the room, but don’t get an answer.
The vampires won’t speak to me, and the others just seem clueless. I shake my head and stand up to grab the remote, before switching on the television and sitting back down. I flick through the stations, but there’s another five minutes to wait until the nine o’clock news starts. Feeling awkward in the tension-filled silence, I blow air out through my mouth.
Lucas and Dru begin whispering quietly to each other and then Lucas lets out a low laugh. Huh. I wonder what that was all about. Some joke at my expense, no doubt. These vamps can act like bitchy teenage schoolgirls at times.
Finn sits down beside me and gives me a wink and a smile, perhaps to cheer me up. I give him a weak smile in return. I can’t help glancing up at Ethan, expecting to see him looking at me blandly as usual. Instead I discover him with an almighty scowl on his face. Well, perhaps he doesn’t like my friendship with Finn, since the two of them are mortal enemies.
When the news starts up, a blond woman wearing a fitted grey blouse and a suit jacket comes on the screen. She reports on a few other stories before she finally gets around to talking about the riot, and it’s only a few short lines.
“There are reports of a violent disturbance that occurred in Tribane city centre earlier today. Several department stores were broken into and looted, and a number of people were critically injured. It is thought that the disturbance was gang related. The police are currently investigating the matter.”
And that’s all she says. If I ever had my doubts about the selective nature of what gets reported on the news, they are well and truly put to rest now. Gang related, my arse. The man who attacked me today was certainly not connected to any gang.
“Well, that was a load of BS,” says Rita, folding her arms.
“I don’t know,” Delilah murmurs. “Perhaps it was just some human gang war. These sorts of things are a regular occurrence nowadays.”
Rita gives her a sharp look, then turns to me. “Tegan, did the man who beat you up today look like a member of a gang?”
“Not unless it’s suddenly become stylish for gan
g members to wear brown leather dress shoes and woolly jumpers.” I answer. “Oh, and not unless middle class dads are now partaking in gang membership.”
Delilah narrows her gaze on me. Rita laughs and nods her head to the dhamphir. “You see?” she asks, but before Delilah can respond, Rita’s entire body bucks forward as though she’s having a fit. My heart speeds up in panic as she lets out a loud wail of pain and then collapses onto the floor.
Chapter Two
What’s That Skeleton Inside Your Closet?
Alvie and Noreen rush to Rita’s side as she coughs violently, holding onto her throat. Soon her coughing dies down and they help her back onto the couch. Her eyes are wide and fearful, and the first person she looks at is her mother.
“He knows,” she whispers, almost imperceptibly. Noreen makes soothing noises and rubs her daughter’s back.
“Who knows what, Reet?” asks Alvie.
I stand up then and go to kneel down in front of her. I take her small, thin hands into my own.
“What just happened?” I ask her quietly, not failing to notice the rapt attention of the vampires in the room.
They all know that Rita is a powerful witch – that she could prove a very useful ally – yet they also seem to be keen to understand the source of her power, which is still very much a mystery to them. The fact that her father is a sorcerer is the skeleton in her closet that she’s most likely desperate to keep hidden.
Rita glances quickly between her mother, Alvie and myself. She looks me dead in the eye and silently mouths, “Theodore.”
Oh shit. As I said, the vampires don’t yet know of Rita’s unusual paternity. We’re all supposed to be working together now, but perhaps it would be wise to keep this piece of information private.