“Lovely. But what, pray tell, does Theodore want with an empty city? The magical families can’t number more than a hundred or so people at this stage. That’s not much of a kingdom to rule.”
Marcel chews on his lip. “That’s just it, Mr Cristescu. He doesn’t want to rule only Tribane, he wants to expand. If he can take the city and continue bringing entities over from hell, then he can build a dark army and move out until eventually the entire country is within his hold. Tribane is just the beginning.”
My palms grow sweaty as I listen to Marcel speak. These plans of Theodore’s may be pretty grandiose, but I can see how they are achievable. Who knows what kind of creatures he would be bringing over from hell.
“Well, obviously he needs to be stopped,” says Ethan.
“How we do that exactly, is the million dollar question though, isn’t it,” Finn adds.
Nobody says anything for a long time, our minds struggling to conjure up ideas.
“We need to fool him into believing his plan is working,” I say at last. “If we can make it look like the people have all been killed by the chaos, lull Theodore into a false sense of security, then we can get to him and kill him before he has the chance to open up the portal.”
“There’s no way to fake that kind of carnage,” says Marcel.
“What about a glamour?” I suggest.
“What about it?” Finn asks.
“Well, a glamour makes something look like something it’s not, right? So, why can’t we construct a glamour that makes it look like everyone’s dead, when really they’re still alive?”
“Because that kind of magic is far beyond any of our expertise,” Marcel answers.
I smile. “True, but I doubt it’s beyond Roman’s.”
They all stare at me, realising that I just might be right. Before anyone can say a word, the door opens and my grandfather steps inside.
“My ears are burning. Has somebody been talking about me again?” Roman questions in amusement.
The rest of the evening is a buzz of activity. I spend most of my time helping to make plans while also eating everything I can get my hands on. Ethan smiles and tells me it’s perfectly normal for me to be hungry all the time. He says that dhamphir babies need far more nutrients than human ones.
No matter where I am, he’s never far, always keeping a watchful eye over me. The love I used to see in his eyes when he looked at me has miraculously seemed to grow stronger. I feel like he’d die to keep me safe, and I really never expected such fierce protective instincts to be directed at me, even from Ethan.
Marcel is brought to the basement of the house and Roman magically binds his hands and legs just like he did Emilia’s. There’s no point in using regular old restraints for someone with magic.
Roman says that the kind of glamour I suggested is possible, but that there is a much better way. He tells us of a spell he can cast that will allow the humans to be taken over by the chaos, however, when they die it will be a false death. They will essentially sleep and wake up after twenty four hours has elapsed, like Shakespeare’s Juliet, Roman tells us. Because this is a spell he has designed himself, and one which has not been attempted before, Theodore won’t recognise it.
He informs us that he will need a day or two to gather what he needs and then swiftly departs. Not long after Roman is gone I start to feel sleepy, so Ethan picks me up and carries me to our bed.
I sleep soundly, and I know it’s because my vampire has held me through the night.
When I wake up he’s gone, but I’m not alone. Rebecca’s sitting on the end of the bed. She’s hugging a pink teddy bear to her chest and staring at me sadly.
I sit up and rub the sleep from my eyes. “Rebecca, what are you doing in here?”
“Amanda’s still sleeping and I’m hungry.”
Ah, I’d forgotten how Amanda had sort of been relegated as Rebecca’s unofficial carer.
“You could have woken her. She wouldn’t mind,” I say, getting out of bed and walking to the wardrobe to find something to wear. Finn brought my stuff from his place, so I have all my clothes in Ethan’s room now. I feels weird how fast things are moving with us, but I can’t seem to find a way to slow the momentum. In fact, there’s probably no way of slowing it now that I’m up the duff.
Rebecca gets a shy look but she doesn’t say anything.
“What’s wrong, honey?” I ask pulling out a long black skirt and a lacy off-white top.
“I think there’s a man in Amanda’s room with her,” Rebecca whispers conspiratorially.
My eyes widen. “A man?”
“I saw him go in there last night. The vampire with dark hair.”
Now my eyebrows practically shoot right into my hairline. “Lucas?”
Rebecca purses her lips and twists the hem of her top. “I don’t know his name.”
Yeah, it was definitely Lucas. I quickly get dressed and go to wash my face and brush my teeth in the en-suite. Rebecca follows and watches me, playing with a gold charm bracelet on her wrist all the while.
“That’s pretty,” I comment. “Did your daddy give you that?”
She nods. “It belonged to my mummy.”
Huh.
Once I’m done getting ready I tell Rebecca to stay where she is and that I’ll be back in a minute. Then I march straight to Amanda’s room like a woman on a mission. I don’t even bother to knock on the door. I simply push it open and walk inside. The blinds are down and the room is encased in darkness, for Lucas’ sake, I presume.
A lamp flicks on and I see the vampire fast asleep in bed first before I notice Amanda staring at me, looking equally surprised at my invasion and embarrassed at being caught.
“Tegan,” she gasps. “You should have knocked.”
“Why, so you could hide the naked two hundred pound vampire in your bed?”
“Talk quieter, you’ll wake him,” she replies in a hushed voice.
I roll my eyes. “A chainsaw wouldn’t wake him this early in the morning. Fuck Amanda, I didn’t nurse you back to health only for you to go straight back to being his blood whore again. I thought you were smarter than this.”
She winces at my words. “I am smarter. It’s different this time. He said he wants things to be different. He’s not going to feed on me. Shit, he threw himself in front of a bullet for me.”
I think back to how Lucas was talking about mine and Ethan’s relationship and how it’s not based on him drinking my blood. Well, not exactly. Still, I’m not sure if Lucas has the willpower or the dedication to conduct that sort of relationship with a human.
“It’s not as valiant as you think, Mandy. Vampires getting shot is like a human getting hit with a paintball. They heal from it pretty easily.”
“Tegan, please don’t talk to me like that. It makes me feel stupid.”
I throw my hands in Lucas’ direction. “Yeah well, sleeping with a vampire is pretty stupid.”
She gives me a pointed look. “You must be really stupid then, considering how very fucking pregnant you are with a vamp baby.”
“That’s different!”
“No, it’s not. You think you’re the only one special enough for a vampire to want to be with you, it’s obvious.”
“That’s not true. You know it’s not possible for Ethan to drink my blood the way Lucas used to drink yours. That’s why our situation works. How do you know he won’t bite you in the heat of the moment?”
“We had a really long talk last night. He doesn’t want to be alone anymore and I believe him, Tegan. He’s jaded with his life and wants to make a change.”
I sigh, knowing there’s no talking her out of this. I guess I’ll just have to compromise. “Okay, well maybe that’s true, but will you do something for me just in case?”
“What is it?”
“If I can come up with a potion that will make your blood taste awful to Lucas when he drinks it, will you take it for me?”
She nods. “Sure, if it will put your mind at
ease.”
“It will. And I mean it when I say I really hope Lucas has turned over a new leaf.”
She turns to glance at the sleeping vampire and smiles. “Yeah, me too. Every relationship has to have its problems in the beginning, right?”
I shake my head at her, but smile nonetheless. “Right.”
Returning to my room, I grab a magic book Rita gave me a couple of weeks ago from my bag and bring it downstairs with me. I laugh when Rebecca and I reach the kitchen to find Finn standing by the cooker wearing an apron and making breakfast for everyone.
I peek over his shoulder to stare at the pan and my mouth waters. “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much bacon before,” I say.
He laughs and pats me on the back. “You having food cravings yet, preggo?”
I scrunch up my face at him. “Don’t ever call me that again, and yeah, not exactly cravings for any food in particular, just food in general. I literally feel like I could eat anything and everything.”
Finn chuckles. “Okay, well go and sit down. I’ll bring a plate over to you.”
I sit in between Rebecca and Delilah and begin to flick through the magic book. I find the spell I’m looking for fairly easily. The main ingredient I need is rosemary. Funnily enough, vamps pretty much can’t stand the herb and find it sickening in the extreme. So, if it’s ingrained in Amanda’s blood Lucas will probably vomit from just one drop of the stuff.
It’s a spell on another page that really catches my interest though. I read through it and it’s similar to the one Rita cast to find my dad when he’d been kidnapped by Marcel and Co. This one doesn’t require the use of dowsing rods (thank God) but it does allow you to find a person’s location if you have something that belongs to them.
My eyes flick to Rebecca, catching on the shiny gold bracelet around her wrist. I never did get Pamphrock to tell me the location of her mother’s psychiatric facility, but perhaps I could use magic to find it myself. It’s not fair for the girl to be shifted from pillar to post like she’s been this past while. She needs stability, and the only person who can give that to her is a parent. The problem is, her mother could be stone cold crazy.
Well, there’s only one way to find out, and I decide that today I’m going to find Rebecca’s lone surviving parent. After I eat more than my fill of bacon, eggs and pancakes (and after Finn sets a second plate down in front of me with a wink after I’ve guzzled down the first) I enlist the help of Gabriel and Alvie to cast the spell.
It takes a bit of persuading to convince Rebecca to temporarily give up her charm bracelet, but I eventually manage by promising to let her have ice-cream for dinner. And okay, perhaps that was an easy bargain since I could definitely go for a whole tub of the stuff in my current condition.
We get the rosemary potion for Amanda done first, and I seal it away in a glass bottle for later. Then we cast the location spell for Rebecca’s mother with a map of the country spread out on the floor between the three of us. I briefly remember Pamphrock saying her name was Felicity when he spoke of her. The spell works kind of like a Ouija board. We place the charm bracelet beneath an upturned glass, and the glass moves to the location of the person we’re looking for. In this case it slides straight across the map, landing on a small town on the other side of the country, hundreds of miles from Tribane.
“It’s too far to go there right now,” Gabriel says seriously. “You should wait a few days until Theodore has been taken care of before you start looking for this woman.”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” I agree.
When I turn to Alvie he’s tapping on his phone.
“I thought there were no signals in the city with the barrier up?”
“There aren’t. I was checking to see if the internet’s working, but it’s not. I wanted to search for psychiatric hospitals in that town.”
“Well, it’s only a small place. I doubt it will be difficult to pin one down.”
The door creaks open and Ethan steps inside with a bemused expression. “What are you three conspiring about?” he asks and goes to sit down beside me, taking in the random assortment of items for the spell.
He picks up the potion for Amanda, popping open the cork and taking a whiff. “Ugh, this smells awful.”
“We were casting a spell to find Rebecca’s mother. I’m going to find her once Theodore is gone. That,” I say grabbing the bottle from his hand and putting it aside, “is for Amanda. She and Lucas are all shacked up again after his valiant attempt to save her life, so I’ve concocted a potion to keep her safe. If Lucas tries to drink from her once she’s taken this he’ll be vomiting his guts up for days.”
Ethan eyes the bottle. “I don’t doubt it. It smells like a battlefield full of week old corpses.”
“Eww, I do not want to think about how you know what that smells like,” Alvie interjects with a shiver.
I grin at Ethan. “Aha, but it only smells that way to you. It’s supposed to be repellent to vampires, that’s the whole point.”
He pulls me to him and begins kissing my neck. “You’re such a clever little thing, aren’t you,” he murmurs in a seductive voice, his hand roaming over my bottom.
I hear Alvie giggle just as Gabriel subtly drags him from the room, allowing us our privacy. Sighing, I push back into Ethan’s evident erection, eliciting a goose bump inducing growl.
“How is it that I haven’t been inside you for over a day? Surely that is a sin,” he whispers as he inches my top up over my breasts. Pinching a nipple, he turns me around and goes down on one knee so that he can take it into his mouth.
“Ethan,” I moan.
“Yes, my love,” he asks with a devilish smile.
It takes every ounce of willpower in me to get my next words out. “The house is full of people, some of them with supernatural abilities. They’ll hear us.”
“I will fuck the mother of my unborn child in my own house when and how I want. I don’t care who hears.”
His hand goes up my skirt and straight under my knickers.
“But…I…do,” I protest.
“I like it when you get embarrassed,” he murmurs, rolling his tongue around my nipple now.
“Jesus.”
“You’re soaking wet.”
“Your…fault.”
“Yes, I like that it’s my fault. Come, let’s get you out of these troublesome clothes.”
Ethan lifts me and carries me to the bed where he carefully removes every article of clothing I have on. Then I’m naked and he’s still fully dressed. He slides a finger inside me as he brings his head between my legs and starts to lick. I run my hands through his luscious hair, so silky it begs to be touched.
Ethan starts to flicker his tongue in this rapid vampire way that’s kind of weird but also the most exquisite thing I’ve ever felt. He’s really too good at this.
“Why do you still have all your clothes on?” I question in frustration.
“Because this is about you,” he answers, moving his mouth up my body. He nips and sucks at every inch of my skin, his fingers still pumping inside me. I’m not sure I have the brain capacity to talk anymore. Then his mouth is on mine and I’m lost to his kiss. I close my eyes, no longer bothering to protest and allowing him to do what he will with me.
Later on I rummage through Ethan’s freezer in search of ice-cream and pump my fist into the air in triumph when I discover a huge tub of double chocolate chip. I dish it out into two bowls. (Alright, one normal bowl and one gigantic fruit bowl for me, because apparently I’ve got a hole in my stomach that can never be filled now.) I carry both to Rebecca’s room, finding her sitting in the corner playing with her dolls.
“Ice-cream’s up,” I call and she smiles big when she sees the bowls.
We eat in silence for a little while and I remember to return her charm bracelet, helping her put it back on.
I sit back against the pillows and watch as she finishes off the last of her ice-cream. There are times when she gets e
xtra quiet and I sometimes wonder if she’s thinking of her dad. Is she old enough to grieve? She must be.
“Do you miss him?” I ask before I have the chance to stop myself.
Rebecca seems to know exactly who I’m talking about because she nods. “All the time, but he’s with Mummy now, so I know he’s happy.”
I pause, considering what to say next. “What if you could have your mummy, would you want to live with her even though she’d be a stranger?”
Rebecca looks at me, her big brown eyes seeming far too serious for such a young girl. “Definitely.”
Her answer makes me feel much better about what I plan on doing, and I don’t fail to notice how she fiddled with her charm bracelet the whole time I’d been talking to her. In fact, she plays with it a lot, like it’s a comfort to her. Perhaps this little girl wants her real mother more than even she knows.
Chapter Sixteen
I’ll Follow You into the Dark
Finn
I’ve never felt softer lips in my entire life. Allora moans when I kiss her, my tongue moving around inside her mouth as though trying to memorise the taste. I’ve stripped her down to just her underwear and a T-shirt, and shit, I didn’t think it was possible to find plain white briefs this sexy.
She breathes in quick little bursts, all revved up, and it drives me crazy. I’ve barely touched her aside from the kiss, and yet I can just tell that if I slipped my hand between her legs right now she’d be slick and ready for me.
Just as these thoughts are flitting through my brain, her entire body stills. I pull my mouth from hers to find her eyes have rolled back in her head and she’s beginning to convulse. Crap, she’s having a vision. I don’t know why I panic, but I do.
It’s just so hard to see this happening to her up close. I grab her hands and just as I’m about to pull her into my arms, something strange happens. I feel myself being drawn closer to her. My eyes drift closed and I lose consciousness, then there’s only darkness.
When I’m aware again I’m standing in a long hallway, hand in hand with Allora. I look at her and she seems just as shocked to see me as I am to be here. The carpet we’re standing on is lush, and on the walls is that expensive silk wallpaper people used to have in the 1800’s. It’s got pictures of birds and flowers on it.
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