AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I pull back so that I can look at her properly. A frown shapes itself on my face before I have the chance to prevent it. “Because I’m leaving. I can’t stay here now that there are vampires who know what I am. Not to mention Finn, he’ll be reporting back to his slayer buddies any minute now and they’ll be coming for me too.”
She seems to accept that there is no other option for me. “Do you think you’ll ever come back?” she asks.
“To be honest, I have absolutely no idea.”
She nods and this time she hugs me. “Good luck, Tegan,” she whispers. “I’ll cast a spell tomorrow that will help you to stay hidden, if you’d like? It might not throw them off the scent forever but it will cause some confusion long enough for you to find somewhere safe to stay.”
I do my best not to cry. “That would be great,” I manage, my voice cracking slightly. I never thought the day would come where I’d say this, but I am going to miss Rita a lot. It’s funny how far we’ve come since that first hostile encounter in Marcel’s shop. “Tell Alvie I said goodbye,” I say to her, and she promises me that she will. Then I leave her strangely comfortable house, full of all kinds of junk and collectables. On to the next hurdle.
Chapter Twenty
It All Has To Go
The walk from Rita’s front door out to the car where Ethan is waiting seems like the longest I’ve ever taken. The reality of my situation is finally sinking in. It makes me want to go out and buy a machine gun, an army bunker, and a life time supply of non-perishable food so that I can hide away forever. How ironic, I leave one box only to be forced into another. Because of my blood I am destined to repeat the cycle.
I slide into the passenger seat beside him and strap on my belt. We sit like that in silence for several seconds before I say, “You won’t have to worry about Antonia punishing you for helping me escape now,” as I realise this is another positive to the curse. If it causes Antonia to feel guilty for every bad deed she has ever done then she will be in no state to reprimand Ethan. She might even thank him for preventing her from ruining another innocent life.
It still doesn’t mean I get to stay though. I’m sure rumour of what I am has spread like wildfire among the vampire population of the city. The only reason those present on Ridley Island didn’t attack me straight away was because I had Ethan to protect me. Ethan. I really have given him a hard time. He turned out to be a proper gentleman in the end, despite his in your face sexual advances. I think of the credit card resting in my pocket, it’s going to help me a lot.
“And why is that?” he asks in a sombre voice, my departure really is affecting him.
“Just a little spell I had Rita cast for me,” I answer. He doesn’t ask me what it was. Perhaps he doesn’t care anymore.
“I take it you want me to drive you to the airport now,” he says, still not looking at me.
“Yes, thank you.” I reply. The silence ensues as he starts up the car again, and it stifles me, chokes me to the point where I wish he would just continue to be his usual overly confident self again. He parks the car in one of the few free spots in the airport car park, amid a sea of other cars. I check the time on the dash board, eleven fifty three. I hope there’s a late flight that I can catch somewhere. Anywhere but here.
Ethan lets his hands fall from the steering wheel and rests them on his lap. “You could always stay,” he says, in a barely audible voice.
“I can’t,” I answer, putting one of my hands on his as a gesture of comfort.
“I don’t want you to go,” he continues, it seems like he’s having difficulty getting the words out. Like he’s never had to ask a girl not to leave him before, even in his vastly long life. I could almost believe that. Ethan is the kind of man who always gets to leave heartbroken girls behind. I don’t think he enjoys being the one left hanging. And it’s so, so hard for me not to give in, but I suck in a breath for courage. It will be character building for him, I tell myself. Everybody has to experience heartache once in their life, he’ll be a better person for it. At least I think he will. I still can’t tell if Matthew’s death made me stronger, or simply stole a couple years off my lifespan. Perhaps it was both.
“If you were in my shoes, what would you do?” I ask him, my hand still on his as I stare at him closely.
He turns to me and smiles. “If I were you I would give up on these fanciful notions of running away and I would face those pursuing me head on. And I would enjoy the company of my handsome young vampire friend while I’m at it.”
I raise an amused eyebrow. “Young?”
“In vampire years I am merely a teenager,” he answers, moving his face closer to mine so that we are barely an inch apart. Now I can smell him, and it’s intoxicating.
I focus on his lips and whisper, “I wish I was brave enough to do that.”
He grips me softly by the wrist. “You are. You just don’t know it yet.”
“And I wish – I wish I could believe that.”
Ethan seems to breathe out heavily in frustration. “Do you know that I have never, ever wanted to be with a human female, any female in fact, the way I want to be with you? And it isn’t merely sexual.” He turns to stare at me. “It will kill me to let you go, but I cannot force you to stay. I want you to make that choice yourself. And I – I think I am falling for you.”
I blink several times and question whether I heard him correctly. Surely he’s lying, surely he has some plans for me and is using this false declaration as a means of making me stay. Yes, that must be it. I will myself to believe he has ulterior motives. But that’s the problem, in his eyes, in his deep dark blue eyes, I see the truth, and it is killing me.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” he asks. “I have just declared my love for you and you sit there speechless,” then he laughs. “I am a fool, a clown and a fool.” He’s rambling now, manic at the idea of me walking out of his car and away from him forever. His vulnerability in this moment is there for the world to see, and it’s beautiful. Even more beautiful than the man himself. He digs in his pocket for a moment and retrieves a black leather wallet. He opens it and pulls out a small folded up piece of tissue.
“Do you know what this is?” he asks. I shake my head, and he continues, “This is the napkin I used to wipe away your tears when you’d been crying in the diner that time. I keep it with me because I like having something of yours close to me. Something with your scent on it.”
At this I lose any semblance of self-control, I close that small distance between us, and gently press my lips against his. He doesn’t move for several seconds, shocked that I’m actually kissing him. It doesn’t last long and soon he’s kissing me
back. He plants little individual kisses as he moves to lean over me and I fall back onto my own chair, while his strong hand holds onto my lower back. His fingertips graze the skin beneath my t-shirt and I feel a burst of tingles radiate through me.
