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Finn slowly stands, his posture defensive and his face hard as steel. He doesn’t say a word.
“You need to get over this, Ethan. I understand that you’ve lost a lot because of me, but what’s done is done. You can get another night club, another swanky house. And one more thing, don’t you dare call Finn Irish scum again or I’ll tell him to stake you myself.”
Finn gives me an approving nod.
Ethan takes one step forward.
I lock my fingers together in anxiety and try to make my face look impassive. Ethan glares between the two of us and narrows his gaze. The moment drags out, while someone noisily opens and shuts the front door. Rita saunters into the room, holding several empty spray bottles in her arms.
“Um, am I interrupting something?” she asks, noting the heightened tension.
“No you’re not,” Delilah announces, rising from her seat. She lets her eyes travel between me, Ethan and Finn. “I think you three should avoid talking as much as possible,” she says. “It only ever ends in drama.”
Ethan grudgingly agrees with his sister and Finn makes an obvious effort to calm down.
“So I was going to show them how to make the mixture,” Rita says to Finn, gesturing to Ethan, Lucas and Delilah.
“Yeah, good idea,” says Finn, before stalking out of the room. A moment later I hear him slamming shut his bedroom door.
“Don’t mind him, he’s had a rough day,” say Rita, excusing Finn’s moodiness since she didn’t witness the argument that happened before she came in. “Come on into the kitchen and I’ll show you how to kill the mists. Tegan and I discovered a formula during our research this morning.”
Intrigued, they file out after Rita and I drop back down onto the couch, letting out a long stream of breath. About fifteen minutes later I hear them going into the back garden, probably to test out the spray on the mists captured inside the shed.
I go upstairs to take a shower, noting the steam on the tiles. Finn must have just been in here. I remember what he said to me before, about putting his mark on me like I did to him. The memory of his words makes me tremble.
I’m going to have to sort out my emotions. More and more often he makes me get all befuddled, especially when he says things like that. It feels like every little touch he gives me, however casual it might seem, means something. This is dangerous territory. Living with Finn is causing what started out as begrudging attraction to turn into a full on crush.
And don’t even get me started on Ethan. My entire relationship with the vampire has been one massive clusterfuck from the beginning. Looking at the history of my sad little love life as a whole, I haven’t had much luck. When you live in a world of sorcerers and warlocks, vampires and dhamphirs, you don’t tend to have a lot of time to spend on matters of the heart.
I need to talk to Finn.
I take a quick shower, put on some clean clothes and go to knock on his bedroom door.
“Who is it?” he calls.
“Tegan,” I answer softly.
A pause. “Come in.”
Inside the room I find Finn stretched out on his bed in a t-shirt and lounge pants with a movie playing on his laptop. “Inception,” he says, when I lean forward to see what he’s watching.
“Oh. I haven’t seen that one.”
He grins, patting the empty space beside him on the bed. “Watch it with me then. It’s only ten minutes in.”
I grab one of his pillows, fluff it up and lie down, making sure to keep a bit of space between us. We watch in silence for a half an hour. This isn’t the sort of film you can just sit back and brainlessly absorb. It’s good though, because trying to figure out what’s going on in the story is keeping me from thinking about my blossoming feelings for Finn and what I should or shouldn’t do about them. Unfortunately, once I realise that this is the case, I stop thinking about the film and start thinking about Finn.
I’m attracted to both him and Ethan, yet the way I feel about each of them is entirely different. Being with Ethan is exhilarating and thrilling. He makes my heart beat faster and for a while I thought I might be falling for him, but I can never relax around him. I never know what’s really going on inside his head. Recent events have shown me that he can turn on me in an instant. He’s just so…other.
Finn I know I can trust. After everything that’s happened I feel like he’s probably the one person I can trust the most, even over Rita, and I adore Rita. A connection is building between us, and it’s becoming more and more evident that I feel more for him than simple friendship. Ethan might be flawless and beautiful, but Finn is just so real. So warm and full of life – human life. The problem is, no matter how much I tell myself that Ethan is wrong for me on so many levels, I can’t seem to get the vampire out of my mind.
My head starts to thump. Too much is happening all at once and I’ve never been a good multi-tasker. Perhaps I should just forget about my stupid heart for a while and focus on the important things; keeping Rebecca safe, rescuing my dad, and making sure the human population of Tribane doesn’t end up imploding.
Finn’s phone vibrates with a text message, drawing me out of my thoughts. He checks it and gives a soft chuckle, passing it over to me to read. It’s from Rita.
Out killing mists with the vamps. So much FUN! Feel like a witch ninja :-D
“She’s mad,” I say fondly, passing the phone back to Finn. Our fingers touch a little; it frightens me how aware I am of the contact.
