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Edwards answers before Ethan has the chance. “Telling a demon you are indebted to them is a nasty business. It’s a good thing I’m half human and have a sense of right and wrong. Do not worry, my dear, I won’t hold you to what you said. Just be careful of what comes out of your mouth should you encounter any demons in the future.”
“Alright,” I mumble, feeling foolish. I thought humans could be sticklers for rules, but they’ve got nothing on supernaturals.
Edwards takes a step over to stand before me. He takes my hand into his strange, clawed one. His blue skin feels weird and scaly. “I am the one who should be indebted to you,” he says. “I have longed for a mission like this one for quite some time. Rescuing your father will be my final triumph.”
I blink back a tear, unable to do anything but nod at him. Even if Edwards does manage to save Dad, who will he be when he returns? Marcel said he would be changed, but how much? And in what way? Pushing these questions out of my head and making an effort to focus on the present, I take a deep breath and let go of Edwards’ hand.
“Okay, what now?” I ask.
“Now,” says Edwards, “I prepare to open the door.”
He picks up his satchel, swings it over his shoulder and then retrieves the digital clock I’d seen him with earlier. He begins pressing numerous buttons, as though setting several different alarms.
“Time doesn’t work the same in hell as it does here. In layman’s terms, it’s not linear. It’s a topsy turvy pattern that you need to keep close track of while you’re there. I’ve set alarms to let me know how much time has passed in this dimension so that I can accurately estimate how much time I have spent over there. I endeavour to return to this very spot by day break, but depending how difficult it is for me to find your father, it could take longer. It could also only take me a matter of minutes, there’s just no way to tell. That’s why I’d appreciate both of you waiting here for the night until I return. If I don’t come back by morning, then you can take it as a given that there have been complications. But marks my words, come hell or high water I will be back,” he pauses and rummages in his bag, pulling out a small copper coin. “Take this,” he says, handing it to me.
I silently take the coin, peering down at it before slipping it inside my coat pocket.
“That’s my token. It will allow me to open a door to wherever it is should I not make it back to this location, so keep it with you at all times. If I’m not back with your father by morning you may leave and I will find you by locating my token. Please try to keep it safe. It is highly precious to me.”
“I’ll guard it with my life,” I promise him.
“Thank you,” says Edwards, before turning to Ethan. “Mr Cristescu, it was an absolute pleasure.” The two exchange a handshake.
“Likewise. Good luck on your journey,” Ethan replies.
Edwards inclines his head, and then as though by instinct steps right into the spot where Marcel and his group had opened the black hole. With one clawed finger pointing out, he lifts his hand into the air and draws a circle. The atmosphere seems to crackle and spark, and then a gold coloured opening appears. Edwards turns to look at us one last time and gives a farewell salute, before stepping into the opening and disappearing from sight.
“Well…that was weird,” I say to Ethan a minute or two after Edwards’ departure.
“Demons are weird creatures,” he replies, leaning back against the cave wall, watching me.
“He looks so scary with the blue skin, but he was just himself inside a new body really,” I ramble, thinking out loud. When I look back at Ethan he’s still watching me. I rub my arms against the cold. Even in my thick coat I don’t feel warm. When the weather’s bad, beaches are always the worst places to be. Too windy and chilly.
“You don’t need to stay here with me,” I tell him, when he still doesn’t say anything. “I can wait it out on my own if you have somewhere you need to be.”
“I’m staying,” Ethan states, “so don’t bother trying to get rid of me. And calm the fuck down, will you? I can practically taste the nerves when I breathe in your scent. If Edwards returns with your father then he returns, and if he doesn’t he doesn’t. Stop fretting over it.”
“If I want to fret, I’ll fret. Oh, and stop smelling me you pervert.”
Ethan shows me just a hint of fang at this. Feeling confident, I do something I never do and call on my magic, raising my hand and flicking a few sparks his way. They don’t go far enough to hit him, and he looks at them in wary fascination. This gives me a little rush of victory. I pick the flattest rock I can find and sit down on it.
“I’m sorry about Dru and Will,” I say after a while, trying to lessen the tension between us. “I had no idea they’d just up and leave like that.”
“Why wouldn’t they?” Ethan asks confrontationally. “Both of them have only been with me a year or two. That’s not a long enough time for them to have built up a proper sense of loyalty. Lucas stays because he has worked with me for decades.?
??
“I just thought vampires were mad into the whole “loyalty” thing. Staying true to the elders, and all that jazz.”
Ethan laughs at me. “We’re not clones. We all have different codes and ideas the same as humans. Some of us are all about loyalty, yes, but there are also vampires who look out only for themselves.”
I don’t bother arguing with him. Everything we can think to say to each other these days seems to end in controversy. I mean, look what happened just now. I’d been trying to apologise to him and he’d gotten all defensive. Minutes tick by, but they take forever in this cold silence. Unable to take the quiet any longer, I whisper, “Do you think Edwards will come back?”
Ethan’s handsome eyes flicker to mine, as he considers it. “I have never been to another dimension, and therefore I have no way of knowing what kind of challenges he might face.”
Well, that topic went nowhere. I try again. “Ira’s started talking, you know.”
“The shapeshifter? Did he say why he hadn’t been able to speak previously?”
