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I let out a slightly hysterical laugh. “You really pick your moments. You should have just told me what it meant last night when we were alone.”
He smiles and caresses my neck. “Ah, but telling you now adds a certain dramatic touch, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to say…” I trail off, all rosy cheeked and befuddled.
“There’s nothing that needs saying. I have simply told you how I feel.”
I reach up and place both of my hands on his face. “We’re going to discuss this later, okay? When there’s time and we have more privacy.”
He leans down and kisses my lips, feather-light. “As you wish. Come, we should join the others.”
Pushing the emotions that Ethan’s declaration brings out of me to the back of my mind until I have time to dissect them, I walk straight to Alvie and throw my arms around his neck. He’s not crying anymore, but his eyes are all red and blotchy looking.
“We’ll get her back,” I tell him firmly. “We’ll get our Rita back no matter what.”
He doesn’t respond, only hugs me tighter. Gabriel seems relieved that I’ve given Alvie hope of somehow saving Rita from the darkness that has consumed her, changed her. I wish I had paid more attention to her these past few weeks, spent more time with her than I did. Perhaps then I could have done something to prevent her from losing herself.
She told me of her fears that she would go bad, that she’d let Theodore’s darkness take her over, and I had brushed off the idea, too wrapped up in my own problems. I’d told her that if she just made sure to hold onto her light side, the side that comes from Noreen, that she’d be okay. In my deepest fears I had never anticipated that anything would happen to the woman, that Whitfield would end her life so callously.
Noreen had always been Rita’s rock, the one who taught her about good magic and using it only to achieve positive results, to make the world better. Perhaps it isn’t simply the grief that turned her, perhaps it’s the fact that her rock, her anchor, no longer exists in this world. Without her anchor, Rita’s potential for darkness took over.
I’m not even listening to Finn as he talks, explaining some detailed plan to everyone. I only pay attention when I hear him say, “So, we’re all agreed that getting out of Tribane is the best idea?”
“What!?” I exclaim loudly. “We can’t just leave. What about Rita? What about all the people?” I gesture frantically to the street below us.
Finn locks eyes with me. “Rita made her choice and the people can’t be saved. You saw yourself how the extinguishers did nothing to kill the mist. It’s evolved. It’s harder to kill now, and the humans are all infected. Just take a look down at the streets and see how they’re murdering each other for no reason. Pamphrock’s dead; practically all of our men are dead too. There’s nothing left for us here. Leave Theodore and Whitfield to battle it out. Tribane is not going to be saved by us. We’ll only end up sacrificing our lives trying.”
A heavy brick settles itself in my gut, because Finn’s right. I can’t see any way of us making things better here. There are only twelve of us. What damage can twelve people do against Whitfield and hundreds of his vampires, against Theodore now that he has Rita on his side?
“God you’re right,” I mumble. “I hate to admit it, but it’s not going to be long before this place is a wasteland.”
“The city has finally come to bursting point,” Ethan says sadly. “Now it’s going to tear itself apart. Let’s not allow it to take us down with it.”
We all make noises of agreement and begin gathering our things. I might agree that we need to get out now, but I have no intention of staying away for good. I will be coming back for Rita no matter what.
The current plan is to go back down onto the street, try to dodge the murderous vampires and the insane humans, find some vehicles and get the hell out of dodge.
Unfortunately, that plan is immediately foiled, because as we make our way back to the ladder that leads down to the alleyway, I stop in my tracks, halting the others. A head pops up over the roof, a head with fangs and eyes of red.
“There they are!” the vampire screeches, just as the last person I want to see comes up behind him: Whitfield.
He slinks up onto the roof with catlike grace, his red eyes flicking over our group. More and more vampires follow behind him.
“Jack-POT!” he shouts with delight. His facial expressions are all over the place. For a second I think he might be drunk, but then I recognise what it really is, blood-lust – or maybe blood-drunk. I don’t know what it is about seeing him, but it causes my entire body to tense up.
Whenever I’ve come across an adversary in recent weeks I’ve been determined to defeat them, but now I just feel tired. Why did Whitfield have to find us here, when we’d just been about to leave the city?
Way too much has happened today. I feel like my head is going to explode.
“We’re leaving, Jeremy. You’ve won,” Ethan informs him in a hard voice.
“Leaving?” Whitfield pouts like we’ve just told him we’re going home from his birthday party early. He’s got his sword with him again, the one that looks like it came off the props section of a war movie set in ancient times. “Leaving?” he repeats, and now he sounds amused by the idea. His voice sends shivers down my spine.
“Well now, you may leave if you so wish, old friend. I washed my hands of you when you were exiled,” his eyes cut to me, “but this one is going nowhere.” He pauses and grins at me. “We have unfinished business, don’t we Tegan?” His voice is all sing song-y until it gets to my name, then it turns harsh and cutting. His crimson eyes are ablaze. The vampires who came with him are still climbing up onto the roof; it seems like the trail of them is never ending. Half of them are already battling it out with Finn and the others as Whitfield backs me and Ethan into a corner.
I feel my hands begin to shake and my lip quivers, my emotions somehow overriding my magic. I try to push past the fear and bring my magic to the surface, but right now it just isn’t working.
Whitfield laughs and sings, “Your death is coming for you, Tegan. Can you feel it? It’s in the air. Aw, look at that,” he puts on a theatrical frown before grinning at the vampire beside him, “she’s frightened. Isn’t that just hilarious? How funny it is to see fear on the face of a heartless murderess.”
