When I go into the living room the vampires are all assembled, as well as Rita, Noreen, Gabriel and Alvie. They must have gotten here while I’d been in the bathroom. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze since the room isn’t so big. Everyone’s silent as I come in, munching loudly on the tortilla chips just to annoy the vamps. I notice Rita holding back a smirk.
There aren’t any chairs left, so I sit down on the floor by the fireplace. I cross my legs in a Buddha-like pose and glance around. When my eyes meet Ethan’s my face instinctively reddens, as I remember our encounter from earlier on.
His face lacks expression, but his eyes hold mine, almost in challenge. I feel like being all nineties and telling him to go take a chill pill. He’s so silent and serious these days, not that he was ever a loose goose or anything.
My gaze drifts to Delilah then. I have to do a double take, because she’s wearing a translucent cream coloured vest top with no bra underneath. Her B-cups are all on show. None of the vampires seem to have noticed this in the slightest, I mean, come on. They’re not like humans in that sense; somebody could traipse in stark naked and they probably wouldn’t bat an eyelid. Lucas might grin in that pervy way of his, but that’s about it.
A moment of silence passes and Finn finally decides to join us. He’s still a little aggressive around the vamps. It’ll take a lot more time for him to overcome his reservations about them, if ever. I hold in my laughter when I notice him do an almost identical double take to my own when he takes in Delilah’s see-through vest. This is one of the main reasons why I like Finn so much; we tend to pick up on the same things when we walk into a room.
I can see him struggle internally to keep his mouth shut about it. Unfortunately, his trap wins out.
“A bit nippy in here, isn’t it?” he says, doing his best to keep a straight face. Without meaning to, I let out a loud snicker. All eyes dart to me as I struggle to keep my giggles under control. Finn smiles widely.
“What’s so funny?” asks Rita. She’s not sitting in direct view of Delilah, so she doesn’t get it.
“Nothing, just choked on a crumb.” I answer.
Finn steps up close to me and glances down, kicking my foot lightly with his boot. “How’s the weather down there, Missy?”
“Oh, just fabulous.” I glance over at the vampires and roll my eyes, not caring that I’m being obvious.
Finn nods in understanding. I peek briefly at Ethan to see him looking between the two of us questioningly. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about vampires, it’s that they’re often oblivious to sarcasm. It just goes right over their heads.
Finn turns to look at Gabriel, avoiding making eye contact with any of the vamps. “So, how do we start this, Gabe?”
Gabriel coughs to clear his throat. “Well, I was hoping that Tegan could give us a more detailed account of what happened to her today.” He glances at me as a prompt.
I put down my tortilla chips, dust off my hands and begin talking. “In a nutshell, I was having a wander around the shops and when I came to Campion Row it was like I’d stepped into bizarro world. People were beating on each other at random like crazed animals. Then this one man, I’m telling you he couldn’t look any more dowdy and average, decided to attack me when I told him to stop fighting with another man. In the end I had to do a runner to get away from the riots. The man kept chasing me though, and when I turned around to confront him he began rambling. He was all confused and couldn’t explain why he was after me. Something dodgy was going on.”
“Wait a second, some man attacked you?” Finn asks, looking angrily at Rita. “You never told me that part.”
Rita shrugs, nonchalant. “Ethan gave her some of his blood to heal her injuries. She’s fine now.”
Finn looks cuttingly at Ethan for an explanation. “You gave her blood, is that some kind of kinky role reversal?”
“Our blood heals human injuries, slayer. I thought you of all people would know that,” Ethan answers, his voice low. I can tell he doesn’t enjoy being questioned by Finn.
Finn laughs joylessly, but doesn’t respond. His coping mechanism with being around the vampires seems to be to ignore them as much as he can.
I break the silence by saying, “Um, I think you’re both missing the point here. The city centre just randomly turned into a war zone today, no explanations, nothing. Has anybody seen anything on the news?” I glance about the room, but don’t get an answer.
The vampires won’t speak to me, and the others just seem clueless. I shake my head and stand up to grab the remote, before switching on the television and sitting back down. I flick through the stations, but there’s another five minutes to wait until the nine o’clock news starts. Feeling awkward in the tension-filled silence, I blow air out through my mouth.
Lucas and Dru begin whispering quietly to each other and then Lucas lets out a low laugh. Huh. I wonder what that was all about. Some joke at my expense, no doubt. These vamps can act like bitchy teenage schoolgirls at times.
Finn sits down beside me and gives me a wink and a smile, perhaps to cheer me up. I give him a weak smile in return. I can’t help glancing up at Ethan, expecting to see him looking at me blandly as usual. Instead I discover him with an almighty scowl on his face. Well, perhaps he doesn’t like my friendship with Finn, since the two of them are mortal enemies.
When the news starts up, a blond woman wearing a fitted grey blouse and a suit jacket comes on the screen. She reports on a few other stories before she finally gets around to talking about the riot, and it’s only a few short lines.
“There are reports of a violent disturbance that occurred in Tribane city centre earlier today. Several department stores were broken into and looted, and a number of people were critically injured. It is thought that the disturbance was gang related. The police are currently investigating the matter.”
And that’s all she says. If I ever had my doubts about the selective nature of what gets reported on the news, they are well and truly put to rest now. Gang related, my arse. The man who attacked me today was certainly not connected to any gang.
“Well, that was a load of BS,” says Rita, folding her arms.
“I don’t know,” Delilah murmurs. “Perhaps it was just some human gang war. These sorts of things are a regular occurrence nowadays.”
Rita gives her a sharp look, then turns to me. “Tegan, did the man who beat you up today look like a member of a gang?”