“End me? Don’t flatter yourself, brother, you would only hurt yourself trying.”
Finn, who’s sitting casually on the other side of the room, interjects with smooth confidence, “Oh, he’ll have help.”
Ethan is just about ready to make some other smart comment to Finn when I jump up and put my hand over his mouth. “Enough. That’s enough sniping from all of you. We’re supposed to be allies, not enemies. I know it’s going to take some getting used to, but everybody is going to have to put their prejudices aside and make a concerted effort to get along.”
“Here, here,” Lucas puts in mockingly. I silence him with a sharp look.
Ethan’s eyes are levelled on mine. He grabs a hold of my wrist and swiftly removes my hand from his mouth. “Very well then,” he says. He holds onto me hard for a moment longer than necessary, still staring at me. When he lets go of my hand it falls limply to my side.
Unexpectedly, the vampire barman named Will speaks up, his gaze trained on me. “Who do you think you are to tell everyone how they should behave? You are nothing but a traitorous, lying little bitch.”
His venomous words hit me like a sledgehammer. From what I have experienced of him, Will seems to be the brooding, silent type. He doesn’t often say much, but I never would have guessed his opinion of me was so hateful.
“Will,” says Ethan, a quiet reprimand.
Will stares at his superior in frustration, but doesn’t utter another word.
Dru shakes her head, “Oh come on, she played you for a fool and now we’re all paying the price. We should be allowed to express our opinions.”
Oh great, so Dru hates me too. I’d thought she was just going along with the whole thing because she’d pledged her loyalty to Ethan and wanted to keep him happy. I guess not.
“Um, can I remind you all that I was saving a little girl’s life? I hardly did it for selfish reasons.”
I try to ignore the voice in my head that says, well Tegan, you did get paid for your efforts now didn’t you. I need to stand up for myself with these vamps, otherwise they’ll trample all over me.
“Yeah, you’re a modern day Mother Theresa,” says Lucas. He pauses to glance about at the gathering of humans, dhamphirs and vampires with a grin. “Can someone remind me who thought it would be a good idea for everyone to be in one room together?”
I let out a long sigh.
“I did,” says Finn. “Now, I’m probably the last person to be happy about this reluctant alliance we’ve built, but there’s no use sitting in here fighting like cats and dogs. This is my house, so I’m going to call the shots for now. If the riots in the city today were Theodore’s doing then we need to find out where he is and put a stop to it. The vampires can search at night and the humans and dhamphirs during the day.”
Ethan is focused on Finn as he speaks. It unnerves me, because I don’t know whether he’s going to accept the slayer giving orders or if he will fight it.
Thankfully, he finally admits, “It might surprise you, slayer, but I agree. We vampires will begin our searches tonight.” He steps forward then and shakes Finn’s hand, both men still staring each other down.
“Good stuff,” says Finn nodding, while Ethan gestures for Lucas, Dru, Will and Delilah to follow him out of the house.
Delilah hovers by the door and shoots Gabriel an apologetic look, perhaps for the way in which Ethan had spoken to him. Those two have grown substantially closer this past week or so. I wonder what Ethan thinks of that. Gabriel silently nods to her and she leaves the room.
Once all of the vampires are gone I sit myself down beside Rita, taking a moment to study her. She seems jittery, but like she’s trying to disguise it. She glances at me and tenses up.
“What?” she asks, somewhat indignantly.
“What aren’t you telling us Rita?”
“Nothing,” she replies, rubbing her hands up and down her arms as though to rid herself of a chill.
“Tegan’s right, you’re hiding something. Out with it,” says Alvie encouragingly.
Rita remains silent, but looks to each person in the room in turn. First me, then Finn, Gabriel, Alvie, and finally her mother.
After a moment she begins to speak. “I don’t mind working with the vampires, but you all have to promise to keep your mouths shut about who my dad is. If it got out they’d probably end up trying to use me to blackmail Theodore in some way.”
A short silence ensues. “To be honest,” says Gabriel, “I don’t think Theodore cares about anyone other than himself, so using you as currency wouldn’t exactly work even if the vampires did try it.”
“That’s not true,” Rita whispers, her eyes drifting off for a minute before she focuses again. “Theodore just went out of his way to visit my mind. His message was clear; he wants me to join him. He might not think much of me in terms of paternal love, but he certainly knows I inherited some of his power and he wants me close by. So, as you might guess, if the vamps did try to use me as leverage to get to him, it could very well work. Only I’m not sure they’d ever let him have me in the long run. They’d probably just trick him in some way and then do away with me. Nobody wants a sorcerer’s daughter running free to cause mayhem in the future. So, as far as the vamps are concerned I’m just an average, everyday witch, do you all hear me? Nothing to write home about.”
“I certainly have no intention of telling anyone who your dad is, Rita,” I tell her. “But the vampires aren’t going to think you’re an average witch after seeing you work powerful magic twice now. Plus, if you hadn’t noticed, Ethan has set his sights on you. He’s not being extra nice to you because he’s a friendly sort of guy.”