“Delilah said I broke his heart. I think his feelings for me could be more than simple lust.”
Finn shakes his head. “Don’t fall for that rubbish. Vampires don’t have hearts, they think only with their fangs – and their trousers.”
I laugh. “Yeah maybe. But I’m going to give it a try anyway. See how much Ethan’s willing to reveal to me.” I stand up. “I’m going to bed now.”
“Sure,” says Finn, a faraway look on his face, deep in thought. “Sleep well.”
“I will,” I reply, before ascending the stairs.
In the morning Finn leaves early, telling me that he has to go help with training in the new recruits at the DOH compound we visited yesterday. I situate myself in the living room with my phone, preparing myself to call Nicky again. Just as I’m about to dial her number I hear something scratching at the back door. I go into the kitchen and peer out the window to find Wolf sitting there, staring right back at me. He lets out a quiet yip to encourage me to open the door and let him in.
I consider ignoring him, since Finn’s not around and I don’t know how comfortable I am letting a massive dog like Wolf into the house alone with me. Then I remember Finn telling me that he’s a teddy bear, and the next door neighbour Maria talking about how well-mannered he was when she’d been taking care of him.
Slowly I move to the door, my hand lingering above the handle, still unsure as to what I should do. There’s a small window in the middle of the back door. I look out and Wolf’s big brown eyes seem sad, pleading with me to let him inside. Oh God. This is probably going to be a huge mistake. I open the door and stand back and he pads into the kitchen, peering up at me before heading into the living room. Great.
I find him sitting on the carpet before the fireplace when I come in, but he doesn’t acknowledge my presence after that. I sit down again and hesitate, before diving straight in and dialling Nicky’s number.
It rings several times before I hear her familiar voice answer, “Hello?”
I don’t know what to say, and for about thirty seconds my voice fails me entirely. I cough to clear my throat.
“Who is this?” Nicky asks, and I realise that I disposed of my old phone before leaving Tribane, and that she’s not going to recognise the number I’m now calling on. I feel like hanging up, taking the coward’s way out. I don’t want to face her and the worry I must have caused her by leaving without a trace.
No, I need to face up to what I did. “Nicky,” I say, my voice just above a whisper.
I hear her suck in a shocked breath, and there’s a heavy silence before she replies, “Tegan, is that you?”
“It’s me.” Wolf adjusts his position by the fireplace so that he can look at me now. Fabulous, the dog wants to watch me squirm.
“What…where on earth have you been?” she asks, stunned.
“I had to get away for a while. I know that’s an absolutely terrible excuse and that I’m a selfish bitch for leaving and not telling you, especially after how you took care of me when Matthew..” I falter now, not knowing what else to say, tears sting my eyes.
“No, it’s okay. That man, Ethan, he called me and told me you were going away. He was a little fuzzy on the details, but I guess I kind of saw it coming. You were so detached from everything, even though you got that job and all, you still seemed – sad.”
Relief floods through my veins that she’s not angry at me. “I was Nicky, I was very, very sad. But I’m still sorry for what I did.” I can’t tell her that sadness wasn’t the only emotion I’d been drowning in, that a massive amount of fear was also at play.
“Are you back?” she asks. “In Tribane, I mean.”
“Yes, I came to see Dad, but Nicky, he’s gone. I went to our house, he sold it and left. Do you know where he went?”
There’s a long silence on the other end of the line. “Um Tegan, your dad was pretty upset when he found out you’d left. He kept calling me asking questions, in the end I had to tell him about Matthew. He seemed to accept that what happened was a good enough excuse for you to want to go away. The last time he called me was in the middle of the night, he was really upset and kept telling me that no matter who came asking that I wasn’t to tell them anything about you. I haven’t heard from him since. I thought he’d finally come to terms with you being gone.”
“How long ago was that?” I ask, fear catching in my throat.
“Over a year at least,” she says.
Images of my father running away from the vampires consume my thoughts. My lungs hurt, they fill up with so much guilt and anxiety that it’s almost hard to function.
Nicky continues, “Hey, I’m sure he’s all right Tegan. You know how my parents sold our house a few years ago and moved to the countryside to retire, that’s probably what your dad did too. You’ll find him eventually.”
I’m almost certain that moving away and retiring is not at all what my dad had been doing, but I can’t tell Nicky that. She doesn’t know anything about the vampires.
“I hope you’re right,” I tell her.
“So,” she says, a smile in her voice, “when can I see you?”
I think a moment. “Tomorrow, I’ll come to your place around lunch time.”