“Good,” he glances down at me then, “I can’t wait to dance with you. Would you like to stay in my house after the party?”
I shiver. I’m definitely not against the idea of spending another night with Ethan, but if he finds out that I had something to do with helping save Rebecca then he might not want to see my face ever again.
“I might.” I answer mysteriously. Whether or not I get to enjoy a night with Ethan again all depends on what happens with Pamphrock.
“Then I will hope,” he replies, giving my hand a small squeeze, and when I look up into his eyes they seem hungry. Perhaps not for my blood though.
At this I feel a fizzing sensation run through my body, and it’s got nothing to do with the effect Ethan’s having on me. It’s sort of similar to the time when I’d made the fork levitate in Finn’s kitchen. Has something somehow awakened my magic again? With every new step that I take the sensation increases, almost to the point where I feel like I’m physically vibrating with unknown energy.
Ethan glances down at me. “Are you all right, Tegan?” he asks.
“I – I feel sort of funny,” I answer, placing a hand to my stomach, because the fizzing is now culminating in that area.
Ethan stops walking and puts his arms around me, eyes roaming over my body as though checking that everything is okay. The fizzing pops and crackles inside of me, it’s vibrating through my skin and organs like invisible bubbles. The feeling weakens me at the knees and I falter, but Ethan holds me in his firm grasp so that I don’t fall to the ground.
I’m vaguely aware of a red van that’s been sitting parked on the other side of the road. I can’t concentrate on it too much because the fizzing is overwhelming. All of a sudden the engine starts up and the van casually pulls away from the the curb and drives off down the road. Ethan has his hand pressed to my forehead now, checking my temperature.
“You’re burning up,” he observes.
I swallow and try to find my bearings. The fizzing is beginning to subside in a startling rush, in my head I’m imagining a stream of fizzy Coke splashing harshly into a cool glass, filling up the glass and emptying out of the bottle. I am the bottle, and right now it feels so very good to be emptied. I want the fizzy bubbles out of me immediately. My magic both confuses and frightens me, and I’m just not ready to contemplate what it all means.
My head is foggy for a moment. Then I wonder if the drifting away of the fizzing sensation had anything to do with the departure of that red van. No, it must have been a coincidence. What could a red van have to do with awakening the magic inside of me. I suppose that all depends on who had been inside the van.
Frantically, I think, we have to follow it, but my realisation has come all too slowly and the vehicle has long since disappeared from sight. I push away from Ethan just a small bit.
“I’m okay,” I tell him. “I’m just a little bit faint. I haven’t had much to eat today.” Surely that excuse will suffice. I mean, Ethan did live through the days when delicate young ladies would swoon and faint at anything even vaguely discomforting.
He gazes down at me, a hint of disapproval in his dark eyes. “You should always ensure that you have eaten,” he scolds and then sighs. “What am I going to do with you Tegan?” There is a gleam of mischief in his eyes now, as well as some kind of intent. I struggle to breathe as my stomach turns over on itself at the thoughts of the things that Ethan might do with me. Some of them he already demonstrated last night.
In an effort to stop myself from completely succumbing to his charms, I retort, “Stop telling me what to do, I’ll eat when I want to. I think you might be a little bit too used to bossing around your employees at the club.”
He pulls me close and rests his hand on the curve of my lower back. “You know,” he whispers, “you submit rather sweetly when you’re in my bed. It’s surprising judging from the way you continually persist in challenging me everywhere else.”
My mouth gapes open. His words make me want to melt in his arms and slap him across the face simultaneously. Ethan’s laugh resonates somewhere deep in the pit of my stomach, causing butterflies to flit all about. I can’t look at him right now, and my eyes fall to my feet as a blush warms my cheeks.
He lifts my chin, forcing me to look at him. “You are quite brave for one so timid. Don’t hide your eyes from me, they are the most beautiful thing about you, and that’s saying something,” he stops and lets his gaze touch on each area of my body. “Because there is nothing about you that isn’t simply exquisite.”
You only think that because of my blood, my subconscious spits out. But I don’t voice the thought. Maybe I’m being foolish, but I want to pretend. If only for a small time before I have to leave again, that this beautiful vampire genuinely thinks that I am beautiful too. I know I’m not though, I’m hard and broken, and that is all.
“You shouldn’t say things like that to me,” I say quietly.
Ethan frowns. “Why not?”
“Because it makes me want something I can never have.” Okay, I’m such an idiot, and I hate the tears and self-pity that are catching in my throat.
“Oh, and what might that be?” he asks, his eyes are big and probing now.
I shrug and blink away the tears. I don’t want to give Ethan the satisfaction of knowing that not being able to have him properly makes me sad.
I mean to stay quiet, but the answer comes out anyway. I peer at him and whisper, “You.”
He smiles with such tenderness and warmth. “Silly girl,” he chides. “You have had me since the moment two years ago when tears fell from your eyes in my office.”
Now I’m confused. Is he talking about my first night at Crimson, when Lucas had intimidated me and they had stopped me from leaving? Before I can reply, Ethan’s phone starts ringing.
“We’re not finished with this,” he breathes and places a kiss on the top of my head. He steps away and answers the call.
“Cristescu,” he says into the speaker, all business. You’d never guess he’d just been having a heart to heart with a stupid, naive human girl who can’t help but to have fanciful notions of happy ever after endings with a predator.