A minute later I hear a key turn in the front door and Gabriel and Delilah walk in, both looking a little anxious and stony faced.
“Jaysus, would you look at the two of you, faces that could crack steel. What’s going on?” says Finn, glancing up from his paper to peer at the dhamphir half siblings.
Before they have the chance to say anything, Rita, Alvie and Noreen come in. “I got your message Gabriel, what did you want us here for?” Rita asks.
“We have a proposition for all of you,” Delilah speaks up. “It’s in the best interests of everyone, especially given the current circumstances with Theodore. I managed to persuade Gabriel to agree, so the rest of you shouldn’t be too difficult to convince.”
“What do we need to be convinced of?” Finn asks, a sceptical look in his eyes now.
Delilah clears her throat. “You are all aware of what happened at Whitfield’s house a little under two weeks ago. That event had a profound effect on the Governor’s long standing relationship with my brother Ethan. Whitfield decided to put Ethan on trial for knowingly bringing a spy into his home.”
“But Ethan didn’t know anything about what I was going to do,” I interrupt.
“We all know that,” says Delilah. “Still, somebody had to take the blame for what happened and Ethan was the most obvious scapegoat.”
“What was decided upon in the trial?” Rita asks.
“Ethan was declared an outlaw of the South and has been cast out of vampire society, alongside those who are loyal to him, which includes Lucas, Dru and another vampire who works at the club, Will.” I let out a long gasp. This is all my fault. Like I need any more self-hatred to be dealing with right now.
“So,” Delilah continues. “I want to put a proposition to all of you which is this, we team up with my brother and the others in order to protect ourselves from whatever is going to happen now that Theodore has returned.”
“No way!” Finn refuses. “I’m a slayer, there’s no chance in hell that I’m gonna team up with a bunch of vampires.”
“Finn,” says Gabriel in a reasoning tone, “I understand where you’re coming from, believe me I do. No one has more of an issue with Ethan than me, but it is our best bet for staying alive, and perhaps saving the city from another long stretch of tyranny. Think about it. We need some vampires on our side, they are far stronger than any of us physically.”
Finn has an angry scowl on his face, but he seems to be mulling it over. His eyes are latched in challenge with Gabriel’s, who appears to be trying to silently convince Finn to say yes. Finally, Finn lets out a long breath and grudgingly answers, “Fine, we’ll give it a try. But I’m not going to make any promises that it will work.”
Relief floods into Gabriel’s and Delilah’s faces. “Okay, what about the rest of you?” Gabriel asks.
Rita looks to her mum and Alvie, the three huddle together and whisper to each other for a minute before Rita turns back to the room and announces, “We’re in.”
Before everyone can look to me I blurt out, “I’m in too.” My heart is twisting at the prospect of seeing Ethan, not knowing how he’s going to react to me. Then I add, “So long as Lucas keeps away from Amanda that is, she’s only just getting better.”
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t touch her,” Delilah answers.
“Right, so we’re all agreed then?” Gabriel asks in a hesitant voice. Everyone nods their heads in turn, except for Wolf, but I don’t think he has any clue of what’s going on. Delilah pulls her phone from her pocket to make a call. “It’s a yes. You can come in now,” is all she says before hanging up. Two minutes later there’s a knock at the door and my chest seizes up in knots. Is Ethan here already? He must have been waiting somewhere nearby for Delilah’s answer.
Delilah leaves the room to get the door. Mere seconds pass before she returns with Ethan, Lucas, Dru and another vampire with long dreadlocks, who I recognise as a barman from the club. The kitchen is suddenly far too crowded. My eyes immediately latch on Ethan, he looks marvellous as always, wearing jeans and a dark shirt.
For a moment I can’t breathe at the sight of him, but he doesn’t once look my way. Is he intentionally ignoring me? Yes, that seems to be the case. Oh well.
“Hello everyone,” he says, as he scans the room, still carefully avoiding my gaze. Wonderful. This isn’t going to be awkward at all. Slowly the vampires begin to mingle with their new found allies, but nobody ventures to talk to me. I feel like a leper. I suppose I’ll just have to get used to it, and I try to zone out for a while. No, no, I inform my heart, you’re not breaking on me now. Suck it up.
I listen while Ethan’s smooth voice does its best at charming Rita and her mother, while Lucas, Dru and the barman vampire chat with Delilah, Gabriel and Alvie. Finn’s standing nearby, silently watching all of them, a hard look on his face that says, don’t even think about messing with me. I put the dinner out for him and Wolf, all the while I can sense someone watching me. Each time I glance at Ethan though, his eyes are nowhere near me. Perhaps I was imagining it.
I take my plate of food and retreat upstairs. I will not allow myself to be sad about Ethan ignoring me. I’ll admit that I thought perhaps he would find his way to forgiving me, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen any time soon. I steel myself and my aching hear
t. I deserve this.
I clear my head of all thoughts and try to get my priorities straight. I have a lot to achieve in the coming weeks. One, figure out how to save my dad. Two, come up with a way of replicating my mother’s spell for Rebecca. Three, help in any way that I can to prevent Theodore from taking over the city. And four, discover where exactly my magic has come from and if my mother truly was a runaway from one of the magical families. Yes, all of that should keep my mind off of my feelings for the hostile vampire who I am now going to be seeing a whole lot more of.
Wish me luck.
Coming in 2013
Tegan’s Magic
Read on for an excerpt