“I’m up Finn,” I say, and he marches on into the room then. “What’s the meeting about?” I ask him.
Finn folds his arms across his chest. “Rita mentioned what happened to you today, about the riot, and how you think it had something to do with Theodore. So, we’re having a meeting to discuss that possibility.”
“How very formal,” I reply. We haven’t had any meetings all together in one room since that first time we all decided to team up in Finn’s kitchen. I look over at Amanda. “You might want to make yourself scarce, because Lucas will be coming over with the rest of the vamps and Delilah.”
“Sure, I’ll stay up here,” she says, sitting down on the bed and rooting a paperback out of the wardrobe that she’s been reading.
I run a hand through my hair to get rid of the bed head somewhat. Finn’s wry glance tells me that it doesn’t work much. I pay a quick visit to the bathroom before heading downstairs in my jeans and t-shirt. I’m not going to bother getting dressed up for a bunch of vampires who will barely talk to me. I’m hungry, so I venture to the kitchen cupboard to grab something to munch on. I pull out a packet of tortilla chips and almost don’t notice Ira sitting over by the window, staring out of it with a meditative look on his face.
He glances at me then, probably sensing my eyes on him, as you do. I give him a silent nod, because he’s still doing the whole mute thing. I wonder if he lost the ability to speak as a result of the curse that was placed on him or something. Who knows. Finn’s been doing a lot of work with him, although I have no idea what kind of work that is. Mostly he takes him out to get him used to the world as a man again, instead of a dog.
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 by the fireplace, on the floor basically. 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 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, and I have to do a double take because she’s wearing a translucent cream coloured vest top with no bra underneath. Her B-cups 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 later and Finn finally decides to join us. He’s still a little aggressive around the vamps. It will 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 guffaw. All eyes dart to me as I struggle to keep my giggles under control. Finn grins at me.
“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, not caring that I’m being obvious.
Finn nods in understanding. I glance 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 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 or something. Then this one man, I’m telling you he couldn’t look any more dowdy and average, decided to attack me when I asked him why he was 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, 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, all 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, what’s that some kind of kinky role reversal?”
“Our blood heals human injuries, Slayer, I thought you would know that.” Ethan answers, his voice low, but 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, the others just seem clueless. I shake my head and stand up to grab the remote before flicking 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. 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. Probably some joke at my expense. 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. And God, I can’t help it, I glance up at Ethan expecting to see him looking at me blandly. Instead I discover him with an almighty scowl on his face. Well, perhaps he doesn’t like my friendship with Finn, the two of them are mortal enemies after all.
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 any doubts about the selective nature of what gets reported on the news then 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.