Ethan stared down at me, a questioning look on his face.
“He’s going to help us,” I said, not ready to tell him about the whole becoming a sorceress thing yet. I needed time to hash it all out in my head before I told anyone else about it. I slipped my fingers through his, and a second later, he scooped me into his arms and dropped us effortlessly inside his large bedroom window.
10.
Finn
I’d say one good thing about Cristescu, his house was bloody fantastic. Vampires happened to be considerably fond of themselves, which meant they only settled for the very best in luxury. Back in my early DOH days, I had to break into a vamp home one night. The place had heated floors, solid gold taps, and in one room, there was even a glass ceiling.
I know, a glass ceiling for a vampire. How dumb could he be? I later discovered that they’d invented this kind of UV filtering glass that negated the effects of sunlight.
Clever bastards.
The room I was staying in had an amazing shower and a mattress that had to have cost a few grand. I lay in bed, about to turn off the lamp and catch some z’s when there was a tentative knock on my door.
“Who is it?” I called sleepily.
“Alora. Can I come in?” came a quiet reply.
“Sure,” I answered, wondering why she’d come looking for me.
She stepped inside and closed the door. Her hand glided along the wall as she felt her way to the bed, and I had a momentary flash of her hand gliding along something else—because as we’ve established, I was a massive pervert.
“What’s up, Goldy?”
“I don’t want to sleep alone,” she said.
Those words shouldn’t have been like music to my ears, but they were.
“Why not? You’re safe here. No one’s going to harm you,” I reassured her, you know, trying to be a gentleman and all that. There was nothing I’d like more than to drift off with a beautiful half-elf in my arms, but I didn’t want to take advantage.
“There are two vampires in this house,” she replied. “There are also several standing guard outside.”
“You don’t like vamps?”
She shook her head. “A couple of years ago I had a vision of a woman being murdered by a vampire. He was sick and got off on her pain. He tortured her for a long time before he killed her. It’s one of the worst things I ever saw.”
She was still standing by the bed, so I took her hand in mine and gently pulled her down to sit. “Hey, you know the way in the human world there are good people and bad people?” I asked.
Her gold eyes were staring in the direction of our clasped hands. “Yes.” There was a hitch in her voice, but I wasn’t sure if it was down to fear or something else.
“Well, it’s kind of the same with vamps,” I continued, surprising myself with my logic. There was once a time when everything was black and white for me. Vampires were bad, humans were their prey. Now I was coming to see that there was a lot of grey in the mix. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t about to go declaring my undying love for Cristescu, but I was slowly coming to learn that he might not be as bad as I used to think.
I know, shock horror.
I’d probably killed just as many vampires in self-defence as he’d killed slayers who were trying to stake him. To be honest, vampires were just as wary of humans as humans were of them. Vampires might be strong, but humans outnumbered them by a huge margin.
“Some vampires can be pretty decent,” I went on. “They feed on humans, but they don’t kill them, and the humans they feed from want it. There are, however, other vampires who are complete psychos, and I’m guessing it was one of those you saw in your vision.”
“So, you trust the vampire who owns this house?”
I exhaled heavily. “Yeah. He’s a cocky prick and too good looking for his own good, but I think we can trust him. Well, as much as I ever trust anybody. There’s always a slim chance people will do something crazy that you don’t expect.”
I shut my mouth when I saw Alora tensing up again. Damn, I’d almost managed to relax her.
“Hey, come on. You can stay with me tonight. Will that make you feel safer?”
“Yes, thank you,” she inhaled a relieved breath, and I mentally prepared to keep my hands to myself. I mean, it was some feat not to touch a beautiful woman when she was lying in bed with you all sleep mussed and soft and …
Okay, I needed to get a handle on this.
I pulled open the covers for her to climb in, then turned off the lamp. I lay on my side and closed my eyes. A minute or two later, Alora slipped her hand back into mine. I didn’t breathe a word, just silently accepted the comfort of holding hands.