“Wait a second, some man attacked you?” Finn asked, looking angrily at Rita. “You never told me that part.”
Rita shrugged. “Ethan gave her some of his blood to heal her injuries. She’s fine now.”
Finn looked cuttingly at Ethan for an explanation. “You gave her blood?” he accused.
“Our blood heals human injuries, slayer. I thought you of all people would know that,” Ethan answered, his voice low. I sensed he didn’t enjoy being questioned by Finn.
“What happened wasn’t normal. The city just randomly turned into a war zone. Has anybody seen anything on the news?” I glanced about the room, but no one had any answers.
I shook my head, grabbed the remote control from the coffee table, and switched on the television. I flicked through to the news stations, where there was a story about an upcoming referendum before the news reader mentioned yesterday’s fighting.
“There are reports of a violent disturbance that occurred in the city centre on Tuesday. 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.”
“What a load of BS,” Rita said, folding her arms.
“I don’t know,” Delilah murmured. “Perhaps it was just some human gang war. These sorts of things are a regular occurrence nowadays.”
Rita gave her a sharp look, then turned to me. “Tegan, did the man who beat you up look like a member of a gang?”
“Not unless it’s suddenly become stylish for gang members to wear brown leather dress shoes and wool peacoats,” I answered. “Oh, and not unless middle-class dads are now partaking in gang membership.”
Rita turned back to Delilah. “You see?” she said right before she bucked forward. Rita fell to the floor, her entire body shaking like she was having a seizure.
2.
Alvie and Noreen rushed to Rita’s side as she coughed violently with her hands wrapped around her throat. Noreen muttered a spell under her breath, running her hands down her daughter’s body. Soon Rita’s coughing died down, and Gabriel lifted her onto the couch. Her eyes were wide and fearful, and the first person she looked at was her mother.
“He knows,” she whispered, horror in her eyes. The colour drained from Noreen’s face.
“Who knows what, Reet?” Alvie asked.
I went and knelt down in front of Rita, taking her small, thin hands into my own. “What just happened?” I asked her quietly, not failing to notice the rapt attention of the vampires in the room.
They all knew that Rita was a powerful witch—that she could prove a very useful ally—but they also appeared keen to understand the source of her power, which was still very much a mystery to them. They had no clue that her father was a sorcerer, let alone their enemy Theodore.
Rita glanced quickly between her mother, Alvie, and myself. She looked me dead in the eye and silently mouthed, “Theodore.”
Oh, shit! Did this mean that Theodore knew she was his daughter?
I leaned in close to her to whisper, “Did you see him?”
Noreen sat back, her face pale as her hands shook.
Rita nodded and tapped a finger to her forehead. “In here,” she paused, eyeing the vamps before lowering her voice. “He was trying to persuade me to go to him. It took all of my willpower not to succumb. He knows what I am to him.”
“Where did he want you to go?” I went on, sensing the vampires were on the edge of their seats, intently watching and listening.
“I don’t know. I could just feel him pulling on me like there was a thread around my wrist.”
Ethan stood and approached us. “What are you both whispering about?”
I glared at him. “None of your business.”
Ethan ignored my cutting stare and focused on Rita. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” she answered, plastering a breezy grin on her face. “Nothing to worry about.”
“You’re hiding something,” Ethan said disapprovingly. “Don’t do that. It will not end well.”
“Are you threatening her?” Gabriel asked, rushing to Rita’s defence.
“Of course not, Gabriel,” Ethan replied. “No need to get your panties in a twist.”
“Don’t talk to him like that,” Alvie interjected, angered by Ethan’s mocking tone towards Gabriel.
Ethan’s eyes drifted slowly—condescendingly—over to Alvie, a satisfied smirk on his face. “I’m sorry, did I offend your boyfriend?”
“You’re a real piece of work, you are,” Alvie said, folding his arms. “Would it kill you to be pleasant to him? He is your half-brother, you know.”
Ethan laughed and looked back at Gabriel. “Isn’t that sweet? Your little boy toy is sticking up for you.”
Gabriel’s eyes turned to slits. He stood up to face Ethan head-on. “If you so much as look at him that way again, I’ll end you.”
“End me? Don’t flatter yourself, brother, you would only hurt yourself trying.”
Finn, who stood casually on the other side of the room, interjected with smooth confidence, “Oh, he’d have help.”
As Ethan prepared to make some other smart comment to Finn, I jumped up and put my hand over his mouth. “Enough. That’s enough from all of you. We’re supposed to be allies, not enemies. I know it’s going to take some getting used to, but everybody is going to have to put their prejudices aside and make a concerted effort to get along.”
“Here, here,” Lucas cheered in mockingly. I silenced him with a sharp look.
Ethan’s eyes were levelled on mine. He grabbed hold of my wrist and swiftly removed my hand from his mouth. “Very well then,” he said, holding onto my wrist a moment longer than necessary, staring at me coldly. When he let go, my hand fell limply to my side.
Unexpectedly, Dru was the one to speak up next. “Who do you think you are to tell everyone how they should behave? You’re nothing but a traitor.”
“Dru,” Ethan warned. “That’s enough.”
Dru shook her head. “Oh, come on, she played you for a fool, and now we’re all paying the price, cast out by our people and having to live on enemy territory. We should be allowed to express our anger at that.”
“Um, can I remind everyone that I was saving a little girl’s life? I hardly betrayed Ethan for selfish reasons.”
“Yeah, you’re a modern-day Mother Theresa,” Lucas deadpanned before looking around the room. “Can someone remind me who thought it would be a good idea for everyone to be in one room together like this?”
“Look,” Finn cut in. “I’m probably the least happy person about this alliance we’ve built, but there’s no use fighting. This is my house, so I’m going to call the shots for now. If the riots in the city today were Theodore’s doing, then we need to find out where he is and put a stop to it. The vampires can search at night and the humans and dhampirs during the day.”
Ethan turned his focus to Finn. “It might surprise you, slayer, but I agree with you. We vampires will begin our searches tonight.” He stepped forward and surprised the hell out of me when he shook Finn’s hand. I’d officially entered the Twilight Zone.