“I could ask Emilia. That bitch owes me after all the trouble she caused, pretending I could trust her and then running off with Rebecca.” I also still planned on getting Rebecca back. I couldn’t leave the poor girl with Emilia.
“Aha,” Ethan said, flashing me a hint of fang. “Shall we pay her a visit?”
I sighed. “Yes, but not today.” Lowering my voice shyly, I continued, “I want just one day with you. One day that’s just … us.”
He squeezed my hand and bent down, his voice a husky whisper. “I like that idea.”
We continued our walk through the unusually quiet city. Normally the streets were packed, the shops, restaurants, and cafes bustling. Sure, there were some people on the streets, but not the crowds there used to be. Lots of shop windows were boarded up, and others were simply locked tight, not open for business as they would normally be in the middle of the day.
Things were far from back to normal.
And I would tackle that lack of normality, try to figure out a way to restore some sanity to the city, but for today, I refused to lose myself in worry. Today I was just a woman madly in love with a handsome man named Ethan.
I let go of his hand and broke into a run. His laugh drifted behind me as he watched me take off. I’d never run this fast before in my life. I was supercharged with vampire blood.
I hopped up onto a ladder affixed to the side of a three-storey building and climbed it effortlessly. I sensed Ethan was somewhere behind me even though I couldn’t hear a single rustle of movement. I raced over the rooftop and went flying through the air, sailing over the narrow distance between this building and the next one. I felt like a little wingless bird. My heart beat wildly, and I grinned like a crazy person as my feet crashed down onto the hard surface.
Not a single stitch.
This was amazing.
I stood and got ready to continue my roof jumping antics when Ethan grabbed me and flipped me over his shoulder. I wriggled in his grip, but obviously it was a useless effort.
“What’s gotten into you?” he growled before setting me down on the path. We were already off the roof and back on the street. Yeah, he moved that fast now.
“I’m having fun. You should try it sometime,” I answered with a cheeky sideways smile.
“You could have severely injured yourself. What you’re feeling isn’t real, Tegan. It’s a chemical high. You can’t actually fly, you know.”
“That’s not what I thought,” I said, pouting, because that’s exactly what I thought. For a second, I truly believed I could fly.
He pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around my waist. “It’s just the blood,” he whispered. “Your human bones can still break if you fall.”
“I know that,” I answered, feeling embarrassed now.
All of a sudden, the sun was too bright. It dizzied me. I stared into the window of a boutique across the street where there were all sorts of glittery dresses on display. Despite the distance, I could see the stitch in every sequin, every thread weaved throughout the fabric. The details hurt my brain.
Somewhere close by, a seagull cawed, and I heard too many notes in the one sound, too many levels of noise. I clamped my hands over my ears to block it out.
“Tegan, are you alright?” Ethan asked in concern.
Before I had the chance to reply, I passed out.
***
When I woke up, I was lying on the couch in Ethan’s living room, while he held a cool, damp face cloth to my forehead. It felt soothing.
“Hey,” he said when he saw my eyes flicker open.
“Hey,” I replied, a little croaky.
“I think you might have drunk too much from me,” he went on apologetically. “That’s why you passed out.”
“I felt like I was going to go crazy from sensory overload,” I said. “Is that what it feels like to be you?
A small smile curved his lips. “I have the natural ability to turn it on and off at will. Since you are human, you don’t have that ability. My blood had fully hit your system when we were out on the street, which is why you fainted.”
“I feel better now. The high is wearing off.”
I reached down and rubbed my shin where it ached, most likely from the jump I took across the roof. The blood didn’t protect me from being hurt, it just protected me from feeling pain in the moment. Huh. Not as fantastic as I originally imagined then. And now that the high was dwindling, I felt a sharpness in my veins crying out for more blood.
So, this was what it felt like to be addicted.
I licked my lips as my eyes zoned in on Ethan’s smooth neck. There wasn’t a single hint of the cut he gave himself this morning. Without realising it, I was sitting up and leaning closer to him, my breathing erratic.
He put both his hands on my shoulders and pushed me back down onto the couch.
“I hoped this wouldn’t happen,” he said, a look of self-remonstration on his face. “I should’ve been more careful.”
“What?” I asked, but I wasn’t really listening. Instead, I was imagining all the sweet blood rushing through his veins, singing for me to drink it.
“That you would want more. I didn’t think it would happen so quickly though, but you’ve developed an addiction.”
His words broke me out of my trance. “Oh.” A pause as the seriousness of what he said hit home. “Oh.”
A silence elapsed.
“Well, we just won’t do it again,” I said, pulling farther back and folding my arms across my chest with great effort. Ethan didn’t look happy at how I distanced myself from him.
“Fuck. But I really like it when you drink from me, Tegan.”
“I really like it, too,” I admitted, meeting his eyes. “But we can’t do it anymore. It’s too risky. We’ll only do it if it’s a life-or-death situation and I need your blood to heal. Alright?” I thrust my hand out for him to shake.
He looked at me with affection and then finally shook my hand. “Deal,” he said before pulling me onto his lap and attacking my mouth, plunging his tongue inside. A minute or two later, somebody cleared their throat, and Ethan zipped away from me, his posture guarded, ready for an attack.
My heartbeat slowed when I saw it was only Lucas. He stood in the doorway with an eager look on his face. His eyes traced over Ethan, taking in the changes in his appearance. The power. Power that I gave to him. Then Lucas’s gaze flicked to me, and I practically saw the thoughts churning in his mind. Was he thinking how he could drink from me and then he’d be like Ethan, too?
“Oh, quit looking at me like that,” Lucas chided. “I have no intention of biting you. I don’t want to be powerful. It’s more trouble than it’s worth. Better leave that job to someone else.”
“Lucas,” Ethan interjected. “How did you get in here?”
Lucas jangled a key in his hand. “I have a spare, remember?”
Ethan narrowed his gaze. “I hope you made sure nobody saw you coming inside.”
“I might not be a super-vampire, but I’m not stupid,” Lucas replied, walking to the window and glancing out. He whistled. “That’s some queue. When are you going to deal with them?”
He must’ve been talking about the vampires waiting to pledge their allegiance to Ethan. They’d been gone during the day, but now that the sky had darkened, they were back.