Then, from somewhere close by, I saw a white light. I pulled myself to my feet and stood to see that the light was emanating from Alora. Wow … just wow. The people who hadn’t yet fled were strangely beginning to calm down. Finn stared at her with a look of amazement mirroring my own. Was she doing this? Was she somehow calming them?
My attention was drawn away from her when I heard Ethan snarling again, but this time his anger was directed at me. He pulled me into his arms and glared down at me.
“Coming here without informing me was a very bad idea, Tegan. If I hadn’t found you in time you could have been beaten to death by those humans,” he seethed.
“I know, but I wanted to see Rita,” I said, tears forming, emotion clogging my throat.
“The witch is not worth risking your life for,” he replied, his tone softening a smidge.
“She’s risked plenty for me before all this happened. I know I can get her back. I just know it.”
Ethan’s hard expression faltered, and sympathy filled his gaze. “Don’t ever do anything like this again,” he said. “If you want to go somewhere dangerous, I won’t stop you, but at least let me come so I can protect you.”
His heartfelt words made my lungs fill with butterflies, and I wrapped my arms around his middle, pulling his rock-hard body into mine. I kissed his collarbone, which was the highest part I could reach on his tall frame without him bending down to me.
“Jesus, that was a close call,” Finn said, coming up to us with Alora at his side. Ira was on the other side of him, and I looked around to find that Theodore, Rita, and everyone else had fled the scene.
“The humans have seen you in daylight,” Ira said, addressing Ethan. “Even though it’s not exactly true, rumour might spread that vampires are not confined to the night and things should settle down.”
“In other words,” Finn added. “They’ll be too scared shitless to leave their homes, and the city will be a ghost town again.”
“Well, it’s not ideal, but it is preferable to what happened here today,” I interjected, meeting Finn’s eyes.
“Theodore knows we’re onto him now. He also knows where you live. You must all come and stay at my house until we know it’s safe,” Ethan said, and his words surprised me.
To be honest, I didn’t think he gave much of a crap about my little group of friends, but now I saw that he did, and my heart didn’t know what to do with that information.
“I hate to admit it, but you’re right,” Finn agreed, dismayed. “And I’ve only just gotten back into my own bed.” He paused and eyed Ethan. “Is there room in your place for all of us?”
Now I was surprised that Finn was going along with this and not putting up a fight. Perhaps we were all maturing.
“There is plenty. Go pack up your things and gather the others. You’ll need to act fast before Theodore decides to pay you a visit. I’m sure he knows where I live, too, but he’s scared of me. He won’t dare come to my house.”
Finn quietly agreed and began leading Alora and Ira back to wherever he parked his van. Silently, Ethan lifted me onto his back, and moments later, we were outside his house.
“I’m still mad at you,” he said. Something about his husky tone caused a deep, erotic stir in my belly, and I decided to goad him.
“Be mad all you want. You’re not the boss of me,” I retorted before sauntering into the kitchen to make something to eat. I left so early this morning that I didn’t have the chance for breakfast. My stomach rumbled.
Opening his fridge, I found the ingredients for a Spanish omelette and proceeded to throw them all together in a pan. While I did this Ethan watched me. I felt his eyes on me, and my arousal grew.
He might be mad, but he still wanted me.
“Your face is bruised, and I think you might have a couple of bruises elsewhere, too, given the hits you took before I got to you,” he said a few minutes into my food preparation. He was angry about my injuries, but he needn’t worry. I wasn’t too badly hurt.
“I’ll be okay,” I said.
Once the omelette was done, I dished it onto a plate and sat down to eat. Ethan watched me for several moments before leaving the room. When he came back, his shirt was off and the button at the fly of his jeans was undone.
Gulp.
He walked to a cupboard, rummaged around for a minute, and pulled out a new bottle of body wash.
“The one upstairs is empty,” he said, referring to how we used it all up. “I’m going to take a shower,” he continued. “Call me if you need anything.”
I need you to put some clothes back on so that I can physically close my gaping mouth. Even though we’d had quite a bit of sex in recent days, this was all very new, and I still found myself staring at his body in slack-jawed amazement sometimes.
The bastard knew it, too.
This was his punishment for me going out without telling him. I inhaled a deep breath and summoned up the willpower not to climb right up those stairs after him.
I heard the shower come on, and a couple of minutes later, the doorbell rang. When I answered it, Finn, Alora, Ira, Gabriel, Alvie, and Delilah were standing on the doorstep.
“Delilah, welcome home,” I greeted. “The rest of you, come on in.”
“Just thrilled to be back,” Delilah deadpanned.
“Look at this place,” Alvie cooed. “Very swanky!”
I led them all into the living room, helping with bags. Next, I gave them a tour of the downstairs. Once finished in the shower, Ethan came down, looking just as sexy as he had before he went upstairs. He kissed me briefly on the lips and began to guide everyone to their rooms. There were a lot of bedrooms in this house since it was comprised of three floors; one bedroom downstairs, four on the first floor, and three on the top floor, plus Ethan’s study.
I went to check in with Amanda and Rebecca, who had taken to each other like ducks to water. Unlike me, Amanda knew exactly how to act around kids since she had a tonne of younger cousins growing up. I found them both playing an elaborate game of Barbie dolls on the floor of Rebecca’s room.
“Where did all these toys come from?” I asked.
“Ethan got them for Rebecca,” Amanda replied, and I was momentarily touched that he’d gone to the trouble.
“That was nice of him,” I said, taking a seat and watching them play for a while. Their giggling made me smile until I got a tingling sensation in my brain. The tingling transformed into an itch, and suddenly, I was seeing Roman in my head.
I need to talk to you, Granddaughter, he said.
Amanda and Rebecca’s game of Barbies had become the background and Roman’s face the foreground.
Where? I asked.
Come to the roof.
You’re on the roof?
Yes, come. And hurry.
Leaving Amanda and Rebecca to their game, I went up to Ethan’s study on the top floor and crawled out through the window. There was a part of the roof that jutted out, allowing you to climb to the top. I whined a little as I pulled my body up since I had a few bruises from this morning’s attack. Roman was perched on the roof, his arms folded, as he watched me struggle.
“Hey, Gramps, care to give me a hand up?” I asked.
“Why, of course,” he replied smoothly and took my hand into his. A little zinging spark of recognition ran through me, my magic identifying him as kin.