“Hmm,” says Finn, a thoughtful expression on his face as he scrapes his palm over his stubbly jaw. We work in silence for a few minutes. Out of the blue Finn tells me, “I went to see Marcel last night. Broke his nose for what he did.”
I gape at him. “You’re nuts.”
“He needed to be told,” he states simply.
I turn to him, unable to help the small smile on my lips and the feeling of warmth spreading through my middle. “Yeah, he kinda did, didn’t he.” I nod to the living room window. “I wonder what they want.”
“Well, we’re about to find out,” Finn replies, slotting his key in the door.
I button my shirt up over my neck so that Ethan won’t see my bruises and start asking questions. Not because I don’t want him to know, I’m just too tired for all explaining that would entail. We stack the bottles in the empty cupboard under the sink and then go into the living room, where we find Ethan standing sternly by the mantelpiece, Delilah perched on the arm of a chair and Lucas sitting comfortably on the sofa.
“Decided to let yourselves in did you?” Finn asks in that way he has of sounding friendly yet entirely pissed off at the same time.
“You need better locks,” Lucas remarks, biting on a nail.
Finn bristles at this, probably because breaking and entering is normally his forte. Lucas is coming across cocky as usual, but there’s an air of edginess about him, Delilah too. Ethan seems to be radiating fumes of anger beneath his calm façade.
“What happened to you both?” he asks, taking in our bloodied clothing.
“We had a close encounter with Theodore. Nothing big, just him making sure we know he’s got the biggest balls in this playground,” Finn answers casually.
Ethan’s eyes cut to me. “Were you hurt?” He takes a step closer, sniffs the ai
r and then seems to relax. “The blood on you is not yours.” I steel myself when I feel the lust potion waking up at Ethan’s proximity. It’s getting weaker by the hour though, which is relieving.
“It’s Finn’s,” I mumble and sit down on the couch. My muscles ache from my struggle earlier.
“She stabbed me,” Finn adds with a big smile, showing his teeth and dropping down onto the couch beside me. “Rita worked her magic though, so I’m right as rain.” He leans close to my ear, allowing his breath to linger on my skin. “Now I’ve got your mark on me,” he whispers. “So when do I get to put my mark on you?”
I give him a look that says not now and glance back at Ethan. If he heard Finn’s whisper it doesn’t show on his face. He walks slowly over to the window and stands with his back to the room.
“Why would you stab him?” Delilah asks me, curious rather than concerned.
“Long story, magic was involved. It was a do or die situation,” I answer and she nods in understanding.
“Did you notice that anyone’s missing?” Ethan interrupts, without turning back around. His voice is deceptively casual. There’s absolutely nothing casual about his stance though. He reminds me of a coiled spring. The fact that he’s not facing us seems kind of foreboding.
“Rita’s in her trailer and you know the others have gone to see Gabriel’s warlock friend,” I say, my brow furrowing in confusion. What’s he getting at?
Ethan turns around fast, his face is no longer an empty canvas. Now there’s fury seeping out of him. “Dru and Will have left. They said they didn’t want to live as exiles anymore, so they’re going to start again in a new city.”
“You let them go?” Finn asks in surprise.
Ethan cuts him a hateful look. “Of course I did. I’m not entirely morally bankrupt. I don’t keep people prisoners. If they want to leave then they can leave.”
His eyes land on me, as though reminding me of the time I left Tribane. He hadn’t wanted me to go back then, but he hadn’t forced me to stay either when he probably could have. Then again, I’m half tempted to mutter something under my breath about him being involved in locking a little girl up in an attic not too long ago.
“So we’re left with two vamps and one dhamp,” Finn says humorously and shrugs. “Things could be worse. Turn that frown upside down. A big fella such as yourself shouldn’t be getting so upset just because his friends don’t want to play with him anymore.”
He’s taunting Ethan now. Delilah gives him a look that warns him not to push it. Hell, even I can see that Ethan’s temper is on a knife edge and I’ve been known to push his buttons at the worst possible moments myself.
“You need to learn when to be silent, slayer.” Ethan’s words come out more than a little threatening.
“I don’t need to learn anything from you, leech,” Finn retorts, putting the same emphasis on the word leech as Ethan did on slayer.
Both of them despise what the other one is and this tête a tête is giving them the opportunity to air their dislike. Things could go badly wrong here. If I weren’t so exhausted from almost dying today I’d probably do something to kill whatever argument is brewing. They eye each other and the tension is palpable.
Suddenly, Ethan starts laughing and shakes his head. When his gaze lands on me I go tense. “Do you see what you’ve reduced me to? Squabbling in some white trash dump with a slayer, and not even a halfling slayer, but a human one, Irish scum at that.”