“Well clearly he wasn’t going to be human. No human would know how to retrieve a person from another dimension. Come on, let’s go and introduce ourselves. You’re a vampire, surely you can handle a little old half demon.”
“Do not provoke me, Tegan,” he warns.
“Go fuck yourself, Ethan,” I answer back, mimicking his stern tone.
He deserves my anger after how he spoke to me in the car.
I make a move to walk away from him and over towards Edwards, but a firm hand grips my neck and pulls me back. He flips me around so that I’m looking up at him while he leans over me, his fangs out a little to give me a scare. It does the trick. I breathe quickly and swallow down a hard lump of saliva.
“I said, DO. NOT. PROVOKE. ME. Understood?”
I swallow again and nod. He squeezes my neck once hard, before releasing me and muttering a satisfied, “Very good.”
The devil inside my head has choked out the angel and is screaming at me, Call him a wanker! Call him a wanker now! You know you want to. I manage to summon up my small supply of self-preservation and ignore the urge to provoke him further, as he likes to put it.
Edwards notices us immediately when we approach him, a big smile lighting up his face. How on earth does he know we’re the ones he’s supposed to meet? He knows my name, but not what I look like.
“I take it you’re Tegan,” he greets enthusiastically. He sort of reminds me of Bilbo Baggins, off on an adventure. I shake his offered hand before he turns to Ethan. “And who is this fine strapping young fellow?” he says, now shaking hands with Ethan.
“Ethan Cristescu, it is a pleasure to meet you, Professor Edwards,” he replies, all charm and chivalry. Too bad he couldn’t use some of that with me.
“My word, of the Romanian Cristescus?” asks Edwards.
“The very same,” says Ethan, seeming pleased that this man knows of his family.
“Well, it truly is an honour. I confess, I did not expect to be meeting with vampire royalty tonight. Life is just full of wonderful surprises.”
I try not to snort at him describing Ethan as vampire royalty. Well, he certainly has the snobbery of royalty down pat.
“We better get going,” I say, gesturing towards the exit.
“Of course, lead the way,” Edwards answers, allowing Ethan to carry his suitcase.
When we make it back to the car, Edwards insists that we make a start on things right away. He doesn’t want to spare a single moment. He tells me that I need to find him a small animal, preferably a cat or a dog, and bring him to the location where the dimensional door was opened. The one that sucked in my dad and let Theodore back through.
Taking in Edwards’ instructions, I turn to address Ethan. “You need to drive us to Sycamore Strand.”
I’m trying to speak with him as little as possible after our argument earlier. Edwards begins rummaging in his bag, pulling out all sorts of random items. I catch sight of a magnifying glass and a high end digital alarm clock.
“What do you need a cat or a dog for?” I ask, eyeing him in my overhead mirror.
He waves me off, now flicking through a deck of cards and then securing the stack with a rubber band. “It’s just a necessary component for my journey. Nothing to concern yourself about.”
“We can stop by an animal shelter on the way to the beach,” says Ethan.
“You’re not planning on hurting it, are you?” I ask with suspicion.
Edwards, who has so far only been polite and jovial, now looks at me in annoyance. He lets out a frustrated sigh. “Why are people so touchy about what happens to animals these days? If I’d asked for a couple of rats I’m sure you wouldn’t bat an eyelid. But if you insist on knowing I shall tell you. I need the animal because what I fundamentally endeavour to do by retrieving your father is to fool the dimension into believing that he is still there. In order to do that, I will require a life force to take his p
lace. Now, isn’t it easier that I use an animal for this, rather than stranding another human in hell?”
Well, that’s me told. I swallow, ducking my head and answering sheepishly, “Yeah I guess it is.”
I notice Ethan smirking beside me in the driver’s seat, thoroughly enjoying Edwards giving me a telling off. Fifteen minutes later he parks at the animal shelter and gets out, leaving me alone in the car with Edwards. It’s weird having Ethan help me with all this, despite the fact that we can barely stand to be in one another’s company. I know he’s not completely bad, he just has this way of riling me up like no man I’ve ever known before.
It doesn’t take long before he returns to the car, carrying a box with a black cat inside.
“I told the woman to give me the toughest tom cat she had. That way he’ll have a better chance of surviving in his new home,” Ethan explains.