look on his face before he reached over and squeezed my hand. “You’re strong. You can handle it,” he assured me. “In the meantime, I’m going to pay Marcel another visit. I’ll get some of the boys down at the compound to come with me. The warlock needs to be schooled.”
I was surprised when Ethan gave him a nod of approval.
“Maybe you should go home, give my girl here some peace,” Rita suggested to Ethan. “Dee and Lucas have already left.”
Ethan frowned, cast me one last glance, then, without another word, exited the room. I instantly felt better once he was gone.
Rita went to get a damp cloth to put on my forehead, while Finn stayed with me. “This is my fault. I never should’ve taken you to Indigo.”
“Don’t beat yourself up. I’ve got a bad case of the vapours. It’ll pass. I’ve been through worse.”
A cheeky smile tugged at the edge of his mouth. “Well, if you need a helping hand to keep some of those urges in check—”
I cut him off with a slap on the shoulder. “Don’t even bother finishing that sentence,” I warned, and he chuckled.
Rita returned and placed the damp cloth on my forehead. “Thanks,” I said, shooting her a small smile. “I think I’ll take a bath. I need to wash off all this sweat.”
With that, I stood from the couch and made my way upstairs, trying not to drown in embarrassment that Rita, Finn, and Ethan had all witnessed me acting like a horned up lunatic.
4.
I spent over an hour in the bath, just sitting in the water and soothing my nerves and overworked hormones. When I finally managed to drag myself out, I changed into some PJs and crawled into bed. I fell asleep easily but was woken at two in the morning by shuffling noises outside.
Hurrying to my window, I peered out into the back garden. It took a moment for my sleepy eyes to adjust to the dark. Then I saw who was making the noise; Ethan, Lucas, and Dru were lugging crate loads of glass jars into the shed. What on earth?
I pulled on a long cardigan and made my way downstairs to investigate what they were up to. On my way down, I peeked in both Ira’s and Finn’s rooms, and both were fast asleep.
When I opened the back door and stepped out into the garden, all eyes darted to me. Vampire’s eyes were far more striking than human eyes, so much so that they practically glowed in the dark. A chill skittered down my spine.
Lucas and Dru dismissed me and went back to lugging crates, while Ethan continued to survey me with an inscrutable expression.
“No need to look so alarmed. I’m not going to jump you again.” Even as I said it, lust swarmed my belly. Marcel’s potion certainly hadn’t worn off yet.
“I wasn’t worried about that,” he replied flatly.
“What’s going on?” I asked, peering over his shoulder.
“We continued our search of the city tonight.” His voice was as cold as the night air around us. “We found nothing of Theodore, but we did find these things everywhere. Delilah said that she and the witch only saw one today. It seems that night is when most of them come out to feed.”
Oh. So, it was more of the strange mist that was captured in the jars. Repulsion warred with the all-consuming lust inside me. One good thing about Marcel’s potion was that it distracted me from the awful feeling I got from the mist. It moved frantically inside each of the jars, struggling against its capture.
“There are so many,” I whispered, unable to fathom a way of getting rid of it all. Rita couldn’t even figure out how to kill one jar full, never mind dozens.
“This is barely half of what we caught. The rest we stored in the garage at my house, but we ran out of room.” A pause as he ran a hand over his face. “It seems to be multiplying, and the human population is fracturing. There have been endless reports of violent incidents in the news. Things are only going to get worse.”
“What can we do to make it stop?” I whispered.
“Perhaps I’m the one who should be asking you that question,” Ethan said, casting me a speculative glance.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
One eyebrow rose sharply. “It means I’d like to know how exactly you managed to burn off half of Eliza’s face with nothing but the palm of your hand. It’s