Chapter 26
Finn
The whole trip to CRAVE and back hadn’t even lasted ninety minutes, but it felt like hours or even days had passed. We’d gone from a fun evening out to an assassination attempt and a revenge plot, and now I was potentially in danger.
Eric was tense against my side, his eyes constantly shifting, scanning our surroundings. Honestly, I was surprised they weren’t glowing red, but I could sense that wasn’t far off. His vampire side was lurking right beneath the surface, ready to take over if someone as much as breathed in my direction.
The car crawled to a stop in front of my house. Eric squeezed my thigh, his attention wholly focused on the sidewalk.
“Let me make sure everything’s okay first,” he said, then opened the door.
I couldn’t see anything suspicious, but then again, how the fuck would I recognize a vampire if they weren’t revealing their fangs and eyes?
Right. Not at all.
I mean, my track record wasn’t good.
Eric had fucking bitten me during sex, and I hadn’t noticed that something was off. So… it was probably safer to let him check. Also, it’d hopefully make him feel a little better. Because he definitely wasn’t happy that I wanted to stay home. At my apartment.
“Clear,” he said curtly, holding out his hand for me.
I paid the driver, got out of the car, and smiled at Eric.
“Relax,” I told him, grabbing his elbow to make him look at me. “Everything’s okay. The fledgling is dead. We don’t even know if there are others out there. And even if there are, the fledgling attacked Bennie in front of your home. He might not even know about me or where I live. It’ll be fine, okay?”
In reality, I had no idea if it’d be fine, but I did have ideas as to how I could protect myself.
“Finn, you don’t understand. I can’t…”
“Oh, I do understand,” I interrupted him. “I do understand that you’re terrified. Rightfully so. Someone tried to kill your best friend tonight. Someone might be after you too. But I swear to you, I’m gonna stay safe.”
I wanted to tell him all about my defense plan, but the words died in my mouth as I saw the muscle in his cheek was ticking.
“Okay. Let’s get inside.”
Maybe he’d be able to relax once we were in my apartment.
Hell, maybe he’d let me test out my theory on him…
Wait. No. I didn’t want to hurt him.
I turned to the door and fished for my keychain, Eric, like a dark, looming shadow behind me.
“Eric? Hey, man, I haven’t seen you in ages!” someone said, and I felt my boyfriend tensing even more. Wow! I didn’t know that was possible. “What are you up to, man? We’ve missed you. Hockey season has started, and you haven’t joined us once. We thought you’d fucking ghosted us. Not cool.”
“Uhm… hey, Josh,” Eric said, his voice strangely strangled.
I turned back around, my key in hand, and eyed the guy who seemed to make my boyfriend incredibly uncomfortable.
He was a typical jock. Tall—way taller than Eric—and broad all around. He had a six-pack of beer wedged under his arm and reached out to give Eric a one-armed bro hug. “Dude. Seriously. What are you doing here?”
“He’s with me,” I piped up, waving at him.
The jock—Josh—looked between us, and the grin on his face turned into a knowing smirk.
“You the boyfriend? No wonder he’s been ghosting us. Too busy getting his dick we—”
Eric let out a growl that definitely wasn’t entirely human, but Josh didn’t seem to mind. He just patted Eric’s shoulder as if he hadn’t just growled at him and gave me an apologetic smile.
