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.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to… like, demean you or anything.
I’m just fucking with him.” He nodded at Eric.
“Seriously. The guy spends all summer with us on our roof…” He nodded at the building exactly opposite mine.
“Like every single night. And then, when it gets colder, and we’d rather stay in one of our apartments…
boom. Nothing. He turns into a fucking ghost.”
I laughed, Eric laughed, and Josh laughed.
But it felt weird. So weird.
Like…
I tilted my head, looking at the building across the street. The very building I looked at every time I looked out of my fucking window.
Eric had spent the whole summer up on that roof?
Every night?
And he hadn’t mentioned it to me even once?
Like… If I’d spent all my nights up on the roof opposite Eric’s home, I’d have joked about it for sure. As in, “Ohh, funny. If only I’d known you lived here, I could’ve watched you every night.”
Shit.
I hadn’t even known people apparently had access to that roof. Had they seen me jerk off on my bed? Had I unintentionally given them a show?
Eric was still talking to Josh, but his whole demeanor was… off. Stilted.
And I could feel it too, that something was off, and contrary to what I’d thought in the beginning, I was pretty sure it wasn’t Josh.
Because that guy?
He was like an overgrown puppy. Grinning like a fool, waving his hand as he relayed some kind of epic play, almost knocking his baseball cap off his head.
“Dude, just promise me you’ll come over next week, okay?
” he said, nudging Eric. “I’ll even get some weed so we can go out on the roof to smoke, okay?
Since you seem to love it out there so much.
Or were you just secretly ogling your boyfriend?
If so, you can just bring him over. You know we’re chill about that, right? The whole gay thing?”
“I know,” Eric said, his voice strangled as my mind started whirring, caught up on what Josh had said.
“Or were you just secretly ogling your boyfriend?”
We hadn’t been boyfriends then.
Hell, we hadn’t even known each other back then.
But… Eric definitely could’ve seen me.
No.
He would’ve seen me.
Because he was a vampire with vampire vision—and I was chronically bad at shutting the curtains.
Holy fuck. Even if he hadn’t wanted to ogle me or watch me or whatever, he would’ve seen me at some point, right?
And he hadn’t said a word. About knowing the neighborhood, about being friends with people who lived across the street. About spending every fucking night on the roof of the building opposite mine.
Why?
Because a normal person would’ve mentioned that.
Except if… except if he didn’t want me to know.
But why wouldn’t he?
“Finn?” Eric said, his voice quiet but urgent, ripping me out of my thoughts. “You coming?”
I nodded and handed Eric the keys. My mind was still fixated, though, a nagging feeling telling me I couldn’t let go of that train of thought. That I needed to keep thinking because I was onto something.
Something that made my stomach drop and twist itself into knots.
Why would Eric not want me to know?
Because…
Because then I’d know he’d already seen me.
“Or were you just secretly ogling your boyfriend?”
That was it.
Wasn’t it?
He’d been secretly watching me.
Only I hadn’t been his boyfriend back then.
I hadn’t known him.
But he… he had known me.
Fuck.
I could feel the blood draining from my face as I stepped into the elevator, Eric just a step behind me.
He’d known me and hadn’t wanted me to know.
Because he’d been watching me.
Like a stalker.
Oh shit.
Oh, holy shit.
“It’s you,” I whispered, my eyes turning wide. White-hot rage filled me, and I whirled around, poking a finger into Eric’s chest. “It’s been you all along, hasn’t it?”
Eric froze, his face a mask of utter shock.
“Tell me I’m wrong,” I said, as things became clearer.
I thought I’d solved the fucking puzzle when I’d found out he was a vampire. That I was seeing the full picture.
But I’d only figured out half of it, hadn’t I?
“Tell me I’m wrong,” I begged again, my eyes searching his, looking for… I didn’t know what.
This couldn’t be happening.
I wrapped my arms around my middle as a wave of ice crashed into me, chilling me to the bone.
He’d said it himself.
He’d fucking said it.
He’d bitten me four times. But he’d only drunk from me two times. Because the other times… he’d been fucking sampling my blood. Right?
All the time, I’d been wondering how my stalker had managed to draw my blood.
All the while…
“Please,” I whispered again. “Please tell me I’m wrong.”
Eric opened his mouth.
The elevator dinged, and the doors slowly opened.
I thought I’d felt dread before. Dread of finding another one of those fucking notes taped to my door. But that had been nothing. Nothing compared to the dread I was feeling now as I watched Eric helplessly opening and closing his mouth.
Because he couldn’t lie to me.
Another one of his comments I hadn’t paid attention to. I thought it’d been a figure of speech, not something he physically wasn’t able to do.
I let out a laugh as the tears finally spilled over.
The café.
The fucking tea.
Hell, the way we’d just coincidentally met when I was on my way to the ER.
It hadn’t been coincidental at all.
Had anything been?
Anything at all?
“Finn,” Eric started, his voice laced with anguish that only made me madder.
How dare he sound hurt when he was the one who’d betrayed me all along?
“Not here,” I ground out, hurrying along the hallway to my apartment door.
I wasn’t afraid of finding another note anymore.
Because the person who’d left all those creepy notes was walking right next to me.
I let out a shrill laugh.
Only days ago, I’d been so fucking scared my stalker might wait in my apartment for me—all while I’d let him inside countless times.
Stupid.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Eric opened the door with trembling fingers.
“Tell me it’s not true,” I whispered again, knowing he couldn’t.
“Let me explain, please,” he said, reaching out for me, but I couldn’t. The thought of him touching me…
I shuddered.
He’d betrayed me.
He’d manipulated me.
He’d played fucking stalker and savior at the same time.
Those nights spent in anguish, worrying how anyone could’ve gotten close enough to draw my fucking blood.
It’d all been him.
“I don’t want an explanation right now,” I managed, balling my hands into fists.
“But…”
“No!” I shouted, and Eric stumbled back as if I’d hit him. “Nothing you could say would make this okay. You fucking stalked me. You threatened me.”
“I never…”
“Shut the fuck up!”
I pushed his chest.
Eric stumbled back.
One step, another.
Closer and closer to the door.
“You need to leave.”
“But…”
“No!”
If I kept screaming like this, maybe one of my neighbors would call the police.
Hell, maybe they should.
“Get out!”
“Finn, please, you might be in…”
“In danger? I don’t fucking care. I’ve been in danger for months.”
“You haven’t…”
I glared at Eric, and he was wise enough to shut his mouth.
“I’ve apparently been stalked for months.
I trusted you. I fucking… I…” I shook my head.
“I don’t know what kind of sick game you’re playing, but you need to leave.
Right. The fuck. Now. And I swear… I swear to you, if I even think you’re stalking me, that fucking clan head will be the least of your problems. Got it? ”
Eric was shaking, his face a mask of utter anguish.
The most ridiculous thing?
It fucking hurt seeing him hurting.
He’d played mind games with me for months, but seeing him so completely shattered hurt me nonetheless.
So fucking pathetic.
He didn’t say a word as I kept pushing and pushing until we reached my apartment door. He didn’t fight me as I opened the door and pushed him out.
It was only when I started shutting the door that he opened his mouth again, but I shook my head, and his mouth snapped shut.
“If I want to hear your explanation, I’ll give you a call. Until then, stay the fuck away from me. Got it? No calls, no texts, no creepy-as-fuck notes. No watching me from that fucking roof. Got it?”
I didn’t wait for an answer, I just slammed the door right in his face.
Then I crumbled to the floor, my legs finally giving out.
My boyfriend and my stalker were the same fucking person.
Eric was my stalker.
Eric, whose arms I’d fled into, was the one behind it all.
How fucking ironic.