Chapter 21 Felix #2
“That I don’t need my little sister’s help with my dating life,” I interrupted. The room suddenly felt stifling, too hot with my hoodie on.
I pushed back from the table, the chair legs scraping against the hardwood floor. “Actually, if it’s okay, I should probably go. Kit’s been out there waiting a while.”
“Kit,” Lily repeated slowly, testing the name. “Kit. I like it.”
“And, um,” I said, backing towards the hallway, “maybe you guys could wave at him another time? I really don’t want to scare him off.”
What I really meant was: “I don’t want you all rushing outside to find my date crouched behind the wheelie bins like some sort of deranged raccoon.”
Eomma nodded, but her expression remained shell-shocked, like I’d just announced I was joining the circus. She’d need time to adjust to this revelation. Which meant I had exactly seven days—maybe less—to prepare for her next assault, which would be violent and thorough.
She’d probably want to run a background check on him. Shit. I needed to be careful I didn’t ever give her his surname. With her wealth and connections, it might be possible that she could actually find something if she looked hard enough.
I grabbed my jacket from the hook by the front door, then tied my shoelaces at breakneck speed.
“Have fun, Felix,” Appa called from the dining room.
“Use protection!” Lily shouted, earning what sounded like a sharp smack from Eomma.
I fled.
Outside, the evening air hit my face like a blessing, cool and clean after the suffocating heat of dinner.
Kit stood across the street, leaning against a brick wall, hands shoved deep in the pockets of a soft grey cardigan.
The wool hung loose around his broad frame, somehow making him look less intimidating than usual.
We started walking towards each other, that awkward dance where neither of us seemed sure what the greeting should be. A handshake? A hug? Were we at the “Kit sweeping me off my feet to kiss me passionately upon sight” stage yet? Did soulmates even have stages?
When we met in the middle of the pavement, I settled for a small smile and gestured vaguely down the street.
“My family are almost definitely spying through a window right now, so let’s start walking.”
Kit’s eyes widened before his face split into an almighty grin. “You told them about me?!”
“Sort of,” I said, already regretting every life choice that had led to this moment. “We met on an app, okay?”
Kit chuckled, a low rumble that made my stomach do something acrobatic. “And who messaged first?”
“You, obviously.” I shot him a sideways glance as we turned onto the main road. “I played hard to get for months.”
“And then?”
“And then you wore me down with your relentless charm and devastating good looks. Maybe a couple of GIFs of cute puppies.” I kept my voice deadpan, even as my cheeks flushed. “Very smooth operation. I was helpless against such sophisticated seduction techniques.”
Kit’s laugh was louder this time, drawing curious looks from a couple walking their dog. “Sophisticated? Is that what we’re calling my complete inability to form coherent sentences around you?”
“I prefer to think of it as strong, silent NPC energy,” I said. “Or strategic intimidation. Very attractive to us nerdy types who’ve never seen actual confidence.”
We crossed at the lights, and Kit’s hand brushed against mine as we walked. Then he suddenly grabbed it, interlacing our fingers while glancing at me. I smiled at him, and he squeezed back tightly.
“There’s a tiny place I found online. Half an hour’s walk from here, on the outskirts of town,” Kit said, his thumb tracing circles across my knuckles. “Proper fancy hot chocolate. The kind that comes with little biscuits shaped like hearts.”
I snorted. “Hearts?”
“I didn’t think you’d appreciate the aesthetic.” His smile was lopsided, endearing. “But they do these pastries filled with salted caramel that look like edible sin.”
We turned down a quieter side street, the noise of traffic fading behind us.
Kit’s hand was warm in mine, lightly calloused from years of handling weapons and God knows what else during his Greywatch days.
The contrast between his rough fingers and gentle touch made me squeeze his hand tightly back.
“So,” he said, glancing at me sideways. “Did your mother give you the usual interrogation about your job this week?”
I groaned. “Worse. She tried to research Barcode and Beyond. Started asking awkward questions about our state-of-the-art cybersecurity protocols.”
Kit’s grip on my hand tightened. “Shit. How much did you tell her?”
“Nothing, obviously. But she’s brilliant, Kit.
Scary brilliant. If she keeps digging…” I shook my head.
“I had to throw her off the scent somehow… hence the dramatic announcement that I was seeing someone.” I kicked at a loose stone on the pavement.
“She looked like I’d just told her I was joining a cult.
Which, to be fair, might be easier for her to understand than dating a man, slightly older than me, who I met on an app. ”
Kit looked at me. “You told her I was older?”
“She asked.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Does it bother you?”
“Huh?”
“That I’m older.”
I stopped walking, tugging Kit’s hand to pull him to a halt beside me. “Are you serious? Kit, you’re thirty-two, not fifty-two.”
He shrugged, but his shoulders stayed tense. “Nine years is—”
“Nothing,” I interrupted. “Literally nothing. Seb and Flynn have about five centuries between them, and they’re disgustingly happy.
Well, aside from Seb’s absolutely tragic understanding of modern slang.
Flynn keeps trying to explain that ‘slay’ isn’t literal combat terminology, but Seb seemingly refuses to get it. ”
Kit’s mouth twitched into a smile. “To be fair, that word is ridiculous.”
“As long as you don’t ever use LOL for ‘lots of love,’ we’re all good.” I squeezed his hand. “Besides, Rory will keep you constantly updated on how to be down with us kids whether you want it or not.”
Kit’s free hand found my waist, thumb brushing against my hip through my hoodie. “It was one of the reasons I convinced myself you wouldn’t want me,” he said quietly. “The age thing. Among others.”
“What others?”
His face became a blank mask. “That I’m too damaged. Too intense. That I’ve done things…” He trailed off, eyes fixed on something over my shoulder. “That someone like you deserves better than someone like me.”
The sadness in his voice made my heart break. I wanted to tell him he was wrong, that I didn’t care about his past, that whatever he’d done in Greywatch didn’t matter. But the words stuck in my throat, too big and too important for this quiet side street.
“The age thing definitely doesn’t bother me,” I said instead, tugging him along so we were walking again. “And if my mother brings it up next week when she inevitably ambushes me with more questions, I’ll defend our honour.”
Kit’s smile returned, softer this time. “Our honour? But… you could always take a break from the family dinners for a while? Give her time to process?”
“I can’t do that.” The words came out fierce, and I softened it to add, “I have to see my dad each week. I can’t just… abandon him.”
“What do you mean, abandon him?”
I sighed, resigned. This wasn’t exactly light-hearted second-date banter. “My dad has Huntington’s disease. Early onset. He’s had it for a very long time now, but it’s getting worse. Some days he’s completely fine, like tonight. Other days…”
Kit studied my face until I continued.
“Anyway, Eomma’s always refused to hire outside carers.
Said she didn’t want strangers looking after Appa.
Which meant it fell to me and Lily to help with the physical stuff, the bad days when his coordination goes to hell or his speech gets muddled.
I was still in school when it started. Then university.
Then my masters. Always rushing home between lectures to help him shower, or feeding him when the tremors got bad, or just… being there when Mum had to work late.”
Kit made a small sound, something between sympathy and anger.
“Lily’s so great with him,” I said. “So much better than me.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
“It is. And then, Lily did something truly amazing. She sat me down and begged me to move out. Said I was wasting my twenties. That’s why I moved to Battersea Park.
So I can waste my twenties in the solitude of that tiny flat you insulted.
” I tried to laugh to lighten the mood. “Anyway, the least I can do is go round every Wednesday without fail.”
We walked in silence for a few minutes, Kit’s thumb still moving in those soothing circles across my skin.
“Your sister sounds incredible,” he said eventually.
“She is. And she thinks you’re super hot, by the way.” I shot him a sideways grin, relieved to shift the conversation back to safer ground. “Wondered if she could date your brother.”
Kit choked on what might have been a laugh. “Oh, Rory would love to hear that.”
We’d just reached a quieter stretch of pavement when Kit suddenly went rigid beside me, his grip on my hand tightening like a vice.
“What is it?” I whispered, following his gaze down the dimly lit street.
The Victorian lampposts cast uneven pools of yellow light between long stretches of shadow. The street suddenly felt hollow. Empty in a way that made my pulse kick.
Kit’s nostrils flared slightly, and I caught the faintest growl rumbling in his chest.
“Felix,” he said, voice low and controlled, “I need you to listen very carefully. When I say run, you run. Don’t look back. Don’t stop. Get to the main road and call Seb.”
My mouth went dry. “Kit, what’s—”
The attack came from two directions at once.
The first man materialized out of the shadows near a construction scaffold, moving with that impossible speed that made my brain stutter trying to track the motion. He flew straight at Kit with a sound like a hissing cat.
Vampire.