Chapter Twenty-Four
- Are you up to anything today?
- Not a lot. Just avoiding the train wreck that is my family. Mum wants to bring Dante to family dinner. Can you believe it?
Soph replied to Marco before tucking her phone in her back pocket and gazing up at her apartment. Maybe she should start calling it her old apartment. Her mother and Dante seemed pretty comfortable there.
Zita normally brought her whatever she wanted from the apartment, but today she’d needed an outing, so she’d stopped by herself to pick up her laptop.
“Ello, Love,” Dante said when she opened the door. He was sprawled on the couch, playing a video game. Soph stood stock still until his eyes tore from the screen to look at her. Realising she wasn’t Zita, he sat up quickly, pausing his game.
“Soph, right?” He said, and she nodded, taking in his tanned skin and mass of dreads. He couldn’t be all that much older than her. Zita had always liked the young ones. “I - Er - Are you here to see Zee? She’s at the old bats - I mean, your grandmother’s place.”
Which was exactly why Soph wasn’t there.
“I’m just grabbing a few things.”
She headed to the bedroom, ignoring the clutter about the apartment and the mused bed. She did note that her mother’s clothes were in the wardrobe, in a spare drawer that Soph always kept empty for her, while Dante’s were strewn around a rucksack by the door.
While her mother gravitated towards these wretched types, she wasn’t an inherently messy person. Likely, this co-living between the pair and Dante’s laziness meant his days were numbered.
She found her laptop beneath the bed and left again without saying goodbye.
Hanging around her apartment wasn’t an option. Going back to Nona’s would likely be suicide right now, so she headed to one of her favourite cafes to spend a bit of time job hunting.
Eli had introduced her to several spectacular business people at the Sincere opening that she was going to email. Surely one of them would have a job for her. Her phone vibrated, and she pulled it out again.
- Will you come and meet me at Railway Park? There’s someone I’d like you to meet.
- Sounds ominous.
Still, Soph packed up her laptop and things, paid for her coffee and headed out the door. Meeting Marco and his friend at the park would at least waste some time while she waited for some replies to her job emails. She hadn’t realised how much spare time a jobless, previous vamp-blood addict could have on their hands. She wondered if Eli still occasionally glanced across the street to the Paxus building where she’d previously worked. Did he wonder how she was going? He hadn’t been in contact since rehabilitating her and she’d been too scared to message him, though lately she’d found herself typing, then deleting, many late night texts.
The thoughts of Eli didn’t come unbidden; she often had him on her mind, wondering what he was doing and if he thought of her too. She remembered that kiss on the balcony - where the storm raging around them had seemed to intensify for those few brief moments and at the same time couldn’t reach them at all - and held her resolve not to get in touch.
The walk to the park was about half an hour, and Soph found Marco sitting on a bench by a pond. In the distance, trains rattled past on their tracks.
“Hi,” she greeted, dumping her handbag on the bench and leaning down to kiss him.
“Hi,” he smiled and patted the space beside him. Soph sat, looking around the park. There was a group of kids playing soccer nearby, with their parents watching from other benches or picnic mats, but she couldn’t see anyone who might be with Marco.
“Where’s your friend?”
“Things have been going well for us lately,” Marco said, ignoring her question. She turned her head to meet his eyes. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Of course.” Things had been going well for them. Everything was fine. He was kind and courteous and while she still couldn’t seem to reach an orgasm without fantasising about her vampire doing illicit things to her body, things were picking up in the bedroom as they learned each other’s bodies.
“And you’d consider that we’re quite serious now. Neither of us are seeing anyone else.”
That gave Soph pause, and something cinched tight about her heart. Exclusivity. She’d wanted it. Her family would be thrilled. It would make her happy, so why did she feel like a cage was settling around her?
Pushing those worries aside, she focused on Marco, who was effectively asking her to be in a formal relationship with him. To be his girlfriend. Her heart raced. Is that what she wanted? Marco had been good to her. He’d kept her company while she couldn’t stand being around her family, he hadn’t questioned her absence and her loss of job. He’d kept her mind off her addiction to vampire blood. And probably most importantly, Nona liked him. Time spent with her grandmother had been far less combative since she’d started dating Marco.
But Eli… she pushed the thought away roughly. Eli was a vampire, a celebrity, and he was dangerous. His life was dangerous. He was a fantasy that needed to stay in the back of her head until it faded with time.
“Yes,” she said breathlessly before she could second guess herself. He smiled and squeezed her hand before looking towards the group of kids playing soccer.
“Jacob!” He called. One boy with curly brown hair and hazel eyes extracted himself from the group and ran over.
“Yeah?” He asked when he reached them. He was sweaty and out of breath.
“Jake, this is Soph,” Marco introduced. “Soph, this is Jacob, my son.”
* * *
“Sophia.” Nona narrowed her eyes over her third glass of red. “You’re still too skinny. Have you not been eating?”
Soph suppressed a sigh, and Marco’s hand found her knee under the table for a reassuring squeeze.
“Of course I’ve been eating, Nona. Look, I’m eating right now!” she wound the pasta around her fork and jammed it into her mouth for effect. Nona pursed her lips.
“How’s work been going, Marco?” Stefan butted in before Nona and Soph could continue their argument.
“Oh, it’s fine, though a bit hectic lately. We had an issue with an intern who was calling in sick every Wednesday…”
Soph tuned out of the conversation and went back to her meal. She and Marco were going well, particularly after she’d gotten over the initial shock that he had an eleven-year-old son and an ex-fiance.
At first she’d felt jilted that he’d somewhat coerced her into a monogamous relationship before revealing that she was actually walking into a ready-made family. He’d explained later that Jacob’s mother had been quite young when she’d had him, and after their relationship had broken down, she’d gone through a string of boyfriends. Marco had promised himself he wouldn’t bring a woman into Jacob’s life until he was sure they were serious.
“Should we head off soon?” Marco asked, drawing her back from her thoughts. They had planned to go out for a few drinks before heading home. And with Soph’s mother still at her apartment and Nona nearly fully recovered from her fall, she had started thinking of Marco’s place as home.
Soph glanced at Nona, who was now bickering with Luie about details of the wedding. She nodded to Marco. Best they get out of there before Nona thought to question them about an engagement.
They headed straight to the city from Luie’s place and Soph watched the colourful lights blur past, suddenly missing their nightly presence in her life.
“Sinners?” Soph asked dubiously as Marco drove by the club and around the block to park.
“You said you’ve never been,” he replied with a smile, mistaking her surprised expression as a good one.
As they approached the club, Soph had to convince herself that she wouldn’t see Eli. Months had gone by. It was quite clear the two of them had been a casual fling, so she didn’t know what she was concerned about. Still, she found herself hoping he would be at one of his other clubs, or far away in Europe.
Inside Sinners, male and female dancers wove around bars up high near the ceiling in great glass orbs. Others led patrons away from the main bar to not-so-private glass cubicles set along the walls. The floor they were on was predominantly a bar and seating, but a second-floor balcony revealed a DJ and dance floor.
“Can you get the drinks?” Marco asked, handing her some money. “I just have to go to the bathroom.”
Soph watched him go, then approached the bar. “A red wine and an apple martini,” she shouted at the bartender over the music. He nodded and set to making her drink. She hadn’t been waiting long when she felt a hand on her waist. Her stomach sank.
Low enough on her back to indicate a familiarity with her body, fingers digging into her flesh with a sense of possession. It could only be Eli.
“I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight, Witchling.” His breath whispered over the shell of her ear, making her skin pebble with desire. Her eyes shuttered briefly as that all too familiar heat burst to life below her navel, then she steeled herself and turned to face him.
Grey eyes sparkled beneath neat hair. It was slowly coming undone, though. The first few strands falling loose over his face. Founders, she wanted to rake her hands through it and mess it completely.
“You have to go,” she told him, and he frowned.
“This is my club,” he reminded her. She glanced towards the bathroom. Was that Marco she could see coming through the crowd?
“I’m here with someone.” She hated how the words stuck in her throat, as though they refused to blend with her voice. Shame. Hot, fucking shame crawled up her neck at how much she hated saying them. “My boyfriend, actually.”
“Boyfriend.” Soph didn’t know what to expect. Anger, indifference. She certainly hadn’t foreseen the flash of hurt that passed over his features. She glanced towards the bathroom again. Yep, she could definitely see Marco coming. Heart hammering, she pushed Eli away. “Just go!”
For a moment she was afraid that he wouldn’t listen, but he backed away slowly, then turned and melted into the crowd. Marco arrived.
“This one mine?” He reached for the red wine sitting on the counter. Soph hadn’t even realised the bartender had delivered their drinks.
Breathing hard through her nose, she plastered a smile on her face and followed Marco as he searched for a table. Once there, she listened to Marco talk while she threw furtive glances over her shoulder, looking for Eli. She knew he’d be watching, and his invisible presence was agitating. They only managed a few more drinks when Marco finally said, “is something wrong?”
“What do you mean?” Soph tried to feign nonchalance, but she couldn’t stop the nervous twitch of her knee under the table. She thought she’d stamped out the lure of Eli by committing to Marco, but seeing him again had torn her once more, and not in equal pieces.
“You look anxious.”
“Just thinking about the job interviews I’ve got coming up.” She glanced away again, scanning the room. Marco sighed.
“Should we go?”
She rose from her seat with perhaps too much haste, but she was glad to be getting out of there. Her relief was short-lived, however. The moment they were outside the club in the fresh night air, Marco asked her to wait. “I’ll go round and get the car.”
She didn’t even have time to open her mouth to protest before Marco left her standing on the street. She turned back towards the door of the club and, as she’d expected, Eli was stalking towards her.
“A boyfriend?” Now he was furious. “Why wouldn’t you tell me something like that? I don’t appreciate being a bit of fun on the side, Soph.”
“You weren’t fun on the side,” she told him in a cracked voice, wrapping her arms across her chest, more in worry that Marco would come back than anything to do with the cold. “Marco and I have only recently started going out.”
“And you didn’t think to talk to me first? I thought -” He stopped abruptly.
“You thought what?” Soph prompted against her better judgement. “We haven’t spoken in months! Do you expect me to run every decision I make past you?” He stared at her, his jaw working.
“I have feelings for you. I thought you knew that.”
His words had both her stomach clenching and her heart fluttering. She’d almost convinced herself that he didn’t feel the same way, that he was out of her league, that because he didn’t message her meant he wasn’t interested. But why would he kiss her like that if he hadn’t caught feelings for her? She was kidding herself if she thought she could deny his words.
Even standing here before him in the cold outside his club had her yearning for his touch. He was intoxicating. And he was dangerous. Too dangerous. She steeled herself.
“I’m with Marco now, Eli,” she hoped her voice came across as resolute as she intended. “He’s what I need right now. He’s stable, he’s not supernatural. He has a son and -”
“A son?” Eli cut across sharply, then let out a harsh laugh that made her wince. “I didn’t pick you for the instant family type.”
Neither had she.
“At least he can have children,” she retorted, “and grow old like a normal person! Now you need to go. He’ll be here any moment.”
Rather than backing away, Eli grasped her arm. He looked furious, but Soph was, too.
“Going to use your powers on me to make me stay?” She hissed. And she was sure she saw a gleam of the possessive green in his eyes as he contemplated it. Do it, she silently begged. Do it. Take me away and lock me up. Save me!
Before she could voice her desperation - and her lips parted to do just that, to take all her words back - he let her go with a jerk and vanished at lightning speed. Marco’s car pulled up alongside her.
“Are you okay?” He asked as she got in the car and slammed the door. She wondered how she must look to him. She’d finally made her choice between Eli and Marco, and though her head told her it was the right one, her heart lashed against its ivory cage, begging her not to do this. Don’t let him go.
“Fine.” She left no room for conversation and they drove home in silence. She didn’t let Marco see the tears she dashed from her cheeks.