Chapter 28
Chapter twenty-eight
Ethan
They both whipped their heads around, and Ethan froze in place.
His eyes locked on the woman in smartly tailored gray slacks and a pristine navy blouse who was frowning at him and Tressa. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought she left from a service at the church and happened to stumble across them.
But he did know better, and he would never forget that face for as long as he lived.
“You,” he spat, his fists tightening at his sides.
Fiery rage surged in his chest as the hatred he had nursed for the past week roared to life inside him.
His hands and fingers tingled with the urge to lash out—to punch, claw, strangle, something.
Thankfully though, his rational brain kept his feet locked in place, a small voice at the back of his head reminding him that he had no weapons and was still vulnerable.
It wasn’t supposed to go like this. He was supposed to hunt her down. Ambush her. Go in guns blazing and take her out before she could react. This, her being the one to find him, was… not the plan.
Still, he wasn’t going down without a fight.
The dark-haired vamp stepped forward. “Allow me to properly introduce myself. My name is Renata Inês Magdalena Da Silva. You know, I’ve been looking for you, Ethan Aidan Ambrose. You’re the one that got away. I’m still very keen to find out just how you managed that.”
Ethan bit back the urge to say ‘you and me both’ since he had no desire to let her know he was just as clueless.
What he needed to do was keep her talking and buy themselves some time.
He trusted that Tressa would have a plan.
She was a hunter, after all. For all he knew, the trunk could be full of weapons.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Ethan snapped, cringing internally when it came out more like a schoolyard taunt than the firm ‘fuck you’ he intended.
Renata—because apparently the murderous creature had a name—folded her arms and arched an eyebrow. “Interesting that you don’t know either.”
Shit, am I that transparent?
“Regardless,” Renata continued, “while I do appreciate Tressa’s oh so enthusiastic scream alerting me to your presence, I must say that given our history, I did not expect to find you in the arms of another vampire quite so soon. I thought for sure it would take you longer to come around.”
Ethan scoffed, his fear overridden by the absurdity of her statement. “Like I’d ever touch one of you undead bitches.”
The vampire cocked her head, her dark eyes sliding over to Tressa. “Oh dear,” she said, and Ethan thought for a second that she legitimately sounded apologetic. “I didn’t realize you were keeping that little fact a secret. My mistake.”
Ethan barked out a harsh laugh and turned to look at Tressa, curious to see how she was responding to such a bizarre conversation. He assumed she would be just as amused as he was.
He was wrong.
That wasn’t what he saw on her face at all. Instead of amusement or disbelief he saw… fear?
She closed the distance between them and took his hand in hers. “Ethan, I tried to tell you…”
“No,” he interrupted, shaking his head.
It wasn’t possible. This was another bad dream. Another nightmare. He’d fallen asleep somehow, and he just needed to wake up.
Come on, wake up, he shouted inside his head, scanning the surroundings for something to latch onto. Something out of place that could confirm it was just a dream. It had to be.
Only nothing had changed. The breeze still rustled the trees.
The church, with its windows shuttered and paint peeling, still loomed behind them.
The remnants of Tressa’s ice cream lay a few yards off, a shiny pop of fluorescent pink amongst gray gravel.
He could still smell the bubblegum scent, though he wasn’t sure if it was the melted dessert or the smell of Tressa herself.
Tressa. Who was looking at him with such pity in her eyes as her thumb stroked the back of his hand.
It wasn’t cold. There was no chill to her skin, not like a dead thing should have. Her body was warm and soft. Like a human. She had to be human. There was no fucking way she was a…
“No,” he said again, his brain unable to lock onto any other word. He couldn’t believe it. He wouldn’t believe it. He just needed to wake the hell up.
WAKE UP!
But he didn’t. Because he was already awake, his nightmare made reality.
Tressa gripped him tighter and opened her mouth to speak, but he ripped his hand from her before she could say anything.
He backed away so fast he tripped over his own feet and landed on his ass, staring up at the woman he’d thought was so incredible just seconds ago.
The woman he almost abandoned his mission for.
The woman he could have seen himself falling in love with.
Only she wasn’t a woman.
She was a vampire.
A monster.