Of Fangs & Fins

Chapter Twenty One

SR: Vance Joy - Mess Is Mine

twenty-one.

Eryn.

 "I'm fine! I can do this." I yelled back at Chris. It was a few hours before the quaestor's party started and Chris didn't want me to come with them. "I can help distract Lucinda."

"You're not ready for something like this. You spent days drying out downstairs," Chris snapped, adjusting his tie. He was getting ready for tonight and it annoyed me to sit and watch them get ready. They were sticking their necks out for me and I didn't like to be in need of them. They helped me out so much already and here I was using them again to clean up my mess.

"I'll be fine," I huffed, throwing myself onto the couch in Lance's closet. The man insisted on having a huge walk-in closet that was the size of a bedroom. It was such a Lance thing of him and I loved seeing him wear his outrageous clothing. He didn't dress as androgynous as me, but when he did it made me want to raid his closet at times. 

The thought of my clothes made me think of Marina. She was still wearing my clothes, and it pained me not to be able to touch her. I briefly saw her in the morning. 

I did my best to avoid Marina all day, hoping that she would give up trying to talk to me. I didn't want her too close to me. I knew what I did was wrong and I couldn't let it happen again. I was lucky enough to be able to dry out downstairs. It was too risky to be near her. She had a strong scent of rose coming from her, but it was difficult to take my mind off the taste of her warm sweet blood. Drinking from the source is a tantalizing feeling.

"What are you going to do if her friends are hurt? What if they're bleeding in front of you? Would you have the restraint to not feed on them?" Lance called from the bathroom suite. He walked out of the bathroom dressed in a long gold shiny suit. If I wasn't so frustrated about the situation I would've poked fun at his outfit.

Lance sat over at his vanity and started messing with makeup. Chris approached him and leaned against the desk. They exchanged glances at each other and I disliked when they did that. Lance and Chris were so close to each other that they didn't have to speak. I knew they were deciding if I should go with them or not.

Chris sighed and stood behind Lance, pulling the red sash from his dreads and letting them all fall. "You can come with us, but the second something starts to go south, we're all getting out of there. I'm not going to risk our family for her friends."

I nodded, trying to stay impartial. I knew how devastated Marina would be if Flynn and Sydney weren't okay. "We're going to get them."

"We'll be in the car once Lance is done with his makeup," Chris replied, throwing on his blazer.

"You will be wearing something other than that, right?" Lance pointed at what I was wearing with his long ruby red nails.

I glanced down at my black joggers and two sizes too grey big knit sweater. "I suppose you're right."

Chris chuckled, walking past me. "Hurry up the both of you. Honey, you're treating this like a gala."

Lance rolled his eyes. "It's not my fault that I want to look good. All those nightcrawlers only wear black, can't they get anymore cliche? No offense, darling," Lance winked at me. 

I laughed, heading towards the door. Some vampires just loved to follow the way Hollywood did things. It's fun following what they think of us. 

"I'll see you both in the car."

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Marina.

Eryn was hiding from me, that b***h!

It was getting the point where it was infuriating. In the morning, breakfast was served downstairs. I knew she wouldn't show up to it so instead, I waited out her room-- the door was locked and classical music was blaring from the room--and ignore all of my knocks and shouts for her. 

When I finally gave up, breakfast as almost over. She was downstairs the whole flubbing time. No one even told me that she was down there. I was starting to believe it was being done on purpose. She was hiding, something that I realize she did it a lot. All she did when we were first here was run from drinking blood. And now she's running because she did drink it. 

I knew that I had to stay behind, but I didn't want to. I wasn't sure if Eryn was going to go, but I was hoping she would stay. It would work out great, I'd get my friends back and talk to Eryn in one night. I knew she wasn't going to want me to stay. I had to, for Ally. I knew what I was going to do once I got my friends back. 

I was heading down the hallway when I saw Eryn slip out of her room. I didn't think she was going out, but she was dressed to kill. She wore all black, something that made me smirk. The sleeves of her button-down were rolled up, exposing her arm tattoos. Her jacket was thrown behind her shoulder and even her posture turned me on. "I see you're going out."

She nodded, walking past me. I reached out and grabbed her arm, watching as she turned around. "What?" She asked, her brow lifted. 

"That's it? We're not going to talk?" I demanded, fed up with her ignoring me, "you tricked me this morning! And all day you've been avoiding me. You're not going to leave and not talk to me. I already know how this is going to go."

"Oh yeah? You think it's easy for me to do this?"

 "To do what?" We were shouted now, our emotions running on high.

"To f*****g stand here in front of you!"