Mr. Vasta loosened his tie. "Perhaps over dinner then?"
Eliza looked up at him, taking in the hungry vampire looming over her desk. "You want to bite me? Now?."
Mr. Vasta just laughed, "Despite how appizating you look after working all day, I meant you would like to eat some food at my new house. I haven't been there yet, but I know you haven't eaten dinner and can have someone drop off some food."
Eliza wanted to sink under her desk from embarra.s.sment. "Right sorry, I shouldn't have a.s.sumed."
Mr. Vasta leaned over the desk, a new look in his eyes. "But, if you are offering…"
Eliza stood up as he trailed off, "No,no." She gathered up her notebook and laptop. "Let's go get some actual food."
He straightened. "Very well, the new houses were finished about two hours ago so we can walk there now." He turned and walked out the door.
Eliza followed him, checking her phone to see six missed calls from her sister and about a dozen texts from other members of her council. She had forgotten to turn the phone back on after uploading the new rules and laws to the pack website.
Victoria had sent four messages all regarding dinner and then a last telling her not to worry, "The roomies would still be together. All of their clothes and stuff was moved into Eliza's new house."
Eliza laughed at her phone and then smiled at Mr. Vasta back. When they got to the car, he turned around and held the door for her. Eliza climbed in and smoothed her skirt down again.
They rode in silence until all of a sudden the car stopped.
Mr. Vasta started, "Troy, what's happened?"
The driver met Mr. Vasta's eyes in the mirror, "I'm sorry, sir. There are a bunch of people in the street. They seemed to be gathered around something."
Eliza suddenly got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach and she wrenched open her car door. She ran to the crowd and tried to push her way to the center to see what they were gathered around. Her futile attempts just frustrated her until suddenly people started backing away and clearing a path. Eliza noted the fear in her people's eyes as Mr. Vasta followed her into the crowd of people.
In the center of the crowd was a brawl between members of Eliza's pack and Mr. Vasta's coven. Her packmates were starting to flail the vampires gained strength as the moon rose.
"We have to break this up!" Eliza gasped and started to run toward the fight.
A hand on her arm stopped her and when she struggled the hand reached around her to become an arm holding her around her waist. "There is no need. They need to get this out. If we stop this, they will just fight later."
Eliza struggled more and the arm tightened. Mr. Vasta leaned over her to whisper in Eliza's ear. "Stop struggling."
The pair fighting slowly stopped as the werewolf pushing the fight lost the fight in him. The vampire stopped pinned him and said, "Why are you still doing this?"
The werewolf just growled and snarled.
Eliza leaned back on Mr. Vasta and then slammed her foot on his instep. He hissed out a breath in shock and his arms loosened. She rocked her weight backward and then forward and flipped him onto the ground.
The vampire on top of her packmate looked up at the new commotion and Eliza rushed him. The vampire quickly backed up off the fallen male and Eliza got her handed under the werewolf.
By the time she helped her packmate up, Mr. Vasta was standing and brushing off his suit. Eliza handed off wounded werewolf to a nearby doctor who had rushed out. She walked over to Mr. Vasta and smiled up at him, "So sorry, but I needed to help."
She walked past him b.u.mping his shoulder as she pa.s.sed and climbed into the car leaving the door open for him to follow. Mr. Vasta sat down next to her and propped his arm on the window to support his head. He looked over at Eliza and admired her in a new light. Before he had seen a weak woman who had needed the support for a man to protect her and her pack. Now he saw the woman who had fought him off to go protect her family and was much stronger than he realized.
The car drove them to the only two houses in the middle of the construction zone. The houses were lit up from the inside and Eliza could see furniture set up through the windows. They got out of the car and Eliza nodded her good night at Mr. Vasta. She started up the stairs to her house.
Eliza paused at the top when Mr. Vasta called her name. She turned around and he said, "Call me Drake."
With the final word, he walked into his own house and shut the door. Eliza stared around for a little bit before she walked into her own home.
The inside of the house was beautiful and had already been taken over by her sister and other roommates. The plush couches and chairs had sitzmarks on them and there were muddy shoes by the door. Victoria's trashy magazines were scattered on the table in front of the couch and she could see Ca.s.sandra's cards set up in the middle of a game on the dining room table. Eliza wandered through the house taking in the paintings that had been rehung and the lack of cracks in the ceiling and walls.
She peeked into a room and saw Ca.s.sandra, Dorothy, and Victoria were all asleep on one bed. They were sprawled all over each other and Eliza chuckled to herself and she walked back to the kitchen she had pa.s.sed.
