Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

131 - Rebecca

Colby placed me gently down in the hallway of the house, Jake and Tara zipping past both of us for the red room. Elton and Sam decided to stay with Jax and explain everything he needed to know. Kevin waited behind just in case he was needed last minute, and everyone else had left just before we did. I thought that seeing Jax as a vampire would shock me, despite the front I'd put on, but he seemed no different at all.

As I'd been talking to him, I'd also been formulating a plan for when I got home. I had a couple of things I needed to do, but none of them were as urgent as my first plan of action: calling Angela. I hated my sister—it wasn't love-hate, it was just hate—however, I knew that if I didn't want something like James to ever happen again, I needed to find a way to get her off the dangerous vampires and maybe even protected by the good ones. That meant getting Colby on board with helping the woman who had slashed my arm and essentially set me up for getting kidnapped by bringing James to the showcase; whether she knew that or not.

I had a card I could use now if he refused to help. Call it manipulation or determination, I didn't care. I doubted it'd be necessary anyway. My reasoning wasn't stupid like most—I wanted to prevent a future catastrophe, rather than I was loving someone who put me through so much trauma.

To act normal, I took Colby's hand and pulled him toward the stairs. He was hesitant but he followed me at a human pace up to his room, where I led him to the couch. The bed in the corner of my eye was tempting, but I knew I'd get majorly distracted if we were there. This was my best bet at keeping him on track, too.

I was me, so I didn't waste time. "I need to help Angela, too," I said to him as I leaned my head all the way back on the couch. "I don't want to but she's just going to keep getting me in fucking trouble." Colby was silent. "I'm gonna call her and get her to come to my place so we can talk it out. I don't trust that she'll listen on the phone."

"That isn't a good idea," Colby muttered next to me and I raised my head to see him frowning. He didn't understand yet why I needed to start sheltering Angela like she was a troubled child.

"It's the only thing I can do to get her away from vampires. I mean, shit, she's been compelled before and she brought James to the fucking showcase." I shook my head, annoyed at her just thinking about it. "She knows this place, she knows my apartment, she knows the studio and probably knew about the basement, too. Fucking hell, she definitely led them down there," I realised suddenly, staring down at the floor.

Of course, she led them down there. Mother had had that building for decades, since long before my sister and I were even born. It'd never occurred to me as I was being thrown around down there that Angela and I were the only ones who ever went down there to play when we got along. Mom stopped us going down there after a couple of years, though we were never told why. If Angela was still as naive as she'd always been, she wouldn't have thought mentioning that basement to the pretty vampire paying attention to her would have any consequences. She was a fucking idiot.

"I'm calling her," I decided with finality, getting up from the couch and walking away from Colby. He was still silent as he sat there watching me on my phone. I clicked just a few buttons before it was ringing. I waited and I waited but she didn't pick up. After trying for a second time, I was getting nervous. The last time she hadn't answered my calls, she'd shown up at the showcase with a vampire.

When I turned back to Colby, I saw in his eyes that he wanted no part of helping Angela. I considered using the card already, but it was doubtful that he'd say no to a simple visit to her apartment to make sure she was alive. If he said no, there was always Tara. Or I could ask Katrina to ask Sam—he'd listen to her and she'd probably listen to me.

Colby saw the scheming in my eyes and sighed. "What?" He asked, standing up. I smiled to myself knowing that I had him wrapped.

"She won't pick up, we need to pay her a visit." He audibly groaned but didn't say anything to me, moving his lips as he spoke to the others downstairs. After a moment, Tara appeared in the doorway of his bedroom with a smile on her face.

"Hey, bitch," she greeted.

I glanced at Colby for answers. "I need to talk to the others here. She'll go with you instead."

"What do you guys need to talk about?" I asked, hesitant to leave in case there was something I needed to hear. Colby didn't answer me. "Am I going to be mad at you for not telling me?"

"Probably."

I sighed. "Great." I walked up to him and stood on my toes, kissing his lips for a second, just so I could while I wasn't pissed at him. I wasn't going to say anything, but I decided fuck it. Just because the others were most likely listening didn't mean I couldn't tell my boyfriend how I felt about him. "I love you," I said.

He hesitated, his eyes flicking to the floor. I didn't expect him to say it back in this house, but he surprised me by giving me a sweet kiss and smiling. "I love you, too."

A smile came uncontrollably over my face before I winked at him and walked over to an open-mouthed Tara. She snapped to business as soon as I got close enough, circling her arm around my waist. I knew that if we weren't going to talk to my crazed sister, she would be squealing all sort of things about now.

Instead, she waited for Colby to zip out of the room to look at me and feign calm. "Where to?"