I stumble backward, running into the fireplace, a hand on my mouth. A monster. I might become a monster. Mom’s wailing. I’m crying. I’ll be evil. My mom will hate me. The only person in my life to always be there for me will hate me.
“Patricia, stop!” It’s the harshest I’ve heard him speak since this whole thing began. He grabs her arms to stop her from hitting him and looks at me. “No, little one. You will never be evil. You will be the same person you are. Becoming a vampire won’t make you evil unless you’ve always had it in you to begin with. Even more importantly, your mom will never hate you. She loves you and that will never change. Isn’t that right, Patricia?”
I don’t move as Mom rips herself from his hold and throws herself at me, hugging me and crying. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. No, baby, no Abby….I will never hate you and I will find a way to fix this.”
I can’t hug her back. Not right now. In a year I could be the one thing Mom hates in this world. She may not think it now, but she will hate me once she finds out she can’t fix me. This can’t be fixed and I’m not sure I want to be fixed anyway. Not if Dad is right. He doesn’t feel evil to me. I pull away. “I’m not eighteen for months, but you said the time had come where I need you. Why?” I’m cut off from everything else. This is what’s important.
“I’ve been gone for a while. Everything was fine last time I checked…”
That’s when everything clicks. Like a flash, it becomes clear to me. “Gabe…” I whisper. Oh, God. Caleb had been right.
“Is that his name? Has he hurt you?” Dad stalks toward me. “I need to know everything. I sensed someone when I came back.”
My head spins. Gabe, my best friend is a vampire, too? Caleb tried to tell me and I pushed him away, and now… now Caleb’s gone!
“Answers, little one! I need to know so I can protect you. Who are Gabe and Caleb?”
I’m wringing my hands together. Caleb… Where is he? Did he run or did they hurt him? It’s all my fault. If Caleb’s hurt, it’s all my fault. “Um, Caleb is a boy from my school. He’s not a vampire. He um, well, he’s kind of my boyfriend. Well, he was, but then I didn’t believe him.”
“Didn’t believe what? When did you meet the other one, Gabe?”
“He met me in the woods one night. He’s never hurt me. He’s been a good friend, my best friend but…” I fade off because the truth hits me. Gabe is a vampire. I’ve never seen him except at night. I’m guessing the whole Modern Vampire thing isn’t right. My best friend is a vampire and Caleb knew it. I’m half vampire. Gabe lied… How could I have been so stupid?
I fall to the floor as I recall everything Caleb said to me that night. Gabe drank Stacy’s blood. He’s after me. He wants me. Did he turn Stacy? No, I’ve seen her in the daytime too. Was she under some kind of spell?
“Vampires! Abby, I can’t believe this. You told me there were no boys. When did you meet this boy? Where? How long have you been lying to me?”
My head spins so much if I hadn’t already been on the floor, I would have fallen again. Caleb hadn’t lied to me. He only wanted to protect me and I pushed him away for Gabe. Gabe had never been my friend. It had all been a lie. A sob catches in my throat.
“We’re leaving town.” Mom stalks toward me, but Dad steps in between us.
“There’s no way I can leave. I can’t leave Caleb. Not after everything he’s done for me. What if they’ve taken him?” I push to my feet as Dad turns to face me.
“He’s gone? This boy of yours?”
“Yes. We have to find him!”
I try to run, but Dad grabs my hand. It’s the first time we’ve touched. Part of me welcomes it, while the other recoils. He’s undead. He drinks blood like Gabe did to Stacy. And I might do the same thing one day. Blood? Ick. I find myself seriously gagging. I mean, really almost losing my stomach here.
“I would never hurt you. I love you, and I can’t let you walk out there. If your thoughts are correct, then you are not safe.” Then, more as if he’s talking to himself than me, he says, “Isaac must be making a move.”
Fear spikes inside me, shocking my system. “Who? Who is Isaac and what does he want with me?”
They totally ignore me.
“I knew you would get her hurt!” Mom yells at him. “I’m taking her away, where they won’t be able to find her.”
“There is no escaping Isaac if he wants her, Red. You have to stay where I can find you and let me handle this. I will not let anything happen to our daughter.”
“Trust you? You’re a liar! You’re evil! A monster! I will never trust her in your hands!”
“Who’s Isaac? Is Caleb with him?” I cry, but Dad doesn’t answer.
“I am the only one who can keep her safe, Red. Surely you know me well enough to know I would lay down my life for her. I’m still the man you fell in love with all those years ago.”
“No!” I cover my ears, unable to take it anymore. How can they waste all this time arguing? “Stop it! I’m not a doll for you guys to fight over.” I pull my hands down, giving Mom my attention. “I know you don’t see me as grown up enough to know that’s best for myself, but right now, I think I’m more grown up than any girl my age. I’m not going anywhere until I make sure Caleb is okay. And who the heck is Isaac? And who’s Gabe? Did they take Caleb? I need to know all of this!”
“No, Abby. You’re not going anywhere except with me and it doesn’t matter who Isaac is. He’s one of them which is all we need to know.”
I try not to flinch at her words… because I might be one of them too. “Can’t you understand I owe him? All he wanted to do is protect me and I didn’t believe him! He tried to fight a vampire for me and they took him. It’s my fault and I love him! There’s nothing you can do to make me walk away. You wanted me to learn about vampires, I’m about to get some firsthand knowledge. If anyone can keep me safe, it’s Dad.”
Tears pool in her eyes. “Abby, they’re dangerous. I won’t risk you. I love you.”
“If you love me, don’t try and make me leave because I won’t go. I love you too, but I’m not going anywhere and I’ll never forgive you if you try to make me go. It’s not right to leave him.”
“I…” Mom replies, but Dad cuts her off.
“Isaac is my father.”
My grandpa? Only I would get saddled with an evil vampire grandpa.
Mom opens her mouth to speak again, but Dad continues. “Stay here. No one can come in unless invited. You have that much right when it comes to vampire legend. You’re safe during the day, but stay locked inside until I come back for you both. I will take care of Isaac and Gabe and find your Caleb.” Dad looks down at me. “I know what it’s like to love someone, little one. I will bring him back. I owe you that much.”
Emotion washes over me. I knew it. I don’t know how I did, but I’ve always known he would make things better. I jump into his arms. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know him. That he’s a vampire. I’m clutching him as tightly as I can. All he is to me is my dad. A dad who loves me, just as much as Mom does. Someone who will bring Caleb home to me, just because I love him. “Thank you, Dad.”
Is it possible for a vampire’s voice to crack? I’m pretty sure his does when he says, “I love you, little one.”
“I love you, too.”
And I do. Which is what makes me feel worse about what I’m going to do. What I knew I would do the second I realized Caleb is gone and in the hands of vampires. There’s no way I can sit around in this house and let him go after Caleb alone. Not after all Caleb has done for me.
He pulls away from me and smiles before looking at Mom. “You girls stay here until light. If I’m not back, run, leave town. Don’t leave at night. It isn’t safe. “I will find you once everything is over.”
“Promise me, Christopher.” Mom grabs his arm. “Promise me my little girl will be safe if we stay here.”
“Our girl, Red. And you have my word.” He reaches out and touches her face the same way Caleb did
to me, but Mom flinches away. It breaks my heart for him, but he only gives me one last smile before heading for the door, stopping to face us when he reaches it.
I know I don’t have much time. I need to get to my room, grab my supplies and get out of here so I can follow him before he gets away.
“I’m scared. I need some time to myself. Please, bring him home, Dad. Mom, I need to be alone. I…I love you.” I hug her tightly, silently apologizing, before I run up to my room and lock the door. Fear churns inside me, pumping rapidly through my veins.
Mom… this might be the last time I see her and it kills me. But how can I not do this after what Caleb has risked for me?
I scribble a note to her, dump my backpack and throw in the stuff from the kit Mom packed so long ago in that trunk: a couple vials of holy water, a stake and I kiss the cross around my neck before climbing out my window. God, does this stuff work? I hope she got better information on that than Modern Vampire’s daywalkers. “I’m coming, Caleb,” I shiver as I whisper it to the night.
It only takes me a minute to get outside. I don’t know how, but the night seems darker tonight. Maybe that’s a clue at how my night’s going to end. Darkness…foreboding… AKA something really, really bad happening and I should climb right back in my house and never leave it again. There’s no way I will though. I’ve sat things out my whole life and that ends tonight. If I’m not too late that is…
I’m concentrating on the darkness in front of me while I sneak around my house. That’s why I don’t see the figure standing in front of me until it’s too late. I run right into him, a scream clawing to escape my throat. But I can’t scream. The hand cover my mouth holds it in.
Chapter Twenty
“Shh, little one.”
I recognize my dad’s voice and immediately stop struggling. “How did you?” And then it hits me. “How do vampire teenagers do anything? The mind reading thing bites…err sucks. Oh crap, you know what I mean!”
He chuckles, but then sobers almost instantly. I know that look.
“I’m not going back,” I stammer out.
“It’s dangerous, Abby. Your mother loves you and it will break her heart if something happens to you. And now that I have you, I don’t think I could handle to lose you either.”
My heart climbs into my throat, but I push it down. No matter how much I know he’s right, I’m not backing down on this. “You promised to keep me safe, so do it.”
“It’s not always that easy. My father is evil and he’s incredibly strong. It might not just come down to ‘just doing it’”.
Shut the front door! “My grandfather? Big, bad Isaac is my grandpa?”
“I don’t have time to get into it all right now, but yes. If I’m going to find him before daylight, I need to hunt.”
Creepy movie music starts playing in my head. Hunt? I shudder. “Then we better hurry up and go. One way or another, I’m finding Caleb. You don’t know what he did for me.” The image of his face, the terror and determination when he came in the diner makes me want to break down and cry again. How could I have turned him away? “Please, Dad. I need to do this.”
“You really do love him, don’t you?” he asks.
“Yes, and it’s my fault he’s been taken. He saw Gabe in action and I didn’t believe him. I pushed him away when he needed me. I should have trusted him.”
A sad smile graces his face. We’re alike in so many ways, I realize, except in his case, it’s the other person who didn’t believe in him. Mom turned her back on him and there’s no way I will do that to Caleb again. But will he turn his back on me when he finds out what I might become? I push those thoughts aside. Now isn’t the time.
“You’re so grown-up. I missed so much of your life. I don’t want to miss anything else.” His eyes are holding mine and I know he’s going to let me go.
“You won’t, Dad. I’ll be safe and just know that whether or not you let me go, I will find a way to get to him. Wouldn’t you rather I’m with you?”
“You have to do everything I tell you. Isaac will try and use your mind against you. You must focus on your Caleb, on your Mom, your life. Whatever it is that makes you the strongest. Do not let him inside. Know that whatever it is you seek, you will never find it by letting him lead you, no matter what you might think at the time.” He pulls out a bracelet with an onyx stone in the middle and black roping from his pocket and ties it to my wrist. “I made this for you. The stone is very, very old and has been blessed against evil by incredibly strong magic. It will help with the mind control and make it harder for vampires to sense you. It won’t fully protect you, but will buy you time.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m not sure I deserve your thanks and your mom will probably kill me when we get back.”
“No probably about it.”
His face gets tense. “Again, you must listen to everything I say. I don’t want you near the fighting. You’re going to hide. I say run, you run. If something happens to me, no even if it looks like I’m losing, run. Get home and follow the plan with your mother at first light.”
I nod, everything inside me screaming at me to go back inside with Mom. “Do you know where he is?”
“We’ll find him. Now we hunt.”
***
Who would have thought hunting an evil, grandpa vampire consisted of driving around town with the windows down so Dad could sniff the air until he caught a scent? ’Cause that’s exactly what we did. Dad said he would probably be somewhere remote, and if he knew Isaac well, it would be a nice place. Still, we’d been at it about an hour now and he hasn’t smelled anything.
“If he’s been after me… why didn’t you know it if you’ve checked?” I have to ask.
“I don’t stay long and he hasn’t been here when I was. Believe me, I would have known. He must have known though… and waited, biding his time.”
“Can I ask you something else?” I’m not looking at him, because it’s still a little shocking that my vampire dad is sitting next to me, much less that I can ask him questions.
“Of course.”
“You said you were human once, but then you said Isaac is your dad. I don’t get that.”
He doesn’t turn to look at me, but something about his features in the dark tells me he doesn’t really want to talk about this. “The same way you might one day become like me. I was born like you, transitioned at eighteen.”
Oh. That makes sense. I’m not sure why I didn’t realize it before. I guess that explained his smooth skin and good looks. Still, he looked younger than mom, but older than eighteen though.
“Vampire genes are a funny thing,” he says answering my thoughts. “When you’re turned, like the boy probably was, you stop aging. Of course your mind continues to grow, but you’re stuck in the same body.”
Wow… So Gabe is stuck like this forever?
“But for transition, your body goes through a rapid aging, for a few days. I’m not quite sure how it works, I guess it’s just your body adjusting, but you gain years. Depending on how fast you transition, you could gain anywhere from a year to ten or fifteen.”
“Wow…” I’m still trying to wrap my mind around all this. How it can really be true. What’s Mom look like to him now, I find myself wondering. She’s so tired looking. So worn out from seventeen years of being afraid.
“How old are you?”
“One hundred and fifty.”
One hundred and fifty? Holy crap I have an old dad!
“Why does your father—your sire-- care about me? And how do you know it’s him?
“Because I know Isaac, little one. I always knew if he ever found out about you, he would want you. I’m sure he’s been watching to see if you transition. He’ll want you. He likes owning things…people.”
I’m still confused.
“You have to understand him. He uses people to get what he wants. He likes to to possess. I did his bidding for years. So much that I’m not proud of.”
I
gulp. What has my dad done? Stolen? Killed?
“Yes. Which I’m sure is why he made Gabe. Another pawn. It’s why he’ll want you too. He can be very…persuasive and people usually don’t enjoy the methods he uses to get what he wants.”
Wow… Grandpa sounds like a stellar guy. How lucky am I? Then, another thought comes to mind. I’m almost scared to ask. “And if not? If I don’t change, I mean.”
“Abby.”
“No! I’ve been kept in the dark all my life. I want to know.”
For the first time since we’ve started talking, Dad looks at me. “Then he’ll have no use for you. Or he’ll force you to change, himself.”
Force me? Dear old Grandpa will kill me or turn me into a vampire? Totally don’t want to keep thinking about his. That protective, little bubble Mom kept me in is sounding better and better. “I..” I have no idea what I want to say. How does one react to meeting their vampire dad for the first time, finding out you could turn into one yourself, oh and Grandpa Dracula wants to suck my blood too. My life is awesome. It just keeps getting better and better.
“I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise you, you’ll be okay.”
His words push away some of the fear inside me, but somehow I know he’s just protecting me from being afraid. He can’t promise that. “Crazy relatives” has a whole new meaning when there are fangs and the words owning, possession, and a vampire change involved.
Dad… Geez that’s a weird word to think, but my dad chuckles.
“Not really finding the humor here.”
He glances over at me. “You’re funny. It’s so sad the things I don’t know about you.”
Part of me wants to hug him. To tell him he can know anything he wants about me because I’ve needed him for so long, but the other part remembers someone else who said those same words to me… you’re funny.
How could I not have believed Caleb? How could I have turned my back on him like everyone else in his life?
“I should have come back sooner,” Dad burst through my thoughts. “You’re too close to turning eighteen. I should have known… warned you. If I had, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now.”