When I got close enough to him he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me in for a hug. I just let him put his arms around me where I knew Wesley could see. No matter how wrong it felt my body didn’t protest.
“You ok?” Aaron whispered in my ear.
“Yeah, I’m sorry I wasn’t expecting him to be out here.” I pulled back and looked into Aaron’s blue eyes. They weren’t captivating, but they were very pretty.
“Neither was I.” He leaned in and kissed me briefly on the lips.
He had me home ten minutes to eleven and even walked me to the door. I didn’t sense my mother anywhere in the living area as I dug in my pocket for my house key. Once I had it in my hand I turned to face Aaron again. He reached down and grabbed my other hand placing his free one on my waist.
“I had fun.” He said biting his lip.
“Yeah all things considered I did too.” I let out a soft laugh and looked towards the darkness.
“Can I take you out again sometime?” He asked
“Yeah, I think you can.” I gave him a smile.
Why did I have the feeling that this wasn’t in my best interest?
“Call you tomorrow?” He said.
“Yeah, that would be nice.” He gave me a quick kiss and turned to walk away.
I unlocked the door and entered the living room, that’s when I heard the click of a light bulb and I knew my intuition had been incorrect she had been in the living room the whole time.
“Hi mom.” I turned to hang my key up on a hook.
When she didn’t answer I turned around quickly. It wasn’t my mother at all. In fact, sitting in the recliner facing me was the black eyes of my father.
"You don't look so happy to see me Dawn." He said standing up.
I had forgotten how tall he was, he was towering over me by a good foot at least. I swallowed hard and just stared at him.
“Just surprised.” I muttered looking at him with wide eyes.
"I was in town and I thought I would stop by and have a little check in with your mother." He grinned. "I had forgotten how beautiful she was. Also how annoyingly goody goody." Still I said nothing just stared at him.
I wanted to pinch him, or pinch myself. I wanted to know if this was some form of dream of if my dad was really standing right here.
"No Dawn, I am real." He winked at me and pointed at my head. "I can read your mind." He grinned again. He was walking circles around me just looking me up and down. "You've changed a lot. I thought you would be more like your mother. All Heaven fire and punishment. Shocked to see that you have a bit more of me in you than I thought." He laughed.
"Why are you here dad?" I asked flatly regaining my train of thought.
"I told you. I was in town." He stopped and grabbed my shoulders spinning me to face him. "That and I got a very disturbing call from your mother awhile back and I figured it was time that I came to see you since you made no attempt to reach me with the message from our little friend." He was bitter all of a sudden.
I could feel his power radiating through my body.
Was he doing what mom did? Getting the truth by touch?
"No, Dawn I am not like your mother. While she can pull the truth from you in images the only gift I have of the mind is the ability to read it."
Would he stop doing that!
"Now what did that piece of filth have to say to you?" He growled.
"How much did mom tell you?" I asked dryly not really sure I wanted to have this talk.
"Not much, I could tell she was hiding something because she kept skipping over my questions." He stepped back.
He looked handsome enough, his black hair slicked back and his pin stripped Armani suit was perfectly tailored to fit his thin frame.
"If it was important I'm sure she would have told me. I mean she wouldn't keep secrets from me about our daughter, right?" He cocked and eyebrow.
"I'm sure she had her reasons." I swallowed again and looked at the ground.
"Damn straight I had my reasons." my mother’s voice was tense as she came walking into the living room. "It wasn't my place to tell him everything. I figured though that he would get here faster if I told him that John had escaped from Hell. I suppose I was wrong. I'm sure something else more important came up." I didn't like the bitterness in my mother’s voice it made me shiver.
"Ah, Angelina, always such a graceful entrance. Oh and that mouth." Were these two going to fight all night or was something going to actually be accomplished.
"Why thank you Damien. Sometimes I feel like I should have smite you when I had the chance." She said sarcastically. "Our daughter has been in some trouble lately. I kept telling her to call you, but well, let's face it she's more stubborn than you."
“How can that be possible? Nobody is as stubborn as me.” He joked. “But on a serious note. What kind of trouble?"
“She met a boy.” My mother started.
“Oh a boy.” He said dryly.
“The boy has a leach attached to him, a German leach," My father raised an eyebrow and glanced at me, "The boy was attacked by vampires and our daughter assisted in his rescue. Not long after that she was attacked by John. Since then it's been drama, drama, drama. What I wouldn't give for her to have a normal life." My mother stopped and tucked her hands in her pockets.
"John attacked her?" The blood had drained from his face as he hands gripped around my wrists pulling me close to him.
"If her friend hadn't of come when he did she would be dead." My head shot towards her. I knew I wasn't immortal but how could that demon have killed me? He was less than me.
"Did he?" My father's voice shook and my mother nodded before my father pulled me in for a hug.
It was awkward being in his arms again after all these years. Even more awkward still was the fact that I felt like he actually did love me.
"Oh my sweet princess." He sniffed cradling my head to his chest.
Why was everyone Hell bent on calling me ‘princess’?
I was pretty much motionless. Two weeks ago I might have actually cried with him but I only felt hollow.
"Why did you not tell me this on the phone?" He demanded.
"Damien do you think it would have brought you here quicker? You have a whole new life now. A wife, your job. I wasn't going to tell you this and expect you to come running. Not when Dawn herself wasn't sure she wanted to tell you." My mother was being softer but I could still sense that she was cross.
"Dawn is my daughter too! I distinctly remember being tossed from my comfortable home because I knocked you up." He looked at me. "You would think that centuries of messing around with an angel would have taught me something. Instead I wind up with no home and have to deal with your mother's constant blubbering about how God kicked her form Heaven."
"Yes, and I had to deal with your constant complaining how you lost your ability to mutate." My mother bit back. "This isn't about us Damien, this is about Dawn."
He looked at me concerned as I just stood limp pulled against his chest. I struggled to pull away, but he held tightly.
"Ok so you need me to deal with John. Fine I will deal with John." He let me go, and I pushed myself back behind my mother, I had a feeling that I was at least safe there.
"It's not just John." She motioned for him to follow her as she led him to the kitchen where the sketchbook sat on the table. "There is far more going on than just a leach. Can you put our differences aside for an old friend?" She asked nicely, my father nodded.
"The boy that Dawn met is Wesley Jensen, the son of Greta and Greg Jensen." My father’s eyes lit up in recognition.
Did he know all the things that Wesley's mother had said?
"How odd that you would find them here." He said looking at the cover of the sketch pad. "How are Greg and Greta? Seems like it's been ages since we have seen them last."
"Greg is alright. Greta died a few years back. That is why
I need your help." She said it like it was ripping through her. She reached down and opened the book to a picture of Miranda. "This is the vampire child that is feeding off the family. She has already taken Greta's life but now it is worse. She's latched onto Wesley. By looking at the drawings I would assume that she also attacked the family but was curious to what Greta was." My father nodded.
"She's vampire then. No Dracula or anything but she is old. I can see it in her eyes." He was flipping through the pages rapidly now. "You been back to the old place?" He suddenly asked.
"No, I figured that I would send Dawn up there in a few weeks to check it out. Have her get me some pictures and a few other items from the house." I glanced at my mom.
What were they talking about now?
"Probably smart, people would recognize you. You look the same as you always have." He gave her a smile and looked back at the sketches. "How did she see all of this? How did she know about Dawn before Dawn even knew about Dawn?"
"I just figured she was touched, or she had Harbinger blood in her." She glanced at me.
"I still have a few connections down under. I will share the images with them of this girl. What’s her name?" He looked at me.
"Miranda." I choked on her name, it felt like bile in my throat.
"Oh that's scary. Everyone run and hide Miranda is on the loose." He was teasing I know but in a way I don't think he was. "I doubt her real name is Miranda. I'm sure she has several names under her belt."
I just looked at him blankly. I couldn't care less if she had other names I just wanted to turn her to dust.
"Either way, I told Dawn not to engage her. Miranda has ways of getting into her head at night. Astral plain warfare won't kill her but face to face hand to hand could. Miranda has no clue what Dawn is but I have a feeling she's going to figure it out sooner or later and then when she does…" My mother paused. "When she knows what you are it will be time to run."
"Probably smart." He glanced at me. "What I don't understand is all I showed you was basic magic, and you ran. Your mother shows you this whole new life and you cannot bear to leave it. I know I wasn't the best father to you. It always seemed like I was putting my work before you. I'm sorry for all of that." I think he was being genuine, so I allowed a smile to play on my lips.
“There is one other thing about Dawn you should know.” My mother sighed. "She can summon the fire."
The look on my father's face was priceless it was a mixture of pride and fear.
"How far can she summon it?" He asked greedily.
"She stands inside the fire." They both turned and stared at me. I felt like I was caught in the crossfire.
"She's a powerful one. Can she summon your flame?" He asked softly.
"Yes, but not as easily as she can yours." I had a feeling this weekend would be long and painful.
"I think that I'm going to go to bed." I said pushing past them and speed walking to my room where I shut the door and locked it. I really had to take some time to think.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Dead Man Walking
I was sitting in the bar again. It seemed like forever since I was here last. If I recalled correctly this was the place the green eyed Wesley snapped the neck of a deranged pervert.
Sitting across from me, her legs crossed was Miranda. She gave me a sick smile and waved to a waitress for drinks to be brought over. I felt the anger course through me and I had to fight the urge not to jump over the table and put my hands around her throat. Not that it would have done any good. She wasn't going to die of simple asphyxiation. So instead I just sat there and stared at her, not sure what it was that she wanted exactly.
"Hello, Raven Princess." She said as soon as the drinks were placed on the table.
"Miranda." I acknowledged her.
"I have no reason to fight you tonight." She took a shot and looked me in the face. "I have already won."
"What is it that you think you won?" I asked her. "If you think that it's Wesley, take him."
I felt hard on the inside. No emotion escaped me after saying those words. She seemed confused for a second.
"You fought so hard to save him, and now you are so willing to give him up. All of this because he betrayed you?" She sighed. "I will never understand humans."
"I fought to save something that I thought was supposed to be. I guess you can say I woke up from that silly dream. Just like I will wake up from this one." I took the shot that was sitting in front of me.
"He does love you. He won’t shut up about you." She said softly.
Why did it seem that she was being so nice?
Was she changing tactics now? Trying to be my friend?
Well I had news for her it wasn't going to work.
"If he loved me he never would have gone to you." I bit at her.
"You are probably right." She shrugged. "I guess we will never know." Another smile. "Still however, I need to know what you are."
I laughed at her. "Miranda, I'm not going to tell you anything. Just because you have the boy doesn't mean that the battles you picked with me are done."
I saw fire flash in her eyes.
“I will figure it out soon enough.” She groaned. “Let’s see we have a Raven haired princess that can summon the fires of Hell as well as the flames of Heaven, yet your feet are planted firmly on earth. So many possibilities exist."
I stood up and looked down at her.
"Well I suppose you have your work cut out for you. Now if you don't mind." Fire snapped to my fingertips. "I have a life to get back to. I cannot be sitting around here in an imaginary world having pointless conversations with you."
"Always so forceful." She frowned. "The next time we meet I will not be so nice."
"I'm counting on it." I seethed.
She lifted her hand with a flick of the wrist and she was gone and I was standing in a bar on an astral plane with flames of light licking at my flesh.
****
I shot out of bed and raced into the living room. I felt like I had to report to my parents my dream. I had done as they asked. I had not engaged her or tried to turn her to ash. I had let her say her peace and politely declined her.
My parents weren't in the living room, so I raced to my mother’s room praying to whoever would listen that they were not together but my mother's bedroom door was open. I leaned against the wall feeling incredibly confused, they had to be somewhere.
"They are at my house." I heard a voice from behind me.
Yet again he had avoided my spidey senses.
"They showed up and my dad asked me to leave. So here I am." Wesley looked horrible like he hadn't slept in days. I hadn't noticed it the night before how sick he looked.
"And you think coming here was smart why?" I asked. There was a surprising edge in my voice.
"I don't know. I just got in my car and drove. Next thing I knew I was pulling into your driveway." His eyes weren't shining, and he looked as if he had lost twenty pounds in just a matter of days.
I really hadn't been paying much attention to him. I had put on blinders so I wouldn't see what was happening to him. She was killing him.
"My estranged father appeared last night." I said meekly.
"Yeah, he sure is strange." Wesley let out a soft laugh. "He also gives me the creeps. My father was happy to see him though."
"How is your dad?" I asked.
"Good, I suppose. I'm not home much, and when I am he keeps his distance. He looks at me like he looked at mom before she died." He gave me a weak smile.
"And your sister?" I figured if I was asking about the family might as well ask about all of them, they were so dear to me.
"She won't talk to me. Tells me she hates me because of what I did to you." The smile faded from his face and the sad look of a boy in pain replaced it. "I am so sorry for everything that I did to you."
I looked at him coldly for a second and then
realized that right now was probably not the best time to start yelling at him. He didn't look well.
"Can I make you some breakfast? It looks like you haven't eaten in days."
"Sure, I have some time. I have to meet Miranda in a few hours." He turned and walked towards the kitchen with me on his heels.
"I have to ask you this." I was in the doorway looking at him. "Why are you with her?"
"She knows me. She's always in my head. I told you that my ex-girlfriend was special." I watched as a tear streamed down his face. "You know what, Dawn. I think I'm just going to leave. She's not going to like it that I was here." He turned to walk out the back door to the driveway.
"She doesn't have to know you were." I tried to be convincing, but I already knew the answer.
"She knows where I am every hour of every day. She can tell me each person I've talked to. The foods I have eaten and every thought that I've had of you." He took a step towards me. "You can question every act that you have seen. You can look at her and threaten to hurt her all you want because in the long run it will be you that gets hurt. I don’t want to see that. I love you Dawn. If you just forget her I promise to leave you alone." With that he turned and left my house.
My emotions were erratic. I wanted to cry, and I wanted to throw things even though I was angry with him and I wanted to make him pay for the pain he caused me. However, just looking at him, speaking to him, feeling him near had put my emotions into shock. I may not want to be with him. I may want to make him feel like he never mattered but what she was doing to him was far worse than what I ever could have done. I dropped to my knees, and I prayed.
Since we had become intertwined with the Jensen household my mother was happy when so often she had been sad. It gave her purpose, and it gave her strength and now I prayed that she could find the answers on how to cut the cord between Miranda and Wesley. Not because I loved him even though I knew that I did no matter how hard I tried to tell myself I didn't. It was because he didn't deserve to die.
I had seen a dead man walking in my house that morning. Not much time was left before she would put him to the same fate as his mother. So here I was on my knees in the kitchen, tears streaming down my face praying to the one man I felt hated me. He never answered me, my mom said he never would, but once I stood and walked back to my room I felt like I had done what I could for Wesley.