For a moment, I wondered if her blood was the only thing she had given up.
“Are you happy here?” I leaned in, speaking softly.
“Like I said, Miss, I don’t really know much else any more. I’m not unhappy.”
I nodded. Perhaps, it was a better life for her. I, however, refused to accept that bringing a thirteen-year-old kid home to drink her blood, and do whatever else with, was an acceptable thing to do.
“This place is beautiful, but I’m wondering what I’m going to do all day.” I looked around the room.
“Mr. Trevor says you can go anywhere in the house or on the grounds, as long as you don’t leave.”
I nodded. “I kind of figured that.”
She slid out her chair and stood. “Miss, Chloe, I really should be going. I have several things to do, and then I nap in the afternoon so I will be awake when Mr. Trevor wakes.”
“I’m sorry to have kept you,” I told her. Actually, I was a little sad to see her go. I didn’t want to be alone in a gigantic house with nothing to do. I glanced at the bookshelves. I guessed I’d find something.
“Goodbye,” I called to her while Alice quietly slipped out the door.
After I ate some of the breakfast she’d brought up for me, I decided to take a walk on the property and explore. I needed to know who was out there watching, where the exits were, that sort of thing. I strapped my gun on and then bundled up, even though I didn’t know what it looked like outside. I hated not having windows. It made me feel even more like a prisoner.
Outside it was brisk, cold and snowing. The clouds covered the sun and a thick fog had settled in, misting like smoke in the trees. I wondered then if Trevor was the kind of vampire who could actually come out as long as there was no direct sunlight. Maybe he had to actually sleep during the daylight hours. I realized I had no clue.
I couldn’t even see the fence. The property was outlined by trees and the fence ran along the inside of the tree line. I walked the perimeter, staying on the snow-laden lawn, where it would look like I was simply out for a stroll.
I didn’t see any guards along the way. They must have been hidden, because I was certain there were guards. It also occurred to me that during the day, they had to be human. Oh crap, if I had to escape and a human tried to stop me… I didn't know if I could handle killing a human being.
I could just hear Drew in my head: They aren’t human, Chloe. They are evil… we kill evil.
I just don't think I could do it.
I tried hard to come up with a plan of action. I’d come to this house with Trevor to kill him. It actually wouldn’t be that hard for me to kill him, but the odds of my killing him and then getting away weren’t so good, if he really did have guards posted everywhere.
When I wandered into the backyard and saw a deep rectangular in-ground pool underneath a huge covered patio area. The pool had steam rising from it; it was warm and ready for use. Beside the pool was a miniature hot tub version of the pool. A large brick grill was built into the patio and two patio tables accented the area with their bright blue chair cushions.
Thinking about getting in the pool and stretching my muscles made me wonder if Trevor had gym equipment in this house. I couldn’t see why he would, because he was a vampire and vampires didn’t need to work out. Did they?
Back inside the house, after finding out that there were more bathrooms than I thought anyone would ever want, a theater entertainment room, and a recreation room with a pool table, I did indeed find a large room with gym equipment. There were only a few weight machines, a treadmill and a rowing machine, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. I hadn’t trained for a few days, and I couldn’t afford to let my muscles go like that.
Yeah, like I could ever overpower a vampire.
I needed to keep telling myself I was a vampire hunter. We overpowered vampires all the time, but it did bother me that I was so weak compared to a vampire. The other thing that bothered me was I needed to practice my special ability, my fire power. I couldn’t really do that in Trevor’s house. I was pretty sure he knew about it anyway, from that one little vamp who had gotten away during the attack. But maybe he didn’t know, and if he didn’t, then I sure as hell didn’t want him to find out.
When Trevor woke around sundown, Alice informed me that I was expected for supper in the dining room in thirty minutes. Somehow, the properness of this request made me feel I should change my clothes. So, I took off my jeans and put on a pair of slacks with my pink blouse. While I changed, it became clear I was going to need more clothes than I had brought with me. I still didn’t want to wear anything he had picked for me, simply on principle.
Once downstairs, we sat across from each other at the dining table. It was much like it had been the night before, only this time he tried to have a conversation with me.
“Have you come into your abilities, yet?” he asked while he cut into the tender pot roast Alice had served us.
I shook my head. “No, I’m not yet sixteen, so I haven’t noticed anything different.” I didn’t want him to know I was developing my gifts on both sides. Not yet. The weaker he thought I was the better off I would be.
“When you begin to sense these abilities are present, make sure to tell me. I cannot help you much with your hunter heritage, but I can help when your vampire half develops.”
I took a long swig from my water glass and then stabbed a piece of lettuce in my salad.
“I’ll let you know.”
I chewed and swallowed the lettuce.
“Hey, is there any literature or anything I can read up on about coming of age for my vampire side? I’d like to know about this stuff.”
He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “There are likely plenty of books on the subject in the library. I will have some brought up to your room.”
“That would be great, thank you.” I paused and chewed the last bite of my roast. When I finished, I asked him, “Do you have a computer here, or something I could use for researching on the internet?”
His eyes narrowed and flashed a bit. “I would prefer that you use only the books. Under the circumstances, I would rather you not have access to communicate with the outside world.” He took a dainty sip of his wine. “Which reminds me: I’ll need your cell phone, please.”
He wanted my phone, the very last connection I had to the ones I cared about. I could not believe this.
“If I can keep it, I promise not to make any calls.”
He shook his head. “I am sorry, Chloe. I also need you to bring me the gun you brought with you.”
This time I couldn’t keep the anger from boiling over. I was pissed. I slammed my fork onto my plate and shoved my chair away from the table. I marched to his side of the table, reached into my pocket, grabbed my cell phone and threw on the table in front of him.
“Happy now?” I asked and stalked out of the dining room.
“You’ll see this is all for the best,” he called after I was already out of the room.
Back in my room, I grabbed my gun and removed the clip, then tossed them both out into the hallway. After slamming my door, which was quite unimpressive and not really what I was going for, I threw myself on my bed and pouted. I curled up with my clothes still on and pulled the covers over me. I let the faces of the people back home lull me to sleep.
Before I knew it, months had passed. The snow slowly melted and spring settled in. It was nice to finally see the forests around us turn green again. When the snow melted off the grounds, the large expanses of green lawn could be seen along with the new pretty flowers that popped up all over the place.
Trevor had a doctor come to the house and take my cast off in early March. Words simply cannot express how happy I was to have that thing off, to finally have full functionality of my hand.
Every single day I did the same things, and it became a monotonous schedule. The one thing I absolutely refused to do was become a night owl to suit Trevor. I woke at six a.m. Then it was shower, workout,
another shower, breakfast, take a walk, read for a few hours, and then lunch. After lunch, I would repeat the same thing until dinner, minus the first shower.
I was getting strong, really strong. I was training double what I had been doing with Drew. I tried to use all the weight machines exactly the way Drew had shown me. I did the same with the other exercises where I didn’t use a machine. It was crazy, seeing my body build muscle mass and tone up. One day, I was totally shocked when I looked in the mirror after my post workout shower and saw definition in my abs. I smiled at myself in the mirror because I knew Drew would be proud of me.
When I was out for my walks, I used that time to play around a little bit with my fire power ability. I was probably being watched by guards or cameras the entire time, but I just didn’t have anywhere else to practice. I didn’t want to do it inside, just to avoid setting the house on fire and it was getting to the point where I really didn’t care if anyone saw it anyway.
I was getting better. With a lot of practice, I discovered I could make fire whenever I wanted, not just when I was angry. This process was like pulling energy from all around me and centering it inside of me, then pushing it out again. I think it was the same way it happened when I got angry, it just happened without me thinking about it.
I only saw Trevor at dinner and for a little while after. I didn’t really want to see him, so that little bit was more than enough time for me. He didn’t really bother much with me, which I found odd. If he thought I was that important, then why didn’t he even act like he wanted to get to know me? It seemed like he wanted me only because I was his, like a little kid with his toy…he only wanted it because the other kids wanted to play with it, but when they didn’t want to play with it anymore, neither did he.
It seemed the whole eating dinner together thing was an obligatory time to spend together. Trevor was confusing to me. It seemed like he wanted to be my father, but at the same time, he didn’t spend much time with me, and I was sort of a prisoner in the house.
It had been months since I left the community. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was beginning to wonder why they didn’t try to come for me. I told them not to, but a part of me sort of thought they would anyway, especially since Luke knew the truth about why I had left, even if the others didn't.
Alice had become the first girlfriend I’d had for a while, since before my mom’s death. The more we got to know each other, the more she trusted I wouldn’t talk about her with Mr. Trevor. Oh, how I hated it that she called him that. I really liked Alice, and I wished that she would understand life could be better for her outside of this place. She wouldn’t hear of it. For her it was as good as it was going to get. She didn’t care that Trevor used her for food and sex; she was taken care of and would never want for anything, so she let him.
So sad, I knew I couldn't help someone who didn't want to help herself.
Secretly, I vowed to get her out of this place. I loved Alice, but I had to restrain myself from talking with her about Gavin and Drew. I didn’t talk to her at all about any of the hunters. I knew she had grown to trust me more, but that didn’t mean I trusted her.
During the time I spent reading, I only read the books Trevor had given me about vampires. I learned about the different types of vampires, half vampires, gifts and abilities, how vampires can die, myths and legends, the list of topics went on forever. I guess when you’ve been around as long as vampires have there was a lot of information to document.
It was early April by the time I decided that if I was unable to leave, I needed to learn something besides vampire history. So one night at dinner I said to Trevor, “I’m a little worried about not being in school. I’m actually a little discouraged that you haven’t been more concerned about it. I’m still in high school, and I need to learn things. If I can’t leave to go to a regular school, could we at least hire someone to come in and teach me?”
Trevor nodded and shuffled his food around on his plate without actually eating it. Sometimes he did that. I think most of the time he didn’t eat real food when he was already full on human blood. “I don’t see a problem with having a tutor come in and homeschool you.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. It would be really nice to see someone else in this house other than Trevor, Alice, and the occasional guard. “Thank you.”
“I will look into it immediately and hire someone with excellent credentials.”
“Thank you, I’d appreciate that.”
And there ended another of our short conversations. He never asked me anything about myself, like what my favorite color was or what I enjoyed doing. Not that I really cared to tell him that stuff anyway…it just baffled me.
Two days later, a tutor arrived. His name was Oscar Williams, and he was not the kind of man you would think would be a school teacher or a tutor. He was hot! Oscar couldn’t have been more than twenty-five years old. His hair was a light blond color, and he styled it in kind of a punk spiked style. He always wore a casual jacket over a button up dress shirt and jean. He also rode a motorcycle. I couldn't help but wonder where Trevor had found the guy and what kind of qualifications he could possibly have that would convince Trevor he was good enough to tutor me?
We immediately began lessons. Having someone else to talk to and something purposeful to do was a huge relief. I studied with vigor, impressing Oscar right from the start. He seemed to like my spongy ability to retain everything I learned. I liked that he was impressed.
Alice had a crush on him, too. I saw her more when Oscar was around than I ever did before. If anything, Oscar’s presence gave us something juicy to gossip about, and a reason to primp a little more than we had been. I’d been getting so lazy that some days I’d just walk around in sweat pants. But there was no way that I was going to let Oscar see me in them. Alice normally wore her hair in a ponytail, but on the days Oscar came, she would style it. Trevor noticed Alice's changes, too. I could have sworn he acted peeved about it. For the first time, I wondered if he actually cared about her.
In any case, having Oscar around was really nice, and learning stuff was easy with him. Plus, he was full of surprises. Only a week or so after our first tutoring session together, Oscar showed up in my room carrying a big black guitar case.
“What’s that?” I asked him, not bothering to sit up. I had been lounging on the couch reading and munching on a big bag of potato chips. At least Trevor was okay with buying me chips. I couldn’t get those back home.
He rolled his eyes. “It’s a guitar, Chloe. A musical instrument with five strings—”
"I know what it is.” I cut him off. “Why do you have it?”
“I thought I might play you a song or two.” He set the case down on the table and opened it. Inside was a beautiful acoustic guitar. I noticed the body was an awesome teal blue that made me think of tropical water.
He pulled out one of the straight-backed chairs from my little breakfast table and sat with the guitar on his lap.
“Any requests?” he asked, and he strummed once.
I shrugged and shoved a chip into my mouth.
“Play whatever you want.” I shifted on the couch until I was sitting up and pulled my legs up onto the couch with me.
He played a slow ballad, a song I did not recognize, but it was beautiful and moving all the same. Even more amazing was when he sang. Oh, my god, I wanted to melt in to a puddle of goo. Wishing the song would never end, I leaned forward, resting my chin on my hands. What I really wanted to do was close my eyes and lose myself in the music, but I just couldn’t take my eyes off of him.
When his fingers strummed the last chord of the song, I felt my heart sink. I wanted more. “Can you play another one?”
“Just one more, and then we have to get on with learning.” He adjusted himself in the chair and played again. This time, the tune was faster, but my reaction to it was the same. I’d never felt such a pull to someone before, not even Gavin.
That day, he left his guitar in my room and every d
ay thereafter he would play me a song before we started lessons. Alice came into the room for the song as well, and we would both sit like star-struck kids and watch him play.
If, anything, it made the days enjoyable.
Months passed far faster than I expected they would. The wet, colorful days of spring turned into summer, and I was able to spend more time outside. I didn’t like being in the house all the time. It was too confining without any windows to let the light in.
One day in July, after a practice session with my fire power ability, I quietly slipped inside the house and took my shoes off by the front door so I wouldn’t track anything all over the beautiful floors Alice had spent so much time cleaning. I hurried upstairs.
The silence of the house was thick. I had noticed several times recently that I could almost hear the air as it passed by my ears. On my way down the hallway, I heard a slight clanking noise coming from the opposite end of the hall from my room.
Knowing Alice was downstairs asleep and Trevor’s rooms were also downstairs, I decided to check it out. I turned around and crept silently over the carpet, listening as closely as I could.
I was actually a little afraid some random vampire might be roaming around, and I had nothing to protect myself.
Wait, I did have something.
I stopped for a moment and closed my eyes. I flexed my hands by opening and closing them, pulling energy from around me, letting it fill me up. I opened my eyes and continued down the hall. Another sound came from the room Trevor had said not to go in because he used it for his office. I was kind of nosey, but I had never had the urge to go in there. The noise sounded more like a squeak that time.
I came to a stop in front of the door and took a deep breath, wondering if it would be better to try to open the door quietly or to fling it open and storm inside. I flexed my hands again and reached for the knob.
“Stop hovering out there and open the door, Chloe.”
The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection Page 13