The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection

by Jennifer Malone Wright

  I reached for the water glass beside the bed on the bedside rolling table and couldn’t reach it, so Drew handed it to me.

  “Thank you.” I took a sip and swished it around in my mouth for a second before I swallowed.

  The door opened quietly, and Luke slipped inside. “Chloe! You’re awake.”

  “Yes.” I nodded. I wanted to hug him. More than that, a feeling I didn’t expect, I needed to hug him. He must have sensed this because he set his little paper coffee cup on the counter, came right over and gave me a gentle embrace.

  “I missed you.”

  I grinned. He felt like home to me. “I missed you, too. When can I go home?”

  “They said you and Alice can come home today, but Gavin has to stay longer.”

  I knew it was going to peeve Drew, but I asked anyway. “Can I go see him? How bad is he?”

  As I expected, Drew turned away. He stood and went to the sink to fiddle with whatever was there just to avoid having to answer the question.

  Luke answered, “Gavin was shot just beneath his ribs. The bullet had to be removed, so he needed surgery. Luckily, the bullet had lodged between his spleen and stomach, but missed the organs. And yes, you can see him, but they are keeping visits very short. He’s asleep most of the time anyway since he got out of surgery.” He paused, looked at Drew, and then back at me. “Do you want me to tell the nurses you want to go visit?”

  I shook my head. “Let’s wait until I’m released, that way I can wear clothes instead of a hospital gown.”

  “Oh, speaking of which…” he pointed at a gym bag in the corner. “I brought you some clean ones.”

  I squeezed his hand. “You’re awesome. Thank you for thinking of that.”

  He returned my squeeze. “Well, that’s a nice compliment, but it wasn’t me. Drew called and asked me to bring them.”

  “Oh. Well, you’re awesome, too,” I called out to Drew, but the compliment felt pathetic to me.

  He finally turned from the sink. “Thanks. I’m happy that you’re happy. I’m going to go see if they will do the release paperwork soon.” Then he hurried out the door.

  Luke looked at me with a question in his eyes, and I shrugged. “In a hurry to go home, I guess.”

  Luke somehow managed to look even more quizzical. “I’m not blind, Chloe.”

  Uh-oh.

  “I’ve known Drew his whole life. I know him better than I know you, better than almost anyone, and I’ve never seen him act this way.”

  Turning my head away, I tried to lie. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Act how?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me, Chloe.” Luke moved over to the vacated chair and sat. “I don’t care what's going on between you guys. It would be natural, because you spend so much time together. I just want you to remember two things.”

  I widened my eyes in question.

  “One, you’re not quite sixteen… and you know what I mean by that. And two, you be careful with him.”

  I laughed. “Seriously! Aren’t you supposed to be telling him that he is supposed to be careful with me? Like, when the dad says ‘if you hurt my daughter, I’ll kill you’ and goes about cleaning his gun?”

  Luke managed a weak smile. “You are resilient, Chloe. You have a quality that makes you bounce back from the bad things in your life. Drew, he dwells on the bad things and never really gets over them. If he cares about you, really cares, that is a big deal. I don’t want his heart stepped on any more than it already has been.”

  I suddenly remembered when Drew told me about how his mother had deserted him. Oh, she had better hope she didn’t cross my path anytime soon. What a loser. In a way, I felt she didn’t deserve Drew.

  I nodded. “Okay. I’ll remember.”

  Drew came back in the room, followed by a nurse who carried a big clipboard with lots of papers. She gave me a wide, toothy smile.

  “Hi, Chloe. We're going to check your vitals again, and if they are all good, then we can unhook the IV, and you can go home.

  “Okay.” I tried to catch Drew’s eye, but he was busy inspecting a picture of a bird on the wall.

  After my vitals came back good, they removed the IV and allowed me to get dressed. First, I was given what seemed like a million directions on how to clean the wound and re-dress it and how much medication I was allowed to take. The nurses brought me a wheelchair and gave me some crutches to use if I needed them. I doubted I would use them. I had hurt my ankle once when I was twelve, and the crutches had hurt my armpits. Drew wheeled me into the hallway and then passed me off to Luke.

  “I’m going to see if Alice is ready to go now.” He left me sitting in the hallway with Luke.

  “Nice,” I said, to no one in particular.

  Luke ignored the obvious snub from Drew and pushed me down the hallway to Gavin’s room. It was dark in his room, and nearly silent, except for the low hum of some machine he was hooked up to. He had an IV too, with two bags hanging from the pole.

  Luke wheeled me right up to the side of Gavin’s bed, where I could easily hold his hand.

  “Gavin,” I whispered, “are you awake?”

  His eyes fluttered a bit, but didn’t open.

  “Gavin, I’m sorry you’re hurt. I hope you can hear me, because I just want you to know how grateful I am for your help.” I was grateful. Even though he didn’t come with Drew, he did come through in the end. “I hope you’re going to be all right.”

  “He’s probably on heavy pain killers,” Luke explained.

  “I know.” I nodded. “I just wanted to say thank you.” I squeezed Gavin’s hand. “I’ll try to come visit you every day until you go home.”

  Suddenly, I felt his hand move in mine, and I was sure he could hear me. His body simply wouldn’t let him respond. “Okay. I have to go now, but I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  I released his hand and nodded at Luke.

  “I’m ready.”

  He wheeled me back into the hallway, and I saw Drew waiting with Alice by the nurses’ station. Alice was also in a wheelchair. She looked exhausted, but other than that, you couldn’t tell anything was wrong with her.

  “Hi, Alice.” I waved a little.

  She lifted her hand in a weak wave back at me.

  “Hey,” she whispered. She looked up at Luke. Apparently, they had already met and no introduction was needed. “Are you guys sure it’s okay if I come home with you? I’ll understand if you don’t want me.”

  Luke waved her comment away. “Don’t be ridiculous. We wouldn’t put you out in the street. Where else would you go?”

  Even though Luke tried to reassure her, tears formed and fell down her cheeks. She didn’t sob, but silent tears continued to escape from the corners of her eyes.

  “Alice, it’s all right. We’re going to take care of you.” I tried to help. I knew it was hard for her. She had lost everything.

  Drew turned her wheelchair in the direction of the elevators. “Let’s go.”

  We wheeled out to the car in silence. I guess no one could think of anything appropriate to say. The ride home was quiet, too.

  The trees had already begun to turn; red, gold and burnt orange leaves fluttered over the road as we drove.

  When we reached the gates of the community, I exhaled a large sigh of relief. I was home, and I was safe again. “Does this place have a name?” I asked. “I always just call it the community.”

  Luke laughed. “Actually, yes, the community has a name. It’s called Arcadia Falls.”

  “Arcadia Falls.” I tasted the name. “That’s pretty. I like it.”

  While we drove through town, I stared out the window at all the places I’d missed while I was gone: The Java Bean, the library, even the school. There were people out on the sidewalks, and every single one of them waved when we drove by. I remembered why I’d left in the first place: to protect them.

  I could smell smoke from the wood stoves as it curled out of the chimneys and mingled with the crisp fall air. For th
e first time, I realized it was a smell that reminded me of home. It reminded me of when I’d first come the year before. Where I’d lived in the city with my mom, there were no wood stoves curling smoke out of the chimneys.

  Drew’s rickety old truck sat in the driveway. We pulled up next to it and parked. Quickly, before anyone could come help me, I opened the door and tried to stand. I wanted to walk by myself.

  Drew eyed me, as did Luke, but neither said anything. I clung onto the car door for a moment before I took a few limping steps. Drew went around to help Alice out of car, because she didn’t attempt to get out, or even move.

  I knew neither of them would have helped me out. Drew was my trainer, the one who said ‘If I help you, then it’s not helping you in the long run.’ I took a few more steps and was certain I could at least make it into the house.

  “Do you want your crutches?” Luke asked. He opened the trunk and lifted out my bag.

  I smiled big. “No, I can do it.”

  “All right, then,” Luke answered, but he grabbed the crutches out of the trunk anyway.

  I was exhausted by the time I reached the front door. Drew had already gone inside and helped Alice sit on the couch by the time I even made it halfway. I finally tumbled down onto the couch next to Alice, causing her to bounce.

  “Hey, Alice.”

  “Hmmm,” she mumbled.

  “You’re going to like it here.” I took her hand. “I promise.”

  Later that night, after I tried to bathe myself without getting my bandage wet, I explored my room. My bow sat in the same place I had left it. I lifted it and ran my fingertips over the smooth wood and beautiful carvings. Suddenly, I wondered what purpose Sostrate'd had when she gave it to me. Sostrate was a demi-goddess, and her intentions always came with deeper meaning. So far, I hadn’t used her gift for anything except to kill one random vampire.

  The thought actually made me nervous that the fighting between the hunters and the vampires might not be over.

  The next day, my leg felt worse than the previous day, for some reason. I had plenty of pills to cut through the pain. My plan to avoid the crutches wasn’t exactly working either. I had to use them to get around or deal with more pain.

  Alice had shared my bed with me, and it looked like that was how it was going to be for a while since we had no spare bedrooms.

  After using the bathroom and brushing my hair and teeth, I fell back on the bed and tried to wake Alice.

  “Hey, you.” I touched her nose. “It’s time to wake up.”

  She moaned and swatted at my hand.

  “Time to get up now.” Still nothing, so I shook her a bit, and her eyes popped open.

  “What?”

  “It’s time to get up.”

  She sat up and rubbed her eyes, then glanced around my room.

  “Why can’t I just sleep for a while? I’m so tired.”

  I sighed. “Alice, I know you’re tired, but you need to get up and move around. If you stay in bed all day, it’s not good for you. It could make you depressed.”

  She flopped back down, rolled over and covered her head. “I’m already depressed.”

  “Well, you shouldn’t be. You’re free now. You can do whatever you want.”

  I tried to roll her back over.

  “That’s the thing... I have nothing. What am I supposed to do?”

  I lay back on the pillow beside her. “I don’t know. You can stay here for as long as you want while you think about it. I’m sure there is something you have always dreamed of doing. Maybe now you can work on that. “

  "Now, let’s get up. We need to see how Oscar is doing this morning.”

  She sat up. “All right, fine.”

  “The shower is in there.” I pointed at the bathroom door. “You can wear any of my clothes you want.”

  “Thank you.” She reluctantly pulled the covers off, got out of bed, and headed for the bathroom. I lay there, enjoying the purple comforter and staring at my mother’s picture on my nightstand. Man, I missed her. If she could only see me now, all shot up and recovering from a fight with vampires.

  “I did it, Mom,” I told the picture. “For the last year, all I could think about was killing the man who ordered your death. But now I know that you loved him, and I don’t understand how you could love him.” She stared back at me from the picture, smiling. “I know you loved me more. I just wish you were here to explain it all to me, because it’s more than I can handle right now.”

  I thought of Trevor. I wondered if I was supposed to feel any sadness for the father I’d known for less than a year.

  I didn’t.

  The only real emotion I could muster about Trevor’s death was happiness. I remembered not wanting Christina to stab him, and I wondered why I didn’t just let her. It was a weak moment. I didn’t want to be weak.

  I knew we would still have to fight vampires. I knew that would always be an issue; we were vampire hunters, after all. With Trevor gone, we were safer, and that made me happy.

  After Alice had dressed in a pair of my jeans and a sweatshirt, we tried to go downstairs.

  “I could piggy back you,” Alice suggested.

  I shook my head. “No, I’d be afraid you’d fall. I’m bigger than you.”

  “How about if we just try to go down with you hanging your arm around my shoulders and using me like a crutch and the handrail for balance on the other.”

  “Yeah, that sounds good.” I wished the vampire healing thing would hurry up and kick in. I didn’t like to worry about getting around. I figured it was taking longer because the wound was so deep.

  We jostled comically down the stairs and into the kitchen where we found Luke making sandwiches.

  “Hello, ladies. Did you rest well?”

  “Yes, except for waking up a few times because of my leg. Otherwise, I slept great.”

  Alice whispered, “Yes, thank you.” She pulled out a chair from the kitchen table for me to sit in, and then she pulled another out for herself.

  “Where's Drew?” I asked.

  “He went out for his run, and then he was going to get Oscar.”

  “Oh good,” I said. “I was wondering how Oscar was doing.”

  Luke put the sandwiches onto plates and cut them all in half. “He's doing well. The medics said he could leave the care center, but he's going to have to stay with us for a few days so we can monitor him. He had a lot of bites, and we just want to be certain he isn’t going to have any side effects of a partial turning.”

  He handed us each a plate, and I asked him, “Don’t you have to drink blood after you’ve been bitten to complete the change?”

  I’d read a lot of vampire stuff while I was at Trevor’s and thought that was the only way someone could become a vampire.

  He nodded. “Yes, normally it would take drinking the victim’s blood until their heart almost stops, then they would have to drink blood, any blood, to begin the process of the change.”

  Alice stared at the table, seemingly uninterested.

  “But, an incident like this, with this many bites, the victim may not become a full vampire but could have side effects of vampirism, like sensitivity to sunlight and becoming exceptionally strong for no known reason.”

  I took a huge bite of my sandwich. “Oh, I see.”

  He sat down at the table with us, his own sandwich in front of him. “It’s just better to be safe than sorry, so Oscar is going to stay with us for a few days.”

  Alice hadn’t touched her sandwich. She asked, “Is it even safe for him to go home at all? Won’t there be vampires who will want to want to avenge Trevor’s death?”

  I looked at Luke and raised my eyebrows.

  “Most likely, yes. They will probably look for him, considering the circumstances, but really, that will all depend on what he wants in the long run.”

  Just then, we heard the door open and voices in the hallway. Drew and Oscar appeared in the kitchen.

  “Hey!” I waved at them, sm
iling at Drew and then Oscar. “How are you feeling, Oscar?”

  “A lot better than before, that’s for sure.” He shrugged. “But I’ve been better.”

  He did look much better, except he was still quite pale. He had a hoodie on, one of Drew’s, so I couldn’t see his arms where he’d been bitten. The ones on his neck were visible, however, faintly scarred dots where he’d been punctured by fangs. It seemed they should only be scabbed rather than scarred already. Maybe vampire bites healed quickly because they came from a vampire.

  “What about you?” He pulled out a chair at the table and sat, running one of his hands over his hair. “Are you doing okay? I heard you were shot.”

  I stuck my leg out and pulled up my jeans to show him the bandage. “Yeah, it’s not so bad, compared to Gavin.”

  Oscar glanced over at Alice. She still hadn’t touched her sandwich.

  “You should eat that,” he told her.

  “I’m not hungry.” She scooted it toward him, and he scooted right back to her.

  “You should eat it,” he told her again. “I’m sure you need to eat something.”

  Without any more argument, she picked up the sandwich and took a bite of it. I ignored the fact he was using his siren stuff on Alice because it was for her good.

  I turned to Luke, deliberately ignoring Drew. “Will you take me to the hospital?”

  Following my lead, Drew ignored me right back by opening the refrigerator and rummaging around inside.

  “Yes, I’ll take you over there.” Luke ate the last bite of his sandwich and stood to put the plate into the sink. “You ready?”

  “Yeah.” I looked at Oscar and Alice. “You guys going to be okay here while I’m gone?”

  Alice stared down at the table, and Oscar nodded.

  “It’s okay. I’m here,” Drew said, but it was more to reassure them because neither of us would have left them alone, anyway.

  I nodded. “All right. Let's go then.”