by CJ Flynn
“I don’t care.”
He nodded. “I promise. I will find you.”
I kissed him again, not knowing when he would find me, or how. I pulled back and stepped away from him. I made eye contact with Ben for the first time; he was staring right at me with a sadness in his eyes that betrayed the stony look on his face. I didn’t know what to say, or even when I could say it. Now wasn’t the time for any conversation.
I turned back to Daniel and tried to smile. I knew he was making the right choice for him, for everyone really. My actions had bought us time, but not any real safety. “Just promise me one more thing?”
“What?”
“Stay out of the basement.” I gestured to Ben. “We set some mine traps. Just some claymores. But stay out of the basement.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I will stay out of the basement, then.”
I did a quick scan of the area. No vampires outside, but there still appeared to be two lingering in the basement. I pushed at Daniel’s shoulder. “Get out of here. Before the two idiots in the basement kill us all.”
Ben and I barely made it to the SUV before we heard the explosion from the lab. He scrambled into the light-proof cargo hold as I slammed my foot on the gas, peeling away from the estate as I saw the first lick of flames in the lower windows.
I drove as fast as I could manage. My arm seared with pain as I tried to maneuver using only my left arm. The magic Ernie had given me had kept some of the pain at bay for awhile, but the further we got from the mansion, the more intense the burning in my arm. I couldn’t look in my rearview mirror; I only hoped that the fire burned the mansion and everything in it to the ground, and then spread to my little cottage in the woods. If the world was covered in the ash of that place, maybe I could finally forgive myself for not seeing sooner what monsters they really were.
Finally, when I hoped we were far enough away, I pulled over and fished around my backpack for a hoodie I had buried in there. My right arm seared as I fashioned a makeshift sling for it. Once it was secure, the pain dulled a bit. I popped two over-the-counter pain killers into my mouth and swallowed, hoping a mix of adrenaline, magic, and sheer willpower would carry me to the safe house.
* * *
We drove west, not stopping for more than gas and food until I found the little cabin Ernie had told me about, hidden deep in the mountain forest of Pennsylvania. It would have been the first stop on our trip to regroup out in Montana, and it was secluded and nearly impossible to find, just as he’d promised. I drove past the cabin, steering the SUV off the scant road and into brush that didn’t even phase it. I didn't let Ben out of the cargo area until I had parked a half-mile away.
He glared at me as he slid out of the truck. “Was that really necessary? To keep me locked in there?”
I shrugged. “I couldn't take the risk of letting you out without knowing if I'd have a safe place for you to get back in before sunrise. It doesn't matter now. We're here, and we need to get to the cabin.”
He looked around. “The cabin? Where are we now?”
“About half a mile away.”
I felt numb as we started the walk through the woods. I was exhausted, hungry, and the pain that I had ignored in my right arm for the first ten hours of the trip had flared to the point that I was fighting to keep conscious.
“Allie?”
I stumbled over a root sticking up in the middle of the path, and Ben reached out to catch me. My vision tunneled as he scooped me into his arms.
“We need to get you to a hospital.”
* * *
The sunlight streaming through blinds felt warm, even through the sheets and blanket of the hospital bed. I heard a soft beep from one of the monitors and the plasticky squeak of a chair as I opened my eyes.
“Allie. You're awake.” The voice of my stepmother wound its way through the fog in my head.
“Anita?”
I felt her hands on mine and struggled to focus on her. Her blonde hair looked golden in the warm sun, and she gave me a million-dollar grin that warmed every fiber in my body.
“I'm so glad you're awake,” she said, her voice quiet and relieved. “The nurse told me you were unconscious in a wheel chair when they found you in the waiting room, and that someone had left your name and my information on a piece of paper in one of your pockets. The doctors had you so doped up for the surgery I wasn't sure you'd actually wake up.”
I tried to follow her words and keep my eyes open at the same time, but it wasn't exactly working for me. I gave up on my eyes and let the darkness in again. “Surgery?”
“To fix that arm. You're going to need to make something up to tell them what happened. Or maybe just pretend you don't remember.”
Tears welled up in my eyes at her words. I would give anything not to remember what had happened in the last few days. Hearing her voice now only reminded me that I'd been so close to reuniting her with my father, and had failed. I didn't know how I could even tell her what had happened.
“I wish I didn't remember,” I said, reaching up my good hand to wipe the tears from my face. I forced my eyes open again, and was rewarded by her face, marred with tears and worry.
“You're safe now, Allie. I'm here with you.”
I believed her.
I heard the door to my room open and I turned to look, unsure of who would be showing up. Laura, looking a bit fuller and a lot more glowing than the last time I'd seen her, stood in the doorway. She wore a purple maternity shirt and a smile that brought light back to my chest.
“You have no idea how glad I am you're here,” I managed to whisper, my voice going hoarse as the tears started down my cheeks.
She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around me. “Of course I know. When Anita called to tell me what had happened, I got the first plane out that I could. This baby has me running for the bathroom every time I so much as look at a cup of coffee. It's made the whole bedside vigil thing really hard.”
I laughed into her shoulder, ignoring the pain it sent through my body. The pain didn't matter now.
* * *
When I awoke again several hours later, the sun was gone, but Laura was not. She leaned forward in her chair as soon as she saw I was awake.
“Anita's gone back to the hotel to get some rest. We're taking shifts.” She reached over me and fussed with the hospital blanket. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” I said, realizing it wasn't nearly as hard to focus as it had been.
“They changed out your IV, gave you some medicine that wouldn't make you so groggy.”
I nodded as if I knew what she was talking about. “I'm sure whatever they think is fine. I don't think I have the energy to fight with them even if it isn't.”
Laura smiled. “I'm sure that's not true. You're the fightingest girl I know.”
“I'm not sure I have any left in me.”
“Then maybe it's time to walk away from all this,” Laura said. “You're here in a hospital in rural Pennsylvania, after you've spent the last months doing god knows what. It's time for a break. A very, very long break.”
“What do you suggest?”
She smiled again. “I took a job in California. Near San Diego. I'm moving there next month, and I'm raising this baby in the sunniest place in the US. I think you should come with me.”
I tried to return the smile, but my mind immediately started spitting out reasons I couldn't join her. “I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do.”
Laura patted my hand. “You have some time to think about it. Anita should be here soon and I should let you rest. Before I come back in the morning, I'm going to try to find you some real clothes. Some stuff with bright colors and patterns.”
“Not patterns.”
“All the patterns.”
* * *
I dozed off again and when I finally awoke, dawn was just spilling through the tall windows of my room, highlighting the small figure of my stepmother curled in a chair. She was turned away fr
om me and looked smaller than I remembered. Guilt washed over me as I remembered the story I needed to tell her.
“Anita? Are you awake?”
She startled and turned to look at me. Her eyes were glazed over, but she didn't really look like she'd been sleeping. “I'm here. I'm awake. Do you need something?”
I shook my head. “No, I'm okay. But there's something I need to tell you.” I knew I needed to get it over with. My own grief was still raw, and I couldn't decide if it would help to share it. But I also knew it wasn't my place to keep the truth from her any longer.
“What is it?”
“My father. He was still alive.”
Anita's eyebrows knit in confusion. “I'm not sure what you're saying.”
“He wasn't dead. He didn't die in a boating accident. He's been hiding all this time, working in secret with a witch disguised as a human to take down the vampires.”
“He's alive? Where is he now?” Her voice was no longer so quiet or relieved as it had been earlier.
“He died the night we fled. Sorrell killed him. Or had him killed. I don't know.” I closed my eyes against the horrible image of him lying next to Ernie in a pool of their own blood. Sorrell's vampires were monsters, and what they had done to my father and Ernie would be burned forever into my mind.
“I don't know how this is possible. Why would he hide from me?”
I took a deep breath. “Because that's what he was really good at. You have to know that about him.”
The room was silent for several minutes before Anita finally reached out and gave my good hand a squeeze. “You're definitely right about that. Let me get you a drink and maybe something to eat if they'll let you. Then you can tell me the whole story.”
Chapter 39
It was more than a week before the hospital released me, and Anita had everything planned out the morning of my release.
“I've rented a car, and we're going to California. I've been looking for an excuse to head west and I think this is it.”
“But your house—”
Anita shrugged. “Nothing that can't be handled from sunny San Diego. I know Laura is moving out there soon, and I know you need to see the sun, Allie. It's time to put the darkness behind us, and see if we can't put this little family back together.”
“I can't move to San Diego. I don't have any money.”
“We'll work it out when we get there. Money doesn't matter.”
I was already too tired to argue. My mind wandered the entire trip, to Ben, to Daniel. I hadn't heard from them, didn't know if they were safe. I felt lost without either of them, or without Laura at my side. Anita was amazing, but in the grand scheme of things, I barely knew her. I needed the family I already had.
“I can't go to San Diego, not yet. There's something I need to do before we go. Someone I need to talk to.”
“What do we need to do? Can I help?”
I nodded. “Take me back to Florida. I need to find someone there.”
* * *
It took me longer than I expected to find Charlie Haden. I called in a little help from Sloane and Olivia and learned that she was living in Miami under the name Charlie Wilds, and cutting hair at a place called Beauty and the Butch.
The trip to Panama City was an entire day by the time I'd navigated airports and hired a car to take me to my destination in Miami. I had left Anita behind to pack her things. She had promised to be ready the next day. We were sending her stuff on a truck to San Diego and she had promised to take me to New York before we went west.
Beauty and the Butch was the kind of hair salon I would have adored during the last wild days of my senior year of college. The music was loud and booming, some kind of electronica that shook the very floor. Every stylist in the place was sporting a different hair color, and had tattoos so varied they looked like walking portfolios.
It took me a few minutes to place Charlie from her pictures. She was standing behind the third chair, with purple streaks in her dark red tresses, and wearing a tight black tank top, a black mini-skirt and bright green Doc Martens. Her client was a middle-aged woman sporting a severe bob cut hiding a rainbow of purple and teal hair underneath. Charlie seemed to be finishing up her work.
I waited and watched, letting my vision slip to see if she had any of her father's gifts. She seemed to be just a normal human.
After her client had paid, I stepped forward, hoping I wouldn't interrupt her schedule too much.
“Excuse me? Are you Charlie Haden?”
She spun around, her green eyes glowing in anger. “Who's asking? I gave up that name a long time ago.”
I held out my hand to shake hers, hoping I was concealing the little moss-colored bag Ernie had given me. “I brought you something, and I need to speak with you for a few minutes.”
She reached out her hand and her eyes widened as her fingers grazed the bag. Her hand dropped away and she didn't take it from me. “Whatever it is, I don't want it.”
“Please. You have to take it. Your father gave it to me, to give to you. It's basically the only unfinished business I have.”
Her shoulders drooped. “We should probably step around back then.”
Once we were outside, I held out the bag. “You have to take it. I wanted to find another way to do this, but I just don't know how. Your father is dead. If you want the details, I'm happy to give them to you, but you need to understand he made me promise to deliver this to you.”
Finally, she took the bag and opened it. She pulled out a wooden ring that seemed dull in the bright sunlight, small and insignificant.
A small smile played on her lips. “I remember he wore this when I was little. But after what happened with my mom, he stopped.” She slid the ring over her right forefinger.
After a few moments, I felt the bright white magic Ernie had given me flow away from me. I tried to shift my vision, to see if I could trace its path, but nothing happened. The magic was gone.
I shifted my vision to Charlie and frowned. She had no aura—there was nothing different about her at all.
“Is that all?” she asked, her voice impatient.
I nodded. “I guess so.”
She stared down at it. “Do you know what it’s for?”
“I thought I did. But I guess I was wrong.”
“Why did he send it? Do you know?”
I frowned. I knew she must have countless other questions for me, and I wasn’t sure how many I could really answer. “It’s sort of a long story. Did you know about your father? Did you know what he really was?”
“You mean, other than a cranky witch with nothing in his life but a crappy bar and an even crappier car?”
I stared, my heart sad for what she must of thought of her father. I remembered that feeling upon first learning the truth about my father, how much I had wished for someone to help me navigate the new world I found myself in.
“Listen, do you have time to get coffee or something? There’s a lot to explain.”
Charlie nodded. “I can do that. There’s a coffee shop around the corner that has a double-shot happy hour from five to seven.”
“Good. I think we’re going to need the caffeine anyway.”
* * *
Anita met me at baggage claim in Panama City later that night with worry in her eyes. She gave me a quick hug.
“I have some bad news,” she said.
My heart sank. I was content to leave Charlie’s mystery behind — I just wanted to finish the items on my to-do list and get on with my life in a new place. Anita’s face had me doubting that might happen. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s some sort of issue with the title for the condo. Edward’s name is still on it, and it’s going to take a few days to get the legal stuff straightened out. I can’t leave until it’s settled.”
I shook my head and smiled. “You really had me worried for a minute there. I can go ahead without you, and you can come up to New York when you’re ready.”
“I’m not sur
e that’s a great idea. You can’t defend yourself at all.”
I nodded my head. “I really don’t think there’s any immediate danger in New York right now. It’s only for a few days, and Laura will still be around.”
Anita looked doubtful. “I’m not comfortable with this.”
“It’ll be fine. Really.” I knew she was right about being unable to defend myself, but I wasn’t expecting trouble. My tracing ability was fully back to normal without Ernie’s magical burden. It would give me some warning, and for now, that would have to be enough.