Into Death's Arms (16 page)

     I found my dad
in the gym
. H
e was going full tilt on the elliptical.
“Hey D
ad
,
”
I greeted him
.

    
He looke
d up and gave me his half smile.
“Hey AoD,” he said with
that proud glint in his eyes.
I went to the window and took a seat in the
windowsill
.
Standing was still a little too much work.
I felt worn out and all I’d done so far was eat like a machine and wander down the hall.
I liked this room. I spent a lot of time in here. It was painted light blue. The floor was
covered with wrestling mats
to keep us from sliding when we practiced. When I was
little,
I would
lie
on that soft carpet and watch my dad workout. It always smelled like my dad.

      “So…” I drew out the word. “When are you leaving for Peru?”  I started to kick my feet.
A sure sign I was nervous.
He would know it too.

      
He stopped dead
.  W
hich is damn difficult when you are on an elliptical.
I was impressed with his leg strength
.
God knows I couldn’t have done it.
“Who said I w
as going to Peru,
” he growled, l
ooking toward the doorway like Deanna was gonna pop out and yell surprise.
She was probably hiding somewhere else in the house right about now.

     I shrugged, w
hich seemed to be a lot of work too.
“I did.
”
I didn’t want to argue with him
,
but I would if I had to. This was important.

     He stepped
off the
machine and toweled off. His hair was still wet
,
but his chest was dry w
hen
he
stepped aggressively in my dir
ection. “Why would you say that?
”
That move
toward
me aggressively
thing stopped
scaring me when I was thirteen
,
and I realized he’d
never actually lay a hand on me. He loved me and he was l
ike three times my size.

    I shrugged again. “Cause you
are.” I was being flippant.
I knew that
,
but it wasn’t often I told my father what to do.  He started to shake his head
no. H
is hair
was
whipping around him
. I interrupted him before he could say anything else. “Dad
,
I saw
those people
. Y
ou can’t just leave them like that.” I let all the
pain I’d seen last night reflect through my eyes.

     “Damn it,” h
e growled. “I can’t leave you right now
. Y
ou’ve just gone through the ritual. You…”

  
I held up my hand in a stopping motion and
interrupted again. I was getting good at that. “Which means for the first time in my life
,
I can take care of myself
and I think you should
go. S
ave those people, save yourself. F
or once in my life
,
think of yourself.” Then I pulled
out the big
guns. “Think of M
om,
” I
whispered
softly
.  His head fell.
I knew I’d won. Of
course,
I’d cheated
,
but I won.

     He nodded. Then a huge smile broke out over his face.
A smile I hadn’t seen since I was very little.
“You’re everything we both ever hoped for.” I felt like crying.  He scooped me into his arms and held me tightly.
God the man was good at crushing a person.
“I’ll go pack.” H
e
put me down
and started to leave
.

  
On his way out the door he
said, “Stay away from Tameron, u
ntil I get back. He is going to be your greatest obstacle.”
You
don’t know the half of it,
I thought. J
ust thinking his name made me think of all that soft black hair sliding along his shoulders.

      “Yes Daddy,
” I answered sarcastically.
I certainly didn’t want him to know I was thinking of taking a bit
e
out of Tameron in a very non-
Vamp
iric way.

     I went back into the kitchen. I wanted an apple or maybe
an apple pie. Hell an apple pie together
with a gallon of icecream,
whipped
cream
and a ham sounded good.
Maybe some cake too
?
  Father
Mike
was still cooking.
Boy,
I loved Father
Mike
!
“Hungry again,
” he asked still wearing that silly grin.

    I nodded vigorously.
“Yeah, I am. Is it normal?”
I was
feeling a little self-conscious.
S
ure,
I’d always had a good appetite
,
but right
now,
I was feeling like I could eat a whole village.

   He
chuckled
softly to himself.
“Very
normal
, you need to fuel the new powers coursing throughout your body.”  My father came out of the garage with a suitcase in tow and headed off toward his room.
Father
Mike
watched him go
. H
is smile slowly slipping away making his face look worn.
“Is Caden taking a trip?” H
e asked me
softly
.
He frown
ed
after my father as if he were his father or something.

   
I nodded at him.
“Yep.
” I popped some grapes into my mouth. “Peru,” I
said as I
chewed
,
feeling rather smug with myself
. I
t hadn’t taken me
too
long to convince him and everyone was acting like it was a major feat or something
. H
ow long had they been after him to go?

   “Really.
” Father
Mike
practically yelled. I cringed away from his loud voice.
The little priest was nearly jumping up and down with excitement. I stepped back a little not wanting to be trampled by the ecstatic geriatric.

    “Yep,” I answered and took the club sandwich he had
made for me. “We got any Pepsi?
” I asked.
I could get used to this. Having someone cook for me non-stop was making me a very happy girl.

     He put one on the table next to me.
“How did you convince him to go?” H
e whispered conspiratorially.
Like I’d tricked him into it somehow using my supe
rior intellect, yeah, umm, yeah. H
ave I mentioned I’ve been in college for three years and have yet to
choose
a
major?
There’s a reason for that.

     I shrugged,
“I said he should go. H
e said no, I said you should
go
. He’s going.”  I took a big bite. “Had to promise to stay away from
Tameron,” I chewed some more. 

     
He laughed,
“That’s good advice about Tameron.”
He was
obviously very happy. So was I. He was pulling something that smelled very
much like pumpkin
out of the oven. Not apple pie but I’d take it. I licked my lips in anticipatio
n, w
hile wondering how long it took a pumpkin pie to cool.

   
My dad and Deanna left a little after five. Once
he
made
up his mind about
something, he
got
it done.
“Stay away from
Tameron,” he demanded again. “Promise me,” h
e
said and
grasped my shoulders hard.

    “I will do my very best
, my
utmost to avoid the big nasty
Vamp
ire
who wants to eat me.” I promised him and I would
,
damn it
…
except in my dreams where he seemed to have a
starring
role lately. A starring nude role, damn
Vamp
ire
, I hated that
.
Except most of the time
I didn’t
.
I was confused and kind of glad my hero was going to be out of my life for a bit while I
sorted my crazy emotions out.

      
He left me a books worth of instructions. What I should do if this or that creepy crawly came calling.
I laughed at him. I kne
w what to do.
Shoot it and run like
hell. Only that was the old me. T
he new me was a fighter
,
so I guess
ed
my new way of de
aling would
be
to
shoot it
a couple of times
,
and
then
lop it’s head off before it could
recover. I know not very
chivalrous of me but chivalry is dead
,
and I didn’t want to join it.

     
Father
Mike
offered to stay on and help me take care of myself
, but
,
I was
twenty years old
, really close to twenty-one
,
and I was an AoD
. I could
take care
of myself
,
so I sent him home too
.
He wasn’t really pleased about it
,
but my big concern was if something icky did come a calling
,
could I protect me and
Mike
?
Not likely, so out he went j
ust to be on the safe side. I didn’t want the sweet old man’s death on my conscious. I had enough to deal with without guilt.
But
I did let him cook me a couple of meals I could nuke later. I
wasn’t crazy
or anything.
The man could
cook.

   
By six, I stood alone in my house for the first time in my life. I had no idea what to do next.

     Laurna called me
around t
wo o’clock. “What are you up to?
” S
he asked
. H
er voice
was
overly cheerful
. But I didn’t question it as
I explained about my dad leaving
. She laughed at me for being so nervous about being alone. Her comment
went something like big tough A
ngel afraid to be by herself.
I stuc
k out my tongue at the phone. I heard her laugh
and hung up.
I put the phone back on the pedestal and looked around the room.

      Okay my fir
st big night at home by myself. W
hat was I going to do
? P
opcorn and channel surfing of course
. T
hat’s what people did when they were all alone
,
right?
Normally I would be in the gym working on my aim or learning to use a sword that was two times my size
,
but
tonight
I was taking a break.
I sat
cross-legged
in the middle of the big l
eather couch. The bowl of popcor
n sat precariously in my lap
while
I flipped channels.

  
I rolled my eyes at the newest
Vamp
film and settled on
UFC,
pro-wrestling for
a while
.
After a bit,
watching half
naked
men beat each other got boring
,
so I started flipping again.