Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume 1 (34 page)

Just when I think
that this girl could not surprise me more...
His thoughts trailed away as he reached out his
hand to softly stroke Aradia's cheek.

Mr. Dayton cleared his
throat and motioned with his head indicating for Dax to
leave.

Dax hesitated. He took
one last glance at Aradia's unconscious form and brushed her hair
out of her eye, then he slowly rose.

“Will she survive?” he
asked his father as was leaving the room.

His father said, “I
don’t know. I certainly hope so. She has better chances here than
anywhere else. You did well bringing her.”

Dax smiled and left the
room. As he was passing near the front door on his way to the
staircase, the doorbell rang. He opened it and said, “You
rang?”

Roy stood outside
glaring at Dax ruthlessly.

“Where is she?” he
demanded.

“Who?” asked
Dax.

“Don’t give me that! I
know she’s here! I smelled her blood in the woods and
followed!”

Not waiting for a
reply, Roy pushed Dax out of the way and stormed into the
house.

“You can't come in
here!” Dax shouted angrily.

“Sure I can. I don’t
need to be invited in!” Roy gloated.

Roy stormed into the
living room following her scent and saw Aradia sleeping on the
couch, Mr. Dayton hovering over her. He rushed to her side kneeling
like a prince from a fairy tale about to kiss his
princess.

“I’m sorry, father,”
Dax began.

Mr. Dayton shook his
head. “It is fine. What’s your name, boy?”

Roy glared at the elder
vampire. Seeing that he was tending Aradia’s wounds though, and
realizing he was alone in a house full of vampires, he decided to
show some civility. “My name is Reynaldo. I go by Roy.”

“I am Mr. Dayton, Dax’s
father.”

Roy wasn’t quite sure
about the exact relationship. He assumed they’d been a mortal
family which had all been turned about the same time, but he didn’t
really know. He’d always thought the whole Dayton family of
vampires was a strange setup.

He was in their home,
though. “Good to meet you. Sir.”

Dax advanced. He knew
he’d already been dismissed, but with Roy’s appearance,
circumstances had changed.

“I believe she will
recover,” Mr. Dayton said as he continued his work. He cleaned,
applied a balm, and wrapped. Cleaned, applied a balm, and wrapped.
There were many gashes to treat. “The ointment will help. She is a
remarkable being.”

“She is,” said
Dax.

Despite the good
diagnosis, his father’s face remained solemn. Part of him suspected
he’d be better off not knowing, but he couldn't help asking,
“What’s so troubling, Dad?”

His father exhaled and
glanced down at Roy, then shook his head sharply.
Not in front of him
, Dax translated.

“Roy,” Dax said, “do
you, by chance, know the number for Mr. or Mrs.
Preston?”

“No,” Roy said,
realizing Aradia’s parents needed to know what was going on. “No,
but my dad would. They exchanged information a while
back.”

“I suggest you get in
touch with them. Father, would they be welcome?”

Mr. Dayton nodded his
agreement. Roy made the call.

Dax and his father
stepped aside and lowered their voices.

“I got the test results
back from Dr. Krostenial. I know what Aradia is.”

Dax smiled and said,
“That’s wonderful! Isn’t it?”

“It is good that we
know,” his father said nodding, still looking solemn.

“And yet…?” asked
Dax.

“If she is what I think
she is, and I have no reason to doubt it, then by all rights Aradia
should already be dead.”

Chapter
Twenty-Seven

“This Mr. Dayton, he
seems like a good fellow,” Ross said to his unconscious daughter.
He carefully held Aradia’s battered hand while he spoke. “He’s not
a doctor, but he seems to know more about hidden biology than human
doctors would. And I never really liked doctors anyway. What I’m
saying, honey…”

“What your father’s
saying,” Liza took over, “is we love you, and we’re here for you,
and we know you’ll wake up. Please wake up, baby.”

Mr. Dayton had done
everything he could. When the Prestons arrived, he and Dax had left
the room to give the parents some time alone with their daughter.
Roy stayed in the room, but he took a seat out of the way so as not
to intrude upon the Prestons.

Mr. Dayton was
confident she would wake up and have a full recovery, but he
couldn’t say anything with certainty. The Prestons had never seen
Aradia hurt before.

“Liza,” Ross said,
tenderly placing Aradia’s hand back at her side, “I haven’t felt
this way since–”

“Since the adoption,”
she cut him off, finishing his sentence.

He nodded. “That was
the only time I’d ever felt uncertain that we’d be able to take
care of and raise our little girl. Even after the house fire, then
more recently, when she’d sleep for days… that was just part of the
territory, you know?”

“I do,” she
agreed.

“When we finally signed
those papers, that was when I knew for sure that she was our little
girl, and that we could protect her…” He trailed off, remembering
that day which had set all their lives down this path.

“Well now, everything
seems to be in order,” the Social Services worker, an amicable and
slightly overweight older woman by the name of Cheryl, had said
with a flourish of papers. Ross and Liza had both been grinning
from ear to ear, while in the crook of Liza’s arm slept the little
girl they had found in the woods.

“All we need is a
name.”

“A name?” the new
parents had repeated in unison.

“Why yes, a name,”
Cheryl had replied, smiling. Tone changing slightly, she’d said,
“Don't tell me you haven't thought of a name for her?”

“Oh, sure, we have a
whole list,” Ross protested. If ‘sweetheart,’ ‘angel face,’ and
'firecracker’ can be considered names, he thought.

“Well, since you’ve
given it so much thought, how about telling me your favorite so I
can seal the deal?” she had proposed, chuckling at the implication
that adoption was rather a bargain sale than a life-changing
decision.

Ross was struggling for
a stall tactic, when Liza suddenly announced, “Her name is
Aradia.”

“Hmm?” Ross had
replied. Cheryl didn’t say anything, but the way her eyes widened
showed she’d been expecting something more traditional.

“Yes, her name is
Aradia,” Liza had stated firmly.

“Is that one ‘R’ or
two?” came from Cheryl.

“Just one.”

Ross had leaned close
to his wife as the social worker wrote the name down and asked,
“Where did you get that name? Is it from a book or
something?”

“It’s her name,” Liza
had repeated.

“Is that an ‘E-A’ at
the end?”

“‘I-A,’” Liza had
replied without missing a beat.

“I’m fine that it’s her
name, but… why is it her name?” Ross had asked, looking at her with
large curious eyes.

“I just think
it’s…
really
her name, you know?” Liza
had shrugged, uncomfortable under her husband’s scrutiny. In
truth she had felt the same curiosity that he did, but she hadn’t
felt at all comfortable exploring it. Instead she just whispered,
“Remember when I told you to check the axle again?”

He nodded.

“I didn’t know how I
knew to check it again, but I was right. I don't know how I know
now either.”

Their baby opened her
eyes halfway and smiled up at them. “I just know that this little
girl’s name is Aradia.”

Ross hadn’t been quite
satisfied, but he knew when to back off. He never actually did get
much of an explanation. At the time, he’d just smiled and added,
“You were also right about her being special.”

Liza had grinned back,
looking up at her husband, and said, “Yeah.”

Cheryl had cleared her
throat. “And for a middle name?”

“You know,” Ross said
to his wife as he reached out to stroke his poor, injured
daughter’s flame-red hair. It contrasted sharply with the Dayton
manor’s décor, which consisted almost entirely of black, white, and
grey. “You were right about her name.”

“Of course I was,” Liza
replied. “I’m always right. You still haven’t figured that out
yet.”

Ross smiled weakly, but
that smile grew much larger when he saw Aradia’s eyelids
fluttering. It was the first movement they’d seen from her since
their arrival. Noting the commotion, Roy hurried over to their
side.

As Aradia began to
regain consciousness the first thing she noticed was the familiar
scent of a greasy spoon diner and a pine filled forest hovering
about her.

She slowly opened one
eye and murmured, “Hey, Roy-Boy.”

Roy smiled as he
replied, “Hey Rai Rai. How are you feeling?”

“Like I was attacked.”
She had meant it as a joke, but realized maybe it was too soon for
that kind of humor when she saw Roy’s face grow dark.

His skin began to
tighten for a transformation. Aradia grabbed his hand and said,
“No, Roy. Dax did not hurt me. He saved me.”

“I know,” said
Roy.

“You do?” asked
Aradia.

“We do,” Ross Preston
replied.

“Dad!” Aradia said,
realizing her parents were in the room also. She shot bolt upright
then winced in severe pain at the motion.

“Oh, Rai dear,” Liza
said, seeing her daughter hurting. She rushed to inspect her
injuries. “It looks like you didn’t reopen any of your
wounds.”

“Hi, Mom,” Aradia
replied, smiling.

“Hi, honey,” Liza said,
returning the smile.

“But why…” she tried,
“how…”

“I came back,” Dax
answered, seeming to understand the question. He had returned to
the living room immediately when he heard the conversation. “To
apologize. Aradia, I am so sorry. I should have been truthful with
you from the start. When I found the door wide open, I
investigated. Fortunately you had previously invited me in. I found
obvious signs of a struggle. I scented you and a werewolf. I
followed the trail and found you in the woods.”

“You saved my life,”
Aradia replied. “He was going to kill me when you
arrived.”

“Thank you,” Ross said
to Dax.

“It was pretty much the
same story for me,” Roy said. Aradia could tell he was angry Dax
had been the one to save the day, not him. “After we talked, I
thought you might need some company. I came by, followed the scent.
But all I found was a puddle of blood. I lost the scent when it led
back to the road, but I recognized Dax’s odor.”

“Impressive,” Dax said.
“Vampires are nearly impossible to detect.”

“I have a good sense of
smell,” Roy replied. “Anyway, I came here and found
you.”

“And we came straight
away when Roy’s father called us,” Ross said. “He relayed a message
that you’d been hurt and you were here.”

Aradia nodded. It made
sense.

“Okay. So, what do you
know about what happened? Before all that stuff you just told me, I
mean,” Aradia asked, directing the question at the group in
general.

Her father took point.
“It was all over the seven o’clock news. You were right. Dereck
Caradoc, Mr. Stanley’s business partner, is being sought on murder
charges.”

“Really,” Aradia
replied.

“Yeah,” Roy confirmed.
“And I was wrong about Kaiser. He gave the police the hard evidence
they needed.”

Aradia’s interest
piqued. “Oh?”

“Yeah. He confronted
Dereck directly, wearing a wire.”

“No kidding,” Aradia
said. More to herself than anyone, she added, “Not as dumb as he
acts.”

“It wasn’t a real
wire,” Roy clarified. “But he called 911 before barging in on
Dereck. The police heard the conversation. Dereck admitted to both
Vampire Murders. He rambled about some other really crazy stuff.
They’ve only released clips so far, so who knows what else he
said.”

That dialogue sounded
fairly familiar to Aradia. “I have a pretty good idea,” she
replied.

Changing topics, she
said, “So, Dad, you were wrong about Dereck, and I was right. And
Roy, you were wrong about Kaiser, and I was right? More or less
accurate?”

The two guys nodded
bashfully.

“Hmm,” Aradia
replied.
“Weird!”

“
So
Kaiser and Dereck…”
Roy said. “I
take it you had something to do with that?”

Aradia smiled. “I’m
just glad it’s all getting sorted out.”