“Come in,” I called.
He let himself in and right away handed me a bottle. “This will help your ankle.” I mumbled thanks and said goodnight.
I lasted only hour. I couldn’t take all of Josie’s hitting and kicking. Normally she wasn’t this bad, but I guess being in a strange place made her restless. I sat up and looked around the room. There was a small bench seat slash sofa over by the window. I grabbed a pillow, a blanket, and made myself comfortable.
The sun was gleaming brightly through the shades very early in the morning. Way too early for me, so I pulled the covers up over my head to block out the light. I felt someone kick the sofa. I grumbled to myself and they kicked it again. “What?” I said annoyed. No one answered. Instead they just kicked the bench so hard I fell off and got tangled up in the blanket.
I pulled the blanket off and looked up at the culprit. It was Deirdre. She was standing above me with her arms crossed. “You come with me,” she said.
“Where are we going?” I asked, trying to keep my anger in check.
“Since you admire my garden so much I thought you should know what it’s like to keep up with it.”
“I don’t really like it that much,” I mumbled.
She just smiled at me wickedly. “Hurry up, it’s late,” she said, walking out. I looked over at the clock. It was six a.m. – seriously, this woman was working on my last nerve. If they weren’t so gracious to have let five complete strangers stay at their house no questions asked, I would have laughed in her face and went back to sleep, but she was Tristan’s grandmother.
I reluctantly got up and went outside. There were about ten twenty pound bags of soil sitting by the back porch. Along with shovels, gardening tools, and what not.
She pointed to the bags and told me to carry them down to the end of the garden lining them up along the way. I hadn’t realized how large the garden was at first. From where I was standing it looked like a half a mile long. I stood there not sure until Deirdre started nudging me in the direction of the soil. “Okay, okay,” I said.
I spent the next hour trudging bags of soil up and down the garden. Then she handed me some tools and told me to start digging. I took off the first layer of my shirt leaving me in my tank top. It was hot and I was sweating like a pig. I pulled my hair back and wiped the sweat from my brow. Half way through digging and pulling weeds, Deirdre got up and headed back inside. “Are we done?” I asked. She ignored me and kept walking.
Ten minutes later she came back out with a fresh glass of lemonade. I was about to thank her until she threw a bottle of water at me and told me to keep working. Then she lectured me on the horrible job I was doing and told me I was slacking. Then proceeded to go sit down in the shade and sip her lemonade. It took everything I had not to throw something at her. I kept reminding myself that she was an elderly woman and it wouldn’t be a fair fight. I just glared at her from over my shoulder and she just sat there smiling.
I never thought I would get finished. Thankfully Josef came out and offered to help me. We spent the next two hours working in the garden while Deirdre watched. Turns out, Josef is quite the talker. He had a lot of similarities to Tristan. Same dark hair, same physique, the only difference in their appearance was that Josef’s eyes were light blue unlike Tristan’s which were dark blue, and two totally different personalities. Josef was very sweet and very mature for his age and you could tell he was brought up right and knew how to respect others as oppose to Tristan’s spoiled and carefree nature.
“Breakfast is done!” Josie called.
“Oh thank god. I’m starving,” I complained.
“Well come on then,” Josef said, offering me a hand. I wiped all the dirt off on my jeans and headed into the kitchen. I took a seat at the table where the girls had made a wonderful breakfast.
“You, up,” Deirdre pointed at me. “You will not sit at my table covered in dirt. You clean up before you eat.” She pulled my chair from the table with me still in it and waited until I got up. I stared at her and she stood there with her arms crossed. I sighed and got up to go clean up, but not before stealing some bacon off the table when she wasn’t looking.
I did feel better after I showered. It was good to get all that dirt and sweat off. By the time I was done, everyone had finished eating and was already cleaning up. “Don’t worry I saved you a plate,” Josef said.
Just as I sat down to eat Deirdre turned to look at me. “What? I showered?”
“You took too long breakfast is over,” she said, taking my plate. I was able to shovel some eggs in my mouth and swipe a piece of toast before she took it. “Now you clean.”
“I didn’t even get to eat?”
“Not my fault you dilly dawdled.”
“Thank you Deirdre. That was a wonderful breakfast,” Dean said, rubbing his stomach, indicating he was full.
“You’re welcome Dean. You go on into the living room. Ella has a lot of cleaning up to do.”
I scowled at both of them. Why was she being so sweet to Dean and treating me like her maid? “What can I say? It must be my charming personality,” Dean said in my head. I looked at him surprised. “Ella, you’re my sister, I know you. I don’t have to read your mind to know what you’re thinking.”
I wished sometimes he could read my mind so he’d know how much of an ass he could be and how I wanted to punch him in the face. He just smiled as if he knew and walked away.
Josef was nice enough to help me with the dishes. If it wasn’t for him I probably would have knocked his grandmother out by now. I know, why put up with it? Because this was Tristan’s grandmother and he cared for her deeply and they were nice enough to let us stay the night. “So, how long do plan on staying here?” Josef asked.
“In Ireland?”
“Ireland, the house,” he threw in casually.
“I don’t think my body could take another day like this,” I joked. “I think once we know my father is off our trail we’ll head back to a hotel.” There was a slight disappointed look on his face. “As far as how long I’ll be in Ireland? I’m not sure, a week, two, who knows?” He perked up knowing I’d be around for a little while at least.
When we finished the dishes we headed into the living room to relax. I heard a familiar voice and I froze. I was half tempted to run, but I knew I’d have to face him sooner or later. “What are you doing here?” I asked stunned.
“I should ask you the same thing,” my father said, scrutinizing me with his eyes.
“How did you even find me?” I narrowed my eyes at Dean thinking he wasn’t on my side after all.
“I had nothing to do with this,” Dean projected in my head.
“You think you can go anywhere and I not find out?” my dad laughed. “The question isn’t how I found you. It’s why I had to come here in the first place. You have any idea what you have done?”
I was about to plead my case when my dad’s eyes went wide and his skin turned paler than normal. “Hey Ella have you seen –” Josie began when she came out of the bedroom. She paused when she saw my father. “Um…hi Mr. McCallister,” Josie said sweetly.
“How, how is this possible? How…I was there…I…” I never saw my dad stumble over his words so badly.
I knew Josie loved the surprised reactions on people’s faces when they saw her for the first time. She smiled and said, “Long story short, I’m an angel.”
“Fallen?” my dad asked confused.
“Gee whiz, why does everyone say that? I didn’t think I was that bad when I –”
“Josie, technically you are…what did you say…grounded?”
“That’s beside the point and if I remember correctly it was to save your butt.”
“Enough,” my dad interrupted. “Do your parents know?”
“No and I’d like to keep it that way. At least until I know for sure what is going to happen to me?”
“Understood,” he nodded respectfully at Josie. “Now if you’ll excuse me I would like to talk to my
son and daughter…alone.”
“Yes sire,” Caleb said, giving my dad a slight bow. I looked him thinking why in the hell is bowing and why did he call him sire? “Are you sure there’s nothing I can get you?”
“No, thank you. Just a few moments alone with my son and daughter, if you don’t mind?”
“Of course,” Caleb said, bowing again, and walking backwards out of the room. I looked at Josef and he just shrugged his shoulders following him out of the room.
Deirdre gave me a smartass look as if my displeasure pleased her. I glared at her as she walked out of the room followed by Cameron and Billy. I whispered to Josie on the way out. “If you don’t hear from me in twenty minutes call the cops.”
“Ella, he’s not that bad,” she said, looking over her shoulder, and then turned quickly back to me. “On second thought, it was nice knowing ya.” I glared as she joined everyone else on the back deck to give us privacy.
My dad didn’t hesitate to start screaming at me. “What the hell would possess you to drop out of school and fly to Ireland? We had a deal Ella and now you have broken that deal.”
“No, I haven’t,” I said calmly. “I did not drop out. I just…took a mini vacation if that’s what you want to call it.”
“I’m not in the mood for your smartass comments,” he warned.
“Look dad,” I began, taking a breath so I wouldn’t let my anger get the best of me. “I’m an adult now. You can’t control me anymore.”
“Then start acting like one!” he yelled, making me flinch. That vein in his neck started to bulge like it normally does. “You have any idea what you have done? The reason I had to come out here in the first place?”
“What are you talking about?” I scowled.
“Your actions have consequences Ella. That little stunt you pulled at the club has caused a lot of problems.”
“How do you even know about that?”
“One of the councilmen’s daughters was at that club that night. She said some very powerful witch took out twenty men with a single flick of her wrist.”
Shows what she knows. I’m a wanderer not a witch. “Obviously it wasn’t me. She said it was a witch.”
“Nice try. Any of our kind knows that there is no witch that has that kind of power at such a young age.”
“Still that could have been anybody. That doesn’t mean it was me.”
“She also said the girl had long, black hair with blue streaks and tattoos.”
Crap.
“Well maybe if you haven’t sent your henchman after me none of this would have happened. And he’s a tip, if you want to be a little less conspicuous maybe they shouldn’t have all shown up in black trench coats.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose indicating he was trying hard not to flip. “Ella, do you realize you put several of those men in the hospital?” I smiled smugly, causing him to glare at me. “Ella, this is serious.”
“What did you expect me to do?” I yelled frustrated. “I felt threatened. If someone attacks me I’m going to fight back and how was I supposed to know they worked for you? They could have been sent by anyone. They could have been working for Jack for all I knew.”
“You can’t just take off in the middle of the night and fly halfway across the country! You have idea what could happen to you? Ella, you don’t get it. There are so many more reasons why we were so protective of you. We knew you were going to be powerful, but we had no idea you would be this powerful and this is just the start. Your powers aren’t even fully developed yet.”
“Well than what’s the problem? If I’m as powerful as you say I am then I should have no difficulty defending myself.”
“Because it makes you a constant target,” he sighed, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Ella, why do you think I stressed you going to Hamilton Hill. It was because there I knew you could learn how to defend yourself only if you needed to. To learn about our kind and keep you safe.”
“A lot of good that did,” I spat.
“I know and I’m sorry. As soon as we heard we hopped on the next flight out. We thought the school was protected, but we were wrong.” I knew this was killing him. This meant that he failed and my father was not one to accept defeat.
“Look dad, I understand you wanting to protect me, but I’m not a child. You can’t keep me locked away.” I watched his expression. I didn’t have to hear his thoughts to know he was thinking locking me away might not be a bad idea. “Okay seriously, I’m not dropping out of school and locking me away is not going to solve your problems,” I scowled, letting him know I knew where his mind was going.
His face softened slightly. “Ella, I understand your need to get away after what happened. So I’m not going back on our deal. Your mom is currently at the school guaranteeing your spot back at school with few repercussions. As for your friends, they’re on their own. Now, I will wait for you and Dean while you pack your things and we can discuss this mess you caused and everything else.”
“Dad, I’m not leaving. You don’t get it. I didn’t leave because I needed to get away. I left because I came to find Tristan.”
“Ella,” he said softly, looking almost sad. “Tristan is dead.”
“No. He’s not. He’s here in Ireland.”
“Where?” he asked, testing me.
“I haven’t found him yet, but I’m not leaving until I do,” I said, putting my foot down.
He rubbed his forehead frustrated. “I’m not going to let you waste your time looking for some boy. You are coming back to the states with me. End of discussion.”
“No I am not. How many times do I have to tell you I am an adult? I make my own decisions. “
“Yes and every decision you have made lately has been a bad one. Now is not the time to be running around a foreign country on a hunch when you have a rogue vampire after you.”
“I already proved I can handle Jack,” I said, holding my head high.
I could see he was holding back, trying to control his anger. “What exactly happened?” he asked, needing to know. He crossed his arms and rested his chin on his hand. This was his ‘I’m concentrating’ face or what I like to call his ‘I dare you to lie to me because I’m already coming up with a punishment’ face.
“Dad, I really don’t want to get into this now.” His expression let me know that now was my only option. I let out a breath and told him. “Jack collected an army and attacked the school. I went after him and he attacked my friends. In order to keep him from killing Riley I told him he could have me instead.” He sucked in a breath not believing how I could make such a – according to him – stupid decision. “I thought I could take him out before he…” I paused, knowing what I said next would kill him. So I thought better of it and skipped over a few parts. “Doesn’t matter. I’m here and I survived proving Jack cannot get me.”
He eyed me for a moment before he turned around to make a phone call. He whispered so softly I couldn’t hear anything he was saying. He glanced at me from over his shoulder, made an uh-hum noise, and then he narrowed his eyes at me before he turned back around to finish his conversation. He hung up the phone and turned around to face me. “While I don’t agree with your ambush tactics, you somehow managed to succeed in your plan.” I smiled proud of myself. “I won’t tell you how stupid you were,” my smile faded. “But I will let this slide…for the meantime.” That meant he just needed more time to think of the right punishment. “Now, will you come to your senses and pack your things.”
“No! You just don’t get it, do you?”
“I will not let you screw up your life.”
“If I chose to screw up my life than that’s my choice. I know I’m not perfect and I may not make the best decisions, but good or bad they’re my choices to make.”
“Ella, I don’t have time for your childish dribble.”
I laughed harshly. Clearly no matter what I said he wasn’t going to listen to me. “Just leave.”
“Excuse me?”
; “You heard me. It doesn’t matter what I say. You’re not going to listen to me and I’m tired of living by your rule.” I crossed my arms and dared him to challenge me. I knew what was coming next would be ugly, but I was prepared for it.
“Ella, do not defy me,” he growled. “If you don’t come back with me than don’t bother coming back at all.”
His words hurt, but I refused to let it show. “For someone who claims they spent their life protecting me, you’re pretty quick to throw me aside.”
“That’s not true and you know it. Do not twist my words around.”
“Twist your words? Are you kidding right now? You just said if I do not leave with you then don’t bother coming back. You couldn’t have made it any clearer so thanks for that dad. Heard you loud and clear the first time.”
“Why do you have to be so tiresome and argue with me all the time?” he threw his hands up in the air. “This behavior of yours has got to stop. I cannot allow it to go on any longer.”
“Sorry I’m such a burden and cause trouble in your perfect little existence.” I stared him down and looked him straight in the eye.
“Ella, you don’t just cause trouble you go looking for it. You know how poorly that makes us look?”
“Well I guess you just got your wish then because I no longer want to be part of a family who only cares about how I make them look.”
He looked at me, surprised by my reaction. “You don’t mean that.”
“Yes I do. I’m tired of pretending to be something I’m not. I’m not the perfect daughter who obeys and beckons to your every need. I’m not going to be bullied by you anymore. I’m done being controlled by you and if don’t like it then you can leave.” I pointed to the door, proving I was serious.
He stood there silently for a moment then he looked at Dean who I forgot was even there. He hadn’t said a word the entire time. “Dad, I’m sorry, but I’m staying with Ella.” He took a stand beside me. “And if that means I’m out too, well then, I’m out.” I took his hand and silently thanked him.
Our dad stood there shocked. Then he left without another word.
Unforgiven (Wanderers #3) Page 5
