Bait

by Kasi Blake

  A week of dirty looks, whispered accusations, and open hostility followed Nick’s funeral. Even students who hadn’t liked Nick seemed angry with her for ‘killing’ him. They also blamed her for their favorite teacher disappearing. No one except for Van believed her about Maxx being behind the wraiths. The students wanted to blame poor Gavin instead. Maybe the thought of the danger being over and the bad guy being dead helped them sleep at night.

  Running away wasn’t her style, but there was nothing left at the school for her, no reason to stay.

  Mind made up, Bay-Lee went to Van’s office for a final visit. The last time she’d seen him it had been to warn him about Maxx. Since then he’d been busy trying to track the psychotic reaper without any luck. Van expected her to return to her education as if nothing had happened. She’d tried. But now she knew it wasn’t possible. Nick was gone, and her thirst for revenge had died with him.

  She marched into Van’s private domain without an appointment. Although she’d considered knocking just to be polite, she hadn’t done it because she needed the element of surprise. Shaking from head to toe, her nerves a tangled mess, she burst into his office. Van glanced up, eyes widening behind the glasses. Instead of sitting in one of the provided chairs she stood directly in front of his desk. “You’ve been avoiding me,” she said.

  “No, I haven’t.” The response was quick but lacked sincerity.

  “There’s something I need to say.”

  “Obviously.”

  She toured the room at a leisurely pace. Unable to meet his gaze, she feigned interest in the stuff on his wall while silently rehearsing what she was going to say. Three diplomas from three different schools hung over a short bookshelf. A portrait of the original Van Helsing and a framed letter from an important diplomat were also nailed to the wall. For a moment she forgot she was only pretending to be interested.

  Van sighed loud enough to grab her attention. “What is on your mind?”

  “I’m leaving,” she said. “After everything that’s happened revenge doesn’t seem important anymore.” She twisted her fingers until they hurt. “It won’t bring my mom back… or Nick. Nothing will. So I appreciate everything you’ve done for me…”

  “But...”

  “I’ve decided I don’t want to be a hunter.” Raw emotion threatened to choke her. She paused long enough to get a grip on those negative feelings. Her hands trembled. She shoved them into her pockets to keep him from noticing. “This world, your world has stolen too much from me already. I’m not going to let it take my life.”

  “Where will you go?” Van slowly rose to his feet. “What will you do?”

  “I called Connor yesterday, and he’s on his way here. We’re going somewhere new to start over.” Her voice cracked. “I just want to have a normal life. No hunting. No monsters. No more fighting.”

  Van rounded the desk to stand in front of her. He removed his glasses with one hand and the square of linen from his breast pocket with the other hand. While cleaning his glasses he said, “You need to get away for a while, I agree. A few weeks perhaps and then I want you to return to your training.”

  “You aren’t listening to me. I am not coming back.”

  “You say that now because you’re upset.” He returned the glasses to his face. “Give it a few weeks and you’ll feel differently.”

  “No, I won’t.” Bay-Lee took a deep, shaky breath. “This isn’t just about Nick. This is about the life I want for myself, a normal life.”

  “I’m sorry, little one, but some of us are born to this. It’s in our blood. We can’t run from it, can’t hide from it.” He paused as he walked around the room, hands clasped behind his back. “I also wanted a normal life when I was growing up. Did I ever tell you that? I went against my family and chose a different career path. They tried to warn me the choice was not mine, but I refused to listen. It was a nightmare. The monsters found me and… eventually I returned to my destiny.”

  She got the feeling someone had died because of Van’s reluctance to hunt. Had his need for a normal life robbed someone of theirs?

  Frustrated, Bay-Lee stated, “It isn’t my destiny. I trained like a Van Helsing and let people think I was a Van Helsing, but I’m not. This is it, the last time you’ll ever see me. I don’t want to talk to you again. I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I can’t have anything to do with this school, with you, or with hunting. I’m done. Please respect my decision.”

  Bay-Lee headed for the door.

  Unmoved by her vehemence, Van spoke in a distant tone. “Please stay.” It drew her gaze back to him. When she turned, she found him sitting on a short stool used to reach the higher shelves. Knees drawn up to his chest and a lost expression on his face, he looked like a broken man. Her heart softened. Against her better judgment she took in his every word instead of walking out the door.

  “When I took Nick into my home, I made it seem as if I was doing it out of duty like when a carefree bachelor reluctantly takes in his newly orphaned nieces and nephews. The truth is I loved having a child under my roof.”

  Curiosity drew her closer. “What was he like back then?”

  “Nick? He was... devastated when he first came to live with me. His parents had abandoned him. One day he was a boy with a family, a dog, and a nice house. The next, he’s living in a castle with a semi-retired hunter. His fury was understandable.

  “He was the closest thing to a son I would ever have, so I began to teach him. Weapons, hand-to-hand, even mediation, he learned them all from me. Instead of trying to cool his anger, I focused it in another direction.”

  “Are you telling me hunting saved him?”

  Van shook his head. His eyes glistened suspiciously as if he was on the verge of crying. “Not hunting, no. It was music that saved him. Did you know the band was my idea? I paid for the piano lessons, but Nick was already playing guitar by then. You should have seen him. His face lit up and he was in another world every time he touched an instrument. When Mike moved in and they started jamming—isn’t that the term?—it gave me the idea they should put together a band.”

  The truth hit Bay-Lee hard, and the floor seemed to disappear beneath her feet. She wasn’t the only one who’d lost Nick. Van loved him like a son. Guilt piled another brick on her head. She’d killed Nick, but she still saw him. It wasn’t her suffering. Maybe she should tell Van about Nick’s ghost.

  “And I took it away from him.” Van’s shoulders slumped. “It was my decision to fake Tyler’s death. I thought I was doing it to protect our secret, but perhaps Nick was right when he said I was doing it to punish him. He’d disobeyed a direct order. It never should have happened. Nick wasn’t supposed to go to that party and most certainly not alone. It was a trap. He nearly exposed our secret to the world, so I took his life from him.”

  Van’s guilt outweighed hers by a hundred pounds. Her inner voice told her to stay with him, volunteer to give up what she wanted in order to make his life easier. The problem was she couldn’t stand another moment in the school hallways, listening to the whispers. Most of the students had hated her before. Now they all did... with the exception of Keisha.

  “Nick isn’t dead because you killed Tyler Beck.” She forced the words past numb lips. “It isn’t your fault.”

  Van pushed to his feet and forced a smile. “It isn’t your fault either.”

  “I was driving.”

  “Doesn’t matter. The wraith killed him, not you. Promise me no matter where you go in this world you will remember that.”

  She desperately wanted him to hug her. She wanted to feel Nick’s strong arms around her, but that was impossible, so she hoped for the next best thing. Her relationship with Van was not demonstrative in any way. They’d both shied away from physical contact over the years. Now she needed it and she was sure he did too. Taking a leap of faith, she stepped closer
to him. A tear slid down her cheek. His tie blurred. Her insecurities threatened to splinter her heart into tiny pieces. A father might comfort his daughter with a hug, but this was not her father. What if he rejected her?

  Bay-Lee took another step closer and leaned against him. Her shaking hands rested against his chest. She hiccupped. Waiting for him to embrace her or deny her trapped the breath in her lungs.

  Van did not hesitate. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. His shoulders shook. It took a moment for her to realize he was sobbing, releasing decades of pent-up emotion. For the first time in years she cried without embarrassment. Deep in her heart she wished for something she didn’t dare voice aloud. She wished for the impossible.

  She wished for a real father.

  Emotional pain cut deep and the urge to run away grew in intensity until she couldn’t deny it. After shoving him away, she raced for the door, but Van had one more bomb to drop on her. He made his confession as her hand wrapped around the doorknob. “You are my daughter,” he blurted out.

  Her stomach dropped to her feet, and for a second she thought she might actually faint. Van rushed into an explanation, something about marrying her mom and werewolves in the nursery. It was impossible to focus on his words. The betrayal rocked her foundation until there wasn’t anything tangible left for her to stand on. This man, her father had treated her like a stranger her whole life. He was the reason she’d been on the run, hiding from monsters, the reason her mom had died, and maybe even the reason Nick had died.

  “Bay-Lee, please look at me.” When she remained frozen in the open doorway, he said, “I wanted to tell you the truth, but the timing never seemed right. If you don’t believe anything else I say, please believe I have always loved you.”

  How often had she longed to hear those words?

  She swallowed her tears before saying, “Too little, too late.”

  Numb legs carried her over the threshold and trembling fingers closed the door behind her. Instead of punctuating their last conversation with the bang of a slamming door, she ended it with the finality of a soft click. Her hands clenched into tight fists. All these years of living without a parent, feeling alone, had been unnecessary. If her father had wanted her, she could have had a very different life.