The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection

by Jennifer Malone Wright

  “Oh.” Surprised that it wasn’t Gavin, I stepped back a few steps. “It’s you.”

  She wore the most hideous dress I’d ever seen. Well, maybe not the most hideous dress I’d ever seen, but probably a close second. It was dark green, skin tight and strapless. Her dark hair was in a beehive-looking up-do. She completed her look with hooker boots.

  “Chloe.” She nodded at me and stepped into the house.

  “Christina.” I nodded back at her and yelled, “Drew, Christina is here!”

  When Drew came into the room, Christina let out a girly squeal and jumped into his arms. She planted a kiss right on his lips. I felt like barfing a little.

  “I missed you,” she whispered to him, but it was loud enough for me to hear. That was intentional, I was sure.

  Ugh… Gavin could not arrive fast enough for me. I wanted out of there. I don’t know why Drew didn’t pick her up at her house. Why did she have to come to our house?

  Drew must have wanted out of there as badly as I did, because he rushed Christina out the door, asking her if she had a coat.

  “See you there!” She giggled over her shoulder to me while Drew herded her out. I simply stood there and watched them go. Drew gave me one last look that pretty much told me to behave myself, and then he was gone. Why did he have to act so strange all the time? One minute, he would act like my brother; the next minute, he would act like my father. Sometimes, in those rare moments, he acted like my friend. That was the Drew I preferred. I had no idea what I had done or what was going on that he would have so much animosity toward me lately. It had to be a repercussion of the attack.

  Since then, the board members had been in the process of planning a full-scale attack on the vampires. It was fast becoming a full-out war. I knew I was the cause. The vampires would have never attacked if I weren’t here. They wouldn’t have hurt Luke, and they wouldn’t have killed the three hunters, including Drew’s uncle. I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt. That was the reason I had made plans to leave soon after the New Year’s bash. There were just a few things I needed to get done before I could go. I knew I wasn’t ready, but it was going to have to be good enough.

  The doorbell rang again, and I surfaced from the fog in which I had drifted. I opened the door for Gavin, who looked super-hot in his tux. He held a big bouquet of yellow roses.

  “Hey,” he greeted me.

  “Hi.” I smiled shyly. We stood and looked at each other for a moment.

  “Well, can I come in?” he asked.

  Embarrassed, I backed away from the door and motioned him in.

  “Of course. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  He smiled and his pretty green eyes brightened.

  “You look amazing!” he told me, extending the flowers. “These are for you.”

  Hesitantly, I took them. He didn’t know it, but it was the first time anyone had given me flowers.

  “I hope you like yellow.”

  “I love yellow,” I whispered, stepping sideways toward the kitchen. “Let’s go put these in some water.”

  He followed me into the kitchen and watched me while I stood on a chair to get a big vase down from on top of the refrigerator. I think mostly he was looking at my legs and butt, which made me feel totally uncomfortable. My dress was tight, and the slit opened up to just above my knee, so I don’t think he had much choice other than to look at me.

  After balancing unevenly on the chair and getting down without killing myself, I trimmed the roses and stuck them in the vase, filled it halfway with water, and then placed it in the center of the kitchen table. The whole time, he chatted with me about stuff going on with friends of his I barely knew and really didn’t care to know.

  “Are you ready?” I asked, practically cutting him off.

  “Oh, sure. Let’s go.”

  I grabbed my coat off the back of the couch and pulled the bulky thing on over my dainty little dress. Well, at least my top half was going to be warm.

  When we arrived at the gym, where they were throwing the New Year’s bash, Gavin took my arm and escorted me inside. The moment we were through the doors, I stopped to stare. I couldn’t believe what they had done to the place. Normally, it was full of exercise equipment, mats and weapons. For this event, they had moved all that stuff and decorated the entire gym with shiny ribbons hanging from the ceiling, glittery things everywhere, and there was even a band set up on a large portable stage. They blasted out rock music from the eighties.

  The place was packed with people. I had no idea how everyone fit, but they did. The center of the gym was where all the people who were dancing had congregated. The perimeter was lined with tables of goodies and people who stood around talking.

  I looked up at Gavin and he smiled down at me.

  “Come on.” He tugged me forward until I bumped into him, and then he wrapped his arm around my waist and guided me to the refreshment tables. Along with all the goodies supplied on the tables were novelty top hats covered in silver and gold glitter. Gavin picked one and somehow managed to get it on my head, even with my hair done up. It was a bit tilted but stayed on. He grabbed another one and put it on his own head.

  “There. That’s better,” he said.

  I giggled, and he took me around the waist again and led me onto the dance floor. It felt good to have someone like me enough to bring me flowers and treat me nice. I liked it.

  After two dances, I needed something to drink. I stood on my tiptoes and hollered in Gavin’s ear that I was going to get a drink and then visit the bathroom.

  “Do you want anything?” I shouted.

  “I’ll come with you,” he shouted back. He gripped my hand, and we began to wedge our way through the crowd of dancers. We popped out of the crowd next to a refreshment table, and I practically lunged for the punch bowl. It was so freakin’ hot in there from all the bodies. It had begun to smell a bit like body odor.

  Gross.

  After I guzzled down a plastic cup of punch, I went in for more.

  “Here.” Gavin shoved a water bottle into my hand. “This might help more than the punch.”

  “Thanks!” I uncapped the bottle and drank about half of it.

  The next song up was a slow one, so Gavin led me out to the dance floor and wrapped his arms around my waist. That awkwardness I’d felt before came back immediately. This was the first time I was ever pressed up against a guy… ever. Honestly, I didn’t really know what to do. Gavin took my arms, running his fingers gently from my shoulders to my hands—except for when he skipped over my cast—and then he placed my arms over his shoulders. Finally, he took me around the waist again and pulled me closer.

  While we swayed to the slow beat of the music, we turned around and around. I looked up into his eyes and hoped it was affection I saw glimmering there. It was only then I realized his green eyes reminded me of Drew’s.

  Strange.

  On one of our spins around, I glimpsed Drew and Christina. Christina’s skanky body was draped all over Drew, and it looked like she was nuzzling on his neck. I looked away as fast as I could. For the life of me, I just could not figure out why I hated the fact he was with her. I just couldn’t put my finger on what kind of a feeling it was. It mostly felt like jealousy, but I didn’t like Drew that way…or maybe I did.

  Was it just Christina though, or would I have felt the same way if it was a different girl hanging all over him? Really, I felt like he deserved better than someone like Christina.

  I couldn’t take it any more.

  “Let’s get out of here,” I whispered into Gavin’s ear.

  “Why?” he asked, pulling me back a little bit so he could look at my face. “Did something happen?”

  I shook my head and pulled him through the crowd of slow-dancing vampire hunters. After what seemed like forever, we finally made it to the door. We grabbed our coats from the portable closets they had by the door for the many jackets.

  Once Gavin pushed open the he
avy doors to the gym and we were met with a blast of icy wind, I felt better. I didn’t exactly like the cold, but it felt good to be out of the throngs of hot, sweaty people.

  “What happened?” Gavin asked me on the way to the car.

  I shrugged. “Nothing. I don’t know. I just needed to get out of there. It was beginning to feel claustrophobic with all those people all mashed together.”

  He opened the driver’s door and turned on the car while I slid into the passenger seat. We sat there while the car idled and warmed up. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t get that image of Christina kissing on Drew’s neck out of my head.

  Gavin shrugged. I was pretty sure he knew what was going on but was polite enough not to say anything about it. We sat in the car for what seemed like forever until he broke the silence. “Well, what should we do?”

  “Let’s just go to my house. No one is there right now.”

  “All right, then.” He shifted car into gear and we left.

  My house was dark when we arrived. Briefly, I wondered when I had started thinking about it as my house. I had always considered it Luke’s house. I flipped on the light switches as we walked in, and I shrugged out of my coat. I wanted to change my dress, but I settled for just shedding my shoes.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked him, trying to keep annoyance out of my voice. “I can go find us some snacks.”

  “You got any popcorn? We could watch a movie or something.”

  “Let’s go find out.”

  In the kitchen, we rummaged around until we found a box of light popcorn.

  “Well, it’s better than nothing.” I held up the microwave popcorn bags.

  “Popcorn is popcorn.” He smiled as I ripped off the plastic wrappers and threw one in the microwave.

  “Can I ask you a question?” I asked as opened the fridge.

  “Sure. What’s up?”

  “I was just wondering why you would ask me to go to the New Year’s bash with you. I don’t hang out with your crowd.” I handed him a bottle of water. “I barely know you.”

  He took the water and grinned. “Isn’t that the point, to get to know each other?”

  I nodded, not buying that as an answer.

  He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I asked you to come with me because I think you're pretty, and I do want to get to know you.”

  “Why would you want to know me?” I just didn’t get it.

  “You barely talk to anyone at school. You sit alone with your iPod in your ears so you don’t socialize, but you aren’t a geek. I just want to see what is behind this wall you’ve built around yourself.”

  The microwave beeped and I pulled out the cooked bag and set it on the counter so I could grab a big glass bowl from the top cupboard.

  “How do you know I’m not a geek? You just said you don’t know me.”

  “I know some things about you,” he told me as he rose from his chair. “I know that you lost your mother, that you witnessed her death.”

  I sucked in my breath. Why would he bring that up?

  He moved toward me. “I know that you moved here and have had a hard time adjusting. I know that you aren’t very social.”

  I held the bowl of popcorn in my hands and could feel my fingertips tingle.

  “Everyone knows about my mom, and that other stuff is plain observation.”

  Still, he moved closer. I backed up against the counter as he moved forward. He took the popcorn bowl from my hands and put it on the counter. He took my hands and wrapped them around his waist, pushing his body flush with mine as his own arms circled my shoulders.

  “Let me know more, Chloe.”

  I felt my breath catch, and then flutter out. I wondered if he was going to kiss me.

  His eyes were there, staring down into mine. It should have felt uncomfortable to have someone staring so deep into my soul, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable. I felt… wanted. It was quite a change from how Drew had been treating me lately.

  When his head lowered toward mine, I closed my eyes. His lips touched mine, soft and questioning. I kissed him harder. I pushed myself against him and parted my lips so our tongues could meet.

  It was wonderful.

  One of his hands worked into my hair, holding the back of my head, while the other one tightened around my waist. My toes and fingers began to feel warm. My heart was pumping harder than usual…

  Oh, no…

  I pulled back quickly, placing a hand on his chest to keep him away. The last thing I wanted was to catch fire and burn him.

  “Chloe, don’t. It’s okay.” He reached out to bring me closer again.

  “No. You have to stop,” I told him. I was freaked out, so my voice was stern and my hand was still on his chest.

  The next thing I knew, Drew tore through the kitchen door and grabbed Gavin by the back of his jacket.

  “Get off of her!” He yanked him away from me, turned him around, and then swung at him.

  “Drew!” I screamed “Get off of him! He didn’t do anything!”

  Drew hit him again and again. I tried to stop Drew by grabbing his shirt and pulling on it. I didn’t want to get into the line of fire.

  “Stop it!” I screamed.

  Finally, Gavin came to his senses enough to hit Drew back. He pulled back and cracked his knuckles against Drew’s cheekbone. The white of Drew's tux shirt spattered with blood when Gavin’s fist connected with his nose.

  “Guys! Please, stop this!” I was crazy mad at Drew, but my fear for Gavin was worse than my anger. I knew what Drew could do. I guess, in that moment, I forgot that Gavin was also a vampire hunter.

  “Damn it!” I slammed my fist onto the kitchen table and watched in horror as my beautiful yellow roses tipped over, spilling out of the vase. At exactly that moment, I heard a loud ripping noise, and we were blessed with a fire in the kitchen.

  Neither of the guys had seen it happen. I looked over, and they were still wrestling, bashing each other into the kitchen counter and grunting.

  “Fire!” I screamed at the top of my lungs and ran for an extinguisher. In the last week, a whole bunch of fire extinguishers had magically appeared in the house. I think Drew was worried about stuff like this happening.

  Quickly, I pulled the pin from the nozzle trigger and sprayed the table down. I wanted to cry while I watched the foam float over the remaining stems and tiny bits of charred petals. The clear glass vase had split in two, probably from the heat.

  They finally stopped when they heard the whoosh of the foam and the hiss of the disappearing flames. I glared at them, with their bloody faces and messed up hair. Both were crouched over, holding their stomachs and staring at the charred table and broken vase covered with fire extinguisher foam. They looked at me in my pretty blue dress holding the damned extinguisher.

  “What happened?” Gavin asked.

  I lost it then. I grabbed up the brittle, foamy stems off the table with my free hand and threw them in Drew’s face.

  “How dare you!” I hissed.

  I hefted the extinguisher and sprayed them both until nothing was left. Then I tossed it on the ground with a loud clang.

  I looked at Drew and pointed. “You get to clean this crap up!”

  I stalked out of the kitchen and up to my room.

  The next morning, I woke and realized I was still in my dress. I totally was not going to work out or do any training. I didn’t want to, and there was no way Drew was going to make me. I was so ticked at him I didn’t care if I ever saw him again. I got up and hurried across the freezing hardwood floor and into the bathroom.

  I slid out of my dress, grabbed my robe off the hook, put it on and started some bath water. While the water ran, I tried to pick out all the bobby pins. It was a bobby pin nightmare up there, a tangled mess of the little pins and hair. When I finally got them all out, I ran a brush through the mess and, for a moment the air sparkled. After a couple of blinks and a shake of my head, I realized that glitter was falling from my hair and floa
ting around in the air. I smiled while I watched the pretty sparkles float slowly down onto the sink, remembering how Gavin had smiled and laughed when we tried to get the little top hat to stay on top of my up do.

  He was probably regretting all that by now.

  With a loud dramatic sigh, I finally tied my hair up on top of my head in a big bun and stepped into the hot water. I hadn’t had a bath in ages. It felt so nice just lay in the hot water with my eyes closed, soaking and not really worrying about anything except keeping my arm on the side of the tub so as to not get the cast wet.

  Then I heard the door open.

  “Chloe?”

  “Drew!” I screeched. “Get the hell out of here,” I ordered.

  I fumbled around to get the towel off the chair next to the tub. I flung it over my top half and hoped he couldn’t see down in the water from where he stood.

  He didn’t budge, but he stayed by the door and turned away slightly. “I’m not leaving. I need to apologize for last night. I was totally out of line.”

  “Yes, you were, and I don’t forgive you… not yet.”

  “I just didn’t like seeing him force himself on you.”

  I sighed. “He wasn’t forcing himself on me. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  The last thing I was going to do was tell Drew I didn’t want my body to heat up so much while I kissed a guy—kissing my first guy—I almost caught fire.

  “Well, I just wanted you to know, I’m sorry.”

  “The problem here, Drew, is I don’t know what you are to me. You're definitely not my father. You're not even my brother, so you don’t get to tell me who I can kiss and who I can’t.”

  “Chloe, it looked like he was trying to force you. What was I supposed to do, just stand there and let it happen? I don’t think so.”

  “So instead of just saying something and letting us know you were there, you thought beating the crap out of him would be a better way to exhibit how you feel about me?”