***
I had just entered the house when my phone went off. Grumbling, I dropped my bag on the ground and yanked it from my back pocket. I had two messages from Aaron flickering on my screen. I mumbled to myself and checked what he had written.
Aaron: I’m not doing anything tonight.
Aaron: You like pool? I know a bar that we can go to.
I was really starting to wonder what I was getting myself into. I shrugged off the questions and started answering.
Me: Nope nothing tonight. Pool is alright. You want to meet there or pick me up?
There was a momentary pause before he came back.
Aaron: My mother raised me right. Send me your address I will pick you up at seven.
I texted him the address and put my phone back in my pocket. I had a date—with a boy I didn’t know. How so not like myself I was right now. I gathered my bag up from the floor and took it to my room before joining my mother in the living room. She was sitting on the couch with the sketchbook open on her lap, typing frantically on her phone.
“Hey, darling, how was your day?”
“Not bad. Got a date tonight.”
“Well, that was fast. Will I be meeting this boy tonight?” She didn’t even look up from her phone.
“Yeah, he’ll be here at seven.” I plopped down on the loveseat and started twisting my hands together. “He’s still seeing her,” I blurted out.
Now she looked up at me. “And you are going out with another boy.” She straightened. “So, tell me, how much does this date have to do with that little revelation?”
“Everything,” I muttered and buried my head in my hands.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Dating Again
Aaron was like clockwork, knocking on my door at exactly seven. I had decided on a pair of jeans and a black sweater and had put my hair up in a ponytail after drawing dark black lines around my eyes. I didn’t think I looked horrible, but at the same time I didn’t think that I would particularly impress my date in any way. Not that it really mattered. This was just a rebound date after finding out that Wesley wasn’t spending every waking hour pining over me.
Aaron looked much the same as he had at school. Apparently, he was one of those “take me as I am” kind of guys. I supposed I could go with that. I invited him inside and led him to the living room where my mother was sitting, the sketchbook still open in her lap.
“Mom, this is Aaron,” I said as sweetly as I could.
She looked up and gave him an award-winning smile.
“Nice to meet you, Aaron. What do you have planned for this evening?” She looked at me and winked.
“We’re just going up to the pool hall to shoot a few rounds. I promise to have her home at a reasonable hour.”
He was very polite and that seemed to appease my mother.
“What do you believe to be a reasonable hour?” she asked lightly.
He smiled. “I promise to have her home by eleven.”
“Eleven works. You kids have fun.”
She was taunting me now. She knew that I wasn’t going to be having any kind of fun. I looked over at Aaron. I knew I would be sorry for everything that I would wind up doing to this boy, but at the same time I really didn’t care.
When we got out on the driveway I nearly fell over at the sight of his car. He drove a 1969 Dodge Charger, yellow with black racing stripes.
“This yours?” I asked, my eyes wide and my breath catching in my throat.
“Yeah, my father and I put her together. I don’t drive her to school, but I figured that it was okay to bring her out for tonight.” He flashed me a smile as he opened the passenger door for me. I got in the car: black leather interior and it smelled like vanilla.
“This is beautiful, Aaron. I’m impressed.” I wanted to touch everything in the car.
“That was kind of the point.” He laughed.
“Oh.” I felt myself blushing.
We wound up at a local pool hall on probably the busiest night of the year. Not a single table was open. The place smelled so strongly of cigarette smoke and alcohol both of us were gagging in the few minutes we were in the bar.
“Let’s get out of here,” he suggested. “Want to go to the park and just hang out?”
“Yeah, okay.” I told myself it couldn’t be that bad. I mean, he was being a complete gentleman.
I was shocked when he reached over and took my hand as we drove. It felt foreign and wrong, but I was all about things that were wrong, it seemed, so I laced my fingers through his. The drive was short. The next thing I knew we were perched on top of a picnic table looking at each other.
“I’m sorry it took so long for me to ask you out,” he said quietly.
I laughed. “What do you mean, ‘took so long’? You only spoke to me for the first time today.”
“I wanted to talk to you when you first got here.” He sighed. “As you can tell, Midvale is not the most socially accepting town. I’ve been here my whole life, which is probably the only reason anyone still talks to me.”
He broke off and squinted at the trees behind us. I followed his gaze and made out two shadows in the tree line. They appeared to be all over each other. Then I caught a flash of red hair and heard two people laughing.
Are you kidding me?
“Looks like we’re not the only ones that decided the park would be a good place to chill,” Aaron joked.
The two figures started to come in our direction. Without thinking, and not really knowing what the Hell I was doing, I pressed my lips to Aaron’s. He was hesitant at first, but soon gave into my kiss and pulled me closer. I wound my arms around his neck. Again it felt foreign and wrong, but yet oh so sweet. The kiss deepened but I was determined to make Wesley feel like he was two inches tall.
Then I felt a pair of hands pulling us forcibly apart. I opened my eyes and saw a very pissed-off Wesley glaring at Aaron, evidently ready to take a swing at him.
“Dawn, what the Hell do you think you are doing?” he demanded, his voice shaking.
“I’m on a date, Wesley.” I glanced at Miranda. “Which is what I assume you are, too.”
Aaron was noticeably confused. He pulled himself off the table and held his hand out for me. “You want to leave, Dawn?”
I accepted his hand and let him help me to the ground.
Wesley shot Aaron a brief look. “Can you give us a second, blondie?”
I heard Aaron groan. I nodded at him.
“I’ll meet you at the car in, like, five minutes.” I gave him a wink and squeezed his hand.
Aaron forced a smile and walked off towards his car. I turned my attention to Miranda, who was watching him go like he was a tasty morsel.
“Keep your fangs holstered, super-bitch,” I snapped at her. She glared at me and I could hear a rumble run through her chest.
“Miranda,” Wesley interrupted, “can you give us five minutes?”
The redhead mouthed some profanities at me then turned on her heel and stalked off.
“What do you want now?” I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest.
“I want to know why you are out with Aaron Matthews. This isn’t like you, Dawn. You aren’t reckless. How do you know he isn’t going to try anything?” He was irritated. I could sense that, and I felt elated.
“What does it matter to you? Look at you out here with Miranda. If you can go out and have fun with your new squeeze then I can do the same. Now, if it’s all the same with you, Wesley, I would like to get back to my date.” I was irritated myself.
“Fine. Just don’t expect me to save you if he tries anything.”
“You didn’t save me when someone else tried something, did you!” I fumed. “No. That was Adam.” I turned abruptly and left him standing there, frowning.
What was that ass thinking trying to tell me who I could and couldn’t date?
When I got to the car, Aaron was standing in front of the vehicle. I knew
he had been watching the whole ordeal, ready to be my knight in shining armor if I needed him to be.
When I got close enough to him he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me in for a hug. I let him put his arms around me, knowing Wesley could see. No matter how wrong it felt, my body didn’t protest.
“You okay?” Aaron whispered in my ear.
“Yeah. I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting him to be out here.” I pulled back and looked into Aaron’s blue eyes. They weren’t captivating, but they were very pretty.
“Neither was I.” He leaned in and kissed me briefly on the lips.
He had me home by ten minutes to eleven and even walked me to the door. I didn’t sense my mother anywhere in the living area as I dug in my pocket for my house key. Once I had it in my hand I turned to face Aaron again. He took my free hand and placed the other one on my waist.
“I had fun,” he said, biting his lip.
“Yeah, all things considered, I did, too.” I let out a soft laugh and looked towards the darkness.
“Can I take you out again some time?”
“Yeah, I think you can.” I gave him a smile.
Why did I have the feeling that this wasn’t in my best interest?
“Call you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, that would be nice.”
He gave me a quick kiss and turned to walk away.
I unlocked the door and entered the living room. That was when I heard the click of a light bulb and I knew my intuition had been incorrect. My mother must have been in the living room the whole time.
“Hi, Mom,” I said as I hung my key up on a hook.
When I got no answer I turned around quickly. It wasn’t my mother at all. In fact, sitting in the recliner facing me was my father.
“You don’t look so happy to see me, Dawn,” he said, standing up.
I had forgotten how tall he was. He towered over me by a good foot at least. I swallowed hard and just stared up at him.
“Just surprised,” I muttered, looking at him with wide eyes.
“I was in town and I thought I would stop by and have a little check-in with your mother.” He grinned. “I had forgotten how beautiful she was. I also forgot how annoyingly… goody-goody.”
I didn’t respond. I wanted to pinch him, or pinch myself. I wanted to know if this was some form of dream or if my dad was really standing right here in front of me.
“No, Dawn, I am real.” He winked at me and pointed at my head. “I can read your mind, too.” He grinned again and started walking circles around me, just looking me up and down. “You’ve changed a lot. I thought you would be more like your mother. You know, all Heaven fire and punishment. I’m shocked to see that you have a bit more of me in you than I thought.” He laughed.
“Why are you here, Dad?” I asked flatly, regaining the power of thought.
“I told you. I was in town.” He stopped and grabbed my shoulders, spinning me to face him. “That and I got a very disturbing call from your mother a while back and figured it was time that I came to see you, since you made no attempt to reach me with the message from our little friend.” He sounded bitter all of a sudden and I could feel his power radiating through my body.
Was he doing what mom did? Getting the truth by touch?
“No, Dawn, I am not like your mother. While she can pull the truth from you in images the only gift I have of the mind is the ability to read it.”
Would he stop doing that!
“Now, what did that piece of filth have to say to you?” he growled.
“How much did Mom tell you?” I asked cautiously, not really sure I wanted to have this talk.
“Not much. I could tell she was hiding something because she kept skipping over my questions.” He stepped back. He looked handsome enough with his black hair slicked back and his pin-striped Armani suit perfectly tailored to fit his thin frame. “If it was important I’m sure she would have told me. I mean, she wouldn’t keep secrets from me about our daughter, right?” He cocked an eyebrow.
“I’m sure she had her reasons.” I swallowed and looked at the ground.
“Damn straight I had my reasons.” My mother’s voice was tense as she entered the living room behind us. “It wasn’t my place to tell him everything, Dawn. I figured that he would get here faster if I told him that John had escaped from Hell. It appears I was wrong. Something else more important must have come up.”
I didn't like the bitterness in my mother’s voice. It made me shiver.
“Ah, Angelina. Always such a graceful entrance. Oh, and how I missed that mouth.”
Were these two going to bicker all night or was something actually going to be accomplished?
“Why, thank you, Damien. Sometimes I feel like I should have smitten you down when I had the chance,” she said sarcastically. “Anyway, just in case you’re at all interested, our daughter has been in some trouble lately. I kept telling her to call you but, well, let’s face it, she’s even more stubborn than you.”
“How can that be possible?” my father protested. “Nobody is as stubborn as me.” He laughed briefly then became serious. “What kind of trouble?”
“She met a boy.”
“Oh. A boy,” he responded dryly.
I felt the last thing my father wanted was to be called to our house just to be told that I had met a boy.
“The boy had a leech attached to him. A German leech.”
My father raised an eyebrow and glanced at me.
“The boy was attacked by vampires and our daughter assisted in his rescue,” my mother continued. “Not long after that she was attacked by John. Since then it’s been drama, drama, drama. What I wouldn’t give for her to have a normal life.” My mother stopped and tucked her hands in her pockets.
“John attacked her?”
I noticed that the blood had drained from my father’s face. He reached out and gripped my wrists, pulling me close to him.
“If her friend hadn’t come when he did she would be dead now.”
I gasped and stared at her. I knew I wasn’t immortal, but how could that demon have killed me? He was less than me.
“Did he…?” My father’s voice shook.
When my mother nodded he pulled me in for a hug. It was awkward being in his arms again after all these years. Even more awkward was the notion that he actually did love me.
“Oh, my sweet princess.” He sniffed and cradled my head against his chest.
Why was everyone lately calling me “princess” all the time?
I remained pretty much motionless. Two weeks before I might have actually cried, but now I only felt hollow.
“Why didn’t you tell me this on the phone?” my father demanded of my mother.
“Would that have brought you here any quicker, Damien? You have a whole new life now. A wife, your job, obligations. I wasn’t going to tell you this and expect you to come running. Not when Dawn herself wasn’t sure she wanted you to know.” My mother’s attitude had softened a little, but I could still sense that she was cross with him.
“Dawn is my daughter, too! I distinctly remember being tossed out of my comfortable home because I knocked you up.” He looked down at me. “You would think that centuries of messing around with an angel would have taught me something. Instead I wind up with no home and have to deal with your mother’s constant blubbering about how God kicked her out of Heaven.”
“Yes, and I had to deal with your constant complaining about how you lost your ability to mutate,” my mother bit back. “But this isn’t about us, Damien. This is about Dawn.”
My father fell silent for a moment. I struggled to pull away from him, but he held tightly onto me.
“Okay, so you need me to deal with John. Fine. I will deal with John.”
He finally let me go and I retreated myself back behind my mother. I felt safer there.
“It’s not just John,” my mother replied curtly. She motioned for my father
to follow her through to the kitchen where the sketchbook lay on the table. “There is far more going on than just a leech. Can you put our differences aside for an old friend?”
She was asking nicely now. My father nodded.
“The boy that Dawn met is Wesley Jensen, the son of Greta and Greg Jensen.”
My father’s black eyes lit up as if in recognition of the names.
Did he know all the things that Wesley’s mother had said?
“How odd that you would find them here,” he said, looking down at the cover of the sketchbook. “How are Greg and Greta? It seems like ages since we last saw them.”
“Greg is alright, but Greta died a few years back. That is why I need your help.” She said it like it was being ripped from her. She reached down and opened the book to a picture of Miranda. “This is the vampire child that is feeding off the family. She has already taken Greta’s life but now she’s latched onto Wesley. From Greta’s drawings I assume that she attacked the family, but was curious as to what Greta herself was.”
My father nodded thoughtfully. “She’s a vampire, then. No Dracula or anything, but she is old. I can see it in her eyes.” He flipped through more pages. “You’ve been back to the old place?” he asked suddenly.
“No. I figured that I would send Dawn up there in a few weeks to check it out. Have her get me some pictures and a few other items from the house.”
I glanced at my mom. What were they talking about now?
“Probably smart. People would recognize you. You look the same as you always have done.” He flashed her a smile before returning to the sketches. “How did she see all of this? How did she know about Dawn before Dawn even knew about Dawn?”
“I just figured she was touched, or she had harbinger blood in her.” She glanced at me.
“I still have a few connections down under. I will share images of this girl with them. What’s her name?” He looked at me.
“Miranda.” I choked on her name. It felt like bile in my throat.
“Oh, that’s scary. Everyone run and hide, Miranda is on the loose.” He was teasing me, I knew, but none of us were laughing. “I doubt her real name is Miranda. I’m sure she has several names.”
The Wardens Boxed Set Page 19
