Vampire's Shade 1 (Vampire's Shade Collection)
Page 21
Chapter 21
Everything was different after that. Aspen and I found a place where we could stay together for a while, until I could make arrangements for a new live-in nurse. She didn’t want anyone just yet. She’d been close to Zelda, and losing her had been painful.
She had nightmares for a long time. She’d seen Zelda get killed, and we never found Claude. After a year the police suggested that we expect the worst. It didn’t go down well.
Joel recovered and went back to working for a company that did their work during daylight hours. He did some pirating business on the side for a thrill, but I had the idea that he was done with the night world for a while. He was sweet on my sister, and the way she lit up for him was enough for me not to take his head off for dating her. She deserved a good guy, and if anyone was a good guy, it was Joel. Their relationship wasn’t very serious yet, but it would be. I could feel it.
Carl had had a leg broken in three places, two broken ribs and a hell of a concussion, but he’d made it out alive, and we stayed friends. He came over every now and then, and we pretended to like each other even though we didn’t always get along. What he did for a living was a mystery; he never told us, but I had a feeling we’d all had enough of the darkness. He didn’t like to admit that he owed his life to a martial arts instructor he didn’t like, so we didn’t talk about it. Neither of us knew what had happened to Sonya, but Ruben’s company was closed and a nightclub opened in its place. I would never go there again.
I didn’t go back to the ugly side of the world. It had been hard enough to deal with as it was. Instead I managed to find a job at the Academy, training with Phil and teaching classes of my own in self-defense and fighting techniques, and we were thinking of branching out to a shooting range. I spent every day with Phil, knowing that if it hadn’t been for the most inexperienced, most human one of us all, we’d all be dead.
Connor and I visited my father a week after the incident.
“Who’s this?” he asked when Connor sat down next to me.
I looked at Connor, and he smiled, his blue eyes encouraging me to face my past and deal with it.
“He’s my boyfriend,” I said. “I love him.”
My dad nodded. “Why are you here?” he asked, the way he always did.
“I came to say…” I took a deep breath. “I forgive you.”
My father’s face crumpled, and he pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.
“And goodbye,” I added.
This was the last time we’d see each other. When he looked up at me again, he nodded.
I got up, and Connor and I walked out into the night, hand in hand.
“Did you mean it?” he asked.
“Someday, I’ll come to mean it,” I said. “But for now, it was right to say it.”
We walked into the night world that accepted me now, one that didn’t have monsters and hell wherever I looked.
Jennifer disappeared. It was in the news. Either she’d left the country, or she’d turned. I guessed we would never find out.
And me?
I didn’t know who I was just yet, but I’d find out. Aspen, Joel, Connor, Phil, Carl and I made a twisted but fairly happy family. We accepted each other for what we were, and what we weren’t.
The only thing I wasn’t willing to give up yet was my bike. I might not have been a vampire slayer anymore, but I was still Adele Griffin. I liked my bike and my guns and my leathers, and everyone loved me for it, myself included.
And those who didn’t, could suck it.
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Table of Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
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