The Keeper's Vow (8 page)

Katie exhaled. “What? Jesus, Dad. No.”

He smiled again and let out a long breath.
“Good—good. These days there’s all sorts of diseases going around
and girls giving their stuff away like candy.”

“Dad, please. You’re killing me. Let’s not
have this talk.” She was relieved.

“I’m just checking. You know—if you were you
could talk to me. I wouldn’t judge you—too much,” he said, flashing
her another toothy grin before picking up a pot. “Help me over
here?” He nodded at the strainer and she went over and put it in
the sink. She leaned against the sink as he drained noodles.

“I’m sure whatever parenting book you got
that line out of says
not
to judge your daughter,” she
said.

“Tell you what. Don’t have sex till I’m good
and dead and we won’t have to worry about any of that.” He kissed
the top of her head and laughed.

“I might as well become a nun.”

“That works.” He ran water over the noodles.
“You going to taste that sauce or what?”

Katie looked at it cooking in the pot. If it
was anything like his lasagna she’d pass.

“It’s not going to kill you,” he
laughed.

“The eggs you made yesterday almost did,”
Katie said.

“I put in too much onion. I was trying to
make an omelet. You have to give me some credit on
presentation.”

“Sprinkling green things on top didn’t make
it taste any better,” Katie laughed for the first time.

She helped him set the table and they sat
down for dinner. The spaghetti was better than she thought it would
be. It was
too
good. After going back for seconds, she
teased him until he admitted the sauce was from a jar.

“I commend you on your jar selection, Sir,”
she laughed. They cleaned up like they did almost every night—he
washed, she dried, and put away. They watched a little TV until he
fell asleep. She’d laugh at the way his head dropped back jolting
him awake, until he threatened to make her watch Matlock and Jag
reruns.

On the way to her room, she stopped in the
hallway at the picture of her mom. If she told her dad now, what
would he say? Would he tell her why he kept the truth from her in
the first place? Would he tell her a different story about her
mom?

She had passed that picture a thousand
times; never once had she stopped and wondered anything more than
what her dad told her about the woman smiling back at her. She
could turn around and tell him about yesterday. All she had to do
was open her mouth and say it. But she couldn’t. Something about
Tristan stopping at the street corner made her hesitate. He knew
something, and she couldn’t be sure her dad would tell her what
that was.

CHAPTER FIVE

Katie woke up
early to get started on the yard. Anything to avoid a conversation
with her dad. She was knee deep in weeds when he came out to help.
Every time they were within twenty feet of each other, she’d find
something somewhere else to work on. The entire day passed with
only a few grunts here or there between them: “What do you want for
dinner?” he’d ask. “Eh, whatever,” she’d reply. “What do you wanna
watch?” he’d mumble. “Eh, I don’t care,” she’d yawn. It wasn’t that
hard or unusual for them to murmur that way. That’s how they
usually talked unless there was something specific to talk about.
The only unusual behavior that day was the way Katie froze anytime
he’d grumble out a question. When he said: “Hmph, it’s hot.” She’d
freeze as if his words had slapped her. Or when he said: “Hmph,
water?” She felt her own words drowning in her throat.

He never noticed, or if he did he made sure
to pretend like he didn’t. They were both masters at avoiding
anything close to an awkward situation. It was good he didn’t feel
chatty or ask too many questions. All she thought about for two
days straight was Tristan. Him
reading her mind
. How did it
work? How far did he have to be before he didn’t hear her thoughts.
How
long
had he been hearing them? That last question she’d
spent hours on, wondering if he’d heard her most private thoughts.
It was a complete invasion.

How the hell had this happened to
her
?

It was Monday.

Katie was out of bed, dressed and eating her
cereal an hour before it was time to go. It was Monday. This never
happened on any day of the week let alone a Monday. It was still
dark when she got out of the shower. The fact that she had time to
take a shower
and
dry her hair was a phenomenon.

She couldn’t stop wondering what would
happen at 7:25 when it was time to leave. Would they all walk to
school together.

Would
he
be there?

What would school be like?

She swirled the cereal around in her bowl.
Who else was in the program? How many already knew what she’d just
found out? She’d tried not to think about it yesterday, but it was
all she could think about. Her school.
Her
school was more
than a bunch of teachers hustling to get her to do homework. And
homework.
Did this mean no more papers on irrelevant dead
people?

Katie was terrible at school. She worked
just hard enough to stay in the middle of the pack, that in itself
took a lot of strategic planning: which assignments to do—which
ones to do to the minimal degree. If only her math teacher knew how
often she
did
use math, he wouldn’t shake is head every time
she entered the room. But, her heart sank a little as she thought
about Brian and Allison. They were always busy. They stayed at
school longer than Katie on most days, and they were always
studying. Katie had always thought they were just more serious
about school, it had never occurred to her they were keeping a
secret.

Her cereal sat soggy in the in he bowl and
she poured it in the sink as the clock slowly ticked closer to
7:25.

It was time to go.

Just as she grabbed her book-bag she could
hear her dad opening the bathroom door. There was a pause.

“Katie? Are you up yet? Katie you’re going
to be late.”

“I’m downstairs,” she yelled back, looking
for her keys.

“Really?”

She opened up all the pockets in her bag
fingering for her keys. When she found them, she yanked them up and
yelled, “Bye, Dad!” before rushing out the door.

She hurried to the opening of her
neighborhood. She halfway ran from her dad and halfway ran into a
strange new chapter in her life. As she neared the usual meeting
spot she could feel her heart pounding faster.

This was it.

She was being pulled to a new world
completely. Everything was going to change. She turned the corner
out onto the main road and stopped.

No one was there.

She looked at her watch. It was exactly
7:25. They always met at this spot at 7:25 that is how it’s always
been. Why, of all days, did they choose today to be late. Or worse,
not show up at all. Had they gone straight to the school and no one
bothered to call her? She pulled her bag around to grab her cell
phone, but sighed when she remembered it was still at school. She’d
discovered that she’d left her cell phone Saturday night when she
wanted to call Allison.

Katie hated not having a home phone.

She waited.

Nothing.

Thirty more seconds.

Nothing.

Her hands were clammy and she scratched her
arm more times than necessary. Panic settled in. She didn’t know
why. It wasn’t like she didn’t know how to get to school on her
own. It wasn’t like she’d never walked to school by herself before.
But today—today was different. Today was like going to a new
school. She didn’t know what to expect. Maybe there was a secret
entrance she was supposed to go in through. Why hadn’t anyone
prepared her for today? Why hadn’t anyone prepared her for any of
this.

Her heart pounded as she stood on the corner
trying to decided whether to wait or leave.

Katie searched the street.

Finally, Allison was walking toward her—five
minutes late.

“You’re late,” Katie said, trying to pull it
together. She felt like an idiot.

“Actually
I’m
two-minutes early.
You’re always seven-minutes late.” Allison said. Her expression
told Katie the next question was going to be,
“are you
okay?”
but instead she said, “I called you last night but your
phone kept going straight to voicemail—are you okay? You’re totally
spazzing out.”

“I’m not spazzing out.” Katie said,
adjusting her book-bag.

They started off down the street. Katie was
irritated. All weekend no one bothered to contact her. Maybe they
did call her cellphone, but there was email too. It wasn’t that she
really needed someone to call just to find out how she was, but why
hadn’t they tried harder? Stopped by her house, or sent a telegram.
What if she had spent the rest of the weekend having panic attacks.
Didn’t anyone care that her life had just been turned upside
down?

“Kay?” Allison said, breaking their long
silence. She put her hand on Katie’s shoulder.

Katie felt a wave of guilt and shame. Why
was she mad? Where was it all coming from? Her stomach twisted with
each step as she thought of a response. “Mmhmm?” was all she could
muster. Tears threatened to blur her vision. Why was she about to
cry? She felt so stupid.

It’s just school. I’m just going to
school.
She’d spent yesterday trying to convince herself that
it was just school. But no matter how many times she told herself
that, she knew it wasn’t true; every time panic crept in and she’d
remember Glock’s horrid beady, black eye soaking her in and the
smell of death rolling off him.

That was what waited for her if she changed
her mind.

Allison stopped her. “Kay? What’s—did you
tell your dad? Did he say something?”

The dam was over flowing. Katie hated how
caring Allison could be. She was almost as bad as Lucinda, and it
always made her close to flooding the gates.

Katie stood in the middle of the side walk
trying not to cry like an idiot. After Allison pulled out a
hand-full of tissues from her book-bag and Katie blew her nose a
few times, they continued walking to school. Katie told Allison
that she hadn’t told her dad, or slept the last two nights. She
told her about her occurring nightmares of Glock.

“I don’t blame you,” Allison walked up the
steps to the school. “Everything about him is nightmare
inducing.”

Katie started to agree when she heard
someone call her name. She turned around to see Lucinda waving as
she climbed up the school steps towards her.

“Lucy, what are you—“ Katie started, but
instantly knew the answer to her question. He was staring at her
with his blue piercing eyes behind Lucinda.

“Kate, I’ve been trying to call you since
Saturday. Did you get my messages?” Lucinda said, turning back
periodically to make sure Tristan was following her.

Katie felt another wave of guilt. “I left my
phone in my locker. Why doesn’t anyone email me?”

“I was under the impression you wanted to be
left alone.”

There was a hint of sadness in her voice.
Katie sighed. Lucinda had been expecting Katie to call. Why didn’t
Katie use her dad’s cell to call anyone? Katie kicked herself for
it. She’d thought about it, but pride had stopped her multiple
times.

Lucinda checked for Tristan one more time
even though he was standing next to her in the school uniform,
looking as normal as ever. Not a hint of vampire in him. “Well,”
Lucinda said, looking back at Katie, “I’m glad Tristan spotted you.
We have to go to the front office to get your new schedule. Unless,
of course, your father came to do that with you today. How did that
go anyway?”

Katie could hear the strain in Lucinda’s
voice. They avoided talking about her dad just for this reason. It
had been three years, since the day Katie had heard Lucinda scream
that he could never come back to her house ever again. She was in
the back yard with Brian, and they hadn’t heard anything until
that. She was sure the whole neighborhood had heard Lucinda. Still
no one would speak of that day or what made Lucinda snap like
that.

“It went fine.” Katie said eager to change
the subject. “I have a new schedule? What? Werewolf 101?”

Lucinda and Allison stared at her. Tristan
stared off as if he weren’t interested in the school and even less
interested in the conversation.

“Katie. It’s important you don’t saying
anything like that unless you’re in one of
your—accelerated—classes. You see the trouble it caused when you
found out. Imagine if it were someone whose only option was an
omitter.”

Katie felt the blood rush to her cheeks. “I
didn’t—mean to—”