The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection (24 page)

When the meal was finally over, I felt relief
wash over my body, except for needing to pee. The vampires rose and
spread through the house, mingling and talking about one of the
nightclubs Trevor owned—apparently one Vanessa ran for him—and how
they needed to find a way to keep the hairballs out.

I didn’t know why there would be a problem
with hairballs in a bar. I shrugged it off and hurried down the
hall to the bathroom. Before I could turn the knob, I heard voices
on the other side.

“Do you think she knows?” I recognized
Constance's whispered voice.

I heard a giggle followed by Vanessa saying,
“She doesn’t have a clue. I hope he drains the little bitch dry.
I’m sick of her already. Even though she smells wonderful, she is a
pain in the ass. I don’t know why Trevor insisted on bringing her
here so early.”

“He had to. He had to make sure she was here
when she turned sixteen. It would have been really taking a chance
to wait until closer to her birthday,” Constance answered.

What the…
What were they talking
about? It had to be me.

“Yeah, I guess,” Vanessa answered. She sighed
audibly. I could just see Vanessa on the other side of the door,
glossing her pale lips in the mirror. “I can see that, considering
she had all those Hunters around who never left her alone.”

Constance lowered her voice even more. “I’ll
tell you what, if I knew I’d get away with it, I’d snag her up and
keep her for myself. The ability to walk in the sunlight would make
me the most powerful vampire. Trevor doesn’t deserve it. We do all
the work for him anyway.”

“Shut up, Constance,” Vanessa hissed.
“Talking like that will just get you killed. What if someone hears
you?”

What the heck is going on?

I felt my heartbeat and my body shook
violently. It wasn’t clear exactly what they had meant, but it was
clear I was in trouble. Big trouble.

Constance told Vanessa she needed to shut up,
that she would say whatever she wanted. I turned around and crashed
right into Alice, who had been standing behind me. I had been so
intent on listening to the conversation on the other side of the
door, I hadn't heard her approach.

She took a step back to steady herself and
looked at me with sadness in her eyes.

“Did you know about this?” I demanded in a
whisper.

She took two steps back and lowered her head.
I took that as my answer and balled my fists. I lurched forward,
grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall. “I
should kill you! How could you?”

She only shook her head a bit while tears
slipped from the corners of her eyes and ran down her cheeks onto
my hand. Fury washed over me and I could feel my hands getting hot.
Alice winced in pain and squirmed against the wall.

“What is going on out here?”

Vanessa and Constance came out of the
bathroom and saw me standing there holding Alice by her throat. I
looked over my shoulder and watched them stop short, stare at me
for a moment and then instinct kicked in. Before they could do
anything to stop me, I ran.

I ran as fast as I could through the house
and out the front door. I heard the women screaming at Trevor, “She
knows! She’s running!”

They chased me out the door.

Even though I knew in the back of my mind
there was no possibility I could outrun them, I kept going. When I
hit the lawn, with my mind racing, I decided to take a chance and
stopped. I turned around to face them, lifted my arms into the air,
palms out toward them, mustered all the energy I could and forced
it toward them. From each of my palms, huge bursts of fire flew
forward, curling and licking as the air gave it more fuel.

Vanessa and Constance, not expecting me to
have such a weapon, ran right into the flames. Their awful,
screeching, banshee-like wails penetrated the air all around us. I
saw more coming out the front door and bolted.

I picked up my speed as much as I could,
running like I’d never run before. I knew the wall was coming soon,
and I had no idea what I was going to do except try to jump. I
heard more footfalls behind me.

Damned vampire speed.

When I was about three yards away from the
walled fence, I willed my weight to be as light as I could. I
sprang into the air and almost made it, but not quite high
enough.

I caught the edge of the stone fence with my
hands and held on. My legs dangled halfway down for anyone to grab
and yank me down. My hands hurt like hell, but I managed to swing
my legs up and over just when one of the vampires reached the fence
and grabbed for me. I literally fell over the other side and down
onto a ton of branches and bushes.

“Ouch!” I cried out, feeling a stick jab its
way into my leg. I didn’t take any time to worry about it. I turned
over on my hands and knees, getting ready to stand, when suddenly
my head was yanked backward by my hair.

“Gotcha!” a male voice cried out
triumphantly. “Got her,” he called even louder.

I tried to turn my head, but his grasp was
too tight.

“Let me go!” I screamed, willing the energy
again. I tried to pull it over my whole body. A sudden ripping
noise echoed through the darkness and unlike the times before when
I didn’t expect it, I
willed
the fire to engulf me, feeling
it surround me like a force field.

The guard released my hair and I was free. I
began to run again, pulling the fire out with my mind as I flew
over twigs, fallen branches and rocks of the forest floor.

Then there was a gunshot.

My mind told me to stop, but my feet kept
going. It never occurred to me they might try to shoot me.

“Stop this instant, Chloe!” It was Trevor’s
voice carrying through the air, but I didn’t stop. “I
will
shoot you. I do not have to kill you to stop you. I can shoot you
in the leg.”

I didn’t want to get shot, especially if he
wasn’t going to kill me. Yeah, that’s right; he wanted me alive for
some reason.

I stopped.

“Go ahead!” I cried out, turning around to
face him. I spread my arms wide open and pulled some flames up for
him to see. “Shoot me, and we both go down in flames.”

I watched him step forward across the forest
floor, his white face so pale against the night. “Do you really
think that power you possess could possibly reach farther than a
bullet from this weapon?”

I hated him more than ever.

He shook his head. “Now, come with me back to
the house and we will talk.”

“The last thing in the world I want to do is
talk to you. Just let me go.”

“I’m sorry, but I need you far too much to
let you go anywhere.”

Discreetly, I placed my feet and prepared to
run again.

“I wouldn’t do that.” He waggled the gun in
his hand. “Let’s go.”

I had no choice but to follow him. I wasn’t
going to be able to get away. My superpower wasn’t so super after
all if a modern weapon could outdo it.

“You would really shoot me, your own
daughter?”

I swallowed the fear and stepped toward
him.

“If I had to I would, as long as it kept you
alive.”

I continued past him in the direction of the
house. “You’re sick, Trevor, like…mental institution sick.”

He followed behind me a few steps.
“Possibly,” he replied.

Once we were back at the fence, we followed
it around until we reached a guard who punched a key code into a
little pad on the fence. The gate of the fence swung open. With a
nudge from Trevor, I stepped through the opening and onto the
lawn.

I could see the vampire guests and Oscar
standing on the porch, looking in our direction. Things were
getting serious and it looked like my chances of killing Trevor had
just gone straight down the tubes.

As we approached the porch I watched Vanessa
eyeball me and Constance raised her eyebrows, turning her lips up
in a smug grin. I grinned back and pointed at her. “Watch out for
those two, Trevor, I heard them talking about taking me for
themselves and how they do all your work so you don’t deserve to
have the power.”

If anything about that night was satisfying,
it would have to be getting them in trouble with Trevor. It was
awesome. I watched both of their mouths drop open and their eyes
widened with fear. Only then did it occur to me that maybe they
didn’t know that I’d heard the
whole
conversation they had
in the bathroom until I busted them out.

Oscar followed me with his eyes as I walked
past him in my torn and dirty dress.

“You knew too?” I whispered, aware all the
vampires were watching us.

Oscar didn’t lower his eyes in shame or turn
away, but he said nothing.

“Trevor planted you here, didn’t he?” Without
taking his eyes off me, he nodded. Aside from Alice being a traitor
too, Oscar being a spy was something I didn’t see coming and was
far more disappointing than I would have expected. If I got the
chance, I'd kick his ass too.

“Go on. Move. Get in the house.” I felt the
nudge of Trevor’s gun in my back. “I’m so sorry, but I’m afraid the
evening must come to an end now. I have an issue with my daughter I
need to address.”

“It was so nice to meet you all,” I called
out sarcastically and even took a chance of getting shot by waving
to them as I stepped into the house. Trevor kept the gun pressed
into my back, following right on my heels. “Can you put that thing
down? I’m not going to try anything.”

“Once we have you safe in your room.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little, “Really?
Now you want me safe?”

He grabbed me by the arm with one of his
strong hands and pulled me up the stairs. When we reached my room,
he kicked open the doors and shoved me inside.

I whirled to face him. “What the hell is
going on here? What exactly is it that you want me for?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and locked
gazes with him.

“Sit down.” He waved the gun at the
couch.

“I don’t want to sit. I want you to tell me
what the hell is going on here!” My gaze moved to his hands and
zeroed in on his gun. “Is that
my
gun? Seriously, don’t you
have your own?”

He didn’t answer me. He stepped just outside
the door, leaving the gun trained on me and moved aside one of the
photographs on the wall, exposing some kind of switch. He flipped
it and a loud clank echoed through the walls.

“What is that?”

Again, he didn’t answer. He let the picture
fall back into place, came back into the room just as some kind of
metal sheeting emerged from the ceiling, covering the walls and
everything on them.

Appalled, I looked up and down, back and
forth, watching the metal slowly imprison me.

“You truly thought I didn’t know about your
little gift? He pulled out a straight-backed chair from the table
and sat in it, crossing his legs.

I continued to stand.

How in the hell will I ever get out of this
room now?

My mind raced ahead of actual time. I knew I
was going to be left alone at some point, and I needed an escape
route.

As though he had read my thoughts, he said,
“I’ve fireproofed the entire room, even the furniture and carpet
are resistant. Not completely fireproof, but resistant. If you
light it up, sprinklers will extract from the ceiling, so using
your fire won’t do you any good in here.”

“How did you even know about it?”

“I’ve known since my vampires tried to bring
you back once before, the day you broke your arm. Shelia managed to
escape you and the other Hunters. She immediately came back here to
report why they hadn't returned with you.”

I finally went to the couch and plopped down
onto it. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I do not have cause to voice my reasons to
anyone. You are no exception."

“At least tell me why I’m here. You owe me
that much.”

I leaned back on the couch, put my feet up on
the coffee table and waited for him to talk.

He uncrossed his legs and then crossed them
the other way. “All right. I suppose I should explain it to you
now."

He paused, turned his head away for a moment
and stared at a far point on the wall. I refused to break the
silence and speak first, so I sat and waited for him. Eventually,
he sighed and then turned back to face me.

“Do you remember the conversation we had
about what a vampire most desires?” he asked.

I nodded, but stayed silent.

“Above all else, a vampire desires the
sunlight. To be able to walk about under the deadly rays of
daylight would make any creature of the night extremely powerful,
simply because of what he can do. Not only powerful, but I could
experience something I have not experienced—and have missed—for
hundreds, if not thousands, of years.”

“About a year before I met your mother, I
came across a book that contained a recipe for a vampire to become
a day walker.” He paused and let that sink in. “This recipe called
for the vampire in question to drink the entire blood supply of a
dhampir, who is also half Hunter, on the day the dhampir turns
sixteen. As you know, both dhampir and Hunter are rare to come by.
So, instead of searching the world with minimal chance of finding
someone with those traits, I found a woman with whom I could make
my own.”

I felt my stomach turn over and lurch. I even
gagged. “You… you…
bred
me. You used my mother to make me
for your sick desires?”

It took every ounce of control I had not to
jump over and strangle him. Like that would do any good anyway,
being that he was dead already.

“I did love your mother. I didn’t think I
would, but sometimes things don’t always turn out the way you want
them to. I never intended to tell her my plans for you. I would
have staged an accident to explain your death in order to keep her
with me.”