Inside the Fire Book One in the Warden's Series (27 page)

"Dad!" I screeched. "Nothing is going on." I
sat up and put my feet on the carpeting.

My dad looked at Aaron and grumbled.

"Lay down son, get some sleep." He waved his
hand and Aaron collapsed on the bed and was back asleep.

"You are going to have to teach me that
one." I said amazed.

"Living room now." He demanded walking out
of the room.

It was nice to know that he was still in Dad
mode even after his four year vacation. I rolled my eyes at the
thought. I mumbled to myself and then got up, took one last look at
Aaron and shook my head. The boy had no idea what he was getting
into.

I wasn't expecting an ambush when I walked
into the living room but my father was standing in the middle of
the room with his arms crossed across his chest tapping his foot
impatiently. My mother was on the couch sitting comfortably rolling
her eyes at him. I flashed him a fake smile and took a seat in the
recliner.

"Is this the norm for her Puriel? I mean for
her to have strange boys in her bed." Why did he call my mother
Puriel? My mother looked at him and rubbed her temples.

"I have had to deal with Wesley every night
since October. So no it is not normal for her to have strange boys
in her bed Vetis." She was trying to be nice but I could tell she
was doing her best not the throw something at him.

Vetis
?

What? This was all getting confusing.

"Why are you calling her Puriel?" I looked
at dad. "Why are you calling him Vetis?" I looked at mom.

My father let out a small laugh. "I forget
she doesn’t know."

My mother glared at him and then looked at
me.

"Honey, Puriel is my holy name while Vetis
is your father’s, not so holy, name." My father glared at her. "Did
you really think that there was an angel named Angelina, and a
demon named Damien?" I looked at her puzzled.

This was the first time either of them had
told me about their past lives. Even though the revelation was a
small one I understood the reason for their human names. No matter
how cheesy and unimaginative they were.

"I very rarely called your father Damien. I
only did it in public to keep things quiet." She smiled softly.

"I'm not going to get used to this, please
just call each other by the names that I know you by." I grimaced.
"What am I called? I mean it might be nice to know just in case of
emergency."

"You have no special name. You are just
Dawn." My mother put her hands in her lap and looked back up at my
father. "Oh, Damien please sit down you are making me nervous." She
demanded.

He glared at her and then took a seat as far
away as he could from her.

"Just Dawn, you promise?" I asked. I just
wanted to make sure. I mean I didn't want to find out my real name
was Donatella or something else equally weird.

"You are named for the moment when the night
meets the day." My father said proudly. "Since you are a mixture of
both bloodlines we thought a symbolic name would work."

"Ew. That is way too emotional for me." I
felt a moment of nausea. "So in the last five minutes I have
learned more than in the last eighteen years. Why all of a sudden
the need to let me know the family history? Is my Uncle Lucifer
coming for dinner tonight or something?"

My dad broke out into laughter.

"He's not your Uncle. If he shows up here I
suggest running." My father was wiping tears from his eyes. "She's
got my humor, that's great." I just stared at him.

My mother had been in love with this?

My mother huffed and looked at me again.

"I need to charge you with a quest." My dad
roared with laughter again, she shot him a deadly glare. "The first
place we lived is where we met Greta and Greg. As you can guess we
cannot go back there. I told you that is where your father set John
on fire." I cut her off.

“Ok, let me get this straight. The demon
that attacked me is named John? I know you were saying it a lot
last night, but I wasn’t really grasping that.” I bat my eyes
trying to take it in.

"Yes, that demon that... that..." She was
stammering over the words.

"Violated me, just say it mom." My throat
tightened my eyes stung. The smile that had been on my father's
face faded.

"Yes that." She still wouldn't say it. "Well
there is a little more to that story than what I told you."

“Of course there is.” I groaned. There
always seemed more to the story than what I was ever told.

"He wasn't dead when the paramedics showed,
but he died shortly after telling them that I was Lucifer
incarnate. It sort of started a mini battle with the underworld.
When people came to question your mother found it best to leave, so
we did. The town is so small that we cannot go back, the man that
was Sheriff eighteen years ago is Sheriff to this day." My father
said. He was no longer amused.

"Ok so you need me to go to this town and do
what?" I asked.

"We need you to go to the house, it's still
there, and we still own it. Inside you will find several items that
we need. There is an old sketch book of Greta's and there is my
sword." my mother breathed and then cracked a smile.

"I'm being put on a quest for a sketchbook
and a sword?" I raised my eyebrows at them. "You know normal
families send their children on quests to the grocery store for a
gallon of milk." I stood up. "I am going to go back and check on
Aaron, make sure that he is still breathing. Then I'm going to take
a shower and change clothes, from there Aaron and I are going to
lunch in town. I have to process all of this." My parents nodded at
me as I turned to leave the room.

Why couldn't I just have a normal
family?

"I am going to call my wife and tell her
that I will be a few more days." He looked at my mother. "I promise
I didn't lie to her completely. I just said that I would reconnect
with my daughter and left out the fact my ex-wife would be here."
He smiled and pushed past me.

“Really Mom, you were in love with him?” I
pointed after my father.

“He was very convincing.” She stuttered.

“Yeah, I’m sure that is what it was.” I put
my hands over my ears and proceeded to walk back to my room.

Aaron was sitting on my bed playing with his
phone when I came in. I looked at him then over my shoulder. How
long had he been awake? The conversation in the living room wasn’t
exactly quiet.

“How much of that did you hear?” I asked
cautiously.

“Hear what? Oh all I heard was you getting
in trouble for having a weird boy in your bed.” He smiled. “I’m
willing to tell them that nothing happened.” I rolled my eyes as my
father walked by my door laughing.

“I’m going to take a shower.” His eyes
brightened. “After that you want to grab something to eat?” I asked
opening my closet and pulling out a black long sleeve shirt and
blue jeans.

“Yeah.” He stood up and crossed the room and
put his arms around me.

I appreciated the effort, and it felt nice,
but it was selfish of me to even keep him around. I would be
dragging him through an emotional Hell. I turned to face him and
kissed him very briefly before pulling free and heading to the
bathroom.

I seriously have no idea what I’m doing.
Some would think that rushing into a relationship like this is too
quick. That it questions how I really felt about Wesley. The thing
is I’m not looking for a relationship, well not exactly. I’m
looking for something that can fill that void that Wesley left
behind. Besides I had always moved on quickly in the past. What
made this time any different than any of the others?

Whatever I had planned for Aaron I wasn’t
sure of it at that point. I never knew how important he would
become to me in the short period that I knew him. For now though he
was only meant as a filling nothing more than that and nothing
less. It did not mean that I loved Wesley any less it just meant
that I was trying to move on. Let’s not forget he had already done
that himself.

Windows

I had showered quickly and dressed as fast
as I could trying not to leave Aaron to the creatures called my
parents. I didn’t know what my father would do, probably make him
pass out again just for fun. He seemed sadistic in that way. Not
that I think my father would intentionally hurt anyone, he’s just
odd. I think he has actually become crazier over the last few
years.

I wrapped my towel around my head to attempt
to remove some of the excess water and walked back into my room.
Aaron was still sitting on my bed messing with his phone. He let
out a whistle and I couldn’t help but to laugh.

“I think you should leave the towel on, it
just brings out your inner sexiness.” He teased me as I grabbed a
brush off my dresser and plopped down on the bed.

He put his phone down and scooted behind me
putting me between his legs. He was an affectionate boy that was
for sure. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that. I pulled the
towel from my head and proceeded to brush my hair.

“Leave it down today.” Aaron said softly.
“You always look so beautiful with it down.”

I had to give him props he was working
overtime with the making me feel better shit.

Ten minutes later we were good to go. I
grabbed my car keys told my parents I would see them after a while
and then we were off to town in Aaron’s black Dodge truck. We had a
nice lunch at Adam’s dad’s diner and hung out for a few hours at
his place before I asked if he would take me home. It was getting
late and with my father’s new found faith in parenthood I wanted to
make sure I was home at a reasonable hour. He pulled over to the
side of the road about a mile from the house and looked at me with
serious blue eyes.

“We have had a good two days, right?” He
asked me.

“Yeah, I think it’s been pretty good all
things considered.” I forced a smile.

“Good, I know it’s too early to ask you to
be my girlfriend, but things are going relatively fast.” He ran his
fingers through his blonde hair. “I like you. I like you a lot.” He
shifted.

Where was he going with
this
?

“I would just like to be able to step foot
inside school on Monday and be able to tell my friends that we are
dating.” It was my turn to fidget.

“I can go with dating.” I felt something
harden in my chest.

Why it is when I should be silent my lips
kept moving?

He gave me a warm smile.

“Good.” He pulled the car back on the road
and drove me the rest of the way home.

He walked me to my door as he had the night
before and was leaning in to kiss me when the door flew open and
standing there was my father. I was really getting annoyed with
this want to be so active in my life.

“Good night Aaron.” He said pulling me
inside.

I gave a little wave and a smile before my
father shut the door. I turned and glared at him.

“What the Hell was that all about?” I
demanded.

“I know what you are doing Dawn.” He said
matter of fact.

“And what is that?” I boomed at him.

“You are trying to fill a void. You want
this Wesley boy to disappear; you don’t want to remember what it’s
like to love.”

How did he know all of this?

Suddenly I remembered he could read my mind,
this was an unfair advantage on his part.

“How do you know all this?” I was expecting
a smart ass answer, but he looked me square in the face and without
even blinking spoke.

“I'm not reading your mind on this one
honey. I did it once. I still haven’t recovered completely from
it.” He had to mean my mom.

I had noticed that even though they could
barely stand to be in the same room they couldn’t stop taking
glances at one another. There was still something there, some
hidden chemistry that they were hiding from one another. I didn’t
say anything else. My father understood, for some odd reason that
man knew what was going on with me. It put me at ease for a moment,
feeling that little connection with Daddy. I had always had
problems connecting with him, he was just too crazy, and serious,
and a pain in my ass.

“I would suggest you get it out of your
system now before that boy falls head over heels for you and you
are stuck in a situation that you cannot get out of.” He fumbled
for a second and then grabbed my arms. “Don’t make the same
mistakes that I have made.”

My phone started to buzz from my back pocket
so I gave my father a weak smile and pulled it out to answer.

It was Adam.

I’m sure the news had
spread by now.
Gothic Vampire Queen Dating
Lonely Skater Boy
, I had a feeling there
would be something in the school newspaper documenting this rare
occasion. I looked at my father and lightly touched his face before
answering my phone and leaving the room.

“So Aaron Matthews is the rebound boy huh.”
He didn’t even wait for me to say Hello before he jumped in.

“How did you know?” I laughed. Even though I
felt hollow Adam had a way of making me feel alive again if only
for a moment.

“Well let me see, everyone! Does he know
that he's a rebound? I mean really that has to suck.” He had to be
kidding me.

“God, anything else get passed around town?
No, I'm not going to go advertising to him that he is the first
person I have gone out with since Wesley. I mean really.” I sat
down on my bed.

“Yeah, your dad is here? I heard he's a
pretty stellar guy. My mom ran into him at the bank apparently all
she's done is swoon.” He stated making a gagging noise.

“That he is, showed up on our door step last
night wanting to try this whole reconnecting with his daughter
thing. I really forgot how weird my father is.” It was cold in my
room. I looked over and the window was wide open. Talk about
odd.