The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection (15 page)

The next morning, I woke and realized I was
still in my dress. I totally was not going to work out or do any
training. I didn’t want to, and there was no way Drew was going to
make me. I was so ticked at him I didn’t care if I ever saw him
again. I got up and hurried across the freezing hardwood floor and
into the bathroom.

I slid out of my dress, grabbed my robe off
the hook, put it on and started some bath water. While the water
ran, I tried to pick out all the bobby pins. It was a bobby pin
nightmare up there, a tangled mess of the little pins and hair.
When I finally got them all out, I ran a brush through the mess
and, for a moment the air sparkled. After a couple of blinks and a
shake of my head, I realized that glitter was falling from my hair
and floating around in the air. I smiled while I watched the pretty
sparkles float slowly down onto the sink, remembering how Gavin had
smiled and laughed when we tried to get the little top hat to stay
on top of my up do.

He was probably regretting all that by
now.

With a loud dramatic sigh, I finally tied my
hair up on top of my head in a big bun and stepped into the hot
water. I hadn’t had a bath in ages. It felt so nice just lay in the
hot water with my eyes closed, soaking and not really worrying
about anything except keeping my arm on the side of the tub so as
to not get the cast wet.

Then I heard the door open.

“Chloe?”

“Drew!” I screeched. “Get the hell out of
here,” I ordered.

I fumbled around to get the towel off the
chair next to the tub. I flung it over my top half and hoped he
couldn’t see down in the water from where he stood.

He didn’t budge, but he stayed by the door
and turned away slightly. “I’m not leaving. I need to apologize for
last night. I was totally out of line.”

“Yes, you were, and I don’t forgive you… not
yet.”

“I just didn’t like seeing him force himself
on you.”

I sighed. “He wasn’t forcing himself on me. I
don’t want to talk about it.”

The last thing I was going to do was tell
Drew I didn’t want my body to heat up so much while I kissed a
guy—kissing my first guy—I almost caught fire.

“Well, I just wanted you to know, I’m
sorry.”

“The problem here, Drew, is I don’t know what
you are to me. You're definitely not my father. You're not even my
brother, so you don’t get to tell me who I can kiss and who I
can’t.”

“Chloe, it looked like he was trying to force
you. What was I supposed to do, just stand there and let it happen?
I don’t think so.”

“So instead of just saying something and
letting us know you were there, you thought beating the crap out of
him would be a better way to exhibit how you feel about me?”

“I was only protecting you. I would have done
it for anyone.” When he said this, he didn’t say it softly. The ice
lingered in his voice.

I knew I was making a bigger deal out of it
than it was.

“Fine. Just get out of here.”

He turned to go and then stopped. Without
turning around, he said in a softer voice, “Just because I’m not
your brother or your father doesn’t mean I don’t care about
you.”

I didn’t answer.

“We need to go see Luke today,” he told me in
a tougher voice. “I’d like to do that as soon as possible."

I stayed in the tub as long as I could, just
to spite him. I even ran more hot water into the tub when the water
got too cold. By the time I got out, my fingers and toes were all
pruned. I picked out a pair of jeans and a dark purple sweater to
wear to the hospital. I hoped Luke got to come home soon. I hated
seeing him all weak and vulnerable in his bed at the hospital. We
went to visit him every day though, and so did a lot of the other
hunters in the community. It would be really nice when we didn’t
have to go to the hospital every single day though.

Downstairs, Drew was sitting at the charred
kitchen table. It had been wiped clean of the extinguisher foam.
One of Drew’s guns was in pieces and spread out all over the table.
His cleaning kit was open, and it looked like he had finished
cleaning and was putting it back together. My destroyed roses and
the vase were nowhere in sight.

“You ready?” he asked as soon as I
entered.

“Yup.”

“You need to bring your gun.”

“I know.” I patted the purse I carried when
my outfit would make it obvious that I was packing or when I just
didn’t feel like having a loaded gun stuck into the waistband of my
pants.

He nodded and finished cleaning his gun while
I grabbed a granola bar and a glass of water. I wandered into the
living room with the intention of turning on the news and was
surprised to hear my cell phone ringing. No one really called me
since my mom died.

Caller ID said it was Gavin. I didn’t know if
I wanted to answer. I was entirely tempted just to let the voice
mail get it. I hoped he wasn’t mad at me for what Drew had done.
Then again, I had sprayed him with the extinguisher and had run
upstairs without saying goodbye or seeing if he was hurt, so he
might be mad at me too. Wanting to talk to him overpowered the
embarrassment.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Chloe.”

“Hey.”

“Are you doing okay this morning?”

I think I may have snorted
a little. “I think the question is how are
you
doing this morning?
I’m
fine.”

“I’m fine too. I just wanted to call and
apologize for everything last night. I really wasn’t trying to
force myself on you.” He paused. “I hope you realize that.”

“Duh. I know that. Drew just walked in at the
wrong time and freaked out.”

She could almost see him nodding.

“I just wanted to make sure that you
absolutely know I would never try anything like that with you.”

“I know,” I told him. I really did know that
even though I barely knew him, and Drew had said something about
him not being an angel… or something like that.

“Let me make it up to you. Let’s go do
something.”

I sat on the couch, relieved. He wasn’t mad.
“Well, I’m going to the hospital right now, but I’ll be home later.
Do you want to go to the ranges with me?”

“That sounds awesome. Archery or guns?”

“Both. How 'bout I call you when I get
back?”

“Sounds good. Talk to you later.”

We both said goodbye and clicked off. Words
could not express how happy I was that he wasn’t mad at me about
the night before.

“You ready?”

I snapped out of my little bubble and looked
up. Drew was in the doorway watching me with icy narrow eyes. I was
sure he had heard the whole phone call. I hopped up off the
couch.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” I grabbed my coat off the
hook and headed for the door.

At the hospital, Luke’s nurse spoke with us
for a few minutes before we went into his room. She explained that
he was doing well, but that he still needed to stay a few more
weeks in the hospital. Apparently, because of his age, it was more
of a risk to send him home with the portable chest tube. Plus,
there were mobility issues with the casts.

Drew and I both told her that we understood
and then opened the door to Luke’s room. My goodness, every time I
entered that room I felt a million different emotions. I felt sad,
because Luke was so messed up and had three casts on. I felt anger
at the vampires who did this. I felt guilty because it wouldn’t
have happened if they hadn't been after me.

I was going to fix it so none of them were
hurt again. The only problem was that I wasn’t ready. I was barely
trained to be a vampire hunter, not to mention the unreliability of
my fire power. I didn’t want to go in unprepared, but I felt a
sense of urgency to protect the only family I had left, and
protecting my family was more important than protecting myself.