The Keeper's Vow (34 page)

Lucinda called him downstairs, but he
hesitated before he stood up. Katie stood up to walk downstairs
with him.

He grabbed her and held her so tight she
felt like she’d melt into him. The back of her shirt was gripped
between his fingers. He kissed her again, hard, before pulling
away; but they held hands for a second before they went
downstairs.

“I’m going to go home and get a few things.
We’ve decided it’s best to stay here for the night. It’s not a
coincidence that in the last two months Katie’s been approached,”
Lucinda said, grabbing her car keys. Katie almost thought someone
should go with her, but when Lucinda stood up, Katie saw the gun
strapped to her waist. She still wished her dad would go with her.
It would give them at least twenty minutes to see just how far they
were willing to go.

Tristan coughed. Loud.

“Was there something you wanted me to
grab?”

Tristan shook his head still coughing.

“You’ll be sleeping down here, on that
couch,” her dad said, pointing out the couch to Tristan.

Tristan had guilt written all over his face.
It made Katie feel like her dad and Lucinda knew what they’d just
done. Katie was too embarrassed to even deny it. She couldn’t even
open her mouth to deflect the way her dad was looking between
them.

It didn’t matter where her dad wanted him to
sleep. They didn’t close their eyes once that night. Katie didn’t
know if it was because she was afraid to close her eyes, or if she
just wanted the moment to last. They sat at the kitchen table
putting together a puzzle. At first it was all four of them.
Silently working. Katie never thought she’d see her dad and Lucinda
sitting so close without screaming. When they retired, Katie and
Tristan stayed working—pretending they actually cared about the
puzzle.

When her fingers ached to be interlaced with
his, he’d brush his fingers against hers to pick up a puzzle piece.
Grab her hand and take the piece she had. Any excuse to touch
her—he made her work hard to hold back the mad giggles that were
building up.

How long would it last? He still kept his
wall up. They were frozen in this time and space. At any moment it
was going to crack and they’d have to decide which direction they
were going to go in.

She was right. All she had was that night.
Nothing was the same after that. Tristan was on thin ice with the
school and she was on lockdown. One-hundred percent lockdown. She
wasn’t even allowed to go to school. Her dad pulled her out of
school on leave and only Traci, Lucinda and Allison were allowed to
come over. All at her fathers request. Traci volunteered to grab
her books and notebooks out of her locker, brought at least
two-tons of classwork, and didn’t read the mood when Katie was too
busy wondering why her dad was being such a jerk and banning
Tristan from the house.

Her dad went so far as to try and train her.
He was miserable, he took breaks every ten-minutes and she felt
like she was working
him
out. Lucinda nagged him until he
finally came to his senses and added Tristan to the list of people
allowed to enter the house.

She thought he’d be as excited to see her as
she was him, but she was wrong. He was back to treating her like a
friend. He wasted no time getting back to their normal routine.

Every other day he had something insulting
to say: “
Reflexes like that are why you got kidnapped.”
Or,
“
Yeah, eat more pie. Maybe next time they won’t be able to pick
you up.”
And her personal favorite, “
Stop sucking
.”

“I don’t
suck
,” she said for the
third time. They had been practicing all night. She still ached
from the car crash, and Tristan constantly added pains on top of
her existing ones.

“You wouldn’t hurt if you drank,” he spat.
Whenever Lucinda was out of ear shot, he’d say that to her. She
wouldn’t do it. She’d never touch blood again.

“Fine. Quit letting me beat the crap out of
you. Stop taking hits and fight back.”

“What if I can’t fight back. That guy took
my hit like it was nothing. Everyone who’s attacked me has been
stronger than me. I won’t win.”

“If they’re stronger, you just have to be
faster.”

“How?”

He threw a punch straight for her face. She
threw her hands up and braced herself. Instead, he pushed her hard
on the ground. “One, stop being afraid. You’re being pathetic. You
were better than this two weeks ago. Two. Drink.”

“That’s unrealistic.” She stood up and felt
another bruise forming on her hip.

“What are you afraid of? Pain? I’ve landed
so many punches tonight I’m surprised you’re still standing.”

“No, I don’t care about the pain.”

“Is it dying? Because it’s not
if
you
die, it’s
when
. Everyone dies. That phenomenon is called
life.”

“No—I don’t know!” Katie looked for Lucinda
and lowered her voice. “Why are people targeting me. I can’t sleep
at night.” How could she live life when people were always out to
get her.

“You’re in control of whether you let
someone kill you or not. If I let my opponents scare me we’d both
be dead right now.”

“I’m not like you!”

“Not like me how? I fight to survive.”

“I’m not strong. I can’t kill someone like
it doesn’t matter. I’m not a—" She didn’t have to say it. The word
was already in her mind. Monster.

“
Surviving
isn’t what made me a
monster.”

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

Tristan stared at her.

She changed the subject to something he’d
really been avoiding. “Where have you been going? You don’t even
come everyday.”

He turned his back on her.

She knew. He’d been going back to Gray City.
He was being shady again. He’d made a promise and he broke that.
For how long? Did it have something to do with why she was nearly
kidnapped? “At the pub, hanging out with your friends then?”
Mercedes was a werewolf, what a coincidence. She’d been saving it
for the right moment.

He turned on her.

“Yeah, I know about your werewolf friend.
She stopped by the coffee shop that day. Apparently she didn’t know
you’ve been playing us both.” Katie’s voice shook a little.

Tristan’s face turned from annoyance to
confusion. “Mercedes talked to you the day you got kidnapped?” It
came out like a whisper.

“Yeah, I can see why you were hiding her,”
Katie said, getting her confidence back. He was caught. The ever
allusive Tristan was caught.

Katie scowled, remember exactly what
Mercedes had said,
“Tell him I have an answer for him.”

“Katalina.” He stared at her. “Why didn’t
you tell me?”

It was her turn to be silent and walk
away.

“Katalina!” His voice sliced through
her.

“Don’t shout at me. I don’t care if you
missed your chance to—”

“You’re so goddamn annoying! There is
nothing going on between me and her. She’s a friend.”

“Like I’m your friend. Yeah, I get
that.”

He shook his fist and yelled. The way he
jerked his body put her on edge. He was pissed. “She’d been helping
me find out about the man who killed my parents—you idiot—there is
nothing
going on with me and her.” He was red in the face
and pulling on his hair.

She felt stupid, but she didn’t want to
lose, no matter how wrong she was. She wanted to be angry because
he kept yanking her around like a rag-doll. Tossing her here and
there like what she felt didn’t matter. “How was I supposed to
know. You don’t tell me anything.”

“Just shut-up.”

“What about the other girl then? At the
movies?”

He stared her down. “It doesn’t matter if I
tell you I’ve never seen that girl in my life or if I told you I
sleep with her every Tuesday night. So I’ll let you guess that
one.”

She reached to slap him but he grabbed her
hand before she touched him.

“Hey? What’s all this yelling about. I swear
I turn my back and you two are either goofing around or gearing up
for a fight,” Lucinda said, appearing from the back door with
bottles of water and a few sandwiches.

Katie pulled her hand away and went
inside.

He never came back.

At first she thought he was going to ignore
her for the week, but one week turned into a week-and-a-half—then
two… She threw herself into the homework Traci had given her. It
was the only way to distract her. If she let herself think too hard
about him she could easily imagine him with that girl, kissing that
tall pretty girl the way he’d kissed her. Rubbing on her body the
way he’d rubbed on hers. In between her legs—but with no clothes
separating them.

“Katie?” Traci said when Katie broke her
pencil. She’d been thinking about it again.

“Sorry,”

“Katie this is important. This will
definitely be on the final exam next month,” Traci said.

What did it matter? She hadn’t been to
school in three weeks and it was starting to feel like she would
never go back.

Traci sighed and flipped the page in her
book. “You’re not even on the right page.” Traci had been less
co-operative with her lately. Always sighing, always taking deep
breaths. “Read from pages three-hundred-forty-seven to
three-hundred-fifty-eight. Then we’ll talk about it. I’ll
grade—this.” She said, looking disappointed at Katie’s math
work.

Katie looked down at the book. It was about
Royal Vampire Families
. How exiting. Katie flipped through
the pages but stopped when something caught her eye. A small
paragraph entitled:
The Keepers Vow
. Her heart sped up as
she read it.

“
The royal families were divided into two
groups. The ruling family and the sister family. In order to
protect the status of the current ruling family from siblings and
cousins in the sister family, a blood oath was created that could
only be done between those with vampire blood in their veins. The
sister family was forced to protect the ruling family with their
lives. In the event of the death of the ruling family, the sister
family would be eliminated. Some documents spectate the bond
created a close kinship between siblings at a young age. They were
bound telepathically and all inner family assassinations ceased.
This vow was often used to tie servants to noble families and even
slaves to their buyers. Later known as the keepers vow, died in
practice with the death of vampire fertility and the royal kings
during the Dark Ages.”

Katie flipped the pages looking for more.
Nothing. That was what Tristan had kept from her that night she’d
asked him. He was tied to her. His
life
was tied to her. He
hadn’t just been protecting her. He’d been protecting both of their
lives. Katie didn’t bother pretending she was reading the rest of
the book.

He’d been protecting himself.

She wished he’d come back to her house so
she could confront him. This was why he’d protect her with his
life. She fought back every ugly tear that welted up inside of
her.

Later that night Lucinda and Allison came to
her house. It was Friday, so she wasn’t expecting them and she
really didn’t want to talk to anyone. It aggravated her even more
when she found out they hadn’t come to talk.

“I don’t know what has happened between you
and Tristan but I’m fed up. He hasn’t showed up for a practice in
three days. Three days, Katie,” Lucinda said in her stiff,
‘
you’ve done it now’
voice. “Did you two forget that I’m
your mentor and that I expect you to continue doing what you’re
supposed to be doing.”

“It’s not my fault he stopped coming,” Katie
said. Why was she being attacked? She was here—against her will,
but still here—and Lucinda wasn’t exactly all present either. Ever
since Will left, she’d barely even put together their training
schedules.

“No, it’s both your faults. You do not solve
problems by avoiding—I see I’m going in one ear and out the other.”
Lucinda rolled her eyes, “Anyway, that’s not the point. Go change
into something and meet me in the backyard.”

Katie sucked in air between her teeth.

Allison followed her up the stairs. “The
drama around here is unrelenting.”

“Don’t want to talk about it,” Katie said
before she realized how harsh it came out.

“Okay, then.” Allison stopped following her,
“I’ll just meet you outside.”

When she went out to the backyard the first
thing she did was apologize to Allison. Allison shrugged it off but
Katie knew she wasn’t really over it. Everything in her life with
turning into one big ball of fiery anger and she didn’t know how to
control it.

Lucinda laid an air soft gun on the table
and loaded the clip with little white pellets.

“What exactly is that for?” Katie asked, not
looking forward to the answer.

“I can’t push you physically like Tristan
can. No one can honestly, so we’re going to be a little creative
today. You’re going to fight me and Allison. I have a gun and she
doesn’t. Between the two of us we will make up for Tristan’s speed
and some.”

“You’re going to shoot me with
tha—OUCH.”

Lucinda answered her with a pellet in the
arm. She could feel the welt rising. Lucinda was sicker than
Tristan. What was wrong with these people?

It wasn’t fair, the entire hour that they
trained, it wasn’t fair. Allison was taking her revenge for Katie’s
aloofness and Lucinda was being sadistic. By the end Katie was
covered in dirt and welts.

Katie could see her dad watching from the
window. He was no help, he shrugged as if saying, “
You asked for
it.
” Maybe they were all taking out their frustrations on
her.

“Stop. I’m done.” Katie said, getting up
after Allison dropped her to the ground.