The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection (14 page)

Since then, the board members had been in the
process of planning a full-scale attack on the vampires. It was
fast becoming a full-out war. I knew I was the cause. The vampires
would have never attacked if I weren’t here. They wouldn’t have
hurt Luke, and they wouldn’t have killed the three hunters,
including Drew’s uncle. I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt. That
was the reason I had made plans to leave soon after the New Year’s
bash. There were just a few things I needed to get done before I
could go. I knew I wasn’t ready, but it was going to have to be
good enough.

The doorbell rang again, and I surfaced from
the fog in which I had drifted. I opened the door for Gavin, who
looked super-hot in his tux. He held a big bouquet of yellow
roses.

“Hey,” he greeted me.

“Hi.” I smiled shyly. We stood and looked at
each other for a moment.

“Well, can I come in?” he asked.

Embarrassed, I backed away from the door and
motioned him in.

“Of course. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

He smiled and his pretty green eyes
brightened.

“You look amazing!” he told me, extending the
flowers. “These are for you.”

Hesitantly, I took them. He didn’t know it,
but it was the first time anyone had given me flowers.

“I hope you like yellow.”

“I love yellow,” I whispered, stepping
sideways toward the kitchen. “Let’s go put these in some
water.”

He followed me into the kitchen and watched
me while I stood on a chair to get a big vase down from on top of
the refrigerator. I think mostly he was looking at my legs and
butt, which made me feel totally uncomfortable. My dress was tight,
and the slit opened up to just above my knee, so I don’t think he
had much choice other than to look at me.

After balancing unevenly on the chair and
getting down without killing myself, I trimmed the roses and stuck
them in the vase, filled it halfway with water, and then placed it
in the center of the kitchen table. The whole time, he chatted with
me about stuff going on with friends of his I barely knew and
really didn’t care to know.

“Are you ready?” I asked, practically cutting
him off.

“Oh, sure. Let’s go.”

I grabbed my coat off the back of the couch
and pulled the bulky thing on over my dainty little dress. Well, at
least my top half was going to be warm.

When we arrived at the gym, where they were
throwing the New Year’s bash, Gavin took my arm and escorted me
inside. The moment we were through the doors, I stopped to stare. I
couldn’t believe what they had done to the place. Normally, it was
full of exercise equipment, mats and weapons. For this event, they
had moved all that stuff and decorated the entire gym with shiny
ribbons hanging from the ceiling, glittery things everywhere, and
there was even a band set up on a large portable stage. They
blasted out rock music from the eighties.

The place was packed with people. I had no
idea how everyone fit, but they did. The center of the gym was
where all the people who were dancing had congregated. The
perimeter was lined with tables of goodies and people who stood
around talking.

I looked up at Gavin and he smiled down at
me.

“Come on.” He tugged me forward until I
bumped into him, and then he wrapped his arm around my waist and
guided me to the refreshment tables. Along with all the goodies
supplied on the tables were novelty top hats covered in silver and
gold glitter. Gavin picked one and somehow managed to get it on my
head, even with my hair done up. It was a bit tilted but stayed on.
He grabbed another one and put it on his own head.

“There. That’s better,” he said.

I giggled, and he took me around the waist
again and led me onto the dance floor. It felt good to have someone
like me enough to bring me flowers and treat me nice. I liked
it.

After two dances, I needed something to
drink. I stood on my tiptoes and hollered in Gavin’s ear that I was
going to get a drink and then visit the bathroom.

“Do you want anything?” I shouted.

“I’ll come with you,” he shouted back. He
gripped my hand, and we began to wedge our way through the crowd of
dancers. We popped out of the crowd next to a refreshment table,
and I practically lunged for the punch bowl. It was so freakin’ hot
in there from all the bodies. It had begun to smell a bit like body
odor.

Gross.

After I guzzled down a plastic cup of punch,
I went in for more.

“Here.” Gavin shoved a water bottle into my
hand. “This might help more than the punch.”

“Thanks!” I uncapped the bottle and drank
about half of it.

The next song up was a slow one, so Gavin led
me out to the dance floor and wrapped his arms around my waist.
That awkwardness I’d felt before came back immediately. This was
the first time I was ever pressed up against a guy… ever. Honestly,
I didn’t really know what to do. Gavin took my arms, running his
fingers gently from my shoulders to my hands—except for when he
skipped over my cast—and then he placed my arms over his shoulders.
Finally, he took me around the waist again and pulled me
closer.

While we swayed to the slow beat of the
music, we turned around and around. I looked up into his eyes and
hoped it was affection I saw glimmering there. It was only then I
realized his green eyes reminded me of Drew’s.

Strange.

On one of our spins around, I glimpsed Drew
and Christina. Christina’s skanky body was draped all over Drew,
and it looked like she was nuzzling on his neck. I looked away as
fast as I could. For the life of me, I just could not figure out
why I hated the fact he was with her. I just couldn’t put my finger
on what kind of a feeling it was. It mostly felt like jealousy, but
I didn’t like Drew that way…or maybe I did.

Was it just Christina though, or would I have
felt the same way if it was a different girl hanging all over him?
Really, I felt like he deserved better than someone like
Christina.

I couldn’t take it any more.

“Let’s get out of here,” I whispered into
Gavin’s ear.

“Why?” he asked, pulling me back a little bit
so he could look at my face. “Did something happen?”

I shook my head and pulled him through the
crowd of slow-dancing vampire hunters. After what seemed like
forever, we finally made it to the door. We grabbed our coats from
the portable closets they had by the door for the many jackets.

Once Gavin pushed open the heavy doors to the
gym and we were met with a blast of icy wind, I felt better. I
didn’t exactly like the cold, but it felt good to be out of the
throngs of hot, sweaty people.

“What happened?” Gavin asked me on the way to
the car.

I shrugged. “Nothing. I don’t know. I just
needed to get out of there. It was beginning to feel claustrophobic
with all those people all mashed together.”

He opened the driver’s door and turned on the
car while I slid into the passenger seat. We sat there while the
car idled and warmed up. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t get
that image of Christina kissing on Drew’s neck out of my head.

Gavin shrugged. I was pretty sure he knew
what was going on but was polite enough not to say anything about
it. We sat in the car for what seemed like forever until he broke
the silence. “Well, what should we do?”

“Let’s just go to my house. No one is there
right now.”

“All right, then.” He shifted car into gear
and we left.

My house was dark when we arrived. Briefly, I
wondered when I had started thinking about it as my house. I had
always considered it Luke’s house. I flipped on the light switches
as we walked in, and I shrugged out of my coat. I wanted to change
my dress, but I settled for just shedding my shoes.

“Are you hungry?” I asked him, trying to keep
annoyance out of my voice. “I can go find us some snacks.”

“You got any popcorn? We could watch a movie
or something.”

“Let’s go find out.”

In the kitchen, we rummaged around until we
found a box of light popcorn.

“Well, it’s better than nothing.” I held up
the microwave popcorn bags.

“Popcorn is popcorn.” He smiled as I ripped
off the plastic wrappers and threw one in the microwave.

“Can I ask you a question?” I asked as opened
the fridge.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I was just wondering why you would ask me to
go to the New Year’s bash with you. I don’t hang out with your
crowd.” I handed him a bottle of water. “I barely know you.”

He took the water and grinned. “Isn’t that
the point, to get to know each other?”

I nodded, not buying that as an answer.

He sighed and leaned back
in his chair. “I asked you to come with me because I think you're
pretty, and I
do
want to get to know you.”

“Why would you want to know me?” I just
didn’t get it.

“You barely talk to anyone at school. You sit
alone with your iPod in your ears so you don’t socialize, but you
aren’t a geek. I just want to see what is behind this wall you’ve
built around yourself.”

The microwave beeped and I pulled out the
cooked bag and set it on the counter so I could grab a big glass
bowl from the top cupboard.

“How do you know I’m not a geek? You just
said you don’t know me.”

“I know some things about you,” he told me as
he rose from his chair. “I know that you lost your mother, that you
witnessed her death.”

I sucked in my
breath.
Why would he bring that
up?

He moved toward me. “I know that you moved
here and have had a hard time adjusting. I know that you aren’t
very social.”

I held the bowl of popcorn in my hands and
could feel my fingertips tingle.

“Everyone knows about my mom, and that other
stuff is plain observation.”

Still, he moved closer. I backed up against
the counter as he moved forward. He took the popcorn bowl from my
hands and put it on the counter. He took my hands and wrapped them
around his waist, pushing his body flush with mine as his own arms
circled my shoulders.

“Let me know more, Chloe.”

I felt my breath catch, and then flutter out.
I wondered if he was going to kiss me.

His eyes were there, staring down into mine.
It should have felt uncomfortable to have someone staring so deep
into my soul, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable. I felt… wanted. It
was quite a change from how Drew had been treating me lately.

When his head lowered toward mine, I closed
my eyes. His lips touched mine, soft and questioning. I kissed him
harder. I pushed myself against him and parted my lips so our
tongues could meet.

It was wonderful.

One of his hands worked into my hair, holding
the back of my head, while the other one tightened around my waist.
My toes and fingers began to feel warm. My heart was pumping harder
than usual…

Oh, no…

I pulled back quickly, placing a hand on his
chest to keep him away. The last thing I wanted was to catch fire
and burn him.

“Chloe, don’t. It’s okay.” He reached out to
bring me closer again.

“No. You have to stop,” I told him. I was
freaked out, so my voice was stern and my hand was still on his
chest.

The next thing I knew, Drew tore through the
kitchen door and grabbed Gavin by the back of his jacket.

“Get off of her!” He yanked him away from me,
turned him around, and then swung at him.

“Drew!” I screamed “Get off of him! He didn’t
do anything!”

Drew hit him again and again. I tried to stop
Drew by grabbing his shirt and pulling on it. I didn’t want to get
into the line of fire.

“Stop it!” I screamed.

Finally, Gavin came to his senses enough to
hit Drew back. He pulled back and cracked his knuckles against
Drew’s cheekbone. The white of Drew's tux shirt spattered with
blood when Gavin’s fist connected with his nose.

“Guys! Please, stop this!” I was crazy mad at
Drew, but my fear for Gavin was worse than my anger. I knew what
Drew could do. I guess, in that moment, I forgot that Gavin was
also a vampire hunter.

“Damn it!” I slammed my fist onto the kitchen
table and watched in horror as my beautiful yellow roses tipped
over, spilling out of the vase. At exactly that moment, I heard a
loud ripping noise, and we were blessed with a fire in the
kitchen.

Neither of the guys had seen it happen. I
looked over, and they were still wrestling, bashing each other into
the kitchen counter and grunting.

“Fire!” I screamed at the top of my lungs and
ran for an extinguisher. In the last week, a whole bunch of fire
extinguishers had magically appeared in the house. I think Drew was
worried about stuff like this happening.

Quickly, I pulled the pin from the nozzle
trigger and sprayed the table down. I wanted to cry while I watched
the foam float over the remaining stems and tiny bits of charred
petals. The clear glass vase had split in two, probably from the
heat.

They finally stopped when they heard the
whoosh of the foam and the hiss of the disappearing flames. I
glared at them, with their bloody faces and messed up hair. Both
were crouched over, holding their stomachs and staring at the
charred table and broken vase covered with fire extinguisher foam.
They looked at me in my pretty blue dress holding the damned
extinguisher.

“What happened?” Gavin asked.

I lost it then. I grabbed up the brittle,
foamy stems off the table with my free hand and threw them in
Drew’s face.

“How dare you!” I hissed.

I hefted the extinguisher and sprayed them
both until nothing was left. Then I tossed it on the ground with a
loud clang.

I looked at Drew and pointed. “You get to
clean this crap up!”

I stalked out of the kitchen and up to my
room.