The Vampire Hunter's Daughter The Complete Collection (37 page)

“I don’t want anything.”

I had sat down next to her again and put my
hand on her leg.

“Alice, you have earned this. You gave him
your heart and soul; you earned it with your blood. Don’t make that
into nothing.”

“At least keep the house in Greece,” Sarah
Jane suggested, “and the money.”

Vanessa made a choking sound. “How crass to
be discussing this here. Some of us are distraught.”

I’d had it with that hag. “Shut up, Vanessa!”
I flexed my hands and prepped to blow her away.

“Chloe!” Luke scolded me. “Not here.”

“Luke, you told me this would stay under
control.” Maxwell stood, quick on the defense.

Vanessa also stood. “Our game is not yet
over, young one.”

Dahlia stood. “Perhaps it would be beneficial
to everyone if the hunters leave and the papers are signed another
day.”

“No,” Alice said. She stood on shaky legs.
“I’ll sign them now.”

She moved from the couch to the desk where
Maxwell had the papers. “Mr. Maxwell, would you be so kind as to
help me find buyers for all the homes except the home in Greece? I
don’t care to live in any of his homes here.”

Maxwell smiled kindly at her. “I would be
happy to do that for you, Ms. Matthews. Please, just sign each of
these papers here, here, here, and here.” He marked an X everywhere
she needed to sign. I felt uncomfortable with us not reading
anything she signed, but we were all more than ready to leave.

Alice signed while Vanessa and I glared at
each other. She knew absolutely that I would burn her beautiful
brown hair right off her head if she made the slightest move toward
me, or any of us, for that matter.

“There, all done.” Alice clicked the pen and
set it down in front of Maxwell.

“Thank you, Ms. Matthews. I will send your
information by courier and call you to let you know when the
transactions are completed.”

Alice sniffled. “Thank you so much, Mr.
Maxwell.”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth,
the entire group stood and made for the door. We didn’t run or
anything, but it was evident that none of the parties involved were
happy about being there.

On the way out, Luke shook hands with Maxwell
again. “Thank you for your time.”

And then we exited the office and quickly
walked to the elevators.

Back at home, Oscar sat at the kitchen table
anxiously awaiting our arrival.

“What happened? How did it go?” He stood.
“Alice, why are you crying?”

Luke patted Alice on the back. “Honey, why
don’t you go on up and get some rest. We can explain everything to
Oscar.”

She sniffled, nodded, and then headed up the
stairs.

I pulled out a chair and sat down, while Drew
made his way to the fridge.

Oscar looked back and forth amongst all of us
and threw his hands up. “Well?”

Luke opened a bag of carrots and started to
chop them up. “Well, nothing. It was procedure. Alice got pretty
much everything he owned except the night clubs and some
jewels.”

“What was with that anyway?” I asked. “Was
Dahlia some kind of royalty?”

Luke had his back to us and continued to
chop. “I’m assuming that was the case.”

I leaned on my elbows on the table. “I’m just
glad that’s over.”

“Me too.” Drew set a glass of water next to
me on the table and sat beside me. “I didn’t trust any of those
vampires at all. I was on edge the whole time.”

I yawned. I was super tired, and it was late.
I wasn’t used to staying up late because I had woken so early in
the morning.

“I think I’m going to go to bed,” I
announced. “Are you running with me in the morning?” I directed my
question at Drew.

He took a swig of his water. “Yup. Just
remember I’m up when you come down here in the morning.”

“Very funny,” I told him, pushing out my
chair.

“What’s funny about that?” Oscar asked.

“Chloe punched me in the nose the other day
when she came downstairs and ran into me.” He touched his nose.
“Pretty good hit, too.”

“Ugh, you didn’t have to tell everyone,” I
complained.

He laughed. “It doesn’t matter. We know to
avoid you in the mornings.”

“Ha ha, you’re so funny,” I muttered and left
the room. “Good night everyone,” I called out.

I left the guys laughing in the kitchen and
went to my room where I changed into my nightclothes and fell into
bed beside Alice.

It was my birthday.

Not that there were going to be any huge
celebrations, but it felt good that the day I turned sixteen had
finally come. With Trevor dead, I didn’t have to worry so much
about being an ingredient in a vampire day-walker recipe. In less
than twenty-four hours, I wouldn’t have to worry at all. It felt
almost like I had been freed from some sort of prison.

I peeled back my purple comforter and tried
to get out of bed as quietly as I could. I didn’t want to wake
Alice, although, I was about ready to make her start running with
me. It would be good for her. I knew exercise produced endorphins,
and endorphins made people happy. She could use that.

Pretty soon, I was going to have to get back
to my regular training. I was keeping up with the exercise and
stuff, but not the butt-kicking part. I threw on my black yoga
pants and a shirt with matching black hoodie. I twisted my hair
into two braids and put a stocking cap on. It hadn’t snowed yet,
but it was getting chilly outside.

Slowly and quietly I tiptoed out of the room
and down the stairs. Thank god I didn’t run smack into Drew. He sat
on the living room floor doing stretches.

“Good morning,” I greeted him and joined him
on the floor to do my own stretching.

“Morning,” he answered.

We stretched our muscles while the news
played on low volume in the background. Neither of us said anything
until we were outside. It was still dark, but you could see that
daylight was coming.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Yeah, let’s go.” I started off before he had
a chance to get ahead of me and headed toward the trails. The
leaves crunched underneath my running shoes with every step. He
caught up to me, and we kept pace together, running for about
twenty minutes on the trails, then down into town. We stayed on the
sidewalks until Drew veered off onto another trail I’d never been
up.

“Where are we going?” I called out.

He stopped and waited for me, because I’d
lagged behind a little bit.

“It’s a surprise. I want to show you
something.”

I shrugged. “Okay. Should we keep running, or
should we walk?”

He took his hood off his head. “We could
walk, if you want. It does eventually end up being kind of a
hike.”

After a while, I noticed the trail sloped
uphill.

“How come you won’t tell me where we’re
going?” I complained.

“Quit asking. We’ll be there soon.”

“Fine.” I huffed back at him. I just wanted
to know where we were going. It was a nice walk. The trees and
bushes hadn’t completely died yet, and the air was crisp but not
freezing. The trail continued to slope upward, but it was rockier
than the lower trails. We had to make sure our footing was just
right or we'd fall. It wasn’t much longer, maybe about ten minutes
of rocky trails, and I heard the sound of a river.

“I hear water. I didn’t know there was a
river out here. How come you never told me?”

He stopped in front of me and turned
around.

“Just stop asking questions and go with it,
all right?”

He took his pack off and extracted a water
bottle, took a big swig and handed it to me.

I took a long drink, too. I don’t know why I
hadn’t brought my own water. Then again, I didn’t know we would
hike all this way. We moved on, and about twenty minutes later,
Drew pushed through a particularly rough trail with tree branches
that blocked the pathway. We emerged in front the most beautiful
waterfall I’d ever seen. It was so tall I couldn’t even guess how
high it stood. The water came over the side of the cliff and
pummeled into the pool below where it churned and sprayed droplets
of water everywhere.