Vampire 01 - Daughter of Darkness

house.”
    “Why can’t I go, too?”
    “If you could, would I have wasted time bringing you home, Marla? This is Daddy’s business. Just do what you’re told,” she said sharply.
    Petulant, Marla got out, but she glared at me as if it was somehow all my fault. Had Ava told her about Buddy and me? The moment she was gone and Ava started to drive away, I asked her.
    “Of course not,” she said. “She’s far too young to understand all of this, and besides, I couldn’t trust that she would keep her mouth shut. She’d go to Mrs. Fennel, if not Daddy.”
    “How mean she’s become.”
    “Mean? She’s not mean, Lorelei. She’s competitive. Have you forgotten Daddy’s lectures about sibling rivalry and how it applies more to us than most? I told you, she’s going to be breathing down your neck.” She laughed.
    “What’s so funny, Ava?”
    “I’m glad she came here after you and not after me. You’re much easier to compete with,” she said with a smile. “Which,” she decided to add, “is not something of which you should be proud.”
    I was tired of her lectures and criticism. I just wanted to go home and go to sleep. “Where are we going?”
    “Where do you think? We have to set up for the weekend.”
    “Must we do this, Ava? Isn’t there any other way, any other choice? I’ll do anything else you say. I swear.”
    “I know you would, and that’s why we must do this. You can’t remain this weak and vulnerable, even to me. In the end, years from now, you’ll look back and thank me.”
    I won’t thank you as much as I’ll hate myself
, I thought.
    We drove on, Ava energized and excited and me sinking into myself as if my body had turned into quicksand.
    “What this will do,” she said as we turned toward UCLA, “is make you and me closer as sisters. I’m sure that’s something you’ve always wanted.” She turned to me when I didn’t respond. “Something Daddy has always wanted,” she tacked on.
    “I know,” I said.
    But anyone listening would have wondered, as Ava was now wondering, if I saw that as something wonderful or something tragic.
    Time, the real fortune-teller, would let us know sooner than we could imagine.

18
 
A Plan
    Ava sat silently for a moment after she had pulled the car into a parking space and turned off the engine. I was hoping she’d had a change of mind, that there was a complication she had not thought about until now. But she wasn’t worrying about anything; she was planning details.
    “All right. Here’s how we’ll do this. You’ll arrange for him to meet your father this Saturday night. You can go out on your last date with him wherever you like and then bring him home. You’ll tell him your father is returning at ten o’clock from a trip but is looking forward to meeting him, and if he wants to continue to see you, he had better do this. Do you understand?”
    “What if I promise never to mention his name again? I’ll tell him good-bye forever, Ava. I won’t obsess over him like you think. I’ll look forward to moving away and—”
    “Stop it, Lorelei.” She turned completely around to look at me, her face taking on the all-too-well-known look of distrust. “You know, I’ve always had my doubts about you, and despite how loving and kind Daddy’sbeen to you, he’s had his doubts as well. When I took you out to see how you would do with men, I was happy to see that you enjoyed the flirting, the seduction, and I did tell Daddy that I thought it was encouraging. But you are very different from me and from Marla. There are times I think you’ll bolt out of the house and never come back. We all have the funds and charge cards Daddy has set up in our names, but I told him often that in your case, that might be a mistake.” She paused and then continued in a reasonable, even sisterly tone. “Now, look at this as a wonderful opportunity to prove yourself. Once Daddy finds out what you’ve done and what you will do now, he’ll have complete confidence in you. He’ll forgive your stupid high school affair and write it off as the exuberance of youth or something, and you’ll go on to fulfill your destiny.”
    “What is my destiny?”
    “You’re getting closer to finding out,” she said. “Okay, I know what class he is supposed to be in right now.” She looked at her watch. “I know where he goes next. You’ll just be there waiting and catch his eye. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble doing that, do you?”
    “No,