Vampire 01 - Daughter of Darkness

but—”
    “Take him somewhere to talk. Make it seem as though everything is fine, and you will be able to keep seeing him once he meets your father. I’ll watch from a safe distance to be sure it all goes well.”
    “But what if he wants to go somewhere now to spend the rest of the day with me? What do I say?”
    “Simple, Lorelei. I don’t know why these lies don’t come naturally to you. You say you took advantage of anopportunity to come here with me. I had to do something that would take an hour, and then you have to return home with me. You’ll see him Saturday night. The more he waits, the more excited he’ll be about your date, and the more vulnerable he’ll be.”
    I nodded slightly and started to lower my head.
    “Damn it, Lorelei,” she snapped. “Stop looking like you’re about to lose your best friend. Grin and bear it, and become Daddy’s true daughter. If Buddy Gilroy looks at your face with that expression on it, you’ll spook him and lose him, and then we’ll both have to deal with bigger problems, problems you caused.”
    “Okay, okay. Don’t yell at me,” I said.
    “Let’s go,” she said, and got out of the car.
    She started walking away quickly, her annoyance with me palpable. I practically had to run to catch up to her, but when I did, she didn’t slow down or speak. I followed her across the campus to the place where she wanted me to wait.
    “All right. You stay here. It will only be minutes now.”
    “Should I just stay here in this place with him the whole time?”
    “No, of course not. Do I have to plan every little second of this for you? Go to that coffee shop nearby, but keep looking at your watch so he understands you can’t be with him long right now. I’m confident you can pull this off if you half try, Lorelei. Don’t mess it up. The consequences will be bad for both of us but worse for you,” she warned, and walked away.
    I leaned against a wall. Ironically, I wasn’t afraid of her as much as I was of Buddy. There was somethingspecial between us, and because of that, I was expecting he would surely see through me, see my deceit. What would I do then?
    I saw the students begin filing out of their classes, but I didn’t see him at all and had a fleeting hope that he had not gone to this class, that he had cut all of his classes again because he was too upset about not speaking to me or seeing me. Maybe he was back at his uncle’s house. If I could postpone this now, maybe I could postpone it forever. Moments later, when I was about to give up, however, he appeared, and when he saw me, his face brightened.
    “Lorelei, what are you doing here?” he asked, hurrying up to kiss me. “Not that I’m upset or anything like that. This is wonderful.”
    “Ava had to come here to do something she said would take about an hour. I realized it was an opportunity to see you and came along with her.”
    “Terrific.”
    “You have another class?”
    “It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters much when I put it up against seeing you,” he said.
    I looked at my watch. “I have about forty-five minutes.”
    “What’s the rush? I could take you home.”
    “No,” I said quickly. “Not yet. I’ll tell you about that, about my plans for us.”
    “Okay, okay. Let’s go somewhere where we can talk.”
    “How about that coffee place just off campus?”
    “Perfect. Say, how do you know so much about everything here?”
    “Ava,” I said.
    “Oh, right. I was hoping you were going to say you’ve been here many times watching me from a distance or something romantic like that.”
    I looked to my right and left, but I didn’t see Ava. Even so, I felt her eyes were on me.
    “So, how did things go when your father returned?”
    “He was understanding, and he was wonderful in school today when he had to meet the principal. Things are back to normal.”
    “Well, he sounds like a neat guy.”
    “Neat? He’s immaculate.”
    Buddy laughed. “I should have said cool. No one says neat anymore. I’m so excited about seeing you so unexpectedly like this. I can’t think.”
    He took my hand, and we continued walking. It was another beautiful California day. The afternoons in spring were like this so often that people here took it for granted. I’d miss it when we moved away. The bright sunshine and deep blue skies washed away the darkness that could seep in from other places, troubling thoughts and fears. Daddy would say, “We’re having a little bit of Eden