Vampire 01 - Daughter of Darkness

of being treated like a little girl.”
    I gave her Ava’s stock answer to everything. “Your time will come. Be patient.”
    “
Patient
,” she said. “I hate that word as much as Mrs. Fennel hates the word
sorry.
”
    That made me laugh, and for me at the moment, the sound of my own laughter was like balm on a wound, soothing and relieving.
    “Don’t treat me like some cute little child,” Marla snapped.
    I pressed my lips together and then said the word. “Sorry.”
    “Oh!” she cried, and pounded her thighs.
    It was the closest I came to laughing in those last few days.
    Ava, whether to placate Marla or just to keep me busy, did plan something for the three of us for Friday night. With Daddy’s and Mrs. Fennel’s blessings, she took us to do some shopping first and then to have what Mrs. Fennel called “goat food” because it was garbage to her. Ava and I let Marla decide where we would go. To our surprise, she chose a steak house. Of all the foodwe ate away from the house, Ava enjoyed steak the most. I did, too.
    All night, Marla tried to pry out of us what we were planning for Saturday.
    “Why do I have to wait to find out? I should be just as trusted as either of you in our family now. More, even. I haven’t made the mistakes Lorelei has made, have I?”
    “See what I mean about her?” Ava told me. “I feel sorry for you when I leave.”
    I looked at Marla and saw the sparks in her eyes. Ava was right about her. I wished I could leave with Ava and not have to fend Marla off. Why hadn’t I had the same driving, ruthless ambition when I was her age? Why didn’t I have it now?
    Marla watched us both very closely Saturday morning. The moment either of us moved from one room to another, she followed.
    She’s going to ruin things yet
, I thought, or, rather, I hoped. I was tempted to make it easier for her to discover something, but Ava was watching me almost as closely as Marla was.
    As was usual when a day for Daddy’s feeding arrived, Mrs. Fennel moved about the house with more energy. It was as if nourishing him would nourish her as well. For his part, Daddy was mostly withdrawn, resting quietly in his suite. Mrs. Fennel brought him something for lunch, one of her magic elixirs created out of one of her secret herbal formulas. When we were younger, she often would have us drink one of them. It was sweet and syrupy but not appetizing to look at because of its greenish-blue color.
    Late in the afternoon, Ava advised me to go to my room and spend time on my hair and my makeup and carefully choose something very sexy to wear, one of her hand-me-downs.
    “It’s like an assassin loading his gun,” she explained, and laughed. I saw how much she was enjoying this. My nervousness and reluctance were obviously an integral part of that pleasure. She grew more serious. “You have to keep him turned on, Lorelei, even when you bring him up here. That’s important. His blood should be hot with desire and passion. Make love with him as much as you can the whole time you’re with him, but of course, be careful.”
    “Why is getting accidentally pregnant such a disaster for us, Ava? I know a number of girls at school who have gotten pregnant and had abortions. No one seems to make that big a deal of it.”
    “Some girls. Tramps,” she said.
    “It happens. People lose control.”
    “We don’t,” she said sharply. “We are always in control, Lorelei. That’s the whole point. I can’t believe you don’t feel these things as deeply and as instinctively as I do. Honestly, you really do worry me. Doing this tonight will go far to bring you home.”
    “Bring me home? But I am home.”
    “Home to Daddy,” she said, which only made things more mysterious and confusing. “Let’s not talk about all of this now. Let’s just do what has to be done and hope that afterward, you will answer your own questions.”
    “Is that what happened to you?”
    “Of course. Go get ready,” she ordered. “Daddy andMrs. Fennel expect us both to be preparing for tonight. They just don’t know the target. Go!” she ordered when she saw I was still hesitating.
    I hurried to my room. Marla swooped in like some buzzard moments after I began my preparations.
    “What do you want?” I asked her. She was really annoying me now.
    “I just want to watch. You’re so lucky going out with Ava again, especially tonight.”
    I tried to ignore her, but she was making me jittery and uptight. Nothing was going the way I