Vampire 01 - Daughter of Darkness

comes.”
    “When’s that, Daddy?” she asked, looking up at him hopefully and excitedly.
    “Patience,” he said. “Everything comes to those who wait. Ava was the same way, weren’t you, Ava?”
    “I didn’t have to be as patient. I bloomed a little bit earlier, Daddy,” she said softly.
    He glanced at her wryly, his lips pursed for a moment. “Our Ava,” he said, “is a little insecure yet.”
    Insecure? Ava? None of Daddy’s daughters could be insecure, especially by Ava’s age and doing the things Ava was now required to do. I was more surprised than she was at the obvious criticism, but she took it harder. She looked as if she might break out in hysterical sobs. I almost felt sorry for her, even though a bigger part of me took pleasure in seeing her knocked off her pedestal.
    “It’s nothing,” Daddy quickly added. “It’s quite normal, in fact. It always comes with some sibling rivalry, and there’s nothing wrong with some good old-fashioned sibling rivalry.” He laughed and then added, “I have every confidence that Ava will prove to be one of my best little girls, if not the best.”
    That pulled her back from the cliff of dark sorrow, and she looked happy again. As if our lives were a play being enacted on some grand stage, right on cue, Mrs. Fennel came to the doorway that opened to the dining room before anything more could be said about who would be Daddy’s best daughter and who wouldn’t.
    “Everything’s ready,” she announced. The manner in which she spoke and the way she stood there, her body stiff, her shoulders back, made it seem as if one of us was about to go to an execution and not our dinner.
    “Well, then, let’s go to the table,” Daddy said, and stood. Marla leaped to her feet. Ava moved forwardquickly. She expected him to put his arm around her shoulders, as he often did, and lead her into the dining room, but he reached out for my hand instead. I looked at Ava. Her eyebrows lifted, and her eyes flashed anger and disappointment in my direction, but then she quickly looked away and started for the dining room so she wouldn’t see Daddy kiss my cheek. However, I was sure she heard him whisper, “You’re a diamond now out of the rough. How complete and confident I feel just looking at you.”
    Could my heart be fuller? I glanced at myself in the wall mirror in our dining room and saw the glow in my face. The flame inside me that my happiness fueled could light a room, I thought. I was filled with the sin of pride but completely unconcerned. In our world, the deadliest sin was not pleasing Daddy. Everything else was more a misdemeanor than a felony.
    “Tell us about your trip to France, Daddy,” Marla said after the four of us had sat.
    Mrs. Fennel never ate with us. She served our dinners, breakfasts, and lunches and ate by herself in the kitchen. Ava said we should be grateful about that. “Watching her eat is like watching a starving dog go at food.”
    “I visited friends outside of Paris near Versailles,” Daddy began.
    “Old friends?”
    “Oh, yes,” Daddy told her. “All my friends are old friends these days,” he added with a smile. “But everyone was excited and energetic. It was a wonderful reunion. For us, no matter where we are, it’s always as though we are there for the first time, and if you think as I do thatevery day is the first day of your life, it really feels like it is the first time. We were like silly tourists. We went to great restaurants, shopped everywhere, and of course, we all went to the Louvre in Paris. We had known so many of the artists. It takes days and days to really appreciate the Louvre. I expect all of you will go there eventually.”
    “I’ve been,” Ava reminded him.
    “Yes, but you were too young to appreciate it,” he said.
    “I remember going there,” she insisted, “but…”
    “But you don’t remember anything you saw,” he suggested with his soft smile.
    She laughed like someone caught with her hand in a cookie jar.
    Then all of us laughed.
    “My girls,” Daddy said. He reached for my hand and Ava’s, and I reached for Marla’s. The four of us held on to each other around the table. Daddy lowered his head and closed his eyes. This was the closest we ever came to any sort of prayer. There was a stillness around us; the lights seemed to dim.
    “I see great things ahead for all of you, my lovelies,” he said. “You will all go to wonderful places and see the world’s most beautiful