Vampire 01 - Daughter of Darkness

realize it until we were almost here.”
    “This is spoiled food, Ava. I can’t feed on this tonight.”
    “What? What the hell’s he talking about?” the young man asked, and struggled to get to his feet.
    I never saw the blow. Daddy’s hands could move that quickly. He struck him on the back of his neck, and the man folded to the floor. Then Daddy kneeled down and lifted him in his arms as if he were a child, when he looked to me to be more than six feet tall and easily more than two hundred pounds.
    “I’ll have to put him in storage until nearly morning,” Daddy said sharply to Ava.
    “I’m sorry, Daddy. We were just drinking earlier. I told him I didn’t want to take anything, and I thought he understood, but…”
    Daddy didn’t wait for any further explanation. He turned and carried the young man toward the stairway. Ava stood there with her head down. She looked up when Daddy was nearly to the top, and then she started toward me.
    “What happened?” I asked.
    She glared at me for a moment. “You saw it. Why ask?”
    “I don’t…”
    “Let me tell you something,” she said, looking as ifshe might actually cry. “If you thought you were moving too quickly and magically before, it will be nothing compared to how he’ll move you along now.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I’m not little Miss Perfect anymore. You are, or you’d better be. The writing’s on the wall, Lorelei, and it’s in blood,” she told me, and walked on to her room.

8
 
Daddy Knows Best
    The young man’s car was gone in the morning. I didn’t have to ask Mrs. Fennel why Daddy was still asleep, either. Even Marla looked tired that morning. I wondered if she had overheard anything or seen anything the night before, but as it turned out, she had simply stayed up too late watching television. Actually, I hadn’t slept that well myself.
    Ava’s remarks to me had left me trembling. I tossed and turned, hearing her words echo in my head, and didn’t fall asleep for hours. It left me depressed, and I wasn’t very talkative in the car. I knew Marla thought I was still angry at her or that maybe I was worried about what might happen with Mark Daniels in school now. After we parked, she told me to come looking for her if I needed anything.
    “I’m all right, Marla. Don’t worry about me,” I said.
    “I’m not worrying about you. I’m worrying about us,” she reminded me. So much for that sisterly feeling I had been hoping would develop between us.
    Mark wasn’t waiting for me at the door again and in fact, he was nearly late to school himself. All day, Ianticipated him approaching me with some funny remark, but when I looked at him, he appeared depressed himself, walking with his head down and not volunteering any answers in any of our classes. I noticed that he wasn’t very talkative with his friends, and he left lunch early. Just before the last period of the day, one of the boys who did hang with him, Jeff Kantor, came up beside me and said, “Mark’s really taking your rejection hard. Don’t look for him in class. He went home.”
    He continued walking past me.
    I looked back to see if Mark was there and this was just another one of his jokes, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight, and when class began, his desk remained empty. Could this be true? Would my rejecting him really disturb someone like Mark so much? Was I simply a failed conquest, or did he really have strong feelings for me? On the way home, I told Marla about it, simply because I was truly amazed.
    “I can’t help feeling a little sorry for him,” I said.
    “That’s stupid, Lorelei. Maybe now he’ll leave you be,” she said. “Good work.”
    Good work? I had blown off the best-looking, most charming and delightful boy in the school. How could I make her understand? What would it have been like if I could have had a little high school romance? What would it have been like to be picked up for dates, go to movies and dinner, hang out together at the beach, or just take long rides? What would it have been like to have a date for a dance, go to parties at other kids’ homes, talk on the phone, always be together in school, and maybe say dramatic things to each other?
    Could I explain to her how I would be excited every morning and look forward to seeing him? I’d really care about what I wore and what I looked like, how I fixed my hair, what makeup and nail polish I used. I’d look and act like everyone else. Other girls would be envious