Almost Midnight (Shadow Falls: After Dark #3.5)(67)

“For that attempt,” Burnett said. “He’s already killed two of the girls who were high contenders to make this round of the contest. From where I stand, it appears you are all intended victims. And until I know differently, you will do as I say. Like it or not!”

He left in a flash, a cloud of anxiety lingering in his wake.

A cloud that brought on silence. A silence shattered by the ringing of Miranda’s phone. She reached for the cell, hoping it would be her dad, but nope.

She looked at Kylie and whispered, “Oh, crap. It’s my mom. If I tell her what happened, she’s gonna freak.”

*

Her mom hadn’t freaked, probably because Miranda hadn’t told her. Well, she’d told her a little, but downplayed the whole thing to make it sound like nothing more than a little inconvenience. And a little attempted murder.

“Seriously, it was just a few misbehaving vampires.” Miranda stood, wanting to find a private place to chat. Before she got away, Kylie reached over and squeezed her hand, offering a touch of calm. Obviously, she could read Miranda’s emotions.

“Does Burnett know?” her mom asked as Miranda stepped into the small kitchen. The door swished closed behind her.

“Yes, he’s looking into it.” Her “you just lied” alarm didn’t completely go off. Downplaying something wasn’t completely lying. Besides, her mom was thousands of miles away and wasn’t going to be here for a couple days. No reason to get her all panicky.

There was a pause.

“Is Dad home?” Miranda asked, remembering how she’d suddenly missed him earlier.

“No, he was asked to work another week in England.”

“He seems to be working more and more lately.” Miranda tried to keep her frustration from her voice.

“Yeah. He’s a workaholic.” A slight note of discontent sounded in her mom’s voice. Her mom had never complained about her dad’s schedule, she’d accepted it. As a matter of fact, she’d heard her mom tell people that she wasn’t sure she could live with a man full-time.

Her parents had never had what you could call a normal relationship. But they seemed happy. For the first time, Miranda worried perhaps her mom was getting lonely. Not that her mom was the type to get lonely. She had the social calendar of a celebrity. If anything, before Miranda had left to go to school at Shadow Falls, she’d often felt she was interfering with her mom’s busy schedule.

“So, he’s not going to come to Paris?” Miranda’s question met silence. “It would only take a few hours to get here by train. Mom?”

“Uh, no. Your dad’s not into competitions. You know that, dear.”

“Yeah, but I’ve never been up for high priestess before.” Not that this was her dad’s dream. Her mom was the one pushing for Miranda to climb the Wicca ladder of success. “Or in France. I just thought he might … you know, make an exception.” Another pause. “Maybe you could call him and ask. We haven’t had any family time in months.”

“You’re right. We should go skiing in Colorado. Right after Christmas. I think it’s his year to work on Christmas day. But I’ll mention it when I speak with him.”

Her dad, along with a friend, owned several boutique hotels across the U.S. Her mom had never wanted to live out of a hotel room, and other than a couple of times a year, they never stayed at one of her dad’s properties.

“Maybe if I call and ask him to come to Paris, he’ll do it,” Miranda said, feeling secure in her relationship with her father. It was her mom that Miranda had always felt she disappointed.

“It will only make him feel bad if he has to tell you no. Let’s not make him feel bad, okay?”

Miranda had heard that line before. When she first realized that most fathers didn’t travel so much for their jobs, she complained that her dad wasn’t going to be around for a holiday. It’s just a day, her mother told her, we can celebrate Christmas or Easter any day. And they did. Always.

Her family life had never been traditional, but when she considered her friends with more traditional family lives, friends whose parents divorced, and even sued each other for custody of the kids, Miranda decided nontraditional wasn’t all that bad.

Sure, her parents argued. Her mom would turn her poor dad into a baboon or a rat, but she always changed him back, and after a few days of not speaking to each other, they always made up. More importantly, Miranda sensed they were happy.

“When is your plane landing in Paris?” Miranda asked in lieu of agreeing to not calling her dad. She missed him, darn it. What would it hurt to call him and ask him to come?

She had never really considered herself a daddy’s girl, but realizing someone might be trying to kill you had this girl wanting her first hero.

“I’m not sure. I’ll have to check my ticket.”

“Okay,” Miranda said, and looked back to make sure the door was closed. Now that she had her daddy issues resolved, she decided it was time to tackle a different issue altogether.

“Mom, can I ask you something?”

“Why … sure,” she replied, yet her tone sounded unsure. “But if this is about sex, let me sit down first. And if you’re going to tell me you’re pregnant I’m gonna need to fix a drink.” Silence spilled into the line while Miranda tried to wrap her head around her mom’s response. “Oh, gawd, do I need a drink?”