The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(20)

“Okay, how 'bout I pick you up at seven, then?”

I giggled. How ironic. “Seven sounds great. If you don’t mind, I really need to get home and change before I get sick from being in these wet clothes.”

“Oh, I’m really sorry about that.”

I had already started to walk away. I just wanted to get away from him before I said anything else I’d regret.

“I’ll see you soon.” I called out and started to fast-walk through the slush.



“Hey, Luke,” I called when I opened the door.

I heard his raspy voice holler from the kitchen, “In here.”

I pulled off my boots and peeled off my socks and then went into the kitchen where I found him preparing steaks, seasoned rice and a big green salad. Everyone in the community was a health food addict, but I was so glad they still ate meat. I didn’t know what I would have done if I’d had to go vegetarian.

“Let me go change my clothes real quick, and I’ll come and help you with dinner.”

Wondering why I would want to change my clothes, he glanced over at me. “What happened?”

“I fell, walking home from the library.”

His gray hair bobbed and he nodded. It wasn’t unlike me to do something like fall down while I was walking home. I ran upstairs and quickly threw on a different pair of jeans and a sweatshirt that said ‘Whatever’ on the front. I hurried down to help Luke. When I arrived, he was just putting on the steaks.

“Will you get the plates and silverware out and set the table, please?”

“Sure,” I nodded. “Hey, Luke?”

"Humm?"

I pulled plates out of the cupboard. “Could you not cook my steak too much? It tastes funny to me when it’s well done.”

“Rare it is,” he told me as he flipped the meat.

Just then, the front door opened and closed. Drew.

I ran to the kitchen door and peeked out. It was him. “Hey, I thought you were going on a mission tonight?”

“We will. We leave in about four hours.” He threw his bags on the ground by the door. “What’s for dinner?”

“Luke is making steaks,” I told him and went back to setting the table. Drew had followed me into the kitchen.

“Drew,” Luke looked over his shoulder, “I’m glad you’re here. Is the mission planning going well?”

“Yeah.” Drew pulled out the chair at his spot, and I set silverware and a napkin in front of him.

“You should wash your hands,” I told him, eyeballing his fingernails. Dirt was caked underneath them and had been ground right into his fingertips. He rolled his eyes and got up, but only headed to the sink after I put my hands on my hips and glared at him.

After all three of us were seated and the food was on the table, Luke cut into his meat.

“How are you two doing today? I haven’t seen either of you all day.”

Both Drew and I glanced at each other. We knew we had to tell him everything, including the appearance of Sostrate. I didn’t want him to think we were crazy. I’m pretty sure Drew was thinking the same thing, but we had to tell him.

“Well, it’s actually been pretty eventful since last night.” I grabbed the salad dressing and doused my salad with it. “We went to the cemetery last night, to see my mom.”

Luke swallowed a piece of his steak. “I was wondering when you were going to want to do that. I’m glad you went. Drew did take you, right?”

“Yeah, and I’m glad he did.”

“Why is that?”

Again I looked at Drew and gave him a pleading look to explain it to Luke. He knew Luke better than I did, anyway. I was so afraid he was going to think I was nuts.

Thank god, he acknowledged the plea and cleared his throat. “We saw Sostrate, in the cemetery last night.”

Luke immediately paused his chewing, raised his eyebrows, and then proceeded to finish chewing. “So the warrior woman showed herself to you?”

We both nodded.

“And she spoke to you?”

“Yes, and she gave me a present.” I cut into my meat and forked a big piece of it.

“Chloe! That’s gross!” Drew pointed at my steak.

I looked down. “What?”

I didn’t see anything wrong with it.

“It’s bleeding all over.”

“Well, I like it this way. Okay? Leave me alone about it.” I shoved the steak into my mouth and chewed.

“Gross,” Drew mumbled.

“So anyway,” I swallowed, “she came and told me I needed to work on not being so mad and full of vengeance. Then she gave me a bow and a quiver full of arrows. I thought maybe it was a dream, but when I woke up this morning, the bow and quiver were still there.”

Luke was shocked. I can honestly say it was the first time I had seen him surprised by anything since we’d met.

“It’s no big deal. I mean, this happens to people, right?”

“Not that I know of,” Luke told me. “You are the first I have ever known to have an encounter with any apparition.”

“Oh, no.” I waved my fork. “She made it perfectly clear that she was not an apparition. She said that she is a demi-goddess and that she gained immortality from her mother.”