The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(24)

We sat in the pink and white waiting room reading magazines for hours. We drank nasty coffee and ate nasty vending machine sandwiches, and we waited.

At about four in the morning, a young, preppy looking doctor came out and told us that Luke had come through his surgeries well, and that the MRI showed no damage to his brain, but we were going to have wait until he woke up to find out if everything was functioning normally.

“Can we see him? Is he awake?” I asked.

“Of course, but only for a few minutes. He needs rest right now. Your grandfather will probably be asleep anyway; we’ve given him quite a bit of pain medication.”

“Thank you,” I told him.

Neither of us said a word while the doctor took his leave. I lifted my eyes and met Drew’s green-eyed gaze. We stayed that way for a while, not moving or speaking, just locked in each other’s stare. Finally, I became uncomfortable enough to break eye contact. I looked away. “We should go see him now.”

Drew nodded and mumbled, “Yeah,” under his breath.

We both stood and found our way to Luke’s room.

I don’t think I had fully prepared myself for what we saw. Luke lay on the hospital bed with a full-length cast on his right arm, a boot cast on his right leg and another one like mine on his left arm. There were tubes coming out from between his ribs that were hooked to a machine, and an oxygen cannula in his nose.

I heard Drew suck in his breath and looked over at him. He looked more angry than sad or worried. I decided to ignore him for the moment and went to the chair beside Luke’s bed.

“Luke, can you hear me?”

He didn’t move. He looked so frail and old laying there.

“Drew, what are we going to do? He is probably going to be in here for a while.”

“We go home, and we see what damage has been done to our people. Then we plan the mission to take our revenge.”

I bowed my head. I felt responsible for all that had happened. If it wasn’t for me, the community wouldn’t have been attacked in the first place. I was sure some of the hunters had died during the attack.

“This is turning into a war, isn’t it?” I whispered.

Drew turned toward the window and replied, “Yes… it is.”



We went home after sitting with Luke until midmorning. Drew and I both needed sleep and showers. After I showered, I crawled into bed and slept so hard I was certain it would be the next day when I woke. I only managed to sleep for six hours.

Drew was in the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal and reading the newspaper.

“Hi.” I grabbed a bowl and sat across from him.

“Did you go out there yet?” I nodded in the general direction of town.

“Yes. The stats are that we only lost three hunters… not bad, really… considering the attack, but I think they were more or less after you. We lost Eric, from the guard shack, and the two guys in the control room. One of them was my uncle.”

Oh, god. He must hate me.

“I’m so sorry.” I felt tears sliding down my cheeks. “Are you mad at me?”

Abruptly, he slid his chair out and grabbed his bowl, and then he threw it in the sink so hard it shattered into a zillion pieces. I flinched and sank back into my chair.

“Damn it, Chloe! It’s not always about you. Why in the hell would I be mad at you?”

“I don’t know.” I knew I was whining, but I didn’t care. I just didn’t want him to be mad at me. “I’m sorry.”

I sniffled back a bunch of snot that was threatening to come out of my nose.

He placed his hands on the counter in front of the sink and bowed his head.

I just sat there bawling while he stayed like that. Most likely he was trying to calm himself.

After about five minutes, I couldn’t do it anymore. “I’m sorry.” I whispered, and then got up to leave. I got as far as the door when he grabbed me by the wrist on my good arm and spun me around. It surprised me so much that I gasped and reflexively yanked my arm back.

“Chloe.”

“What? I’m trying to get out of here, Drew.”

“Don’t go. I don’t think any of this is your fault, but I have to grieve, too.” He took a step away from me. “Don’t you get it? I’m sad, Chloe. My uncle just died and so did our friends.”

I didn’t know what to say. It seemed like everything I said to him made him yell, so I did the only thing I knew how to do: I moved in and wrapped my arms around him.

It must have surprised him, because I wasn’t normally a touchy feely person, but eventually he responded and placed his own arms around my waist. We hugged, staying like that for a long time. His grip tightened around me and I heard him sniffle a couple times. He needed release. I did know enough about guys to know that they don’t normally show emotion very well, so I wanted to help him.

When the embrace was over, he released me and turned away. I felt a vibe from him that seemed to say ‘If you tell anyone about this, I’ll have to kill you.’

I figured the best thing to do would be to leave him alone now. “If you need me, I’ll be in my room.”

I saw the back of his head moving in a nod.

On the way to my room, I heard my cell phone chirping its stupid ringtone I hadn’t bothered to change yet. I ran the rest of the way and threw open my door, then did a sort of flying leap toward my bed where my phone was laying.