The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(25)

“Hello!”

“Chloe?” I hadn’t bothered to look at the caller ID and didn’t recognize the voice.

“Yeah, this is me. Who is this?”

“It’s Gavin.”

“Oh, hi.”

“Do you have minute to talk?”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “Yeah, sure. What’s up?”

“Well, the main reason I called was to see if you were all right, after all that happened.”

“I’m okay. I have a broken arm, but Luke is in pretty bad condition. Drew is all right, too.”

I heard him sigh through the earpiece. “Good, I’m glad you weren’t hurt too badly. I’m sorry about Luke.”

I explained to him all about Luke’s injuries and told him how worried I was. After that, we lapsed into silence for a minute. When he spoke, his voice was unsure. “So… this may not be the right time to bring this up, but the New Year’s Bash is still on.”

“They are still going to put that on, even with all that happened?” I was utterly shocked that they would still go through with such an event after the attack.

“Yeah, its tradition…and I think there will be a lot of discussion about retaliation there too.”

Great, just great. I was still going to have to find a dress. “Oh, well I guess we are still on then?”

“Absolutely, that was the other reason I was calling.”

“Well… thanks for making sure. I guess I’ll see you when you pick me up.” I didn’t know why, but I suddenly wanted to get off the phone really bad.

“I’ll be there,” he told me and then we said goodbye and clicked off.

Damn it. Now I had to see if Drew would drive me to the mall after we went to visit Luke later. The last thing I wanted to do was bother him about going to get a dumb dress. I had no other choice; I didn’t have anything to wear.



“You need to do what?” he hollered at me.

“I need a dress, Drew.”

“People have died, Luke is in the hospital and all you can think about is what you’re going to wear to a party!”

I crossed my arms. “That isn’t all I think about.”

Drew didn’t say anything after that; he just turned away and grumbled under his breath.

“So are you going to take me, or what?”

“You know, I will,” he snapped. “I just don’t have to like it. Let’s go. We can visit Luke and then go to the mall afterward.”

Silently, I gathered my things. I sure was getting tired of his mood swings. It was understandable that he was emotional, but it felt like he was taking it out on me.

We stopped to see Luke, who didn’t wake up the entire time we were there. We didn’t really try to wake him up either. I figured it was probably easier for him to sleep as much as he could.

Afterward at the mall, I searched the stores while Drew went to the food court to get himself an Orange Julius. I think I made him an addict for those things after the last excursion to the mall.

Most of the shops didn’t have formal dresses. It took me over two hours, but I finally found a very pretty gown in royal blue. When I tried it on, I was as happy with it as I was when I saw it on the rack. The whole thing fit snug against my body. The top showed off some cleavage, but not enough to make me feel inappropriate, and it had tiny little spaghetti straps. My dark hair contrasted the shimmering blue perfectly. The only thing I needed was a pair of shoes to go with the dress. The dress was long, all the way to my ankles, and had a slit that went up to just above my knee. I hoped people didn’t think the dress was too old for me, because it was the only one I liked.

I took it off and put my clothes back on, and then I paid for my dress. Man, it sucked having spent all that money and leaving with one tiny little bag. I wandered over toward the food court to see if Drew was still there.

I scanned the tables, looking for Drew’s blond head and pretty green eyes. I didn’t see him anywhere. Deciding that he probably just went to the bathroom or something, I got myself an Orange Julius and found an empty table. Slurping the orange liquid noisily through a straw, I continued to look around the food court for Drew.

No Drew.

But I saw someone else.

He sat at a table across the room with his black jean clad legs crossed and a drink in front of him. He had a pale face, pale hands and dark brown eyes that any woman might have fallen for.

It was Trevor… my father. I just knew it was. Something inside me knew that person, just as I had known Sostrate was a part of my blood.

I sat as still as I could, even though I felt the flush of heat rush through my body. I was scared to death, but decided that the best thing to do would be to play it cool. He wouldn’t dare hurt me in a room full of people with camera phones.

I sipped my Orange Julius slowly, without taking my eyes off of him. In turn, he stared back at me while he stirred his coffee or whatever it was he had in front of him. He kept his legs crossed and our eyes locked.

I didn’t know how long I could stand sitting there staring at him. It was obvious he was threatening me, but I didn’t know exactly what kind of message he was trying to send. I wanted to send him a message, too, but didn’t know how to even go about that.

I was going to kill him… and he should know it.