Hunting My Vampire (Immortal Vampire #3)

Chapter 11

Kaya

I felt different, somehow. My head was clearer and it was as if a weight had been lifted off me.

I could hardly believe how well-behaved Jack had been, keeping his distance and never even trying anything with me. Even my usual paranoid self couldn’t come up with a nefarious reason why he would do so much for me. If he had wanted to get his teeth into me, so to speak, he could have done that at any point over the past few days. He didn’t have to go to all the trouble of setting up the meet with the medicine man or of taking time off to help me sort out my life.

There was no way around it. He had helped me more than anyone else had, ever before. He’d taken time out of his life to fly me across the country, put me up in a hotel and wiped my face when the night sweats came. In the hotel afterwards, he had been so sweet, so attentive.

I slept most of the way back and Jack dropped me at the house, asking me if I was up to coming over to his house later. He wanted to show me the castle, apparently. Words I never thought I’d hear, to be honest.

But I did want to see it. Or rather, see him.

Something had happened between us on this trip, a kind of connection that went beyond the physical attraction. I was beginning to think there was something between us, though I couldn’t imagine what. After what I had been through, he was the only one I really could handle seeing and that had to mean something. I agreed to see him later that evening.

He dropped me off at Grandma Tina’s house.

It was still early but I wanted to see Princess, to show her I was all right.

I knocked and went inside; the house was unlocked as usual.

Princess and Aunt Tina were in the kitchen. The radio was on and some pop music was playing. There was the usual smell of a proper fry-up breakfast and I smiled at the cozy scene. Princess looked up and saw me.

“You’re back!” She jumped up and ran towards me, giving me a big hug.

Tina looked on from the table.

“You good?” she asked me, giving me a sharp look.

I nodded.

“You look tired,” she said, almost accusingly.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you,” I said. “Can I come back for coffee after I’ve dropped Princess at school?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, shrugging.

I took Princess to school and on my return, found that she had made breakfast. Again. Realizing that I was starving, I wolfed it down, thanking her. It was different to the hotel food, somehow. Home-cooked food, made with love and plenty of real butter.

Then I told her about the old man in the desert and the experiences I had out there. She listened attentively, not interrupting me once. When I got to the end of the tale, I took a big breath.

“I wanted to ask you, did Steph ever talk to you about me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did she tell you about my family, about what happened to me?”

Tina looked down. “She was worried about you, about what would become of you. She loved you, you know.”

I did know. Steph couldn’t have children of her own so when I came to stay with them, she lavished affection on me. After what I’d been through, she had helped to make me feel safe. But she had only wanted to talk of happy things. She never wanted reminders of my family or what had happened to me. When I did ask her about them, she was vague and I had learned to stop asking.

“Did she ever say anything about my parents? I knew so little of them.”

Tina looked at me before answering. I had the feeling she was considering whether to tell me the truth. I had never realized that she knew so much about me.

“Your mother was from a tribe up north. The Wak’aha’a. They kept to themselves, didn’t mix with others. When she fell in love with your father the tribe didn’t like it. He was an outsider and she ran away to marry him.”

“They didn’t want her to go. They went to fetch her one time, against her will and brought her back. After that, Tommy decided he was going to go into the mountains to hide her.”

She leaned closer to me. “She was sho’qa’i.”

There was that word again.

“What does that mean?”

“It is the one who protects the tribe. Their instinct to keep safe and to guard is strong. When the tribe is under attack, the sho’qa’i receive special powers from the ancestors to defeat the enemy.”

This was the first I’d heard of it.

“Steph thought that maybe, you had inherited your mother’s powers. That you were sho’qa’i too.”

I felt my pulse quicken.

“Why?”

She shrugged. “Small things. Things you said when you were asleep sometimes. The way you were so serious sometimes, so fierce. You were different from other children. I saw this when you came here too. My Pearl? Always going out, wanting to be with the boys? Not you!”

She laughed.

I knew what she meant; I had always felt a little apart from others my age.

“Why didn’t she talk to me about it?”

Tina shrugged. “She was afraid, I think. She hoped it wasn’t true, I think.”

She went on. “That is why she supported the sheriff’s idea for you to go into training to work for the State police. She didn’t want that life for you but she thought it would be good to get those skills in case you needed it.”

“I did like it,” I said.

The program had really suited me with the rigorous physical training, weapons instruction and hand-to-hand combat. I didn’t find any of it challenging. Others dropped out and gave up but I couldn’t get enough of it. I wanted more. When I was selected for the assassination special training, I couldn’t wait to get started. I wanted to get rid of enemies of the world, to punish all of those who had done wrong.

“Do you know if I have any family anywhere?”

Tina shook her head.

“I don’t know if Tommy had family. He was always a lone wolf but you could look up your mother’s people. I think there is a woman down by the supermarket, Tamara, I think? She once lived with the Wak’aha’a, and may be able to tell you more.”

I nodded.

“But, honey, you’ve got to be careful,” Tina said, taking my hand.

“All of this stuff, I worry it is going to make you ill again and pull you back into danger. You’re getting better now.”

I had a feeling she was trying to warn me off Jack. I knew she was looking out for me, though.

She was the closest thing I had to family now. The sheriff had had a heart attack a few years ago and there was nobody from my past. I could count my friends on one hand.

It wasn’t a great feeling.

That evening, I headed out to the castle.

I knew where it was and yet I was impressed by the large iron gates and manicured grounds. There was an intercom and I pressed the button announcing my arrival.

The gates swung open and I drove up to the huge fa?ade with the gravel driveway. It looked like something from TV. I expected butlers to come and greet me. Jack had told me about the castle, that it was old and grand, but I had not quite expected this level of grandeur. It looked like something out of a fairy tale, belonging to a king or a prince of a country. I wasn’t exactly dressed for visiting a prince nor did I even have anything like that at home. Did I even own a dress? I had to think carefully.

I didn’t like feeling uncertain of myself so I walked determinedly to the front door and knocked. After a while, a doorman of sorts came to look at me like I had found the wrong place by mistake. Like I was supposed to enter via the servant entrance.

“Yes?” he looked at me, very unfriendly.

“I’m here to see Mr. Beaufort,” I said, rather amused. Was I really supposed to go through all this every time I wanted to see Jack?

“Just a minute, do you have an appointment?”

“Yes,” I said with a laugh.

Then he closed the door in my face, leaving me outside.

I was stunned by his rudeness.

A moment later the door was opened again by a pretty young girl in a tight skirt and very high heels.

“May I help you?”

“I’m here to see Jack,” I said, less amused by the whole drama now. I wanted to go in and see the man, not talk to a million minions.

“Yes, only I don’t see you in his appointment book? What is your name”

She had a kind of Filofax open and a pen, supposedly trying to find my name.

“He told me to come by tonight.”

“Did he now?” She gave me a sarcastic look, her perfectly plucked eyebrows shooting up over the green eyes.

“Yes, he did.”

She folded her arms and looked condescendingly at me.

“If I had to let every girl in here who claimed to have a date with Mr. Beaufort, he’d be overrun by groupies.”

“Oh, really?” I said to her. “Overrun by groupies, is it?”

Our conversation had deteriorated into some kind of stand-off.

“Would you just call him already? He will confirm our ‘appointment’.”

“I will not. He has other engagements tonight.”

“Does he? Really?”

I took out my phone and dialed his number.

Unfortunately for me, it just rang and then went to voicemail.

I gave her a long stare.

“Here’s how it’s going to go. You let me in, right now or I make you let me in. Which will it be?”

I saw a lot of fluttering of the eyelids, and I’d had enough. I moved quickly, pushing past her, grabbing her wrist but not twisting it.

“Hey!” she yelled out in shock but I was already inside.

Jack came down an elaborate staircase and beamed when he saw me.

“You’re here!” he came to kiss me on both cheeks.

I turned to face the green-eyed bitch and she gave me a cold stare back.

It wasn’t over, whatever it was.

Just great, I thought, as Jack started to give me a tour of the castle. Yet another enemy. Life was just a blast.