"How you feeling, Z?" I asked the next day when she woke up.
She groaned, "Kind of better. My arm hurts though." She sat herself up. "Everyone okay?"
I nodded, "Yeah, and thanks for that new weapon. It helped." We sat in the awkward silence that had followed for a minute or so before, "How did it get in?"
"I don't know," she shook her head. "It must have slipped past the security...somehow." she grabbed her head and groaned.
"Hey hey, you okay?" I asked, getting up and inspecting her head. There was a large cut on the left side of her head. "No wonder why your left hemisphere hurt." I grabbed a large piece of gauze from the side table's drawer and put it on the wound with pressure. She winced and once again groaned in pain. "It's alright. You're going to be okay. I'll stitch this up, and clean you up, and you'll be on your way."
"Thanks, Dr. Nito." She replied sarcastically.
"Hey, you watch your mouth. I'm the one with the needle." I grabbed an already prepared needle and thread from the drawer, which had pretty much everything in it, and got an antibacterial pad. I made the first dig into the skin and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. And after the first it got even easier from there on. After ten stitches, I tied off, and cleaned the newly stitched up cut with the pad. "There you go, and don't forget to take a Tylenol every now and then," I said distractedly as I searched the cabinet across the room for the bottle of Tylenol. I grabbed it, and handed it to her. "Now, let me help you to your room so you can get some real quiet."
She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and I helped her onto her feet. I threw her arm around my shoulders and helped her to her room which was connected to Zack's, which was next to mine, which was connected to Justin's which was next to the spare room, just in case he ever came back. "You know," she started as I laid her down. "I could have stayed in the infirmary."
"Yeah, well I couldn't have that. I mean what if I get hurt again? You know I get almost killed like once every week. No, you stay here and get some rest. I have already threatened the boys that if they bother you, I will throw them in the dungeon."
"We don't have a dungeon." She replied as I got up to the door.
"Oh, I have a dungeon." I did quick eyebrow raises, and I left her in peace. I went to the workout room to run a few miles on the treadmill before bed, but to my surprise, Justin was already on it. Deciding to finally get to know my new partner, I walked up to him and said, "Hey, I wanna talk to you."
"Hold on, almost got eight miles-"
"No, now." I interrupted him.
"Okay, okay, hold your horses." he said, pushing the STOP on the treadmill and getting off. "What's your beef?"
I was trying to avoid the whole situation, for I was not comfortable talking about my own past, why should he? "I just wanted to talk."
"About what?" He squinted his eyes in suspicion.
"Um, uh...oh, jeez," JUST SPIT IT OUT! "Can we go to the roof, please?"
He was still eying me suspiciously. "Yeah, sure." We didn't speak on our way up to the roof, but instead of walking behind someone so I knew where they were at all times, I walked beside him, as an equal. When we got up to the roof, it was dark, about nine-ish at night. "So," he said turning to me as we approached the side of the roof where a ledge was so that we could sit down on it. "What did you want to talk about?"
"I just," I paused, sighing. "I just want to know more about you, that's all."
"Why?"
"Because if something like tonight happens again, and we loose Zoe, I want to know who I'm sitting next to at the breakfast table." I didn't even look at him the entire time I was making my heartfelt sentence.
"Hey," he said in a calming voice that just flooded through my entire body, soothing me. "If you wanted to know about my past, all you had to do was ask." I nodded, and he started his travel through time. "When I was about 5 years old, my dad left me and my mom. A few years later, he came back. But he brought with him some friends of his. What neither my mother nor I knew, was that his friends were vampires, and that he was one as well. Him and his friends stayed for a few days before they attacked my mom. She started getting scared the day before they attacked, and unknown to them, sent me to my Aunt's house in Buffalo. I stayed there for the rest of my grade school career, and then I moved to St. Louis. I found this guy, his name was Jack Seethe, and he sold stuff to kill vampires. Let's just say we became quick friends. I went out searching for my dad for two years to pay him back for what he had done to my mom. I went all over the world, and I finally found him in Essex, England. He obviously didn't recognize me, so I pretended to be a tourist trying to find a certain museum. When he turned to show me directions, I pulled out a silver steak and jabbed it into the base of his neck. I then grabbed his hair, turned his head to look at me, and said with a rage that I never want to feel again, 'Remember me now?' His eyes became so wide as he turned to ashes. Now after two years, I moved here, and I started to take down small packs. And then, just under three months ago, I met Zoe. She was in the middle of a large circle of vamps, so I stepped in and took out about half of them. She was so grateful, that she offered me to join her in her to quest to find you. And then, here I am." He finished, and then it was my turn. "What about you?"
I took a deep sigh. "My dad left Zoe and I when I was 7."
"What about your mom?" he interrupted.
"Let's just say that, the only thing she gave me was an X chromosome."
He shook his head. "I don't understand."
"She died during child birth."
"Oh, sorry. Please, keep going."
And so I did. "He promised to come back...but he didn't. He gave me this," I held up the charm. "and he told me that he would be back for it. When it was time for me to go to school, Zoe had me placed in a public school close to home so that she didn't have to completely abandon the Honeycomb Hideout everyday to come pick me up. My teachers hated me so much because I would never bring my parent to any conferences or meetings. Pretty much all of my teachers, except the art teachers, hated me all throughout my grade school life. And when I needed someone to come so that I didn't get detention, Zoe would come to the rescue and lie to my teachers that my dad was on a long business trip, and we didn't know when he would come back. God, why couldn't he just come back? It's his fault that I'm like the way I am." I shook my head during the small silence that had followed my last statement.
"Who was your mom?" he asked, for he knew that Hannibal King had a reputation for sleeping with all of the wrong women.
"I don't know..uh," I really concentrated on going through my entire brain to find the one name that meant absolutely nothing to me. "Whist-Whistler, maybe?"
He nodded, "Abigail Whistler."
"Look, I don't know her name, okay? I never met her. I might have been connected for oh, about nine months, but still never met her." I turned away and folded my arms over my chest. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
He came up behind me and put a hand on my right shoulder. "I know you miss him. But you can't blame him for how you turned out. You made all of your choices. Not him."
I turned and started to get angry, "The day he left I told him that I wanted to be just like him. And I asked him if that meant I had to leave too. And he told me that I should stay here where it was safe, and to not worry, he'd be back. And being the naïve child I was, I believed him."
He took a step closer to me. "You know, you aren't the only one in the world with 'Daddy' issues."
I stepped closer. "I know, but at least I admit I have issues."
He took one more step; we were now in each other's face yet again. "At least I know mine's dead. Where's yours again?"
My face fell and I retreated. Too mean. I started to walk away when I turned and said to him. "You know Justin, that is my problem: I don't know where he is."
I had turned back around when he said, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I-I never do!"
Yet again, I turned to face him. "I know that you didn't. And I know that you understand. But you have to realize that as far as I know, my dad isn't dead. But I have given up looking for him. All hope that I had of him coming back when I was a kid, is gone. He said he would always protect me and Zoe, and he's not here." Out of nowhere, he came up and hugged me. I really didn't know what to do, so I rested my head on his chest and let him hug me. He was warm, and I felt so safe in his arms.
"I promise to protect you." His soft voice whispered in my ear. "And if that means taking a bullet, I will."
And that's when I felt it. It was a small feeling about Justin that I had felt once, but it wasn't anywhere near as strong as this one. I picked my head up, and looked into his eyes for just a second before I closed them, and moved my head up just enough to kiss him gently on the lips. I put my head back into his chest, and before he could say anything, I said into his chest, "Thank you."
