Summary: When Chloe's father blows back into town after years of remaining distant, he comes bearing dark secrets that tie her life to Brian's in ways she never would have dared to imagine. Ways she wouldn't even want to imagine. Chloe's father, Brian's father, The Order, and the ties that bind them together.

Enjoy! :)

CHAPTER THREE: DADDY DEAREST

It was a long, sleepless night, and I was up with the first rays of sun that peeked through my window. The rain had lasted much of the night, leaving the world wet and dreary. Almost as dreary as my mood. Almost.

The morning light made the night before seem almost like a dream, and in a way, I almost wished it had been just that. But I knew it hadn't been. I would've thought I'd have been thrilled that Brian knew my secret, especially when he took it so well, but now I was almost wishing he hadn't taken so kindly to the thought of having a non-human girlfriend.

Or whatever I was to him.

And then there was Alek. His words had left a lasting impact on me, as had his frenzied, passionate kiss. Much as I didn't want to listen to him, some part of me, maybe my conscience, knew he was right. This simply wasn't fair to Brian, and perhaps sticking around would be selfish. It would mean putting him in danger, both the dangers posed by other superhuman creatures who were out to get me, and the danger I posed. If ever we let our guard slip and really kissed, it would certainly get the worst of him. But then again, maybe I was selfish. Maybe I couldn't help myself. Love will do that to a person I guess.

Hoping to clear my racing thoughts for just a little while, I made my way downstairs to find some breakfast. However, as I walked by my front door, I noticed something odd. An envelope had been slipped under the door at some point during the night, and was now lying on the floor just inside the house. Written across in scrawling black ink were two words: Chloe King.

I didn't recognize the handwriting, neither as Brian's nor Alek's, so I took a nervous look around the room as I stooped down to pick it up. My heart raced as I opened it, wondering who would have felt it necessary to slip an envelop under the front door to my house in the middle of the night. During a rainstorm.

Inside the envelop was a single piece of paper, folded in three. I lifted it out and opened it cautiously, again looking around to make sure nobody was just trying to catch me off guard. As I unfolded the paper, I saw that it was a note, written in the same handwriting and the same ink as my name had been on the face of the envelope.

Dearest Chloe, it read, I realize that this form of communication may seem rather shady to you, but I had to make sure you got this urgently. I'm aware of your current situation, and it is vital that I see you as soon as is possible and convenient. I am truly sorry that I have not been around to help you; there was so much I wanted to teach you, had I been able. I can explain, but it must be in person, not in such an easily intercepted form of communication as this. Please meet me in front of the C.P. Kelly building at noon today, and please Chloe, I beg of you, come alone. There should be an email waiting for you in your inbox as confirmation of our... appointment. Hope to see you soon, Dad.

I do believe my heart stopped upon reading the signature at the bottom of the letter. Dad? My father? And why would he want me at the C.P. Kelly building, where Brian had recently been to unearth his mother's belongings?

I ran back upstairs as quickly as my legs could carry me, forgetting my earlier notion of breakfast completely. By the time I was sitting cross-legged on my bed with my laptop open in front of me, my breath was coming hard and uneven. I didn't even allow my laptop proper time to load before I had double-clicked on the icon that would lead me to the internet, and as soon as the screen popped up, I had already typed in the address to check my e-mail.

And sure enough, there it was. One new message. Dad. Upon opening it, I realized that it simply read, "C.P. Kelly. Noon. Alone."

The rest of my morning was spent in a flurry of pacing. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth I went, my phone poised to dial Alek's number at any second. No, Brian's. No, Alek's. And on and on it went. I mean, would he really know if I had an escort watching from afar? What harm could it do?

The minutes ticked by, then the hours, and soon I was staring at the clock on the wall reading 11:45 AM. A quarter to noon. Time to go.

Alone I walked out my front door, not telling anybody where I was going or how long I'd be gone. I was taking a leap of faith in trusting that it would really be my father waiting for me, but, assuming it would truly be him, I didn't want to chance upsetting him by showing up with someone else by my side, and it was doubtful that either Brian or Alek would stay too far away.

When the C.P. Kelly building came into sight, I focused immediately on the front door, checking if anybody was in the general vicinity. Upon first glance, I saw no one. As I got nearer to the building, I checked the clock on my cell phone. 11:58. Almost time.

Once I got to the front door, still seeing nobody around me, I leaned my weight against the side wall and waited. I was constantly hitting buttons on my phone just to keep the time display lit up, and just as the clock changed to 12:00, I heard a rustle from above my head. Looking up, I just about caught sight of a man jumping down off a well-concealed branch, only to land perfectly, crouching in front of me.

As he rose to full height, he began to speak. "Chloe," he said, his voice full of something like pride, "How nice to see you."

My breath caught in my throat at the sight of him. It had been years on end, but I would recognize the man anywhere. "Dad!"

"In the flesh," was his simple response, as he pulled me into an awkward hug. "Come, come, we have much to discuss."

With that, he ushered me through the front door, brushing by the guards sitting at desks inside as if he owned the place. He walked me silently up to a top floor, then to the end of a hallway and into a dimly lit room, the door of which he closed immediately behind us. As if anybody was actually around to hear us.

"I'm so glad you came," he said, "but we must make this quick. It's hardly safe."

"Wa-wait, what do you mean 'hardly safe'?" I stuttered, surprised by the fact that my own father would put me in a compromising situation.

"Don't worry, we're fine. For now." His voice was all-business, almost cold. Ouch.

"Uh..." I began, "Why were you in a tree?" Well, that was probably the stupidest, most unimportant thing I could've asked, but I was still too shell-shocked by the entire situation to from any more coherent questions.

He laughed, looking at me like it had been the stupidest thing he'd ever heard. "Because the tree was clearly the most convenient vantage point," he said, "I mean, think about it kiddo, it both concealed me and put me up high. It gave me a clear advantage: seeing without being seen. Therefore, I could watch for you, and I could also be certain that you had, in fact, come alone. Which I truly appreciate."

"Yeah, not exactly the answer I was looking for," I said, a new thought, or suspicion, rather, coming to mind. "I meant, why would any normal human climb up into a tree, then jump down from it and act like nothing ever happened?"

"Oh," he said, his eyes softening, "You don't know... You hadn't figured it out yet."

Huh, could my suspicion possibly have been right? "Figured out what?"

"Chloe... I'm Mai."

I felt my heart beating wildly in my chest as the silly thought I had dismissed as childish for so many years was verified. He was Mai. My father.

"Ma-Mai?" I was hardly able to form words, never mind logical speech. "Does this... Am I... This means..."

He cut off my stammering before I could even ask what I'd been meaning to, but it was as if he'd figured it out on his own anyway. "I never adopted you," he finished, curtly answering the question I hadn't been able to ask.

I sat staring at him for a good, long time. My real father. Not my adoptive father.

"Chloe, I'm surprised you hadn't figured this out yet. You really are my daughter. By blood, not adoption. When you were an infant of only a few months, your mother was killed by a Jackal over some territory battle. I hadn't been home at the time, or else I'd have done everything in my power to save her. Thankfully, the Jackal never even caught sight of you, as your mother had left you far from the battle, safe in your cradle. When I got home, what had happened became clear to me, and I left with you for America that very night, trying to get as far as possible away from anything that could pose danger for you.

"Not long after, I met Meredith, and she was so open, not only to me, but also to you. She invited us into her life, and took on a mothering role for you. Now I knew that you would be Mai, and I never wanted to breathe a word of it to Meredith. It was... unnecessary, unfair even, to bring her into this, so I planned to only stay with her for a small amount of time. She was always a wonderful, gracious host, but since your mother, I just cannot love anyone again, not in that way. So I had to leave."

I swallowed hard, stunned. "Wh-why didn't you take me... with you? When you le-left? Why did you leave me?"

I saw his eyes darken as he spoke next. "I was getting to that. One dark, cold winter night, a simple twist of fate set off a chain reaction. An incredibly dangerous chain reaction at that..."

His voice trailed off and his eyes became further clouded, as though he was about to reveal some horrible tale. "I was walking home to you and Meredith one night, a few years after we moved to America, when a woman walked by me on the street. She was absolutely beautiful, with an air about her that somehow, for some reason, reminded me of your mother in the strangest of ways. As we passed each other, she stopped. I stopped. And we got lost in that moment, lost in each other.

"I knew she was human, I could smell it on her. I knew it would be wrong, deadly, but for some reason, when she moved toward me, I didn't stop her. I didn't turn away. No, I found myself helping her to close the distance, some human I didn't even know. Before I knew it, our lips were sealed together in a kiss, and that was that. That spelled out the end for her."

I watched as the emotions flickered through his eyes. Reminiscence, nostalgia, love, pure bliss, then cold, hard guilt.

"Chloe, I never meant to start this, but nonetheless, I did. The woman, of course, died not long after. I followed her home, watched through the windows as she died in her husband's arms, her son in the next room... And it was all my fault. Ah, Evelyn..."

I could've sworn I saw a tear fall from his eye, but he wiped it away so quickly that I couldn't be sure. Woah. Woah, woah, woah. Wait. "Evelyn?" I snapped, suddenly drawing a connection.

"Yes, that was her name," he answered simply.

"Evelyn..." I began, almost dreading the words I was about to utter, "Evelyn Rezza?"

"Yes, that's the woman," he said, confusion pinching his face.

"Oh... Oh my God, Brian," I heard myself say, although I'm still unsure how I was thinking enough to speak at all.

"Yes," was his easy answer, as if it mattered none, "The boy's name was Brian. I do believe you know him?"

I think I almost fainted. "You... you are what happened to Brian's mother?"

"That is what I just told you, Chloe," he said, "And that is the reason I wanted to meet up with you at all. When his father found out about what happened to his wife, and to this day I am ambivalent as to how he could possibly have known, he joined a group called The Order. That very group is after you, Chloe. They hunt Mai, and in particular, the Uniter. With Whitley in the operation, The Order is after you, and me, with a particularly strong vengeance. But I know how to stop them, dead in their tracks. You, as the Uniter, are the only one who can actually do it, though."

"Dad, I..." I paused, wanting to tell him about my feelings for Brian, but too afraid to mention it. I settled instead on inquiring about his plan. "What can I do?"

"There is a woman behind the whole group, and she is the one with the true power. She is a witch of sorts, I suppose, and is the one who accursed the Mai with the inability to co-mingle intimately with humans in the first place. All except you, of course, as the Uniter was sent to reunite our races."

Shock ran through me once more. Man, this just kept getting better. "Excuse me? What do you mean all except me?"

"I mean, of course, that you can co-mingle with the humans however you desire. It's what makes the Uniter special... Sent to reunite our species." He looked shocked to see that I didn't know that little tidbit of information.

"But... I kissed a human once, and he died... Shortly thereafter..."

"Perhaps he did, but he certainly didn't die as a result of kissing you. The Uniter's kiss may cause a short shut-down of a human's system, but they will snap out of it, and come away from the whole ordeal none the worse for it."

"What?" I burst out. "So I can be with a human?"

He laughed. "This about the Rezza boy, isn't it?" He paused, judging my expression and seeming to take it as answer enough. "So it is. That's what I thought. What I started, you are destined to finish. But Chloe, that is not of import at the moment. I must go, but first, I must tell you that you must kill the woman with the true power of The Order. Once she is a thing of the past, the rest of the group should fall apart relatively quickly. Whitley Rezza, he may pose a problem, but once the woman is gone, you can handle the rest of your duties. And one more thing, I left you under the care of Valentina for a reason. She is a strong, dedicated woman, and Alek and Jasmine, they are fantastic kids. They all truly care about you, Chloe, and they are wonderful people. Always trust them. And please, Chloe, you have to take care of The Order soon. Personal decisions can wait. We both know they'll both be patient with you; both are amazing young men, and both care about you a great deal. Goodbye, my love."

And with that he was gone. He left me staring blankly at the wall, on overload. Man, gotta love my dad.

Alrighty then. My different spin on that finale, which is effectively driving me absolutely insane... Just saying.

Anyway. I hope you all liked that & Chapter 4 should be available shortly. I'd really love some opinions on where I'm going with this!

& as always, much love to the reviewers! :)