"is that david?" vicki asked, clearly noticed my eyes light up.

"yeah. i gotta go." i held my finger over the button to accept the call. "i really need to take this."

"okay, call us back later, ara, or we'll worry," vicki said.

i nodded, offering my most reassuring smile. "i'm okay, you know."

"we know, honey," dad said. "we'll talk later."

"bye." i ended their call and put david to my ear. "david!"

"hey, sweetheart. you called?"

"only like fifty-thousand times."

"oh, come on now, it wasn't that many," he said playfully. "it was more like-"

"mom and dad called," i interrupted.

"ah, good. and how are they?"

"i told them you have cancer."

"why?" he said slowly, dragging the word out.

"it kind of slipped out that you're gonna die. and i had to make up some comprehensible explanation. i mean, they picked up on my extreme sadness anyway."

the silence on the other end of the line lasted too long. "you're sad?"

"is that a joke?"

"no. i just thought, for the sake of appearances, you'd suck that up around your parents."

"suck it up? suck it up! david, would you suck it up? would you-"

"okay. i'm sorry." his voice got louder. "just . . . don't yell at me. i really don't want to fight with you."

i released my fury with a groan. "sorry."

"no, i'm sorry, okay. i just . . . what'd they say?"

"they were devastated."

"really?"

"yes! they love you, david. they want to do anything they can to help."

he laughed. "aw, i really wish we could tell them the truth. actually, i kinda wish your dad was a vampire."

"why?"

"you know how he always has that way of solving problems-or making you feel like they can be solved?"

"yeah." i smiled.

"i bet he'd have some clever way we could fix this drake contract."

"yeah, and i bet you'd actually listen to him."

"as opposed to whom?" he asked.

"me."

"i do listen to you."

"huh! you so do not."

"okay, maybe my track record isn't that great. but you gotta admit things have gotten better lately."

"yeah." but they'd be better if he was actually here, with me.

"i thought about it, you know," he said after a while.

"about what?"

"turning him-your dad."

"really?"

"yeah. i think we should discuss it. i think, even if he couldn't find a way out of our situation, at least he'd be here to take care of you-for eternity."

"i'm not a little girl, anymore, david. i don't need an eternal dad," i snapped, then calmed myself. "but, i mean, it'd be nice if i didn't have to bury him one day."

"okay, well, we'll discuss it further when i get home."

i nodded. "i'm worried about his heart, though. he looks sick, you know. and he's playing it cool, but-"

"he'll be fine. if he gets worse, i'll turn him myself."

i smiled. "but you don't know the secret of how to turn a human."

"don't i?"

"do you?"

"this is getting off topic."

"it is? because i don't remember setting a topic for discussion," i said playfully.

he cleared his throat. "how's training?"

"great. now."

"why now?"

"because jason saved my head from exploding yesterday."

"what? how?"

"things got . . . bad." i shivered at the memory. "jason comes bursting in, grabs me and hauls me outside and, no joke, as soon as he puts my hands in the ground, like, forces them into the soil, the pain stops."

"you're kidding?"

"nope. he said i need to ground my power, and added something about closed circuits, or whatever."

"how did he come up with that?"

"he's been thinking a lot about it. guess he had an epiphany."

"that's . . . i gotta admit, i don't know much about science, but that was pretty clever."

"and that's why i want him to have a lab, david. he can help me. you don't know how much stress he's taken off my shoulders by figuring out why i'm getting those headaches."

"you were stressed about it?"

"of course i was. how would you feel if you had to put yourself in that kind of pain every second day, and no one was going to help you...and no one cared? you all just told me to get over it, but he never stopped thinking about it-researching it."

he took a really long breath and let it out right into the mouthpiece of the phone. "fine. okay."

"what's okay?"

"you can have the lab-"

"what?" i jumped up and out of my seat.

"but, it comes with a huge but."

"i'm okay with a but."

"i want a guard with you at all times when you're together. do you think you can handle that?"

"yes. oh, david, thank you. he'll be so happy when i tell him. i wish you were here right now so i could kiss you."

"i'm smiling just thinking about it."

i smiled too.

"and..." he added.

"and?"

"i want full reports on everything he's doing with you, and why."

"sure. of course. i know he won't have any problem with that."

"all right then. go see walt and tell him to set up an account for jason."

"okay. thanks, david."

"right. and just remember, ara, i'm doing this for you, not him. i want answers, and i want to see something concrete by the time i get back."

"but that doesn't give us much time. you're coming back sunday, right?"

"i was. but, things..." he sighed. "things are bad here."

"why? what happened?"

"i need to transport a few prisoners to the vampiric institution for the insane."

i covered my mouth. "what happened to them?"

"it's . . . the vampire mind is still very human. there's only so much one person can handle before they . . . well, before they lose it."

i waited for a second, tense, feeling a kind of energy in david's voice that made me wonder if one of those prisoners was. . . "is pepper one of them?"

he coughed, then cleared his throat. "i'm not at liberty to discuss the prisoners, ara."

"why?"

"because i don't want to."

"did she go nuts because of what you did, or was it something after that-"

"have fun setting up the lab, ara. i'll talk to you tomorrow."

i went to speak, but he hung up the phone, and all the things i wanted to tell him about my birth parents suddenly went on hold, boiling up like bad news, making me so mad not to be able to get it all out. i opened messages on my phone and wrote: just thought you might like to know that i found out about my birth mother. she's dead. so is my father.

as soon as i pressed send, though, i felt worse.

the phone rang a second later.

"ara."

"david. i'm sorry. that was really petty of me, i-"

"no, my love. i'm sorry. i shouldn't have hung up on you."

"it's okay. you've told me not to ask about pepper. i should respect that."

"no, you shouldn't. you're my wife and you do have a right to know, but i . . . ara, i did that to her," he said, his voice shaking, "and i'm dead ashamed of myself."

i held still in case the door to his emotions slammed shut in my face. i wasn't sure what to say or how to move this conversation forward without forcing him back into his shell. "when . . . um . . . when was the last time you saw her?"

"about a year or so before i met you."

"was she . . . like that then?"

"not as bad."

"then you didn't do it to her, david." i practically laughed with relief. "maybe time has, or . . . i don't know. but you shouldn't blame yourself."

"thanks, ara. you're sweet to say that, but you don't know the full story."

"i would if you'd tell me."

"one day. maybe."

i nodded, even though he couldn't see it. one day, maybe, was good enough for me. "so, how do you know she's insane? like, what did she say to you when you saw her?"

"that's just it. she didn't even recognize me."

"at all?"

"she was too busy peeling her own skin back and eating it to notice anything other than a passing rat she could mutilate."

i let out a shaky breath. "david, i'm so sorry."

"it is what it is. so. . ." his tone changed, taking the subject with it. "your dad told you about rose?"

"yes. wait. i never mentioned her name."

"i know. i've known about her for a while. i was waiting until i had news of a nice family somewhere out there waiting to meet you before i said anything, but . . . i never found anything on your biological father."

"i'm okay, you know. i still have my dad and vicki."

"and me."

"for a while."

"yes, but i'm still here, and i love you, and i'm sorry we've fought today."

"me too. i hate fighting."

"me too."

after a long silence, with me lost trying to think of something else to say to keep him on the line, he said, "ara?"

"yeah."

"i have to go. i'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

"okay," i whispered. "love you."

"love you, sweetheart."

chapter nine

"jase." i leaped off the last step and ran into his arms at full speed, well, full human speed.

he caught me gracefully, gave me a quick squeeze, and placed me gently back on the ground. "you're awfully cheery today, ara. what's up?"

"he went for it, jase. i don't know if it was just pure luck or if david woke up on the right side of bed, but he approved it." i stood back, swiping my hair from my face.