Eventually Carter cleared his throat and walked closer to us. “Hello, Charlie, I’ve been keeping an eye out for you and your mother for a long time, but it’s nice to officially meet you.”
Okay, this was not exactly how I’d envisioned meeting my father. Not only had I just stumbled onto a scene where he’d killed a bunch of vamp douchewads, but then his first words were an admittance of stalking.
I guess no families were perfect.
With barely a hesitation, I reached out and shook his hand, before blurting out the first thing that came into my head: “You have blond hair?” I’d always thought I got my dark hair from my father. My mother raised me believing that her boyfriend who died in the war was my father. He had been a human with hair as dark as mine. But when we found out I was an ash and fathered by Carter … well, I had just assumed that he was the one I had inherited the hair color from.
Carter’s lips raised in an easy smile. I could see he was amused. Ryder stepped forward then; his hand slipped into mine and he gave a gentle squeeze, which felt both supportive and encouraging.
“Can you fly?” Kyle asked him, and Carter’s smile turned into a laugh. My mom’s eyes lit up at the sight of him laughing. Oh my God, she still loved him. Who wouldn’t? He was gorgeous, ya know, in a good looking dad kinda way.
“Something like that,” Carter told Kyle, and winked. Whoa, so the rumors about the Originals were true. They were totally scary and powerful.
“Oh shit. Cool,” Kyle replied.
Carter was suddenly all business, turning back to the bodies in the alley. “Hive will come looking for their boys soon. We need to move.”
Crap! There was no way the Quorum wouldn’t trace this back to us. We had left the Hive at the perfect time for this attack, and now all of the vamps were dead. Hopefully it would still be a few days before they came for us. Our plan was hinging on it.
An hour later, I was sitting in a remote wooded park with my mom, Carter and the enforcers. Carter and I were spending a lot of time staring at each other. I was fascinated with the Original vampire. He seemed different from the other bloodsuckers, a strange combination of lethal Viking and refined gentleman. I could definitely see why my mom fell for him. He was enigmatic. I sat beside Joanna, and Carter stood before us. My enforcer bodyguards were lurking around, making sure we remained alone.
“I need you to get my mom out of Portland, it’s not safe for her here anymore.” I turned to face the unflappable Bennett mama at my side. She’d just been attacked in an alley and was as calm as anything. “I’m going to have to run soon, and there’s no way I can do that if I know you’re here and they could come after you at any time.” I told her.
Finally, some worry pulled down the corner of her lips and eyes. It wasn’t worry for herself though, it was all for me. “Charlie, baby, come with us. Carter already told me he has a safe house set up.”
I shook my head, Jayden and the rest of the gang were waiting for us back at the Hive and I didn’t want to lead trouble to my mom. She was better off nowhere near me. I turned back to my father, forcing myself to not lose focus again. He was just so mesmerizing. I opened my mouth to ask him where he planned to take her, but other questions emerged instead. “Why did you leave her … us? How could you do this and leave both of us vulnerable to the Hive?” Anger tightened my voice. Ever since I had found out I was an ash, all I’d wondered about was him, my vampire father, and how he could abandon his family.
Emotions flickered across his face; sparks of gold were really strong in his silver eyes. They were not like regular vamps’ color, nope. His were flecked through with golden stars or some shit.
“I’m hunted for my blood, Charlie, for the purity of the original virus. I wanted to stay. I tried to make it work, but in the end I had to do what I thought was best to keep you both safe, which was to keep myself alive to look after you. Your mother and I thought you were human because you were female, and me being around was only going to get both of you killed.”
“So you ran?”
He nodded, those blond braids scattered through his thick tresses of hair flying around. “I ran. But I always came back, checking in, making sure you were cared for. I deposited small amounts of money, never enough that anyone would check into you. If either of you ever needed me, I would have been there.”
Like the night I was attacked. I stood then, unable to remain sitting, and took a step into his personal space. He didn’t move back; his eyes tracked across my face, as if memorizing me.
“Thank you for saving me from those ash,” I said, needing him to know that I remembered. “I have no idea what would have happened if you weren’t there.”
I could see sprinkles of tears in my mom’s eyes, and the sight hurt my heart. I cleared my throat, blinking a few times to get myself under control.
Carter nodded, placing a hand on my arm. In that moment no words were needed.