Page 11 of Bitten By Chaos

Without waiting for a response, I threw the door open and marched inside, head held high as my heels clicked against the cement floor. Seeing Dad, bent over a contraption, ash blonde hair stuck in the air from his goggles pulled over his head and sparks flying from a soldering iron, my chest nearly caved in. No matter how angry I was, that nine-year-old girl inside of me wanted nothing more than to run to her father’s arms.

Not that he noticed I was there. Typical. I strode forward and tapped his shoulder, making him jump and nearly turn the narrow blue flame on me. My vamp reflexes kicked in, and I grabbed his wrist before he could cause any harm. He smiled at me before flipping off the tool and raising his goggles.

When he’d been human, pink marks would’ve been cut into his skin around his eyes and nose from wearing his protective gear. But he, too, was a vampire, turned unwillingly by a man now dead, so his complexion remained smooth and perfect.

“You came!” He tossed the tool on the metal table beside him and opened his arms.

I stayed still but nodded. “I was told if I didn’t, you wouldn’t let us use the lab.”

Arms dropping to his sides, he sighed for dramatic effect. “I needed you to hear my side of things.”

“Which side is that?” I asked with fake cheer. “The side where you explain trying to get my fiancé convicted of murder? Or the side where you justify injecting your daughters with unknown DNA, resulting in an interdimensional war between fae and demons with us caught in between?” I raised an eyebrow, a movement much easier now that I was a vamp.

Dad scowled, and I recognized the set of his jaw when he was trying to hold his temper.

“Do tell?” I prompted, pulling a stool over and sitting.

“They were gods, Charlotte.” The words were a whisper, possibly inaudible to a human, as he looked off toward the corner of the room. “You can call them demons, but they showed me their power. They offered it freely, so how could I say no to that? To giving my children that kind of gift? The abilities it provided you—you can’t tell me you haven’t benefited from them.”

I ignored his last statement. “Turning them down would have been easy. You say, ‘No’ or ‘No, thank you,’ then go on with your life. Or at least discuss it with your partner.”

His lips drew into a thin line as his gaze snapped to the ring on my finger. “So you’re engaged? I suppose you want congratulations? He took your life and made you his. You do realize that, even if you decide to a year or ten or a thousand from now, you’ll never be able to leave him.”

My fangs extended. “I won’t want to, but if I did, he’d let me go.”

Dad’s harsh laugh grated on my ear drums, and I clutched the edge of the table so hard, I made finger-shaped dents in the metal.

“I didn’t raise you to be so naïve.”

“You didn’t raise me at all. You left Mama to do that, and thank goodness since she understood what love was. You didn’t even come to her funeral.”

Dark veins rose on his neck and face for a moment before settling back beneath his skin as he examined the electronics and hardware he’d been working on.

“I only want to protect you,” he said through gritted teeth.

“I don’t want your protection. Frankly, I don’t want you in my life any more at all. But apparently, I will have to share this lab with you, so I don’t get what I want. What I can promise you is that if you ever endanger Julian or anyone I care about again, you will regret it. Understood?”

“You’ll forgive me one day,” he said, nodding with a smile. “And you’ll apologize when you see the truth.”

“What truth is that?” I challenged, standing so fast the top of the stool spun.

“The rest can’t be trusted. Not even your Julian. It’s us against them, and when you realize that, we can be the team we were always meant to be.”

“If by ‘them’ you are referring to vampires, then maybe you should take a look in the mirror,” I suggested, folding my arms over my chest. “We are them, Dad. And if we are still us, then they can still be who they were too.”

“You haven’t lived among them like I have,” he bellowed, eyes wide—almost mad.

“You’ve been working for some pretty shady individuals since before I was born by your own admission. Vampire or not, you have a skewed sample to judge by.”

Maybe speaking in scientific terms helped, but he snapped his mouth closed audibly and stared hard for a moment.

“Shady indeed. The woman I’ve been running from—trying to keep away from my family for decades—finally caught up with me after all these years, and here you are, openly agreeing to work for her.” He shook his head.

“Who are you talking about? Elsa?” Confusion battled with the anger I’d let guide me so far in this discussion. Then I remembered Elsa’s mention of my father’s character the previous night. They knew each other. And he had told me there was a woman funding his research that he’d run from. Could it really be the woman who’d helped us?

My father let out a harsh laugh. “She’s why Carmichael turned me. The reason I’m a godsdamned vampire. And here you are, offering yourself up on an altar so to speak.”

If that were the truth, it meant that Elsa was also Carmichael’s sire. I shook off the cold feeling that threatened to engulf me when I pictured his attempt to turn me and his subsequent death that may have been my own doing.

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