Page 61 of Slayer Mom
“But why should he?” Lock demanded, eyes burning red for a moment, and he looked at me like I wasn’t his mother, but something to eat.
I snarled back at him. “Watch it, Lock. The only way you get my blood is if I give it to you. That will only be in cases of emergency. I’m not just an incredible housewife, I’m the Grand Master’s exterminator. I’ve killed zombies. I’ve killed werewolves. I’ve killed vampires. I’ve killed hounds of death or whatever and had to get one of those parasite things cut out of me. My point isn’t to reminisce on all these good times, but to remind you that I’m your mother. You will respect me, or I will stab you.” Was that appropriate to say to one’s child, even if they’re a vampire who wants to take your blood? I was not about to be an enabler, but this had left the rails of all the good parenting books I’d ever read a long time ago.
Lock frowned at me for a second then shrugged. “Idon’t want to hurt you. That was the worst day of my life, when I killed you.”
“I’m not dead.”
“That was the first time dad used his blood on you,” Wat said. “You were basically dead.”
“Mostly my blood,” Lock said and shook his head. He needed a haircut. “Your blood was in me, so… Please, just let him turn you. Ask him to and he will, and then he won’t have split interests, and he can focus on destroying the zombie queen once and for all, and you won’t be something I want to eat. I hate that. I hate myself!”
“Get therapy. That’s your problem, not hers,” Wat said, holding my hand tight.
“Monsters don’t get therapy, Wat. Who would give it to us, dad? He’s been messed up ever since he fell in love with mom.”
“You can read his mind? Why did he marry me?” Not that it was important in the face of the imminent zombie queen attack, but at the same time, it was the most important thing of all, the thing that didn’t fit, or maybe nothing else fit until I found that central missing piece.
“Everything about you made him forget about who and what he was, and just live. He didn’t think that it would last very long, but then you got pregnant almost right away. He didn’t think I was his, not until I turned twelve and ripped you apart. For years, he figured one of his enemies must have gotten to you, seduced you, and impregnated you, but he didn’t leave you. He should have left, but he still wanted to be with you, so he adjusted and became the best human father he possibly could be.”
I stared at him, horrified. “You didn’t know anything about what he was, what you were, until two years ago?”
“I started hearing thoughts when I was eleven. Ithought I was going crazy, but I didn’t tell anyone until the day…”
Yeah. That day. Hazen had seriously thought that I’d had another man’s child, but he’d just adapted? Who did that? Why in the world had he wanted to be with me so much? I really wasn’t that interesting or impressive. I didn’t have money or friends, or family. I just wanted so much to have that love, that structure that looked so stable and beautiful from the outside looking in. Love. Family. Connection.
I stood up. “I’ll be right back. Hazen has no idea how to operate in my kitchen.” That wasn’t exactly true, but I had to talk to him, really talk to him.
When I got to the kitchen, he was taking a hot plate of meatloaf out of the microwave.
“Hazen?”
“Do you want ketchup?” he asked, turning around.
With that plate in his hand, I threw my arms around him and kissed him. I didn’t mean to kiss him. I didn’t even know that it was on my mind. Maybe ever since I’d looked at his lips and wondered if they were still the same lips I’d kissed countless times before. For whatever reason, I kissed him and I couldn’t seem to stop, even though he wasn’t kissing me back. I touched his face, his chest, his hair, and everywhere I touched him felt right and wrong and right again.
He broke away, eyes bright, lips soft and wet. “Lucy, you should eat.”
“I bit you in the van. I drank your blood. Did you like it or hate it?”
He held the plate out between us, blocking me. “I love your meatloaf. Eat, then rest.”
“While you figure out what to do with Wat and Lock? Both of them are too young for this kind of fight.”
“They’re more prepared than you. They can’t be turned.”
“But they can be kidnapped. The Zombie Queen would love to raise one of them to be a lapdog or something.”
“Eat, please.”
“Why didn’t you kiss me back?”
“Why are you thinking about kissing now?”
“Can’t you read my mind?”
“You don’t know why. You haven’t thought about it. You’re being impulsive. Lucy, I’ve existed for a very long time and was satisfied with that existence until I met you. I never dreamed that you’d keep wanting to talk to me, that you’d make me your friend, like I was a stray cat or something, but you did, and I got used to you, and then I looked forward to seeing you, and then I got addicted to being with you. I didn’t think any of it would last. I didn’t think that you’d cling to me, even after…”
“You thought I had an affair? How is it that someone who can read minds didn’t know how ridiculous that was? And me, you think I would ever cheat on you? If it ended, fine, but to sneak around and betray the people you love, you think that’s me?” I gestured to myself dramatically, and he put a big bite of meatloaf in my mouth.
