Page 103 of Touch in the Night

Emory was silent for a long moment. His face did not change, but the emotion that had been in his eyes drained away, leaving cold cobalt in its place. “You promised me you wouldn’t read that file.”

“Helena Hawthorn… She had it on her computer.”

Emory still didn’t move. Jesse’s skin felt too tight for his body, but he refused to look away.

“Why did you look?”

Jesse shrugged. “I dunno. It was an impulse.”

“An impulse?”

“I wanted to know, Emory,” he snapped. “Wanted to know what the hell I was in the middle of.”

“So you hacked into Helena’s computer. You saw the list of people the authorities have proved that I have killed.”

Jesse nodded stiffly.

Emory did not immediately speak. When he did, his voice was softer. “And yet you still brought Dimity back to me.”

“There was no one on that list since eighteen-hundred-and-whatever,” Jesse said. “So I told myself Aunt Helena was probably the worse monster. But now…”

“Please be careful using that word, Jesse,” Emory said. “It has done my kind a lot of damage over the centuries.”

“Words don’t kill people, Emory,” Jesse said. “But when this Lucien psycho turns up on your doorstop, assaulting protestors, and you wake up all Blood-fueled and not yourself…” Jesse’s breath was heaving. He couldn’t blink, couldn’t see straight. Emory didn’t move. Angry, fearful tears threatened to spill, but Jesse swallowed them back. “Do you really think you’re safe to raise a kid?” he finally said, the emotion in the words rubbing them raw.

“Yes,” Emory said without hesitation, “I do. And until tonight, you thought I was, too.”

“That Lucien would have killed Tyler if you hadn’t talked him down.”

“But I did,” Emory said quietly. “And Lucien wouldn’t have involved himself in the first place if those men hadn’t been threatening my home.”

“You can’thurtpeople,” Jesse said desperately, stepping close, “even if they are dickheads. Don’t you see? They’re all waiting for an excuse to lock you up, wipe you out, who fucking knows what?”

“I didn’t hurt anyone, Jesse.”

“Yourfrienddid,” Jesse retorted. “Or would have.”

“Lucien is very old. Very…troubled,” Emory said softly. “He does not often come anywhere near human settlements.”

“So why this time?”

“Because my family was being threatened.”

Jesse made an impatient noise. “Don’t blame the victims.”

Emory touched the dressing on Jesse’s head. “They attacked you, Jesse,” Emory said softly. “That makes them enemies, not victims.”

“A friend of yours attacks someone in your back garden. Your house is surrounded by an angry mob. You only get up when your daughter is about to go to bed. You can’t control your actions if the Blood thinks shit is going down.” Jesse drew a deep breath. “How is this okay for her, Emory?”

Emory held himself very still but didn’t speak until Jesse met his eyes. “She is my daughter, Jesse. I love her. I would kill, and I would die for her.”

“Kids don’t want you to do either of those things,” Jesse said despairingly. “They want you to give them breakfast, take them to school, throw them birthday parties. They just want you to be…” He closed his mouth.

Emory raised an eyebrow. “Human?”

Jesse looked away.

“If I thought that being with her aunt’s family would be better for her, I would give her up in a heartbeat,” Emory said after a long pause. “But I am her father. I am not conventional, but I love her.”

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