Branded (23 page)

Alex considered this for a long moment. “And you want to do this?”

“Not exactly,” I said honestly. “I haven’t seen the man in over four years. But there are some things I need to say to him. It’s been so long and I just think it’s time I actually talk to him.”

Alex looked as if he was debating asking me to explain what exactly I meant by that. I was glad when he didn’t. “Is there a chance I could meet him?” he blurted out.

The color drained from my face as I thought of having him there when I talked to my dad. “No!” I said too quickly.

“Um…I mean…I think I need to talk to him alone. Like I said, it’s been four years since I’ve seen him. I have no idea how this is going to go. There’s a good possibility this might not be such a pretty and lovey-dovey reunion.”

“Okay,” Alex said as he nodded his head and continued walking back up the pier.

A slight sigh of relief blew through my lips. I was so grateful Alex was so relaxed and willing to give me my space when I needed it. Thankfully he was also slightly clueless. Either that or I was a really great actress. I seriously doubted that.

We parted a few blocks from the restaurant with a quick kiss and plans to meet back up in an hour and a half at the same location. Finally letting go of his hand felt like leaving a part of me behind. Like a hand, or a leg. I didn’t feel whole when he was away.

I stood in the half full lobby for a few minutes after checking to make sure my dad was not already there. My hands twisted around each other and my head started throbbing slightly again. My heart jumped in strange erratic patterns as my eyes stayed glued on the door. I’d already mapped out an escape route should I see any sign of my mother with him.

Thankfully, he was alone as he walked through the door. Our eyes found each other almost instantly and I rose to join him at his side. Not a word was spoken as we followed the hostess through the crowded building.

When we were finally seated, neither of us seemed exactly sure of what to say to the other. I was surprised at how much older he looked. His hair was the same dark brown color as mine when I left but it was now streaked with grey. Crinkles seemed to be permanent fixtures in the corner of his green eyes and his handsome face seemed softer all over. It seemed he had aged ten years in the four since I had seen him.

“It’s so good to see you, Jessica,” he finally broke the silence, his voice filled with emotion. As he spoke, moisture welled up in his eyes. He reached across the table and took one of my hands in his.

I tried to give a little half smile. “You too, Dad.” My mind was drawing a blank on where to even try to begin.

“I can’t believe you’ve become such a woman. You look so grown up now.”

At this I did give a little bit of a smile. “Ya, I guess there’s a bit of a difference between how you look at sixteen and how you look at twenty.”

He gave a little chuckle and a tear rolled down his cheek. He gave a little bit of a sigh as he continued to look at me. “I didn’t tell your mother I was meeting you. I’m supposed to be getting her a special present while she and Amber go to a chick flick. Guess I have to do a little shopping when we’re done.”

“Thanks dad,” I whispered. I should have known I could trust my dad to keep this a secret. He had always been the one who I could trust.

The waitress then showed up to take our drink orders.

I only asked for water and my dad asked for his usual Mountain Dew. Some things never change. The man had drunk at least one a day for as long as I could remember.

“So how have you been lately?” he asked, the pain of our long separation in his eyes. “You don’t say much in your letters.”

I debated on how to answer, wondering if I should pad the truth or if I should simply be honest. Honesty seemed the best route. I only had so much time.

“I’ve been really sick lately,” I said simply as I looked in his face, wondering if he would see the meaning behind my words.

“You don’t get sick,” he said stiffly. Apparently he did.

“Well I have lately,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “Really sick. Headaches, chills, fever, I can’t keep anything down. Something is happening dad.” My dad swallowed hard twice before he was able to talk. “The nightmares?”

“They’ve gotten worse lately. I have to sleep more often and I’m sleeping for much longer.” I waited for a long moment, simply staring into his face before I could say the next part. “They aren’t simply dreams dad. Do you remember the angels?”

He squeezed his eyes shut and nodded once before he opened them again.

“Do you remember that mark I used to draw all the time? The one that scared mom so bad?”

My dad looked from side to side as if to make sure no one was watching before he took a pen out of his front pocket. With shaking hands he drew a crude replica of the mirrored X on a napkin.

“The man who lives two doors down from me has this exact mark on the back of his neck. He is one of the one’s from my dreams.”

The space between my dad’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked back at me. “I don’t understand, Jessica.” I felt a sudden urge to hurry and tell him everything I needed to. I wanted to get this over with. “One of the angels has escaped, dad. He’s the worst one of them all.

He’s dangerous. You have to take mom and Amber and leave. I don’t know what he’s after exactly but it’s too dangerous for you to be around here. He’s a leader of the condemned for a reason.”

He was quiet for a long time as he looked at me, as if debating once again if I was crazy or not. I knew that look all too well.

“I know how this all sounds, dad. I know I sound insane. But you have to promise me you will leave as soon as possible. You have to go back home.”

There was another moment of silence as he looked at me long and hard. “Alright,” he said with a nod. “We will leave tomorrow morning. But you have to promise me something in return.”

I could feel the blood drain from my face at this. I wasn’t sure how much I could promise to in exchange for keeping my family safe. “What?”

“That you’ll call every once in a while,” he said as his voice quivered. “You can call from a payphone if you want it that way. But just promise me that you will call to talk to your old man every once in a while.”

My heart gave a strange squeeze as moisture filled my own eyes. “Deal,” I whispered.

After another long moment of silence our waitress returned with the drinks and we ordered our food.

“There’s something I’ve never told you, Jessica, something you should know about,” my dad said with a slight sigh, not meeting my eyes. “You were five, Amber had just turned a year old. You got really sick. You had a fever so high the doctors were concerned what it might do to your body. You would shake violently with chills and aches.

You cried constantly as you held your head. You wouldn’t eat anything and everything we managed to shove down your throat came right back up a few minutes later.

“The doctors didn’t know what was wrong with you and they told us to prepare for the worst. You were declining rapidly and they told us they didn’t know what else to do. They said your body would probably give out before the end of the week.”

Tears were streaming down his cheeks at this point and he still did not look me in the eye. I could only stare at him blankly. This was the first time I had heard any of this.

“You were going to die and there was nothing I could do about it it seemed,” he choked. He took a moment as he tried to control his emotion. “I was alone in the hospital room with you. You were unconscious. You had been slipping in and out for a few days. I cried out to whoever would listen, begging them not to take you away from me. I said I would do anything to keep you. I begged whoever was out there to let you live, to give you some more time.

You were too young to die and I couldn’t bear to let you go.

“Not a half hour after I spoke those words aloud, the monitors started to show improvements. You were still asleep but your temperature started to fall and the sweat that had covered your body went away. The doctors all came in to check on you and they were baffled. They had all basically written you off as a lost cause, dead.

“A few hours later you woke up, screaming.

Screaming at the top of your lungs. You were terrified. You kept saying ‘angels’, over and over. I had heard stories of people who were dying and saw angels while unconscious but you seemed to be terrified of them. Your grandma had brought a little porcelain angel to you in the hospital and set it next to your bed. As soon as you saw it you screamed, then threw it across the room, shattering it.” The waitress brought our food and my dad had to look away from her so she wouldn’t see the way his eyes had turned bright red.

When she left he continued. “You were discharged from the hospital that night. We tried to get you to go to sleep when we got home but you were so scared. You refused. It was three nights before you finally couldn’t fight it anymore. And then you woke up screaming again. It was the same every time you slept.”

I shook my head when he paused. “Stop,” I whispered, my throat feeling tight and suddenly dry. “I know how the rest went.”

His lip quivered slightly at this but I could see the relief in his eyes that he didn’t have to say any more.

Neither of us said anything for several long minutes as we started to pick at our food. What do you say after a conversation like that? I could now see how the pieces of the puzzle were fitting together.

Emily had asked me what I had done to bring the nightmares on. She had tried to commit suicide and said she felt she had to do trials as punishment for it. It seemed
I
had not actually done anything to bring them on. My father had asked for more time with me and so, in exchange for that time, I was forced to stand trial every time I slept. It was nothing that I did that brought them on.

As terrible as this realization was I couldn’t bring myself to be angry with my father. How was he supposed to have known that was what the trade would be? And would I have rather died? Two months ago I might have said yes. I couldn’t say that anymore.

“So who is the special guy?” my dad asked. I could tell he was trying hard to turn the conversation back to a normal subject.

I gave him a quizzical look, wondering how he had known that there even was anyone. With a slightly embarrassed chuckle he pointed to the side of his neck. It took me a second to realize what he must have been talking about.

Blood rushed to my cheeks as I put a hand on the side of my neck to cover the slight bruising that was apparently there. I hadn’t even thought to check for anything after Alex and I’s little wrestling match in the sheets. I wasn’t exactly experienced in that area so the thought had never even crossed my mind.

“Wow,” I said with a chuckle, looking sheepishly up to meet my dad’s eyes. Thankfully he was smiling. “That’s embarrassing.”

He just gave a little shrug. “I’m not totally oblivious.

You’re twenty now, Jess. There’s bound to be some guy that catches your eye at some point.”

I gave a smile; glad that after all the heavy conversation we had just had we could still return back to something normal. “His name is Alex,” I said. I couldn’t help smiling at even just saying his name.

“I’d ask if he’s a nice guy but that seems pointless. I may not have been around you in the last four years but I know you well enough to know that you wouldn’t tolerate being with someone who didn’t treat you right.”

“He’s amazing,” I said, half to myself. “He knows, well, not exactly everything, but most everything. It doesn’t scare him. He’s trying to help in any way he can.”

“Sounds like you more than just like him,” he said with a smile as he forked some potato salad into his mouth.

“Dad,” I said with a laugh and shook my head. “You really want to talk about my love life?”

“Believe me,” he said as he rolled his eyes. “It’s better than talking to Amber about hers.”

The rest of our meal was spent in light conversation, keeping all supernatural and any discussion of my mother out of the picture. I had to admit to myself, I had missed my father. He may not have fully understood the horror of what I had experienced my whole life, apparently because of him, but he tried. He didn’t think I was totally crazy like my mother did. He was non-judgmental and I knew he loved me no matter what.

My father was tearful again when we said good-bye in front of the restaurant but there was hope in his eyes. I had given my promise that I would indeed call every once in a while and that I would stay in touch better. I tried to feel the same hope he did. I didn’t know how though, considering I had no idea what it was Cole wanted and why I was sick. I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach the two were related somehow. They just couldn’t be coincidence.

I got done a few minutes before Alex and I had agreed to meet so I took the extra time to go into the chocolate shop I had discovered last time I had been in Seattle. I rarely could justify the astronomical cost of just a few pieces of chocolate but the stress of everything that was going on was too much. Chocolate is a stress reliever to any woman.

I returned back to our meeting spot and downed the decadent pieces far faster than I should have. I couldn’t help it though.

Alex’s beaming smile was impossible to miss through the mass of people as he walked toward me. I couldn’t help but return it. When he finally reached me he wrapped his arms around my waist and pressed a kiss to my lips that had a little more passion behind it than was appropriate for being out in public. When he backed away half a step I looked around to make sure no one was watching. Unfortunately, there were a few. They looked away, shaking their heads as soon as I met their eye.

“So,” he said as he took my hand in his and started heading back to where we had parked the truck. “How did the meeting with your dad go?”

“Better than expected,” I said with a satisfied nod. “It was actually really good to see him. It wasn’t easy but I’m glad I saw him.”

“So…” he drug out the word. “Any chance I might get to meet him?”

“Um…no,” I scrambled. “He’s actually going back home. Tonight,” I lied. “There was an emergency back home so they’ve basically had to cancel their trip.” I hated the fact that I was lying to him so blatantly. I didn’t know what else to do though.

Alex’s nearly radiant expression dimmed just slightly at my answer but he simply shook it off with a shrug. “I’m sorry to hear that. But would you like to see now the idea I had in mind and the reason I asked you to pack an overnight bag?”

I bit my lower lip and looked up at his glowing face, nervous as to what he had planned and why he was so ecstatic all the sudden. “Sure,” I said, trying to keep my voice excited as well. I wished I could feel the same excitement about our time together; there was just too much going on with too many sinister motivations.