Chapter Three

Charlie enjoyed her first two months of school. She was free from her mom and sister for several hours. And she actually had friends at school.

            Unfortunately, at home, she was still pretty lonely. Her dad would talk to and spend time with her, but her mom and Casey ignored her. Charlie wished she could do things with Roxy and Xana after or outside of school. Her mom wouldn’t let her really leave the house, though. Her dad tended to agree because he didn’t want her in any danger.

            There was a knock on the Palmers’ door. Since Charlie was the only one home, she went to answer it. She looked through the peephole. It was Milo and Jeremy.

            Charlie let them in. “It’s that time of the week again?”

            The two men walked in. Charlie shut and locked the door behind them. “You want any drinks?”

            “Nope,” Milo said, not letting Jeremy answer as they sat on the couch. “Have you had any troubles?”

            Charlie sighed and sat on the chair in her living room. “Nothing. Nothing since last week. Nothing since last month. Nothing since this summer. Nothing since we left Maine. Can I have a life yet?”

            “You keeping a low profile is keeping you and your family safe,” Milo told her. “It’s keeping Marco from finding you.”

            Jeremy looked at Milo. “She’s a teenager. She can’t be stuck inside all the time. She needs to get out and have fun.”

            “Marco could kill her,” Milo said. “And we don’t know where he is.”

            “You didn’t find him in California?” Last Charlie heard, there had been sightings of him and Angela in LA. The Night Investigators Milo knew in the area had said it seemed like Marco was trying to get new Clan members.

            “He moved on before my associates could make a move,” Milo informed her.

            “There’s not a Kill Order for Angela, is there?” Charlie asked. “Because she’s never done anything wrong. She’s the one who told me to stay away from Marco. She’s not bad.”

            Milo looked at Charlie like he didn’t believe her. “Yet she’s never stopped Marco from killing people. She’s never stopped him from having sex with underage girls. From Turning underage girls. Did she stop him from forcing you to have sex with people?”

            “He didn’t force me,” Charlie insisted. “And she slept with people too when Marco said. Sometimes we did people together.”

            The two men digested that information.

            “She he forced her too,” Jeremy said quietly. “How was Angela Turned?”

            Charlie shrugged. “Marco Turned her. She never talked about it.”

            Milo sighed. “We’ll do some digging and then discuss Angela the next time there’s a meeting.”

            Charlie’s dad came home from his workday. “Hello, Milo. Hello, Jeremy. Anything new?”

            Milo stood and shook Mr. Palmer’s hand. “Hi, Bob. Marco may be moving on to Florida. We think he believes your family has moved to an often sunny state, and is recruiting Clan members in those states.”

            “Marco always claimed Hunters were idiots,” Charlie said. She was learning he was wrong. “Dad, can you get Milo to allow me to have a life?”

            “Charlie, sweetie, it’s much better if you don’t go out much,” Bob said sadly.

            “Why not let her friends come over here?” Jeremy suggested and gave Charlie a wink.

            Charlie smiled briefly. “But my friends are Xana Chambers and Roxy Jacobs.”

            “Why does that matter?” Bob asked.

            “Well,” Milo began, “Xana is half Vampire, and Roxy is a Werewolf.”

            “Charlotte!” Bob looked panicked.

            Milo put a hand on Mr. Palmer’s shoulder. “Xana’s father isn’t one of the bad Vampires. He’s the one who loaned you the money for Charlie to go to Alpha Omega High. He’s also the owner of the hotel your wife and older daughter work at. Roxy’s father owns this house, and is technically your employer, Bob. And those girls will be able to sense a Vampire where one shouldn’t be. Neither one of them would hesitate to call me if there was trouble. They’re good girls.”

            Bob looked into his daughter’s pleading eyes. He knew Charlie was lonely. He’d just have to talk to Milo more in depth about the fathers of the two girls. “We just won’t tell your mom about that. But, Milo, I want more information about their families.”

            Milo nodded. “No problem.”

            Charlie clapped and gave her dad a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks. I’ll go start dinner.”  

 

 

Xana was finished her homework, and was spending some time on the Internet. She had been getting weird messages on her Twitter and Tumblr. They were kind of creepy. Some of the messages told her she was beautiful, and others talked about wanting to f**k her. And they were pretty graphic.

Xana reported the accounts, but more popped up. They sometimes scared her, but Xana knew that was a thing that happened when one was sort of popular on the Internet, even if she mostly blogged about movies and TV shows in addition to reblogging and retweeting a lot of Roxy’s fan art.

She kept telling herself that it was just some trolls getting their rocks off. It might’ve been best to keep ignoring them.

While Xana was trying to crush her unease, she got a text from Charlie, inviting her over for a sleep over. This was exciting for Xana. She wanted to see where Charlie lived, and maybe judge Charlie’s mom and sister. She also wanted to grill Charlie more about how she ended up in Delaware. She only knew a bit of the story, after all.

Xana quickly left her room to ask her parents if she could go to Charlie’s house on Saturday.

 

 

Xana had picked up Roxy on her way to Charlie’s. The Palmers’ house was a small two-story brick place.

“It’s cute,” Xana commented as she and Roxy got out of the car. “Your dad owns this place?”

“Yup,” Roxy said with a nod. “And a couple by University of Delaware.”

They walked up the steps, and Xana rang the doorbell.

Charlie answered. “Hi! Sorry the place is so small.”

“I like it,” Xana said as she and Roxy stepped in. “Mine is so big it practically echoes at times. It’s only full when my dad has meetings or parties.”

Charlie sat on the couch. “How big is your house?”

Roxy chuckled. “It’s a castle.”

Charlie stared at Xana. “A castle? Really?”

Xana made an embarrassed face. “My mom designed it. It was my dad’s gift to her for their fifth anniversary.”

“How did your parents meet?” Charlie asked Xana. She was eager to hear another Vampire/Human love story. But one with a happy ending.

Xana sat next to Charlie on the couch. “My dad was living in the penthouse of one of his hotels in Philadelphia. My mom was sixteen, and she was at a cousin’s wedding. It was her dad’s side of the family, and she never liked them much. So she was hanging out in the hotel lobby for a bit. My dad told me he saw a lonely looking girl in a dress, and decided to talk to her. She told him how she felt like the odd person out in her family, and how she wished she could pretend to fit in like her sister. My dad told her that she should just be happy with herself, and to not make herself miserable trying to live up to their standards. One day, when she was older, she wouldn’t have to put up with heir crap.

“My mom never forgot the nice man who made her feel better about being an outcast.”

“Did your dad remember her?” Charlie asked, charmed by the story.

Xana laughed. “Vaguely. He always had a lot of stuff on his mind. My mom ended up going to college in Philly. She ran into him again when he was attending an event that was catered by the company she was working for. She was passing appetizers, and ended up making small talk with him. Somehow, she conned his number out of him.

“Dad tried to ignore her, but my mom is persistent, and when she wants something, she goes for it. After hanging out a few times, my dad revealed what he is, hoping to scare her away.”

“But it didn’t work,” Charlie said dreamily.

“For a couple weeks it did,” Xana told Charlie. “It freaked her out. He’d been alive way longer than her, and he could easily kill her. But my mom goes with her gut, and she felt she could trust my dad. Plus, she missed him during those weeks she stayed away from him. So she convinced him to date her, and they eventually slept together, which is when I was conceived!” Xana paused. “My mom’s dad is super religious, and an a*s from what I’ve been told. I haven’t met him. Anyway, when my mom told her parents she was pregnant, her dad called her a w***e and an embarrassment to the family, and beat the s**t out of her.”

Charlie gasped. “Oh my god.”

“Her parents cut her off, so my dad started to pay for her education�"he felt like it was all his fault. He got an apartment for her, and moved in with her after I was born. After about a year, they got married. Once my mom finished school, they moved to Delaware.”

“How do a Vampire and a Human even have a baby?” The girls turned to Charlie’s father, who edged into the living room when he heard Charlie’s guests.

Xana nodded at him. “Vampires actually have a very slow blood flow. When sex happens, everything kicks up a notch. You know, the instinct to reproduce and stuff. Plus, men always produce sperm.”

“You know about us?” Roxy asked Mr. Palmer.

“Yes. I want to know who my daughter spends her time with. I got all the information Milo has about your dads.”

“My mom and sister can’t know,” Charlie said.

Roxy shrugged a shoulder. “A lot of people can’t know.”

“Right,” Bob said. “I ordered you girls a pizza. You should probably hang out in Charlie’s room. My wife gets a little moody after work.”

The girls went up to Charlie’s room. Xana looked through Charlie’s bookcase. There were a lot of young adult Vampire love stories.

“Charlie, how did you meet the Vampire that caused all this mess?” Xana asked.

Charlie sat on her bed and sighed. “I was walking the family dog on the beach one night during the summer. He was watching the ocean until he saw me. He called me beautiful. We met up every night for a few weeks. He talked to me like I was an adult, and not a little kid like my parents and sister. He told me I seemed much older than I actually was. I felt like a real, grown woman with him, and I guess I had my sexual awakening because of him.”

Roxy snorted. “You don’t need a man for that. Sexual urges are part of growing up.”

“How old was Marco when he was Turned?” Xana wanted to know.

“Twenty-seven,” Charlie told her.

“And you had sex with him?”

“Yeah.”

“But that’s illegal.”

Charlie scowled. “Says who?”

Roxy sat next to Charlie on the bed. “The various state laws. And this country’s Supernatural Laws. Clan leaders, Pack leaders, Shifter representatives, and Night Investigators. A Vampire who has lived past their own eighteen years can’t have sex with someone under eighteen. Two offenses, and they get a Kill Order. A Vampire can’t Turn anyone under eighteen, and a Were can’t bite anyone under eighteen. What Marco did was wrong.”

“He loves me,” Charlie insisted.

“Didn’t he try to kill your family?” Xana asked.

“He’s very passionate.”

Xana joined the other two on the bed. “What else did he do? What did he make you do?”

Charlie pulled at a loose string on her duvet. “He asked me to sleep with other Vampires.”

“And were you okay with this?” Xana asked.

“I got used to it,” Charlie mumbled.

“So he forced you to have sex with other Vampires,” Roxy confirmed. “Charlie. That’s wrong. You know that, right?”

Charlie looked at her new friends. “I was doing him a favor by pleasing his friends.”

“How did it happen the first time?” Xana questioned. She found herself angry at this Vampire she didn’t know.

“This… older Vampire came to stay with Marco for a while. He liked to drink from and sleep with college girls, and sometimes younger girls. Marco told me he thought I’d be a nice gift for the guy. The guy really creeped me out. He looked at me like I was a meal. I told Marco I didn’t want to. He said I was acting like a child and not the mature woman he knew I was. He said that maybe he should leave me if I really was that immature. I didn’t want him to break up with me, so I said I’d do it. They locked the door from the outside in case I changed my mind last minute. The Vampire wasn’t gentle. He didn’t care that I was uncomfortable. I was lightheaded because of all the blood he drank from me. I cried after, and felt… dirty. Like I was just a toy or something. Eventually, I got numb to it all.”

“That’s not what someone who loves you does,” Xana said softly.

“He would buy me gifts after.”

“To try to make you forget how horrible he was to you,” Roxy pointed out.

Charlie sat there and thought over the conversation. If what Xana and Roxy said was true, then Charlie had to rethink everything she thought about love.

She had thought love was supposed to be an all-consuming thing. That people would literally do anything to stay with each other. And that was what she did to stay with Marco. She did everything to keep him wanting her. She slept with other people, let them drink her blood, lost weight, got her hair and nails done weekly, waxed, learned how to do her makeup like a pro. All that so she could be with Marco forever.

But what had Marco done for her? He bought her pretty things, and said nice words. He would only let her talk to and spend time with his friends, his Clan. He didn’t like anyone else but him to have a say in her life.

Tears sprang to Charlie’s eyes. “But he said he loved me.”

Roxy and Xana each grabbed one of Charlie’s hands.

“Maybe you need to talk to someone,” Xana suggested.

“There’s a shrink in my dad’s Pack. She’s nice,” Roxy said.

Charlie sniffed. “We can’t afford therapy. So much money was spent on medical bills, and just leaving everything behind for the move.”

“So you really just dropped everything,” Xana said.

Charlie nodded. “We had to literally disappear so Marco can’t find us. Palmer isn’t my real last name. We were close to my dad’s side of the family, and they have no idea where we are. Casey can’t go to college because of me. I ruined my mom’s perfect little life that she worked so hard for.”

“If your mom is more worried about her image than your well-being,” Roxy said, “that makes her a huge b***h.”

“Does she even care that some creep took advantage of you?” Xana asked.

Charlie shook her head.

Xana rested her head on Charlie’s shoulder. “That’s it. Roxy and I are adopting you. More than we already have. We are going to convince Milo to let you loose so you can come over to our houses as much as possible.”

“And we’ll get my dad to pay for your therapy,” Roxy added. “Because you need help, kid. And if your family isn’t going to do anything about it, your friends will.”

“Aren’t you just friends with me because Milo needed more people to watch me?”

“Please,” Xana said. “You fit right in. A misunderstood girl tangled in the Supernatural world. You’ve been through some s**t, and you kept going. You need people who understand you, and we do. You need people who will support you during this difficult time. We will. We started talking to you, and decided we like you. So now you’re never getting rid of us.”

“I’ve never had real friends before,” Charlie said. “”I’ve always just been a weird kid with her nose in a book, dreaming about having fantastic adventures. I didn’t have time for normal people. Then I met not-normal people, and it destroyed everything.”

“Well, we’re pretty normal for not-normal people,” Xana said.

Roxy snorted. “B***h, you live in a castle.”

“It’s not my fault my dad’s had a long time to save up money.”

“I have always wanted to spend the night in a castle,” Charlie said, glad to have real friends for once.