Chapter 38

“Where did you go, Aleda?”

“I-I was out,” Aleda stuttered. Papa crossed his arms, waiting. “With Ryan.”

He raised an eyebrow. Glanced back at Mom. Aleda looked back and forth between the two of them for a moment.

“No!” she said quickly. “I mean… Talia was there too.”

“Oh yes? And what did the three of you do while you were out?”

Damn it. She couldn’t lie. They’d know. Papá would know. It was one thing to mumble something on the way out the door, but she couldn’t do it with him looking at her like that. Like he was reading words off the top of her brain.

Papá was still waiting.

“Went to a strip mall,” she said. Technically, she wasn’t lying.

“A strip mall?” Papá repeated. “You mean you went all that way to go shopping?”

“Er… no. Well, Talia kind of did.”

“What about you?”

“I, um…” Hell with it. She might as well just get it over with. Time to rip off the bandaid. “We were hunting.” She looked up and cringed a little at the look on Papá’s face. But there was no backing out now. “Talia found a sucker for us while we waited around the corner.”

She bit her lip when she finished, and waited.

It took Papá a moment to process what she had just said. “You went hunting?” he yelled. “You are still only a girl! What were you thinking!?” He continued on without waiting for her answer. “How long has this been going on?”

Aleda looked away, focusing on the table. “…Since right after Thanksgiving,” she mumbled. “But this was the first time since the solstice!”

“I cannot believe you! How could you be so irresponsible?”

“But, Papá!”

“I do not want to hear it! You are just a child! You had no business anywhere near a demon! Have you forgotten what happened at Halloween?”

“I’ve gotten better since then, Papá!” Aleda shouted back. “I’ve been training!”

Papá shook his head, his face still hard with anger. “That is completely different! When you train, you are home! Safe! Not out there with demons who will kill you if you let them!”

“But they didn’t! I killed them! I killed lots of them! I’m not completely helpless, d****t!”

“Watch your language, young lady!!”

“And why the hell does everybody treat me like a baby!? The only one who thinks I’m good at anything is Ryan, and he doesn’t even like me!”

“Of course you are good at things! You are a lovely violinist!”

“That’s not what I’m talking about!”

“Enough!” Papá shouted. “You are not to leave this house after dark unless we are with you, and you will come home immediately after school every day. Understood?”

“You can’t do that!”

“It is for your own good!”

“How long—?”

“Go to bed, Aleda!”

“But—!”

“Now!”

She shrieked in frustration and stomped up the stairs, hauling on the purple backpack as she went. It tore a little. No point in trying to hide that from them, now. She got to her room and slammed the door. She didn’t care if they heard. She hoped they heard. She wanted Papá to know exactly how pissed she was, and how sick and fekking tired she was of being treated like some helpless, stupid baby. She was seventeen, for pity’s sake! Less than six months from being old enough to answer, and that was old enough to be the same ‘age’ as everybody else. But there they were, treating her like she was half that age.

Bloody typical.

The backpack was tossed into a corner. After a moment, she reconsidered and kicked it under her bed. All the better if they didn’t find it.

Clothes were tossed angrily in the direction of the laundry basket, and warm pajamas were pulled on instead. Earrings were torn out of ears and thrown at the dresser. She threw her shoes at the wall for good measure, loud enough to make two loud thumps.

She tossed her own self onto the bed. Sat there for a few minutes. Tried to decide whether or not to actually take the next step and crawl under the covers. She finally did, and stared up at the ceiling for what felt like hours. It was way too bright in her room to fall asleep, even with the lights switched off. She wasn’t tired at all. A glance at the clock on her dresser told her that it was well after eleven.

It looked like she was in for a nice long night of insomnia.

A few minutes before midnight she heard soft footsteps, and then a click. Her door opened. Mom, dressed for bed, padded into the room. Aleda felt the bed rock with added weight. There was silence for a few moments. She was the one who walked in here. Let her talk first.

“I’m proud of you, you know,” Mom murmured. Soft enough Papá couldn’t hear her from downstairs.

Aleda said nothing.

“You remind me of myself when I was your age,” Mom continued. She smiled faintly. “Even using my old crossbow. It takes a lot of courage to hunt as a human.” Aleda made a face in the darkness. “Even more when you’re not out on your own.”

Mom sighed.

“I talked to your Papá. It’s not fair that you get cooped up in here all that time, especially with sunset as early as it is.”

Aleda perked up. “Am I not grounded anymore?”

“No, not quite,” Mom chuckled. “But I told him it shouldn’t be any problem if you’re out with your human friends, or that boyfriend of yours. You’re smart enough not to try to hunt with them around. You’re still not allowed out with Talia or Ryan after dark, though, and you’ll have to be home by eight o’clock for the next week.”

Well, hell. It was better than nothing. Aleda still made a face, though, on general principle.

“Your Papá just wants you to be safe,” Mom said. “You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know,” Aleda finally said. “But he treats me like a baby.”

“You’ll always be his little girl, sweetie. There’s nothing you can do about that. They say it’s a dad thing.”

“Even when I’m grown up, and have my own kids?”

Mom laughed. “Even then. You should have him tell you about his mother and Grandpa Seth sometime. That man set the record for overprotectiveness. He just loves you too much, that’s all.”

Aleda rolled over to face her mother. “I know he doesn’t want me getting hurt,” she said, “But it’s like he doesn’t even want me to have a life. What am I supposed to do?”

“Think you can manage for four months?” Mom asked. She chuckled. “Not that I wouldn’t love to have you here forever, but you can do anything you like after you turn eighteen.”

“…You mean after I answer.”

“Yeah, same thing,” Mom agreed.

Aleda sighed. “Not necessarily.”

Mom gave her an odd look.

“I mean, what if I end up not wanting to?” Aleda explained.

“Well, that’s your choice,” Mom said slowly. An odd, wise smile flickered briefly across her face. “Though you might be surprised.”

Aleda looked up at her questioningly. “What do you mean?”

“It’ll pull at you,” she told her. “If you’re meant to hunt, it’ll pull at you until you can’t even imagine making another choice. It’s what happened to me.” Mom ducked her head and grinned. “I didn’t even know what a hunter was and I knew.” She reached over and tucked a curl behind Aleda’s ear, and they sat there in silence, in the dark, for several long seconds. Finally Mom sighed and gave her one last smile. “Get some sleep, honey,” she whispered. “It’s late.”

Aleda could only nod, half-asleep by now. She had already drifted off by the time Mom shut the bedroom door behind her.

 

 

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She dreamed of forests.

Dark, old forests that glittered with life in the night, and opened into pavement and stores. A shopping center ringed with asphalt and cars. People all around. She could see them all, a million stars that twinkled in and out as they came and went.

The smell of blood, suddenly, but soon covered by a blanket of leather and she was warm, and comforted. Images swam together before her eyes, and the seasons spun by. Snow melted into flowers, brilliant in the summer sun, and the light was golden and warm. Trees and fields became Andalusian hills, and she was little again. Surrounded by family. Seth, and Grandma Lily, even though Aleda had never seen her outside of photographs, and Aunt Firi.

Then Talia came, looking exactly the same. She hadn’t changed at all. Not even her hair. She tried to get Aleda to come with her to Philadelphia. She pulled Aleda through the hallway, and they were in the living room. Ryan was there. But he was young, younger than her, and dressed in a teddybear jumper. Seth came and swung him onto his shoulder, and told him to wake up.

Wake up.

 

 

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“Wake up!”

Aleda rolled over and groaned. Light hit her eyes from the window. She made a face, scrunched up her eyes to block out the bright light and pulled the covers firmly over her head.

“Come on, honey, it’s after ten! You sleep much longer, you’ll sleep right through the morning.”

“Okay by me,” Aleda grumbled into her pillow.

She waited a few minutes before rolling herself unceremoniously off the bed, then jumped immediately back on.

Sweet crap it was cold. Bloody weather. She was starting to think it might be worth it to answer, just for the convenient traveling. She’d go straight back to Spain in a heartbeat.

…Or maybe Tahiti.

On the second try she made it to her dresser and found a thick, warm sweater. Yesterday’s jeans were still good. She fetched those from the chair, where they had landed the night before, and pulled them on as quickly as possible. The feet got two pairs of socks and her weekend sneakers.

Sundays were nice. All the week’s chores were done, and most of her homework, usually, so she got the entire day to do whatever she wanted. Mom almost always spent the whole day practicing, which was nice. Half the time she didn’t even follow sheet music, just played whatever came through her fingers and filled the house with music for hours. Papá either ran errands or, as was more common this past month, lounged on the couch and watched her play with a silly expression on his face. He said it reminded him of when they first met.

Mom said that the baby was making him soppy.

Aleda wasn’t sure what to do with herself. Breakfast and the newspaper’s comics occupied her for no more than half an hour before she stalled out, and she didn’t feel like finishing her homework. There was no real point. If she decided she needed the grades she’d just copy off of Nate, who would have inevitably copied his own homework from somebody else.

She could probably call him. It was still a long time before her nighttime curfew would kick in.

Well, what the hell. She was bored.

His mom answered the phone, and she had to wait a few seconds for her to fetch Nate. He got on sounding half-asleep. They talked about nothing for a while. Random things. Movies. Music. It killed at least an hour. Right before they hung up he asked her what she was doing the next weekend. Did she want to catch a movie?

“Actually, I’m kind of grounded,” Aleda said. “I can’t be out past eight for… a while.”

“What?” he asked. “How come?”

“Because of yesterday,” she admitted. “When you came by and I wasn’t here.”

“Oh, yeah! Wait… where were you, anyway.”

“I, um… I was with Talia. We went to a …club… in Philadelphia.” Hell, she was lying a lot lately.

“Oh, awesome!” Nate exclaimed approvingly. “But you got busted, huh? Damn, that sucks.”

Yeah, and it was his fault.

S**t. No. She wasn’t going to blame other people for everything.

“Yeah, it really does.”

“Wait, so when will you get to go out on the weekends?” he asked.

“In another week,” she admitted, “Although I’m still allowed out during the day. We could still do something in the afternoon.”

“Not today. I’ve got plans with Nick and Josh in a bit. What about next Saturday?”

“I’ve got training on Saturday,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, but you can go out after that, right?”

“Um, probably.”

“Actually, I gotta go. We’ll work out the details later, okay?”

“Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See ya!”

Aleda hung up the phone with a sigh. Mara always did her homework on Sundays, and Val was off skiing with her parents for the weekend. Clearly there was no way she was getting out of the house today. It was weird, really. Any other weekend she’d be perfectly happy to curl up on the couch and read all day, but now that she was supposed to be home at night all she could think about was getting the hell out.

Sigmund Freud, eat your heart out.

But there was one number she hadn’t called yet…

It was still morning. Talia wouldn’t leave for work for a few more hours. It might at least be enough for some fresh air. She’d be happy just to get away from that goofy look on Papá’s face. Especially when she was still pissed at him.

Talia was as excited as always to hear from Aleda. She agreed immediately to come pick her up and hung up before Aleda even got the chance to ask about actual plans.

“Hey, Papá?” she asked tentatively. It took some work to be nice to him. She hoped he was in a good mood from Mom’s music. “Talia’s going to come pick me up in a couple minutes.”

“Talia…? Well, alright,” he conceded reluctantly. “Just be sure you are back by dark, okay little angel?”

Thank goodness.

“Okay, Papá. I will.”

 

 

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She practically skipped out the door when Talia pulled up in her familiar old rustbucket. She didn’t even care where they were going. She just wanted to go.

Of course, curiosity did finally get the better of her.

“Where are we going, by the way?” she asked halfway down Route 95.

Talia shrugged. “I figured my place was a good place to start. I have no idea what we should do. You just sounded like you needed to get the hell out of there.”

“You have no idea,” Aleda groaned. “Papá found out I wasn’t out with Nate last night. He freaked.”

“O-oh, yes, I know the experience. Wait, how come you can be out now?”

Aleda smiled ruefully. “I can go out during the day. It’s just after dark that I’m on lockdown, because he doesn’t want me hunting.”

“Oh, that’s crap! Does he even remember what that girl of his was doing when he met her?”

“Apparently not.”

“Aw, well, don’t worry. Anytime you need to get out, just let me know. I’ve got your back.”

She smiled for real this time. “Thanks.”

 

 

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They only stayed at Talia’s apartment for a few minutes. Long enough for Talia to grab herself a handful of popcorn and Aleda to stretch out contentedly on the couch and realize with a jolt that it smelled like Ryan. It didn’t take much longer to decide to drive out to Philly for lunch. Any other day she would have complained about the long drive but… well… this wasn’t any other day.

They ended up at their usual haunt: West’s bar in Drexel Hill. Like every other time Aleda had found herself here, she vowed never to come by herself. The good news was, West easily recognized her now. There were no repeats of that first visit. He smiled when they walked in.

“Heya, girls!” he called out in greeting. “What can I getcha?”

“The usual, West! How’s life?”

“Oh, you know,” he said, a glint in his eye. “The usual.”

Aleda snickered.

“You’re not funny, West!” Talia called after him as he disappeared into the kitchen. “I gave him that nickname, you know.”

Somehow, Aleda was not surprised.

“What do you think,” Talia continued. “Bar or table?”

“Table. I need something to lean back on.”

West came back out a little while later with their burgers and fries. “And there’s extra peach in that drink, just how you like it,” he said. He set the plates down in front of them. “By the way, did you girls hear about that new nest they found over in Chestertown? Big as anything, they’re saying. Ol’ Mike Connor’s rounding up all the hunters he can to clear it out. That’s the third one this month.”

“Crazy stuff, West,” Talia agreed. “Hey, can you get me a plate of wings, too? I’m starved today.”

West nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen.

“It’s actually the ninth since New Year’s,” Talia confided when he was gone. “Ryan got the rest. I’ve been scouting for him.” She paused, considering. “Well, I always scout. But I’m really going at it these days. Barely leaves time for Pizza Boy, I hate to say.”

“Why isn’t Mike doing anything about it?” Aleda whispered back, hoping it was quiet enough that the other patrons couldn’t hear.

Talia rolled her eyes. “Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “Mike’s a great guy and all, but his head is so far up his a*s he’s got front-row tickets to his own liver.”

Aleda snorted peach-flavored milk out of her nose.

“Seriously though. We keep telling him—well, Ryan gave up decades ago—but the rest of us, we keep telling him there’s more nests around, but he keeps going around and assigning us one-to-four like some kind of chaparoned stupid field trip. We’re not even getting the worst of it. That’s up in Jersey and New York, but they’re actually doing something about it up there. Mike just doesn’t bloody listen.”

“So what do we do?” Something in the back of her head was fighting for attention.

“What we’ve been doing, I guess,” Talia said. She shrugged again. “Ryan’s keeping a pretty good lid on it all around here, at least for now. I think it’s getting worse, though, so… I don’t know. I’d ask that papa of yours if he wants to help, but he’s got a new baby on the brain right now, so he’s useless for the next eight months.”

“Is Ryan still holding up with all this?”

“You kidding? This is what he’s been doing for the past twenty years! He’s living it up! He’s out at that nest on Elk Forest Road right now. You know, that one he showed you yesterday? Said it got infested again. Bloody suckers. They never stay gone.”

Aleda nodded her agreement and dug into her fries. Three bites later she paused. The thought that had been just out of reach finally broke through to her forebrain. “Wait,” she said. “Ryan hunts during the day…”