4. QUESTIONS
LEESA LINGERED IN RAVE’S EMBRACE for several minutes, her mind a whirling kaleidoscope of unanswered questions and unfinished thoughts. With all she had gone through the past three months, she thought nothing could ever surprise her like this. When you’ve discovered your mom had truly been bitten by a one-fanged vampire, and that your boyfriend is a supernatural vampire hunter, and a guy at school who liked you is a real-life vampire, it’s hard to believe anything could shock you to this degree. But this one simple phone call had knocked her for a loop, for sure.
The man’s message just could not be true—it challenged everything she believed about her childhood. How could the man she had called Dad until she was seven years old not be her father? It did not make sense.
Finally, she eased back from Rave’s embrace. Max backed away and looked up at them, his eyes wide and seemingly sympathetic, as if he understood what was going on in her head. Rave’s dark brown eyes were also filled with sympathy and understanding.
“You heard all that, of course?” she asked.
Rave nodded. “Yeah, I did.”
She looked down at the broken phone she still held in her hand and cursed herself for dropping it. Its memory held the number the man had called from, but the cell was useless. Now that she had recovered a bit, she wanted to call him back, to question him, to find out why he would make such a ridiculous claim, but she could not. He might even be trying to call her again right now. What would he think when he received no answer? What would he do next? She had no way of knowing.
“I don’t know how or why, but I felt like it was trouble as soon as my phone rang,” she said. “I never expected anything like this, though. Not in a million years. How could he claim to be my father? That’s ridiculous. My father lived with us until I was seven. What could this guy want?”
Rave shook his head. “I don’t know. I wish I could help, but I do not even know who my father is. It’s not the volkaane way.”
“I know. But I’m still glad you were here when it happened.”
“Do you think there’s any chance it could be true?”
Leesa thought for a moment. “A chance? I guess there’s always a chance. Maybe I was adopted—not all parents tell their adopted kids about it. Maybe mine didn’t tell me.” She didn’t really believe that, though.
“No, I do not think so,” Rave said. “If that were true, how would you explain the taint of grafhym in your blood?”
Leesa had forgotten about that. Rave was right—her mom had to be her real mother.
“You’re right.” Leesa pursed her lips in thought. “I guess that leaves only two possibilities. Either my mom had an affair, or the guy on the phone is lying.” She shook her head. “I just can’t see my mom having an affair, but I guess all kids probably think that about their moms. Who knows what she might have been like before the grafhym bit her? I’ve only known her as the reclusive woman who kept insisting she was bitten by a one-fanged vampire.”
Rave took Leesa’s hands in his. “So, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I don’t see how I could possibly ask my mom about this, not after everything she’s been through.” Leesa shook her head and sighed. She was growing up fast, but this was not something she could imagine doing, not unless this thing turned out to be way more important than it seemed right now. The call had been troubling, sure, but it wasn’t worth risking her mom’s all too recent recovery.
“What would I do, anyhow?” she said, more to herself than to Rave. “Say ‘by the way, Mom, did you sleep with someone besides Dad before you got pregnant with me?’ No way I could ever do that.”
A sudden thought hit her like a punch to the stomach. Could that be the reason her father found it so easy to leave his family, because his wife had cheated on him and he knew he wasn’t Leesa’s real father? Heck, maybe he wasn’t Bradley’s father, either. She would have to ask the caller about that, too, if she ever spoke to him again.
“If the guy on the phone was lying,” Rave said, “that means he wants something from you.”
Leesa had already considered that.
“Yeah, I thought of that. But what? I don’t have anything anybody would want.” She thought about all the motives that drove people in stories she had read. “It’s not like I have any old manuscripts or magical jewelry lying around. I’m just an ordinary kid.”
Rave smiled. “We have already established you are far from ordinary, remember? Maybe it’s not about something you own, but something about you.”
Leesa had not considered that. “What could he want from me? My grafhym blood? Do you think he needs to keep a vampire away or something?”
“I doubt that. The guy sounded like he has been looking for you for awhile. If he wants something from you, I don’t think it has anything to do with the grafhym.”
“What, then? The grafhym blood is the only thing special about me.”
Rave wasn’t too certain about that, but he had nothing specific or concrete to offer, so he remained silent about it. “I don’t know,” was all he said.
Leesa’s head was beginning to hurt. There was just not enough to go on. She certainly wasn’t going to risk upsetting her mother or Bradley by talking to them about it. They had both been through more than enough.
The guy on the phone had asked where she lived, which meant he had no idea where she was. She decided to try to keep it that way. When she got a new phone, she would get a new number as well. It wouldn’t be much of an inconvenience—only about a dozen people had her number anyhow. Now there would be one less.
“Well, I’m not going to worry about it any longer. He doesn’t know where I live, and that’s how I like it.” Leesa looped her arms around Rave’s elbow and grinned. “And if he does find me, I’ve got a big strong magical boyfriend to protect me.”
Max barked, once. His big brown eyes were looking up at her.
Leesa smiled. “Okay, a big strong boyfriend and a really smart dog to protect me as well.”
Rave kissed her forehead. Of course he would protect her, with his life if need be, but what about when he wasn’t around? He wished they knew more about the caller and what he wanted. They didn’t, though, and there was nothing they could do about it.
Having made up her mind, Leesa felt better. She did not have to worry about the guy for a while. All he had to go on was a phone number that no longer worked and was registered in San Diego, besides. Maybe she wouldn’t even get another cell phone for awhile. After all, it wasn’t like she could call or text her boyfriend, like most girls could, and if her family needed to reach her when she was back at school, they could call the dorm.
Leesa smiled, pleased with the idea. No cell phone. She would just pretend she was a volkaane for awhile.