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A normal person would have freaked out. Dropped everything and said, “Let's go.”
Me? Not so much.
I barely blinked when he told me. I took another long drag of my coffee and waited for him to elaborate.
“Come on, Addie— I mean, Adara.” Alec dragged his hand through his hair, messing his normally well-kept do up. “I wouldn't come to you if it wasn't serious.”
I huffed at that. “Oh, I believe you are very serious, but what you expect me to do about it is beyond me.”
“He's your father.”
Like that was supposed to motivate me. “The same father who killed the love of my life and made me watch?”
Alec threw his hands up in the air. “And you were trying to change a millennium of tradition and prejudice overnight.”
I chunked the cup into the sink, not caring that it shattered. Alec didn't flinch, not that I thought he would. If it had been anyone but Alec, I’d have flashed a bit of flame to get my point across, but being a Phoenix himself, Alec would just laugh in my face.
Instead, I took a note from my best friend Mary's book. Pulling the sash on my robe, I dropped it to the floor. Alec's gaze, to his credit, didn't waver from my face, not even when I walked toward him or pushed past him to the bathroom.
“What are you doing?” The low growl of his voice was the only hint that I affected him.
Alec and I had a fling when we were younger, teenagers, really, though he'd call it a relationship. I called it fumbling in the back of his car in between hunts as we both scrambled to deal with the mixture of emotions rampaging through us.
“What are you doing?” he called out after me, not following me into the bathroom.
“Taking a shower,” I called back. “What does it look like?”
Stepping into the tub, I flipped the water on hot. With my internal heat reaching to levels of molten lava the water barely felt tepid. I lathered my hair and didn't think anything of the man waiting outside the bathroom. I half hoped he'd take the hint and leave.
“You act like you don't have any personal stake in this,” Alec's voice wafted through the shower curtain.
“I don’t,” I reminded him. “My father made his bed, and now he had to lie in it.”
“It's not just about him. It's the guild's reputation at stake,” he continued with a hard tone. “You wouldn't want us to stop being relevant, would you? If word gets out that anyone can screw with the Phoenix Hunter Guild, they will stop fearing us, stop giving us answers. Then we couldn't help you with your little pet angel projects.”
That made me pause. Damn him.
I wasn't part of the guild anymore, true, but that didn't mean I didn’t call in a favor every now and then. Use them the way they used me all my life.
And my father let me.
I think he felt bad in his own way. Not for what he did but for losing me in the process.
I was his protégé, his pride and joy, and I’d failed him. At least that’s what he thought.
Falling in love with a target hadn’t been the plan. I’d gone in, gun and sword blazing like always, ready to take him and his nest down. Then that face. That God damned beautiful face with his big puppy dog eyes made me hesitate.
Instead if shooting first and asking questions later, I stopped. I waited. Let him tell me his sad story about only killing those who deserved it, and I walked out of there without a kill and my head full of confusion.
I hadn’t told anyone. I didn't know how. What I did do was come back. Several times in fact. Each time planning on killing him.
Bruce.
The stupidest name for a vampire if I ever heard one, and yet I kept coming back. My curiosity changed into intrigue, then attraction, and finally, love.
I had been living in a dream. A silly daydream that I had never expected to end. But it had, and it did.
My father found out through one of his little spies and demanded I do the right thing. To him, the right thing was putting a bullet through his heart or head which I refused to do. So, he did it for me.
I could still see the ashes of what was left of him in my head. I hadn’t even been able to take him home, put him in the ground or in a goddamn urn on my mantel. I laughed a hard laugh.
“Adara?” Alec's voice brought me back to the present.
I turned the water off and pulled the curtain back. Alec stood in the doorway, his hands in his pockets. This time his eyes did dip down, they slid over my wet skin, and for a second, I saw desire. Raw desire.
Then it was gone. That mask clamped back down, and he turned his back on me.
I grunted and stepped out of the tub, grabbing a towel. I dried myself, the whole time glaring at Alec's back. “You know you can look. It's not like you haven't seen me naked before.”
Alec made a sound in his throat, half pained and half bitter laugh. He didn't turn back around. “Your father was taken from his office in the middle of the guild. No one saw anyone come in or out. There wasn't a sign of a struggle.”
“Maybe he took a holiday,” I suggested, shoving my toothbrush into my mouth. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he jumped ship to get away from all the hypocrisy and Spam. God, you guys ate a lot of Spam.”
“I didn’t catch a word of that, but he didn't leave on his own,” Alec continued. “His clothing was still there. His cigar still burning on the ashtray when I came to bring him his morning briefs.”
I spat and wiped my mouth. “Still at his beck and call, I see. How does it feel to have no life of your own? To jump when he says, to eat, sleep, and shit when you’re told?”
Alec snorted. “Not too long ago you were none too happy to do just that.”
I grinned and spun around, my arms out to my sides. “Yeah, and look at me now. Happy and carefree. I go where I want, fuck who I want.” My stomach growled. “And today, I want pancakes.”
I waved a hand at Alec to get his butt moving which did absolutely nothing. Popping my toothbrush out and pointing it at him, I growled, “If you waited this long to come to get me, then you can damn well wait until I’m ready.”
“Fine.” Alec crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the door frame.
I shoved a finger toward the front door. “Leave. I'll call you when I’m coming.”
Alec looked like he wanted to protest but did as I asked. When the door slammed shut behind him, I turned to the sink and sighed.
Fuck me.
I'd thought I was done with this crap. I wasn't a hunter anymore. Well, not officially. Alec was the last person I wanted to talk to about, well, anything.
Besides the history between us, he had been the one to tell my dad about the vampire I'd started to see in secret. He'd practically swung the sword that decapitated Bruce, even if that arm had belonged to my dad.
Part of me wanted to say fuck him. He'd made his bed, pissed off the wrong guy. This was his reward...
... but that was the hurt part of me still pissed about Bruce.
The other part, the part that still hoped we'd reconcile our differences was anxious to get moving. He was the only parent we had left, even if he was a douche bag supreme.
With a pitiful grunt, I rinsed my mouth and spit before heading into my room to dress, all the while wondering who had the balls enough to kidnap the director right under their noses.