Tainted Crimson (9 page)

“I found it online. I’ve had this backup plan for years,” my father says with a shrug. He’s not usually this quiet or serious and I wonder what he’s thinking. Is he worried? Of course he is. He worries when I go out to parties. Now there’s a psycho witch after me. “I’ve never actually been there because I was too afraid to leave Ariella behind and too scared to bring her with me and risk people seeing her for what she is.”

“Are you saying she’s never left Denver?” D asks.

“Never,” I answer. “I always wondered why.”

“I’ll be right back,” D says suddenly and I look at him confused. Where is he going to go? We’re in a moving vehicle.

“Don’t, Daymon. She’s already freaked out enou-,” my father starts but then stops. My father shakes his head. “What an idiot.”

“Where do you think he went?” Jacob asks.

Confused, I look over to D who is...gone. My heart leaps.

“Who knows?” my father answers Jacob.

“What just happened?” I demand. I’m sure my eyes are as big as saucers.

“We call it popping in and out. Witches can picture a place they’ve been and go there,” my father says. “Sorry about him. He’s kind of an idiot. I can’t wait for the day he settles down and grows up. I think a woman is the only thing that can tame him.”

Then Daymon is back in his seat, fastening his seatbelt like nothing happened.

“Where’d you go?” Jacob asks.

“Back to that gas station we were just at. Picked up some more whiskey,” he says while twisting the cap off a bigger bottle than the last.

Jacob chuckles. “Of course. Give me that, you jackass.”

“I also picked up some snacks because I’m hungry and I’m sure Ariella is too. Thanks for forgetting to feed us. Jerks.”

It’s not until then that I realize that I’m starving.

D winks at me and tosses me a bag of chips. Oh thank heavens. I tear them open like a mad woman and start shoving them in my mouth,

“Sorry. A lot on my mind,” my dad says. “Plus either of you could’ve said you were hungry and I could’ve stopped.”

“Immortals don’t eat. I mean, they don’t get hungry. The only reason they eat is for their own enjoyment,” Jacob explains when he sees my confused expression. “Vampires neither.”

Enough fantasy talk it’s giving me a headache. I wish we would just talk about normal stuff.

“I have to pee,” I say before even realizing that I have to. God, do I ever have to go. I curse myself for not going while we were at the gas station.

“I’ll pull over,” my dad promises and starts slowing down.

“That’ll waste too much travel time. I’ll take her,” D says and grabs my arm.

“Don’t-” I hear my father start but then his voice fades out and a rush of hot air fills my lungs. Suddenly I’m standing outside of the old, sketchy gas station we’d been parked in front of earlier.

“Hmm you’ll probably contract some sort of disease if you go in there. I have a better idea,” D says quickly and then another rush of hot air invades me.

Then I’m standing on a wooden deck overlooking mountains. I gasp.

“This is where I was when your dad called me. I was skiing but the ski resorts have shut down their lifts for the summer now. Yesterday was the last day. There’s a bathroom inside,” D explains and points to a glass door.

Shocked, I follow his pointer finger and enter the building, scanning for a bathroom sign. It’s not long before I find one and rush over to it.

Once I’m finished in the bathroom, I find D waiting for me on a bench outside of it.

“Ready?” he asks.

I hesitate before nodding and bracing myself for the rush of hot air again. Only he doesn’t grip me and the hot air doesn’t come. I open my eyes.

He laughs. We’re not going back to the truck.

Confused and a little scared, I ask, “Why not?”

“Because your father has kept you cooped up in Denver your entire life and you haven’t lived yet,” he answers and smiles genuinely. “Also because I’m sick of sitting in the truck.”

“He’s going to kill you,” I promise.

“I know.”

“Is this really a good time?” I ask him seriously. As much as I don’t want to be in that truck for another few hours surrounded by awkward stares and conversation, I also don’t exactly want to piss my dad off or hang around the guy who threw me up against a wall and threatened me at my house before we left.

“Meh. This brings us back to what I said a few seconds ago. You haven’t ever
lived
.”

Knowing that I can’t do anything about this situation I cave. “What do you have in mind?”

“Where’s one place you’ve always wanted to go?” he asks, happy that I’m not arguing.

“Disney World,” I blurt without thinking.

“Seriously?” he asks dubiously.

“Yes, it looks like a lot of fun.” I shrug. Seeing it in my dream with Marco only made me want to go there more. Had Marco known that he’d picked the one place that I’d wanted to go more than anything? Or was that coincidence? Did he somehow manage to get that from my thoughts? If so what else does he know about me?

“Alright. Disney World it is then.”

My feet meet pavement and a loud roar thunders through the air. Taken by surprise, my heart pounds thinking I’m in some kind of danger when I’m really just standing beside a roller coaster.

“An hour and then we better go back. Otherwise your father won’t just kill me, he will torture me.”

“Probably,” I agree. I have to admit that I’m not even disappointed by only having an hour. I’m just happy to be here.

“What ride do you want to go on?” he asks while appearing to turn his cellphone off. Why does he get a cell phone?

“I don’t want to go on a ride. I just want to walk around,” I say honestly. I’m not willing to waste my hour standing in line.

He scoffs, “The wait for that one is only fifteen minutes. We’re going on it.”

I look at it. No wonder it’s only fifteen minutes, it looks like a puke machine. It’s spinning faster than my mind can process. Before I can protest he is dragging me towards it.

“Why are you suddenly all friendly? You almost ripped my head off at my place. Are you bipolar or something?”

He shrugs.

“Why are you doing this for me? You know it’s going to get you in trouble,” I try again.

“Because believe it or not you make my curious. Plus, I didn’t want to sit in that truck any longer. They’re both grumpy,” he explains.

I can’t disagree, they were both pretty grumpy and I also was sick of sitting in the truck.

A few minutes later I’m struggling to get my safety belt on so I can ride the ride and D is pulling away my wrists and trying to help me like I’m some kid.

“Let me do it,” he sighs.

“I’m not five. I can do it.”

“Do you need help, ma’am?” a ride assistant asks.

I finally give in and let D do it up for me.

“No, thanks though,” I say to the lady and try to calm my heartbeat. I can’t tell if it’s hammering in my chest because I’m nervous or because I’m scared or maybe even because D just touched my waist. Okay, he may be a moody, cocky, jerk but he’s still pretty cute. That is if you don’t think about the fact that he is super old even if he doesn’t look it. Seriously, Ariella stop checking him out, this isn't the time. Hell, this is not the time to be at Disney World.

“Ready?” he asks with a grin as the ride starts moving.

“I don’t know,” I screech.

“It hasn’t even started yet.” He chuckles. “Stop screaming.”

“It has so, it’s moving.”

He sighs playfully and shake his head. “It’s like babysitting a child.”

“Is not!” I argue.

His reply is cut off by my screams as the machine begins whirling us around in circles and our surroundings turn to blurs.

The entire time I hear him chuckling beside me.

When it’s finally over I still can’t see straight. He has to help me out of the small car and down the hall to the exit which leads us to a room full of souvenirs with the ride’s theme smacked across them.

“Want anything?” he asks.

I reach for my wallet and realize I don’t have it.

“I’ll get it,” he promises while eyeing a t-shirt. “I think I’ll get this. No way am I ever letting myself or you forget that five minutes of you screaming bloody murder. You do realize that you were the only one screaming right? Like not even the little kids were screaming.”

I glare at him. “I will pay you back.” I grab a tank top with a picture of the ride on it and hand it to him. “This.”

“Is that all?” he asks.

I nod and he goes up to the front counter to pay. While he stands in line I walk around the small store and take everything in. Everything from the sounds, and smells to the people. The atmosphere is amazing. More so than I could’ve imagined.

After a few minutes, D returns with a bag full of our stuff and we leave the building and walk out into the crowd again.

“Now what?” he asks.

“Can we get popcorn?” I ask him pointing excitedly to the popcorn stand.

“Of course. Stay here.”

I wish I had a camera. I’m in sensory overload.

I’m still standing there staring out at the crowd when D returns, popcorn in hand.

“It’s nearly been an hour, we should probably go soon,” he says and laughs when he sees my look of disappointment. “We’ll come back another time or maybe your dad will take you once this mess is all over with.”

“Speaking of which, what is the plan? Are we just going to run around and hope that this Marco guy doesn’t catch me?” I ask.

“You’d have to ask your dad that one. I’m just the warlock doing the protection spell.” He shrugs. “By the way. I got something else for you while we were in that store.” He pulls out an envelope and removes a picture from it. A picture of him and I on the ride, me screaming my head off and him laughing his own head off.”

I laugh and he hands it to me.

“So you don’t forget your first Disney World experience,” he says and grabs my arm. I know our hour is up when I feel the familiar rush of hot air enter my lungs once again and the familiar scent of dad’s pine tree air freshener takes over my senses.

“Where the hell have you been? You were gone over an hour!” My dad sounds absolutely furious and cringe.

“Disney World.” D shrugs with a laugh.

“I’m serious!” he hollers, reaching back and punching D in the jaw.

“Hey!” I cry, “Stop!”

“If anything would’ve happened to her, I swear I would have ripped your heart out,” he threatens.

“I know, but nothing happened to her. She’s fine. We seriously did go to Disney World and nothing bad happens at the happiest place on earth,” D tries.

“We did,” I agree, “And it was so cool, dad. Oh my gosh you should’ve seen the people and the food-oh god-and the stuff and just everything! We even went on a ride!” I exclaim and I see Jacob grinning.

“No harm was done. She’s fine and it sounds like she had the time of her life.” Jacob takes his turn trying to convince my dad
our
dad, god that’s tough to remember, that all is okay.

“You could’ve at least told me where you were going! For all I knew you guys had been snatched by Marco!” He’s obviously still angry. Very angry.

“If I would’ve told you, would you have let us go? No. Not that you could stop me but you would’ve followed us, been angry the whole time and ruined the experience for your daughter,” D exclaims back at my father.

“Dad, look,” I demand and shove the picture in front of his face hopping I don’t cause him to crash.

I can’t see his face and can’t help but wonder what he’s thinking. I hear him sigh.

“I haven’t seen you smile like this since your mother was alive,” he admits finally. “I’ll let this go but it better not happen again, D. Not until it’s safe to go gallivanting around the world.”

“Fine,” D agrees.

Eventually I stop rambling on about my one hour at Disney World and eventually we also arrive at Taverd. When my father said eight hundred people, I still wasn’t imagining it to be this small. The town, or
village
as the official sign says, only has one street with businesses on it that span about two or three blocks. I am shocked. I am even more shocked to find out that the nearest city is over two hours away by car.

We pull up to a medium sized house just off Main Street and my father jumps out first. “This is it.”

“Is it a bed and breakfast?” I ask confused and searching for signs.

“No, this is our new house,” he says. “Well I bought it years ago just in case.”

“With what money?” I wonder out loud.

“I’ve been alive a long time, sweetheart. I have a lot of money,” he answers.

Apparently
. I think to myself.

“We’re going to need new identification. All of us. I’ll get that figured out tonight while you set up the protection spell around the town, D. Jacob, you go walk around this town and make sure there’s no supernaturals living here,” my father instructs. “Ari, go get some rest. Pick whichever room you want. We’ll decorate it later.”