A Slave to Love

Chapter 41: Babysitter

Blade POV

"What do you want?" I growled into my cell phone, one hand over my eyes. I did not appreciate being woken up by a damn cell phone this early in the morning. Especially if it was my dad. He never called me just to chat, it almost always ended badly or with him needing something. And for him to call me early in the morning? It was going to be both.

"We need you to come home now. There's a problem."

"Can't it wait?"

"No. This is important and it's about your sister," he snapped, "So get your ass over here already."

"How long is this going to take?" I asked, thinking of Kiana sleeping just down the hall from me. She was finally single, finally not pushing me away, and I didn't want to miss a minute with her. Ace had been over yesterday and while I was tempted to kick him out the second Kiana told me her news, I knew he would read into it and make a big deal of it, so instead I hung out with him and he spent the whole night giving me eyes and sly remarks and Kiana had disappeared upstairs for most of it, except dinner. 

I had intended to make the most of this morning before dropping her off at school and tonight when I picked her up, but if Dad was calling, it was unlikely I'd be seeing her anytime soon.

"Probably a few days."

I fucking hated that I was right. This was such a regular occurrence you'd think I'd be used to it by now, but nope. I kept stupidly hoping Lexi would wise up and she continued to prove me wrong by actually getting worse. One of these days she was going to a cross a line she couldn't cross back and not even me or Dad would be able to fix it.

"Ideally you'll be home by the weekend. So tell Mona she can go a few days without you," he continued, mistaking my silence as a question and not me trying to come up with a way to tell him to stuff it without him coming over here and dragging me home by my ear. 

Or worse, sending Mom over here instead.

"It's not Mona," I muttered, running my fingers through my hair, mentally slapping myself a minute later for letting that slip. That's what happened when he woke me up with no warning. I lost all my usual abilities to deal with him.

"Oh? What happened to Mona?" his tone went frosty. Well, frostier than its usual artic vibes.

I could just picture my Dad's expression; red eyes narrowed, jaw locked, arms folded over his chest while he tapped his foot, impatiently waiting for an answer he knew he wasn't going to like.

"She went to work." I slid out of bed, accepting my fate. I couldn't tell him I had better things to do and admit that I wanted to spend time with Kiana instead. That was two strikes too many and I'd be picking splinters out of my ass for the beating and a half I'd get. "It's Kiana I don't want to leave."

"You shouldn't get attached to your conduit, especially if you have no intentions of turning her," he said condescendingly. An old argument, one he kept yammering on about even when I stood there and blatantly ignored him. 

 "That's none of your business," I growled out as I paused in my search for pants. He was already ruining my sleep and my day with Kiana, and throwing whatever fucked up thing Lexi cooked up for us to deal with. No way was I putting up with his patronizing lectures for the rest of the week too. I'd already mentioned the attack on Jill to him, and the threat on the wall, mostly because when he'd heard Kiana had moved in with me his head nearly exploded. 

He had calmed down a bit after I grudgingly explained, even though it was my fucking house and I could do whatever I wanted without his permission or knowledge, but evidently he either didn't care or forgot that I was an adult who hadn't lived with him in centuries. Either way, it just pissed me off more.

"And I'm not saying I'm getting attached," I said. "I'm saying it because I'm worried about her. Someone's out to get her and I don't want to leave her alone for a long time when anything can happen. Not to mention how is she going to get to school and back? I'm the one who drives her."