Reality Bites - Wattys 2018 Shortlist

Chapter 40 - Come and Get Me, Tiger!

In our car was Dimitri, Eddie, Christian, Lissa, and I. I know Pavel would have preferred us more distributed among the Guardians, but I wanted to talk with Eddie and Christian. Dimitri, of course, was driving – Eddie called shotgun, and I was happy to give it up for him; especially when I saw his proud look sitting beside Dimitri in the traditional second-in-charge position. Adrian elected to travel with Abe, Pavel, and Mom. I knew he enjoyed Abe's company, and the trip to the plane was not far.

"So you can't just drop this on us, Hathaway! Spill!"

"Ok! Well after the attack you know I had to hide, right? Well, when we were in Canada, Mom had told me about my Dad. I'd never known anything about him before, but she told me he wanted to meet me. After the attack, I needed just to disappear, so I decided to give him a call. If I had never known about him before, it would be the last place anyone would think to look for me."

"What? And he just welcomed you in with open arms?"

"Yeah well kind of," I said. "He sent a plane full of Guardians to collect me."

"What's with that? Is he some sort of Royal then? And why are their uniforms different?" Eddie continued.

"They're his private Guardians, Eddie. Abe is a really really rich man. He has houses all over the world, and he keeps his own private army of Guardians."

"I can't believe Abe Mazur is your father, Rose," Christian said, clearly in shock.

"What do you mean?" Eddie asked Christian.

"He's a big name, Eddie. Has fingers in lots of pies, apparently not all of them legal. If you believe the rumors, he's involved in dealing arms, drugs, loan sharking, gambling and all sorts of other things."

"Yeah well, no one's parents are perfect are they?" I said to Christian a little more sharply than I probably should have. Sure Abe wasn't blameless, but he'd been wonderful to Dimitri and me, and he was my Dad. It wasn't as though he'd willingly turned Strigoi like Christian's parents had!

Lissa, as always, stepped in to smooth the situation.

"Rumors are just that. Rumors. Christian didn't mean anything by it did you?"

"No, sorry Rose," he said sullenly.

"It's ok. What you're saying is probably true. Even Mom wouldn't elaborate on his business activities much. But he has been really good to me," I said, feeling bad for the dig about Christian's parents.

"I was only going to stay a few days, but then Mom arrived. Abe thought she deserved to know I was ok. You know things are always bad between her and me, and at first, it was really bad. But now she's coming around, and it's actually been nice. Abe did some investigations, and it looks like there are some Strigoi with a grudge after me, so he's sent twenty additional Guardians to bolster security on campus, and when I return to St. Vlad's I'm going to have a twenty-four seven two-person guard."

"Wow, that's pretty full on. Any chance one of them could be a pretty female Guardian? I'd let you set me up?" Eddie joked.

"I'm not sure that's what you'd desire, Novice Castile," Dimitri said speaking for the first time. "I am to be one of Rose's Guardians and her mother is the other."

Christian started cackling from the back seat.

"Your mother is going to guard you? Oh, Rose, that's freaking hysterical! You're not going to be able to get up to anything until graduation."

"Yeah yeah funny as," I grimaced. "I'm hoping she'll take it easy on me. But there's no knowing with Mom."

By now we'd arrived at the airfield. Dimitri did the usual security checks before opening the car door for Lissa, Christian, and I. It was sweet to see Eddie automatically assuming the second Guardian position a little further back. He was going to make a great Guardian after graduation!