Tested

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

“Stop sulking,” Dad said as we hurried through the dark streets.

I heard yelling and stopped. He paused and turned to look at me. I gazed at him pleadingly.

He shook his head. “Keep moving.”

Having an opinion was completely pointless. I couldn’t leave him, didn’t have any say in what we did, and I was getting sick of it. At seventeen, I thought I had earned something. Leaving might not have been so bad if I knew I had some chance of being heard by him. No matter what I said, he had a set plan in his head, and when we had to deviate from it, he was all about finding the path again, even if we had to do terrible, reckless things to get there.

We moved away from the yelling, away from people who needed our help.

“Do you even know where this stupid barrier is?”

“I have a good idea,” he said, sounding calmer than he had in days. Getting back to the plan was his idea of relaxation.

“Fighting these monsters would be good practice,” I ventured after a few minutes.

“No.”

“You said they’re more like Seth than normal vampires. You said they fight like him. How can I fight him some day if I’m not prepared? Sonia could teach me how to look for weaknesses and tactics and stuff like that. We could make a mini-army to take him down. All we need are people who have fought these monsters. There are lots of people like that right now.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he snapped. “Now be quiet before you get us killed.”

“Oh, so we’re avoiding the fights now? That’s good. We wouldn’t want me to actually know what to do when I eventually come up against the first vampire of all time.”

“Must you be so dramatic? You weren’t this childish when you were younger. What on earth happened to you?”

I scowled and walked faster.

He struggled to keep up. “You would think you could appreciate the fact I’m putting you first like this.”

My mouth fell open. “Listening to me every now and then would be more like putting me first.”

“You’re a child. Immature. I’m the parent, the caregiver, the protector, the guardian. I’m the one who knows more than you. Why is this so hard for you to grasp, Jessica? I tell you what to do, and you do it. End of discussion.”

Hearing the warning in his voice, I fell silent. He might be in charge, but there was a leader inside me, bursting to be free, a voice, screaming to be heard. I was desperate for a normal life, just for a while. Just until—

He stopped and raised his sword. “Did you hear that?” he whispered.

I listened carefully. Footsteps, coming fast. “There’s more than one,” I said, panicked.

We had struggled against one. I used to be cocky enough to think we could win every battle. I had been proven wrong. I took out the last bottle of holy water and hoped for the best.

Two vampires and a monster turned the corner in front of us and skidded to a stop. I threw the water at the monster, but the bottle hit the female vampire instead, shattering on her chest. She doubled over with a shriek of pain. The monster jumped over the female and ran at me, followed by the male. The female wasn’t down for long. The fight consisted of Dad and me struggling to keep out of the way of strikes and fangs. We barely managed to hit back at all. Our arguments had disconnected us. I could fight, but some of the things Dad had told me about vampires scared me so much that I often froze when it came to facing them.