The Awakening

Chapter 1

"If you want to make a mythical creature, just take a regular horse and add wings to it. A horse becomes a Pegasus, a lion becomes a griffin, and a hawk...becomes a double hawk."

                                    -Demetri Martin.

"How do you take your coffee nowadays Khloe?" Dad asks.

"I don't" Not since a year ago "It makes me jittery"

"But you used to love it! I remember when you were 11. Your mom gave me shit for giving you coffee"

"Yes, well. People change" I say with a shrug. Sometimes not in a good way.

Dad shakes his head in amazement "How's Carl?"

"We broke up"

He looks surprised "Why? What did you do?"

I narrow my eyes at him "What did I do? You know dad, I don't get the point of us doing this. In a week's time you're going to leave again and I might not see you for another two years, and then we're going to play catch up again, and the circle continues."

"Baby. You know I don't want to leave you but..."

"Do I?" I ask cutting him off. "It doesn't matter anyways, I'm 25 not 12. Instead of me coming to your hotel of the week whenever you finally have time for me, we could do something different."

"Like what?"

Like you coming to my house for a change.

Like you telling me what you've been up to instead of leaving me in the dark.

"I don't know dad. Something else. I feel like you don't want people to know we're related. Why else would you want to spend all day cooped inside for a whole week?"

He sighs "You're right honey. But you know I work undercover. If the criminals I put behind bars know I have a daughter I care about, they'll use you against me. That's the reason I don't want us to go out together."

I stare at him "I got attacked last year"

His eyes widens in surprise "What?"

"My car broke down so I decided to walk home. My house was just a few blocks away, what could possibly go wrong?" I scoff at myself.

"The cops called it a freak occurrence. It was dark. I don't really remember what happened but when I woke up in the hospital I had a bite mark on my neck and had lost a significant amount of blood"

"Why the hell didn't you tell me? You should've called me!"

"I did! Your number didn't go through. I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad, I just want you to know, shit happens. We can't be running around scared just because you work as an undercover cop. What happened to me could just as easily have happened to someone else. Did it happen because of what you do? No.

So, can we please go out? Even if it's just to the park"

He glances at me with a calculating gleam in his eyes, the way he gets when he's trying to solve a case.

Shit.

"You said you were bitten?" Dad asks.

"Hmm hmm"

"Tell me everything about that night"

"Like I said earlier, I don't remember." I lie.

He rolls his eyes at me "We may not see each other as much as I'd like us to but I know you, Khloe. So drop the shit and tell me the truth"