Page 25 of York

“A snapped neck? I don’t know what you mean when you ask me silly questions like that. Of course, you’d have to get to me first. And so far I’m not allowing you that. I just don’t think you’re trying very hard.” He was so confused that he didn’t know what to do with her. She was acting like a loony person. “I’m very sane, father. It’s you that should be watching out for me. I’ve gained strength in more ways than you can imagine.”

“You gonna give me any money?” She shook her head. “Then what good are you? I should just snap your neck like I should have done when you were born. That would have made you mad, now wouldn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t have known anything different had you done it when I was first born.” He didn’t understand her answering him. People were usually scared of him by now, but all she was doing was standing there smiling at him. Like some sort of loon. “Well? What’s your plan? So far all you’ve done is threaten me and talk about how you were going to do this or that. What’s the plan so that I can be ready for you?”

“You’re off your rocker. That’s what it is. You think you’ve gotten yourself married to somebody—which I don’t believe for a minute—and you think you can give me lip. Well, I’m not going to put up with it. You come over here so that I can pop you a few times and then we’ll talk about the money that you’re going to give me.”

“I’m not going to go close to you so that you can try and hit me. If anything, I might knock you around a bit. As for giving you money, I’ve already told you that’s not going to happen. I worked very hard for the money that I have, and I’ve decided that I’m not going to be giving you anything either. You’ll just have to get a job and make your own money from now on.”

“I ain’t gonna get me no job.” She asked him why not. “Because you have it and I’m going to get it from you. You see how that works? You make the money, and I take it from you, or I’ll have to knock the shit out of you. That’s the way it’s going to work. You see, I’m your father and what I say goes.”

“I’m not going to do things your way anymore.” Huffing at her, he asked her why not. “Because I usually have to go to the hospital to get healed and that’s not good. Then I’m out the money that you’ve taken from me, and I have to work twice as hard for more of it. I have bills to pay as well, you know?”

“I don’t care about your bills.” He found that he didn’t care about anything she said either, but he couldn’t find fault with it in his brain. “You’ll hand over your money, or I’m going to take it from you. While I pound you a bit.”

“I’m not afraid of you anymore.” He asked her why not. “Because I’m stronger than you and I’m way smarter. If you wanted to hit me or take my money, you would have done it by now. You’re nothing but a bully, and I’m not going to do what you say anymore.”

“I’m your father, by god and you will, too, do what I say.” She asked him how that was working for him so far. “What are you going on about? I’m your father, damn it, Rosie, and you should be wanting to help me out. There, I said it. You should be down on your knees right now begging me to take your money from you. It’s what is supposed to happen.”

“You’re nuts.” He was not and told her that. “No, you’re insane. If you think I’m going to beg you to take anything from me, you need to have your head examined. Why on earth would a person want someone to steal all their money when they have things to pay for as well? That’s the talk of someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. You should think about what you’re going to say before you say it. It might make people pay more attention to what you’re saying. For instance, when you tell someone to come to you so that you can hit them. That’s not the way to get them to come to you. You should lie and say that you’re going to give them a hug or something. Knowing that you might get hurt would keep the stupidest man away from you.”

“Right now I want to hug you to death.” She laughed. Just like he’d said something really funny, his daughter laughed at him. “What’s so funny?”

“You are.” She was suddenly in front of him, and it scared him enough that he fell backward. When she picked him up with one hand, he felt his cock tuck itself into his ass so tightly that if he farted he’d blow his cock and balls off. When she smiled at him, he knew for sure that he was going to die and there wasn’t jack shit he could do about it. “I’m giving you this one chance to go away and never to come near me again. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?” He nodded, then shook his head. “Which is it? Do you understand me or not?”

“I understand you, but I don’t know what you’re saying. You want me to go away and never bother you again?” She nodded. “Then how am I supposed to get some money from you? I’m not going to get a job or anything like that. You owe me some money for me having to come here and beat you around.”

“You’ll never touch me again.” He wondered for just a second if she was going to kill him right where he stood. “Not yet. I’m not going to kill you. But if you come around me again, bother me about how I owe you money or something like that, I will kill you. I’ve had enough of people treating me like I’m nothing more than a bank for them to get money from.”

“I don’t know how to treat you with you acting like this. Maybe I should come back another time. Sometime when you’re not so aggressive toward me.” She told him that she would forever be aggressive toward him. “Why? What have I done to you? You’re not making any sense right now, and I just don’t know what to do with you. I’ll come back another time.”

He felt himself being tossed across the room. His body hit the wall behind him, and he felt his ribs just give. Even his arms, which had been trying to fight off Rosie, seemed to have just fallen off his body. Daniel looked up at his daughter when she stood over him.

“Stay away from me, and you’ll live. Otherwise I’m going to kill you where you stand, and that will be the end of your life. I’m finished playing with you.” He couldn’t move but knew on some level that if he did, she’d finish the job she’d started. “I’ll call the police and let them deal with you. If you come around again, you’ll wish that you hadn’t.”

He wanted to tell her that he wished he hadn’t today, but he felt broken inside. His entire body hurt from her being so mean to him. Daniel was going to show her how to treat him when he saw her again, and that was it. He’d had enough of her messing around with him.

By the time the police showed up, he was in a great deal of pain. His teeth, already rotten, had fallen out of their holes and were falling to the ground. The police said they’d call an ambulance for him, but they weren’t going to touch him. He’d apparently shit himself when he’d hit the wall.

This was no way to treat a man and especially no way to treat your father. He was going to get her even if he had to get him a gun to do so. She’d regret treating him like he was nothing to her, and he was going to do it as soon as he was better. He had a feeling it was going to be a while before he was fit to be going after her again.

~*~

“Are you saying that I might not be able to read minds with anyone else?” York said that her father was just too stupid to try and hide things in his mind from her, and that’s why he’d been so easy to read. “He was incredibly easy to read. Like everything he was thinking was right out there in front of his mind. He was good to practice on though.”

“Yes, you didn’t have to rape his mind to get information from him.” York held her in his arms and ran his fingers up and down her back. “You’re beautiful. Have I told you that recently? I think that the only reason they see you as scrawny is that they couldn’t see the real you. I noticed that both your brother and father didn’t know who you were when you first came to them.”

“I noticed that as well. I must have been really ugly to them.” He laughed and said that she was beautiful to him no matter what they said. “Thank you. I needed to hear that right about now.”

They had made love right after she’d had her dinner. It was becoming a good habit to have, the two of them relaxing in the living room after her last meal of the day. They had a television that was hanging on the wall, but he couldn’t remember the last time they had turned it on. It was just too noisy to listen to, and it never was anything good to watch. So they left it off in favor of making love on the couch.

“You told me once that a woman with a bright light came to save you. Was that before or after you turned twenty-five and became the vampires’ best hope of getting along with humans? The reason I ask is, I want to know if you have seen her since.” He said that it was before and that he’d not seen her since. “Could she be the one that gave you all the magic that you have now? I mean, she might be something like the faerie queen or something. I’ve read about it in smut books that I’ve seen in the library.”

“I never thought of that. But why would she be the queen of faeries and not the queen of vampires?” She said they never talked about just having a queen of vampires. There was always a king too. “I don’t know. I suppose that she could have saved me for the job. I was fighting in a war between castles when I was wounded. My shoulder still bothers me at times. I would have been there hanging too when the sun came up, and I would have been killed. I like your idea that she saved me for something with a higher purpose.”

“She saved you for me.” He kissed her on the nose and smiled down at her. “I will try and find her when I go looking. I want to make sure she knows how much I appreciate her saving your life. Even if it was just for the job you have now, I still benefited from it. I got the love of my life because someone saved you.”

“She pulled me from the pike that was through my chest and to my shoulder. We’d all been hurt there. While I was recuperating, I signed up for the council job and got it. I guess you could say I’ve been doing it all my life.” She asked him if he liked it. “I don’t like killing, but I do like knowing that I’m doing some good out there. The world would be a terrible place if I wasn’t working to keep the rogues out of the human race.”