The Immortal Children

Sunset

He had a plan. Though he was mean and cruel and spiteful, my father was not stupid. There was no way he had shown up here with no idea of what he would do after making his presence known. And yet, for several moments, he didn't speak or move or breath. 

Suddenly, a wave of energy seemed to vibrate through the air. No longer invisible, the man who had haunted my nightmares as a human sat before me. An unreasonable bout of anger washed through me. What right did he have to be here? Near MY coven? In MY house? In MY room? On MY bed?

Of course, I had bigger problems than feeling violated. I knew that I was in imminent danger. My father's lips slowly rose into a smirk. Despite the years that I had been away from him, the familiar smile made my stomach lurch. I'd have recognized that smile anywhere. As a human, I had been on the constant lookout for that smirk, knowing that if I saw it, it meant I needed to quickly herd Ashlynn and baby Chris into a bedroom and lock the door.  It meant he was ready to hurt somebody.

"Nice place you got here. You've done pretty well for yourself, haven't you, Girl?" Casually, he leaned back and laid on the bed, his hands behind his head as he stared up at my bed canopy.  As if he were totally at ease. As if I wasn't watching my whole world crumble before my eyes. "So, you obviously know about my power. Have you got one?"

Shifting uneasily, I glanced over at the window. Maybe I could make it. Maybe I could throw myself out of the window, and push my siblings behind me, and alert the Cullens to my father's presence. But was I really fast enough? Could I really do all of that before he caught up to me, or ripped the head off of one of the Cullens?

Realizing he was staring at me with raised eyebrows, I rushed to answer, "No, Sir". Wincing, I immediately regretted saying 'Sir'. It was a habit that I had assumed was lost years ago. Back when we lived with him, I had always referred to him as 'Sir', and only said yes or no in hopes that he wouldn't pay me much mind. It had rarely worked.

Apperantly, it wasn't going to work now, either. Before I could blink, his hand snaked out, smacking me hard across the face. While it didn't hurt, the force of it did knock me to the ground. And it was so degrading. I stayed on my hands and knees, my eyes on the floor as I waited to see if anyone had heard. Somehow, though, nobody was alerted by the loud bang. Nobody was coming for me.

"Don't you lie to me, Girl. You expect me to believe you survived out there with no power?" 

I thought back, trying to remember if he had witnessed me  using my power. The first time he had attacked Seth and I, we had been in the forest. I hadn't been able to pinpoint what was attacking me, and when he had actually grabbed me, he had pinned my hands. he had never seen me summon fire. 

Knowing my only chance of surviving was to keep that secret to myself, I drew in the air around me, summoning the little specks of water from the air until they formed a small ball, hovering above my hand. My Father chuckled and stood up, coming towards me. I shrank back, but he grabbed my wrist, keeping me in place. 

"That's it?" he laughed at me as he poked at the small ball of water. It kept its form, even as his finger went through it. "You can do little water tricks? How the hell did that keep you alive?" I shrugged, biting my lip as I tried to think of what to say. It was dangerous to speak to him. Every word was a gamble, and my life was the prize on the line. One misstep and he would fall into one of his belligerent angers, snapping my neck with no remorse.

Not answering was even more dangerous, though. Thinking on the spot, I said, "Well... it wouldn't keep me alive if I was attacked now. Not in the house. But we didn't live in a house for most of the time. Not until we came here. The other times we were outdoors. We just got lucky. We were only ever attacked by rivers, since we followed rivers to find civilization. So I could summon a lot of water and throw threats away from us". There. That sounded reasonable, right?