Page 3 of Death Dance

“I’m really not. Hey, since I have you here anyway, I have a favor to ask of you.”

My father raised a brow. “What do you need?”

“I need to find a donor car for Emerick’s daughter. She’s a Beetle, and she’s in very sad shape.” As hunting often involved a great deal of waiting, I kept a little card with his daughter’s vital statistics on it. “She’s a 1938, which means she’s ridiculously rare. His daughter was the first they ever made of her, and that means I’m absolutely fucked trying to find parts!” I thought about flinging the bastard’s head across the park, but I resisted the urge. “I had no idea just how insane his daughter is until I started looking for donor cars for her. Do you know what’s impossible to get? A donor car for a 1938 Volkswagen Beetle. Clearly, I know nothing about cars, because I thought she was cute and just needed a bath and some love from me, her new mother. My daughter is a pain in my ass!”

My father burst into laughter, stepped over, and kissed my forehead. “All right. I will see if I can find another 1938 to sacrifice to your new child. If I can’t find one, you’re actually in luck, as one of my vampires is a machinist and can make the parts you need.”

Relief washed through me. “Really?” I dug out the card detailing my daughter’s various ailments, and I handed it over. “Here is the current diagnosis list. I had to stand there for three hours while Emerick cried over the state of our daughter. I’ll confess, I found a 1938, but she’s in good working order, and I refused to hurt her. She is our second daughter now. That leads me to my next problem.”

“You need someone to teach you how to drive her,” he guessed in a rather unimpressed tone.

“You can drive me home in her if you like, but if we get a single drop of blood in her interior, somebody dies. That somebody might be you. My brothers can cram in the back. We’ll emerge like vampiric clowns, defying the vehicle’s available space.”

At the rate my father kept sighing, I would drive him insane before the day was through. “Where is she parked?”

“I’m hiding her at Master Kennwick’s house in his garage. I have his number, and I even brought my phone with me. She has a full tank of gas, and she just had everything tuned and checked, so she should be good for a drive.”

“Very well, I will drive you home. Kennwick surely has a bag or box we can stuff that head in.” My father tossed Alisander a set of keys. “You can even keep the car once we’re done tonight, but no complaining that I’m making you fetch it. Let’s not test your sister when it’s her first time walking under the sun.”

“Sweet. You’re okay with ditching your car?”

“I just gave your sister a Jaguar, so it’s your turn to be shown a scrap or two of parental affection. I’m going to be busy doing other things, and I won’t need some prissy little street princess. I acquired a rather nice pickup for myself.”

Both Eugene and Benoit licked their lips.

“It seems my brothers are split into two camps. The younger ones seem to like manly pickups. The older one wants prestige and horses.”

“I was a baby when he gave me my first horse, and I suffered from the need for speed ever since,” Alisander told me with a grin, and he spun the fob and keys around his finger. “His pavement princess is currently an Alfa Romeo, and she’s basically a family car that forgot she’s a family car and tried to be a racer. She’s a family car with racing aspirations. I love her, and I’ll treat her better than he will.”

I remembered the Alfa Romeo; I’d seen it a few times over the years, although I hadn’t really placed it as my father’s car. “Oh, the cherry red one that complains if he holds her back because she wants to go but it’s not really legal to drive her almost two hundred on city streets?”

“Yes, that’s her. He’s taken you out in her?”

“I’m pretty sure that bastard bought that car on my eighteenth birthday but kept it for himself.” I eyed my father.

“You have unfortunately good memory.”

I put some serious thought into throwing Brandon Smith-Howards’s head at my father. Once again, I resisted the urge, settled with a pained sigh, and shook my head. “You are lucky that my Jaguar has been adopted by the entire brood. They love her. You’re also lucky Emerick got me a purple Toyota to learn in, else the entire brood would be stricken with sadness. I am not allowed to touch the Jaguar until I am proficient behind the wheel. I’m learning in the Toyota. I broke his heart with that stunt. He’s a Honda man.”

My father laughed. “I have seen pictures of you with your Toyota. You were quite excited when you picked it up. I believe your Emerick hoped to offend me with the vehicle, but he has not yet learned I am a doting father, and that means safety comes first.”

“I am never going to get used to the idea that you’re a doting father,” I informed him. “But I will give you a slightly better mug for driving my Beetle home, though. I want to see Emerick’s face when you pull into the parking garage and we pile out of his car’s twin like a bunch of vampiric clowns.”

“One day, I will understand your sense of humor. Today is not that day. Eugene, take that nasty head from your sister before she tries to see if there is any blood left in it. Alisander, if you could go get the car sometime today?”

“I want to see if she tries to kill you.”

When my father glared at my brother, I laughed. “Not today. Tonight, perhaps, if he doesn’t treat my new little baby with the love and care she deserves.”