A Slayer's Daughter

12

The girl stared at me in surprise, but nodded.

"Did you ever meet him?"

"No, but I knew he was young."

"How young?"

"I'm not sure, early thirties maybe, I never met him or saw him, he'd just...Oh, gosh, they were just..mattress buddies, my mom would joke." she turned bright red and started to cry. I hugged her.

"It's okay, I'm sorry I had to ask."

One of the cops took the girl away from the house, and I continued to look around. I looked around and ended up going into Mom's room, and the visions poured into my mind, worse then a automatic porn video. I kept seeing things from his point of view. As much as I tried to flip it, I couldn't.

"What do you see?"

"Nothing I ever wish to see again, all I can say is for a older woman she was....imaginative as hell."

Chris smiled, but then stopped. I kept trying and trying to see from her point of view but couldn't.

"Anything I could do to help?"

"Actually, yeah, can you get me into the other houses?"

"Yeah, let's go."

I led the way out, and followed him to the car. Reluctantly, I got in and he took us to the other houses. By the third house I was ready to call it quits. The only thing these women had in common was that they were sleeping with the man, because I had finally concluded it was a guy. I was just seeing his point of view, not once being able to see him.

By the time we got to the last one, it felt different. Like this was his first, he hadn't been confident at all. According to Chris, he had wiped the whole scene clean literally. Even the victim's finger prints were completely gone, as were their scents and anything that would indicate that someone lived in the house. I walked through the house as I had done with the others. There was a moment where he caught sight of himself...

"Chris, pen and paper..hurry!"

"Why, what's going on?" he asked while passing the pen and paper. I drew what I could see of his face, but I had to do most of it from memory. When I finished, I looked down, I was surprised how well it had come out.

"Whose is that?" Chris asked behind me. I turned a little from side to side.

"Is it just me or does he look familiar?"

"Does he?" Chris took the picture from me, and realized who.

"I'll be damned."

"That's for sure, but who do you see?"

"Branfield!" he said as he put the picture down and headed out of the house.

"Chris, wait, how can you be so sure?"

"It would make sense. Two of the five he has been seen with and the rest are people that worked for him."

"Chris, stop, do you have any proof of what you're saying that he could be involved?"

" Not completely, but I sure as hell will find something!"

Chris dropped me off at home, and then went off to find his proof about Branfield. About seven that afternoon, there was a knock on the door, and there stood William. The poor guy was a mess, he looked like he hadn't slept, hadn't shaved or even brushed his hair for a while. He smelled of alcohol too.

"Hey, Lil-Lillian, is um..is Ale-Alex home?"

"Will, I don't think..."

"It's okay Lillian, William, are you okay? What are you doing here?"

"I..um..I felt alone in the house..they..they took my father into custody a little bit ago."

I flinched at his words, he suddenly fell and I barely had a chance to catch him, he was heavier than he looked. Lillian carefully helped me with him, and we laid him in the living room on the couch. He was out cold.

"Well now what?" asked Lillian, looking a little worried.

"I'll watch over him tonight. Don't worry."

"Alex, are you sure..you know?"

"It's fine Lillian, you get some sleep."

She rubbed my shoulder and headed up to her room, and I went to grab a thing of water, a rag, and a bucket. I was trying to find how to turn my point of view on the other couch, as William slept. I kept trying to call upon the vision from the guy's point of view but I just couldn't. And the face I barely saw was Branfield every time. Poor Will, one parent dead and one in jail..

"Alex!" he mumbled in his sleep, in a drunk slurred tone.

"Shhh, Will, sleep you're okay." I whispered and dabbed his head with the rag as he went back to sleep.

I went back to the other couch, and continued watching over him. The next morning my guess was I must've dozed off. When I woke up, the sun was out, and William was now sitting up.

"Hey?" I whispered. He didn't move or say anything, just groaned, "hang over?"

He groaned loudly in response, I had to chuckle, he turned to look at me slowly.

" I am so sorry, to drop in unannounced, and how we left things..."

"Will, it's fine, at least you're okay."

"Thanks, but now I'm going back home to face the music."

"You still remember your father's arrest?"

"Yeah, but..That can't be right..I mean Dad did date women, but what could he gain by killing them?"

"They were all witches, Will."

"SO?"

I cleared my throat, and he realized why it was a big deal.

"My father never had the right to witch magic, the one that couldn't get enough of it was my mother and she's been dead for eight years!"

"There really isn't any chance?"

"No!" he said loudly and flinched as his head hurt.

"Well, they must have something or else they wouldn't have arrested him."

"Yeah, probably." he said, looking defeated.

"Breakfast?"

"I don't think.."

"I promise not to poison it!" I said sarcasticly. He chuckled.

"Sure, but only if you let me help."

"If you can handle it."

"Just to get there."

"Deal." With that, I helped him up and to get to the kitchen. We were getting stuff out and, to my surprise, the man knew his way around the kitchen. He made us omelets and I made the sausage and bacon. We were just sitting down to eat,when there was a knock at the door. I went to check.

"Chris? What are you doing here?"

He stood in the doorway, looking really pissed off. Then he pushed his way in and to the kitchen, to find William sitting at the table. Then grabbed my arm and went outside.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Nothing we're having breakfast!"

"Don't play stupid with me! We just arrested his father last night, and you're here coddling him!"

"I told you to wait! I drew the face and you drew conclusions from it, without being sure about anything!"

"He was seen with two of the victims, for God's stake, Alex!"

We glared at each other, but I could see that it wasn't just the fact that I didn't back him up with who he thought it was, but because William was here with me. Was he jealous?

"You haven't given me a reason to keep Will at a safe distance. Until then, just do your job, and whoever I hang out with is none of your business."

He suddenly grabbed my arm, and slammed me against the door.

"It's my JOB to keep you safe. I brought you into this. There's a target on your back now."

"When hasn't there been, Chris, my whole life I've lived with a damn bullseye on my back. I can take care of myself, I don't need you!" I pushed him back and went inside the house.

I took deep breaths, my hands were shaking. After I was calm enough, I walked back into the kitchen. Where Will, looked concerned.

"Did I get you into trouble, being here?"

"No, not really, it's none of his business."

William, gave me a sad smile. I took my seat and forced myself to eat, when I was in no mood to do so. After a while he slowly took my hand in his, and held it in his as if afraid to break it.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being there for me, I've always felt alone, but no more than last night. That was the lowest I've felt in my life."

I placed my other hand over his.

"You're my friend, Will, I'm here for you."

He smiled, not even minding that I had just friend zoned him. After we were done, he helped me with dishes, and then headed out. A car was waiting outside for him. It hadn't been there when Chris pulled me out here earlier and I hadn't seen him call anyone.

"Well, thank you for taking care of me, but...could I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Would you be my date for the ball?"

"Ball? What ball?"

"It's when we officially mark the day we let go of the fall and prepare for the winter. It's this coming week."

"Um…sure, I guess."

He gave me a grin, and kissed my cheek.

"Thank you, I'll see you later then."

"Yeah."

With that, he walked to his car and it drove off.

Later that day, I got a delivery of a dozen red roses and a card thanking me again for my hospitality. I was just enjoying the smell of the roses, when another knock at the door came.

"Chris." I said flatly. He seemed to be struggling with himself.

"Alex..can we talk?"

I let him into the house, and he saw the roses.

"What did you need, Chris?" I asked, walking past him into the living room. He kept looking at the roses until he lost sight of them.

"Things must be getting serious with William, those look expensive."

"Chris, why do you even care?"

"I don't..I mean, I do, but not in that way...or I mean...whatever, what I want to say is, if it's getting serious, just be careful."

He looked flustered, and as far as I knew, he never really tripped over himself like this.

"Like I said, I can take care of myself."

"I don't doubt that, but you want to see the best in everyone, Alex. The sad truth is, not everything is what it seems."

"So you keep saying, but I've seen it and am taking everything I see into account."

"Fine, I just came to apologize for earlier. I was on edge and..I took it out on you. I'm sorry."

That warmed my heart, but it was just because he still needed me to work for him.

"Fine, I accept your apology, thank you."

He nodded and got to his feet, and headed for the door. When I heard it close, my heart hurt. Why did it have to be with him? Damn it! I still remember my mom's words. My mate's name started with an "A". So his name had to be Alfred, or Alfredo, or even Alex, Aj or just something. I wanted to know who it was, but what could I do? I didn't even know if that was for his first, last, or a middle name. I looked at the roses again, and felt bad to think that it wasn't going to be any of the guys I knew here.

Over the next few days, Jacelyn was training me to push myself. All my powers were tied to my emotions, I could barely react just thinking. Then I remembered how, when Dalton ran toward me, it made me call upon Mina. I called John and asked if he could spare Calista or Dalton. Calista was the one that came out, she changed and ran at me. I could block by force field, or hitting her with energy balls. I even stopped her in her tracks, but with her strength and such, she broke through and tackled me.

I also told Jacelyn about the power I had been using at the crime scenes. She explained that I can see the past, and glimpses of the future, but no more then a few minutes before it happened. Because of who I was. When I looked at her, I knew she wasn't talking about me personally but more about who my father was.

As I thought about it, my father was a great slayer, even if he was a jackass. Jacelyn just kept staring at me.

"I guess, despite his short comings, he is great..."

"I don't mean your de facto father, I mean your biological father."