Angel's Messiah (20 page)

I finished the last daisy chain and stood up, carefully carrying them over to the garden swing.

“Scoot over,” I said.

Gina sat up and made room for me to sit down. She was intrigued by what I’d done with the small flowers. I handed the chains to Danny.

“You’re better at crystallising them than I am. Can you do it, please?” I asked.

Gina watched intently as Danny gently blew on each of the daisy chains. I heard the crystals forming — I hadn’t really noticed I could hear it happening before — and Gina clapped her hands in delight as the daisy chains hardened, yet retained their colour. Danny handed them back to me.

“One for you,” I said, as I sat a chain on Gina’s head, “one for you,” I sat the second one on Danny’s head, “and one for me.”

“Who’s the last one for?” Gina asked.

“Guess,” I said, handing it to her.

“Uncle Drake,” she said.

“Only if you want him to have it. You can be greedy and have two if you like. He won’t miss what he’s never had.”

“No, Uncle Drake can have one too. I think this is much nicer than his paintings and sculptures. He’ll appreciate it much more. Can we go and visit him now?”

“It’s early yet,” I said.

“
Please.
He won’t mind. He looks forward to our visits.”

“Go,” Danny said, “and surprise him. It’ll keep him on his toes.”

“Fine, I’ve been outvoted again. It seems Drake is the only one who seems to side with
me
these days, and that’s saying something.”

16.
Time to Leave

Drake was very pleased with his present — even more so when Gina told him I’d made it for him. She sat it on his head and adjusted it until she was happy with how it looked.

“You could be a prince, Uncle Drake,” she said.

“Yeah, a prince of darkness,” I mumbled.

Drake laughed. He never missed an opportunity to make me feel uncomfortable, or insinuate certain things. Gina thought it was funny. Even though we’d had the sex talk on a number of occasions, she still didn’t understand why I felt it was wrong to have sex with Drake. She understood why the act of love should only be between two people though. It’s just that she thought I should be able to spend one night with her father and the next with Drake. I kept telling her it wasn’t that I couldn’t, but I just wouldn’t. That’s not how the whole marriage thing worked.

Drake was a keen supporter of free love and undermined all the hard work I’d done with Gina, though he never once tried to put the moves on her. For that I was grateful. I would’ve killed him if he’d even suggested or hinted at doing with her the things I
knew
he wanted to do to me. It was in the way he talked, the way he looked at me, and in his body language.

“Time to leave,” I said. “We’re having a party tonight.”

“What’s a party?” Gina asked.

“It’s a celebration,” Drake replied.

“What are we celebrating, Little Mother?”

“Don’t you know?” I thought she would have guessed. “You’re one year old today.”

“But if we have the party in Eden, Uncle Drake, Argyle and the others here won’t be able to attend.”

“They’re not invited,” I said.

“Why not?”

“Yes, Helena, why isn’t her uncle and his friends invited?”

He was smiling. He didn’t care about the party at all. He just wanted to watch me squirm as I explained my way out of it.

“Well, if Uncle Drake offered us the use of Gorema, we could have it here,” I said smugly, knowing he wouldn’t.

“It’s settled then, the party is here,” he said, grinning at me. “What time should I expect you back?”

He was doing this on purpose, thinking I’d say we couldn’t possibly impose on him any more than we did already. Two could play at that game.

“I’ll be back in an hour to take care of the decorations, and Gina and Danny will be here in two hours. Come on, Gina, we need to sort out what you’re going to wear.”

I grabbed her hand and we left without saying goodbye. She ran straight to Danny, clapping her hands.

“Father, we’re having a party tonight at Gorema.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, I am one year old today and we’re going to celebrate.”

“A year already?” Danny asked. I nodded. “How time flies.”

“Can you help Gina with something appropriate to wear? I want to shower before heading back to put up some decorations.”

“Why are we having a party at Gorema?” Danny whispered.

“Because some sneaky rotten vampire tricked me into it,” I hissed back.

Danny chuckled. “I wish I’d been there to see that.”

“It’s not funny. That man can
twist
things.”

Danny shook his head and I knew he was thinking the same thing about me — that I could twist things. He just wasn’t game to say it out loud.

“Gina, let’s go and find something for you to wear,” Danny said, taking her hand and heading towards her tiny home.

“Can I have high heels and makeup as well?” she asked.

“We’ll see,” he said, chuckling.

“Can I at least pick what you’ll wear, Father?”

“We’ll see.”

“Let her choose your clothes for you,” I called after them. “It should be interesting.”

Me, I’d decided on jeans, running shoes and a baggy top. It may be a party, but I didn’t have to dress to the nines. Drake would probably think I was dressing up for him.

When I returned to Gorema, Drake was seated on the couch, dressed in black. He raised his eyebrows at what I was wearing, though didn’t say a word. Instead he just sat there, content to watch me decorate his home — streamers, balloons, party hats, party poppers, blowouts, a large disco ball hanging from the ceiling, coloured flashing lights, a fog machine and a birthday cake in the shape of fairy princess, complete with gossamer wings, a crown full of jewels and a glittering wand with a star at one end.

As I placed the candle on the cake Drake came up behind me and slipped his arms around my waist.

“Isn’t the cake going a little too far?” he whispered in my ear.

“No, but you are.”

I figured if I ignored him he’d eventually get the hint and go away. If I made a big deal out of his touching me he’d only get more of a kick out of it. Imagine my horror when Gina and Danny arrived unannounced. Gina had let Danny bring her to the party. There had been no warning bells at all.

“Uncle Drake,” she called out, “can I have a hug too?”

He let go of me and turned around. “Of course you can.”

He held out his arms and Gina teetered over, wearing her new high heels, and just about fell into his arms. Danny came over to me and wrapped his hand about my waist.

“Is everything all right?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Drake’s just being a pain in the arse as usual.”

Danny rubbed my bottom. He must have taken me literally, though I didn’t mind. It would do Drake good to see me open to signs of affection from Danny. Maybe he’d finally get the message.

“Little Mother, come here,” Gina demanded.

“Coming,” I muttered.

“Why aren’t you dressed for my party? I want you in
party
clothes.”

The cheeky thing changed my clothing for me. If anyone had blinked they would have missed it. Gone were the jeans and baggy top. In their place was an outfit I thought I’d never see again, one that was made from a sheer red fabric, clung to me like a second skin, and had a tail. Underneath was black lingerie, highly visible beneath the red.

“Gina, that is
not
an appropriate outfit,” I said.

“Nothing is showing that shouldn’t be,” Danny said. “If it makes her happy, wear it.”

I whispered into Danny’s ear, “You don’t understand, it really
isn’t
appropriate.”

“Gina likes it and
I
like it,” he whispered. “Just wear it for a few hours.”

The tail had already started to snake its way around Danny, pulling him closer to me. To disguise what was happening I put on some music to dance to, making it look like I’d pulled him closer for that reason — to dance.

The lights flashed, the music blared and even Drake’s servants came along to give it a real party atmosphere. They were used to us coming and going by now, and had developed a genuine affection for Gina. That didn’t mean to say that I trusted them to be alone with her.

We stood in a small circle doing the hokey pokey, of all things, and my tail kept smacking Gina on the butt. At least my subconscious got something right — trying to keep her in line.

I couldn’t believe some of the dances Gina wanted to do — square dancing, barn dancing and line dancing. They were all dances I knew, though wasn’t too fond off. Gina and I had to show the others the basic steps before they joined in. At one point I was partnered with Drake and my tail started wrapping itself around his thigh, then snaked its way up his body to slip under his shirt. For one brief moment I thought it was going to try to slide down rather than up. I breathed a sigh of relief when it remained topside.

Thank goodness no one knows the truth behind the tail,
I thought to myself.

“Time for cake,” I yelled over the music. It stopped and everyone was quiet.

We all gathered around the cake with its single candle lit.

“Happy Birthday to you,” I sang, but no one else joined in. “What’s the matter with everyone, don’t you know Happy Birthday?”

“Actually, Helena, we don’t. None of us here would have celebrated a birthday,” Danny said, then suddenly remembered that there were a good many immortals here who had once been mortal. “Or at least not for a very long time.”

“Oh.”

I wrote the words to Happy Birthday in the air with a finger and they flared and sparkled.

I should have put a sparkler on her cake. We’ll run around with sparklers after.

“Just follow my lead,” I said, and launched into the song.

After three tries we finally got it right. Gina made us sing it another nine times — once for each month of her life.

“Now I’ll say
hip hip
and everyone except for Gina says
hooray
. We do it three times, okay?”

“Hip hip.”

“
Hooray.
”

“Hip hip.”

“
Hooray.
”

“Hip hip.”

“
Hooray.
”

“Blow out your candle, Gina, before it melts away,” I said.

It took two goes for Gina to blow it out and I laughed. I was really beginning to appreciate the things I took for granted in the mortal world, things that immortals knew nothing about. Gina still had a long way to go.

“Ooh!
This tastes
good,
” Gina said.

It was the first time I’d ever seen Gina eat, and I wondered if her body was changing to enable her to fit into the mortal world. My stomach rumbled, watching her eat.

“Little Mother, it sounds like you’re hungry too. Have some cake,” Gina said.

I shook my head. “I can’t eat that. It’ll make me sick. Don’t ask Uncle Drake or the other vampires either.”

“Father?”

I looked to Danny and he didn’t hesitate. He stood next to Gina and stuck his finger in the icing before popping it in his mouth. Gina smiled and clapped her hands.

“She’s right you know, it does taste good.”

I was astounded. “I thought you couldn’t eat.”

Danny shrugged his shoulders and grinned at me. “We don’t need to eat, just like we don’t need to bathe or sleep or engage in
other
pastimes. As you could no longer eat mortal food there was no reason for me to try it.”

My tail curled seductively around my body and I knew my conscious and subconscious minds were in sync. I may not be able to eat, but Danny could. That meant whipped cream, honey and other gooey, sticky things …

Don’t think about it now,
I told myself,
think about it later.

Gina was busy stuffing her mouth with cake, but both Danny and Drake were looking at me curiously, wondering what was going on in my mind. Drake looked to Danny and smiled wickedly. Danny frowned, not knowing why Drake looked at him the way he did.

“I think it’s time to go,” Danny said. “Gina needs her rest and by the sounds of it Helena needs to hunt.”

“She’s quite welcome to hunt with me,” Drake said.

“No thanks,” I replied. “I don’t hunt what you hunt.”

Gina gave Drake a hug and a kiss that resulted in his face and clothes being smeared with icing. She licked the icing off his cheek and he laughed.

He rubbed his face where she’d licked it. “You’re as wicked as your mother, Gina, putting a poor man through this.”