Daughter of Light (18 page)

“I’ll bring you some tea and toast and jam,” Mrs. McGruder told me as we reached my room and they carried my bags in.

“Let me help you put your things away,” Mrs. Winston offered.

“I’m fine,” I told her. “Really. No need to worry.”

“Um,” she said, pressing her lips together. “What happened with Mrs. Addison? How did you come to have Mr. Lamb taking you home?”

“Maybe you’re being a little too nosy, Amelia,” Mrs. McGruder told her. They looked at each other.

“Maybe, but something doesn’t smell right to me,” Mrs. Winston suggested.

“Let the girl settle herself. I’ll bring up your tea and toast,” she told me, and left.

Mrs. Winston hesitated, then said, “Mr. Lamb doesn’t strike me as being a careless young man. Was he driving too fast?”

“No.” I gave her an abbreviated version of the story.

She didn’t look satisfied, but she nodded, offered to put away my new things again, and then, after I insisted I was fine, finally left, mumbling to herself.

I laughed, thinking about how she would attack
Naomi Addison the moment she stepped into the Winston House. I had all of my new things put away by the time Mrs. McGruder arrived with my tea and toast.

“How are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m fine. Really. This is very kind of you. Thank you,” I said.

“Well, don’t hesitate to call on either of us if you need something. Sometimes you don’t realize how hurt you are until much later. That happened to me one winter when I slipped and fell on some ice. I thought I was more embarrassed than anything, but it turned out I had a fractured hip bone.”

I started to sip the tea and eat some of the toast and jam. Mrs. McGruder smiled and left, and then I did decide to soak in a hot bath and go to sleep. A little after midnight, I awoke to the sound of loud voices and realized that Mrs. Winston had been waiting to greet Naomi Addison.

“When you offer to do something for someone, you don’t just up and leave her like that. If you had done what you promised, she wouldn’t have been in any accident, and Mr. Lamb wouldn’t still be in the hospital. They have him under observation because he suffered a slight concussion,” I heard Mrs. Winston say.

“They’re both adults. You can’t blame me for that. How is Lorelei?”

“She’s fine. Luckily. I can tell you this,” Mrs. Winston added. “If you’re hoping to get to my nephew through her somehow, you can bury that plan in the cemetery of bad ideas.”

“I don’t need anyone to help me get to any man,” Naomi retorted. “I’m giving you notice. I don’t have to tolerate this.”

“Your notice is welcomed,” Mrs. Winston said.

The moment Naomi reached the top of the stairway, the lights went out. I heard her cursing under her breath as she made her way to her room. Either deliberately or because she had limited illumination, she made a lot of noise going into the bathroom and back to her room.

All of it brought a smile to my face. Mrs. Winston and Mrs. McGruder had no special abilities or powers, but there couldn’t be two more protective people when it came to me. Despite what had happened, I closed my eyes and felt snugly safe in their rooming house. The shadows could surround it, and the dark figures could loiter in them, but it was as though I had luckily found an island upon which nothing that wished to harm me could set foot.

For a little while, at least, that pleased me, even though I knew that it was the world outside, the world I had to be in, where I was now as vulnerable to the horrors of the darkest places in my imagination as ordinary human beings were.

The two of them were just as concerned about me at breakfast as they were when I had returned from the hospital the night before. They hovered over me like two private-duty nurses, making sure I ate well. Of course, I wasn’t used to such mothering. Mrs. Fennel had always been intolerant of any weakness or pain in any of us. As an infant, I was forbidden to cry too much or too long, and I quickly realized that crying didn’t get me anything anyway. Mrs. Fennel had never been physically rough with me. She had never struck me or spanked me; she didn’t have to do that. Her stern looks, with those gold-tinted black eyes that were like laser beams cutting through me, were far more than enough to get me to swallow back a wail or a sob.

Tall and thin, with a hardness in her arms and body that had me believing she was made of iron until I saw her naked once, Mrs. Fennel had radiated a firmness and confidence that gave me, my younger sister Marla, Ava, and I’m sure our older sister Brianna a sense of security. As long as she was there, nothing could harm us. Even germs feared her. No one ever got sick or injured.
None of us ever needed a Band-Aid. The first time I saw a bruise on another girl at school, I wondered what it was. Did she have a disease?

Since I had left my father, my sisters, and Mrs. Fennel, however, I wondered if I had already lost my invulnerability. This car accident and how I had come out of it without even an irritation on my body convinced me that I still had most, if not all, of whatever special gifts I once possessed. Would they stay, or would they slowly diminish? As nutty as it might sound, I wanted to be like everyone else even more now and was willing to give that up.

Naomi didn’t show up for breakfast while I was still there. I was happy for that. Mrs. Winston, unbeknownst to me, had called Mr. Dolan early in the morning, and he had arranged for Michael Thomas to swing by to take me to work. Mr. Dolan was just learning about what had happened from his daughter, Julia, when she returned from her night shift. Of course, I protested over all this concern, but no one would hear of it. Whether I liked it or not, I was being adopted into the lives of these people. Did I dare think it? It was almost like having a family again.

Michael wanted to hear all about the accident when I got into his truck. After I told him, he went into his own experiences with auto accidents.

“I had an airbag explode on me once, too,” he said. “Some idiot backed out of his driveway without looking. It was little more than a fender-bender, but I had bruises on my face for weeks. You were really lucky. All of us were. We wouldn’t want to lose that pretty face.”

I thanked him.

It was funny about compliments. I knew it was wrong not to be modest and show your appreciation when you received them, but I had grown up in a house where it was assumed we would always stand out when we were with normal girls. The difficulty for me, more than it obviously was for Ava, was how not to seem conceited or arrogant. The truth was, I was grateful for every kind word now, every sincere show of appreciation and concern.

Mr. Dolan also showed his concern about me as soon as I arrived. He told me to take whatever time off I needed if I had any aches or pains. I assured him that I was fine and went right to work to prove it.

“You’re a real trouper,” he said before going back into his office.

Liam was standing in front of me only moments later. “Julia told me what happened,” he began. “I thought you were going shopping with Naomi Addison. I would have been glad to take you shopping last night.”

“I did go shopping with her. She decided she didn’t want to stay in the mall with me any longer. Mr. Lamb just happened by when I was leaving.”

“I should have given you my cell-phone number just in case. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

“It wasn’t Mr. Lamb’s fault,” I said.

“Oh, right. I’m sure he just happened by. He didn’t wait too long to pounce,” Liam said disdainfully.

“Neither did you,” I retorted. The aggressive manner in which I came back at him took him by surprise.

“What, you like this guy?”

“I don’t dislike him, but I told you, I’m not looking to like anyone just now.”

He nodded but stood there, obviously debating whether to say something.

“What?” I asked.

“Some of the guys here are thinking you might be gay.”

“Really?” I sat back, remembering how Ava could dispose of any young man she wasn’t interested in. They were always bitter when they were rejected and usually found a way to blame her.

“How typical,” I said, recalling what I called her “male lessons.” “The last thing a man will think is that if he’s rejected, it was something about him, some way his fault. It always has to be something else, like the girl is gay.”

Liam laughed. “Okay, okay. Got it. I’m around if you need anything or have to go anywhere.”

“You’re supposed to be doing that Bronson bid today, aren’t you?” I asked. “That should keep you busy most of the day.”

“Jeez, you’re more of a nag than my father,” he muttered, but I saw him smile to himself as he sauntered off. I knew he was thinking that I knew about his responsibilities because I was, despite how I appeared, interested in him. Maybe I was, but I wasn’t about to admit it yet. Maybe I never would.

What I did realize about myself and other girls was that unraveling our true inner feelings was like navigating a maze planted somewhere between our hearts and
our minds. People wandered about confused for years, maybe most of their lives, before they discovered who they really were and what they really wanted. That would be fine for them, but perhaps for me, it might inevitably be too late. A lost true love, with kisses drifting on the wind and embraces left only to imagine, was as dark a fate as any from which I had fled.

Everyone was extra nice to me all day. I had lunch again with the other women who worked at the company. Naturally, they were interested in the details of the accident. Afterward, I called the hospital and spoke briefly with Jim. He kept apologizing, but I pointed out that he was the one in the hospital, not I. He said they would release him the next day, but only if he promised to take off the remainder of the week. I did feel sorry for him. If a Renegade was out there and had caused him to lose control of his car, I was indirectly responsible.

It also occurred to me that I could be the one considered a Renegade.

I recalled what Daddy and Mrs. Fennel had explained when I was first told about them. Mark Daniels, a boy at school, had been pursuing me romantically, and I was attracted to him. When he came to our house one night with lethal intentions, my father destroyed him. Of course, I had been full of questions, the main one being who was Mark Daniels?

“He was a member of a Renegade family,” Daddy had told me. “That’s a family like us who do not follow the rules. Every family has its own territory. These things are decided in advance. There’s good planning here, careful planning, so nothing is left to chance. No
other family must settle in territory claimed by another. For two families to be there, to operate there, would do much to bring more and possibly fatal attention to us. There are other rules. No daughter is ever to be chosen to be a victim. Once something like that occurs, there are power struggles. We end up destroying ourselves. The Renegades don’t care.”

“That’s not the only difference. There’s something wrong with them,” Mrs. Fennel had said, her teeth clenched to show just how much she despised them. “They have a ruthless bloodlust. One feeding a month is never enough.”

Now I realized another possibility and understood the full meaning of what Ava had been telling me when she had said running away was dangerous. What if I had entered another family’s territory? There was always that chance when someone like me ventured out alone, denying her own family and trying to break ties. Did they think I was establishing myself there and that my family would follow? In their minds, I would fit the definition of a Renegade, and they might be out to destroy me.

Would I be able to recognize them? I hadn’t been able to recognize what Mark Daniels was. Had I matured enough to strengthen that perception, or was I still vulnerable when it came to others of our kind? I had been sensing some danger, something pursuing me, but I was still unsure, even after this accident, that it wasn’t just a figment of my active imagination, made more active because of the fears generated by fleeing my father and sisters.

Mr. Dolan checked on me twice in the morning and was finally satisfied that I was doing okay. Later that afternoon, Liam came by to meet with his father and make a report on his bidding work. They were in his office for nearly an hour. When Liam came out, he smiled at me, but to my surprise, he hurried off without another word. Mr. Dolan emerged moments afterward. I could see the satisfaction in his face. The tension I had immediately observed whenever he was with his son was gone.

“I don’t know whether I should be thanking you or what, but he’s suddenly showing interest in his work and approaching something called responsibility.”

“Sometimes all it takes is convincing someone you have faith in him,” I said.

He looked at me strangely for a moment. “One of these days soon, I’d like to spend some downtime with you, Lorelei, and learn how you came to be so wise at so young an age.”

I smiled, remembering what my father had told me concerning wisdom. I think I was just twelve at the time. Now it seemed like ages ago, and as with all my good memories, when I recalled them, I wasn’t sure whether they were just dreams and wishes or real events.

“My father once told me we’re not so unlike sponges when it comes to wisdom. Just like some sponges can hold more, absorb more, different people have different capabilities when it comes to taking in what we might call common sense. Mrs. Winston has plaques with quotes all over the house. One of them is ‘There is nothing more uncommon than common sense.’ ”