Captivate

Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

My mother walked in the study just as the words left my mouth.

“Pardon me?” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

I knew that wasn’t a good sign.

“The only way I can break my bond with Blake is for me to stake him in the heart and kill him. The only way I can do that is if you guys teach me how,” I said, pleading my case.

“Kara, we didn’t want you to have that kind of life,” my father said gently.

I looked at them both, “Well you kind of screwed that up when you brought a vampire into this house now didn’t you?”

I marched out of the room. My parents were such hypocrites. Knowing full well I was going to have to learn on my own, I went up to my room and decided to do some research on my laptop. I logged on to my laptop not realising how much I had missed being able to use the internet for the last couple of weeks. Lauren had sent me some offline messages, but I didn’t have the time nor the energy to bother replying. I knew she must be worried, but I vowed to myself I would text her later.

I searched for ways to kill a vampire and the methods in which to do it, but nothing but a couple of poorly drawn diagrams was all I could find. I knew hands on training would be better. It was getting late in the afternoon and the emotional ups and downs of the day had worn me out. I closed my laptop and lay down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. Just as I was about to drift off to sleep a gentle knock on my door brought me back from the brink of sleep.

“Who is it?” I called out.

“Dad,” was the reply I got.

I sighed. “Come in.”

My dad slowly opened the door and stepped in with a tray.

“I figured you haven’t had anything to eat, so I brought you up some of Stella’s homemade chicken and rice soup.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled as he set the tray down on my night stand.

“Look Kara, I spoke to your mom about you wanting to learn to become a hunter and I have persuaded her to let me teach you.”

I sat up excited.

He held out his hand, “But on one condition>”

“What? Name it, I will do anything,” I said, hardly able to sit still.

“You will not become a hunter after you have slain this Blake guy,” my dad said, looking me straight in the face. “Your mother and I want you to go to college and have a normal life.”

I sat back against my head board. I hadn’t thought about after I had killed Blake and what would become of my life, all I could focus on was getting him out of my life and breaking the bond.

“I hadn’t really thought about it, but I will do as you ask. I will not become a hunter.”

“Good,” my dad said turning to leave. “Now eat because you will need all the strength you can get. Tonight I will start your training,” and with that he left, closing the door behind him.

Tonight? Wow. I ate my soup and decided I would probably need a nap after all. I dreamt about Landon. About us being together, but every time we were about to kiss, Blake would start laughing somewhere in the backround and Blake would jump away from me like I was off limits.

Finally unable to take it any longer, I dreamt that I turned around to see him staring at me and laughing until I jammed a wooden stake in his chest. He looked down at it in horror for a moment, but then just laughed all the harder and reached down and pulled it out. Blood splattered all over my face and I screamed, which jolted me awake.

Once I finally realised it was only a dream and my heart had stopped racing, I got out of bed and changed into my favorite sweats. I knew I would need to be able to move easily when my father trained me.

            I padded downstairs to the kitchen. When I turned the corner someone let out a scream. Stella ran across the kitchen and pulled me into her arms for a bear hug.

“Oh Chica, I was so worried about you,” she cried into my ear.

When I finally managed to wrestle myself away from her, I could see she had tears in her eyes.

“Don’t cry Stella, I’m okay,” I reassured her. “In fact dad is going to teach me some self defense lessons,” I explained, so she wouldn’t be suspicious if she happened to see me and my dad sparring later.

“Oh that’s good honey,” she said, giving me a watery smile and turned back to what she was doing in the kitchen.

I grabbed a yogurt and an apple and sat down at the table. A minute later my dad walked in and gave me a huge smile.

“Morning sweety,” he said as he made his way to the coffee maker.

He sat down at the table and drank his coffee and opened up his newspaper.

“Dad?”

“Yes,” he said looking up.

“Um are we getting started right after breakfast?” I asked, anxious to get my training under way.

“Sure sweety, if that’s what you’d like?”

“Yes, yes I would.”

I ate my breakfast quickly, thinking about my dream of staking Blake. When it came down to the actual time, was I going to be able to do it?