showing an old war movie for the grownups in a little while.” Her cousin told her.
“No, that's okay. I think I'm going to bed early tonight.” Kennedy didn't feel like socializing so she excused herself and went back to her parent's room.
As much as she tried to be stealthy and sneak through the halls, James caught up with her on the way.
“You're not eating?” He asked in manner of a greeting as he leaned against the wall with both arms crossed over his chest.
“I ate now.” She answered flipantly.
“Dinner's at six.” He was clearly upset about her attitude.
“Forgive me, I wasn't aware that we operated on a schedule. I'll try to be more punctual the next time.” Bitchy Kennedy was back. It was getting kind of hard to keep tabs on her multiple personalities.
“You're doing okay then?” He asked and to his credit, he did look sincerely concerned for her.
“Why wouldn't I be?” He raised both eyebrows at that.
“Look, I'm fine and I don't want anybody to be walking on eggshells around me. I lost my mother. It sucks, but I'm neither the first nor the last person to go through something like that.”
“I don't buy it, not even for a second.” Kennedy rolled her eyes at him.
“It's not good to keep it all bottled up like that. You need to deal with it so you learn how to face the hardships that will come after this.” He insisted.
Whatever it was, Kennedy thought, it couldn't be worse than the losses that she had suffered already. She would never say it out loud though. In the movies, whenever someone said something along those lines it all ended up taking an even more unexpected turn.
She'd accepted that what happened wasn't completely James responsibility. There was so much history that she still didn't know about. That was enough dealing for one day.
“All right, I'll deal with it in my room. If that's okay with you?” She wasn't the least bit sleepy, but she figured that way no one would come looking for her.
“You're free to come and go as you please, Kennedy.” He sounded tired.
James didn't look like such a bad guy. She just didn't feel like having him pity her as everyone else seemed to do. She started to walk again.
“Good night then.” James' words made her miss Damien.
It was strange, how a common phrase like that one could hold such a special meaning to her now. Her chest ached.
“Night.” She didn't look at him, she just walked to her parent's room.
She lay on her back in the oversized bed when the door to her room slammed open.
The abrupt noise interrupted her mental self-annihilation and revealed a wide-eyed Steven on the other side. She sat up in surprise. She had gone to the Archer to look for him, but he was the last person that she'd expected to see right then.
“Kennedy.” He let out a breath and reached her in two long strides, pulling her roughly into his arms.
“Oh, Kennedy.” He whispered as he stroked her hair as he used to do when she'd been small and had just woken up from one of her nightmares.
But, she wasn't that child anymore. Kennedy pulled herself out of his embrace a little too violently. He gaped at her with bloodshot eyes.
“Where were you?” Her tone was accusing.
He had the gall to look confused and Kennedy could see that he was desperately looking for something to say, something that he probably thought would excuse his absence.
He tried fruitlessly to hug her again. She wouldn't let him.
“She died and you weren't there – she said scornfully as she slapped away his hands – you weren't there!”
“If I had known–” He cried out as he hung his arms at his sides in defeat.
“I called, almost a hundred times and I had to leave you messages, but you never called back. I thought you were dead.” She couldn't believe that she had actually made a flyer to look for him. She would never let him know that.
“Let me explain–”
“Mom died and I was almost killed and you never came.” No matter what he said, there was no way around that.
“I didn't know!” He yelled, clearly grief stricken.
“I don't care!” She yelled back.
Kennedy had never dared to speak to him that way before. The man that she still viewed as her father, even though no blood actually tied them together, had always evoked a deep feeling of respect in her. So much so that just one hard look from him would shut up even her thoughts.
Her current behavior had nothing to do with the fact that he wasn't her father and all to do with the fact that he'd practically abandoned them.
She shut up and kept her bad feelings to herself after that. She knew that if she so much as opened her mouth she was going to say something that she would end up regretting.
Steven let himself fall onto the settee and placed his head in his hands as his shoulders shook with the force of his silent sobs. Kennedy kept silent. She understood his pain because it was mirrored in her own. But, she couldn't stop feeling angry.
She needed to be angry at somebody. Because if she stopped feeling angry, then she would be left alone with the empty void that ate at her insides. Feeling angry was heaven compared to not being able to feel anything at all. She knew that all too well already. She held on tightly to her rage as he explained why he had been gone so long without word.
“The day that James called, it was to tell me that Joseph had gone out hunting something that was killing homeless people on the streets, leaving their hollow corpses to be found.” He paused to look at her and Kennedy nodded at him to continue.
“He'd been missing for over a week and Veronica, your mother's sister was getting desperate. She'd driven James crazy with pleas of getting me to help. Joseph and James are my longest childhood friends.”
“And you guys go on regular hunts together, yeah, I know.” Her tone was sarcastic. Steven didn't bother to hide his shock. How could he find her there and expect her not to know?
“That still doesn't explain why you didn't answer your phone or called back.” She challenged him. She wanted to see how he would justify his long absence.
“Cell phones have no reception on the mountain.” He said as if that was something that she must have also known.
“They rely solely on landlines here.” Kennedy chose to believe him on that account. She didn't have her phone with her.
“I went to look for Joe and ended up trapped in the cellar of a Santero gone psycho for over two weeks. My phone was lost, but I checked my voicemail as soon as I got here. I tried to call home and your cell, but no one answered.” Kennedy thought about the last time that she'd tried to call him before she had thrown her phone into the bottom of her bag to be forgotten.
The timeline added up, not to mention his unkempt appearance and growing beard. They were major indicators of the rough few weeks that he'd had. His ash colored hair stuck up in all directions. It looked like it hadn't seen a brush since he'd left their home.
The Steven that she knew had always been neatly combed and shaven. It was hard to recognize him within that grungy familiar stranger. He looked weary, older somehow.
“I went back to Villa Chica with Joseph. The house was empty and sparkling clean.” Yes, the demons had been careful in covering their tracks. The only loose ends left were Damien and herself.
She wouldn't tell Steven anything about her half demon friend either.
Now, how did she go around that when she had to tell him that a prominent demonic brethren had made them fair game?
She had to have done something extremely evil in one of her past lives. Kennedy felt like the new poster girl for bad karma. It was hard to accept that all of the horrible things that happened since the day that Steven had left were just just the result of extremely bad timing thrown together with a very unfortunate chain of events and not a part of some malignant plot.
Steven's story explained why he'd been absent, but it still didn't cover why t
he demons had decided to end their lives. She had the gut feeling that it had to be more than just because he was a hunter.
The only person who could answer her questions was out of her reach and she was afraid to death that it would stay that way for good.
Whatever happened, she'd already decided.
Kennedy would stay and wait for Damien. He'd promised to come back for her and, heaven help her, she believed him.
In the mean time, she would accept James' offer to train her and learn all that she would need to defend herself. She would hunt the demons that were after them too.
She thought back to Dante's cold words about Damien being as good as dead if they found out that he had helped her.
Now that her mother was no more and Lauren was out of her life, if Dante's words proved to be true and she learned of Damien's demise, she'd have nothing left to lose, no other purpose in the world than to seek evil out and destroy as many of those bastards as she could before she went down as well.
Anger boiled inside of her. She wanted revenge, craved it like a man thirsted for water in the middle of a scorching desert and she vowed to herself that she would have it.
The hell if they thought that she would just sit on her ass and wait to be rescued.
“Jim told me that you killed the shadow that got Teresa.” Steven's voice broke through her melodramatic inner monologue.
“With an athame?” His green eyes were set on her mother's grimoire, which lay opened page down by her side on the bed. His face held an incredulous look.