Free Vamps in the City by Crissy Smith Page A

father.”
     
     
     
     
                                          

Chapter Ten
     
     
     
    It was three hours before Grant showed up in his room. Paige had fallen asleep on the bed above the covers. Sam had sat and waited in the desk chair. She jumped when the door opened.
    Grant nodded at Sam who clasped his shoulder, squeezed, and left. Grant turned and looked at her then. His face was pale and he looked tired and worn out. She got to her knees on the bed.
    “Grant,” she whispered and held out her arms for him. To comfort him like he’d done so many time for her.
    He shook his head. “Paige…I know what you’re going to say.”
    She didn’t think so. If he did, he would be on the bed with her and not on the other side of the room. But she would show him. “Grant,” she said again.
    “I’m sorry Paige. I was going to tell you. I swear to you I was going to tell you,” he said still standing away from her.
    He sounded so sad, she started towards him.
    He held a hand out which she accepted and let him draw her to his side. “I’m so sorry Paige,” he put his arms around her.
    “It’s not your fault Grant. Surely you see that.”
    He cupped her cheek moving his thumb over her mouth. “I just brought the worst demon ever to walk the earth into your life. I was supposed to protect you, instead I just put you in even more danger.”
    “What are you talking about?” she asked as she ran her hands over him, trying to offer him comfort.
    “That was my father, Paige.”
    She already knew that. “Okay.”
    “He will do anything in his power to make my life Hell. To bring me to his side.” His eyes narrowed. “He’s already done horrible things and now he’ll come after you.”
    “To hurt you?”
    “We have to get you out of here. Sam can take you somewhere and stay with you,” he said as he moved away and started to pace the floor. “Yeah, that will be best. You can’t go alone.”
    Paige watched him run a hand through his hair as he planned. “I’m not going anywhere Grant,” she told him with conviction.
    He turned and started back to her. “Just for a little while Paige.”
    “I’m not running again. You told me you wanted me with you. I’m staying with you.”
    He growled and yanked her up to her toes. “Now’s not the time. We need to get you out of here.”
    “No.”
    He blinked. “No?”
    “I said no. I’m not leaving.”
    “Yes you are.”
    “No I’m not, Grant. I’m not leaving you.”
    “Paige. You’re leaving and that’s the end of this,” he yelled, for the first time losing his temper in front of her.
    She pulled out of his grasp. “I’m not leaving!” she yelled even louder. “I love you and I won’t leave.”
    “Paige,” he whispered and sat heavily on the bed.
    She knelt next to him. “I love you.”
    “I love you,” he told her with tears in his eyes. “He’ll know that.”
    “Then we fight. But we do it together,” she told him, meaning every word.
    “And if we can’t fight him?” Grant asked.
    “We will.”
    “He’s after me, not you. If you disappear, he might forget about you.”
    “He might not,” she argued calmly. “Why? Why is your father after you?”
    He tried to pull away but she kept her hands on him.
    “To punish me,” he whispered.
    She kept quiet, knowing he needed to get this out.
    “A few years ago he showed up and wanted me to join him.” He looked away as his voice broke. “I had grown strong enough and he thought it was time for me to join ranks in his army.”
    “What did you do?” she urged him to continue the story when he paused.
    “I told him to go to Hell,” he said with a bitter laugh. “I’d always thought my father was dead. I just didn’t know he was undead. He had Jess changed,” he added the confession with a ragged breath.
    Paige gasped.
    “No one other than my mom knew what he’d become. She thought we were safe. It’d been eighteen years since she’d