Chapter 14: Daddy’s Home

  Lamar and the others made their way to the front of the diner from the market to meet up with Roberto and Crystal, who were sitting at a booth looking at a menu.

  “Hey guys.” Lamar said pulling up a chair. The others followed suit. Elle made her way over to the booth as well, she paused for a second starring at Crystal, she couldn’t help but think she knew her from somewhere but she just couldn’t place it.

  “Hey,” Crystal said putting down the menu.

  “This is Elle.” Lamar said pointing behind him introducing her.

  “Hello. You have a really nice place here.” Crystal said.

  “Thanks, and hopefully it stays that way.” Elle chuckled. She was proud of her diner and how far it had come for duskers and even normal humans.

  “How’s the baby?” Roberto put his hand on Crystal stomach when Lamar asked that question.

  “He is doing good. Kicking like crazy but good.”

  “And you, how are you doing?”

  “I’m good as well, I’ll be happy when this is all over and we can go back to our normal lives though.” Crystal admitted.

  “Hmph, do you really think you’re going to have a normal life with a vampire husband and a part human and part supernatural kid?” Mycal said with a ting of arrogance in his voice.

  “This is your baby?” Elle asked pointing at Roberto.

  “Yes it is,” Roberto replied.

  “How is that even possible with her being human?” Elle never heard of a human going full term with a vampire baby before.

  “I’m half human and half dusker.” Crystal told Elle. Elle’s eyes got wide with sudden realization.

  “You’re Martha’s little girl aren’t you?”

  “You knew my mother?” Crystal eyes got watery. She never met anyone that knew her mother from her dusker life. She never wanted the two parts to meet, the farthest she has ever gone was training Crystal in how to defend herself because she knew what was really out in the world.

  “Yes sweetheart I did.” Elle said with a sweet smile. “How about you come with me and we can go have a talk.” Elle said reaching out her hand. Crystal looked back at Roberto who smiled and nodded her forward. Crystal grabbed Elle’s hand and they walked to back to where Elle’s office was and closed the door.

  “Small world.” Daniel said.

  “I know right.” Sean replied.

  “I’m glad she is going to get some answers about her mother, this whole pregnancy has been hard as hell for her not having her mother in her life, I just hope talking with Elle will give her some kind of closure.

  “So what happened?” Roberto asked Lamar.

  Long story short Chris is in, he said he will help us.”

  “How the meeting with your father go?” Lamar asked.

  “It went. I really didn’t get any information. Carl’s father was there and so was the Westside Duchess. About time we got to talking I said just enough to piss him off, then I got the phone call to come meet you guys here. Brightside is he isn’t worried about Carl being missing, he told me he wasn’t going to help look for him.”

  “Really, like not at all?” Lamar asked.

  “That’s what he said, my dad didn’t care about Carl being missing or what might have happened to him. That’s the type of coldness from my father, it is something I’m use to at this point. But we still need to worry about Carl’s dad, he isn’t going to let this go and not look for him.”

  “So what do you suggest that we do?” Sean said getting up and walking over to the diner counter to pour himself a cup of coffee and came back to the table.

  “Stick with the plan, take out the Eastside vampires, give it to the wolves and go from there.”

  “Really just give it to the wolves you say.” A voice from behind said, a voice that Roberto recognized instantly and made his skin crawl and shiver, he slowly turned around hoping that he was imagining what he heard, but as his head swiveled, fear took a hold of him. He knew before he looked it was his father.

  “Who the hell is this guy?” Mycal said standing up. Roberto couldn’t talk, he couldn’t move, he couldn’t do anything.

  “Watch your mouth, don’t you know who I am?”

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  “Uh no, that’s why I said who the hell is this guy.”

  “Da da dad, how did you...”

  “How did I find you? I just had Jason follow you. I knew something was off when we were talking, but I think I’m even more shock to see you here with these duskers than I am to hear that you have a bay on the way.” King Juan was tall and slender but underneath his dark blue suit was all muscle. Mycal walked up to the King. Roberto tried to speak, he wanted to scream no, for them to run but he couldn’t get himself to form the words.

  “It’s time for you to go.” Mycal went to push the king out the door, but was meet with a fist across the face that sent him flying over the counter. Dish shattered, glass was all over the floor and covering Mycal. He was out, not moving. The king barely used that much power and he took out their strongest fighter like he was swatting away a fly.

  Hearing all the commotion Elle and Crystal came running out of the office.

  “What is going on out here?” Elle said as she rounded the corner, she saw Mycal on the floor not moving and a man with long slick black hair standing in her diner.

  “Stay back.” Roberto was able to finally get out, warning Crystal and Elle, but mainly Crystal.

  “Babe what’s going on?” A lump of fear was stuck in Crystal throat that was the only thing she was bale to get out.

  “Babe, so this must be the pregnant girlfriend I’ve heard nothing about. She is pretty. You know pregnant woman blood is like an aphrodisiac for vampires, did he ever tell you that.” Hearing his father talk to Crystal like that snapped him out of whatever frozen fear he had.

  “If you touch her I’ll kill you.” He said, he walked over to Crystal and stood in front of her to protect her.

  “Now is that anyway to talk to your father, besides do you really think I couldn’t snap her neck before you could even blink.” Crystal started shaking, she heard stories from Roberto but never imagined this, and he always told her his father’s presence alone was like a thick cloud of terror chocking her.

  Sean fired three shots, none hit its target which Sean couldn’t believe, from what he could tell King Juan never moved an inch, but in actuality the king was so fast it just looked as he didn’t move.

  “Nice try.” As King Juan was getting ready to make his move he went flying through the door back outside.

  “Get everyone down to the market now!” Lamar screamed.

  Sean and Daniel rushed over to Mycal who was still knocked out on the floor and picked him up and headed for the storage area with Roberto and Crystal behind them.

  King Juan was hit what felt like a invisible missile, he flew through a diner window. Lamar lowered his hand, he used his telekinesis like it was a fist and punched the vampire king in the chest.

  “You too Elle. I got this one.” Lamar ordered.

  “I’m not leaving you to fight a thousands of year old king vampire by yourself.” But before he could argue a shot rang out, but this time it came from the front door. Lamar looked down to see a pool a blood start to form at his stomach and he fell to his knees. Jason the king’s bodyguard stood in the doorway holding a revolver. Jason went to fire another shot but before he could pull the trigger Elle let out a banshee scream so powerful that tables and chairs went flying, the diner windows shatter sending glass everywhere. Jason got hit by a flying table square in the chest, he hit the ground hard. Elle Scream was so powerful it made King Juan fall to his knees as he approached the diner. Elle stopped her scream, she hooked her arm under Lamar’s and hoisted him up. She got him to the storage room door and through it, she said the spell to close the entryway just in time. King Juan ripped the door off its hinges just to find a bunch of cleaning supplies and toilet paper.

  “Interesting.” Said the King.

  “Your majesty where are they?”

  “It seems like that mage of theirs got a few tricks up his sleeves. Let’s go there is nothing we can do now.”

  “What about Master Roberto.” Jason said putting up his gun.

  “They can’t hide for long.” King Juan said as he left the diner.

  Elle and Lamar came down the stairs that led into the market place, Lamar still holding his stomach.

  “What happened?” Sean said.

  “He was shot.” Elle replied “Get him inside his workshop and get him a potion, I’ll be in in a moment.” Mycal was finally conscious, he help the others get Lamar inside.

  “Listen up ever body,” the market was full of duskers all starring wondering what was going on. “The diner entrance has been compromised, you won’t be able to get back through the normal way. When you are ready to leave use the emergency exit.” The spell Elle used to close the door to the market was a separate spell that only Lamar and her knew, it did more than close the door, it destroyed it. That way out could never be open again.

  Serenity was heading to Lamar’s shop when Elle stopped her. “I know you are worried about him, he is going to be fine I promise, but I need you to do something for me. I need you to send out a mass text to all the duskers to stay away from the diner, it is no longer a safe haven.” Serenity eyes got wide, she hesitated, she wanted to go see about Lamar now and make sure he was okay. She finally shook her head letting Elle know she understood the assignment that was just given to her and she went to get it done.

  Other duskers started to come up to Elle wanting to know what was going on and should they be worried, she waved them away and promise to explain everything later, she was more worried about Lamar. As she entered the shop she told Daniel to shut the blinds. He did as he was told, the others were surrounding Lamar in a circle as he laid on the floor still holding his stomach and wincing in pain.

  “You’re good.” Elle said to Lamar. He stopped wincing and removed his hand and stood up.

  “Wait you’re okay.” Roberto asked confused.

  “Yeah I healed myself when I first got shot, but I didn’t want your dad to know that or any of the other duskers to see.”

  “Aren’t you a mage, why would they care?”

  “They only know that I have attack magic, not healing magic. You only have one of the two, I shouldn’t be able to instantly heal, especially a wound like this, and not even my strongest healing potion could do what I did.” Lamar said, he told them he would be right back and started heading to the back to grab a fresh shirt. Mycal, Sean, and Daniel followed him.

  “What are we going to do now?”

  “You can always get knocked out again.” Daniel said laughing. Mycal gave him the middle finger.

  “Not now guys. We need to come up with a plan,” Mycal started to talk when Sean cut him off, “a plan that won’t get us all killed.”

  “Right now we are safe, there is no way they are going to get in here, not even the strongest mage would be able to reopen the door after it has been destroyed.” Lamar said taking off his bloody shirt and changing into a clean one you got out of his closet,

  “So we are stuck here?” Mycal asked.

  “No we have the emergency exit and I can always make another door if need be, just right now it’s probably safe to stay put.”

  “Agreed.” Sean said.

  “We should get back up front with the others.” As Mycal made that suggestion they heard a scream come from the front of the shop.

  “What’s going on now?” Lamar said running up front.

  “HER WATER BROKE!” Elle screamed.