Tuesday 3 September 2013

Part 6

The Dalton's Short Story, Fantasy Fiction continues with Part 6

PART ONE: http://thewriteaddictions.blogspot.ca/2013/04/a-daltons-short-story.html

PART TWO: http://thewriteaddictions.blogspot.ca/2013/07/a-daltons-short-story-ctd.html

PART THREE: http://thewriteaddictions.blogspot.ca/2013/07/daltons-part-3.html

PART FOUR: http://thewriteaddictions.blogspot.ca/2013/07/daltons-part-4.html

PART FIVE: http://thewriteaddictions.blogspot.ca/2013/08/daltons-part-5.html

"Is that a dress?" James Dalton's voice inquired with a hint of surprise. "Are we going under cover or something?" he asked his sister as he watched her.
"What? No...I just- " she couldn't tell him the truth. "Wanted to wear it is there a law against that or something?" Lia's dress selection was slim, she owned about two in total one,  the one she had on now was more casual, a red linen sundress the other was a little dressier and usually only for serious undercover work. For the rest of her apparel it consisted most of jeans, cutoffs and plaid.
"You just look weird that's all" he said. Great, she looked weird that was exactly what she wanted to hear. The dress was off faster than he'd said it and just as quickly she was back in dark straight leg jeans, her black combat boots with a red tank and her leather jacket. She actually felt more like herself in this, and what did it matter what she was wearing anyway, she wasn't going on a real date. Grabbing her bag she moved to the door and moved to leave.
"Hey wait up I'll come with you where are you going?" Jimmy asked as he sat up from the bed.
"No!" she said too quickly but she couldn't risk him actually wanting to come along. "You don't want to I have stuff to do-" though she couldn't exactly think of what she would need to do that required her older brother to stay behind. "girl stuff" she said hesitantly. It was weak at best but she had learned a long time ago in the Dalton house hold if you said you had girl stuff to deal with it made everyone uncomfortable and they would leave you alone.
"Oh... err okay well good luck?" he said leaning back and she quickly made her way out of the room before he could have a chance to change his mind.
***
She had told him to meet her back in front of the diner for one reason, she didn't want him knowing where she was staying, and she also didn't want her brothers to have any idea what she was up to. This way, meeting on her own terms it was a win-win situation for her. Hearing a scartch on the pavement behind her she turned quickly, her hand on her bag ready to pull a weapon at the first sign of trouble. She relaxed slightly at the sight of Hunter standing there, the same stupid grin on his face. "Next time you sneak up on me like that I will cut you" she warned him and he laughed. Heh, if only she'd actually been kidding it may have been funny.
"You look hot" he observed and she rolled her eyes. He really was just blunt, it was sort of refreshing to hear the honesty even if it wasn't exactly always the easiest thing to respond to. She was a liar, born and raised. It was difficult to reveal the truth on the best of days, and especially to a stranger.
"Thanks" she responded simply and held out her hand. "Ring" she demanded.
"You want a ring already? Well, that's a little soon, you're hot and all but I don't do marriage"
"Do you take anything seriously?" she asked him "you know exactly what ring I'm talking about come on"
"and you know you're not getting it back until after the date" he said with a grin and offered his arm.
"I hate you" she muttered but took it anyway. She had to make the best of this, it was her own mess and it was her responsibility to clean it up.
"No you don't, you just don't know me" he pointed out.
"No but I know guys like you...and I hate you" she assured him. The over confident athlete who thought he could get any girl that he wanted to. That was not the case with her and she knew that, it was just a matter of making sure that he knew that.
"Just suck it up princess, I promise you'll have fun" that was a very assuming promise.
***
The car ride to where ever he was taking her had started out awkwardly, the silence between them was so thick it could be cut with a knife. The longer he tried to talk to her the easier it became to just let him. He was right, it was one date and she was leaving so she could relax and let her guard down, after all he wasn't a demon she'd already figured that one out.  For the first time in a long time she felt normal. She laughed at his stories as they drove and the hunt and her life was the furthest thing from her mind. She watched him thoughtfully as he talked and for a moment he turned his eyes from the road to look at her and smiled, she smiled in return. He was so painfully normal, just a guy who had no idea who she was, what she did. She was envious of his life, though she suspected he was wasting it, the potential at least. A sadness settled into her as she realized how badly she wanted that. She'd never really thought anything of her life other than knowing it would never change. She didn't let herself care about people because as soon as she did they were taken from her, killed, possessed, or lost when she moved towns. For the first time in her life she actually let herself imagine what it was like to be human, blissfully ignorant and happy. "What's your favorite flower?" he asked suddenly and she turned from her thoughts back to the moment. She'd never been quite so stumped by a question before, but truthfully she didn't have one. To her, a flower was a flower and it wasn't like she had any good memories tied to any specific type.
"I guess I don't have one" She admitted.
"How is that possible, I thought girls obsessed about things like flowers" the wrong flower meant the wrong thing, boy had he learned that the hard way. "All those secret meanings and stuff, I swear you guys have a club" she laughed at the thought but shook her head.
"Some girls maybe but I wouldn't know the difference" she assured him.
"No ones ever given you 'the wrong flowers'?" He asked the disbelief obvious in his voice.
"No, no ones ever given me flowers at all" She corrected and she lurched forward slightly as he hit the brakes.
"What? No one's ever given you flowers? That's impossible..." he accused.
"Ow!" she stated though it hadn't actually hurt, she'd been in some pretty bad crashes in her lifetime a little seat belt tension was hardly going to do any damage. "It's not impossible, it's the truth" he was staring at her like she was some sort of new species of animal at the zoo and it was making her slightly uncomfortable.
"Wait here" he said putting the car into park and climbed out.
"Wait where are you-" he shut the door behind him "going" she finished and with a sigh sat back in her seat. With her luck he was ditching her on the side of the road in a rental car. At least he'd left the keys, that was some sort of act of kindness. After a few minutes she was about to just get up and get out the car. Just as she was undoing her seat belt the door flew open and he slipped back inside handing her a handing of somewhat mangled flowers. She blinked in surprise and a hint of a smile crossed her lips. Seriously? He'd stopped the car to get her flowers, she might have laughed but it was surprisingly sweet, even if she wouldn't dare admit that. It was something she hadn't exactly expected from him. She wasn't exactly sure what she'd expected from him but in the back of her mind she hadn't exactly gotten a thoughtful vibe from him.
"Yeah! I'm a nice guy" he told her in response to her surprised look "Well that, and I was kind of hoping it might help get me laid" he said a joking tone in his voice but she couldn't help thinking he was very serious.
"Don't hold your breath, you'll pass out long before that happens" She told him but as she turned her attention to the window a small smile settled on her lips as she lifted the flowers to smell. Leaning her head forward she let her hair fall to cover her face and hide the smile that had formed there. For the first time in a long time she just felt like a girl, a normal girl on a somewhat abnormal but still enjoyable date. Damn it, she had been convinced he wouldn't deliver now it was going to be really hard to get him to leave her alone, she was going to have to pull one hell of an Oscar performance.
After a couple more minutes of driving he stopped the car and got out and ran around to open her door before she even got the chance to get her seat belt off. "Thanks..." she said hesitantly. He didn't seem like the chivalrous type to be honest so there was a serious hint of doubt hanging in the back of her mind with every action he took to prove otherwise.
"So I know you're not from here" he started "So where are you from?" It was a fair enough question the only problem being the fact that she didn't really have an answer for him.
"I'm, not really from anywhere" She admitted, she had been born in Boston but hadn't been back since her parents had died. Since then they had moved around nearly every week into a new town. The only form of stability had been the lockbox cabin her grandfather had found in the woods somewhere down South. When she'd been really little they'd leave her there alone for days at a time for 'safety' when a hunt was too dangerous but once she'd turned 12 and made her first kill they hadn't needed to do that anymore. "We moved around a lot, still do"
"Ah Military?" He asked and she could do nothing more than shrug her shoulders.
"Something like that"
"You don't talk much" he added and she laughed.
"Yeah well I'm not my favorite topic" she confessed. She would love to be able to talk about herself, but she knew she couldn't, not with her past, and the type of work she did. The less he knew the better.
"I'm from New Orleans.... if you were wondering" he changed the subject without question, something she appreciated and though she'd been dying to know, asking would imply interest and it was safer to remain with as little interest as possible.
"I wasn't" She assured him, even thought she actually had been "I was really more wondering how you ended up here" she admitted as though she really wasn't wondering at all but she knew why she was in this town, she couldn't seem to figure out why on earth he would be.
"Training camp... I'm a kick boxer I've got a match in a couple weeks this is my coach's home town he wanted to be able to spend some time with his family and train at the same time" he stated with a shrug. So she had been right, he was an overconfident athlete, apparently not a very good fighter, or at least not as good as she was. "you don't seem surprised..." he added and she shrugged her shoulders gently.
"I knew you were some sort of jock it was just a matter of what sport...Where are we going?" she asked as she realised they were wandering through the public park with what seemed to be no direction.
"You'll see" he assured her. "can I blind fold you?" he asked curiously with a smart hesitation in his voice.
"Can I cut off your right hand?" she asked. She could see him hesitate for a moment, the look in his eyes as though he were considering weather or not she would actually do that.
"I'm going to assume you're joking and do it anyway" he told her and next thing she knew her eyes were covered.
"Just so you know I have  sensory training" she warned him. Blindfolded combat had been one of the earlier traning exercises their grandfather had taught them and she was perfect capable of retaliating.
"of course you do" he said with a laugh though he suspected that she was being quite serious. "Can you just relax and trust me?" he asked. It was a fair enough question, but trust was not something Amalia Dalton just gave to anyone, there were two people in her life that held her trust and it was only because they watched her back in dangerous situations each day, she had to trust them or she would die.  Hunter, she didn't have to trust but something was preventing her from fighting him, she took it as a sign that he wasn't going to back track, she had an instinct about people, and as annoying as he seemed to be, her danger senses were seriously low.
"Fine" she said carefully "I trust you"

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