I woke up and groaned. I had fallen asleep at the little desk in the hotel room. I scowled at Slash. "You didn't wake me up?" He gave me an innocent look. I shook my head and took a hot shower then put on jeans, a T-shirt, boots, and my jacket. Then I brushed out my hair and braided it. Slash growled and I turned to find him on the chair I had vacated. "What?" I asked. He looked at me then at my laptop. I hurried over and gasped. My father had responded. I grabbed my phone and called Everest. She answered on the third ring and sounded tired when she said, "Hello?"
"Eve, I need you to bring all the Dark Savers to my room. It's urgent," I said with fear and panic in my voice.
"Why?" She sounded alert now. "What's wrong?"
"Just come and bring the others." I hung up then started pacing. I had suspected he wasn't dead but the proof that he was alive was a lot to take in. There was a knock on the door and I flung it open. Everyone shuffled in and sat.
"Sapphire, please tell us what's wrong," Lizzy said worriedly.
I breathed slowly to calm myself. "I had suspected my dad was alive. When I told this to Vincent he suggested sending an email to see if it was true." I sat in front of the laptop after shoving Slash off of the chair. He growled and lay down on the bed. "My father responded."
Scott stared. "Our father is alive?"
"Apparently."
"What did he say?" Morgan asked.
I opened the email and read,
"Dear Sapphire
I'm delighted to hear you've figured out that I'm alive. I didn't take you from the orphanage because I figured you'd be safer there than you would with me. Though I did take out the woman who put you there. She should have brought you to a better orphanage. I create monsters because we need something new in this world. As for your mother. She was going to tell everyone everything so FleshEater took care of her. Scott saw everything when he was young and told her so I got rid of him. Your mother hated me for that. So I told her we could only have girls. Morgan is only alive because I draw the line at killing babies and kids. I hope this answers all your questions.
Love
Dad"
There was a stunned silence. "Dad made mom get rid of me?" Scott whispered.
I nodded. "Mom loved you and I think she loved Morgan too." At least that's what I'm getting from the email. Dad is such a jackass.
"Is this the first time you've read the email?" Martin asked.
"Yes, I thought it would be better for all of us to hear it at the same time," I replied.
"At least we know why FleshEater didn't go after you," Eve said.
"It's why only adults are being killed," Morgan said. "They're programmed to ignore children."
"Teenagers too," I said. "The Steelfang didn't attack us."
Scott frowned. "I'm an adult."
I shook my head. "Nineteen still has teen in it. I think they're programmed to automatically know people's ages. So if you had been twenty, I bet it would have attacked you."
Eve nodded. "It's possible." She thought for a minute. "Do you have your father's number?"
"Yes."
"Then call him and put him on speaker so we can all hear what he says."
I hesitated. I didn't want to see him and I didn't really want to hear his voice either. I called him and he picked up instantly. "Ah, I thought you might call," he said.
No hello. I swallowed. Hard. "Hello, Father," I said with forced calm.
"I heard you ran from the orphanage. Congrats."
That snapped me out of my fear. "I was done putting up with Miss Slade's crap."
"Are your friends there?"
How did he know about them? I looked at Eve and she nodded. "Yes, why?"
"Am I on speaker?"
"Yes."
"Good." He fell quiet for a minute. "Miss Lockwood, you should stop killing my monsters."
"And you should stop creating them," Eve replied nonchalantly. "We all have stuff we should be doing, Mr. Hemlock. Did you purposely forget to note the Steelfang's ability to fly and its speed? Or are you just stupid?"
He chuckled. "You ran into my Rayville Steelfang, have you? Most excellent."
"I'm assuming they're programmed to listen to you, correct?"
"Yes, and only me."
"Interesting," I said quietly. "Because I have a Slasher here who protects and listens to me."
There was a curse. "That's where he went. He's programmed to lead all Slashers and they're programmed to listen to him."
I glanced at Slash and he tilted his head to the side as if to say, What? You never asked me anything. "Then I guess we have all the Slashers on our side," I said calmly.
"You should bring him to me."
"No."
"What?"
"I'm sorry, was that not loud enough?" I asked coldly. "I said, no."
"Young lady, you better bring him to me or…"
"Or what?" I cut in. "Are you going to have your monsters come after me? Because you'll just be leading them to their deaths." I lowered my voice. "You're the one who taught me to shoot."
"Sapphire Rose Hemlock."
"Using my full name won't do anything." I paused. "Oh, and just so you know, if you don't stop creating monsters I'll come after you." I hung up on him.
"Damn, Sapphire. Remind me not to get on your bad side," Scott said grinning.
I smiled slightly then looked at Eve. "Sorry, I hung up on him. I should have asked if you had anything else to say to him."
She laughed. "I didn't. I almost hung up on him myself but I had seen you had some stuff to say to him."
I nodded. "Though I'm pretty sure I just pissed him off so we'd better be prepared for anything." Not that we aren't prepared but I thought I'd said that so everyone would be more alert.
She nodded and stood. "Well, we all better get going. We have a witness to talk to."
"We have a couple of them," Morgan said as he too stood up. Everyone else stood too.
"Do you need Sapphire and I there?" Vin asked.
Lizzy shook her head. "No, you can spend some time with your new girlfriend."
He blinked. "How did you…?"
She laughed. "Your eyes haven't left her the entire time we've been here." I frowned. They hadn't? They all left the room and then it was just me, Slash, and Vin.