Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet - Darynda Jones Page 0,79

me. “Why is your father trying to kill you?”

I swallowed again and braced myself against the wall at my back. “I have no idea.” When he started toward him, I hurried forward to cut him off, stepping in between them. “Oh, no, you don’t. He is off-limits, do you understand?”

He took my arm and pulled me into his robes. The scalding heat soothed despite my anger. “Get a handle on this, or I’ll kill him where he stands.”

I pushed away from him and pointed toward the window. “Out. Now.”

With a low growl, he dematerialized, but I could feel him close. He hadn’t gone far, and he could materialize and sever Dad’s spine before I could cry foul. I had to defuse this situation and do it fast, or my dad would never be able to walk again. Or quite possibly breathe.

After gathering myself, I realized everyone was looking at me. Most likely because I was talking to air. They could just deal with it. We had bigger fish to fry. But the look on their faces stopped me in my tracks. They’d seen me talk to air before. Well, everyone but Sienna. I couldn’t imagine that causing the level of shock they were displaying.

Sienna dropped the carafe. It landed with a thud on the floor, and coffee slushed over the sides, but not a single gaze wavered away from me.

“What?” I asked, suddenly self-conscious. I looked down to make sure my boxers were in place. They seemed fine to me. I scanned the faces again. Even though Uncle Bob was holding a gun to my father’s head, he was looking at me. Just like everyone else.

Dad lowered the gun. The movement caught Ubie’s attention. He turned back to him. “Drop it, Leland.”

He did. The gun fell to the floor, but nobody seemed to care. All eyes stayed locked on me. Slowly, and with deliberate care, Uncle Bob kneeled down and picked up the gun, but he looked away for only the split second it took him to grab it.

This was getting weird.

“How did you do that?” Gemma asked.

“What?” I asked, completely confused. “Almost get shot by my own father?” When everyone continued to gape, I decided now was a good time for a rant. “It really wasn’t that hard. I just kind of stood here while a crazy man pointed a gun at me—”

“They were blanks.”

I refocused on him. “You tried to kill me with blanks?”

“Yes.” He nodded, then caught himself and shook his head. “No, I mean—”

“Isn’t that counterproductive?”

“The way you moved,” he continued, his voice thick with disbelief. “It wasn’t real. Nobody can move like that.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, growing angry. Did nobody care that my own father just tried to kill me?

He walked up to me and tried to touch my face, but I blocked his hand and stepped out of his reach. He didn’t pursue it. Instead he asked, “What are you?”

“Besides pissed?”

“Charley,” Gemma said, her voice taking on that gentle therapist tone she was so fond of, “look where you are.”

I glanced around and realized she was right. I had been at the door, and now I was at the windows facing the alley. I shrugged. “So I lunged out of the way. So what? I was being shot at.”

“But you didn’t,” Gemma said. “You were here, then you were there. You—” She paused as though unable to come up with the right words. “You moved so fast. It’s like you disappeared, then reappeared. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I had to know,” Dad said. “I had to know you’d be okay. I knew you were different, but I had no idea just how different. Then when Caruso tied me up and went after you with that knife … the way you moved. It was like nothing I’d ever seen.” Caruso had been one of Dad’s collars. He’d sent the man to prison for a very long time. The minute he was parolled, he came after Dad, and in periphery, me. “That’s when I realized how special you really are.”

I was still fighting the effects of adrenaline rushing through my nervous system, and trying not to seize. “I cannot imagine how you thought that shooting me would be a good idea.” I turned to leave, but Uncle Bob stopped me.

“Charley, hon, I need to know if you want to press charges.”

A malicious smile spread over my face before I said, “No. Not today. I don’t want to have anything else to do with