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18

SPENCER MURDOCK

"Dad," I warn him. "Stop talking about Jackson, it's a little creepy."

"He's a good man, he seems pretty strong." He smiled at me.

"And that's all you care about," I grumbled, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

"I mean emotionally, baby." He informs me. Why would Jackson need to be emotionally strong?

I sigh and sit on the couch next to him. Dad's body tenses as he feels the dip and looks at me weirdly. I haven't really shown this much affection towards him in years. Vice versa. So it was also a little weird when he leaned closer to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

The tv showed in front of us and my dad took a deep hesitant breath. He turned to look at me and I smiled back. His smooth features lighted up his beautiful dark eyes that I got from him. His blond hair still gelled from work and his suit a little winked from our position.

"You look a lot like your mother." He admits and looked at him confused.

"I think I look a lot like..." I pointed at his chest, my gaze following there, and then back up at him, "You."

"I'm sorry." He apologized and I chuckled.

"It's fine, you're pretty good looking so thank you." I joked and he bellowed a laugh. My dad looked down at me with his large smile and crinkled eyes that genuinely showed happiness.

"You're just like her." He whispers.

"Tell me." He looks at me confused. "About Mom." He nods.

"Your mother was... very friendly. She smiled all the time and wasn't afraid to talk to new people. She was as confident as they came. She was also so kind and caring. I couldn't even imagine how patient and forgiving she was to everyone. I was just thankful because God knows I fucked up a bit." I laughed.

"She would always give me this look when I would be so caught up in my work. It was a mixture of... disappointment and hope. Every time I saw it I knew that I choose the job over my family. It killed me to know that I left my perfect wife and amazing daughter at home to what? Do paperwork? She kept me on my feet. Made me be a better person, the one I've always wanted to be."

"She sounds like she was looking after you," I commented.

"She was, I don't know what I'd do without her." He whispered, pulling me closer to him. "I think she's trying to give her face from the beyond."

"What do you mean?"

"I've been so caught up in training you to protect yourself. To not be where your mother is right now that I lost what I meant to be a father. I began raising a warrior instead of a child." He told me, his eyes glistening with tears. I felt my chest tighten at his confession.

"I turned out okay," I mumbled. "I think."

"You turned out great, considering." He said his deep voice breaking. He showed the weakness he always was against today.

———

I let the cool of the towel rest on my shoulder as I take a sip of my water from my hydro flask. The chill ran down my throat and I almost moaned at the feeling. Putting the drink back down, I bit my bottom lip.

In just a moment, time slowed down. Everything around me turned into a muffled silence and my heart sped faster. I could feel the beat in my chest growing harder and harder. There's a breeze on my shoulder sending chills down my spine. And in one swift movement, my instinct came in hard, spinning around with my elbow propped up nose level for a hit.

A hand grabbed hold of it and my other hand came around to the mystery person's face. My breath hitched as he dodged it and pushed me against the wall. A heavy pain erupted in my back and my arms were pinned to the wall above me. Reality came back and I recognized my attacker's face.

Derek.

His blond hair fell in front of his face, he stared me down with ocean-blue eyes that carried a hint of anger. The way his sharp jaw clenched and unclenched in a mental argument.

"Get off me." I struggled under his strong inhuman grasp.

Derek leaned in closer to me, like he was going to kiss me, but instead rested his head on my neck. The warmth of his face brought comfort to him as I felt him relax a bit. A friendly old comfort. Like we've done this before.

His fingers ran down my long brunette hair as the other let go of my hands. I couldn't push him away, I knew that physically I couldn't. Derek and the others are much stronger than me and all the hand-to-hand training couldn't do anything against someone like him. His eyes redden and his fangs extended showing his pure vampiric anger but his tense embrace showed that he may not want to hurt me. 

"If only the universe could give me this." He muttered under his breath. "I miss you, Charlotte."

Who? And just like that, I snapped back into reality and put all my strength into struggling harder to get out of his tight grasp. My skin pulling and bruising as I felt myself begin to ache in pain. Anything to keep fighting because if he was going to kill me here then I would keep trying until my last breath.

"Get the fuck off me, Derek," I growled as I pushed him once last time with all of my human strength and he let me, staggering back a couple of places.

"What were you doing? Were you going to kiss me? Seriously? After what you did!" I yelled, my own eyes must have flashed in anger as he looked at me in guilt. The aching of my back erupted as I moved away from the wall he slammed me in. I felt resentment fuel my body at his stupid actions, I wanted to kill this vampire. I wanted to shove a stake in his heart. Cut his head clean off. Shoot him with silver bullets. Whatever it takes to demolish this unnatural person. 

"I'm sorry." He muttered. "I shouldn't even be here, he'd kill me." It didn't calm me down, nothing could. But I stayed in my spot, thinking about how easy it would've been for him to dodge my sloppy, angry hits and end me. I watched him carefully, ready to strike back if he did first. 

But he turned around and quickly left, no trace. I didn't know what had happened.

———

"He did what?" Jackson growled on the other line. "I'm gonna fucking kill him!"

"He didn't hurt me. He barely even talked to me." I let paused at the memory. "He said that he shouldn't be there. That he'd kill him."

"Diego?"

"I don't know, maybe." I sighed. "You don't have to worry about me."

There was silence on the other end. "I can't help but to." He admits his voice is heavy with tiredness and worry.

"And I'm thankful for that." I look at the clock about me and my eyes widen. "Where are you?"

"A couple blocks away, why?"

"You're late!" I exclaimed. Oh no.

"I'll be there in a few minutes, babe." My heart skipped a beat at that word.

"My father doesn't like tardiness. It's some weird thing he has." I tell him.

"It's only a few minutes before it's time. I'll be there." Jackson promised.

"Okay."

I hung up, my attention on this dinner is distracted by Derek's visit. I needed to prepare myself for next time. Now that I knew what was actually out there in the shadows of this world. I needed to learn to defend myself against an entirely new enemy. Unlike humans, these enemies relied on pure animal instinct and bloodlust. Vampires, werewolves, sirens, etc., all of them had power and I knew that with power came people who would be drunk on it. The supernatural residing in them all had impulses tied to what their inner animalistic souls wanted. 

Humans are tied to whatever they wanted, there was no one goal humans shared together but many. Greed, lust, envy, ego, control, power, laziness. We are weak, selfish people but at least we are diverse in our wants no matter the good or bad. We all individually have our own personal goals and desires. The supernatural shared theirs together and that is what will eventually bring them down. That is why humans prevailed in many different areas of life and they stayed hidden in the shadows loyal to their traditions. 

These feelings in me built up as time started to pass by but later when Jackson's presence entered my house, those thoughts seemed to fade away and my big alpha became my only priority. 

Camilla