“You hurt my feelings when you didn’t show,” I admit, dying inside at the admission. Before today I wouldn’t have told anyone that ever. But in a weird way, as soon as I say it, I feel a little better. “I waited for you until one A.M. The others all went to bed. I was sure you’d walk through that door with a birthday cake in hand. I believed in you, Dad. And you let me down.”
Dad nods slowly, still staring at his hands. His eyes blink a few times too fast and I wonder if he’s holding back tears. Tears! I never, ever thought in a million years I’d see my dad cry.
“Rayne, I can’t do anything but apologize to you for that,” he says at last, his voice sounding more than a bit froggy. “I feel so terrible. It’s just . . . well, I got scared.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Scared?”
“I know I’ve been a lousy dad. Running away from responsibility and family and everyone who loved me. Your mother, who has always been so sweet. You and Sunny, the most wonderful daughters a father could ever hope for. I felt, somehow, that I didn’t deserve you. I’m so rotten inside, Rayne. I’ve done terrible things. And I felt that by leaving I would protect you two from all of that. I knew your mother would take care of you. Raise you right. You didn’t need me screwing everything up.” He shrugs. “Basically I got scared. Weird, huh? Scared because suddenly people needed me. Because they loved me. Sounds so dumb when I say it out loud.”
It’s at that moment I realize how much he really is my dad. And it makes me burst into tears. “Dad, I don’t need you. But I do love you,” I admit. “I’ve always loved you. That’s why it hurts so much when you stay away.”
“I’ve been feeling guilty about the whole thing for so long,” Dad continues. “Then your sister sent me that e-mail about your birthday and I realized that was my chance to make things right. I mean, coming to a birthday doesn’t make up for four years of wrongs, but I thought perhaps it’d be a start. A chance to reconnect with you two and come back into your lives.” He swallows hard. “But then I got the e-mail back from Sunny when I accepted her invitation. She sounded so happy, so excited. I panicked again. I didn’t know what I was doing. How I’d be able to face you two after all that had happened. So I took the coward’s way out. I didn’t show.”
He scrubs his face with his hands. “I’m so sorry, Raynie girl. I screwed everything up, once again. And now here I am and you’re so sick and I don’t want to lose you.”
It takes all my strength to sit up in bed, but I do it. Because right at this moment I need a hug. A hug from my father. I put out my arms and he wraps his around me, pulling me close. He squeezes me into the big bear hug I remember as a kid, though today his arms don’t seem as strong. Probably because he’s shaking. I bury my head in his shoulder and cry.
“I love you, Daddy,” I sob. “I don’t care what you’ve done or what you will do in the future. I’ll always love you.”
“Thank you, Raynie,” he says. “I love you, too. No matter what, you’ll always be my baby girl.”
“Dad?” I ask, as I pull away and lie back down on the bed. Sitting up takes way too much energy. “Will you do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“Tell me a story. Like you used to.”
He smiles, his eyes crinkling, and I can definitely see the tears now. “Of course,” he says, his voice quavering a bit. “Once upon a time, there lived two princesses—Sunshine and Rayne. . . .”
33
THURSDAY, JUNE 14 (CONTINUED)
The Sacrifice
After Dad leaves I take a nap, feeling both emotionally and physically drained. But for the first time since I came down with the disease I sleep peacefully. No haunting nightmares. And I wake up feeling better. Yes, I will die, but I will die with much more peace than I had for most of my life.
A knock on the door. I say, “Come in.”
It’s Jareth.
“How was your dad?” he asks, sitting on the side of my bed. He presses a cold hand against my burning forehead. I close my eyes.
“Wonderful. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for tracking him down.”
“It was nothing. I’d do anything for you,” he says sincerely.
I open my eyes. “Have you heard from the lab?”
He hangs his head. “Yes. Unfortunately they have not been able to come up with an antidote. At least not yet. If only they had more time.”
I sigh, resigning myself once more to my impending death. For some reason I had been keeping a small hope alive deep inside that they’d be able to save me in the nick of time, like it always happens in the movies. But I guess, in this case, it was not meant to be.
“Listen, Rayne, there is one possibility,” Jareth says hesitantly.
“Huh?” I look up at him.
“I took a lock of your hair and had them test it. You and I are compatible.”
“Compatible?”
“As blood mates. We have compatible DNA.”
I stare at him, confused. “But what do you—?”
He swallows hard. “I could turn you. Then you would live. Well, not live exactly. Your body would die. But you would be immortal.”
“But if you bite me, you’ll get the disease. You’ll become weak and lose all your vampire powers. Won’t you?”
“Yes.”
“But then . . . how . . . ?”