The Deathtaker's Daughter Page 5

  She flung open the door and raced outside. “What the hell are you doing here? I mean, seriously… What. The. Hell?”

  Chai Vita stood frozen. She wasn’t exactly sure what to say, but she knew exactly why she was there.

  Krista looked at her mother in astonishment. “You can’t be here. You are never supposed to be near this house. Never! Do you hear me? You could kill him. If Sam were here right now he’d be dead!” Krista yelled. “You didn’t even stop at the end of the driveway. You drove right up to the house! A hundred feet! If he is within a hundred feet of you, he’s dead.”

  “He’s not here, is he?” Chai asked. And to the shock of Krista, she actually sounded concerned. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think. I drove by the medical center but your truck wasn’t there, so I came here. I guess I figured Sam was at the store.”

  “Chai, even that might have had serious consequences. You can’t be driving around without warning us! He could pass you on the street and get within dying distance.”

  Adeline’s truck pulled into the driveway, and Krista saw that Jim was in the passenger seat beside her. They both bolted out of the vehicle at the same time. “Why is she in town? I saw her car pass by the motel, so I grabbed Jim and we came right here.”

  Since Adeline’s motel was adjacent to the diner, it had been a quick sprint to the next building to get him. She and Jim had been in a steady relationship since shortly after Krista had decided to stay in Cedar Creek. Addy spent most of her spare time keeping Jim Stone company.

  “I locked it up and turned on the closed sign, without even thinking twice about it,” Jim affirmed. “We came to chase this one out of here and bring her back to the motel where she’s supposed to stay when she comes to town.”

  Abe stood at Krista’s side, frowning at the whole situation. “You can’t harm my boy,” he said to Chai.

  “I don’t want to. That’s not why I came here. Can you maybe call him and tell him not to come home right now?” Chai suggested. “I just want to talk to my daughter for a little bit, I need to, and then I’ll be out of here. For good. I promise.”

  Krista already had her phone to her ear. She’d dialed Sam’s number before Adeline’s truck had come to a full stop. “He’s not answering. The sound is probably off, or he just can’t hear it because he’s on the dock with Eva. Oh my god. This can’t be happening. What if he walks up right now and just falls over and dies? I have to get out to him and tell him to stay put.”

  “I’ll go,” Jim offered. “You stay here. If your mother wants to talk to you, then get it over with and get her on her way.”

  “I’ll go out there with you. You’ve only been fishing with me out there a couple times. You’ll get to them faster with me along to guide you,” Abe insisted.

  “You mean slower,” Jim scoffed.

  Abe frowned. “I’m not that slow. I can move when I need to, and right now I need to!”

  “I’ll stay here with Krista,” Adeline stated. “Just in case she needs some backup.”

  “I’ve got my phone. Call me when the coast is clear,” Jim told Adeline. He glanced at Chai and shook his head at her before he and Abe walked toward the creek.

  Krista planted her hands on her hips and looked at her mother. “What do you want?”

  “I just want to talk. Can we go inside and sit down? I think I might faint or something; I’m woozy as shit.” Chai put her hands out, trying to steady herself. “I need something to drink.”

  Krista noticed how incredibly pale she looked. Her skin still appeared almost translucent; Krista could see the blue veins that pulsed under the surface. There appeared to be no improvement in the woman’s health since the last time Krista had seen her. There were dark hollow circles under her eyes and the corners of her lips were dry and cracked. Her clothes seemed to just hang on her body. Chai was notably thinner than she had been just a few months before, when Krista was with her last. The elder Deathtaker’s health was failing her, that much was for certain.

  “Alright,” Krista agreed, reluctantly. “We can go into the kitchen. I’ll get you a glass of sweet tea.”

  “I’d rather have a whiskey,” Chai muttered as they walked into the house.

  “Whiskey is the last thing you need,” Adeline told her.

  “Whiskey is the only thing I need,” Chai retorted.

  Chai Vita sat down at the table and Adeline stood guard right beside her. Krista picked up the pitcher of tea. Her hands shook as she poured; the thought of Sam coming home while her mother sat in their kitchen was tearing her heart into little pieces. She wanted to rage, but instead she was pouring tea, for her mother, in her home… not in the diner, at a safe distance, where they should be.

  “Well, you’re not getting whiskey, you’re getting tea. Maybe we need to move to the front corner of the house,” Krista said as she handed the glasses to the two women. “It is furthest from the back entrance, and that is where Sam would come from. But it is closer to the front door. That’s no good. What if he came in that way? Where in the house would be safe?” Krista closed her eyes and her hands went to the top of her head. “Keep a hundred foot bubble around her. A hundred feet.”

  Adeline put down the glass and placed her hands on Krista’s shoulders. “Jim and Abe will get to him in time. They’ll tell him to stay by the creek. Don’t you worry. Now, your mother looks mighty peaked. Why don’t you let her say what she came to and then she can skedaddle?” Adeline looked at Chai and shook her head. “You had no right.”

  “I had every right. Krista is my daughter. I’m her mother, I gave birth to her, that means something,” Chai stated in defense.

  Krista hung her head. She wasn’t sure how this woman processed the world around her, or how she was able to justify her actions and cling to some desperate feeling that she was owed something. “Giving birth to someone doesn’t make you a mother, raising a child does; putting forth effort and time, caring and love. My grandmother was my mother, you were just my incubator.”

  “I saved your husband. I’ve stayed away from him to keep him alive. And I’ve been here every single year since my granddaughter was born,” Chai insisted.

  “To collect money!” Krista raged.

  “I didn’t need the money,” Chai scoffed. “That measly two grand?”

  “It was ten at the beginning,” Addy reminded Chai. She had been with Abe when he placed the money beside Chai’s body as it recovered from taking Sam’s death, on that Christmas Eve so many years ago. “Ten grand to save your pregnant daughter’s beau. Such motherly love.”

  “So maybe that was an asshole move,” Chai admitted. “Look, I have no idea why I’ve done most of the things I’ve done in my life. When you were a baby, I saw this life that was all planned out for me. I already had my feet set on this unwanted path that my mother had put me on, that her mother had put her on, that she would someday expect me to put you on. It felt like I was standing in quicksand, and sinking fast. I didn’t want to be in quicksand, I wanted to be on the yellow brick road. I wanted adventure and fun, and danger sounded pretty exciting too. I saw the money-making potential in being what we are, and doing what we do for sick people, and I wanted it. So I left you and went out to do everything that my mother told me I wasn’t supposed to do. I’ve built up a fucking fortune over the years.”

  “If you have an effing fortune, why take two grand every year from me?” Krista shook her head in disbelief.

  “Effing – that’s cute,” Chai said with a smirk. “I did it because blackmail seemed like the best way to make sure you let me keep coming back. It’s not like you were going to send me an invitation. We weren’t going to call each other up for lunch and pedis. If you thought you owed me, then you’d see me,” Chai explained her twisted reasoning. “I didn’t even ask for it the last few times, you just gave it to me. Listen. I was a shit mother because I’m a shit person. I never thought I wanted to be a good person, until I saw the way you are with Eva. You love her so much, and she adores you. You ar
e so patient with her.”

  “Grandma loved you,” Krista told Chai. “I know she did. I’m sure I could have loved you too.”

  “She did. I won’t argue that. But, in all honesty, you don’t know what she was like before you were born. You don’t know what she would have been like once you reached your twenties. I think she was better with you because she saw how much her controlling affected me.

  “I rebelled in high school, and she tried to clamp a fist around me. Don’t do that to Eva. Don’t make her feel like she’s a disappointment if she doesn’t live up to your idea of what she should be. I didn’t deal with that very well. I didn’t know how to talk to my mother and make her understand how her disapproval made me feel. This deep pit was growing inside me, and for some reason your little baby arms around my neck just weren’t enough to keep me from running away. They felt like the noose that was going to hang me.”

  Chapter Five

  Abe and Jim cautiously crossed the rope bridge and quickly followed the path that would take them to the campsite. When the two men arrived at the clearing, Eva and Sam had their backs to them. They walked toward the dock and Abe shouted out a greeting. “Hey there, you two. You catch anything good?”

  Eva turned around and smiled when she saw them. “Hiya, Grumple.” Eva waved wildly with one arm while holding onto her fishing pole with the other. “Hi, Mr. Stone. Did you come to fish with us?”

  Sam wasn’t as excited to see them as his daughter. “This is an unexpected visit. It’s rare to see you out of the kitchen at this time of day, Jim. Don’t tell me Opal is working the fryer in her condition. Why are you two here?” Sam tried to keep his voice light, because he didn’t want to worry Eva, but he knew something was wrong; he could see it in Abe’s eyes.

  Jim walked out on the deck and took Sam’s fishing pole from his hands while motioning his head toward Abe. “Eva, can you show an old man like me the proper way to catch a fish while your daddy talks to your uncle?”

  “Yup,” Eva said and patted the dock beside her. “Sit here and just do what I do, but don’t get too close, our lines might cross. That’s no good.”

  “Sound advice.”

  Sam left the dock and walked over to where Abe stood. “What’s going on?”

  Abe turned his body so he was facing away from Eva, he didn’t want his little niece to hear him. “Chai showed up at the house.”

  “Ffffuu…”

  “Language, son. But, yes, I agree.”

  Sam reached his hands up and grasped the back of his neck. “Why? Does she want more money? What would make her just show up at our home?”

  “We didn’t stick around long enough to find out much. Krista and I saw her drive up and by the time we got outside to find out why, Addy and Jim pulled up right behind her. Seems Addy saw her car, she got Jim from the diner, and they came tearing after her. We just knew we had to warn you to stay out here and not go near the house. Chai did say something about wanting to talk to Krista and then she’d leave. The woman looked sickly. That’s about all I know. Now we just need for you to stay here and wait. Krista said she tried to call you, but you didn’t answer. You might want to keep your phone on you.”

  Sam hated that he had such violent feelings about the woman who had saved his life, but she’d done nothing but give his wife grief and extort his family ever since. “Chai.” Sam said her name like a curse escaping her lips.

  A moment of silence between Jim and Eva had allowed the name to carry on the wind. “What about Chai?” Eva called out to her father.

  “Nothing, baby girl,” he called back to her. “So what are we supposed to do? Just wait?” he asked Abe.

  “Yes, son. I’m afraid so.”

  “Is that why you came?” Krista asked her mother. “To tell me not to be a controlling parent when Eva is a teen?”

  Chai shook her head. “Look, I’ve taken too many deaths, all with forced connections, for way too long. The last few years have been rough. I guess I’m in that fear of dying, lets make amends moment of my life. Before I really am gone, I need to let you know that I missed out. I fucked it all up, and I have nobody to blame but myself. I bet you were really a great kid to watch growing up. You are such a good mom to Eva, and she adores you. It makes me wish that I had stuck around, because maybe, just maybe, you would have adored me.

  “You are doing the Deathtaker thing the right way. My mom taught you good. I know she tried to teach me the same, but I refused to listen. Wish I’d listened. Shit, I wish I’d done a lot of things different. But I didn’t. I’m glad that I got to meet you and Eva. I did one thing right by you; I saved the man you love. I took money for it, though, and that was wrong. I should never have done that. I guess that’s what I came here to say.”

  Krista had no idea how to respond to Chai. She stared at the woman and felt nothing but confusion. Krista opened her mouth, but then closed it again because she couldn’t find anything to say. Her mother took a long slow drink of her tea and kept her eyes averted.

  “I suppose it’s a good thing that you realize the mistakes you’ve made,” Addy said, trying to fill the silence. “But I’m not sure your daughter is going to jump for joy about it.”

  Chai put her cup down. “Yeah. I’m not asking for that. I don’t expect you to do anything, Krista. I think I lost my chance for you to forgive and forget a long time ago. I just wanted you to listen, and you did. That’s enough.”

  Krista let out a slow sigh. “I guess I’m glad to hear that you regret some of your choices.”

  “Some, many, but not all. I had some crazy fun times, jetting around the world.” Chai laughed and her chest tightened. She brought her hands up to her mouth as she coughed repeatedly. “That hurts like a sonofabitch.”

  “Have you been to a doctor?” Krista asked.

  Chai shook her head. “I hate doctors. Is that same Santa Doc still in this town? I haven’t seen him since I saved the day. I didn’t hate him.”

  “Yes, Doctor Baker is still here,” Adeline answered the question. “We are lucky to have such a fine doctor in Cedar Creek.”

  Krista closed her eyes and shook her head. Chai should have known Doc was still in town. Krista talked about her work, and mentioned the cases she helped him diagnose, every time she saw her mother. Once again, she felt as if Chai paid little attention to her during those visits. “You know I work for Doc,” Krista told her mother.

  “Yeah, I guess so. I liked him. He was calm, like super calm. He wasn’t fazed by the harsh stuff that came out of my mouth, or by the situation.” Chai took another sip of the cool tea. “Most people seem to freak out a little during the whole Deathtaking thing. Not him. Guess that’s part of what makes him such a good doctor. Calm and cool.”

  “So why now?” Krista asked. “What made you come to this realization now? You just saw me a few months ago. You couldn’t have told me all this then?”

  “Like I said, I’ve got to make amends before things go south for me. I don’t seem to be recovering very well lately, and to be honest, I’m not sure if I deserve to. I’ve turned people down, good people, because I stuck to my plan of always charging money for my services, and they died. I looked into the eyes of terminally ill people and walked away. Something is wrong with that. Something is wrong with me. I need you to know that I wish I could have been more like you. You are a good girl, a good human being. You are what a Deathtaker is supposed to be. Be proud of that, Krista.”

  Krista was stunned by the words she was hearing. The part that shocked her the most was that the woman actually sounded sincere. Could it really be true? Could her mother actually realize that she’d made a mess of her life? Did she seriously regret not being around to raise her?

  Adeline saw the confusion on Krista’s face and gave her friend’s shoulder a squeeze. “It’s good that you’re trying to make things right,” she told Chai. “But I’m not sure that your daughter is going to be able to take it all in, and process everything you’ve said, right now. Maybe you an
d I can head back to the motel, you can rest up a bit, because you look like you need a good rest, and then Krista can come by later and you two can talk some more then,” she suggested.

  “I guess I said my peace. I’m not sure that I’m even looking for you to respond,” Chai said to Krista. “Like I said, I just wanted you to listen to me. I’ll go to the motel now. Not sure I could drive much further without a good rest, anyway.” She stood up and took a step toward the door.

  “Chai, wait…” Krista was going to tell her that she appreciated what she’d said, but she stopped talking as soon as she heard another vehicle approaching. “What is going on?”

  “Who’s coming up the drive now?” Addy asked.

  They all looked out the window, and when Krista saw who it was, she immediately knew it wasn’t good.

  “Hey, that’s the Santa dude, right there.” Chai pointed outside.

  Doctor Baker stood in the driveway helping a very pregnant, very distressed looking, Opal out of his truck. Pete was with them and his face was full of fear. Krista ran out of the house to see why they’d come.

  “Oh, good,” Doc sighed with relief. “You are right here. I don’t have to hunt you down in the woods. I’m have no idea how much time we have.”

  Krista didn’t like the sound of that. “Why would you need to hunt me down?”

  “We need to get her inside,” was Doc’s evasive answer.

  Krista and Doc exchanged a look. Her friend was in a medical emergency, that much was clear.

  “Do you really think Krista can help us?” Pete repeated the question to Doc. He’d already asked it several times and each time Doc had replied with a simple – absolutely.

  Pete had clearly stated that he wanted to drive straight to Greenville after Opal came into the Medical Center complaining that she hadn’t felt their baby move all day. With Opal in obvious physical distress, Doc tried to put their mind at ease. He took a look at the baby with the ultrasound machine, and told them both he wanted a second opinion. When he loaded them in his truck and drove straight to Krista’s house, they knew something was seriously wrong. Pete had objected the whole drive over.