“Okay,” Connor said calmly as he inched in the door. “Explain.” But Connor had sensed Angel’s jealousy of the Reilly’s back at Stanford. Deep inside, he knew that a conflict was brewing between his adoptive parents and his biological father. But Connor had no idea that conflict would come so quickly or be so violent.
“Your . . . your mother was like this when I got here and-”
“And you came in and figured you’d snack on her corpse? Hey dad, here’s a thought. If my mom was unconscious, how’d you even get an invite?”
Angel stood up and faced Connor completely. They’d have to fight. There was no way out of it.
“What did you think?” Angel said angrily. “That you could just walk away from me? From your real father and your real life?”
“As I recall, I didn’t really have a say in that.”
“Just because I chose it, doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt.”
Connor looked from Angel to the stairs, then back to Angel. “You have maybe a minute and a half. Tops. That’s how long it’ll take me to get to my room, get my stake, and be back down here.”
Angel shook his head. “Connor, can’t we just-”
Connor bolted for the stairs. Angel cut him off. The vampire stuck out a leg to trip Connor, but the boy jumped the leg and landed on the stairs. Connor quickly spun, nailing Angel in the head with a spin kick. The force drove Angel back, smashing the piano Connor had practiced on throughout his youth. Well, one of his youths.
“Hand to hand, son?” Angel said as he climbed to his feet.
Connor glanced at the wooden shards of the broken piano. “Sure. Why not?”
They immediately assumed fighting postures.
“Holtz was right,” Connor hissed as he hammered Angel with another spin kick. “You really are just an animal. Soul or not.”
“Connor I made a mistake,” Angel said as he dodged two more punches. “But we can get past this!”
“A mistake? You call killing my mother a mistake!”
Angel threw a punch. Connor ducked under it and rolled past the vampire to the remains of the shattered piano. He quickly grabbed a wooden shard and lunged forward. Angel dodged Connor’s stake, but the boy managed to wrap his free arm around the vampire’s waist and pull him to the ground.
Angel rolled onto his back and tried to get to his feet. Connor was too fast. He’d been facing down after the fall, so he was easily able to get to all fours and scramble to Angel. Angel raised a hand defensively as Connor’s right arm came down. Angel grabbed the arm and only then noticed it was empty.
“Smart boy,” Angel said as Connor drove the stake into his father’s heart with his left. Connor had switched the stake from his right hand to his left so that Angel would be expecting a lunge for the heart from the wrong side. His boy certainly knew how to fight. Angel couldn’t help but feel a burst of pride. And then he burst into dust.
As Angel’s body turned to ash, Connor collapsed onto the pile that, seconds ago, was his father. He hit the ground hard and the pain seemed to jolt him out of his rage. Now, something much more painful than anger set in. Sadness. Mourning. Horrendous grief for his mother’s death. And, though he was the cause of it, Connor even lamented Angel’s death. With tears in his eyes, Connor looked up at his mother’s corpse. Her dead eyes stared back at him. Then, her dead eyes blinked.
It took Connor a moment to understand what that meant. She blinked. She moved.
“Mom!” Connor shouted happily as he scrambled to her. “Mom, lie still.” Connor ripped his shirt. “This’ll stop the bleeding and I can call an ambulance!”
Colleen Reilly pushed her adopted son’s hand away. “It’s okay, Connor. I’m fine.” Her face vamped out. “In fact, I’ve never been better.”
**
Dawn had gone back to the dorm on the pretext of having forgotten her fuzzy bunny slippers. She laughed sadly, remembering how they had frightened Anya so badly. But the truth was, the slippers were just a pretext to take Willow’s beautiful luxury car for a drive.
Dawn headed up to the door of her dorm room and froze. There was someone moving inside. Could Emily have missed her flight or had someone broken in? Should she call campus security? Useless, Dawn thought. She’d be better off with her pepper spray and Kennedy’s slayer training.
As Dawn slowly opened the door, the sounds that greeted her filled her with pain and sadness. The bed was rocking wildly and they were giggling.
“Stupid bitch still thinks we’re on a break?” Connor whispered as he thrust into Emily.
It was so much worse than when she walked in on them the first time. Even though Dawn thought they belonged together, she was hurt that they lied to her. That they were mocking her. Connor had called her a bitch and Emily was laughing.
“You assholes!” Dawn screamed.
Suddenly, Emily and Connor stopped screwing and looked up at Dawn. Connor looked shocked, but Emily only grinned. “Dawn, wait,” Emily said.
“Go to hell!” Dawn shouted, as she turned to storm out.
“Connor, go get her.”
Connor glanced under the covers nervously, then back up at Emily. “But I’m naked.”
“That’s the point.”
Connor sighed and jumped to his feet. In a flash, he moved past Dawn and slammed the door shut before she could leave.
Dawn glared at him. “Get out of my way!” She felt a rush of too many emotions. She was still hurt and angry. She couldn’t help but feel a thrill of erotic excitement at Connor’s naked body standing in front of her. She was disgusted at her own exhilaration and Connor’s nonchalant manner. But most of all, she was afraid. What were they planning to do to her?
“Dawn, settle down,” Emily said. “Just listen to me. You wanted a way for all of us to be happy. And I think I figured out how.”
“What are you talking about?” Dawn yelled. Connor looked back at Emily, also wondering what the plan was.
Emily bit her lip and smiled at Connor. “Kiss her.”.
“What?!” Connor and Dawn yelled simultaneously.
Emily leaned back, looking content. She knew Dawn wanted Connor. And what guy didn’t want two girls? It really was the perfect solution.
Dawn made a disgusted face and pulled open the door. Connor quickly pushed the door out of her hands and slammed it shut again. “Hey,” he said softly. He leaned his face excruciatingly close to hers. “Where’re you going?”
“Kiss her, Connor,” Emily said again, a twinge of excitement in her voice. “Do to her what you do to me.”
Dawn tried to move away, but Connor gripped her shoulders tightly and pulled her back. He leaned his face close to hers again. “Where’re you going?”
Dawn felt herself melting. She was disgusted with them and herself. Emily’s prefect solution wouldn’t bring them all happiness. It would bring them all self-loathing. But she was still melting, nonetheless.
Dawn looked into Connor’s eyes, breathed deeply, and leaned forward to meet his lips. His mouth slid open and his tongue slid into her mouth. Dawn moaned softly.
Connor slid a hand up Dawn’s shirt and under her bra. He caressed her breast, squeezing it softly. His fingertips moved too her nipples and he pinched them. Dawn’s body shuttered with pleasure and she moaned again, louder this time.
Dawn ran her hands down Connor’s skinny chest. She could feel the firm muscles of his body. She reached his thighs and gripped his hard cock.
Connor broke the kiss and looked at her. He looked back at Emily. “Em?”
“Do it,” Emily said lustfully.
Connor turned back to Dawn. “Do you want it?” he said seductively, pinching her breast again.
Dawn didn’t want to answer. She felt ashamed and disgusted and looked away.
“Do you want it?” Connor repeated, pinching her nipple more tightly.
Dawn moaned again. She looked back at Connor, then down to the ground. Closing her eyes, Dawn nodded sadly.
“Say it,” Connor whispered, his lips close to her ear.
“I want it.”
Connor pushed Dawn’s shirt up and unsnapped her bra. Connor unzipped her pants. He pushed them down along with her underwear. “Are you ready?”
Dawn nodded.
“When I put it in, it’ll hurt at first.”
“Okay,” Dawn said, on the verge of weeping.
Dawn closed her eyes and screamed as the sharp dagger penetrated her chest. Connor, now fully dressed, cut up, ripping her chest cavity open and nearly uncovering her heart.
Open your eyes Willow said.
“No!” Dawn whimpered.
OPEN YOUR EYES!
“Please, no!” Dawn shouted again.
Dawnie, please, JUST OPEN YOUR EYES
Dawn’s eyes shot open. Emily howled in the corner as Connor, with a look of sadistic glee on his face. Behind him, Willow looked into Dawn’s eyes.
“Now push him away,” Willow said.
“He’s too strong,” Dawn whimpered. “Help me!”
“Dawn, I can’t,” Willow insisted. “But you can. Just push him away.”
Dawn looked at Connor, who seemed oblivious to Willow’s presence. She raised her arms, slammed them against Connor’s shoulders, and shoved him back. Connor flew against the wall. Emily quickly changed into werewolf form and growled.
“Dawn,” Willow said. “Think of your room at home. In Sunnydale.”
“What?”
“Just do it!”
As Dawn pictured the room, it seemed to rise up from the ground, painting over the dorm room where Emily and Connor plotted her torture. Of the many things in her dorm room, only Willow remained. Dawn was breathing heavily. “How did I do that?” Dawn asked, dropping onto her bed.
“Dawn, listen to me. You’re asleep and we can’t wake you up.”
“I’m asleep? Then I’m dreaming. And you’re totally bogus!”
“No. I did a spell to get here.”
“Oh, like I’m going to fall for that,” Dawn said. “Nice try, Miss Figment of My Imagination Girl!”
“Dawn, you’re in danger. Someone is after you in your dream.”
“Like Freddy Krueger or something?” She looked down at her still bloody chest and cried out. “Oh my god! What is it? What did this? Is it the First Slayer? Or maybe the First Evil? Or, or, or some other first thing that wants revenge on me for something?!”
“Settle down. It looks like a curse or hex, so we’re most likely talking wizard. Now, we probably don’t have much time before this scene turns ugly too. Do you have any idea who’d be doing this to you?”
***
Dawn and Willow ran through the alleys, but every turn they took came to a dead end.
“Dawn, all you need to do is think your way out of this.”
Dawn was still bleeding pretty badly. “Willow, please, I feel so weak.”
“You’re not really hurt unless you believe you’re hurt.”
“And I believe I’m hurt. So where does that leave us?”
“Dawn, can you please just think of some way, any way, to get out of this and heal yourself?”
“Okay,” Dawn said, pulling out a metal device from her pocket. “But don’t make fun of me.” Dawn opened the device, which looked almost like an oversize cell phone. “Xander, beam us up.”
Willow felt a tingling sensation. Suddenly, she was standing on a pad in some futuristic setting. Xander was wearing a uniform like the people on Star Trek.
“Captain Summers, it looks like you’ve been injured,” Xander said. He snapped his fingers at someone in the corner. “Nurse Anya, attend to the Captain.” Xander smiled giddily. “I never got to boss her around like that in real life!”
“Xander!” Willow said. “You have both your eyes! How'd you get the other one back?”
“This is the 23rd century, Will. We can do all sorts of things here.”
“Did a Bunny do this to you?” Anya asked as she ran a metal wand over Dawn’s chest. Dawn’s wound healed instantly. “The Bunny’s on Lapin 5 are ferocious!”
"Don't worry." Xander looked up at Dawn and smiled. “I got my heart ripped out in a dream once. But it all worked out fine in the end.”
Willow shook her head at Dawn. “You need to spend less time with Andrew.”
Suddenly, alarms started blaring. “Incoming vampire space craft!” Xander yelled. “They’re beaming aboard.”
The pad energized again. This time, Connor, a large werewolf, and several vampires. Dawn looked at one of the vampires with a sense of foreboding. “Justin?”
“Hey Dawn!” the vampire said. He tapped the vamp next to him and grinned. “She’s hot, huh? I was her first kiss, you know!”
Connor grinned maliciously and pulled out a long, bloody knife. “And I’m going to be her last.”
“Damn it!” Xander yelled, smacking a weapon against the wall. “Stupid, cheap, Korean ray gun!”
Willow grabbed Dawn and pulled her out of the room. She ran, still puling Dawn, for a couple feet, then slipped and fell hard. A cold sensation quickly overtook her.
“What’s wrong,” Dawn said as she glided by. “Didn’t you bring your skates?”
Willow looked around and realized they were in an ice skating rink. “Dawn,” Willow said urgently. “Quickly. Can you think of who did this to you? Does anyone have a grudge? Has anyone stolen your hair or anything like that lately?”
“Emily has access to all that,” Dawn said as she skated backward.
“Dawn, stop skating and concentrate! Who could be after you? Has anything weird happened lately?”
“When does anything weird not happen to me?” She skidded to a stop and helped Willow to her feet. Someone started pounding on the entrance of the rink like they were trying to break the door down. “Hey. I have to tell you something. I think I can fly!”
Willow shook Dawn. “Tell me everything strange that’s happened to you lately! Could anyone have gotten something to jinx you?”
“Right before break, some weird guy picked lint off my shoulder. It could have been a hair. But he said he was there looking for Emily.”
“Emily? Maybe I should call and check on her.” Willow looked back at an empty wall. “Dawn, do your best to stay away from anything that will hurt you in your dream. I have to leave you.”
“No!”
“There’s nothing I can do for you here anyway. Just keep running. If I’m right about this, you won’t be in any danger until both you and Emily have been killed in your dreams.”
“Someone’s trying to kill me in my dreams?! I don’t have time for this. I have an IHUM midterm to study for!”
No sooner had Dawn said this than she realized that she was standing in a classroom and Willow was gone. “Please take your seat Miss Summers,” a stern voice said. “The exam is about to begin.”
“Oh crap!” Dawn shouted.
*****
“Well you can’t because she’s busy!” Kennedy yelled.
“Kenn?” Willow said groggily. “What’s going on?”
Willow was in the bedroom where Dawn laid, twitching violently in her sleep. Willow stood and stumbled into the hallway and looked down the stairs. How can a $1.8 million house be so small? she asked herself.
“Willow?” Angel called from outside. “Willow I need your help!”
“She’s busy!” Kennedy shouted.
“Angel, come in,” Willow said as she slowly made her way down the stairs.
Angel entered and ran to Willow. “Connor’s in a coma. He’s in the hospital and the doctor’s have no idea what’s wrong with him. They say he’s been in R.E.M. for five hours.”
“We kind of have our own problems here,” Kennedy said sharply.
“Actually, we have the same problem here,” Willow said. “Dawn’s upstairs. It’s definitely a spell. Angel, do you think if I could contact Connor, he’d have any clues as to who did this?”
“What do you need to contact him?”
“I need to be in the same room as him.”
“We can’t leave Dawn,” Kennedy protested.
“Then we take her with us,” Angel said. “It’s an hour drive to Boulder Creek. Will, get your supplies. I’ll get Dawn.”
Willow shook her head. “Kennedy and I will take her. Give us the directions. We need you to stay here. Whoever did this to them is probably someone from Stanford.”
“But won’t they be gone for the break?” Angel asked.
“If they’re a student,” Willow answered. “But even if they are, their dorm room’s here. We’ll need someone to search it.”
“I won’t be able to enter without an invitation.”
Willow looked at Kennedy and the slayer nodded. “You and Angel go,” Kennedy said. “I’ll have my cell phone on. Just tell me who to look for.”
******
“Will you two cut it out,” Erin said as Connor tackled his vampire mother Colleen into the kitchen. “I’ll do the dishes if you’re so bent out of shape about it.”
Erin turned on the faucet and water, already soapy, filled the sink.
Colleen knocked the makeshift stake from her son’s hand. She threw a punch, but Connor ducked it and rolled past her. He flipped the kitchen table and snapped a leg off.
“I’m not sweeping that up,” Laurence said as he entered the kitchen and sat on a chair near where the table had been. He opened the newspaper and started reading.
Colleen snapped another leg off the table and swung it at Connor’s head.
“Can you hand me a dish towel, Connor?” Erin asked.
Connor dodged his mother’s attempt to club him. “Little busy right now.”
“Fine! I’ll just do everything all by myself!”
Colleen grabbed a plate from Erin and hurled it at Connor.
“Thanks, mom,” Erin said.
Connor ducked the plate and it smashed against the wall behind him.
“OPEC’s cutting production again,” Laurence said grouchily. “Gas prices are going to go through the roof. I knew we should’ve gotten a sedan instead of the SUV. With Connor at college, who needs a car that size?”
Suddenly, Willow appeared in the kitchen. “Connor, you’re dreaming!”
“What?” Connor said, turning and looking at her. In this moment of lapsed concentration, Colleen hammered Connor in the head with the table leg, knocking him to the ground. She jumped on top of him and held the leg down over his throat, choking him.
“Connor, this isn’t real. Just imagine she’s not here. Imagine you’re on a sunny beach and the ocean is calm and soothing.”
Connor was choking.
“Pretty girls in tiny bikinis are all around you,” Willow continued as if trying to hypnotize him.
Connor closed his eyes and tried hard to imagine, but the pressure on his windpipe made it next to impossible.
Willow smiled and her eyes got a distant look. “That means pretty girls in tiny bikinis are all around me, too.”
Connor made a series of grunting choking sounds as he did his best to concentrate. But he couldn’t.
Willow threw her hands up in frustration. “Oh, forget it. Just stake her!”
Connor opened his eyes, grabbed the broken table leg and slammed it into his mother’s chest. She burst to dust on top of him. Connor closed his eyes and began to sob.
Laurence looked down from his paper at the pile of ash that was his wife only seconds ago. “I’m not sweeping that up, either.”
*******
“You’re actually in a hospital room,” Willow said. As she spoke, their surroundings changed from Connor’s front lawn to a generic hospital room.
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Someone has a curse on you so that you can’t wake up?”
“Really?” Before Willow could answer, Connor grabbed her and kissed her deeply. He pulled away with a slight grin. “Sorry. I always had a thing for older women.”
“I can’t believe you kissed me!”
“Oh, come on. It’s not like it’s a real kiss. I mean, you’ll never know I kissed you or how hot I think you are.”
Willow sighed. “Connor, I’m doing a spell so I can be inside your dream. It’s really me.”
“That’s crazy dream talk.”
“Dawn’s in a coma just like you,” Willow said, pushing past the awkward moment. “Probably Emily, too. We have Dawn moved into the same hospital room as you. It’s after hours. I might not have much time before the nurses come to toss me out, so we need to be fast.”
Connor raised his eyebrows. “Okay,” he said happily as he began unbuttoning his shirt. “We can do this fast.”
“What are you doing? Cut it out! I’m not kidding about this. Connor, can you think of anyone who could have gotten your hair or spit or something?”
Connor shrugged. “Emily, probably. Maybe some guys on the track team.”
“Dawn said a strange guy came by to see Emily yesterday. Can you think of any guys that came by your room and could have grabbed something?”
“Not anyone I didn’t know. My friend Terry dropped by, but he didn’t come in. Before him . . . shit.”
“What?”
“Steven Radinsky. He asked me about his brother. Then he borrowed my hairbrush.”
“Sounds like a winner. You said his name was Steven Radinsky.”
“Yeah. And he asked me about his brother. Todd Radinsky. The guy we . . the guy who summoned the zombies.”
Willow’s face fell. “Oh.”
“Looks like Steve has motive, means, and opportunity.”
“I’m going to go. When I wake up, I’ll call Kennedy. She’ll try to find Steven.”
“He lives in Atherton. It’s only ten minutes from campus.”
“Do you know the address?”
Connor shook his head.
“Try to stay alive. In your dream. If Steven used the spell I think he did, if you, Emily, and Dawn all die in your dreams-”
“Then we die in real life? How very Freddy Kruger.” He looked at her cautiously for a minute. “Is it really you?”
“Yeah,” Willow said. Connor was about to speak again, but she held her hand up to silence him. “Don’t worry about it. But don’t tell anyone. Especially Kennedy. I think even kissing me in a dream would make her turn your face to pulp.”
“Really? Maybe she should look into an anger management class or something.”
“Good luck, Connor.”
********
When Kennedy arrived at the Radinsky home (or estate, rather), it was dark. Perhaps the family had gone elsewhere for Thanksgiving dinner. The home alone was too big for the smash and grab approach. When you added the pool house and assorted other structures on the premises, the job wouldn’t even be started by the time the boys in blue showed up.
The home probably had a security system that rivaled the White House’s. Then again, that was probably true of most houses on this street. If the phone lines got killed for the block, all the silent alarms would be triggered and the police and security companies would have their hands full.
Kennedy got back in her Escalade and drove around the block until she saw the green box that was the hub for the neighborhood’s phone wires. Kennedy killed the headlights and gunned the engine. Sparks flew as the Escalade slammed into the green box, wrenching it from the ground.
Kennedy spun the wheel fast and quickly sped around the block and back to the Radinsky home. She leapt the ivy-covered wall and ran for the home. She could already hear sirens in the distance. Kennedy headed for the pool house first. It would likely not be in use for the autumn and winter, despite the fact that the weather was easily warm enough for swimming. The infrequently used structure would be the best place for a spell to be performed.
Kennedy kicked in the pool house door and entered. Sure enough, large black candles were burning. The candles were placed on top of pictures of Connor, Emily, and Dawn. Each picture had a hair on top of it. Kennedy whipped out her cell phone and dialed Willow.
“Three black candles, photographs, and hair. What do I-”
Kennedy felt a powerful blow to the back of her head. She fell forward, hitting the ground. Her cell phone slid across the floor. She rolled to her back as her assailant approached. She was worried she’d underestimated the Atherton PD’s finest.
As her attacker came into the light, Kennedy could see she was dealing with a zombie. Two shadows in the corner told her she was dealing with three.
*********
In the Boulder Creek hospital, Connor and Dawn had both fallen out of REM sleep. Despite the fact she needed to tell Kennedy how to undo the spell, Willow was tempted to try to go into their minds again. She knew she couldn’t. At the moment, their minds were blank. Not dreaming meant that, despite their best efforts, they had died in their dreams. But they hadn’t flat-lined yet. That meant Emily was still holding on. Unfortunately, she was also the only one who didn’t know what was happening.
Willow’s phone rang and she answered it. “Kennedy!” she yelled excitedly. “Listen, you have to . . . Kennedy?”
Willow could hear the scuffle over the phone. “Kennedy!” Willow yelled, praying the slayer could hear her. “DO NOT PUT OUT THE CANDLES! IF YOU DO, CONNOR AND DAWN DIE!”
Back in Atherton, Kennedy kicked the nearest zombie back. She flipped to her feet and spin-kicked another. Kennedy hadn’t brought any weapons convenient for killing zombies. She back flipped away from her adversaries and picked up a long pole used to pick leaves out of the pool.
Kennedy charge forward and jabbed the pole into the head of one of the zombies. The pole pierced the monster’s skull and crushed its brain, killing it. Kennedy let out a scream as she felt teeth rip into her arm. A putrid smelling arm wrapped around her neck and dragged her to the ground. The other two zombies were on top of her. She tried to pull loose, but the zombie that bit into her arm had shredded her muscle. So this is it Kennedy thought.
“Freeze!” a voice from the door called.
The zombies stopped attacking her and looked up. A policeman stood in the doorway, his gun drawn. One of the zombies charged. The officer shouted again, then fired two rounds. The bullets hit the zombie’s leg and knocked it back, but didn’t stop it from charging.
“The head,” Kennedy shouted. “Aim for the head.”
The policeman groaned, took aim, and fired again. The shot nailed the zombie in the forehead and downed it. Kennedy crawled to the cell phone and scooped it up.
“Willow,” she said weakly.
“Kennedy!” Willow shouted.
The zombie was charging.
“Freeze! Freeze! Freeze!” the cop yelled.
The zombie lunged onto Kennedy’s back and bit into the back of her neck. The policeman fired again. The zombie’s black, bile-like blood sprayed the back of Kennedy’s head and the wall in front of her.
“What do I do?” Kennedy asked.
“Stand up, miss,” the cop said from behind her.
“I’m injured,” Kennedy said.
“But not so injured you can’t chat on the phone.”
“Don’t put out the candles,” Willow said. “You have to very carefully remove the photos from under the candles, then burn the photos with the candle that was on top of it.”
“Stand up!” the officer shouted.
“Kenn, listen, this is very important. You have to burn Emily’s photo last. If she wakes up before the others, they’ll die.”
Kennedy stood up and placed the phone on the desk. She held her injured right arm. “I have to burn these photos.”
“No. You need to place your hands on your head.”
Kennedy frowned. “Look,” she said as she released her injured arm. “Sorry.” Kennedy quickly threw a punch with her left arm. She hammered the policeman in the forehead before he could fire. He slumped to the ground unconscious.
Kennedy slowly pulled Dawn’s picture from under the candle.
**********
Angel looked up hopefully as Dawn drew breath greedily into her lungs. She felt as if she’d been drowning instead of sleeping. Less than a minute later, Connor’s eyes slowly opened.
“Connor!” Angel said, stepping from the shadows and wrapping his arms around the boy.
“Angel?” Dawn said. “What are you doing here?” She looked around. “And where’s here? Am I still dreaming?”
“Kenn, they’re okay,” Willow said into her cell phone.
“Great. Now I just have to dodge two dozen cops.”
“What are you two doing in here,” a man’s voice came from the door. They all turned to see a large orderly. “Visiting hours don’t start for another three hours.”
“This is my son,” Angel said.
“What?” Dawn yelled. “That’s, that’s, that’s . . . Ohhh.” Dawn realized Angel must be making an excuse for his presence in the room. Still, why was he there for Connor?
“Well you can wait down the hall with the rest of his family,” the orderly said.
“Maybe they should come here. He just came out of a coma.”
The orderly looked at Connor and sighed. “Damn junkies,” he muttered as he walked down the hall.
An instant later, Erin stormed through the door and ran into Connor like a linebacker. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tightly.
“Geez,” Connor said, messing Erin’s hair. “You’d think I was in a coma or something.”
“Shut up! That’s not funny.”
“Sorry, brat.”
“Connor!” Colleen Reilly said as she ran into the room. Her reaction was similar to Erin’s.
When Laurence Reilly entered the room, his face lit up. Angel watched the family reunion and felt much like the night he watched through the window of the Reilly home. He felt so happy for his son. If anyone deserved a family like this, Connor did. On the other hand, Angel was distraught that he could not be a part of that family.
“Mr. Angel?” Colleen said as she noticed Angel slinking away. “What are you doing here?”
“The um . . . the coma was kind of . . . my territory.”
“How?” Colleen said as she hugged her son mercilessly. “What happened to him?”
“It’s a long story,” Connor said. “But um . . .” Connor looked at Angel sadly. He knew what the vampire was thinking. “Dad, there’s another reason Angel came.”
“Connor,” Angel said quietly.
“Erin, why don’t you go wait outside?” Colleen said.
“Why?” Erin asked. “Oh my god, is this guy like Connor’s older lover or something? I knew Connor was gay!”
“No,” Connor said. “He’s not my lover. He’s the dog catcher that sold us you.”
“Ha ha,” Erin said drolly.
“Erin, we’ll be out in a minute,” Laurence said. “Then we can all go home. I don’t care what the doctors say.”
Erin stuck her tongue out at Connor and headed out the door.
Laurence Reilly turned and looked at Angel. “So . . . you’re Connor’s biological father.”
Angel looked at his son for a moment, then back to Laurence. He closed his eyes as a feeling that approached complete happiness rushed through him. Angel had to cut himself off by remembering that he still couldn’t be a part of Connor’s daily life. “Yes. I am.”
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