Father and daughter time

"Nice car," Clarisse said sarcastically as Garrick drove off. "Funny that you still know how to drive," she added and hissed.

Garrick grinned and turned to face her where she was seated at the opposite seat. "Vampires have a great memory, I can still remember things from centuries ago," he bragged.

"Yeah, of course… but guess what you couldn't remember in twenty years? It's the fact that you had a daughter who you abandoned and went to have a nap," she uttered and scoffed.

Garrick sighed and the smile on his face disappeared; she kept bringing his disappearance up again and again but how she wouldn't understand that he wasn't at fault.

"Clarisse, look… I am really sorry for being away for all these years. I swear, if I had known that you were out here, I would have come back for you… I know I have failed you as a father but I promise it was unintentional and I am really sorry." He apologized.

"Hmm," she scoffed and looked out of the window. "Apologizing or giving silly excuses wouldn't make up for everything I had to go through in your absence. You don't know what it felt like waking up with this thirst and no matter how many cups of water I took, it won't go away. The times I looked in the mirror and what I saw scared the life out of me, there was no one to explain or console me, there was no one to understand me. Yes, Uncle Connor tried his best to help me but he could never be a father figure in my life, it didn't feel complete and I knew it." She spat angrily.

Garrick slowed down and turned to face her. "I know my apologies wont make up for everything that my absence caused you, so please give me the chance to prove myself worthy of your forgiveness. I will do everything that a good dad should do, it's not too late. I would teach you everything that you need to know as a vampire; compulsion being one of them and then you won't have to kill anyone again."

"Is that what you see me as? A murderer?" she asked coldly and turned to face him.

"What? No! no, I didn't mean it that way," he replied immediately.

"Oh yes you did. You want to judge me? I have heard about you too, maybe not much but enough to know that you have done horrible things as well, so don't you dare judge me" she spat

Garrick could feel the pain from her voice, she was hurting and his presence was bringing bad memories. He wished he could make it all go away, he was so powerful but yet he can't correct the mistake he had made with his daughter.

He was also worried about what she thought of him. How did she form that opinion of him? Was it something Connor told her? Or maybe Claire, but Claire didn't know much about his vampire side, in fact she had broken up with him immediately after finding out what he was.

"I am not judging you, Clarisse, but at the same time I want the best for you, so yes… as long as I am around and believe me, I am going nowhere. I won't let you go around preying on innocent humans, you will be putting our kind at risk of exposure and the council of world vampires wouldn't stand back and watch that happen, they will come for you and make you atone and I do not want that for you. Please give me a chance and I will teach you how to be the best of yourself," he pleaded.

There was silence between them as tears were slowly rolling down her eyes and then she wiped them off with the back of her palm, after which she turned to face him.

"You can do whatever you want, but you wont get my forgiveness if that is what you are looking for, and I don't care about your vampire friends, they weren't there for me either, so they have no right to control my life." She spat.

Garrick sighed and looked away. He wondered what he was supposed to do next as she definitely wasn't buying into any of this, her heart was cold and strong towards him and he didn't see her forgiving him anytime soon, but he wasn't going to quit.

Garrick slowed down at a checkpoint and a police officer walked over to him, he rolled down the window and looked out, then he froze and his expression changed to surprise.

"Garrick?" the cop muttered in a tone of surprise as well.

"Wilson? Bloody hell!!" Garrick exclaimed.

"Wow, it's been decades, you're still kicking, old man," the cop teased and they laughed.

"Hahaha, I am not going down anytime soon. Meet my daughter, Clarisse," Garrick introduced her.

"Oh, hello there!" Wilson said and Clarisse forced a smile. "I didn't know you decided to settle down," he added to Garrick and the vampire grinned.

"It is a long and complicated story." Garrick replied.

"Well, you can tell me about it the next time we meet, old friend." the cop concluded and Garrick smiled.

** * * * * * * * * *

"Who is that?" Clarisse asked as they drove away.

"Oh, he is one of my really old friends." Garrick replied with a smile.

"Hmm… old, you keep saying old but you look like you are just a few years older than I, you better not expect me to call you Dad," she muttered and looked away.

Garrick smiled, at least they were progressing, she just needed time and the old fashioned reunion method to get them closer.

"It is okay if you don't want to call me Dad, you can just call me Garrick." He replied.

"Yeah, that sounds less disturbing," she muttered with a disgusted face. "Speaking of age, how old are you? Mom has no idea and Uncle Connor wouldn't tell me," she asked.

Garrick chuckled and grinned again; yeah, he was fond of that. "Sweetie, I am old, like real old." He replied.

"How… Old?" she spelled out the words for him.

Garrick sighed and rubbed his temple while driving. "I can't give you exact numbers, but believe that I am very old, older than many civilizations. I lived through the era of giants and Greek gods, I witnessed the birth of science and the discovery of electricity. I was here before many inventions, so that tells you how old I am."

Her eyes widened on hearing that and she wrinkled her nose. "What? So you are older than a thousand?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied.

"Older than two thousand?" she asked again.

Garrick sighed and nodded. "Yes, older than two thousand," he replied.

"Three thousand?" she yet again asked.

Garrick bumped his hand on his forehead and stared at her with furrowed eyebrows. Her mother was just this stubborn twenty years ago, when she was her age. It was clear that Clarisse took a lot from Claire, and as much as he found her obstinately annoying at times, he still loved everything about her.

"You know, that is a very weird thing to know. Why won't mom reject your vampire ass, you are a thousand times older than her, and I mean that literally." She spat. "Ugh!!" she added in disgust.

Garrick grinned and then chuckled. "You think I didn't know? Get used to that, because a thousand years from now, you might be faced with the same fate… dating someone much younger, it doesn't matter because we don't age like humans." He tried to convince her.

Clarisse rolled her eyes at him and then she looked away. But come to think of it, he was right!! She still had thousands of years ahead of her; that sounds crazy!!

To be continued!!