The Vampiric Housewife (12 page)

    
He shifted in his chair under her downward gaze. “I haven’t been honest with you about the work I do at the hospital. Dr. Venjamin isn’t who you think he is.”

    
A wave of relief passed through her, but the sickness in her stomach didn’t abate.

    
“What do you mean?”

    
“God, I don’t know how to tell you this without you thinking I’m crazy.” He took a deep breath, his dark eyes meeting hers—briefly. “The rest of the world isn’t like Sangre Valley.”

    
“I don’t know what you mean.”

    
“Vampires don’t populate the world. Humans do.”

    
She gave a nervous laugh. “Is this some kind of joke, Charlie? It isn’t funny.”

    
“Sangre Valley is Dr. Venjamin’s experiment.”

    
Valerie just stared at him nonplussed.

    
“Dr. Venjamin is a human.”

    
Somehow Valerie believed that.

    
“So is Dr. Henrick. And Reverend Louis and most of the people I work with. So were your parents.”

    
Her body went cold. “What?” How could her parents have been humans? They were smart and loving, not animals, not food. If they were human then they couldn’t be her real parents. They must have adopted her. Did that mean she had real parents still out there? It was ridiculous. None of it made sense. Yet she believed Dr. Venjamin was human right away.

    
“I—I can’t explain it all right now. There’s too much to tell and not enough time. We have to get out of Sangre Valley tonight. It’s dangerous for you and the kids.”

    
“Dangerous? What are you telling me? That I was raised by cattle? That we’re some part of an experiment run by a human doctor? What kind of experiment? What kind of danger? Why? Why now?”

    
Charlie cleared his throat and looked away from her. “I was born in 1869 London. My mother was a prostitute. When I was twenty-four I was walking out of a pub piss drunk when I was attacked by a vampire. His attack was interrupted by bobbies and I was taken to the hospital. My maker came to the hospital to finish me off but ironically decided that I’d be a good drinking buddy so he turned me—“

    
“You can’t be turned into a vampire. You’re born—“ she interrupted. The rest of his story wouldn’t even register within her brain.

    
“No. Only a few are. You and the kids were. Venjamin found as many born-vampires as he could from all around the world. He wanted to preserve the species, study your natural instincts and predilections, teach you morals. Then he recruited us and introduced vampires made from other vampires into Sangre Valley. All the Silent Coven vampires are made-vampires. After I was recruited I was chosen to be your husband—“

    
“Chosen?” she choked out. This was a moment right out of
The Twilight Zone
. Didn’t they actually have an episode kind of like this? It couldn’t be true or else her whole life was a lie. Her childhood, her friends, her marriage, her family . . . everything, none of it was real.

    
“He bred us together to create half-breeds, to see if he could do it. To see what they’d be like. That’s why there are so many fertility problems. It’s against nature. The living were never meant to mate with the dead.”

    
“My children are not against nature!” She didn’t want to hear anymore.

    
“No, our children are special. We didn’t have trouble conceiving. Venjamin thinks they’re special because of that. And now he wants them.”

      
“Wants them how?” Breathing was getting difficult.

    
“That’s the new project I was brought in on. My promotion. He wants to breed them. Especially Amelia. First with a born-vampire, then with a crossbreed like her, then a made-vampire then . . .” The very sentence tasted putrid in his mouth. He could barely think the thought, how could he possibly speak it?

    
“Then what?” Valerie demanded. When he didn’t answer, “Then what!”

    
“Then he wants to impregnate her with John’s sperm.”

    
“That’s . . .
 
that’s
wrong
.
Evil
.”

    
“I know. I know. That’s why we have to leave now. He could take her tomorrow or in a week, and we may never see her again. Eventually he wants John and Harry too.”

    
She glared at him. “So what is your job at the hospital? What is your part in all this? Other than being ‘chosen’ to be my husband and father of my children?”

    
“Don’t, Valerie. I love you.”

    
“You’ve been lying to me for seventeen goddamn years! All I want is the fucking truth!”

    
He flinched. He had never heard his wife swear before. As far as he knew, curse words had never even passed between her lips.

    
“You and the kids were my job. I reported on you and then on the kids.”

    
“Reported what?”

    
“Let’s not do this now. I will explain everything to you, but we need to come up with a plan to get out of here—“

    
“Reported what!”

    
“Likes, dislikes. Feelings on right and wrong. Mostly what you ate, human blood, meat—what kind of meat—a preference for live animals or dead ones. How much you ate. Sleep cycles, defecation, urination—“

    
“You wrote down when I took a shit? What else? How often we made love? How many times I got off—“

    
“Valerie—please don’t. I didn’t want to. By the time our wedding came around, I had already fallen in love with you. I hated taking notes on those things. And after the kids were born—“

    
“You used the children that you fathered as subjects in some twisted experiment. That is disgusting! And now our children—“ she began to choke on her rage. “You used us! And now my babies—“

    
“No! That’s what I want to stop. That’s why this has to end. I can’t let it happen. I never thought Venjamin would take it this far. He is an evil man. I’m not. Lying to you for all this time has been ripping me apart. Let me make it right.”
    

    
“How can you make it right? How can I ever trust you again? How do I know you’re not going to drive us straight to that mad man like we’re lab rats? No.”

    
Charlie stood up and grabbed her by both arms. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all the lies. For the position I’ve put you and the kids in. You don’t understand. I never thought someone of my kind could have this type of life. I don’t want to lose it. I don’t want to lose you or the kids. I can fix this. I can make you safe.”

    
“No.” She shook her head and tried to pull away from him, but he had a firm grip.

    
“I know you’re mad. But you have to trust me. I’m the only one who can save us. You’d never even make it out of Sangre Valley. Venjamin would stop you then take you, then . . . I don’t even want to think about it. And even if you do make it out, the real world is radically different from Sangre Valley. You wouldn’t survive out there. You can hate me. But let me make this right.”

    
She glared at him. She was trapped, backed into a corner with only one way out. It was the story of her life. She always felt that she never had any real choices, that her life had been planned out for her. She thought it was fate or God. Or just life. But no, her life really had been premeditated from the beginning. Marriage and babies. And now to save her children, she had no choice. She had to trust the man who had lied to her for seventeen years. Used her. Spied on her. She had never known hatred, never felt its biting, burning presence. But now she knew. She stared back at him with that hatred.

    
“Mom? Dad? What’s going on?” John called out from the open door, his voice wavering with uncertainty. Amelia stood behind him.

    
Both Valerie and Charlie turned to look at their children like deer caught in headlights.

    
Recovering from her shock, she saw the blood smeared on her daughter’s neck and the stains on the dress. Breaking out of her husband’s grip, “Amelia, oh my god, what happened to you?”

  
  
“I’m fine. Really.”

    
“What happened?” She gently tilted her head back. “Your neck.”

    
“It was Drew. He tried to force himself on me then he . . . bit me,” she said quietly.

    
“I pulled him off her, Dad. I swear I didn’t know he’d be like that. I never—“

    
“We know honey, we know,” Valerie said pulling both her children into an embrace.

    
“Where’s Lisa?” Charlie asked.

    
“We dropped her off at home,” his son answered.

  
  
“Her dad’s going to call the Sheriff who will call Dr. Venjamin. If he thinks Amelia is in danger or possibly impregnated, he’ll grab her. Valerie, we’ve got to go. Right now.”

    
“What’s going on?” Amelia asked.

    
Valerie looked at Charlie still clutching her kids. “Your dad’s right. You kids are just going to have to trust us on some things.” She looked to Charlie for instructions.

    
“Amelia, go get Harry and I want the two of you to grab a suitcase and pack one change of clothes for everyone, no more. Go.”

    
Amelia looked at her mom, scared and confused. “Mom?”

    
“It’s going to be okay. Do what your father says.” She wished she could make her voice calmer, more natural. She knew it trembled and the trembling was frightening her children. Well, she was frightened too.

    
“John, how much gas is left in the car?”

    
“Almost a full tank.”

    
“Good. Pull it into the garage. Valerie, sleeping bags and blankets. As many as we have. It’s going to be daylight soon. Incase we’re trapped on the road, we’ll need the protection.”

 
   
His family went to work. What the hell was he going to do with them? He had thought about running often enough. But he never had gone ahead and made an actual escape plan. He only had a little cash on hand and no hideout prepared. His family knew nothing on how to hunt or capture real food. They wouldn’t even know how to blend into the human world. And it was almost daylight out.

    
Phoenix. If morning was a little overcast, they could make it, spend the day holed up in a cheap motel. He would have to dump the car the next night. He could steal them another then they would . . . he would think of that when the time came. At least he had a plan for the day. They would be safe.

     
“Here,” Valerie said pushing a roll of cash into his hand, a pile of blankets in her other arm. “It’s all I’ve set aside.” It was supposed to be for a pool. She thought that the kids would like it. Harry especially. He loved to swim.

    
He smiled at her despite himself. “It’s not real money. It’s Sangre Valley money.”

    
She looked down at the wad of bills in her hand. Nothing else was real in Sangre Valley, why should the money be?