The Vampiric Housewife (17 page)

    
“And our plan?” Valerie demanded.

    
“We go east. We drive day and night. I used to know a guy in New York. He can get us set up with new identities. Then we’ll travel north, Maine, maybe even Canada. We’ll live in the woods off the radar. We’ll hunt. We’ll be okay.”

    
Valerie sat back in her seat. That didn’t sound much like a plan to her. Used to know a guy? Live in the woods? For the first time she said what she thought. “That’s not much of a plan. Where will we live? We have three children. What will we do for money? What will we hunt? Animals? Humans? How do we keep the humans from finding out what we are? What will keep Venjamin from finding us?”

    
“I don’t know. But I’ll figure it out. I will.”

    
The car was quiet as they merged onto the expressway.

    
“Can we have this?” Harry asked pulling the packaged steaks out of a bag. He was asking to eat meat. He must be hungry.

    
“Yes. It’s for you.”

    
“Thank god. That vampire tasted like shit,” Harry said. Valerie didn’t even bother to scold him.

   
 
“What’s this for?” Harry asked undisturbed by the events that had dispersed just minutes ago. He held up leather gloves and a ski mask. He continued to pull out a map, a football, a cooler, a sketch pad and some pencils.

    
“Put the meat in the cooler,” Valerie said.

    
“Oh wow!” Harry pulled out a roll of cash.

    
“Give that to me,” Charlie said reaching his hand back.

    
“Where did you get that kind of cash?” Valerie asked. “Where did this van come from? And what is all that stuff? A football?”

    
“The football is for John. The sketch pad is for Amelia. I just thought they’d want something familiar.” He didn’t want his kids to despise him for taking them from their home and tossing them into a foreign world. Presents were the best he could do for the moment. Eventually he would make it up to them. He would spend time with them, explain how much he loved him, how he never knew he could love like that. He would make them understand. Eventually. “Harry, buddy, I’ll pick up something special for you too. You just name it.”

    
“I want to go hunting with you.”

 
   
He smiled despite himself. If life had continued on in Sangre Valley, Charlie never would have been allowed to teach his sons to hunt. At least now he could share that knowledge with them, bond with them over it.

    
“Where did the money come from?” Valerie pressed. “And the van?”

    
“I stole it! How do you think I got it? Don’t be naïve!”

    
They were criminals. Thieves. No wonder humans feared and loathed vampires.

    
“Do you want some meat, Dad?” Amelia asked. There was something eerie about the tone of her voice.

    
“No, no. I’m not hungry.” He had eaten with real appetite for the first time in what seemed like years tonight. He drank with purpose and pleasure. He needed strength to protect his family, not just to sit behind some desk. And he remembered the power of being able to take what he needed from humans with such ease. Power, he had forgotten what that was like. It tasted almost as sweet as blood.

    
Amelia didn’t say anything. She chewed her meat slowly watching her father’s eyes in the mirror. She didn’t like what she saw.

Chapter Fifteen

Back to the Lair

    
“He’ll go east,” Rhett told Venjamin. “He likes New York City. Easy prey, he always said. Easy to get rid of the bodies there too. Used to say how well Harry would do in a city like that.”

    
Dr. Venjamin nodded. It was just the two of them in his office. It had been a night of disappointments and surprises. Disappointed that the Murrays escaped. But surprising in Amelia’s display of strength—something Drew conveniently left out of their first conversation. Surprising, too, that vampires had such a strong sense of family. Harry attacking his mom’s assailant. John trying to protect his little sister. None of them running to save themselves at the expense of another. Sangre Valley had certainly proven successful in installing values and morals in vampires. Of course, those studies never truly appealed to the doctor.

    
“I would have taken you to be the stronger vampire,” Dr. Venjamin said. Venjamin himself was determined to be the stronger force when it came to his sickness. Right this minute he was battling his fatigue, refusing to allow Rhett to see his exhaustion or the constant pain in his abdomen that would have made a lesser man double over. Now if only his will power could bring back a healthy complexion. The gray tone of his skin kept him from looking in a mirror.

    
“So would have I,” Rhett said, a raw bitterness in his voice. “I will be next time.” It made him sick that Charlie had beaten him. For years he had listened to Charlie boast about his combat skills. Charlie was a big talker but he had always been sloppy. His reflexes slowed by second guessing. His strength flabby. His charisma cheap. He never thought he’d lose a fight to Charlie. He never would again.

    
Rhett was a company man, Venjamin could count on that. He was not like Charlie. He felt no love or attachment to his family. However, he liked the deception and power Venjamin had bestowed upon him. He liked belonging to something larger, something with a purpose. Endless centuries without purpose had to be torture, Dr. Venjamin imagined. No, Rhett would never turn into Charlie. Rhett would destroy Charlie.

    
“That’s what I wanted to hear. Do you know what vehicle they’re in?”

    
“Angus said he saw a van—blue. That’s all he got. But he wants the little Murray child. I’ve never seen fangs sink in so deep.”

    
Dr. Venjamin smiled at the image. One of the few injuries a vampire never healed completely from were bites from his own kind. Angus would have two little scars on the back of his neck for the rest of his very long life. Harry had strength and determination.

    
“Remind him, Valerie Murray and her children are not to be harmed. I want Charlie to be disposed of. Any vampire who harms the rest of the Murray family will also be disposed of.”

    
“Then I need to talk to you about Drew.”

    
“He went after Amelia again.” Dr. Venjamin knew that the slick vampire wouldn’t be able to control himself. The doctor had examined Eduardo Alvarez. The boy was still in the exam room. His parents, both born-vampires, were prompt in bringing him to the hospital. They were worried out of their minds. He hadn’t seemed ill at all, they told the doctor, healthy and happy. Dr. Venjamin assured them that he just wanted to run some tests and had them wait on site until the results came in. So far nothing seemed different, nothing special about his blood. But Dr. Venjamin had one last test to run.

    
“Yes. Nothing sexually this time. He went straight for the throat.”

    
“It’s a good thing for Mr. Sanders that Amelia is such a strong little girl. I still want him on the hunt. He’s got a connection to her. It will be your responsibility to see that he does not harm her. Because if he does, both of you will be disposed of.”

    
“Yes sir. Sir, what is the town being told about the Murrays?”

    
He smiled. “A bad human. The whole family is sick in the hospital. You too. Marie was the only one to be spared. She’s terribly worried about you.”

    
Rhett smiled. “I’m sure she is.”

    
“That will be all. I want you back on the street. If Charlie is aiming for New York, I want you on him. You know him better than anyone.”

    
“Yes sir.” He turned to leave the doctor.

    
“Rhett, is Drew still in the hospital?”

    
“Yes.”

    
“Send him in please.”

    
Waiting for the second vampire to enter, Venjamin opened his desk drawer and took out the revolver that he threatened Drew with the first time. He causally laid it on the desk where Drew would be certain to see it. Then he called his secretary to bring Eduardo down.

    
Drew entered cocky and unafraid. Then his eyes saw the gun on the desk.

    
“You said Amelia’s blood was the first time blood had ever sung to you, correct?” the doctor asked.

     
“Yeah. Blood’s blood. Hers is like a drug.”

    
“Have you bitten other crossbreeds or born-vampires before?”

    
Drew shifted his weight, his eyes going back to the gun. “A lick here or there in the heat of the moment.”

    
“And it never tasted like Amelia’s?”

    
“Never.”

    
He nodded. There was a knock at his door and a nurse escorted young Eduardo in. Drew’s eyes immediately looked the nurse up and down, his senses alerted to the fact that she was human and food. He only looked though. So far, he had no interest in the child.

    
“Hi Eduardo. How are you feeling?” the doctor asked.

    
“Fine. Can I go home now? I’m hungry.”

    
“Soon as you leave here Nurse Mary will get you something to eat, okay? Eduardo, this is my colleague Mr. Sanders. I want him to do a special test on you that only he can perform. Then you can go home, okay?”

    
Eduardo looked up at Drew unimpressed. Drew, on the other hand, looked down at the twelve year old with fear. He knew what the doctor wanted him to do. He couldn’t believe it. He had heard stories that the doc was crazy. He had heard rumors about the fates of his illegitimate children. He never really believed them though. Not the “death tests” to explore the extent of injuries a crossbreed could recover from. Throwing them out into sunlight to watch them explode into ash. Dissecting them alive in order to discover how their immortality worked. No man who went to so much trouble recreating the 1950’s with their gender roles and family values could be so cold hearted and cruel. Yeah, he fed his own kind to vampires. But he was just a man who knew the score.
 
Dr. Venjamin was on a quest. Drew had seen that many times before in his long life. He wasn’t quite sure what that quest was, but it involved protecting and understanding vampires. He may slaughter humans, but he would never hurt a born or crossbred vampire. At least that was what Drew had always thought.

    
“Okay,” the boy said. His voice was just getting to the age where it was beginning to crack. His ‘okay’ still sounded like a child’s. Drew had never been into feeding off of children. Girls, some of them pretty young, but not children.

    
Drew looked at the doctor. “Is this for real?”

    
“Harry Murray bit this boy. Said his blood called out to him. I want to know if his blood sings. Only you can tell me this.”

    
“How much do you want me to take?”

    
“Enough for you to be certain.”

    
“He’s small yet. He doesn’t have that much in him. I might—“

    
“It’s a risk science is willing to take. Do it.”