The Vampiric Housewife (24 page)

    
He was a good six foot five with a strong, muscular build. His shoulders were broad as was his chest. He was massive but in an inconspicuous manner. He wore dark jeans and a long sleeved charcoal T-shirt under a black motorcycle jacket. Causal, unmemorable, an outfit that would allow him to blend in and never really be seen. His hair was thick and a lustrous black. She had images of herself running her hands through its silkiness. She also had images of herself doing other things to him. His face was intense with its set square jaw, high brow, and finely carved cheekbones across which he had three long, jagged scars. She had never seen a vampire with such nasty, prominent scars. Vampires were quick healers. Few injuries could scar them. She couldn’t help thinking that those scars must have been a result of some insidious torture. She wanted to touch those scars too and feel his pain. They did nothing to hinder his attractiveness. If anything they enhanced it. Otherwise he would have been the epitome of perfection. There was something more beautiful about the flawed. His eyes . . . she had never seen eyes like his. They were wide and blue underneath his dark brows. A blue so dark it was nearly black yet undeniably blue.
That must be how the ocean looks at night
, she thought, that same deep, dark, penetrating azure. She had never seen the ocean before. Now she felt as if she had.

    
He parked the car and got out. They followed him into an elevator and rode several flights up. When the doors opened, Ethan stepped out with Valerie behind him, but the kids lingered.

    
“There are no windows,” he assured them, but they still stuck their heads out to investigate before cautiously following him. It was obvious they did not trust him. Maybe they didn’t even trust her, not after she risked their lives by threatening to expose them to the sun. She never would have let that happen. If they had begun to burn, she would have gotten them into the dumpster. They would have been safe there. She hoped they knew that she would never let anything bad happen to them for as long as she lived.

    
Ethan pulled some keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. Inside was pitch black. He turned on the lights.

    
“Is this where you live?” Amelia asked looking around the bare apartment. It was spacious with shiny hardwood floors, vaulted ceilings, and blank white walls. But it was empty. Not a couch or chair or TV. Just shutters over what would have been a stunning view of the city.

 
   
“No. It’s a safe house.”

    
“Where’s my dad? What happened to him?” John demanded. “We just left him.”

    
“Your dad was keeping the other vampires busy so I could escape and take you to a safe place. He told me to keep you safe,” Ethan lied. He wasn’t quite sure why he had. It just seemed to be what they needed to hear.

    
John only looked slightly appeased. “Maybe he got away. We have to look for him when the sun goes down.”

    
“No,” Ethan said. “They captured him.”

    
“Then we have to rescue him! We can’t let Dr. Venjamin get him! He’ll kill Dad!”

    
“No,” he said. “It’s not safe. I have to get the four of you out of the city.”

    
“We can’t just leave him!”

    
“John, your dad wouldn’t want you to get hurt trying to rescue him,” Valerie said. “The whole point of leaving Sangre Valley was to keep you kids safe. That was all he wanted.”

    
“He would come after us. He saved us. We have to save him.”

    
“No,” Ethan repeated.

    
“But your organization,” Amelia said, “they can help him, right?”

    
He nodded. “But the priority is to secure the four of you.”

     
“This is bullshit!” John turned to his mother. “How can you just leave him to die? He’s your husband! He loves you! He loves us! You really don’t care about him, do you? You want them to kill him because he lied to us, because he drinks human blood. So what? Maybe he didn’t have a choice, did you ever think of that? Maybe they would have killed him if he didn’t? But you’ll do anything to save yourself! Even if it means letting our dad die! Even if it means frying us in an alley!”

    
“John, I never would have—“

    
“I don’t believe you!”

    
Tear glimmered in Valerie’s eyes. But she blinked them back. “I love you, John. And I love your father. But he wants you safe. I want you safe. We’ll find him.”

    
“I don’t believe you,” he repeated, this time in a slow whisper that was full of malice.

    
Valerie straightened her back. “You don’t have to. That doesn’t make it any less true.”

    
Mother and son stared at each other for a moment until John finally looked away, tears of frustration and anger slipping down his cheeks.

    
Ethan cleared his throat. “There are three bedrooms. I have the one farthest down the hall. There are mattresses in the others. You should get some rest. There is a bathroom on the right. We’ll be gone at sunset.” With that he walked down a narrow hallway and disappeared into his bedroom.

    
“Come on,” Amelia said grabbing the suitcase and Harry. “John,” she said softly touching his back. He flinched away from her but followed her down the hall into one of the empty bedrooms.

    
Alone, Valerie brushed away a couple of tears and closed her eyes. She could feel a sob trying to strangle her, but she fought it. If she broke down now, she didn’t know if she’d be able to pull it back together.

    
With long, determined strides, she walked down the hall and knocked on Ethan’s door before opening it. He was sitting on a mattress on the floor, his jacket off, cell phone in his hand. He looked up at her and put the phone away. “You should try to sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a long night.”

     
She stepped into the room and shut the door behind her.

    
“The sun doesn’t burn me. Why?”

    
He stood up. “You’ll find that Venjamin misled you on a lot of things.”

    
“Like coffins,” she said with a small smile looking at the mattress.

    
“His own twisted sense of humor.”

    
“But Charlie got burnt. We were traveling during the day. His lips and face turned to ash.”

    
“Sunlight is deadly to made-vampires, but not to born-vampires.”

    
“And my children?” she asked hopeful. Maybe her bluff hadn’t endangered them.

    
“We don’t know. Venjamin has the monopoly on crossbreeds.”

    
“I really don’t understand made-vampires versus born-vampires. Why are there different kinds? How do you make a vampire? Why would you?”

    
“It’ll be better to let the experts explain it to you. But you will get your answers,” he assured her.

    
She nodded. “Can you at least tell me some other things that Venjamin lied about? I feel like I’m this child walking around in a fog, naïve and ignorant of the world, filled with superstition. I feel . . . stupid and foolish.”

    
“You’re not stupid or foolish. What do you want to know?”

    
“Garlic. We were taught to stay away from it when we played outside.”

    
“We’re allergic, but it’s only an irritant. Not deadly.”

    
“Silver?”

    
He nodded. “That can kill us, scar us, contain us.”

    
“Okay. Wooden stakes?”

    
He nodded again. “Silver, wood, and beheading, those are just about the only ways to kill a vampire. Sunlight if you’re a made-vampire. Crosses and holy water won’t bother you at all.”

    
“Of course not. We went to church every Sunday.” She was confused.

    
Ethan gave a grim smile. “Another amusement of Venjamin. This time a joke on the humans rather than the vampires.”

    
“Why all the silly rules?”

    
“There are human myths about us. We sleep in coffins. We have no reflection. We are creatures of the devil so crosses and holy water burn us. Venjamin must have gotten a kick out of playing with them in his little town. When we get to headquarters, you can borrow books on human vampire myths if you’d like. They’re entertaining.”

    
“Charlie said my parents were human.”

    
“Until Venjamin created Sangre Valley, most—if not all—living vampires came from humans.”

    
“What?” Her heart stopped in her chest. Her mind was trying to make sense of what just came out of his mouth. “You mean my birth parents were also human? Am I part human then?” She was thinking of the people who raised her when she asked about her parents being human. But the parents who conceived her, gave birth to her, were humans as well? How was that possible?

    
He should not be getting into this with her. “No, you’re not human. You’re not a crossbreed. I’m not the one to explain this to you. When we get to headquarters, there will be people there who can explain it all much better than me.”

    
“Then tell me about my adoptive parents. Were they human?”

    
“I don’t know for sure. Probably. We know that in the beginning of his experiment, Venjamin used humans to raise the living vampires. He didn’t trust made-vampires yet. Very few born-vampires make it to adulthood in the human world.”

    
“Why?”

    
“Again, I should—“

    
“My adoptive parents’ death—“

    
“Done so you would marry Charlie.”

    
Her body went cold. “Done. What do you mean ‘done’?”

    
He only stared at her. He wasn’t suppose to be the one to tell her all this. His only mission was to bring them to safety so the others could explain it all. He didn’t want to be the one to hurt her like this.

    
“Valerie, have you learned nothing about Venjamin? He orchestrated everything in Sangre Valley.”

    
“He murdered my parents.” Yes, she should have known that. How could she not have seen it before? She never would have married Charlie Murray if her parents had lived, not if she still had their love, their support, their encouragement. Of course, how real was that love and support? Her parents were in on the experiment. They fed her human blood in a bottle, blood of their own species. Who in her life had not lied to her?

    
“How? I was told a car accident. How did he do it?”

    
“I don’t know for sure.”

    
“But you probably know,” she said.

    
“Venjamin is a practical man. He had a village of vampires to feed.”

    
Valerie closed her eyes and tried not to be sick. “Charlie knew this.”

    
“I don’t see how he could not have.”

    
A couple tears escaped her eyes before she opened them. “Thank you for your honesty. I’ll let you get some rest.” She turned to leave.