The Vampiric Housewife (35 page)

    
He nodded.

    
“Mom! Moooom!” came calling from downstairs.

    
“I guess the kids are back from their shopping spree,” she said standing up. “Thank you for telling me your maker story.”

    
“Mom!”

    
He only nodded again.

    
She left him and found her two youngest in the living room with Gabriella and a pile of shopping bags.

    
“Mom! Look at all the cool stuff Gabriella bought us,” Harry said. “She got me video games for the computer. I spent most the day figuring it out. I couldn’t sleep. Have you been on the internet yet? It’s so cool. She also got us a basketball. She says we can set up a hoop outside.”

    
“I hope you got some clothes too.”

    
“Yes, but they’re just clothes,” he said.

    
“We picked up some things for you too,” Amelia said. “And she took me to an art store and got me supplies. She said Ethan draws and paints too.”

    
“I’ll be happy to show you around so you can pick out some stuff of your own,” Gabriella told her. “You should get a look around. Red Hook is a sweet little town. New Haven gets a lot of the cruise ships so they have the higher end shops.”

    
Valerie smiled. “Sounds like you guys had quite the night. You must be starving.”

    
“They had some meat. But I did talk to Alessandro about donated blood—“ Gabriella started.

    
“Yes, we’ve talked. Donated blood is fine.”

    
“What if I have a symbiotic relationship with a human?” Harry asked.

    
“We’ll talk about that when you’re older.”

    
“We picked some things up for John. He didn’t want to come,” Gabriella said.

    
“That was kind of you.”

    
“Can I play my new video games?” Harry asked.

    
“Let’s do dinner first.”

    
For the first time, Valerie was able to visualize a life here.

Chapter Thirty-six

The Blood Connoisseur

    
Valerie dressed in a sun dress her daughter had chosen for her, a light white fabric with spaghetti straps and a low V-neck. Her hair had air dried into free flowing waves. Barefoot on the tiled kitchen floor, she prepared steak and donated blood for her family as Gabriella grilled salmon and boiled rice for her own dinner. Ethan had silently snuck out of the house and returned just as quietly after feeding. But he was out on the patio setting the table prepared to join them for dinner anyway. When Valerie had learned that he had already eaten, she didn’t know how to feel. That meant that he had killed someone tonight. True, it would have been a person already in the throws of death. He was the black angel of death. Except that he wasn’t an angel. He was a vampire. He wasn’t sent by God. He was sent by hunger. And even if the human had been dying, it had still been alive. But for tonight, she pushed those thoughts out of her head. She hadn’t lied to him when she told him that she no longer knew the difference between right or wrong, or what he was, what she was. For at least one night, she didn’t want any of that to matter.

    
Alessandro and Jonathan were joining them too. Alessandro had fed off a variety of young people at the club. Tomorrow they would notice a bruise on the side of their necks and not quite remember the man that they had made out with. Perhaps those bruises weren’t always on their necks. Somehow that seemed more wrong and invasive than what Ethan did.

    
Jonathan would feed after Gabriella herself had eaten, and they had found some privacy in their room. But both wanted to keep the family company as they dined. The mood was light, almost celebratory. Harry was rattling off every last thing he had read or seen or learned on the internet. He was full of stories about the sights of the island and their shopping excursion. She had never seen him so . . . alive. He never once mentioned human blood or complained about the cold, donated blood. She remembered the night he skipped school and how he told her that he had been bored. Watching how excited and engaged her youngest was, she was beginning to think that leaving Sangre Valley was best thing that ever could have happened to him.

    
Amelia was quiet—her shyness seemed to have returned in the presence of their new friends. She had dressed in all black—black jeans, black tank top, a new necklace around her throat with some Asian charm, and a red scarf covering the scars Drew had left on her. She wore some kind of stockings on her arms that were striped red and black. Her dark brown hair was half pulled back. It was a far cry from the Amelia she had been in Sangre Valley. She was suddenly a representation of herself and not that of a classic 1950’s teenager. It was not a look or message that Valerie would have chosen for her daughter, but at least she could be herself now. She never would have been able to shine through in her old life, not like she could here. Though quiet, she smiled at Harry’s stories or Alessandro’s teasing. More than once Valerie caught her stealing glances at Ethan, but that was only because she was stealing glances too.

    
Only John was missing. He refused to leave his room, refused to eat. Valerie could tangibly feel his missing presence and it made her heart cringe. They weren’t a family without John. Or Charlie for that matter.

    
“Did you know that Thanatos is a connoisseur of blood?” Alessandro said as they ate on the patio, the sounds of the ocean in the background, a hint of salt and fish in the breeze, white tea lights brightening the palms and railing. Amelia had refused the donated blood but ate the meat.

    
“Meaning what?”

    
“He swears he can taste the differences between people. Not all blood tastes the same,” Alessandro said. “Personally they all taste the same to me. The pretty ones a little sweeter maybe,” he said with a wink.

    
Harry twisted in his seat. “You can really taste the difference? Mom thought I was nuts when I said I could taste the difference between the different types.”

    
Ethan looked at the boy. “I can’t do that,” he said without elaborating.

    
“Tell us what the dead taste like,” Alessandro said. “And the corrupt. And the innocent.”

    
Valerie had to admit that she was morbidly curious. Maybe her son wasn’t so strange after all.

    
“Maybe this isn’t an appropriate topic,” he said a little harshly.

    
“I’ve heard it all before,” Gabriella said. “Don’t worry about my feelings, Ethan.”
    

    
“I never do.” He may have been teasing. He may not have been.

    
“Please. I want to know,” Harry said. “I always liked females better.”

    
Ethan’s blue eyes briefly touched Valerie’s before he turned them to Amelia. “Is this okay with you?” he asked her daughter.

    
Amelia looked up at him surprised that he was concerned about her opinion on the matter. She hadn’t realized that he was aware of her strong feelings towards humans. Nonetheless, she nodded approval.

    
“Bitter. Metallic. More so than usual. Sometimes it’s volcanic if they’re feverish, sometimes downright arctic if they’re hypothermic. The blood has already begun to die so it’s slightly decayed, slightly rancid. You can . . . or at least I can taste death.”

    
“And that’s his preferred meal,” Alessandro said.

    
“Must you refer to them as meals?” Gabriella asked. “Is that how you see me?”

    
“Not at all my dear. I thought your feelings weren’t going to be hurt.”

    
“What about the corrupt?” Amelia asked, her voice noticeably louder than usual. Valerie wouldn’t have expected her to be asking questions on this subject. She was surprised that her daughter condoned this conversation at all.

    
“Fecal. But satisfying,” he said meeting her eyes. “The truly corrupt, the murderers and rapists, the pedophiles and child killers, you can taste the evil. It’s a tart, overpowering taste.”

    
“Poetic, isn’t he?” Alessandro said. “I believe given a century or two, he’ll be a poet.”

    
“What about girls, pretty ones?” Harry asked.

    
Jonathan took Gabriella’s hand and kissed it. “Like heaven.” She smiled at him.

    
“I don’t know about pretty girls, but I do know that the innocent taste like rain. Like the sky. Like refreshment after a famine.”

    
“Poetry,” Alessandro said softly.

    
“How many have you killed?” Valerie asked.

    
He stared at her before answering her. “I’ve been a vampire for over ninety years. My guess is as good as yours.”

    
“But in all fairness to Ethan, he’s been Thanatos for fifteen years or so now,” Alessandro said.

    
“We try not to judge other vampires’ way of life,” Jonathan said. “It is
against
our nature not to kill. We hope to evolve, but evolution is time. Thankfully, that’s one thing we vampires have.”

    
“And Alessandro seducing young girls is evolution?” Ethan asked. Though his tone was sarcastic, this time there was no doubt that he was teasing.

    
Alessandro smiled. “And young men. That is progressive.”

    
“Oh Mom!” Harry said as if he just remembered something. He wiped the blood off his upper lip. “Gabriella said she owns every vampire movie ever made. Can we do a vampire movie marathon tonight? Gabriella said she wouldn’t mind.”

    
“I thought it might be fun,” Gabriella said.

    
“Yeah. I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

    
“Why don’t you get the movie going?” Jonathan suggested rising from the table. “Alessandro and I have something to discuss with Valerie.”

    
“What will it be?
Dracula
?
Interview with a Vampire
? Or
Twilight
?” Gabriella asked taking Harry and Amelia inside. “Should we see if John wants to join us?”

    
Once the kids were out of hearing range, “Alessandro and I have been working out a plan to rescue Charlie. We’d like to show you what we have,” Jonathan said.

Chapter Thirty-seven

Human Lovers

    
John refused to dine with the human. They belonged on the dinner plate and not in the seat next to you. He did not care that his mother had caved in and would allow them to drink human blood from packets. Who the hell was she to tell him what he could drink? It would be just like home, she said. He knew better though. Nothing would ever be like home. He would never have a home again. That he was certain of. So he spent the day with the music blasting in hopes that it would piss off his hosts and laid on his bed tossing the football his dad gave him.