“Why don’t you guys sit down.”
Valerie and Harry sat on one bed, John and Amelia on the other. He had four sets of eyes weighing on him. He leaned against the television. “It’s not 1954. It’s 2009.” Charlie waited for a reaction from them, but all they did was stare at him wide-eyed like he was a creature from another planet. In a way, he was. “Vampires do not populate the world. Humans do.” They blinked at him. Valerie put her arm around Harry and pulled him close.
“Sangre Valley was a community created by Dr. Venjamin about thirty years ago. He traveled the world collecting as many born-vampires as he could find. You see, most vampires are not alive.”
John spoke. “What do you mean ‘not alive’?” It sounded preposterous.
“There are no such things as the Coven of the Living and of the Silent. Silent vampires were born as humans. They were attacked by a vampire, bit, and transformed into a vampire themselves.”
“That’s impossible,” John scuffed.
“So you were once human,” Amelia said. He was amazed at how open her mind was and how fast it adapted to a given situation. Charlie had not been nearly as open minded when Venjamin first told him about living vampires.
He nodded.
“So humans are just like us? They’re not just animals.”
“No,” he said firmly. “Humans are food. We’re still higher on the food chain. But they are dangerous. They do rule the world so it is very important that you don’t ever let anyone know that you’re a vampire. They’ll kill us in an instant.”
“Why did we leave Sangre Valley then?” John demanded. “We were safe there. I want to go home.”
“We can’t ever go back. It’s not safe there anymore.”
“What about school? And all my stuff? And Lisa? I didn’t even get to say goodbye to her.”
“I’m sorry, John. Sangre Valley wasn’t a real town. It was Dr. Venjamin’s experiment on vampires. If we hadn’t left, Dr. Venjamin was going to begin experimenting on the three of you. I couldn’t let him do that,” Charlie said.
“I don’t believe you. Dr. Venjamin was always nice to us. If we told him we didn’t want to participate—“ John continued to protest.
“Dr. Venjamin is human,” Charlie said.
“No—“
“You smelled him. You know,” Valerie said quietly.
“That’s because he lives on a human ranch. The smell—“
“He was feeding us his own kind,” Amelia interrupted, her voice soft, shocked and horrified by her own conclusion. In a louder voice she asked, “What kind of experiments?” If he could butcher and feed his own species to another, she couldn’t imagine what he would do to a totally different species.
Charlie looked at his daughter. How fast her mind worked, putting the pieces together. He couldn’t bear to tell her what her own fate would have been. And he cringed knowing that it wouldn’t be long before she realized that he had committed the same crime as the doctor—fed his own kinds to another species. Maybe he did not do it in the literal way Venjamin had, but he had done it nonetheless. Would she ever be able to forgive him? “It doesn’t make a difference. They were dangerous. They won’t ever happen now.”
“I’m hungry,” Harry injected as he squirmed in his mother’s arms. “It’s the scent of humans all around us. It’s making me hungry.”
“Blood. That’s all you care about. Don’t you care that we’re never going home again? You’ll never go to school again or sleep in your own coffin or see Bobby. I’ll never see Lisa again or play basketball or hang out with my friends!”
“It’s going to be difficult, I know, but—“ Valerie said.
“You don’t know! You can’t possibly know!” John yelled near tears.
“What your father has said is a lot to take in, and it’s going to take time to adjust. This is all new to me too. But we have each other. That’s what’s important. We’re going to be okay—“
Staring at her father, Amelia interrupted. “What was your job at the hospital?”
The room went silent.
“Dr. Venjamin was your boss. You’re a ‘made’ vampire. You knew about the experiment.” There were accusations in every one of her statements. Her stare was a million stakes aimed at his heart. She knew that he was one of Venjamin’s men, that he had been their keeper, that he had lied to her from the moment she was born. Charlie couldn’t have despised himself more at that moment. He could not answer her.
“The sun’s up. We all need to rest,” Valerie deflected. “Amelia, why don’t you use the bathroom first to clean up and get out of that bloody dress.”
Silently Amelia removed her eyes from her father and went into the bathroom. Harry clicked on the TV as John sat on the edge of the bed quietly crying to himself. Valerie wanted to go to him, take her son into her arms, stroke his hair, comfort him. John was the only one who really loved his life in Sangre Valley. He had everything he had ever wanted. And now all that had been ripped away from him. She wished she could tell him that the truth may hurt, but it was better than continuing to live a lie. But then again, she hadn’t loved the lie like he had. So she let him be, let him grieve all that he had lost. She did all she could do for him: gave him privacy even if that only meant adverting her eyes.
They all took turns in the bathroom then settled down into bed—the boys shared one of the queen sized beds, Valerie lied next to her daughter in the other, and Charlie was propped up in a chair. The world outside their little room was coming to life. It was frightening to hear so much noise in the middle of the day. The voices yelling and laughing and talking in mutters. The traffic growing louder and louder. This would be what she’d have to get use to. She didn’t know if she wanted to.
Soon Harry was softly snoring. Valerie put her arms around her daughter. “I’m so sorry for what happened to you tonight,” she whispered in her daughter’s ear. They had been so consumed with fleeing Sangre Valley and finding some place safe, they had completely ignored the traumatic night that Amelia had been through. She had almost been sexually assaulted. She had been physically attacked. Then she came home where she was supposed to be safe only to find out it wasn’t and that her father had used her and lied to her.
“I’m okay, Mom,” she whispered back.
“We can talk about it. I don’t want you to feel like we’re ignoring what happened to you tonight. You were almost raped.” Now Valerie felt like she was going to cry.
Amelia flipped on her side to face her mother in the dark. “In a sense, you were the one who was raped, Mom.” Valerie just stared at her. “In a sense.”
Chapter Thirteen
Six Feet Under
Everything in Dr. Tobar Venjamin’s office was in prime order. His desk was clear of all clutter only supporting the flat screen monitor of his computer, a single lamp that provided adequate light, and one personal item, a black and white photograph of a younger self who was sulking a bit with his arms crossed and an older man who looked much like Venjamin did now, smiling brightly with his arm around his son, a Russian backdrop behind them. In his drawers all the pens were lined up, all paperclips and tacks in their proper bin. There was no dust on his spider plants, and not a single file was out of place in his massive filing cabinets. Dr. Venjamin liked order. Order was control. And Venjamin needed control. He created the vampires’ world, much like God first created the Garden of Eden. He built the houses, chose the time period, even dictated their vocabulary, then spent millions of dollars to recreate television shows and movies that featured vampires in the lead roles instead of humans. Sangre Valley was his universe, and Venjamin was the supreme ruler.
In truth, Venjamin detested made-vampires. They were animated corpses which made them a mystery to be solved, but still something uncouth and unnatural. In working with them, he had found that they were much like insects: little thought processes and mostly reaction to their environment. Of course, he had never been very interested in made-vampires. It was like when a horse an
d donkey mated and produced a mule—stubborn, stupid, and sterile. A creature a mere reflection of the greatness of its parents. But like the mule, made-vampires had their uses.
Vampires that came into this world through the birth canal, those were the creatures he revered. They were the perfect mammal, the perfect predator, so superior to made-vampires, and even a step higher than humans in evolution. Of course there was their beauty and intellect, but it was their blood, their infallible immune system, and their immortality that earned Venjamin’s respect and intrigued his genius.
As a brilliant man of science Venjamin knew that most great discoveries were made by accident, a breach of order. It was chaos, not order, that led to greatness. Penicillin—a Petri dish left out, artificial sweetener—a researcher with chemicals on his hands who forgot to wash them before lunch, even fireworks were discovered when a Chinese cook’s concoction went awry. All accidents, all inventions discovered when something had gone wrong. That was why he embraced the Murrays’ escape from Sangre Valley. It could lead to a new discovery and inspire a breakthrough epiphany. When he received the phone call from Sheriff Alder telling him that Lisa Cummings’ father had called to report an attack on Amelia Murray by Drew Sanders—one of his trusted employees—he was upset to say the least. He broke the phone. Amelia was his crown jewel. She was precious, priceless to his work. He would not let her be damaged or compromised. Worst, he had lost control of one of his filthy, savage made-vampires. Drew may have been introduced to Sangre Valley as the good looking rebel, the guy to tempt good girls into giving up their virtue. He often succeeded. It was a fail for the moral studies, but a win for the medical experiments. The girl would be taken away until she had given birth, the baby “adopted” and then the girl would be returned to her family. The hospital would then have a baby to study and experiment on. But Drew had another purpose in the town. He was to get close to John Murray and gleam information. He did not have the okay to date Amelia, but Venjamin saw it as an opportunity and let it play out. He thought Drew knew not to cross the line with his most prized possession. But he no longer feared Venjamin; that was obvious. Venjamin would not stand for it! He screamed at the Sheriff to find Drew and check on the condition of Amelia. He would not be made a fool of. Not by a dirty, paltry vampire.
But it would be Drew’s disobedience that would lead to Venjamin’s greatest revelation that would drastically change the direction of his work.
“I came straight here,” Drew said standing in his office. His voice trembled. He still had Amelia’s dried blood on his shirt.
Dr. Venjamin’s complexion was ruddy from Sheriff Alder’s second phone call. Waiting for news of Drew and Amelia, he had paced his office like a caged animal. But now with the vampire who betrayed him before him, he calmly retrieved a revolver from his desk drawer and aimed it at the unbeating heart of the vampire before him. It was loaded with a special silver bullet.
“Liar! If you had, I would have heard what you did from your own lips and not from the Sangre Valley Sheriff! I injected you into the Murrays’ lives to gather data! I trusted you with my most valuable subjects! And you tried to rape and kill one of them! So tell me, Drew, why should I not kill you where you stand?”
“Hey, I’ve given you a lot of info on the Murray boy—“
Dr. Venjamin held the gun straight and steady.
“I couldn’t help myself! She’s not like other vampires!”
“How so?”
“Okay, I knew I couldn’t take it too far with her. But I thought I’d get a little bit of action. But then the smell of her blood . . . I’ve been around plenty of born and crossbred vampires. Their pulses are always enticing, but I have control. Her blood though . . . it sang. It had a vibrating sound, a scent . . . I can’t explain it. I had to bite. I had no choice! Then once I tasted her blood, it was like a drug, a euphoric-psychotic drug. That’s—that’s why it took me so long to get here.” This one could think on his feet. He was a self-serving, devious liar—which of course was why Dr. Venjamin had hired him. Now it looked like he might serve a higher purpose.
Venjamin lowered his gun. In arrogance, Drew relaxed. He honestly thought he had talked his way out of the mess he created. It was better that he thought that.
“Tell me, how close did you have to get to hear her blood . . . sing?” He liked that analogy. Blood that sang. Venjamin did have a poetic side.
“It wasn’t until I was kissing her neck. I had to be close. But after I tasted it and ran . . . I could hear her blood singing for a half mile down the road.”
Venjamin smiled. “You’re going to serve a new purpose for us, Mr. Sanders. The Murrays have left Sangre Valley. Without permission.”
When Sheriff Alder called that second time to report the family missing, the doctor’s fury had grown. Charlie had betrayed him. That sniveling, pathetic vampire had stolen what belong to him. Charlie always did have a pathetic quality. More bark than bite. The lack of a backbone was the precise reason Charlie had been recruited and trusted. He would be too frighten to ever stray. And Venjamin never truly believed that he cared for his family. He did not believe for a second that made-vampires were capable of that kind of love. He still did not believe it. They were driven by only one stimulus—blood. But he knew there would be a silver lining to the escape, a lesson learned, if not a breakthrough. When something went wrong, the opportunities for growth were increased exponentially. That breakthrough just might be Amelia’s singing blood.
Dr. Venjamin was a geneticist by nature and training. It was a field that required vigilance and patience. But at age sixty-five, the doctor was running out of time on this earth and that was making him very impatient. He had a disease that was going to curtail his brilliance so he needed to work fast. Maybe this whole time he should have been focusing more on the actual blood of a vampire than their genetic makeup. It was blood that delivered the nutrients to the cell, carried away the waste, aided the immune system. Yes, it did make sense. The wheels in the doctor’s head were beginning to turn. A vampire’s immortality came from its extraordinary immune system. Its immune system functioned within the bloodstream. Why hadn’t he seen this before? He needed to get his hands on Amelia Murray!
The prognosis of finding the family was good. They left just before dawn and Charlie would have to hibernate for the daylight hours. Dr. Venjamin was not inhibited in such a way. He employed vampires and humans. They had already discovered the dead guard and methodically searched all the small towns dotting the highway. The Murrays were not to be found. That was not a discouraging discovery though. That meant that he knew where they were hiding. Phoenix. It was the only feasible refuge they could have made. The family car had been located. Stolen. His men were interrogating the thief at this very moment. It was almost seven now. Full night would be upon them soon, and Venjamin could send his vampires out to make the capture. And now that he had a hound dog who had the scent of the prize goose, it would not be long.
“I have a team out in Phoenix right now searching for the Murrays. I would like you to join them the moment the sun hits the horizon. You’ll get more directions once you arrive. Go.”
Drew did not look pleased with the assignment, but he left the doctor’s office without a word.
Venjamin set the gun on the desk and sat down, the weariness of his illness rushing over his body, his limbs heavy. How quickly he became fatigued these days. But Venjamin only gave into the exhaustion for a moment. Mind over matter. Venjamin believed that there were no limits to his brainpower. He pulled out the file on Harry Murray and his fight at school where he bit another boy. The report quoted Harry as saying that “the blood called out to me.” Called out. Sung. There could be a connection. They were sitting shoulder to shoulder in the cafeteria. That could have been close enough proximity. Maybe he wouldn’t have to wait for Amelia’s capture to start his research on singing blood. Who was the boy he bit? The report named him as Eduardo Alvarez. A year older than Harry and a born-vampire, both his parent
s born-vampires who had grown up in Sangre Valley. Not a crossbreed like Amelia. Interesting.
Venjamin picked up his phone and called his secretary. “Ms. Pines, call the Alvarezes and have them bring their son to the hospital first thing in the evening. Tell them that there were some abnormalities found in Eduardo’s last physical and that we just want to run a few tests.”
“Yes sir.”
By the end of tomorrow night, all five Murrays should be safely contained in the hospital, never to leave again.
Chapter Fourteen
The Vampire Slayer
Charlie was awake before sunset. He hadn’t slept much during the day. The slightest sound would jolt him out of his stupor. He would freeze for a moment and envision Venjamin bursting through the door with a stake in hand. But the noise was always some benign sound from the world of the living. His family tossed and turned throughout the day, never settling into a restful state. He was aware of their every movement. Half dozing, half awake he devised a new plan, at least one that would get them through another night.
He would steal a new car, steal some cash, and they would head east. He wasn’t sure of their exact destination yet. Venjamin’s reach was global meaning no place was safe. But if they kept on moving . . . maybe they could always stay a little bit ahead of the doctor. Charlie had been an East Coast vampire before joining Venjamin’s project. Hopefully he would still have some contacts out there. Find them some ID’s and a secure haven.
But to get far enough away from Venjamin to become lost, he would have to drive through the night and the day. That left him with the dilemma of protecting his family from the sun. A van. Tinted windows. Curtains hung as a secondary precaution. A face mask, gloves, and sunglasses for himself. Somehow he would have to keep them fed—that meant a cooler and fresh meat. Trying to teach them to hunt on the road would call too much attention to them. Venjamin would just have to follow the trail of corpses to find them. They had lived on animal blood before. They could continue a little longer.
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