“You guys stand out in your dated clothes. Pick out something that fits you. Preferably jeans and a T-shirt.”
“You stole these!” Valerie exclaimed.
“Yes. We don’t exactly have time for a shopping spree.”
Valerie eyed him but began sorting through the basket occasionally tossing an article of clothing into the backseat.
“When are we going to get something to eat?” Harry asked popping his head up front.
“That’s our next stop,” Ethan said. For a moment Harry got excited. Maybe someone was finally going to teach him how to hunt humans. He sorely missed human blood. It was all he had dreamed of last night. But then Ethan pulled up to a market and Harry’s heart sank. Ethan bought them steaks and tossed the bag into their laps.
“Eat up. This is all you’ll get for tonight.” He also tossed a package of cheap pink barrettes to Harry. “For you.”
“Thanks,” Harry said with a roll of the eyes. He seemed to have accepted his role as a girl though. Two seconds later his head was back up in the front seat. “You want some?” he asked offering Ethan some meat, his mouth full.
“No. I’m good,” he said without looking back.
“Harry, sit back. It’s not safe,” Valerie scolded.
Meat would give Ethan little satisfaction. He could suck nutrition out of it, but he required more from his food than just nutrients. How Charlie and all those other made-vampires lived in Sangre Valley eating meat and drinking cold blood was beyond him. If he was going to drink animal blood, the animal had to at least be alive.
Their last stop was the airport. Ethan parked the car in long term parking and forced them to use the car as a dressing room. As Harry waited for his mother and sister to emerge from the vehicle in their new outfits, he decided to talk with Ethan who fascinated him to no end. “You’re smart,” he told the vampire.
“Thanks,” he said a tad bit annoyed. Something inside of him wanted to like Harry though. Ethan was coming to realize that the differences between living and dead vampires were more than just how they were created. Living vampires weren’t driven in the way made-vampires were by their hunger and desire for blood. Most vampires he knew, himself included, thought about blood the way human men thought about sex. Dead vampires were selfish, lonely creatures by nature. How could they not be when their life ambition was to murder? Living vampires—or at least the Murrays—weren’t anything like that. Except for Harry. He had the charisma and charm and sociopathic behavior of a made-vampire which wouldn’t have bothered Ethan except that he was a born-vampire—and a mere child.
“I could learn a lot from you. Would you teach me to hunt?”
“Your mother said no humans, remember?”
He smiled. “She’ll get over that. She always does. But she doesn’t have to know.”
“But she will know. I bet you’re a natural anyway,” Ethan told him. It was the truth. He would bet that this eleven year old kid was a natural killer.
His smile widened. “What if I can get her to say it’s okay? Then would you teach me?”
“We’ll see.”
“Thanks Ethan.”
Valerie and Amelia emerged from the car. Ethan consciously kept a still face. Valerie was breathtaking—if he had breath to take. There was nothing left of her that said 1950’s housewife. Her jeans hugged her hips and stretched down her endlessly long legs framing her round buttock. She didn’t seem comfortable in their tightness, but she would have to get use to that. It was the modern style. The white blouse she wore was a size too large for her obscuring the slenderness of her torso and all but drowning out her breasts, but it still looked bright and clean as it accented her delicate collar bones and long neck. He was entranced by the slope of that neck and how it disappeared into the collar. It invoked two separate hungers inside of him. Her reddish brown hair fell a couple inches past her chin in slight, causal waves. She wore no makeup and was in no need of it. Her natural beauty was radiant all alone. As stunning as her violet eyes were, they were going to cause a problem. They would call too much attention to all of them. He reached into the car and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. He placed them on her face knowing that he was closer to her than he should be. He could feel his hungers fighting to be released. All three children were watching him.
“We have to hide your eyes. Humans don’t have violet eyes. You’ll have to pretend you have a migraine and that the light hurts your eyes. Can you do that?”
“Yes.” She touched the sunglasses. He wished he could see past those dark lenses.
“When we go through security, they’re going to make you take them off. Do it, but squint so they can’t get a good look at your eyes, okay?”
She nodded.
He forced himself to move on to his inspection of Amelia. By the time he had met her, she had already mastered the typical teenage hair style. Her long, dark locks looked natural in her messy ponytail. Her jeans may have been in need of a belt, but baggy as they were, it was still a vast improvement over the poodle skirt. Her Ozz-fest T-shirt pulled against her breasts, but she looked like an all American teenager—just one on the darker, more insecure side.
John changed into faded blue jeans with holes in the knees. Ethan could tell that the holes annoyed him. He also wore a white and blue baseball shirt which would have been perfect except he put his varsity jacket over it.
“Take off the jacket.”
“No,” he said defiantly.
“Do you want to advertise to Venjamin that you and your family were at the airport? Sangre Valley doesn’t exist. You can’t wear a varsity jacket to a school that’s make believe. Take it off,” he growled staring the boy down. John glared back at him determined to win, but it didn’t take long for him to lose his nerve, break the intense gaze, and take the jacket off. “You can keep it. You just can’t wear it,” he told the kid.
Harry had transformed into Jenny. He wore jeans and a long sleeved, white shirt under a bright pink T-shirt with a sparkly heart on the chest. He had even clipped two pink barrettes into his moppish hair. He shared the violet eyes of his mother, but he was kid so Ethan hoped people would pay less attention to him.
“Good,” he told Harry in approval.
Ethan pulled the green suitcase from the car and packed their old clothes in it along with John’s jacket. When he came across Amelia’s blood stained dress, he had an idea.
“Where are we going?” Amelia asked.
“The Virgin Islands, St. Thomas to be exact. It’s still American soil so we won’t have to go through customs. When we go through security, they’re going to ask you to empty your pockets and take off your shoes and anything metal and set them in a tray. Do it. They might ask you questions, make small talk. Where are you going? How old are you? Where do you go to school? So this is your story. Valerie, Amelia, Harry, you are Anne, Lauren, and Jenny LaPierre. You are meeting your husband. He’s in St. Thomas on business. He’s a business man. You’re a housewife. You home school your two girls.” He turned to Amelia. “What’s your name?”
“Lauren LaPierre.”
“How old are you?”
“Sixteen.”
“Where do you go to school?”
“I’m home schooled.”
His eyes turned to Harry. “What’s your name?”
“Jenny.”
“How old are you?”
“Nine.”
“Where are you going?”
“St. Thomas to see my dad.”
He looked at Valerie. “What does your husband do?”
“He’s a businessman.”
“What kind?”
“Real estate,” she said without missing a beat. “He’s in St. Thomas on business actually. We’re meeting him. It’s kind of a surprise.”
He suppressed a smile. She could act. He moved on to John. “I’m your Uncle Ethan, your dad’s brother. You live with me. We’re on vacation, but you didn’t want to come. It shouldn’t be much of a stretch for you.”
John just stared at him with his arms crossed.
“What’s your name?”
“John,” he said.
“Stop it,” Valerie cut in. “You’re behaving like a child. Grow up. Now, what’s your name?”
He took a deep breath and let it out angrily. “Jason Rogers. I’m being force to go on vacation with my uncle. What else do you want to know?”
“Nothing,” Valerie said harshly.
“I have one last thing I have to do. Stay here. I’ll be back soon.” He took off across the parking lot with the bloody dress.
Chapter Twenty-six
Bats in Flight
Valerie had to admit that she was getting a bit of a thrill out of being Anne LaPierre. It was the first time since leaving Sangre Valley that she hadn’t felt frightened or overwhelmed. Though she wished Ethan wouldn’t have made her a housewife who home schooled her two girls. She would have liked to have been an artist or maybe owned her own store selling lotions and bath stuff. But at least Anne lived in the modern world without girdles and pointy bras. At least she had chosen to marry her husband and got to go to the Caribbean instead of spending all day cooking and cleaning for a dinner party. Plus, Anne didn’t have a crazy doctor after her who wanted to impregnate her daughter with her son’s sperm. She wasn’t running for her life. She wasn’t even a vampire who drank blood. Anne was just a mother with a migraine taking her girls to see their father. She had a simple life.
Valerie had gotten some strange looks for wearing the sunglasses at night, but as she kept touching her temples, the looks turned sympathetic, especially when she grabbed onto Harry’s shoulder to steady herself. All the security was a bit daunting—or would have been. But she was Anne. Anne had nothing to conceal. When asked to remove her sunglasses, she complied, squinting and shielding her eyes against the fluorescent lights as she apologized to the TSA man. He was understanding and did not keep her long. No one spoke to the children or questioned Harry’s gender.
She was vaguely aware of Ethan and John a couple people behind them in line. She refused to allow herself to look back no matter how badly she wanted to check on her eldest son and Ethan. But she felt safe knowing his presence was there, watching her, protecting her. Part of her liked the fact that he could watch her perform. She was kind of proud of how well she played Anne LaPierre. It was nice to have an audience.
This was her first time on an airplane. She had seen them fly over Sangre Valley every now and then. She always wanted to ride on one, see what the world looked like from up above—or really what the world looked like outside of Sangre Valley. She had gotten more than she bargained for when that wish came true.
She sat in the window seat with Amelia on the aisle and Harry in between. He kept leaning over her to peer out the window excited by the adventure. Amelia was nearly frozen in her seat, her hands clutching both armrests with her fingernails digging in. If they hit a little bit of turbulence, she closed her eyes. Ethan and John were a few rows in front of her so she could only see the backs of their heads. John was sitting as far away from Ethan as he could get without actually climbing out of his seat.
Valerie spent most of the flight staring out into the night watching the wispy clouds pass by like cotton candy. The earth below her was just an abyss of black. Only a few stars glittered in the sky and the moon shone solely on the other side of the plane. It was peaceful, outside the plane’s oval window. Peace, that was one sensation she never thought she’d feel again. Was this it? Would they finally be safe in the Virgin Islands? Would they actually be out of Venjamin’s reach? Was this where she would begin her new life? Tropical beaches of white sand, lazy palm trees, exotic flowers that perfumed the air, the ocean . . . Ah, the ocean, she had always wanted to see it, swim in its waters, taste the salt water on her lips. She would spend her nights on the beach with the kids relaxing in the moonlight or they could explore the alien environment with a freedom they had never known. Harry would run wild with curiosity while Amelia would stay on her beach towel with her sketch pad, and John . . . he would come around and swim in the ocean or toss a Frisbee with Ethan . . . yes, Ethan was part of her new life too. It seemed like a fantasy. It was a fantasy. No matter where they were, they would still be vampires living in a human world. Venjamin may be far away but he would still be out there, and as long as he was out there he would always be a threat. There would be no school to send her children to. She had no skills to get a job to support her family. They had no roof over their heads.
Her family still included Charlie. That was not something that would ever change. He was the father of her children. He would always be part of her life. Was he still alive? For her children’s sake, for Charlie’s own sake, she wanted to believe so. He was the only link Venjamin still had to them. Hopefully that alone would extend his life. For all his deceit, Charlie hadn’t abandoned them. He had sacrificed himself for them. Valerie wouldn’t abandon him either. She would work with Ethan’s organization and do everything she could to rescue him from Venjamin’s clutches alive. That she vowed. But their relationship, their marriage was over. Eventually she would be able to forgive him for what he had done to her, but never in a million years would she be able to forget the lies or the manipulation. Valerie knew that she would be okay without him. She wasn’t some scared eighteen year old who was all alone in the world. Hell, she had handled herself pretty damn well. She was successful in her Sangre Valley life and in the human world she had already saved the lives of her husband and children. That was no small feat. Life may not be lying on a beach in the moonlight or swimming in the ocean, but she would be alright.
Sitting on that quiet plane, staring out at the velvet night sky with its diamond stars and heavenly clouds, an empowering resolve filled her. She would save Charlie. And not only that, she would take down Venjamin and Sangre Valley. She may not know how yet, but she would find a way. She wasn’t just some vampiric housewife who was helpless and naïve in the world of humans. She would give her children a safe, happy home, continue to protect them, and raise them to be good people. And she, herself, would be fearless and brave and take advantage of every opportunity to be happy—perhaps that meant Ethan. Perhaps not. But she would find out. This was her mission, her purpose on this earth, she was certain of it. Now that she had realized that, she could not wait to get off this plane and start living her new life.
Chapter Twenty-seven
The Bloody Dress
The driver of the semi truck was dead, his throat ripped out in a bloody mess, and his body tossed carelessly on the damp, black road. The truck’s headlights were still shining, the driver’s door swung open. Hidden in the cargo of his trailer bound for Canada was the scent that they had been tracking. Drew had said it was a faint and old trail. But at least it was something, a lead. As it turned out, it was a much older lead than they had believed. They had followed it right out of the city losing any trail that might have still existed there.
“Goddamn it!” Rhett swore and threw Amelia Murray’s bloody dress on the cement.
“Now what? We can not go back to Venjamin empty handed,” Drew said. His head hurt, his muscles felt weak and shaky even though he had been feeding. But the blood he drank left him unfulfilled. He didn’t give a damn about Venjamin finding the Murrays. Drew needed to find Amelia. He needed to drain her dry, and maybe then the phantom singing in his ears and this feeling of malaise would vanish.
“You think I don’t know that?” Rhett snapped. This was all Drew’s fault. He let the bitch bluff him into running because the sun was rising. He let them get away without a trace. Drew’s mind was clouded with the drug of Amelia Murray’s blood. All he wanted was a fix. Rhett had no delusions about that. Dr. Venjamin knew it too. Drew was just too stupid and cocky to realize that once the family was found, his usefulness would expire, and he would be put down. Rhett couldn’t wait to be the one to do it.
“What do we do?”
“We go back to New York. We find out who the hell this
vampire helping them is.” This goddamn mystery vampire, he was driving Rhett insane. He managed to kill two newborn vampires with amazing speed and ease so Rhett knew he was a skilled fighter. He couldn’t wait until they finally met up. He had always known he could take Charlie in a fight. Charlie who on their hunting trips used to boast about what a strong, agile fighter he was. Since they had first become friends, Rhett had wanted to take him on. Put him in his place. Now he had. This mystery vampire with his unique scars would be a true competitor. He just might be on Rhett’s own playing field. He couldn’t wait to find out. But the son of a bitch was also a ninja when it came to disappearing without a trace. “Fuck!” he cried out into the night.
“We don’t even know if New York is his hunting ground. He could have been passing through. He could be a nomad.”
“Somewhere someone has to know him. He killed two vampires. He’s not a newborn. He’s been around for awhile. You didn’t see him anywhere when you had them cornered in the alley? He must have met up with them, taken them some place safe. Valerie’s resourceful, but not enough to give us the slip all by herself.”
“No, I told you a million times. The sun was coming up, we had to bolt.” Drew’s eyes got large. “Wait. A black car. Don’t ask me the make or plate number, but I remember passing a black car.”
“And how many black cars do you think there are in New York City? The one vampire who recognized him on the street with the family, he said that the mystery vampire was stalking a dying homeless man.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Who do you usually prey on?”
“Women, young and drunk, a little feisty but not too much.”
“I like a bit of a fight. I usually prey on strong men.”
“Again, so?”
“What if this vampire likes to prey on the dying? We all have our own tastes. We might find someone who knows him or has heard of him or as seen him hunting somewhere else.”
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