“We could always use a fire,” Ethan said. “That’ll clear the building. Vampires don’t like fire anymore than humans.”
“That doesn’t give us much time to search for Charlie,” Jonathan said.
“And could destroy massive amounts of evidence of what exactly Tobar is doing,” Alessandro said. “We’d have to get the computer information out that night.”
“Well, that’s the least important thing,” Valerie said. She had no idea how they were going to do this, get into the hospital, find Charlie, get out of the hospital alive. “Fire may be our best option.”
“We spent most of tonight trying to come up with scheme to get Charlie out. It’s going to be a long shot,” Jonathan said.
Valerie took a step away from the table and ran her hand through her hair. She thought of every time she ever walked into the hospital. It was always so busy, so many people running around. She had never been on any other floors other than the first two. She had never even thought to surprise Charlie at work with lunch so she could see him in his office. Just four of them going in. There was a good chance that her kids would not only lose their father but their mother too. Could she risk that? Yes. She had to save Charlie. He would do it for her.
“Okay, what if—“ she started but was interrupted by cries from the living room. Suddenly a computer started beeping and flashing a red screen. Jonathan immediately went investigate.
“What is it?” Ethan asked.
“There’s been a security breech. A phone call has been made from the house and someone’s trying to trace it—“
“Mom! Mom! Come here quick! Mom!” Harry called.
Her heart dropped into her stomach then kick-started again as she bolted into the living room. Harry was jumping up and down on the couch, Amelia was staring wide-eyed at the television.
“Mom, you’re on TV!” Harry said.
“The manhunt for Valerie Murray continues nationwide today. Murray is the prime suspect in the brutal murder and dismemberment of her husband. She was seen fleeing from the body of her estranged husband Charles Murray with her three children, John Murray—sixteen, Amelia Murray—fifteen, and Harry Murray—eleven.” They flashed the smiling school picture of each child. “Murray is wanted for questioning in the carjacking and murder of James Peterson. Murray is considered to be unstable, violent, and armed. The children are believed to be in danger. If anyone sees Murray or her children, please alert local authorities immediately. In other news . . .”
“We were on TV,” Harry said. “That’s so cool. Bobby would be so jealous.”
“Mom?” Amelia said. “Do you think that means Dad is dead?” The poor child looked as if she was going to vomit.
“No,” Ethan said. “It means that Venjamin is now using humans to look for you. He’s desperate.”
“What now?” Gabriella asked.
Jonathan walked into the living room. “We need to get John down here. Now.”
Chapter Forty
The Vampire Queen
John sat on the couch with his arms crossed refusing to meet any of the stares fixed on him. His sister and brother sat across from him with the human while the adults stood around him, their arms crossed. Guilt festered inside of him, but he refused to let it show. At least he had been doing something. Not out shopping or playing on the computer, or having a big family dinner and pretending everything was okay. Because of him, they knew Charlie was still alive.
“Why in the world would you call Lisa and put us all at risk?” his mother asked. He could hear the strained anger in her voice.
He shrugged still refusing to look up at any of them.
“John, look at me,” his mother demanded. “Look at me!”
He raised his rage filled eyes to her but refused to lift his head.
“If Venjamin had been able to trace that call, we would have all been in danger. He would have known where we were, and he would have come for us.”
“But he couldn’t trace it, right? So what’s the big deal? At least we know that Dad’s still alive.”
“The big deal is that you could have killed us! Your family and the only people who can save your dad!”
“Screw them! You care more about them than Dad! All of you want is to pretend everything’s okay, that everything will go back to normal if we play house in the Caribbean. Replace Dad with him—“ He pointed an angry finger at Ethan. “—and we can be a family again. Nothing is ever going to be the same again! Nothing’s ever going to be okay again! You know what, all I want is to go home! I don’t care if Venjamin was experimenting on us or if Dad was lying to us! I was happy there! Let Venjamin experiment on us if we can just go home!”
“Do you want to know what Venjamin planned to do to you, John?” Valerie asked; her rage had broken free. “Do you know what he wanted to do to your sister? He was going to breed you like animals. First with born-vampires then with crossbreeds then he wanted to impregnate your sister with your sperm. Is that what you want to go home to? Do you want to lead Venjamin here so he can do that to your sister?”
Angry tears streamed down John’s face. Amelia looked stunned, her face even paler than before, her eyes huge like full moons, wet and glistening. The room went dead silent except for Valerie’s heavy breathing. She should never have told any of her children their fate. It had been cruel to do so. Consciously calming herself down, she kneeled in front of her son and placed her hands on his knees. He turned his head away, his eyes red, tears still sliding down.
“That’s why your dad chose that moment to run. He loves you. No one is pretending that everything’s okay. We’re all just adjusting. No, it’s never going to be the same again. But given time, it will be okay. We are working on a plan to save your father. I haven’t forgotten about him. I never will.”
“John,” Jonathan said calmly, “I need you to tell us what you and Lisa talked about in that conversation.”
“I told Lisa that I loved her and missed her. She said that Venjamin told her that Mom and Dad had a fight and that she took us. Dad’s still alive. But she promised not to tell Venjamin that I called. She’d never betray me.”
“I don’t doubt that. But Venjamin would have taken precautions,” Jonathan said. “You didn’t say anything about your location or who you were with?”
He wiped his nose with back of his hand and shook his head. “I told her that I’d call her tomorrow night.”
“You know that can’t happen,” Valerie said delicately.
“I know,” he said with hostility, but then his voice softened. “I . . . just needed to hear her voice.”
“This might put us at an advantage,” Alessandro said. “He’s feeling secure. He thinks we’re in hiding, that he’s almost got us. We can be in Sangre Valley by tomorrow night. I know a guy with a plane. Tobar will be waiting by the phone for John’s call. It would add to our element of surprise.”
“But that still doesn’t get us into the hospital or tell us where to find Charlie or how to get him out,” Ethan said.
“I need to take a walk,” Valerie said abruptly.
Barefoot and hopeless she walked out onto the beach to clear her head and gain perspective. The sand was cool beneath her feet and the breeze had a slight sting to it. This whole night had a sting to it. Her son hated her. He hadn’t said the words, but his emotions were clear. He thought she was replacing his father, pretending that their previous life didn’t matter. That was so far from the truth. She loved him and wanted to protect him, that was all. The whole world thought she was a murderer and kidnapper. She couldn’t go into public—even if this nightmare with Venjamin ever ended—without accusations. She had vowed to save Charlie and destroy Venjamin, but the obstacles kept getting bigger and bigger. How could she leave her children when they were in so much pain? How could she travel when the police were looking for her? Then there was the whole problem of the hospital. How could the made-vampires travel during the day without burning? Who would take care of the children if she p
erished?
“Are you okay?” a voice next to her asked.
She jumped with a yelp. Ethan had materialized next to her. “You scared the living daylight out of me!” she said angrily.
“Ironic turn of a phase for a vampire,” he said dryly. “We will find a way to free your husband.”
“Don’t call him that.” She knew that he chose the word ‘husband’ purposely. “And I know we will. I just can’t possibly see how.”
“I want to tell you something.”
She glanced up at him. “Okay.”
“Just as humans have myths about us, we have our own. I want to tell you of our legends.”
“You never struck me as the type who believes in legends.”
“I don’t. But I think they’ll help you understand everything that you’ve had explained to you in the last couple days. They may put into perspective the significance of your existence and Venjamin’s work.”
She stopped walking and turned to face him.
“All vampires—living and made—are children of the Vampire Queen—Aleekela. She was a living vampire, queen, and divine goddess. Her skin was black as the darkest night, her hair cascaded to the ground like a waterfall. She possessed a beauty so radiant that it could blind the eyes if one gazed upon her for too long. She had a husband, Memket, and four beautiful daughters. The human tribes of the African jungles worshipped her. To satisfy her hunger, the people sacrificed their slaves and enemies to her. In return she would protect them against all the evils of night and rival tribes. In order to protect herself against her own enemies, she requested loyal human soldiers as sacrifices, but instead of feeding on them she bit them and turned them into an army of the walking undead.
“But her army of vampires had a hunger greater than her own. They would attack the villages plundering entire populations. The Queen retaliated by forbidding the murder of any human by a vampire and immediately stopped sharing her sacrifices with them. Resentful, her army turned mutinous and slayed Aleekela, her husband, and her children. Ever since vampires have run rampant over the earth and humans feared us. But before her death, the Queen swore she would return and have her vengeance on those who betrayed her and her treaty with the humans. It was said that her eldest and most beautiful daughter Nephaket escaped the massacre and hid among the human population. She married among them and gave birth to other living vampires. In order to stay hidden and preserve the royal vampire line, she forfeited her immorality, but vowed that one day immortality would be bestowed upon one of her daughters. That daughter would rise to reclaim her mother’s thrown and reign over all vampires and humans as Queen.”
“It’s a pretty story, but what exactly is that suppose to make me understand?” she asked. “Are you proposing that I am the great-great-great granddaughter of Queen Aleekela?”
He smiled at her in that half smile sort of way of his. “Like I said, I’m not a believer. You told me earlier that you weren’t sure what you were. Maybe that story can give you some perspective.” He turned to leave her with her thoughts.
“You could be a poet,” she said stopping him. “You do have a way with words—when you choose to use them.”
He nodded at her and began his walk back towards the house.
Valerie plopped down in the sand facing the water. She turned Ethan’s vampire legend over in her head. She could see how it paralleled Alessandro’s scientific theory of the Mitochondrial Eve. It was less complicated, less sophisticated, but its simplicity made it easier to understand. Maybe she was a descendant of some vampire goddess. The Queen had made the same vow that Valerie made—to return and destroy those who threatened her and her loved ones. But it was Nephaket who gave up her life and immortality for the future of her children. Maybe that was supposed to be her fate too. Perhaps she needed to start looking at the larger picture and stop getting caught up in the details.
As she sat in the sand, the sky lightened into different shades of violet until the sun began to peer over the horizon with pink and orange hues. Fear immediately seized her heart and her eyes darted to the house down the beach. Her whole life she had feared the sun. Even now that she knew it could do her no harm, her pulse raced. But she remained seated in the sand and turned her eyes to the water and the rising sun to face her fear. At first its brilliance blinded her, washing out everything around her, but as her eyes adjusted to the new level of light, she witnessed her first, and perhaps her last, sunrise. The pinks, oranges, and yellows of the sky, their vividness and intensity, the way the water lightening into a rich blue and light green was beyond words. As the shadows receded, a saturation of color emerged over everything, the world was ablaze with an unknown beauty. Valerie had never seen anything so wondrous before. And suddenly she knew how to get into the hospital.
Chapter Forty-one
Immortality Belongs to the Gods
Venjamin had the laboratory arranged and prepped for a complete blood transfusion the moment Amelia was back in Sangre Valley. He had called Rhett and Drew back to town. Once John’s phone call came, he wanted to be able to send his foot soldiers directly to the family’s location. They would have an army of made-vampires behind them this time. Even with Ethan Shanahan on their side, there would be no escaping. He would have his blood by morning.
What Venjamin was not aware of was that the build up of iron in his liver had all but rendered the organ useless. The waste his liver was supposed to filter out had continued to course through his blood. That unfiltered blood had left waste in the veins and arteries of his brain like little poisonous landfills so his most prized and vital organ was no longer functioning properly. Mind over matter no longer worked when it was your mind that was damaged.
To pass the hours, Venjamin had turned to the vampire legends. He owned perhaps the only written version of the story. God, how his father would have loved to get his hands on the lore of actual vampires. It was such a shame he had died before he’d seen his son in his glory. Engles would have been so proud. If one looked with a wide enough mind, he could find evolution in Genesis. Just as there had been science buried beneath the myths of vampire children, science also had found an interesting home in the lore of vampires. The evolution of their existence was written right into their own stories. It was romanticized of course. But it was there. Just as Queen Aleekela and her daughter Nephaket promised to rise again, they had. Or rather Venjamin had resurrected them.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t Charlie?” he asked the vampire as he looked over his town. Charlie did not even have the strength to raise his head. He hadn’t been feed since his capture. He endured Rhett’s torture then Venjamin’s, but since had not been beaten. His purpose now was only as live bait. The wounds of his face and chest from the venom had closed now and turned into hideous scars. His left eye was gone. Dried blood caked his hair. He looked a wreck but was still alive. For now.
“I created this. I built this town and raised a species of vampire from extinction. It all began with my father, believe it or not. I wish he could see this town. He wouldn’t believe it. All those legends and myths he studied proven true. The snickers of his colleagues, the jokes told behind his back, the superior attitudes of his peers squashed by the truth. God, how he would have loved the vampires’ own myths. I never thought much of them, but it was you that made me reconsider.”
Charlie still did not stir.
“Did you ever notice that Memket is barely in the story? Vampires are matriarchic. Never would have thought that. Memket was never a God or even King. He was simply her husband. That made me wonder if perhaps he was not a born-vampire like Aleekela. Maybe she made her companion—you vampires do have a tendency to do that. And perhaps her four daughters were crossbreeds. Maybe Aleekela made a world like I made here in Sangre Valley. She vowed to rise again. And here she has. I may have just sped up evolution. Remarkable what man is capable of, isn’t it Charlie? By bringing the dying species together, allowing them to mate, allowing the vampire blood to become dominate again I
think I may have caused a genetic mutation exclusive to your family. I always knew your family was special—the ease of which Valerie conceived, the display of strength and speed your children have, the special quality of your daughter’s blood. It’s an exciting time. I have all these new theories, experiments that I can not wait to test. All I need are my subjects.”
He looked at the pathetic vampire. “Can I confide in you, Charlie? I envy you. You get to see the fruition of all your work. You never have to worry about illness or dying, leaving things unfinished. Immortality is for the gods, Charlie. How you ever were chosen to become one of them, I cannot fathom. I intend to become one myself though. If I can save a species, if I can speed up evolution, I have to be close to being a god, don’t you think? Amelia will help me become one.” A sudden thought occurred to Venjamin just then. “Tell me Charlie, have you ever noticed if your wife’s blood sings?” Charlie lifted his head, his eyes and mouth revealing his surprise. “You hugged her, kissed her, made love to her. You loved her so of course you never bit her to answer the call of that singing blood.” By the look on his face, he knew Charlie had heard his wife’s blood sing. “You never reported it. Shame on you. What about your children? Did their blood sing to you when you hugged them and kissed them goodnight?” Charlie didn’t answer, but Venjamin did not need him to. “I’ll need to get your family back to the Lab to verify this conjecture, but I do not doubt that I will not be disappointed. I truly am looking forward to your son’s call.”
He heard a gurgle come from Charlie. “What was that? You may want to save your strength for when John calls. He will need assurance that you’re alive before I can convince him to return.”
“I . . . will . . . kill . . . you.”
Venjamin laughed. “No, Charlie, you won’t. Why don’t you enjoy the view? I’ll see you when your son calls.”
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