“Well, aren’t you going to do what your father asked?” I raise my gun in defiance, but he swats it out my hand and slaps me across the face with unnatural strength. My neck twists and my vision blurs from the impact. I try to regain my balance, but he strikes me in my stomach, expelling all the air I held in my lungs with a nerve-shattering blow. “I bet that feels agonizing. You seem to be in quite a bit of pain,” he snickers.
My body fails to respond, and I collapse onto the ground, suffocating from the lack of oxygen. He picks me up by the collar of my coat and cradles the back of my neck in his palm.
“…You bastard!” I try to fight back, but he drives my skull face first into the wooden wall, twice, sapping whatever fight I have left away from me. With my face covered in my own blood, he jumps out the window and lobs me onto the ground, opposite of my father. Upon hitting the forest floor, I try to move, but there’s nothing left to give—I’m tapped.
All I hear is a mocking chuckle from the vampire looking down at me.
The surrounding area begins to fade even though there’s a fire burning behind us. I try to stay awake a little bit longer—long enough to give it a final go, but the darkness engulfs me, robbing me of the present.
I awaken to the smell of burning wood tickling my nostrils, my drowsiness from the lack of blood removed by a spike of adrenaline. The man who attacked us is circling my father a couple of feet from the burning log cabin. I don’t know how long I was out, but at least I’m alive.
As long as I’m breathing, I still have a chance to turn it around.
“Joel Ray, at last. You’ve been quite the handful, but I’m sure you know that. Funny how after all this time hunting us, it looks like you’re the one who was actually being hunted. You see, we’ve been on to your little tricks for a while now. Studying you…watching you…and now, you’re at our mercy. Kudos for bringing your daughter along. At least this way you can say goodbye to her.”
“Go to Hell!”
“Hilarious. Perhaps one day, but not in the foreseeable future. I have far more exciting things to do…like drain you and let you watch as we turn your daughter into a bloodletting whore. I think it’s only fair considering how many we’ve lost to you. What a marvelous life she has yet to live, don’t you agree? Every father’s dream.” The vampire smirks at my downed dad, and then, at me. The embers from the cabin give light to his face in the surrounding darkness, casting a red-orange hue that kisses the side of his brown skin. When I see his face my gut aches with remorse. I get the faint sensation that I know him too, and somehow, I let him down. The vampire averts his eyes from me, focusing his attention back towards my dad. I try to find the strength to move, but foreign hands grip me by my bicep and hoist me to my feet. Vamps. Dad gets the same treatment. He struggles for a bit, but it doesn’t take him long to be at their mercy. He’s been thrown off the second story of a house and tanked a car crash. Even he can only take so much. “So, Joel,” the vampire says from behind my father. “I think…I think I changed my mind. I’d much rather have dessert first.” His eyes lift from my father’s neck and lock directly onto mine. He saunters my way, and my body runs cold. “I can already tell your blood is sweet just from that lot streaming from your forehead. I will most certainly enjoy this. More than you’ll ever know.”
“Sailor, just be calm! I’ll save you, baby,” dad cries out from behind the head vampire. The vampire stops his strut, places a hand on his hip, and laughs haughtily at my father’s plea.
“You can’t honestly be serious, can you, Ray?” He turns away from me and begins to march over towards my dad. “You’ll save her, right? Like all good fathers do, hmm? Better yet, you plan on killing me? In the condition you’re in? Funny.”
Why did he have to give him an opening? We could have fought our way out, together.
“Sailor, you can end this now. You know what you need to do. You can save us both. Just use it!”
“You’re just making it more and more obvious that I should get rid of you sooner, rather than later. You’re no fun, you know that, Ray?” The vampire grabs my father’s head and yanks it to the side with a disheartening twist. The sharp sound of his neck bones snapping registers in my ears and my father’s body goes limp once the lead’s underlings release him. He turns and chuckles, malevolence burning in his eyes. “I guess daddy won’t be saving you now. Don’t worry. We’ll put his blood to good use before it goes bad. I might even keep his head as a trophy.” He begins his ill-plotted pace towards me, but I’m a prisoner to his followers. “Why the long face, Little Ray? It’s not like you’ll be alone… I’m your daddy now.”
Chapter 7: Reality Check
“Blaze!” I open my eyes with my hands stretched in front of me, my heart pounding and my body covered in sweat. Crap. Sweat. I probably sweated out the Holy Water, which explains my hell of a dream. It wasn’t your run of the mill nightmare, even for me. I can only imagine it was because of the lack of wards. Everything felt so real…like a living moment as opposed to a blurry memory. Foul play was involved. Vartal and his mark.
“Okay, well, that would explain the night-sweats,” Valerie casually says from the edge of her room while securing her blonde bun on top her head. Obviously, she missed the part where my hands shot up in a crazed panic. “I’m not even going to ask what that was about.” She turns and faces me with a mischievous grin. My eyes gravitate towards the graphic on her gray T-shirt—a depiction of the grim reaper with outstretched arms. Tasteful. “I thought he was out of the picture,” she says as she fastens a black choker around her neck.
“He is,” I huff, returning her gaze with a glare. “It wasn’t like that…it was a nightmare.” Wards or not, that thing is a link between us two, slowly bleeding into me. That shit takes its toll. Even with the injections.
“Yeah, that’s how it usually is.” She shrugs and casually sinks a hand into the back pocket of her black shorts and points towards the hall with the other. “Well, I’m going to go brush my teeth now. If you want to talk about it, just say the word. You know where to find me.”
“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind. Hey, also, if they ask for me, just tell them that I’m weird and one of the few people in America who takes two showers in an eight-hour period.”
“I won’t say it quite like that, but I’ll improvise and make it work.”
“Oh, and leave me a pancake or two if they’re serving them.”
“Will do.”
“Thanks,” I respond, smiling.
Valerie answers by perking her brows and leaves shortly after.
Pairing up with a demented version of my dad, fighting Abby and Blaze as vampires…what a way to start the day.
I sit up in bed and ponder for a minute or two; just long enough for Valerie to sweep into the room. “Bathroom is all yours,” she says as she tucks away her toothbrush into her bag. “Don’t leave me hanging down there. Wish me luck.”
“You’ll be fine…I’ll be out in like, ten minutes.” After Valerie heads downstairs, I make my way to the washroom, bag in hand. I turn the shower on and let the water run while I pull out my syringe and load it with what I need most. I ignore the slight craving for Sphinx that begins to claw in the back of my mind and in the pit of my stomach. I shake my head and raise myself up to the counter, mentally batting away the unnatural urge for self-destruction I’ve been battling since I was first exposed to the drug. With a sigh, I place the needle beside me while I roll the sleeve of my top to my elbow. Once I’m done, I take a second to stare at the cursed mark that’s embroidered on my forearm.
I’m getting worse.
I sink the needle into my skin shortly after and stare at my reflection while the mirror in front of me begins to fog from the condensation that fills the air. I sit for a while and listen to the water from the shower sprinkle onto the bathtub. I’m not really in the mood for a shower. Seeing my dad like that really shook me. He was rough back in the day, but he changed a long time ago. As much as I want to, I can’t conte
mplate life in a stranger’s bathroom for the next hour. Heading downstairs is the next most viable choice. It’s not like it’ll make me get ‘better.' I have a demon in me steadily gaining ground.
Fuck.
I re-up on my deodorant and get dressed at a moderately slow pace, putting on a pair of black jeans, a white V-Neck, and a red plaid shirt to top it all off. I whip my hair into a ponytail and fasten a necklace of a broken wing around my neck that falls towards the top of my chest. I take a look at my cell to send Blaze a quick text, but there’s still no service. Disgruntled, I shove my phone back into hiding and drop off my bag in our room before going downstairs.
“Oh, there she is!” Helen’s husband announces before I’m even on the first floor. The creaking stairs must have given it away. I shake my head and roll my eyes while still shrouded in the secrecy that the staircase brings. I’m sure to fix my face once I transition back into the public eye. “Valerie told me you were having a bit of a late start,” Frank says as he places a stack of pancakes in the center of the dining table. Valerie flashes me a glance while she cuts into one of her hotcakes, a sly smirk running across her face.
“Yup, you can say that.” I approach the table and push out the chair closest to Valerie. They’re good hosts. They already had a plate and silverware set up. I guess all those years of owning a restaurant really taught them how to treat their guest. “I blame the bed and the awesome food I had before I came in,” I say as I take my seat.
“Well, help yourself to some more. It’s on the house, compliments of the chef.” I pick up my pre-set silverware and lunge my fork into the stack of pancakes. I manage to nab two and support them with my knife as I usher them over to my plate.
“Driving for a half a decade could have played a part in that, too.” I shrug.
“Hey! I offered to drive,” Valerie chimes in as she ferociously cuts into a pancake drenched in syrup.
I slightly turn my neck to the side and cut my eyes her way.
“Never said you didn’t. Just stating facts.”
“It’s like her steering wheel must be immaculate or something. She won’t even let me touch it.”
“There’s a special bond between a person and their car. Ask Frank, he’ll back me up on it.”
“She’s right,” Frank says as he reaches over the table to re-up on his syrup. “The bond between a person and their car is sacred.”
“Yup.”
Valerie leans back in her chair and scoffs. “Y’all are ridiculous.” Helen laughs as she nears the table and fills up Valerie’s cup to the brim with orange juice. I didn’t even realize that she’d gotten up. “Thank you.” She fills my empty glass, and I nod, thanking her. As she goes back to her seat, I take a bite out of my pancake, which just so happens to be dry as hell. I can’t complain though. I suffer of my choosing, I like them plain. It usually works out, but the pancakes I managed to grab were probably left on the skillet a bit too long. “So I forgot to ask, where are your children? Sailor told me she had a run in with one of them last night. Nathan?”
“Yup, that’s the one,” Helen answers. “He can be a handful sometimes…but I don’t know. They’re probably just sleeping in or just shy.”
“Shy?” Valerie asks.
“Well, yeah...kind of. When I told them last night that two girls would be spending the night with us, you should have seen their faces.”
“Sheer terror?” I interject. “Good. The sooner they learn, the better.” I smirk and calmly sip from my glass.
“Sailor,” Valerie says flatly. I can hear the disappointment in her voice, clear as day, not that it bothers me.
“What? It’s not like I’m wrong.”
Helen chuckles, and Frank doesn’t say a thing. A tickled expression only lines his lips.
“Terror? I wouldn’t say that. But girls are a bit of a mystery for the both of them, although I bet that story will change once they get a bit older.”
“Little Nathan is going to be a cutie when he grows up. I can already see it. I bet he has a bunch of little girlfriends following him around at school already.”
“She’s been hyping him up ever since she saw him. Apparently, he has the most adorable cheeks.”
“But he does…,” I tease.
“He really does.”
“See!”
They continue on and on while I slowly recede from the conversation.
Laughing with some people I just met over breakfast at the family table seems to make the perfect picture. It’s all shits and giggles on the surface, but on the inside, I can’t help but be bogged down by the weight of my secret. It wasn’t even twenty minutes ago that I had to suppress the demon inside of me. I can’t really walk away from this one. Even when I’m not in the field, Vartal is still with me. Waiting. In a way, you can almost say it puts moments like this in perspective. Valerie and the others are having a ball, happy faces and casual conversation. Sure, they have their own problems, but nothing beyond what’s considered normal for the average American that’s unaware of the other side. I hope it stays that way. If I go down on good terms, Valerie will move on. The less she knows, of course, the better. I’d have to set it up so that Blaze tells her…
“Something the matter, darling? Why the long face?” Helen asks, snapping me from my train of thought.
“I was just thinking—got distracted for a moment. Our car is still outside of your restaurant. The food was good and everything, but I don’t feel comfortable leaving it out of my sight for too long. Call me paranoid, but I don’t want anyone to break into it. That, and of course we have our road trip to finish. If we’re having problems, I don’t want to be out in the middle of nowhere if it’s something severe.”
Frank wipes the crumbs from his face and downs the rest of his orange juice.
“I totally understand. I was just about to ask if you two wanted to come with me to check it out after you guys finished eating. The diner opens at noon and doesn’t really pick up till late. I can take the day off if need be; see what needs to be done in the meantime.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s no problem. Also, don’t worry about your car being broken into. Not going to happen. With the storm we had last night, it wouldn’t even be worth it, and the diner isn’t located in an area with a lot of crime. Same goes for this whole area, really. Not much of anything goes around here. It’s quiet.”
“Good.”
“Yup. Saves a fortune on security costs on the premises, but anyway, I’m ready to go whenever you guys are.”
“Cool, but I do have a question I’ve been meaning to ask that I didn’t get a chance to last night.”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“Do you guys have Wi-Fi or a laptop or something? A tablet, even? We could use it for the reservations and stuff. It’d save a lot us a lot of trouble.”
“No…none of that stuff’s around here. Have you seen our phones?” Frank chuckles as he digs into his pocket and places his flip-phone on the table. It’s old and black, one of those phones that can last two weeks without a being charged. Aka, the ones made around a decade ago. He really is unplugged. “The Internet has it’s uses, but it can also rot the brain. Turn the children into zombies, you know? A few years ago we made the decision to ditch the phenomena.”
“Of surfing the web? It’s a way of life.”
“Sure, in a way, but people these days really don’t know how to connect anymore. We didn’t want that for our children. It’s all a bunch of hoopla and flashing lights, anyway.”
“Fair enough. I can’t argue with that. I see what you mean.” I totally can by the way, I just want to play nice. They are providing me with a roof over my head at no cost. “Valerie, you ready?” I ask, conceding from the start of a potential debate. It’s not my battle to fight if an old-timer is anti-technology.
“Yeah, as soon as I finish this last bite I’ll be good.”
“All right. Just let me run upstairs real quick so I can get my purse. I’ll
be back down in a bit.” Before I leave the table, I gesture at my plate with my knife swirling above the remains. “Do you want me to…?”
“Don’t worry about it, dear. I’ll handle it. You just get what you need to so you can get going.”
“Thanks.” I excuse myself from the table and make my way upstairs, only ramping up my pace once I’m out of view from the others. I make it to my bedside and comb through the contents of my bag, pulling out my Beretta. I look over my shoulder and examine the gun quickly before stuffing it into a black purse I also managed to pack for just in case I felt the need to carry. Kids are around. Last thing I want on my mind is little Nathan blowing his brains out while I’m out. That and I’m not sure who else might go rummaging through my stuff while I’m gone. It’s not likely, but I think explaining the reason you have a gun on you in a stranger’s home sounds like a living nightmare. I’ll pass.
“Sailor, we’re heading outside!” Valerie announces.
“Okay!” I yell. “I’ll be—” I hear the front door open and then slam shut. “…just a second.” I sling the strap of my purse over my shoulder and rise to my feet. When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I see Helen off to the side of the stairwell with her hand resting on the banister. “We should be back soon, I hope,” I say as I walk past her. Helen nods and shuts the door after I step out onto the porch. The lay of the land is different from what I remembered from last night, or better yet, it’s different from what I could make out between the blinding rain and night sky. There’s not much to it—just your typical rural property. Isolated for the most part with a decent bit of land and surrounding trees. That would explain the lack of service, I guess... Thunderstorms and shoddy rural life aside.
“Sailor, you coming?” Valerie asks as she marches my way from the side of the house, her feet kicking dust from the gravel road exclusive to the property. Her head tilts to the side once she stops and she rests a hand on her hip. “He’s parked out around the back.” I follow her finger as she points it beyond my field of vision. I take a step forward and then slowly progress down the steps of the porch. As soon as I begin to move, Valerie spins on her heel and walks toward the presumed location of Frank’s truck, satisfied that I’m moving along. “I didn’t know they had a garage down here.” I glance up at the sky as my feet hit the gravel road…overcast. Possibly more rain coming our way later today.
Sailor Ray and the Beautiful Lie (The Pact Book 3) Page 7