The Vampiric Housewife (20 page)

    
John got out of the car too.

    
“What are you doing?” she asked.

    
“Going with you,” he said trying to sound firm.

    
She smiled and kissed the side of his head.

    
Together they entered the lobby. There was an Indian man behind a plastic barrier reading a magazine. At the sight of him Valerie’s heart began to race. The clerk would instantly know she was a vampire. He would know that she had killed one his own just hours ago. He would have a stake hidden beneath the counter. With some fancy flips and a karate chop, he would break through the barrier and pierce her heart with a wooden stake. Those were the types of images that ran through her head every time she dozed or Charlie left their eyesight for a moment to buy gas or meat. The images were worse when he took the kids into gas stations or markets with him. But humans never seemed to be able to tell the difference. James Peterson certainly couldn’t. Humans didn’t have a sense of smell like vampires. It was no different with the clerk.

    
“Can we have a room, please?” she asked, her voice shaky. She needed to pull it together.

    
“Single or double?”

    
“Double.”

    
“Cash or credit?”

    
“Cash.”

    
“I’ll need to see an ID too.”

    
What had Charlie done when they asked for ID? She didn’t have one. Well, she had her Sangre Valley driver’s license. Somehow she didn’t think he’d accept that.

    
“I-I don’t have one.”
    

    
He looked at her for the first time. His eyes looked her up and down scrutinizing. She must look a mess. Her face was makeupless and dirty. Her dress wrinkled and soiled from wear. Her son just as grubby as she was.

    
“Sign the register under any name you’d like. It’ll be fifty extra bucks. Another twenty if you want me to tell your husband or boyfriend or whoever you’re running from that you’re not here.” He was no longer looking at her.

    
Silently she handed him the money. He handed her two plastic cards.

    
“What are these?” she asked.

    
“Your keys, duh,” he said as if she was an idiot. Silently she took them.

    
“Go get your brother and sister,” she told John and went to find the room.

    
She looked at the key and the strange lock on the door. She put the card in and nothing happened. She tried again and again. Harry came running up behind her. “Gimme!” he said. He put the card in then quickly pulled it out. The door unlocked and Harry pushed it in. John came up behind her propping Charlie up. Amelia stood behind them with the suitcase. Amelia refused to look at her, but Charlie smiled at her looking more animated.

    
“You’re a natural,” he told her proudly.

    
She followed her family inside. The room was bigger than the last. Two queen sized beds with ugly linens, a cracked tile floor, but also a mini kitchen with a half fridge, microwave, and a table and chairs. There was a scummy bathroom with a cracked mirror, but it had a full bathtub. As gross as the bathroom was, Valerie couldn’t wait to soak in it, to relax and have a few minutes to herself.

    
John lowered his father down on one of the beds. Harry immediately jumped on the other bed and turned on the TV. The two eldest sank into the chairs looking exhausted. Their pallor was deeper than usual, dark circles hung under their eyes, their hair limp and dirty.

    
Valerie sank down on the bed next to Charlie. “Go wash up before bed,” she told her children.

    
Amelia trudged in first while John laid on Harry’s bed.

    
Charlie propped himself up with some pillows. “You saved my life,” he said to her, a loving tone to his voice. “Thank you.”

    
Not looking at him, she asked, “Where next?”

   
He swallowed. “Did the man you killed have any cash on him?”

    
“A hundred.” It disgusted her that she had taken the money. It had been bad enough to kill him. At least she did that to save her husband’s life. But to rob the corpse? That was unspeakable.

   
“It was smart to switch cars. What did you do with the body?”

    
“The kids dumped him in a pasture pond.”

    
He nodded. “Not bad. How did you get him to stop?”

    
“I don’t know,” she said touching her temples as her head throbbed in precise beats.

    
“We should dump the car. The last thing we want is the police after us. I think we’ll be okay until evening though. We’ll have to come up with some more cash. But together, we’ll manage.” She felt his hand slide into hers.

    
“Mom—“ Harry started.

    
“The cooler is on the table,” she said already knowing what would come out of his mouth.

    
“It’s not fresh.”

    
“The sun’s up. Soon as it’s dark, we’ll pick up something fresh.”

    
Harry didn’t even bother with the meat.

    
Once the kids had bathed and settled into bed, all three of them were out cold sharing a single bed. Valerie escaped into the bathroom, the oasis of moms everywhere. She washed everyone’s clothes in the sink and hung them over the shower to dry. Then she filled the bathtub and slipped into the steaming hot water. The heat felt good on her tired muscles and weary soul. The water had a purifying effect as it washed the dirt off her skin. If only it could purify her soul as well.

    
Today, she had stolen. Not just money, but a life. It didn’t matter what she barked at Amelia on the side of the road. She could no longer see humans as food. They were mothers and fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters. They loved and laughed and cried and grieved. If vampires were further evolved than humans, then they should act like it. Take mercy on lesser creatures. She could still see James Peterson smiling at her. She didn’t kill him. She murdered him. Traded his life for the life of the father of her children. She couldn’t say that she would have done anything different in the same situation, but that would be the last time she killed a human for food. She wouldn’t be able to handle the way Amelia looked at her. They could live off animal blood and meat. And when she said they, she meant all of them. No more human blood for any of them—not Harry, not even Charlie. They had lived a long time on animal meat, they could continue on with that lifestyle. And James Peterson, she would carry him around with her for the rest of her life, apologizing to him, asking him and God to forgive her, and he would be the reminder of the evil of her thirst.

    
The stealing, that would have to end too. But for the survival of her family, it would have to last a little longer. She couldn’t be naïve about that. A cabin in the woods, isolated from the rest of the world. They could hunt deer for food. She would home school the kids. What choice did she have? There weren’t schools for vampire children anyway. If most vampires were made, there might not even be another vampire child out there. Charlie could . . . she didn’t know what Charlie could do to support their family, but they would think of something. They had to.

     
Valerie let herself slide down into the water so her head was submerged, her eyes open. She stared up at the ceiling through the distortion of the water. This was how she had felt her entire life, like she was underwater unable to breathe, desperate for oxygen, for life. Her head came back up, water running down her face, her hair slicked back. She rested it against the rim of the tub. If only getting her head above water in life was so easy.

Chapter Eighteen

Meet the Murrays

    
“Time to get up!” Harry said bouncing on their bed. “Come on! It’s nighttime!”

    
Valerie opened her eyes. Charlie was lying next to her looking completely renewed. The ash was gone, his lips were ruby red, the skin under his eyes white again. Human blood was a powerful thing. Valerie may have renounced it, but she respected it.

    
“We’re up. We’re up,” she said sitting up.

    
“The meat is gone,” Amelia said. She was dressed in her clean, but wrinkled poodle skirt and a pink sweater. She had a scarf tied around her neck to cover the two tiny scars Drew had left on her. Her hair was shampooed and pulled back into a messy ponytail which was very modern. John was sitting next to her at the table in his laundered clothes tossing his football up and down silently. He looked more sullen than usual.

    
“I’m starving!” Harry said. “I need food!”

    
Valerie was a little lightheaded herself. All she had was a little blood yesterday from Mr. Peterson. Charlie had drunk most of him. “Give your dad a minute to wake up and—“

    
“No. I think you should go to the market this time,” Charlie said.

    
“What?” she asked thinking that she must have misheard him.

    
“Can I go too?” Harry asked.

    
“All of you should go. You need to get use to interacting with humans. You can’t stay hidden in motel rooms your whole lives.”

    
“What about Venjamin?”

    
“For all he knows, we could be anywhere. We’re safe for now. You four go to the market. I’ll find us a new car and more money.”

    
All three kids were excited to be free of cars and motel rooms. Valerie was not. But as much as she hated to admit it, Charlie was right. This was her world now. She needed to embrace it. Truthfully, it wouldn’t really be that much different. She shopped in stores in Sangre Valley without anxiety. Dr. Venjamin and Dr. Henrick were humans and she had interacted with them. Her parents were humans . . . she had loved them.

    
So she dressed and the three of them left the motel. The streets were alive with people talking, laughing, arguing. She had never seen so many people. The sheer mass and number of humans was a bit claustrophobic. The height of the buildings was dizzying, more so than Phoenix. The smell of human flesh was overwhelming, more so because of her hunger. It felt good to no longer be hidden away like a leper though. At Valerie’s request and to Harry’s dismay, she made Amelia hold his hand. Her other two children chose to keep close.

    
“They have movie theaters here too,” Harry said. “Can we go see a movie? I heard a preview for a zombie movie on the radio. Can we at least see if it’s playing?”

    
Valerie smiled. Normalcy. Maybe it was still possible.

    
After a few blocks they came across a party store. Inside they had a small meat selection, not fresh, but food nonetheless. Harry also wanted a laser pen. Valerie said okay. She was just happy he wasn’t begging for a human.

    
“When we get a new house, do you think I could get a computer?” Harry asked. “I think I can figure one out. And I know I want an ipod.”

    
“What is an ipod?” she asked.

    
“It’s like a tiny record player without the records and it can hold hundreds of songs. And I think we’re going to need cell phones.”