The Vampiric Housewife (23 page)

    
Charlie and Rhett were making kindling of the furniture in the room. Charlie landed on the table breaking it in half and reducing the legs to firewood. As Rhett came for him, Charlie threw a chair at him which he batted out of the way as if it was a mere fly. He picked Charlie up by his shirt and threw him into a wall breaking the tacky motel art, but Charlie was quick to recover with a knee to the groin then two fast punches blooding Rhett’s face. A kick to his side brought Rhett down to his knees. Charlie reached for a piece of kindled wood to finish him off, but Rhett had climbed to his feet and delivered a debilitating kick to his lower back. Charlie went flying forward landing on the debris of the table, slivers of wood impaling him. He screamed out in agonizing pain, but at least none of the shards had punctured his heart. Rhett spit out a mouthful of blood and picked a screaming Charlie up over his head and tossed him across the room. He bounced off the wall and fell on the bed as the legs on it gave out.

    
“We’re just getting started,” Rhett growled.

     
Ethan could either help Charlie or Valerie and her family. There wasn’t even a decision to be made. He lifted himself through the window.

    
Valerie and the kids had run.

Chapter Twenty

You Bet Your Life

    
Soon as she heard the vampire announce that they had made their escape through the window, Valerie ordered her children to run. As they bolted for their dear lives down the alley something happened. Their surrounding blurred yet she was acutely aware of every obstacle. They were moving with lightening speed. Valerie didn’t know how it had happened, but she and the kids had the speed of made-vampires.

    
“Shit,” she swore coming to an abrupt stop. An alley wall blocked their way.

    
“Wow. How’d we do that?” Harry asked.

    
“What now?” Amelia asked.

    
Valerie looked around. There was a dumpster. A couple of backdoors to businesses, all of them locked. The walls were made of brick. They couldn’t climb them. The sky was lightening. Morning was only moments away. They would be caught in the daylight. She didn’t know what to do.

    
Drew’s laughter echoed.

    
“We should have waited for Dad,” John said.

    
Drew, Angus, and a biker vampire appeared.

    
“Dr. Venjamin will be very interested in knowing you can move like that,” Drew said. “He’ll think up all kinds of new, fun experiments for you now.”

    
“Does he know the sun can’t burn us?” Valerie asked with a confident bravado. All three vampires looked to the sky. She had never prayed for the sun to come up so quickly. She didn’t know why, but she knew the sun couldn’t hurt her. But with her children being crossbreeds, maybe it would affect them like it did their father. She just hoped she could bluff the vampires into retreating before she had to find out.

    
“Bullshit,” Angus said.

    
“How do you think we got so far so fast? We drove in the daylight. Charlie just had to keep covered,” she lied. “But don’t believe me. Wait here and see for yourself. But you are made-vampires. You will burn. I’d like to see that.”

    
“She’s lying,” Drew said. The humming emanating from Amelia was so strong, Drew wanted to scream in pain and pleasure. The wild animal was about to break its chain. “Get them.”

    
“She’s not lying about us,” the biker said. “We can either take cover or burn to death. I ain’t frying for some bitch and her kids.”

    
Drew looked nervously at the sky. Shadows were already beginning to recede. The sound of Amelia’s blood was deafening, but Drew took a step back to make sure he stayed in the darkness. Valerie took a step forward.

    
“Mom!” Amelia cried out reaching for her.

    
Valerie held her hand out so as the shadow retreated the sun would hit her skin. Her kids had their backs against the alley wall trying to do the exact opposite.

    
“Crazy bitch!” Drew spat then all three disappeared.

    
With headlights blazing and the horn blaring, a black Mustang drove up. A tinted window rolled down. It was Ethan.

    
“Get in!”

Chapter Twenty-one

The Things Legends Are Made Out Of

    
“Where are the rest of them?” Rhett demanded, blood dripping from his mouth. His clothes were ripped and stained with blood—some of it his, some of it Charlie’s—his eyes wild. Charlie had more fight in him than Rhett assumed, but he was still in better shape, the better fighter, and now Charlie was bound in the sole surviving chair, silver handcuffs around his wrists and ankles so he couldn’t break free. His shirt was nearly shredded, bits of wood were still embedded in his chest and arms. The whole left side of his face was swollen and bruised. Blood dripped from a laceration above his eye. Lord knew that he hurt. His whole body ached and prayed for sanctuary from the pain. The sad thing was that he knew he was going to hurt a lot worse. He would long for death by the time Venjamin was through with him.

    
“They can move like us,” Angus said. “They have speed.”

    
“So what? Where are they?” Rhett demanded.

    
“They don’t get burnt by the sun either,” the biker said.

    
“We don’t know that,” Drew snapped. He was pissed at himself for not taking Amelia when he had the chance. The singing blood had stopped, but oh how he craved it. “But if we called her bluff, we definitely would have been fried.”

    
They had escaped! They were safe! Charlie no longer cared what became of him. The pain his body felt, it no longer mattered. Let them torture him. Let them kill him. He probably deserved it for what he had done. As long as Valerie and the kids were protected, he would be content. Nothing could hurt him if they were safe.

    
Rhett grunted and kicked Charlie’s chair. He winced, but it was the happiest wince of his life. “Who was that other vampire with you?”

    
Charlie spit out a mouth full of blood. “I don’t know.”

    
Rhett punched him in the mouth. Charlie thought the force of the blow would knock his head right off of his body. “Bullshit. Why was he helping you?”

    
“I don’t know. I really don’t,” he said with a gurgling laugh.

    
Rhett responded with another blow. “We’re trapped in this cheap motel room of yours until nightfall. I’m going to have to stay amused one way or another. You’re either going to tell me a very entertaining story about this mystery vampire and where your family has disappeared to, or else I’m going to amuse myself in other ways, mainly with your pain and blood. My methods will be nothing compared to Dr. Venjamin’s tactics. It’s best you talk to me.”

    
“Kill me. They’re safe. I don’t care what happens to me anymore.”

    
One, two, three more blows. His teeth felt loose in his mouth, even his fangs.

    
“Okay,” he coughed. “Okay.”

    
Rhett took a step back. “Who was the vampire?” he asked very slowly.

    
“I don’t know—I really don’t,” he said flinching in anticipation of another blow. “He caught Val and the kids’ scent on the street. Vampires with heartbeats. He followed them back to the room. He was curious.”

     
“What was his name?”

    
Charlie shook his head. “I don’t know. Jerry, I think. I wanted him gone, but he wouldn’t leave. Valerie . . . she liked him. Trusted him.”

    
“Why would he help you?”

    
“He had heard the legends,” Charlie said as if that was the obvious answer. Just as humans had their lore, so did vampires. There were ancient legends about living vampires.

    
The four vampires froze for a moment. They knew the stories. Why Charlie had never put the legends and Sangre Valley together before, he didn’t know. Maybe because he had never believed in the lore any more than he had believed in God as a human. To him, they were the same thing.

    
“Where is he taking them?” Rhett demanded. No, Charlie wouldn’t imagine that Rhett believed in the legends anymore than he had. Charlie suddenly wondered what Dr. Venjamin thought of the vampiric myths and if they played a part in his experiments.

    
Charlie laughed. “I honestly haven’t a clue. But they’ll be safe with him.” That was the truth as much as it pained him to say it. He didn’t like Ethan. He was arrogant and judgmental. He hadn’t lived Charlie’s life yet he felt he could judge the choices he had made. What if Venjamin’s recruiters had captured him twenty years ago instead? Offered him death at the end of a stake or life with no worries about money or food or shelter. What if he had been offered a life that could resemble the one he had before he had been turned? Maybe he would have taken that opportunity too and turned a blind eye to the fact that it was human offering such a thing, ignored the other work the doctor did so he could continue living with the woman he loved and the children he never thought he could have. But Ethan and his organization—whoever they were—knew about Venjamin and his experiment. They could keep his family safe. As much as he didn’t want another man stepping into his role of protector and provider, he wanted his family free of Venjamin.

    
“He was a believer,” Charlie continued, his truth turning over to lies. “And whether or not the legends are true, he believes them. He will protect them, and you don’t know him so you don’t know what he’ll do or where he’ll go. By nightfall his scent will be lost so you won’t be able to track him or my family. Go ahead. Beat me. Torture me. I won’t talk because I don’t know anything.” Charlie could still lie. Rhett punched the wall in frustration which meant that he believed every word out of Charlie’s mouth.

     
“Well then, I guess I’ll have to keep amused another way.”

Chapter Twenty-two

Disembodied

    
Ethan glided the car into the underground parking structure at a speed that made Valerie nervous, but she didn’t say anything. She was thankful for the rescue, the tinted windows, and the dark parking garage. Discreetly she had her eyes on Ethan. When she had awakened from her fainting spell, she had been thunderstruck by the man whose arms she lied in. Maybe she was disoriented from lack of nutrition, but the world had stopped when her eyes had open. No, it wasn’t that the world stopped, it was that the world had disappeared. Nothing existed except them, not even their bodies—she had not felt his hard, cold arms holding her, or seen his rugged, handsome face—just their disembodied souls were present. For a moment she was consumed by bliss and security and wholeness . . . she hadn’t known she wasn’t whole until that moment when her soul met his and she was complete for the first time. In a split second it was gone. Fear for herself and her children filled her, but for very different reasons. Now crammed in the sports car away from the eyes of her children and husband, she had her first opportunity to really study him, to take him in physically.