The Vampiric Housewife (39 page)

    
“I’m sorry for that, but don’t think for one moment that I haven’t experienced it either. I was stolen from my birth parents, my adoptive parents were murdered, I was prostituted out to my husband, my children were tested and experimented on without my knowledge. My entire life, my entire existence was a lie. You may have scars on your body, but my scars are just as deep and just as ugly. Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean that they’re not there. That’s why I have to do this.”

    
“Revenge,” Ethan growled. “It will not give you satisfaction or peace. You asked me how many humans I have killed. The answer is thousands. Not for thirst but for vengeance. My victims were vampire slayers. I found the ones who murdered Malia and slaughtered them. But it never brought Malia back. It never gave me a sense of justice or satisfaction. With every life I took the rage only grew.” His dark eyes burned into hers. She would not back down.

    
“That is a lesson I will have to learn for myself. If you have a problem with that or with anything else, maybe you should stay behind.”

    
His stare transformed into a glare. Finally he took those penetrating eyes off of her. “Fine.” He turned to Alessandro. “Get everything set. I’ll get us packed.” He stormed out of the room without another glance at Valerie.

    
“Wow. I think for the first time since I’ve known Thanatos, he has something to lose,” Alessandro said.

    
Valerie flushed for a moment.

     
“We’re coming with you,” Amelia announced materializing in the doorway with her brothers. Gabriella had been ease dropping with them and did not look anymore pleased with the plan than Ethan.

    
“No, you’re not,” Valerie said.

    
“Just in case this plan doesn’t come off the way we hope and Venjamin can trace us back to St. Thomas, we should move the kids,” Jonathan said to Valerie. “Gabriella, I want you to take them into hiding. They still have their passports. Take them to the British Virgin Islands. I have a friend there who can hide you.”

    
“I’m not leaving you. I can help. I won’t abandon you,” she told him adamantly.

    
He smiled. “You won’t be, my love. I will be okay. We all will. I do need your help though. You’re the only one to watch over the kids. What would they do if you came with us? Go get some bags packed. You’ll be on a boat in twenty minutes.”

    
Unhappy but pacified, Gabriella did as ordered. Jonathan and Alessandro went to work putting their plan into action.

    
“If we’re rescuing Dad, I’m going,” John said.

    
“And if John and Amelia get to go, so do I,” Harry said firmly crossing his arms. This sounded like an adventure of a lifetime. He wasn’t going to miss it.

    
“You’re going to get on that boat with Gabriella and stay safe. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you.”

    
“What makes you think we’d be able to forgive ourselves if something happened to you?” Amelia challenged.

    
“You’re the kids. I’m the adult. It’s my job to look after you. Not the other way around.”

    
“You can’t expect us to sit back and lose both our parents,” Amelia argued. “We can help. Even if it’s just being a look out or—“

    
“No. You can’t expect me to put my children in danger. Not after all your father and I have done to keep you safe.”

    
“He wanted to keep you safe too,” John said. It was the first nice thing he had said to her in a week. She couldn’t help herself and smiled.

    
“We work good together,” Harry said. “Remember how I jumped on that vampire attacking you in the motel room?”

     
“Too vividly.”

    
“Mom—“ Amelia protested.

    
“No. Now go help Gabriella pack.”

     
Sulking and mumbling they stomped out of the room.

    
Valerie took a deep breath. This was it.

Chapter Forty-three

One Fiery Kiss

    
Her children were wrapped like mummies in scarves and layers of clothing to protect their delicate skin from the harsh rays of the sun. Amelia and John were still angry with her but allowed her to hug them goodbye and tell them how much she loved them. Harry’s short attention span had already been distracted by the fact that he was out in daylight and riding on a boat for the first time in his life. Jonathan and Gabriella exchanged a long kiss, and Alessandro said his goodbyes to the kids promising all kinds of fun when they reached the British Islands. Ethan was no where to be seen.

    
By that evening Valerie was back in the States sitting in a black jeep with tinted windows less than ten miles away from Sangre Valley. This was the one place she had wanted to get farthest from, and here she was of her own volition. Adrenaline pumped through her. She couldn’t wait to charge the town and the hospital.

    
Jonathan and Ethan were dressed fully in black. Pulled back on the tops of their heads were ski masks and goggles for when they had to venture into the sunlight. Alessandro wore black too but for flare had added a fuchsia Hawaiian shirt over the black. His ski mask was tossed on the dashboard, his goggles around his neck. Valerie’s attire was less espionage inspired. She wore dark blue jeans, a white blouse, her hair in a ponytail. She wanted to show Venjamin that she was no longer a fifties housewife. She wasn’t the person he had created but the person she had chosen to be.

    
“Here,” Jonathan said handing her a pair of clip-on pearl earrings. “When you’ve located Charlie—“

    
“Or are in a situation that you can’t escape—“ Ethan interjected.

     
“Press the back of the earring. That will activate the GPS and we’ll be able to see your position on this.” He held up a blackberry. “You’re going to be searched when you turn yourself in. The pearl earrings were your signature in Sangre Valley so Venjamin shouldn’t think anything of them. And since they will be turned off, they shouldn’t set off any security you may have to go through. Once you activate the GPS, that will be our signal to start the fire and come in.”

    
“We will find you,” Ethan assured her.

    
She brought her violet eyes up to his. She could feel herself becoming lost in the blue pools. That connection between them, it was still there. Breaking the gaze she said, “Let’s do this.”

    
“I’ll walk her to the guard station,” Ethan volunteered.

    
“Careful not to let the guard see you,” Alessandro said.

    
Ethan nodded and pulled the ski mask and goggles down. Side by side they started down Redemption Road towards Sangre Valley’s city limits. They did not speak or look at each other, the silence between them was pregnant and stretched. These could be their last moments together. It felt like something had to be said, recognized.

    
Finally she said, “Thank you for all you’ve done for me and my family. Getting us off the street, rescuing us from Rhett, giving us a safe place to stay and now this, saving my husband—“

    
Suddenly Ethan grabbed her in massive arms, lifted his mask and goggles in one swift movement, and he kissed her, fiercely. His lips were cool and consuming. The sheer strength of his being weakened her. Valerie felt herself surrender to him with a tremble, passion sweeping her away. Clinging to him, she wanted to embrace as much of this man as she possibly could. She kissed him with a need and hunger so desperate it was dizzying. For the first time she understood a vampire’s lust for blood except hers was for something radically different. This was the kiss she had been waiting her entire life to share. But the sun had not yet set, and she felt his exposed face and lips begin to flake away in ash. Just as abruptly as he had grabbed her and kissed her, he released her pulling the mask back over his face.

    
“Your skin,” she said softly stroking the side of his face through the mask. She remembered Charlie’s screams of agony when he had been burnt. Though Ethan had not even flinched, she knew he was in excruciating pain.

    
“We have blood in the van. I will be fine,” he said in that rough voice of his. “The sun will be completely down in less than thirty minutes. You need to find Charlie by then or else the town will begin to wake and there will be vampires in there within the hour.”

    
Valerie nodded.

    
“You can do this.”

    
She nodded again and began her walk towards the guard station. She knew Ethan’s eyes would be on her the entire way.

    
With her fear buried deep in the pit of her stomach, she marched up to the guard station with her head high, her expression calm and determined.

    
Two guards in military camouflage came out to greet her, their rifles not aimed at her, but in their hands for easy access. She could smell their humanness. She wondered if they truly knew what they were guarding. She wondered if they knew that their boss fed his own kind to vampires. They looked so young and brave, even if they did know, they certainly did not comprehend.

    
“I am Valerie Murray. I am here to see Dr. Venjamin,” she said in a loud, clear voice.

     
Both men looked surprised and one used the radio on his shoulder to call the hospital.

    
Here I come Charlie,
she thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    
“Excuse me, Dr. Venjamin,” Ms Pines said poking her head into the fifteenth floor lab. “The East Guard Station says that they have Valerie Murray. She’s requesting to see you.”

     
Venjamin turned around. “Well, isn’t this a surprise? I was waiting to hear from John Murray and I have Valerie on my doorstep. Would you like to see your wife one last time, Charlie?” Venjamin asked the vampire. Charlie raised his head the best he could and spit blood at the doctor. Pathetically it plopped on the floor. The doctor just laughed at him. “Animals. That’s all you made-vampires have ever been. Your wife on the other hand is something closer to the divine. Ms. Pines, have Rhett and Drew take a car down to retrieve her and have her brought up here, please. And as soon as the sun is down, send a patrol of vampires out. I highly doubt Mrs. Murray arrived alone.”

    
“Yes sir.”

    
“I knew the moment I stopped looking, they would come to me. What did I tell you, Charlie?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    
“Valerie, how lovely it is to see you again,” Rhett welcomed her, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. He seemed to have lost his usual jolly sense of humor.

    
“Rhett,” she said not hiding her distain.

 
   
He patted her down squeezing her breasts to induce pain and grabbing her crotch particularly hard. Her anger flared, but she was determined to ignore the invasion. She had a job to do. Once he was finished with the pat down and waved a frequency finder over her, she climbed into the back of a black SUV. She never even knew SUV’s existed in Sangre Valley. But then again, there were a lot of things about her home town that she didn’t know.

     
In the backseat sat Drew looking particularly ill. His complexion was paler than usual, ashen almost. His hair was not in its usual well groomed, slicked back style but in disarray. She noticed that his hands were shaking. He raised those cold, dark eyes to her. “Good to know you weren’t bluffing about the sunlight,” he said. She only looked at him. This was the man who almost raped her daughter, the vampire who wanted to drink her blood. She wanted to lunge at him and strangle him with her bare hands.