The White Blood Trilogy - Complete Box Set Books 1-3 Page 16

  There was a soft tap of metal on glass, and we all spun towards the driver’s side window where the menacing barrel of a pump action shotgun was pointed at George’s head. A lone figure stood outside, motioning for the window to be rolled down.

  “Easy now,” said George as he cranked the window arm on the car door. “We don’t want any trouble.”

  “You’ve been sitting out here an awful long time,” said a deep male voice from outside the car. “What the hell do you want from us?”

  “We’re just looking for some family of a friend of ours.” George made a point to keep both hands visible on the steering wheel while he talked to the man. “Someone maybe you know?”

  “Doubt it,” said the stranger. “I think it’s best if you get the hell out of here and leave us alone.”

  “Wait,” said Ben, leaning over to get a better look outside. “You might be interested to know who we have in the car with us.”

  “Don’t know, don’t care.”

  I rolled down my own window and saw the man with the shotgun. There was something about his face that was deeply familiar to me.

  “Dad? It’s me, Jen.”

  “Jenny?” The shotgun barrel dipped towards the ground and confusion was written all over the man’s face. “What? But how do you…?”

  “Dad, these two men are my friends and we’re all in trouble. Please will you help us?”

  He scratched the back of his neck and then pointed the shotgun away from the vehicle. “Of course, Jenny. Whatever you and your friends need. Come on inside the house. Wow, you look amazing, you have grown so much.”

  *

  Ben was at the door and helping me out before I had a chance to fully get to my feet. I felt healed and perfectly healthy, but my legs were weak and I was glad for the support in getting to the house. Once inside, a woman who I knew immediately to be my mother was standing there with a worried look on her face until she realized who we were.

  “Jenny?” she asked, the same look on her face that I’d seen on my dad’s when he tried to process why I was sitting in car outside their house.

  “Mom,” I said, barely holding back tears.

  I stepped away from Ben and rushed into her arms, letting her embrace me in a giant hug. She squeezed me tight and rocked me back and forth a little, it felt exactly like it had when I was in her arms as a child.

  Suddenly, she grabbed my arms and stepped back to look me in the eyes. Her eyes were deadly serious, and her mouth set in a firm line. “You’ve been turned,” she said.

  My dad stormed towards Ben and slammed him up against the wall. “Did you do this? Did you turn my little girl into a vampire?”

  “You don’t understa—” Ben choked out.

  My dad had his forearm up against Ben’s windpipe and was in the process of crushing it when George burst forward and knocked him to the side. The two men squared off and eyed each other warily, each waiting for the other to make a move before lunging forward to attempt to tear one another’s throats out.

  “Stop it!” I yelled. “Dad! George! Please, just listen to me!”

  My mom was crying now. “We never wanted this life for you, Jenny. We did everything to keep you from having to be like us, and now look at you. I’m so sorry we couldn’t be there to protect you.”

  “Mom, it’s not like that at all,” I said, reaching out to calm her. “I made my own choices that brought me to this point. Ben didn’t want to turn me, but he had no choice. I’d been shot by a police officer and was about to die. Even then, he wouldn’t turn me until he got my permission.”

  “That’s the truth of it,” said Ben. “I never meant your daughter any harm. Believe me, I’d have avoided it if I could have. It was either that or she would have died.”

  My dad eased his aggressive posture and punched the wall in frustration. “Dammit,” he growled. “She never would have been in that situation if it wasn’t for you two. You’re all over the news for fuck’s sake. Your reckless actions put my little girl in the line of fire, and you wouldn’t have had to turn her if you’d never involved her in the first place!”

  “Dad, I’m not your little girl anymore. I fell in love with Ben in Facility 47, and I have no regrets about doing what I did to help them escape. After seeing what really goes on there, how could I live with myself knowing how horribly the prisoners are treated? What if you two ended up there? You have no idea how bad the man who runs that place is.”

  “We’ve heard the rumors,” admitted my mom. “We’ve done everything we can to avoid winding up in the Facility for exactly that reason.”

  “Then you understand why I stand by my decisions. Ben turned me only after he had my blessing. If I’m a vampire now, then it’s because of the choices I’ve made. Please don’t blame Ben and George. They could have easily left me behind so many times, but they’ve repeatedly risked their lives to save me.”

  “You’ve been protecting my girl?” asked my dad.

  “Yes sir,” replied Ben. “I’d never let any harm come to her.”

  “Let’s all calm down and go in the sitting room,” said my mom. “You boys look famished, can I offer you something to drink?”

  “Uh, well…” said George, unsure of how she proposed to offer him the only thing he could really consume. “That’s mighty kind of you, but—”

  My dad laughed. “Don’t worry, we’re not trying to serve you up lemonade or the blood of a virgin we’ve got chained up in the basement. We harvest our own blood from some livestock we keep in the back. It’s not as satisfying as—well, you know—but it’s pretty good once you get used to it.”

  “My father has been teaching me to rely only on animal blood,” said Ben as we walked into the parlor and found seats in the comfortably worn couches and chairs. “We believe that feeding on humans is unnecessary.”

  “That’s something we can definitely agree on,” said my dad. “When we saw you on the news, we figured you were Facility prisoners even though they obviously wouldn’t say as much. Since Jenny was reported to be with you, we hoped you weren’t militant vampires, and we’re glad to see that you’ve got the same respect for humankind that we do.”

  “It’s so awful that vampires have to stay hidden like this,” I said.

  My mom returned with a stack of glasses and a pitcher of thick red blood. “Warm and fresh,” she said, handing out glasses and filling them for her guests. When she got to me, she looked me in the eyes and saw the expression of disgust on my face. “Not quite there yet, are you dear?”

  “No,” I answered. “I don’t really feel hungry or thirsty at all, and I’m definitely not ready for that.”

  “It’s impossible for me to tell if you’ve been fully turned or not,” said my mom. She flicked a glance at Ben. “There’s always a chance that a person gets stuck in a sort of limbo half way between being a vampire and a human. It’s not as bad as it sounds really, although it makes it difficult to be around either kind.”

  “We’ll look out for her and protect her no matter what she becomes,” said Ben.

  I could hear a fierce loyalty in his voice, and it warmed my heart to know that he was looking out for me.

  “I hate to be rude,” said my father, his voice taking on a business-like tone, “but with the heat you boys have on you, how about we get to the point of why you’re here. I’d love to believe it’s a social call, and I’m truly grateful for this opportunity to see my daughter again, but I doubt that’s the true reason for your visit.”

  “You’re right, sir,” said Ben. “We do need your help. We tried to avoid coming here for as long as possible, but there were so many complications that we really have no other option.”

  “We need your boat, dad.” I said. “I feel like a jerk for showing up here and demanding something so huge, but it’s the only way the three of us can survive this. Every anti-vampire tactical team in the country is looking for us right now, and we need to get to Bermuda if we’re going to have any chance to make it.”
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  “That’s not an easy journey,” he replied. “Do any of you know how to pilot a boat across that much open water?”

  “We were sort of hoping you might be able to program the GPS with a suitable route,” said George. “Or you could always come with us.”

  “As nice as that sounds, we’ve got a life here,” said my mom. “It’s quiet, and the neighbors don’t bother us at all. We don’t need to be on some tropical island to find our own little bit of happiness.”

  “What about the sanctuary?” I asked. “Haven’t you ever thought about going there?”

  “Sanctuary?” asked my father. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  “They do their best to keep it a secret,” said Ben. “They only have so many resources, and can only take on so many vampires. From what I’ve been able to learn, they’re trying to establish new sanctuaries here in America so they can help more of our kind avoid persecution from the government.”

  “Well as nice as that sounds, I think we’re fine right here,” said my father. “Maybe once everything settles down we can come visit you. I don’t think we want to risk your chances of getting accepted into this Sanctuary place because we’re tagging along.”

  “What about the boat?” I asked. As pleasant as it was to chat, I knew our time was limited. If we stayed here much longer, we’d risk bringing the FBI right to my parents’ doorstep.

  “You can have the boat,” my father said to Ben and George, but then he turned to look at me. “But I’d like to ask you to stay here with us, Jenny.”

  Since learning that my parents weren’t really dead, it had never occurred to me that I could go with them. I’d been so certain that my path forward was with Ben, but that life was most certainly a life of constant risk and danger. The FBI would still be after me, but if I separated from Ben and George, I might very well be at a much lower risk for being tracked. After all, the government had no way of knowing that I was now most likely a vampire too.

  I looked at my parents and then back at Ben. He smiled and gave me a reassuring nod, but it was too much to ask. I didn’t want to have to choose between the man I loved and the parents I didn’t know were still alive. Fighting back tears, I ran from the living room and out the back door, letting the screen door slam shut behind me.

  Chapter8

  My parents’ house backed right onto the ocean, and I was able to walk down a short set of steps to get to a long and empty stretch of beach. The sun was climbing high in the sky, and the morning was starting to become quite hot. A light breeze filtered in from the sea, the sky was perfectly clear and blue, and the only sound to compete with the crashing waves was the odd cry of a seagull. It was such a beautiful day that I could almost imagine that everything in my life had been nothing more than a bad dream. It was as though I could go inside and see my parents, appropriately old looking, and perfectly human.

  The screen door creaked and banged behind me, and I turned expecting to see Ben there. I was surprised to see my father instead, still looking as young as he had been the day he and my mom supposedly died in a car crash.

  “Jenny,” he said, coming to stand next to me. “I know this is awfully hard on you, but your mom and I love you very much and we’d love to get the chance to get to know our daughter again. It just hasn’t been the same trying to watch you from a distance. We get so little information about you and your life, that it feels like we don’t know anything about you at all.”

  “I know how hard it must be, dad.” I bent down and picked up a smooth pebble. It’s surface was warm from the sun, and I rubbed my thumb across its surface as though it might give me magical answers. “Everything is changing so fast right now, and I’m still in danger. If I stayed behind, you and mom would still have to leave this place. We’d still have to find somewhere new to live.”

  “We’d go anywhere to be with you again,” he said. “We could go to California or even Canada. I have some contacts in the vampire world that helped us set up these identities, and we can do it again with you.”

  “I’m in love with Ben,” I said, throwing the rock into the water in an attempt to skip it across the surface. It just hit an incoming wave and sank. “I don’t know if I can leave him.”

  My dad sighed and looked back at the house. “I thought that might be the case. Are you sure you can trust him?”

  “Yes, dad, I’m sure. He’s been there for me every step of the way. I don’t know how I know, but I feel it deep in my heart. I know he’s not lying to me.”

  “Sounds like you really are in love then,” he said with half a smile.

  “Dad, do you and mom still love each other?”

  “Of course we do, sweetie. Your mom and I have been together through so much, especially after being turned, and we’ve stuck together through all of it. I don’t know that either of us would have been able to survive being torn away from you if it hadn’t been for each other. Why do you ask?”

  “It’s something George said a few days ago. He told us that vampires become colder, more rational, and that it’s not possible for them to love like humans do.”

  “I supposed that’s true for some.” My dad picked up a handful of pebbles and tossed one into the water. I skipped three times over a section of smooth water before being caught by a wave. “But there’s a love that goes deeper than that. If you and Ben are feeling the things you’re feeling for each other, then you might not have to worry about it fading over time. I’m sorry to say it, but it could just be that George spent too much time locked away in the Facility and isn’t able to reclaim the love he lost when he lost Ben’s mother.”

  “I think I have to go with them,” I said. I slipped my arms around my dad and hugged him for all the times I’d missed his presence over the last several years. “I’m sorry to leave you, but I have to follow my heart.”

  “It’s okay, Jenny.” He returned the hug. “Believe it or not, I understand completely. I want you to be happy, and if that means you need the boat, then by all means, take it and get to Sanctuary.”

  “We should go inside and tell the others,” I said, not really wanting to let go of my dad. “We probably don’t have much time.”

  My dad kissed the top of my head and released me from his hug. “Let’s get you safely on your way. You just have to promise me that you’ll find a way to stay in touch with us. We’ll want to see you when things calm down.”

  “Of course,” I said, walking back up the steps to get to the house. “Now that I know you’re not really dead, don’t think I’m going to lose you from my life again.”

  “That’s my girl,” he said with a smile. His expression changed and he tilted his head towards the front of the house. “Do you have anyone else coming to meet you here?”

  “No, we’re on our own,” I said.

  “We have to get in the house right now. Someone just pulled up out front, and if they’re not with you, then they’re most likely government.”

  “Is everything okay?” asked Ben when he saw us rush back into the house.

  “No,” I replied. “There’s someone outside, and my dad thinks it’s the FBI.”

  George ran to a window and peeked out from behind the curtain. He squinted off into the distance and scanned the surrounding area.

  “There’s more than one car,” he said. “I think they’re staging in the woods and preparing to send agents out to surround the house. We have five minutes at the most before the come crashing in here, and I guarantee you they won’t knock beforehand.”

  “Let’s go then,” said my dad. He ran into the kitchen and scooped a keyring off top of the fridge. “The dock is just up the beach. We can get to the boat from there.”

  “They’re already moving in on us,” said Ben. He’d taken up a position by a side window and had his eyes on the tree line nearest the house. “We won’t make it in time.”

  “I’m sorry, but it no longer seems to be an option,” said George. “It looks like we’re all getting on that boat. Yo
u three go now, and Ben and I will do our best to hold them off.”

  “No!” I knew there was nothing I could do to help them, but I didn’t want to risk being separated from Ben.

  “Go, Jen. My dad and I will be right behind you. Just get to the boat and get it ready to go.” Ben’s attention shifted to my father. “No matter what happens, promise me you’ll get her out of here.”

  “I will,” said my father.

  He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out the back door after my mother. I heard shouts as FBI agents saw our movement and directed their teams to move in on the house. I wanted to look back and watch, but my dad urged me along, and so I ran along the beach in a low crouch, trying to stay clear of the crackling gunfire now coming from behind us.

  “Keep moving, Jenny. Just keep running.”

  My mom was several yards ahead of us, and I could already see her turning the corner on the long dock that stretched out into the ocean where a single sailboat was anchored. She ran down the length of the dock and hopped aboard just as my dad and I caught up with her.

  “Let’s get this boat ready to move,” shouted my dad.

  He continued to yell instructions at my mom and I, guiding us in our roles in getting the boat ready to go. While we wouldn’t need the sail to get away from the dock, the boat’s engine wasn’t very powerful and only really suitable for maneuvering in and out of shallow waters when approaching a harbor or marina. We’d need those sails the second we had the opportunity to use them, and that meant frantically rushing around preparing lines and other things I’d never seen before while my mom untethered us from the dock.

  “We won’t be able to wait much longer,” said my dad.