Blood Harvest: Two Vampire Novels (8 page)

V was in her early forties at the time,
although Peg didn’t yet know her as V. She’d introduced herself to
the group at the beginning as Vivian, and from the way she
presented herself it was evident that she had some standing around
here. So when she spoke up to the kid about how he didn’t have the
slightest fucking clue what it meant to have “inner demons,”
everyone else sat up straight and listened. The kid, on the other
hand, didn’t seem to take the hint.

“Don’t go telling me what I do and don’t
know,” the kid said. It appeared as though he had almost added the
word “bitch” at the end, although the look on V’s face had probably
been what stopped him. “You don’t know about my home life or how
overbearing my mother was. My dad was working all the time…”

“Those aren’t demons. Those are imps.
Gremlins at best. You want a real reason to drink yourself to
death? Here you go. My dad raped me when I was a teenager. When I
tried to get away by marrying the boy I loved, my father killed him
and made me watch.”

The boy clammed up. Peg wasn’t sure if that
was really what Alcoholics Anonymous taught as the best way to
share your story, but Peg still wanted to applaud the way this
tough old broad had shut the pretentious dickbag up.

Peg didn’t attend another meeting until many
months later after she had started seeing Tony. Somewhere along the
line she had seen that there was another way of living and that,
against everything she had ever believed up to that point, she
could actually be a part of that life. But not unless she fixed
things. V had still been at the meetings at that point, and slowly
their friendship had grown out of Peg’s admiration for the
woman.

She’d been the maid of honor at Peg’s
wedding, the only woman who had stood up with her even though Tony
had had both a best man and an additional groomsman. The empty
bridesmaid spot, it was agreed on, belonged to Zoey. Peg only
remembered that just now. She would have to make sure Zoey knew
that when she woke up.

Peg plopped down on the couch next to V. “I
don’t even know where to begin.”

“Begin wherever you need to.”

“It’s… look, you’ve got to remember your
promise. You can’t tell anyone. I’m trusting you here.”

V took Peg’s hand. “Hey, when was the last
time I let you down?”

Peg gave a half-hearted smile. “Never.”

“Okay then. Whatever you’ve got, the secret
doesn’t go past me.”

“Alright.” Peg paused, trying to find the
right words. “It’s Zoey.”

“Shit,” V said. “Did the police finally find
something out?”

“No, it’s… dear God, I’m still not even
feeling like any of this could possibly be real. V, she’s in my
basement.”

V nodded. It took her a few seconds before
her eyebrows furrowed and she turned to look Peg in the eye.

“Wait, what?”

“Zoey is down in my basement right now. I
swear to God this isn’t a joke. I’d introduce you, but she’s
sleeping and I get the impression that she really needs the
rest.”

“Zoey as in your sister Zoey? The one who’s
supposed to be dead?”

Peg tried not to visibly wince at that. She’d
never had reason before to wonder at the many different levels of
“dead.” Dead was just supposed to be dead. Zoey, on the other hand,
didn’t seem to fit into a classic category. Peg hadn’t bothered to
check if she had a heartbeat, although at least she seemed to
breathe. Beyond that, Peg really wasn’t sure, but she didn’t think
she wanted to lay that particular bomb down yet for V. This would
all be hard enough to believe as it was.

“She’s not dead. But she’s…”
She’s got a
bellyful of blood she sucked out of raw meat
. “…she’s
different. Like, damaged.”

Peg gave her a very carefully edited version
of the day’s events. She neglected to mention the lock, Zoey’s
request for the windows, and the meat. She left in the detail about
the teeth, if only because that was something she wouldn’t be able
to hide if or when she finally saw Zoey, although she implied that
she thought it was tooth damage from various abuses rather than
intentionally sharp fangs, and she was very selective about which
of Zoey’s ramblings she shared. Having thought about it while she’d
waited for V, she’d realized that most of the incoherent babble
probably actually meant something, and if she finally got Zoey to
translate any of it she was certain it would point to some other
supernatural forces involved. After all, Zoey hadn’t just become
this way by force of bad luck. Someone or something had changed
her, and it was a good bet that this something was the person she
was so afraid of.

V listened to the whole story, only talking
once or twice to clarify various points. When Peg was done V stared
down at her hands for many seconds before looking Peg in the eye
again.

“Holy shit,” V said.

“Actually, I think what you mean is holy
fucking shit.”

“That too. Jesus Christ.” She picked up the
pot pipe again, giving it a new look that implied she was seriously
thinking about using it. “And you’re going to do what she asks? No
cops?”

“For now. I don’t know. If I start to think
that somehow Brendan or Tony might be in danger because of this
I’ll be on that phone faster than a fly on shit, but if Zoey has a
reason to think it’s a bad idea to call them I’ll just have to
trust her judgment. Fuck, for all I know the guy that took her is a
cop.”

“Cops wouldn’t do shit anyway. I know people
keep saying it’s a different world from when my daddy did what he
did to me, but I sure as hell don’t see it. The pigs didn’t do
anything to help me back then, they won’t do much more to help you
now.” She set the pipe down. “You do realize this is dangerous,
though. You still don’t know what kind of guy this was that did
this to her.”

“Trust me, I understand,” Peg said. Even
before Peg had realized there was something supernatural involved
she had already been aware of that. Zoey’s disappearance had been
similar to others that had happened throughout the state, and among
certain circles Wisconsin had a reputation. This was, after all,
the home sweet home of such luminaries as Ed Gein and Jeffrey
Dahmer. It had not been hard at all to imagine yet another of their
kind as the culprit.

“And she didn’t tell you anything at all
about this guy?”

“Maybe she did and I just couldn’t put it
together through all her babble. I don’t even know for sure that
it’s a guy.”

“Well it sure as fuck wouldn’t be a woman
doing that sort of thing, so what else could it be?”

What else indeed
, Peg thought.

“There has to be more to go on,” V said.
“What about the police?”

“I thought you said fuck them?” Peg
asked.

“I did. But once in a while they get
something right. Especially when it’s not locals that started out
their lives as dumb high school jocks with C averages. I mean like
the higher up types, FBI and all that. Didn’t you tell me at some
point that they were involved in the investigation when she first
disappeared?”

“Yeah, they were. They started treating it
like a federal case when they saw some similarities to a
disappearance in Illinois.”

“So what did they find? They had to do a
profile or something like that, right?”

“I… I guess. I thought maybe I heard one of
them tell my mother that there wasn’t much evidence to put a
profile together, but… you know, I honestly don’t know anything
beyond that.”

“How the hell could you not know?” V
asked.

“Because by then I made it a point to not
know much of anything, remember? I knew liquor labels and condom
brands, where to find the occasional dealer, and the proper way to
sterilize a razor before I used it on myself. That’s pretty much
the extent of my memories from that time.”

V nodded, sat back on the couch, and thought
for awhile. “Well,” V finally said. “Who would know what the feds
were thinking then? Your mom and your dad?”

“Oh God. V, no. There’s no way that…”

“Don’t throw the idea out just yet. Think
about it. I mean, have you even told
them
yet that Zoey is
alive?”

“No. Actually, I don’t think I even really
considered it.”

“That’s fucked up. Don’t you think they’d
want to know?”

“Yeah, but…”

“But what? This is their daughter and she’s
alive. Yes, I get that there’s still this huge rift between all
three of you. But that rift stemmed from the fact that every one of
you believed Zoey was dead. Am I right?”

Peg would have classified it as a little more
complicated than that, but when the issue was boiled down to its
essence she supposed that wasn’t altogether wrong.

“Maybe,” Peg said. She didn’t want to look in
V’s eyes and show the woman just how much she hated the idea of
getting back in touch with her parents for any reason. V was
probably smart enough to figure it out anyway, but she didn’t call
Peg on it.

“Let me ask you something,” V said. “Has Zoey
said anything to you about keeping this from the rest of your
family?”

“No.”

“And if she said she did want to see them,
would you take her to them?”

Peg didn’t answer. She honestly wasn’t sure
of the answer.

“Uh-huh. That’s what I thought. Listen Peg. I
know that you still blame yourself for what happened to her. I’ve
listened to you tell that story over and over again and I don’t
know where the fuck you really think you could have done something
different. To still be blaming yourself, it honestly sounds like
you still have that humongous ego that you think you’ve gotten rid
of. Because saying that you were at fault would mean you’d have to
be in control of things that even God won’t touch.”

“I don’t still blame myself.”

“Deep inside you still do, and you probably
always will. But if you really want to repent for all those
make-believe sins you accuse yourself of, then you need to think
first right now of everyone else around you and not yourself. Think
of what your sister needs. Think really long and hard. And then do
that, whatever it is. Even if that means swallowing your damned
pride and talking to that vicious harpy bitch you call your
mother.”

“Sometimes I deeply hate talking to you,” Peg
said.

“That’s because you hate being wrong. But
that’s just the burden you’ve got to bear around me, because I’m
always right.”

Peg smiled. “Bitch.”

“Whore.”

“Mommy?” Brendan called from upstairs. “Can I
haff a gookie?”

“Just a second, honey. I’ll be right up.” Peg
stood and gathered up her pot paraphernalia. Tony would be home
very shortly now and he didn’t like this stuff lying around in the
open. “You going to stick around for a while?” she asked V.

“Norm will be expecting me home soon, but I
can stick around if you still need me.”

“No, that’s okay. I think I’ve got a better
handle on things. I’ll be alright.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell Tony
about all this?”

“No, I’m not sure. All it’s going to take is
for him to be poking around in the wrong part of the basement at
the wrong time. But until I get something better to work on from
Zoey about keeping mum with the cops, I don’t think he’d handle any
of this.”

“Your secret’s safe here. But I expect to
meet your sister at some point, you know.”

“You work tomorrow?” Peg asked.

“Third shift.”

“I’m calling in. There’s no way in hell I’m
going to be able to work like this. Come by around ten o’clock or
so. You can meet her and we can all come up with what’s next.”

“Not a problem,” V said. She stood up to go
and gave Peg a massive bear hug. “You know, I’m not going to be
able to sleep tonight thinking about all this.”

You don’t know the half of it
, Peg
thought.

Aside from the time
she’d had to sit in a police interrogation room as she waited for
them to come in and question her about Zoey’s disappearance, dinner
that night was the tensest moment in her life. Dinner itself was
pretty much normal. Although she’d planned on making chicken for
supper all the events of the day kept her from coming even close to
an oven and she ordered Chinese instead. She’d made the call right
after V left, then had a stroke of genius and turned the oven on,
grabbed a pinch of shredded cheese from a bag in the fridge, and
threw it in. Tony came home to an acrid stench of smoke that both
covered up what lingering smell Zoey had left behind and, with a
quick story from Peg about spilling dinner in the oven when she’d
tried to take it out, explained why she didn’t have it ready.

But all the time she was sitting there at the
dining room table eating, making small talk with Tony, watching to
be sure that Brendan was eating his food and not doing his current
favorite game of trying to quietly dump food under the table for
the dog (not that they actually had a dog, but he’d seen it on some
commercial and now thought it was the most amusing thing possible)
she was aware of what was sitting right below them in the basement.
No, not what. Who. She caught herself thinking that wrong word
several times and she hated herself for it. Zoey was not a what. It
didn’t matter at all what had happened to her. She would always
be…

A vampire
, Peg thought.

Peg dropped her fork, which bounced off her
plate and sent a few lo mein noodles flying to the floor.

“Are you okay?” Tony asked.

“Fine,” Peg said. She wasn’t, of course. Even
though the V word had been at the edge of her mind all day long,
this was the first time she’d let it come to the surface and now it
hung like a neon sign over all her other thoughts.
Come see the
amazing vampire sister! In town for one night only! After that
she’s going to eat your entire family and disappear into the
night!