Blood Harvest: Two Vampire Novels by D.J. Goodman Page A

looking in the direction of the living room to make
sure that little ears couldn’t hear. “I know what happens to you
when you talk to her. I even knew about it the last time you talked
to her, even though you thought I didn’t.”
    Peg wanted to look him in the eye. She really
did. But she couldn’t.
    “So tell me the absolute truth. When you
talked to her earlier, did you… did you do anything?”
    “No. You know I have better control over it
now.”
    “And when you call her later?”
    She couldn’t answer that.
    “Peg, do I need to hide the knives and razors
tonight?”
    “No. Its fine, Tony. I’ll be okay.”
    She hugged him before he could say anything
else. He hugged back, but she hadn’t done it because she needed to
feel him against her. She’d hugged him because she didn’t want him
to see her face and know that she was lying.

Chapter Nine
     
    She went into the
living room and played with her son for a while, but she knew she
couldn’t procrastinate too long or else she would lose her nerve.
She also wanted the call to Anita to be over tonight. Anything she
could pick from that woman’s brain might help Zoey, so it was
better to do this sooner rather than later. She desperately wanted
a bottle of Jack next to her when she made the call, but she liked
to think she was strong enough now to resist such temptations.
    Other temptations, on the other hand…
    Peg told Tony she was going in the basement
to make the call because she wanted privacy. She expected him to
ask why she didn’t just go upstairs to their bedroom while he
stayed down with Brendan, to which Peg knew she would have to come
up with another lie. He didn’t, however, and Peg was spared.
    She tried to tell herself that the reason she
was really going to the basement was to check on Zoey, but she knew
perfectly well that would be a lie as well.
    Peg closed the door at the top of the
basement steps behind her, making sure to lock it. They’d installed
the lock on the door when Tony had been down here working on one of
his projects and a two-year old Brendan had somehow managed to
reach the door knob and almost tumbled down the stairs. It was
useful now, since she didn’t want anyone, not even Tony, walking in
on any of this.
    She did check on Zoey first. She was still
sleeping and looked decidedly more peaceful than she had earlier.
Given how traumatized she’d seemed by whatever had happened to her,
Peg had expected her to jerk and twitch in her sleep, maybe
whimper, like troubled people always did in the movies. She didn’t
though. She looked calm and tranquil, like a little pixie that had
gotten drunk on honey or something and crashed from a sugar coma.
She even made tiny whistling sounds through her nostrils that, dare
Peg say it, were actually cute.
    She didn’t look like a blood-sucking monster,
nor did she look like someone who had spent the last eleven years
in some sort of unbelievable hell.
    Peg didn’t realize she was staring until she
looked at her phone and realized half an hour had passed. There was
really no way she could put this off any longer.
    She felt weak as she went back to Tony’s side
of the room. There were only two ways she could possibly call her
mother, and booze was right out. She wasn’t strong enough to make
this call without some help. Under Tony’s table, behind an old
metal toolbox that was rusted shut and practically forgotten in the
corner, Peg had long ago pulled away a small piece of the drywall.
If Tony ever found the hole he’d probably think the toolbox had
punched it at some point, or maybe that a mouse had chewed it open.
She pushed the toolbox aside and reached into the hole, feeling
around the corner until she found the black case she’d stashed
there. After she pulled it out she set it on the table next to her
phone she stared at them both.
    She shouldn’t do this. She understood what
the black case really was to her. It was really no different than
alcohol. As strange as it would