Page 100 of The Silver Fox Vampire

“No woman was good enough for my boy. He’s moved beyond pleasures of the flesh. He has a higher goal.”

“So you do have some word from him?”

She glowered. He knew she couldn’t bear him to think her son had deserted her. “He gets information to me.” She jutted her jaw. “But don’t get excited. You will never find him, his energy is operating at a higher frequency than yours ever will.” She raked a hand through her thinning, dyed black hair, “You have no idea how powerful my son will soon be. He’s learned more than any vampire, acquired superpowers beyondimagination. And soon he’ll overthrow the fucker who taught him. That ugly beast is just a stepping stone. And then my sweet boy will come for me, and I will—” she belched loudly, “—live in Paradise for eternity.”

“Paradise…” He waited, then nudged her some more. “If this happens, then your son is great, indeed.”

Dorothea traced the air with her glass, spilling wine on her clothing without even noticing. “The realm he’s building is more beautiful than a fae world. Matteus will be king, and I will be his queen, and we will rule over the humans in their silly little toy towns.” She let out a raucous cackle. “They don’t know what is about to hit them, stupid bobble heads.”

“Bobble heads?”

“High Tween humans. Just a load of dumb-assed bobble heads. They’ll do anything for money. Sell their stupid souls, with the promise of eternal life. They don’t realize Matteus is about to take over. Motham will fall next, then we’ll move over the mountains. Vampires will rule again.” She gave him a filthy look. “But not Hales. Never Hales.” She drained the glass and smacked her lips. “Matteus will come get his momma, like the good boy I raised him to be.”

“It’s a nice fantasy, Dorothea,” Oliver sneered, knowing this was the moment to squeeze her fragile ego.

“It’s not a fantasy. It’s true,” she howled at him.

Oliver stood up.

He’d heard enough. All of it was aligned with his own experiences, and she’d alluded to the involvement of another darker force. Was that the shadowy cloaked figure he’d caught sight of on his last trip?

There was no point in staying any longer. She would only descend into slinging more mud and he would probably lose his cool. Already there was a sour taste in his mouth.

“Thanks for your time, Dorothea. I’ll be on my way.”

As he made for the door, she called after him, “When you and those stupid gargoyles lost him that night, what? You think he just disappeared by some fluke? Not my son. He knew exactly what he was doing, he outwitted the lot of you. Even you, Hale, wonder boy.”

Oliver’s lips twitched. “I think two hundred plus years on earth allows me to claim manhood.”

“Bah! Should have been staked with the rest of them,” she hurled at his back.

Oliver saw red. He swung round, eyes blazing, and she cowered. “You think living for eternity is better, do you Dorothea? Like this? Stuck in a wheelchair, drinking your days away on cheap red wine and memories of what you once were?”

“I have a better place I’m heading.” She smirked. “Unlike you. Stuck all alone in a world without clan. But my baby boy, he’s coming for me, he’ll look after his momma, he always looks after his momma.” She was rocking now, holding her glass of red wine like a babe in arms as she repeated over and over, “My boy, my boy, he loves his momma.”

Her mind, Oliver realized, was fracturing. Soon all she would have left was this moment, repeating the same words for eternity, waiting for her son to rescue her from this hellhole of misery.

It would never happen.

“I feel sorry for you, Dorothea,” he said quietly.

“Get fucked,” she howled as he closed the door. He felt the impact as the glass she’d thrown hit the wood panels, then shattered to the ground behind him.

CHAPTER 30

Clare gave up on the book she was attempting to read and looked at her watch. Oliver had called to tell her Waldo’s nurse would be there at 10 am to take her blood. In turn, she had told him she’d arranged to meet Emmaline tomorrow for a job interview.

“Then it’s even more urgent we get a store of your blood.” He sounded tense, worried. Oh yeah, she understood why he was concerned. To be honest, she was nervous too, but she was confident that nothing would happen tomorrow. All the other victims had been well settled in jobs before they disappeared.

Before he rang off, he husked, “I can’t wait to come home to you.”

“Me too,” she said, and suddenly nothing else mattered except seeing Oliver.

When the doorbell rang, she was careful to check the security camera before answering.

A willowy, dark-haired woman stood on the doorstep with a medical bag. She looked vampiric, Clare thought.

But when she smiled and she clearly had no fangs, not even the sharper canines that often denoted vampire heritage, Clare wasn’t so sure. Her canines were short and rounded.