Read Her Loving Husband's Curse for Free Online Page B

head. “That poor baby, all alone in the world without his parents and terrified at what he had become.”
    “I understood how he felt. I told him I was very sorry about his family, and I told him he didn’t need to be afraid anymore since Howard and I were there to help him. I looked back at Howard, the father’s concern already settled in his eyes. He stepped out from behind a tree, tentatively at first, fully human, heart wide open, like the arms he held out ready to embrace this boy he already knew would be his son. He kneeled near Timothy and smiled.
    “‘I’m Howard Wolfe,’ he said. ‘I’d like to help you, Timothy, if you’d let me.’
    “‘There’s something wrong with me,’ Timothy said, holding out his bloodied hands as proof.
    “Howard laughed. ‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘There’s something wrong with me as well. You’ll see in about a month. If you’d like to stay with me, I think that would be fine. James here is just like you, and he’s going to help you too. Your life will be different now, but it’s nothing we can’t figure out together. Would you like to stay with me, Timothy?’ I thought Timothy would burst into a fresh flood of red tears, he looked so relieved.”
    “I thought vampires and werewolves are enemies,” Sarah said.
    “It’s never been true. At least not as long as I’ve been around.”
    “How come Geoffrey doesn’t go to see Timothy the way he comes to see you?”
    “I don’t think he even realizes he turned Timothy. He’s never said anything about it.”
    Sarah shook her head. “Sometimes people don’t say everything they know,” she said.
    James nodded. He took his wife into his arms, holding her close. He guessed she knew he was keeping something from her, but that was his job, to protect her, to keep everything bad away from her. He was her safety cushion, her soft place to fall, shielding her from everything wrong in the world. He decided not to tell Sarah about Hempel. Not now. She didn’t need to know.
    But he needed to know. Later that night, while Sarah slept, he sat at his desk and turned on his laptop. One Internet search later he was staring at the blog with the finger-pointing words he remembered:
     
    Do vampires lurk in Salem? The demon tales from long ago may not be as fictional as many have come to believe. Do you know any demons? Or, perhaps a better question is, do you know any vampires? Before you laugh you may want to consider the facts. Vampires may be prowling as close as your hospitals, your favorite clothing stores, your dentists’s offices, even lurking in Salem State College.
    How well do you know those whom you encounter every night? Where are they going? What business do they tend to? While it’s difficult to believe that the undead are real, it would be to everyone’s benefit to consider such possibilities. These blood-devouring night creatures aren’t merely figments of imagination from books and movies, but they’re out there, among us, feigning human lives to be all the closer to our blood. We are their natural food source after all.
     
    James saw the addendum under the original article, and he read that too:
     
    I am in the process of gathering the final pieces of evidence I need to prove the reality of vampires. I will have names, facts, and details soon. I hope everyone will follow me on this journey as I disclose once and for all the undead who have cloaked themselves in darkness these many years.
     
    James shut down the computer and stared out the window, wallowing in the silence of a sleeping Salem. It was just as Howard said. But James had hope. Since writing the original article Hempel had dismissed James from his list of suspects. They would be fine.
    Dear God, James thought. Let us be fine.
    * * * * *
    They say the Indians are uncivilized with their barbaric customs. Forget their depraved heathen gods. The Indians should conform to the gods of commerce. Besides, they have no title to the land. They do