Valley of the Shadow: An Elemental Vampire Novella


For eight years, Baojia and Natalie have pursued their goals: family, career, friendship and love—trying to carve out an ordinary life in an immortal world. And for eight years they’ve been mostly successful save for a world-bending adventure every now and then.


Except that their life was never ordinary. It was never going to be.
 Natalie and Baojia might have made plans, but when ordinary life comes crashing down, they’ll have to turn to the family they have chosen—vampire and human—for help keeping their world together.


Five couples, four kids, three weeks, two paths… and a partridge in a pear tree? Return to the Elemental World for a Christmas reunion of old friends and forever loves.
For Natalie Ellis, it’s time to come home.


Valley of the Shadow is a novella in the Elemental World series by USA Today bestseller Elizabeth Hunter, author of the Elemental Mysteries, the Irin Chronicles, and Love Stories on 7th and Main.


Chapter One

Baojia lived his immortal life from sundown to midnight. He and Natalie had decided as a family that midnight was as late as two small children could be allowed to stay awake, even if they had a nontraditional school schedule and slept until noon. Though his security work sometimes interrupted, the primary focus of his life from sundown to midnight was his children and his wife. He carried his squirming daughter under one arm and nudged his son with the other. “Bed.” Jake yawned loudly. “I’m not ti-ired.” “Clearly.” He mussed the boy’s dark brown hair. “We can finish the game tomorrow.” “But not until you wake up,” Jake whined. “I don’t want to wait that long.” His daughter, Sarah, did her best impression of a boiled spaghetti noodle and flipped backward in his arms. “It’s good to want things.” Baojia wrangled Sarah upright. “It teaches you patience. Don’t play dead, Monkey. You’re going to hit your head.” Sarah’s lively brown eyes were not tired in the least. “I’m not playing dead. I’m playing vampire!” She patted her father’s cheek. “Let me see, let me see.” He forced himself to snarl and allowed his fangs to fall. “Rawr.” Sarah squealed in delight and nearly twisted out of his arms again. “Rawr, rawr, rawr!” Jake looked up with adoration. “I’m gonna have really big fangs when I grow up.” “That”—Baojia nudged him into his room—“is a very mature decision that you cannot make until you are very old.” “How old?” Jake hopped into his bed. Baojia slung Sarah over his shoulder to keep her from crawling out of his arms. She truly was their monkey. She crawled and climbed on everything in sight. “Hmm… let me think.” Jake wasn’t budging. He crossed his arms over his skinny seven-year-old chest. It was a gesture he’d recently begun copying from Baojia. “When can I decide I want to be a vampire?” Baojia went with his gut. “When you’re forty-seven.” Jake’s mouth dropped. “What? No way, Dad. I don’t want to be an old man.” “Forty-seven isn’t old.” “It’s really old.” Sarah grabbed Baojia’s head and pulled herself up to sit on his shoulder. “That’s almost a hundred, Dad.” He laughed low and long. Nothing made him laugh more than his children. They were the light and life of his eternity, and words could not express how grateful for them he was. Even when they were being restless. “Bedtime, Jake.” He swung Sarah onto his back and sat on the edge of Jake’s bed while they said good-night prayers. It was a habit Natalie had begun with both the children, and while Baojia wasn’t religious, he appreciated the habit of gratitude it engendered. “And thank you for our house,” Jake said. “And thank you for my bike.” “And my bike too,” Sarah whispered. “Thank you for Sarah’s baby bike.” “Jake.” Baojia’s voice was a warning. “And thank you for fishing. And thank you for Ariel and Miss Olivia.” Baojia murmured, “Wrap it up.” His son could be very grateful. For close to an hour if he didn’t want to go to bed. “And thank you for Uncle Lucien and Auntie Mak and for Cousin Carina and also for Butch. Amen.” Jake finished his prayers and opened his eyes, his lips pressed together. Baojia raised an eyebrow. “Butch?” “He’s out there, Dad. We just haven’t found him yet.” Jake was bound and determined to have a dog. He’d been begging for two years. Natalie and Baojia had resisted. They already had enough people in and out of their house simply to help take care of two active children. A dog seemed like another thing to keep track of. “I know it.” Jake yawned loudly. “When Butch finds us, you’ll know too.” “I’ll keep my eyes open.” He bent over and kissed Jake’s forehead. “Good night. I love you.” “I love you too!” Sarah sang. She giggled when Baojia stood and swung her from his back into his arms. “Love you, Dad.” Jake punched his pillows to get them exactly as he wanted. “Tell Mom I hope she’s feeling better.” “I will.” He held Sarah in place as she tried to crawl up his shoulder and onto his head. “Sweet dreams.” He walked out of Jake’s room and into Sarah’s. A bathroom connected the two rooms, but while Jake’s bedroom was decorated plainly with dark green trim and dinosaurs scattered everywhere, Sarah’s was an explosion of purple. Purple curtains. Purple bed. Purple-painted monkeys crawling along the top of each wall. Baojia tossed Sarah onto her bed and smiled when the little girl erupted in giggles. “Do it again.” She held out her arms. “No.” He sat on the edge of her bed and tried to settle her down. “I’ll read you a book, and then you need to sleep.” “I want Mama to read it.” “Mama is not feeling well,” Baojia said, “so we’re letting her sleep.” Sarah pouted. “I want to go say good night.” “You already did that.” “I want a glass of water.” Baojia pointed to the water bottle by her bed. “Done.” “I want…” She huffed out a breath. “I want… a stuffie.” “Sarah.” Baojia stood and gave her the look she had to recognize. “Seriously?” Sarah looked at the line of stuffed animals decorating her bed and shrugged helplessly. “Someone is missing.” He stood and watched her from the corner of his eye as he walked over to the hammock of stuffed animals in the corner. “Lion?” It was an adorable fluffy thing that had no basis in reality, but she loved it. Sarah shook her head. “Unicorn?” Eyes wide, she shook her head again. “Snake?” She considered it, but it was a firm headshake. Not the snake, but he was on the right track. His smallest child had a warped sense of humor and a fondness for the macabre. Not unlike her mother. Baojia lifted another one. “Bat?” She cocked her head and considered it. “Mmmm. No.” Baojia sighed and picked up the one he would have grabbed first if he hadn’t wanted to go through the mock trial Sarah loved so much. “Vampire?” Eyes wide, Sarah grinned and held out her arms. Baojia sighed and tossed her the ridiculous joke his wife had bought the Christmas before. It was a stuffed cartoon vampire with a purple cape and felt fangs. It looked like it belonged on a cereal box. Sarah absolutely loved it. Just as Natalie had known she would. You married an evil, evil woman. “Okay. Book, then bed.” Baojia sat next to his little girl as she snuggled under the purple blanket, hugging the ridiculous vampire and sucking her thumb. “And remind me what the silly vampire’s name is?” Sarah took her thumb out of her mouth. “Giovanni.” Baojia smiled. “That’s right.”