“Fine. You want to go it on your own? Have fun. Maybe Des will help you, until he gets bored and dumps you like he did Torina. Good luck filling her shoes.”
She didn’t wait for the rebuke, but turned on her heel and stormed out. She was sick of this—sick of Sarah blaming her; as if she’d told Troy to do it. Things were better when she was dead!
She stopped to lean on the wall, shocked at her own thoughts. What kind of horrible person would think such a thing? Maybe Sarah was right. Maybe—
No. Logic said what happened wasn’t her fault. Still, in the background was her ever present guilt. She’d seen Sarah’s memories, experienced the horror. She understood her anger, but to drag Jorick into it, to throw her childhood in her face, as if she was terrible for having a mother who cared about her?
She tried to tell herself it was Sarah’s hurt lashing out, but it was hard to take. Sarah said to stay away, and maybe that was for the best. There were only two days left of this mess, then they didn’t have to see each other anymore.
The thought left her heartbroken.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Katelina found Jorick in a back entry hall, flipping through a stack of paperwork. He excused himself to join her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Sarah.” She detailed the fight and Jorick’s expression turned grim.
“I was worried about something like this. There’s not much you can do, little one. Just give her time. When she heals she’ll be back.”
“If she does,” Katelina murmured. “Jorick, I saw it. I saw the cell, and Kurt, and what he did to her. How they starved and tried to drink from each other.”
“Life’s not pretty, Katelina, even immortal life. I’ve tried to protect you from it, but her story isn’t unusual. Many vampires were turned to be a personal army, and many more abused by their masters, or taken as mortal slaves who had their humanity drained with their blood. I wasn’t a killer before I met Malick, yet my story is one of the better ones. With immortality usually comes anguish. Those who survive are those who are strong enough to move past it.”
“What if she’s not?”
“You can’t force her to be strong any more than I could force Oren off of his suicidal bent.” He smiled. “Though I won’t say Etsuko hasn’t made a difference.”
“So what? I should find her a date?”
“No. If that’s what she needs, she’ll find it on her own. I know it’s hard not to intervene, but the more you meddle, the angrier you’ll make her. My only concern is who’s been tampering with her mind.”
His words were jarring. “What do you mean?”
“The morning when you read her mind I could see someone had been playing with her memories. When a whisperer interferes it leaves a mark, like a scar. Now her thoughts have been sealed completely. It must be an old and powerful vampire. Unfortunately I don’t know which one.”
“The twins and Kali are who she’s been spending time with.”
Jorick tapped his chin. “Kali’s the one whose file is missing?” She nodded with concern and he lightened. “Don’t worry, little one. Chances are Sarah asked her to do it.” He glanced over his shoulder to an aggravated Jamie. “I suppose I should help him. You can stay if you want.”
With nowhere to go, she settled in while he went back to work. Eventually she drifted to the library for a book. Verchiel sat at the table hunched over Jamie’s laptop, his eyes narrowed in concentration.
“Not interviewing anyone?” she asked as she moved toward the bookcases.
He murmured his response without looking up.
“Must be something interesting.” He still didn’t reply. With a shrug she turned her attention to the bookcase. She settled on an eighteen-hundreds adventure story and made her way to the door.
Verchiel looked up. “Oh! Kately! How are you?”
“Fine. Just came for a book.”
“Sorry, I was engrossed in this.” He stretched and groaned. “It’s pretty tedious.”
“No progress?”
“I don’t know. There are a lot of murders in the world and combing through them is going to take forever.”
“Shouldn’t you just check Canada?”
“Maybe. Unless the perp came here recently, then I’d need to check wherever they were before. I’m hoping to make a chain of incidents and use that to narrow down who was in those places at the right time.”
“I guess that’s one way to do it. Did you ever interview Kali?”
“Yeah, earlier. The file thing was a dead end. She’s changed her name. She’s Talon in her file. Hang on.” He clicked several times to draw it up. “Turned in 1020, dark hair, dark eyes… originally from Egypt…living in Denmark…listed as an angel eye. They’re like demon eyes except they can only see the past, not the future.”
Which meant she wasn’t the one who’d been reading Katelina’s thoughts, nor could she be the one who messed with Sarah’s head. “What about the twins, Tol and Ren? Do they have any mind reading powers?”
“I don’t think so.” He clicked again. “No. They’re both just wind walkers.”
Katelina sat her book on the desk and leaned toward the laptop. “But they do. Or else Kali does. Is there any proof they are who they say? Do those files have photos?”
“No. They don’t have new IDs, there’s only a physical description. You think they’re faking their identity?” He scrolled. “I don’t know. I don’t think there’d be that many sets of nineteen year old twins with white hair they could impersonate.”
“If not them, then Kali?”
“Maybe. I admit, I thought she was older than that, and she doesn’t look Egyptian. More… Mongolian. Or Chinese.” He clicked a few more keys then shook his head. “I can’t even think what I’m doing. I need a break. Maybe we really should work on costumes?”
She made him promise not to throw anything at her.
By bedtime, Katelina had a costume assembled. Verchiel talked one of the acting troupes into loaning her a blue medieval-style gown, complete with wide sleeves and a veil and circlet that made her think of Maid Marian. At her comment he’d immediately gone on the hunt for a Robin Hood outfit, despite her concerns over Jorick’s reaction.
“He isn’t dressing up, and you can’t be Maid Marian alone. Besides, who else could I be? The nurse maid? Or Friar Tuck? I don’t think so. And I’m too short for Little John.”
Jorick didn’t take it with the jealousy she expected, and she sank into bed that night, thankful that the horrible party was almost over. She couldn’t wait to escape the mansion of mysteries and go back to a normal life.
As if being a vampire could ever be normal.
The following evening, the mansion was a flurry of activity. Last minute shipments came in. After a week of work, decorators put final touches on the ballroom. Vampires cloistered themselves away to perfect costume details. Servants dashed back and forth, fetching everything from feathers to snacks. Jorick helped check in the last minute arrivals and, after lunch, he sent her to get dressed.
“I know how long women take. There’s only two hours until it starts.”
With no one to do her hair, there was no way it would take that long, and she told him so.
“Suit yourself.”
Jamie nodded the last shipment of blood through and joined them. “It looks like everything’s ready. Thank God. Where’s Verchiel?”
“Getting dressed, I imagine.” Jorick scoffed. “Any excuse to look like an idiot.”
Jamie shrugged. “He enjoys being a peacock. I hope this goes smoothly and we can head home tomorrow.”
The apprehension in his voice sparked Katelina’s anxiety. “Why wouldn’t it? Do you know something we don’t?”
Before he could answer, Verchiel ambled in, still dressed in his normal clothes. “How are things here?”
“Fine,” Jamie said guardedly. “Why?”
The redhead stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I took your research and did some of my own.
Though you refuse to link previous murders to this spree without more evidence, I found a pattern of child kidnappings and killings that goes back at least two years in Canada. Before that, there’s evidence there may have been a similar pattern in Myanmar. I didn’t trace it farther, but I imagine I could.”
“And what is this pattern?” Jamie asked.
“The child is kidnapped and turns up dead anywhere from a day to a month later. There’s rarely any blood, so the humans assume the victims were killed elsewhere and disposed of. The wounds vary a bit; sometimes they’re mangled, other times there’s only a single incision, but their throats are always cut. If you add children who disappeared in the same areas, but never turned up, you can set up a pretty good pattern of a kid taken roughly every three to ten days.”
Katelina choked on the number. “That would be at least fifty kids a year. How did no one notice that?”
Verchiel shrugged. “It moves around. At most three or four bodies are ever found from a single town and usually no more than one. If that. A lot of potential victims are ruled runaways.”
“I’m sorry, but I think you’re stretching the facts to fit a pet theory.” Jamie shook his head. “Unless the hearts are taken in every instance, there’s no proof the crimes are linked.”
Jorick nodded. “I have to side with Jamie. Children are killed every day. It doesn’t make the murders connected.”
Verchiel pulled a hand from his pocket and examined his nails. “That’s true. But you’re only saying it because you haven’t read all of the reports. I’ll grant you, a lot of them leave room for conjecture, but there are two in Canada, and three in Myanmar, whose victims had their hearts cut out and, interestingly, in all five cases, blue eyed, white haired teenage twins were spotted right before the children went missing.”
Katelina gaped. White haired teenage twins. Like Tol and Ren.
Jamie stiffened. “You’re sure?”
The redhead produced several printed papers from his pocket. “You better appreciate these. I had a heck of a time getting your laptop to work with their printer. I had to install it and—”
Jorick cut him off. “And none of these cases were associated with the Heartless Killer?”
“Nope. However, the newest case, the boy from the village they found in the ditch, also mentions young white haired males.” Verchiel tugged the papers back to show them. “I didn’t take it seriously at first because Tol and Ren would draw attention in a village, even if they were just buying smokes. But, since they’re mentioned elsewhere…”
Jorick and Jamie’s eyes met and they nodded in unison. “We’ll need to arrest them for questioning,” Jamie said.
Verchiel held up a cautioning hand. “Before you jump the gun, there’s something else you might want to know.”
“What?” Jamie asked impatiently.
“You remember I told you Kali’s real name is Talon? Kately suggested she might be lying, so I did some checking. Surprise! She was right. Talon is still in Denmark, and was quite confused when her Guild contacted her about being a guest at this party.”
Katelina caught her breath. “If she’s not Talon, who is she?”
Verchiel shrugged. “Beats me. I guess we’ll figure it out after we arrest her. Though Andrei wants us to wait until after the ball.”
“You spoke to him about it?” Jamie asked sharply.
“I told you I had to install the printer. I promised Andrei we’d wait until the ball was over, and do it quietly. He doesn’t want the rest of the guests to be alarmed.”
Jamie scoffed. “I doubt they’d care. Still, a few hours shouldn’t make much difference. Have you told Fleur?”
“I wasn’t sure I was supposed to,” the redhead said.
“I’m not playing the politics game,” Jamie replied. “We’re working together, so we work together.”
“Okay. I’ll go find her.” He glanced at his watch. “Whoa! Actually maybe you’d better find her. I need to get my costume on. And so do you, Kately. I don’t want to show up with a disheveled Maid Marian.”
Jorick’s jaw tightened, but he only muttered, “Go get dressed. I’ll tell Fleur,” before he walked away.
Upstairs, Katelina paused in front of Sarah’s door, but her friend wasn’t inside. She hadn’t spoken to her since the fight the day before and, despite Jorick’s advice, that felt wrong. Maybe she should try at the ball?
Which will be great until we arrest her friend.
Sarah thought the sun rose and set with Kali. She’d never believe she was a child murderer. And if she did, would she care? She’d let them kill the hiker without so much as a shrug.
But a teenager and a kid were different. Even Jorick admitted that when Sarah dreamed she killed a child she was upset by it.
A sick idea settled through Katelina. The child murder and Sarah’s locked mind happened close together. If Kali was responsible, maybe she’d taken Sarah along. After all, they were both missing that day. Maybe Sarah really drank from the child, then freaked out, so Kali erased her memories. Jorick said there were scars where a whisperer had been playing. Maybe they leaked out into Sarah’s dreams, and after Jorick sensed the manipulations, Kali panicked and sealed everything away, to stop anyone from figuring it out.
Katelina dismissed the horrible idea to get dressed. She slid on the gown and tried to do something with her hair. In the end she pulled back the sides and let the veil cover it, using the circlet to hold it in place. It wasn’t amazing, but it would work. A touch of makeup and she was done; done but not ready to face a ballroom full of vampires.
She stared at herself in the mirror and gave an experimental smile. The fangs were still jarring, so she looked away. It seemed like she got all the inconveniences of immortality, but few of the bonuses. Bravery, for instance. The other vampires were always cool and collected, while she was a bundle of nerves. Jorick told her that becoming immortal didn’t change who you were, only made you live longer, but it was hard to believe they were all so self-assured in life.
In life. As if they were in something else now.
She grabbed her mask—a plain white face made of papier-mâché glued to a stick—and exited to the hallway. She realized she had no idea where Verchiel was. Great. So much for entering together.
She picked up her heavy skirt and made her way down the stairs. As she navigated a second floor corridor, she heard a familiar giggle in her head.
Estrilda?
Though she didn’t know the girl’s scent, she could feel her presence. She followed it to a locked door, where she knocked. No one answered. She was ready to call it her imagination when the lock clicked and the door creaked open.
She stepped inside Annabelle’s pale blue sewing room. The door on the back wall stood open and the sofa had been slid aside to reveal a small grate in the floor. Estrilda crouched over it, her eyes focused on what was below. She wore a purple dress and long pink wig, with translucent fairy wings strapped to her back.
Katelina closed the door. “Shouldn’t you be upstairs?”
Estrilda laid a finger to her mouth. “Momma lets me watch the party if I am quiet.”
“Is that a good idea?” The words were out before Katelina could stop them, but it didn’t matter. As a mind reader, the child knew they were there.
“She always lets me watch. I like to see the costumes.” She turned to Katelina. “Mother used to have dresses like that.”
She supposed she should approve of the historical accuracy, but it just left her unsettled.
The girl stood and gave a little spin, her arms held out from her body so her skirt flared out. “I am a fairy.”
Katelina flashed back to when her cousin’s daughters were small. “A very pretty fairy. I’m Maid Marian.”
“Are you going with Robin Hood?”
“I’m supposed to.” She gave the child a smile that looked more worried than sincere. “You need to be careful. If the other Executioners find you…”
“Momma warned me.
I am always quiet. Quiet like a mouse.” A giggle played in Katelina’s head.
Estrilda turned back to her grate and Katelina stepped toward the door. “I better look for Robin Hood before he gets lost.”
The girl giggled again and waved. Katelina returned the gesture and quickly let herself out. She looked up and down the corridor anxiously, but it was deserted. With a sigh of relief, she hurried away.
To her surprise, the redhead waited by the staircase. He wore a green felt hat at an odd angle. It was a different shade than the large belted shirt, which was a different shade than the leggings. With his grin he looked more like a preternatural Peter Pan than Robin Hood, even with the undersized bow slung over his back.
He made a show of bowing low and took her hand. She was afraid he might kiss it, but he dropped it at the last second with a laugh. “Milady. Shall we?”
She checked her watch. 11:45 and pulse of seventy-two. “Are they going in already?”
“A few of the early birds are, not to mention security.” He offered her his arm. With no excuse, she took it, and let him lead her.
The corridor outside the ballroom was decorated in strings of lights and colorful paper lanterns. A pair of giant flickering candelabras flanked the wide double doors. Andrei and Annabelle stood just inside, dressed as a king and queen. He in a scarlet fur lined cape, and she in a flowing gown of crimson. Heavy golden crowns on their heads glinted in the light. They held their decorated masks before their faces, and nodded to Katelina and Verchiel. She felt like she should apologize to Annabelle about the fight with Sarah, but Verchiel tugged her on before she had the chance.
The giant clock from the feast still stood in its place, flanked by a pair of glittering fake trees and wreathed in flowers. A large mirror was inserted into the fireplace, and decorated as a fantasy portal. The walls of the ballroom were covered in paper painted in blue, pink, and gold, like a sunset. In one corner was a forest of more sparkling fake trees. The branches were dotted with miniature fairies. Jewel centered flowers were gathered at their feet. A path made of brown paper rolled from the forest and branched off to the front of a small cottage situated in the opposite corner. The door was partially open and a wolf dressed in a nightgown and bonnet peeped out. A window box held more of the jeweled flowers, and bushes at the base of the fake cottage glittered emerald. Papier-mâché mushrooms dotted the space between, some sized for stools and others big enough to be tables. A couple of the larger ones held trays of crystal glasses and decanters of blood. Party staff dressed as animals carried smaller trays and moved through the guests, offering refreshment.
Masque of the Vampire (Amaranthine Book 8) Page 35