Chapter 582
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.
