Macy was surprised to feel Fia’s hand cover hers on the table. Fia had never struck Macy as the emotional type. Macy hadn’t been entirely sure the woman felt anything at all.
“You were the teenage daughter,” Fia said gently. It was a statement, not a question.
Macy intended to answer, but the words wouldn’t form in her mouth. She thought she could handle this, but she realized she was wrong. She got up from the table.
“Macy.”
Macy walked out of the diner, down the street. She’d walk into the fire, but it was going to have to be in baby steps.
Fia’s first impulse was to follow Macy. To demand answers. She usually let her first impulse pass. It was often wrong, and more than once she’d learned that the hard way.
She removed the latex gloves she had donned in case, on the outside chance, there were fingerprints or DNA evidence on any of the clippings or cards. She then put the lid back on the shoe box and finished her coffee. She left the toast untouched. She had to get back to Philadelphia. First, everything had to be checked by Evidence. Then it might take days to go over everything in the box and try to make sense of it. But the first thing she would do was track down information on the Carpenter murders. She’d contact the Missouri State Police as soon as she got on the road.
Fia’s cold-blooded vampire heart ached for Macy. For the girl she had been. For the woman she was now. Tears came to her eyes when she thought of Macy standing under a cherry tree looking down at her dead family.
Saints in hell, life was hard for humans.
Fia massaged her temples. She didn’t have time for emotion. It wasn’t her place to feel for the victims. If she was going to catch this monster, for the sept, for the world, she had to get her head in the right place. She had to think logically.
Of course Macy had known some of the Buried Alive victims. Fia had suspected that from the beginning. She should have guessed from Macy’s behavior that this was personal. But how could she have guessed that Macy’s family had been victims?
Which led Fia to the next logical question, the question she would have asked had Macy not taken off.
If Teddy killed Macy’s family, why hadn’t he killed her along with them? And why didn’t he go after her when he realized there had been a Carpenter missing that night? Why the years of stalking her?
After paying at the register, Fia went outside into the bright sunlight. She called Arlan as she walked across the parking lot to her car. “I need you,” she said when he picked up.
“Any time, any place, sweet cheeks.”
“How long has she been here?” Arlan asked Eva.
They stood side by side in the sunroom, looking out on Eva’s rose garden. Macy sat on the stone bench, a camera propped on her knee as she studied the garden fence and took notes. If she knew Eva and Arlan were watching her, she gave no indication.
“Not long. Half an hour, maybe. She’s taking the photos herself for the magazine article. She said she wanted to get some preliminary shots, get an idea of what she was looking for.” Eva turned to him. “What’s up?”
“Looks like the shit might be hitting the serial killer fan.” He watched Macy, unsure of the best way to approach her. Fia had been concerned when she called him, not so much about the case, but about her emotional state.
Seated on the bench in the midst of the roses, Macy seemed very fragile to him. All humans seemed fragile, but she more so. Fia said she’d walked out of the diner. Fia had been afraid she might leave town. Arlan, who’d been changing the locks on Victor Simpson’s doors, had gone straight to the hotel when Fia called him. They had agreed that it would be better for Fia to back off a little, that if Macy was going to talk to anyone, it would be him right now.
Macy’s car had been at the hotel. Mrs. Cahall said she’d come in, gotten a camera bag from her room and left through the lobby at 9:37 A.M., headed east. Arlan wondered if the FBI had room for Mrs. Cahall at the bureau; the old lady was more observant than half the bozos Fia worked with.
Arlan had guessed that Macy had left the hotel, headed for Eva’s. He knew she’d decided to take the photographs herself and had wanted to start today. He hoped she followed through with her plan, despite her meeting with Fia. Fortunately, she had and she was here, safe, at least for the time being. Fia hadn’t given him any details, but she had told him that Macy’s family had been murdered by the Buried Alive Killer when she was a teenager. A case the FBI had been unaware of.
Arlan had asked how that was possible, but he knew very well that often serial killers murder off the radar, especially early in their “careers.” He’d once tracked a man in Bordeaux who admitted at the hour of his death that authorities had only known of half of the thirty-seven men and women he’d tortured and murdered.
The thought of Dauncy left a sour taste in his mouth; he wiped it with the back of his hand.
“What can I do to help?” Eva asked.
“Right now, probably just tell her you’re leaving, and go on to work.” He eyed the clean black apron thrown over a chair. “She knows where to find you if she wants to. I think she just needs some time alone.”
“You think she’ll take off before we catch this bastard?”
“Hard to say.” Arlan watched Macy squat down on one knee and peer through her camera’s viewfinder. “She’s made a life for herself by never staying long in one place. That kind of pattern is hard to change.”
Eva watched him. “You really have a thing for her, don’t you?” she said, wonder in her voice. “Arlan Kahill, have you fallen in love with a human?”
He glanced at Eva and then away, trying to harden his heart. “Nah, I know better than that.”
She swatted him on the behind as she walked away. “You better.”
Teddy gazed out the small window of the airplane, wishing he didn’t have to travel today. He would rather have stayed at home and cut out all the articles they had written about him in the newspapers. He was flying south today. Atlanta. Macy sometimes worked in the Atlanta area but she wasn’t there now.
No. She was much closer to home. She hadn’t said so, but at night, when he sat on his front porch, looking up at the moon, he could feel her near him. They were growing closer each day. And despite what his mother said, he knew she was falling in love with him.
Teddy had been waiting his whole life for this. He’d hoped. He’d prayed. He’d been patient. And now, it was time to make plans.
Chapter 24
Kaleigh sat with her friends around the bonfire they’d built on the beach, laughing at something stupid one of the guys had said. Fourth of July was always one of her favorite holidays because the whole town threw a big Independence Day block party. It was also one of the few times each year that a bonfire permit for the beach was issued. There had been a parade today and with traffic rerouted, booths had been set up on the street that ran along the beach, featuring food for sale and carnival games to play. A block off the water, a strip mall parking lot had been turned into a mini midway featuring kiddy rides. Of course there were no “kiddies” in the sept, but the tourists seemed to enjoy the carnival. There was also a bandstand and dance area at the end of one of the streets along the waterfront. A goofy country and western group was playing now, but later tonight, an awesome local rock band would play. The whole day would have been better without the human tourists who seemd to come in flocks, but Kaleigh understood the sept needed them, at least financially. The yearly block party also made Clare Point seem ordinary, despite its extraordinary townspeople.
Someone joined the circle of vampires-only teens around the bonfire and Rob Hill scooted closer to Kaleigh to make room. His arm brushed hers, but she didn’t pull away. She kind of liked him close like this. She’d been seeing Rob a couple of times a week. They weren’t dating, but they were definitely making the effort to hang out with the same people, do the same things. Yesterday he’d stopped by the DQ just to say hi. His timid attention was nice as long as Kaleigh didn’t dwell on what
Rob had looked like a couple of weeks ago at his wake. She knew that was how the circle of life worked in the sept; she just didn’t want to think about it too hard.
“Let’s play a game.” Katy, one of Kaleigh’s good friends, stood and clapped her hands, something she did whenever she was giving the group an order. She had to speak above the music blaring from a boom box someone had brought with them.
“Yeah, let’s play a game,” someone piped in.
“Like spin the bottle?” one of the guys chimed in. “Or truth or dare!”
All the girls groaned. Someone threw an empty Coke can.
“We’re not kissing your lame vampire asses,” one of the girls on the other side of the campfire called.
“No, I know what we can play.” Katy eyed Kaleigh.
Kaleigh shook her head. Don’t you dare, she telepathed, blocking the message to anyone but Katy. She knew very well where Katy, who was supposed to be her best friend, was going with this. They had played the game the other night at a sleepover—Kaleigh, Katy, and Maria. It had been fun, but that was different. It had been private. Here, she was in front of everyone, in front of all the guys. What if it didn’t work? How lame would that be?
“Come on,” Katy pushed. “It’ll be fun. It’s sort of a guessing game,” she told the group.
“It will not be fun,” Kaleigh said between clenched teeth.
“Come on, it will,” Maria chimed in.
Kaleigh groaned.
“Look, you don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Rob said quietly in her ear.
She looked at him. That was so sweet of him. “Nah, it’s okay,” she said. “It’s kind of like having a dog that can do tricks, for Katy. She likes to show me off.” She rolled her eyes. “Go ahead, Katy,” she called.
“Okay.” Katy got up on her knees. She was wearing jeans shorts and a bikini top that was little more than two triangles of pink fabric. “Johnny, hold up some fingers behind your back,” she called to one of the guys on the opposite side of the bonfire.
Kaleigh could barely see his face because of the bright flames licking the driftwood between them.
“Got it,” he called.
“How many?” Katy shot at Kaleigh.
She frowned. Boring. “Four.”
“What about me?” one of the other guys hollered.
“Three.”
“Me?”
“Six,” she said. This was stupid. She’d been able to do this for almost a year. It was the new development that was really freaking her out, and fascinating her friends, apparently.
“Me?”
“One, Wills,” Kaleigh said. “You’re giving me the finger behind your back, guaranteeing you get your ice cream after its melted next time I serve you.”
Red-faced, he shot her the bird for all to see.
She didn’t give him the satisfaction of returning the favor.
The teens howled with glee. Some chimed in with how impressed they were. How, if they had that ability, they would use it.
“Wait, wait, it gets better,” Katy said, up on her knees in the sand again. She liked being the ringleader and she liked ordering people around. Kaleigh told her all the time that she should go to law school and become a judge. It was time the Kahills got someone on the Supreme Court, anyway. “Somebody, anybody, I want you to go over to the cooler and get a soda. And block your thoughts. Don’t let her read what you’re thinking.”
“I’ll go.” Joe shot up out of the sand.
Katy turned to Kaleigh. “Kaleigh’s going to tell the rest of us what he’s going to get. Before he gets it. Go ahead, Joe.” She shooed him with her hand. “Keep your back to us.”
Everyone watched Joe, shirtless, saunter off into the dark. They’d dragged a cooler from one of the girls’ houses nearby to the beach and it sat about thirty feet from the bonfire. Inside were dozens of sodas mounded over with ice.
“Tell us when you’re there,” Katy hollered. “But don’t open the cooler yet.”
“I’m here,” he called back.
Everyone turned to look at Kaleigh. A couple of teens on the far side of the bonfire stood up to get a better view.
“What kind of soda is he going to get?”
Kaleigh hesitated. She really didn’t like being the evening’s entertainment. But these were her friends…and she supposed it was harmless enough.
“He’s not going to get a soda,” she said dryly, folding her arms over her chest. “He’s going to dig around and realize that Pete hid a six-pack of beer under the sodas.” She eyed Pete, sitting to her right, beside Katy. “Your dad’s going to figure out tomorrow that you snitched them and you’re going to be on restriction this week so you can’t go to the Coheed and Cambria concert with Rob and Joe.”
Everyone stared at her, eyes wide with amazement.
“You gotta be shittin’ me,” Pete groaned. “If I’m going to get busted, I ought to at least get to drink the beer.”
“Go ahead,” Katy hollered. “Pick a soda and then come back and show us what you have.”
Joe sauntered toward them across the sand, one hand behind his back. He halted just behind Kaleigh and to her left. She didn’t look at him.
“What kind of soda you get?” someone shouted.
With great fanfare, he produced a sweaty can of beer.
People started clapping and hooting and hollering. Kaleigh stood up. Everyone was congratulating her. Joe was protesting, saying she must have cheated. Kaleigh just walked away. It was hard being sixteen and the sept wisewoman. Hard because she wanted to be a teen like all the others and she knew she couldn’t. When she reached the water’s edge, she turned north toward the bright lights strung between the booths, thinking she’d get something to eat. As she walked, she could feel someone following her. She knew who it was and he made her smile.
Rob.
She halted and waited for him to catch up.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey.” He fell into step beside her and they walked up the beach.
“I’m hungry,” she said. “You hungry?”
He walked with one hand in his pocket, the hand closest to her kind of dangling at his side. “I’m always hungry.”
“I was like that the first few weeks, too. It’s nice to have decent teeth again.”
They walked in silence, their hands bumping once in a while. “So, what’d you think about my trick?” she asked. “You really didn’t say anything.”
“It’s cool and all.” He shrugged. “But I don’t like everyone making a big deal about it. They all know who you are, what you’ll be someday. I mean, I’m just starting to remember, but it’s a pretty big deal. Pretty big responsibility. I don’t like joking around about it. It’s your powers that have kept us safe all these years.”
She was, again, touched by his understanding. Pretty cool for a seventeen-year-old, gangly boy. “That’s a bit of an exaggeration. We all keep each other safe.” She glanced at him, feeling shy, but warm inside. Maybe a little bit safe, here with Rob.
“I still think you’re pretty cool.” He flashed her a reticent grin and surprised her by catching her hand in his. “You want oyster fritters or a crab cake?” he asked. “My dad gave me money so I’m buying.”
They cut across the softer sand, headed toward the street and all the vendors. “Hard decision. Can we have both? Like, share?”
He squeezed her hand. “Whatever you want, Kaleigh, that’s what I want.”
“So fine. Don’t come.” Fia perched on the bumper of a car that was illegally parked on the street at the north end of the food and game booths. It was dark here, and she was out of the foot traffic, giving her a little privacy. Still, the music coming from the bandstand was so loud that she had to plug up her other ear with her finger to hear Glen.
“I’m sorry. I thought I could get out of here sooner,” he said on the other end of the line.
And he truly did sound sorry, although it might have been guilt fueling his sorrow. Feeling sor
ry for himself, the sorry ass. He was in Baltimore again, with another lame-ass excuse. Fia wanted to just come out and ask him if he was seeing his ex, Stacy-the-hygienist, again. But she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. At least, not yet.
“Look, I have to go.” She lowered her head to the heel of her hand, her hair falling over her face. She’d worn her hair down tonight, despite the heat, so she’d look sexy for Glen. Now she was wishing she’d brought a hair tie. “We’ll talk tomorrow night? Dinner?”
“Sure.” He sounded as if he was trying to be enthusiastic, but she wasn’t quite feeling it.
She hung up without saying good-bye. When she lifted her head, Arlan was standing in front of her. He was wearing faded, knee-length swim trunks, a T-shirt from a surf shop, and flip-flops. His sunglasses were up on his head, pushing his hair off his face. He looked suntanned, relaxed, and damned good.
“Hey, surfer boy. Where’s your HF?”
“Where’s your HM?” He sat on the car bumper beside her.
“Not coming.” She held up her phone and then slid it into the pocket of her capris. “Just wish he’d told me before I shaved.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. He didn’t want to come, anyway. He thinks I’m from a weird town. He thinks you’re all strange.”
“He’s right.”
She leaned back against the hood. “I just wanted him to walk around with me, have something to eat, maybe take a stroll on the beach. Talk about something other than work. Make love in the sand, maybe.” She looked at Arlan, feeling oddly close to tears. “Am I being unreasonable? Greedy? Am I looking for too much in a relationship with a man?”
“With a human? Probably,” he joked. But then he grew more serious. “No. No, of course you aren’t. You deserve to be happy, Fia.” He rested his hand over hers. “So you think it’s over?”
She stared at the string of bright white lights that ran between the funnel cake booth and the Italian ice booth. The funnel cakes smelled good. Fattening, but good. “I think so. Stupid thing is, I’m not even sure why. Too many secrets. Not enough in common. Him being mortal, me being a bloodsucking immortal.”
Undying Page 22
