till something in him snapped. There were twenty of us in our house. I cared for all of them, for as long as I could, till I was the only one left. I walked away from my home and eventually ended up here. I know that I’m one of the lucky ones, Mr Phillips, but I’m sorry if you don’t find me jumping for joy.”
There was a long pause as she let her story sink into my thick skull. Outside, the wind picked up. The chamber pot scraped along the porch and slid off. A few seconds later, there was a clang down below and someone shouted a few obscenities to the sky.
Her expression never changed. When all was quiet, she continued.
“After the other night, I asked around about you. Heard some interesting stories.”
She gave me an opportunity to jump in, but I doubted any rumors could be worse than the truth.
“Strange,” I said. “Nobody has ever accused me of being interesting.”
Not exactly true. The story of the Human who escaped the walls of Weatherly to join the Opus does have a few exciting moments. Not quite as juicy as the sequel, when that same kid handed the most prized magical secrets over to the Human Army. Or the story of how the army used those secrets to screw up the world. I suppose that tale might be interesting to some, but I’d had enough of it myself.
“I’ve been trying to work out what your job exactly is,” she said. “You’re not a detective. Not a bodyguard. Then someone told me that you investigate rumors of returning magic.”
“I don’t know who told you that, but they’re wrong.”
Not just wrong. The idea was dangerous. Everybody knew that the magic was over and there wasn’t any way to bring it back. My job might be a strange one, but I certainly didn’t go around selling pipe dreams to dying creatures like she’d tried to do with the Unicorn horn.
“You found a Vampire a few months ago,” she continued. “A professor who managed to find his strength again. Isn’t that right?”
I wanted to lie, but the shock on my face had already given me away. Nobody was supposed to know about Professor Rye, the Vampire who turned himself into a monster, and nobody was supposed to come knocking at my door looking for answers.
“Not exactly.”
“I heard that the Vampire found a way to turn back the clock. He unlocked his old power. I hear you tracked him down and discovered how he did it. You know a secret that the rest of the world would kill for. I want to know what it is.”
My body tensed beneath the desk. The determined look in her eyes had hardened, and I have to admit, she scared me. There was plenty of room in her layered clothes to hide a sharp blade. Even unarmed, her claws were dangerous enough.
“I can’t tell you that.”
We stared each other down, and I hoped I wasn’t going to have to fight her. The wind blew through the cracks in the walls, and I realized that it wasn’t hostility in her eyes. Not quite. It was something closer to desperation.
“I’m not here to cause you problems, Mr Phillips. I’m here to hire you. Whatever you know. Whatever you found out. I want you to use that information to make me strong again.”
I sat back in my chair. Stumped.
“Miss Rosemary. That’s not what I do.”
“Well, why the hell not? What are you saving up all your energy for? Helping little old Elven ladies cross the street? I just want to be whole again, and I don’t know who else I can ask for help.”
I growled into my mouth, shaking my head.
“It wasn’t magic that came back into the Vamp. It was something else. He gave in to the same temptation you’re feeling right now, and it destroyed him. I hate this new world as much as you do, but there’s no going back. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, but you got out of it better than most. Hold onto that, and be thankful.”
Her full, pink lip jutted out at me as water filled the bottoms of her eyes.
“This,” she said, holding a hand under her face, “isn’t me. Your kind killed me. Everything I was and everything I had. I am not this person. In this place.” She looked around, disgusted with where she’d found herself. “What even is this place?” A tear rolled down her cheek and the trail