Seventh Seal - Jacquelyn Faye Page 0,26

to the others, staring at the floating body in the bloody water, her blonde hair stained red.

I reached for her, just to flip her over, but the power within me had better ideas. Black flames burst from my hand and enveloped her, unimpeded by the water. She convulsed a moment and then stood in the shallow water, staring at me blankly. I'd unintentionally animated her, and almost gagged when the blood from her gaping neck wound started pumping again, landing in the water with a little splash.

"You poor thing. I am sorry," I said to her forlornly.

Her head wobbled a little as she bowed it in greeting, unable to speak. He hadn't refused to stop feeding, he had tried to chew through her neck. He'd wanted to kill her. If the damage had been localized to one spot, I might have thought the other vamps did it pulling him off her. The only question left was why he wanted to kill her.

Leaving her standing there, I walked back to Franco. After seeing his murder victim brough back from death, in a matter of sorts, the fear coming from him was almost tangible. I could see it floating from him in black threads of dread. "How did you do that?"

I squatted down in front of him, balancing myself with the handle of the broom beside me. "That isn't the question you should be worried about right now, Franco. The question is…why," I paused to point at the Nearly Headless Nancy, "you did that."

"I don't know. I couldn't stop."

He was lying. I could feel it in his very bones. He knew damn well why he'd done it, but somebody or something scared him more than I did. If I wanted answers, I needed to change that.

Holding out my hand, I purposely called the black fire to my fingers, holding it in front of him. With my other hand, I lifted the broom, shook it, and tapped the butt of the scythe on the tile before him, shattering the twelve-by-twelve piece of ceramic with a crunch and a puff of dust. "I am going to ask you one more time, Franco. Why did you kill that poor girl?"

His eyes widened and the strands of fear floating from him coalesced into a cascade of mindless panic. "Wha–what are you?"

"Lady Death," one of the other vampires answered and knelt beside me. The others followed suit.

Franco started scrambling away from me, but the mountainous vampires held him still between them as I edged closer.

"Tell me, Franco. Why."

"Because Lord Abernathy told me to!"

"Wrong answer, Franco. He's dead."

"Not that one! His brother!"

There was a collective gasp. Not just from the vampires, but from Yuki and me, too. Turning, I looked at Yuki. She knew I was worried about her cousin George. This was his father we were talking about.

Franco screamed in frustration and started frothing in panic-induced fear. Not only was he facing death, he had just outed the traitor. His life was forfeit even if I let him go. I wasn't going to, not after what he had done, but either way, he was fucked.

Chief moved beside me and squatted down, giving me a sad look. "I'm the chief of police, Dot."

"I know."

"While I want to say I can't let you kill him, my jail probably wouldn't hold him, and we'd be screwed if anybody found out what he was."

"I think that was Abernathy's goal. To out the vampires in Cedar Falls."

"Why?"

"If they get outed, the world's eyes fall on our little town. I'll probably be outed as their leader next. I fall, he gets everything back nice and neat."

"That's pretty slick. Harder on his kind going forward, but not a half-bad plan."

"Glad you approve of his dastardliness."

He shrugged and nodded to the girl. "We can't let anybody find her, either."

"I'm surprised you're being so pragmatic about this."

He nodded and rubbed his chin and jaw with his hand. "The way I look at it, this is kind of like coven business. I would never have sent either one of the Connors to prison for murdering witches. I'll leave this in your more than capable hands." He put his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it gently. My boy scout was growing up. I was so proud.

Turning to the vampire shaking in his proverbial boots, I frowned. "Franco." I paused to sigh. "You are hereby condemned to death for your crimes and a lesson to the other vampires of this clan. No human shall be hurt ever again by