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"Jaime!" I shouted. "Let Cassandra--"
Lucas tackled Jaime. She fought, but he pinned her down. Cassandra bent over Jaime. Blood sprayed Cassandra's face as she lowered her mouth to the wounds. Jaime screamed and bucked, throwing Cassandra off, but when she jerked upright, the wounds had closed, leaving the tiny punctures invisible from where I stood.
Jaime scrambled to her feet, then hesitated. Her fingers went to the side of her neck.
"Vampire saliva stops the bleeding," I said.
"Oh," Jaime said, face reddening.
She swayed. Lucas caught her before she fell and guided her over to the chair, which I reclined before she sat down. When she tried to sit upright, I gently restrained her.
"Lie down. You lost a lot of blood. Lucas, could you--"
He stepped through the cabin door bearing a large glass and a carton of juice.
"Perfect," I said. "Thanks."
As I helped Jaime drink some of the juice, Benicio asked whether we thought a blood transfusion should be arranged. Cassandra said it wasn't necessary, that the amount of blood Jaime lost would replace itself without intervention. She'd know, I guess, so we took her word for it. When Jaime finished the juice she lay down and closed her eyes.
"They aren't supposed to do that," she mumbled.
"Do what?" I asked.
She yawned. "Kill the messenger."
Another half-yawn, then Jaime's face went slack. I put my fingers to her neck. Her pulse was steady. I pulled the blanket up over her and turned to the others.
"She's right," I said, keeping my voice low. "No matter how upset the ghost might be, it makes no sense to try to kill Jaime. She's the only one it has any hope of communicating with."
"Unless it knew she wouldn't die," Lucas said. "If so, then one could construe it as a message of sorts, telling us that it not only knows of Cassandra, but recognizes her by sight and knows that a vampire can stop blood flow."
"It's a vampire," Cassandra said.
"Not necessarily," I said. "It knew that you could stop the bleeding--any supernatural who's studied vamps knows that. As for the bite marks, they were probably intentionally vampirelike, to drive home its point about you."
"They weren't vampire like. They were vampire."
"But--"
"I know the bite of a vampire, Paige. I also know that there is one in this room besides me. I've been around long enough that I can recognize my own kind faster than you can recognize a sorcerer."
"If our ghost is--or was--a vampire, that would explain why it can't make contact with Jaime," Lucas said. "It's trying to do the impossible."
I gave a slow nod. "Meaning that necromancers never hear from dead vampires, not because they don't exist, but because wherever they exist, they're beyond contact. So now we probably know one thing about our ghost. That's a start."
"Two things," Jaime murmured, her eyes still closed. "It's a vamp and it's a she."
Cassandra, Lucas, and I exchanged a look.
"Natasha," I whispered. "She's not missing. She's dead."
The Curse of Clear Vision
"WHEN EDWARD ATTACKED DANA, HE SAID HE WAS DOING it for someone," I said. "Someone she heard as 'Nasha.'" I looked at Benicio. "Something stopped the Nasts from putting an office in Cincinnati. A problem that needed to be cleared up first. Would a local pair of serial-killing vampire immortality questers count?"
He gave a slow nod. "A Cabal always investigates the local supernaturals before building a new office. If they have minor concerns, they usually persuade the offenders to relocate. But in a case such as this, on this scale, particularly one that involves vampires...the solution would be a permanent one."
"Kill them."
