Page 59 of Mortdale

I stepped closer. “I can help. If you just let me see one of the infected, at least.”

Arthur shook his head, pointing for me to get back inside and mouthing, Not a good time.

Logan must have noticed me staring at his friend because he glanced between us with a pointed frown. He angled his whole body in my direction to cover Arthur as he took a smooth drag from his cigarette and commanded me, “Go back inside.”

“I think I’ll stay right here until you hear me out.”

He crossed the space between us in very few steps. Setting the cigarette between his lips, he shed his jacket and threw it around my shoulders. “I think I paid for a few dozen dresses for you to wear.”

I pushed my arms through his jacket sleeves. “You paid for this chemise, too.”

He took another drag of his cigarette, rolling his eyes down my body and then reaching for his pocketbook, pulling out a few sterling bills and shoving them in the jacket breast pocket. “Put on a dress.”

I lifted a palm up in his face. “Throw in some more and I might even put a corset under it.”

His eyes gleamed under the lantern light as he put the pocketbook back in his pocket. “Just the dress is fine.”

“You’ll think about it?” I asked. “My offer.”

Say yes, say yes. I had this itchy notion that this Madness was somehow related to the dead red maidens. Even if it was a very, very loose thread to grasp, I had to grasp it. I had nothing else right now. And Ethel’s life hung on it.

He blinked slowly as his eyes paced between mine. “Why do you think we need your help?”

“Because you need to burn them.”

He stuck a hand in his pants pocket, brows furrowing as he waited for me to elaborate. “Parasites, viruses, bacteria; none can inhabit and control the human body the way this ‘infection’ does. It is simply, biologically impossible. And we saw it that night how that vampire turned in a matter of seconds after the bite—the time of exposure is unexplainable. Where are the symptoms? Why is the body not reacting to it? Fighting it? Biology might not allow it, but chaos can. It could well be nature turning on itself, but what if it is not? Why’s the exarch so sure he can fix this with holy means? Maybe he knows something.”

Cicadas echoed loudly across the dry parterre, awake again and curious. I could taste the coming summer thunder on my tongue from how thick the static was in those few empty, silent moments as he took everything in.

“And you’d accept pointing fingers at your own kind?”

“We aren’t all saints.”

He released a slow sigh. “What would Agnes say if she knew one of her witches was working with a vampire, maybe against one of her own?”

“I’d tell her you held a gun up to my head and forced me to do it. That everyone is right in what they say about you.”

“And what do they say about me?”

I plucked the cigarette from his hand. “I’ll come up with something if the situation truly requires it. I have a very rich imagination.”

“And in return?”

“In return what?” I asked, handing him the cigarette and trying not to cough as I blew the smoke out of my lungs.

“What is it that you want in return?”

I was a little struck by his reply, my mouth opening and closing without words for a few moments. “Freedom to snoop around. You know I am up to something. And I won’t involve you. I won’t ask you about anything, or for your help. I won’t put you in a position where you’d be an active participant in my investigation. It’s probably in your best interest that you don’t know what I’m doing, right?”

He blew a cloud of smoke above us. “Something Agnes asked you to do?”

“Something I need to do.” Yes, Agnes had sent me here, but I accepted it to save Ethel. This was personal. No matter who was involved.

I reached into his jacket pocket, grabbing his pocketbook and pulling a few bills from it before sticking it back in his pocket. “In case you want me to put on drawers, too.”

The tip of his tongue was pressed against his fang as he stared down at me. “Why do you like provoking me?”

“Why do you like me so heavily dressed in this blistering heat?”