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‘There’s more? I don’t want there to be more. Unless it’s good news. Is it good news?’
Jess paused. ‘It’s notbadnews … but it’s definitely news.’
I sighed. ‘Okay. Hit me. I’m ready.’ I wasn’t ready, and I knew without looking at Jess that her internal radar had just pingedlieloudly.
‘It can wait,’ she said, busying herself by making a cup of tea.
‘No, it can’t. Go on.’
She met my eyes reluctantly. ‘I found your birth certificate, your Other one.’
I swallowed hard. ‘So I wasn’t born Common.’
‘No. Your real name is Luciana Alessandro. And you were born a fire elemental.’
I frowned and shook my head, ‘Jess, I can’t even start a campfire with a match – I need lighter fluid and a lighter. If I were an elemental, surely I’d know about it by now.’
‘Something else is going on,’ Jess said slowly. ‘Because I also found your death certificate.’
‘That’s creepy! In all the sobbing, I forgot to ask – how did my parents die?’
‘The crossovers never found out. Their bodies were largely destroyed in a huge fire.’
Heart hammering, I asked, ‘Was it the fire that killed them?’
Jess shook her head. ‘I know what you’re thinking, but it’s virtually impossible for a fire elemental to kill another fire elemental with magic. Fire elementals are so attuned to fire that it can’t be used to harm them. Maybe they could be harmed by it in the Common realm, but if they were in the Other the worst that most fire elementals can do is cast a living flare.’
‘What’s a living flare?’
‘A torture curse. It makes you feel like you’re on fire, but it doesn't actually burn your skin or kill you. The living flare can lead to death because of heart attacks or people jumping out of windows to make it stop.’
‘Lovely. So you don’t think my parents were killed by the fire.’
‘No. I think the fire was used to tidy up the crime scene afterwards, to confuse investigators.’
‘And it worked. No one was ever prosecuted for their deaths?’
‘No. The Connection looked hard at a rival fire elemental family, but nothing stuck.’
‘And my death certificate says I died in the fire too.’
Jess nodded. ‘The person who is listed on all three certificates as reporting the death was “Alessandro”.’
‘Which Alessandro?’
‘Just Alessandro.’
I sighed. ‘The vampyr?’
‘Yup.’
‘Great.’
‘Now the way he looked at you makes a little more sense,’ Greg commented. ‘And I was surprised that he let us see the crime scene.’
‘You think that was him being nice?’ I asked incredulously.
‘Yes. He called you “Lucy”, which I thought was weird at the time – too familiar. I’d bet my bottom dollar he’s been keeping tabs on you.’
