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“John Frederick Kensett, Lake George, eighteen sixty-nine,” she read aloud.
Not a clue who that was, but she’d been right about the luminous location. As she strolled to the next one, the gilded nameplate read “Thomas Cole.” There was an Albert Bierstadt. A Thomas Davies.
She felt like she was in a museum—
Stopping, she focused on a cluster of three vases that were sitting on a pedestal table. Of all the objects in the room, at least one of the triplet didn’t fit with the antique decor. The capped container was cheap and swimming pool blue. And the two it was with may have been old, but there was an equal ugliness to them.
She picked up the one that seemed like you could find in a kitchen store—
“Sorry about that—”
As Darius reentered the bedroom, she wheeled around—and in the process, lost her grip on the vase. Though she instantly tried for a regrab, gravity did its job, and as luck would have it, the thing landed not on the Persian rug, but on the bare rock floor that ringed the beautiful carpet. The shatter was spectacular, the china breaking open, shards going flying—
“No!” Darius barked as she dropped down. “Don’t touch it!”
“I’m so sor—oh, my God.” Anne recoiled and plugged her nose. “What is that smell?”
Darius dragged her back and put his body between her and the broken vase. “Shit.”
Anne frowned. A black and glossy substance was oozing all over the pieces of pottery, and that wasn’t all. There was something else there, something that struck her as horrifying—
“Is that a heart?” she breathed.
As her stomach rolled, she looked into Darius’s face. His features were composed into a mask, but his eyes were pits of regret.
Drawing her back, he opened his mouth. Closed it. Then he looked over at the mess on the floor again. “Stay here. Do not go near that thing.”
He disappeared out of the bedroom and shouted up the stairs. There was a pause—and then the thundering sound of him taking the stone steps two at a time dimmed as he ascended.
Anne glanced back at the black spill.
Every cell in her body began to vibrate in warning, and she moved even farther away. Yet the oily substance was strangely hypnotic, the way it pooled on the gray stone almost sensuous… like it was alive, like it was enticing her to—
Anne gasped as Darius pulled her back into the center of the room. And to think she hadn’t realized she’d gotten that close.
“Listen, I need to…” he started.
There was a pause. And then he urged her all the way out of the room, out into the little hallway at the base of the stairs. Meanwhile, her eyes remained locked on the remains of the cheap blue vase, and what seemed to be a heart… and that blood-like ooze.
The door shut, closing off her view.
“Listen,” he began again. “I hate to do this, but something’s come up. And I can’t—I have to go. There’s just—I hate this, but if I don’t go with my bro—friend, rather, he’s going to be in danger, and as much as I’m trying to convince myself it’s not my problem—I’m worried no one else will think it’s theirs.”
Anne tried to focus on Darius’s words, but every time she blinked, she just saw that glossy black oil undulating over the uneven contours of the stone floor. Like it was trying to get to her—
“Anne?”
His face took over her field of vision, so close to her own that he encompassed everything.
“Anne.”
She jerked herself back to attention. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”
As his mouth flattened into a grim line, he shook his head. “I have to go help my friend. Otherwise, he’s going to do something really stupid on his own.”
“Oh.” She nodded. “Sure. Of course.”
“I can have Fritz take you home—”
“The butler.”
“Yes, he can give you a ride—”
“Oh, no, I’ll just get another cab.” When he cursed, she took his hand and got with the program. “It’s okay. And I understand—”
“Or you can stay here.” Before she could respond, he jumped in, “You’re safe in this house. Fritz loves company, and you could just wait a little bit until I come back? I really don’t want this night to end, but especially not like this, me all rushing out. So you could stay here—actually, please, stay here. I won’t be gone any longer than absolutely necessary.”
Anne told herself to say no, thank you, and no, she’d just call a cab, and no, she wasn’t going to wait, and no…
“All right.”
Darius’s expression eased, a smile replacing some of the stress. “That’s great—that’s just… thank you.”
The idea that her presence meant so much to him made her feel important. And then his lips were on hers, a warm brush.
“I’ll be as fast as I can.” He glanced back at the broken vase. “But you can’t stay in this room. Go upstairs while I change and Fritz cleans this up?”
