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She hesitated. She had never spoken to anyone about Mercy. But she guessed she owed Tucker some honesty back.
“When I was fifteen, I had a friend. She was Colony.”
“What happened to her?”
“She was murdered. By my dad and his friends.” Barbara swallowed. “They found out we were meeting up and drowned her in the river. They made me watch.”
The door to the lodge swinging open, the morning sunlight almost blinding her. Her dad standing there, grinning. “Change of plan, Babs. I want you to see this. All of it.”
“I didn’t think vampyrs could be killed by drowning,” Tucker said.
“They can’t. When the sixth or seventh time didn’t kill her, they burned her alive.”
“Jesus,” Tucker murmured. “That’s horrific.”
Beautiful hair gone. Features nothing more than a formless mass of melted flesh. Trying to stand, brittle, blackened bones snapping beneath her as she staggered forwards and finally fell.
“Yeah,” Barbara said. “After that, I guess I learned to stick to the rules. It was safer.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
She sighed. “I knew what my dad was like, Tucker. I should have told Mercy to stay away, that being friends was just too dangerous. And I didn’t.”
Because love was selfish. She’d loved Mercy, and that had gotten her killed.
“You had to live with your dad afterward?” Tucker asked.
“Not for long. He shot himself the following summer.”
Tucker shook his head. “Seems to me that devils really do walk among us…only they’re not vampyr.”
Barbara swigged the dregs of the coffee, wishing it was something stronger. “Well, at least those devils don’t come back from a shotgun in the mouth.” She shoved the coffee cup away. “Okay, if we’re done with the soul-baring, shall we get back on track?”
“O-kay.”
“Who would want Mowlam dead?”
“Someone else involved in the artifact trade?”
“The only other people we know were involved with the Doc are the boys.”
“Marcus is dead.”
“Which leaves Stephen and Jacob,” she mused. “And only one of them was there the night Doc Dalton was killed.”
“You think Jacob’s a killer?”
“No…I don’t know…” She raised her hands and let them drop helplessly. “I think we’re missing something,” she said. “And I think it’s time to talk to the Colony.”
“You mean Athelinda?”
“Seems she’s more likely to talk to you than me.”
Tucker shifted uncomfortably. “Just because I’m half-turned, doesn’t mean I’m one of them.”
“Can you hear them? The telepathy?”
“No. They don’t let you hear if they don’t want you to.”
