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Athelinda picked the ring up. “Where did you find this?”
“In the pocket of Marcus Anderson’s bloodied jacket. Someone left it for me. I think they wanted me to know the killings are connected.”
Athelinda continued to study the ring. Then she muttered something in Vampyric under her breath and slipped it into her pocket.
“Go ahead. Ask your questions.”
“Tell me about the Bone House.”
She tapped a sharp, gold tooth with her finger. “You want to know how they pulled out my incisors to stop me biting, or how every night the men would come? Some just wanted to rape a child. Some liked to do other things only a vampyr is good for.” She sucked on the pipe. “One girl became a cripple. Stumps for arms and legs. Some of the men, they enjoyed that even more.”
Tucker swallowed. His throat felt like it had something stuck in it.
“I was in that place for over five years,” Athelinda continued. “I’ve no fear of hell because I’ve already been there.”
“I’m sorry.”
Her eyes sparked. “I don’t need your fucking pity. I’m just telling you how it was.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “You told Detective Atkins to ask about the Bone House. Why? What has the Bone House got to do with the murders?”
This time Athelinda took longer to reply. Pungent pipe smoke swirled in the air. Eventually, she said:
“There was a boy who worked at the Bone House. An orphan. He served the men drinks, cleaned the place, helped patch up the girls when they got hurt. He was the one who gave me the matches to burn it down.” She paused. “I expected to die in the fire, but he rescued me. Later, I found out I was pregnant. The boy saved us both—me and Michael.”
“What happened to him?”
“For sixty years, I thought he was dead. And then one day, I saw him again. In Deadhart.”
“You recognized him all those years later?”
A thin smile. “Different clothing. Different haircut. But he hadn’t aged. Not a single day.”
Tucker let this sink in. “He was a vampyr, like you?”
“Yes.”
“Who is he, Athelinda?”
“At the Bone House, he went by the name Isaac. When I saw him again, he had a different name—”
“What?”
“Nathan Bell.”
“Shit,” Tucker cursed.
All along, they had been right.
“You never spoke up,” he said to Athelinda. “Not even when Todd was murdered.”
For once, a sliver of uncertainty crossed her face. “Aaron confessed. And just because the boy was a vampyr, it didn’t mean he was a killer. He was living as a human. I couldn’t betray him.”
“But you suspected?”
“Yes. Then you fucked up Aaron’s escape and we all had to run. I had other concerns. I forgot about him.”
“Until you returned this time—and saw him again.”
