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“Your mother thought she could save him.” Lucille’s tone was incredulous, her eyes dark pebbles that didn’t reflect any light. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if she’d be better off defeating the vampires or becoming one of them. “Foolish woman. Thought she could save the world. That’s how she wound up in such a predicament.”
“What are you talking about?” I threw my hands up in the air. Rainey snickered, tea in hand. She didn’t have the guts to take on Lucille, but she loved it when I did. “I’m tired of these riddles, Lucille. Either you know the answer or you don’t.”
“Cash Logan destroyed your mother,” Lucille said calmly. “But you survived.”
Silence.
“That’s the answer?” I asked, because all I had was more questions.
“Yes.” Lucille was satisfied with her explanation. “Not the one you wanted?”
“You didn’t tell me anything,” I said through gritted teeth. Rainey figured out a way not to let Lucille get the best of her anymore, but she wasn’t being used in the same way I was.
“I told you everything,” she said quietly. “Now put my movie back on before I miss the end.”
I dropped the remote on the tray beside Lucille before turning on my heel and storming into the bedroom. Rainey followed me, handing me a glass of the lettuce tea she made especially for me, sweetened with honey. I needed it to replace the nutrients my body burned after every performance, and it helped regulate my body temperature. We had to scramble to figure out ways to keep us all safe. Keeping the flames under control was exhausting. Without Rainey, I probably would have burned the city down by now.
“Tell me about what you’ve seen of my mother again,” I asked Rainey as I undressed. After I ignited, clothing suffocated me, so I could hardly wait to get home each night. The air conditioner was always on full blast, the cool air helping us all. “Maybe if we put it all together it will make sense.”
I crawled up beside her on the pillows, staying over the covers, and Rainey lay under them, absent-mindedly playing with my hair. I didn’t have to look at her to know her eyes had glassed over, visions playing out in front of her like she could reach out and touch them. It took her a long time to control that. To separate the visions from reality. I had yet to learn that trick. “Every time I’ve seen her, she’s wrapped in flames,” she said softly. “She looks a lot like you, but I know it’s not you. There’s a crowd, and they’re cheering.”
“Are you sure?” For some people, that would be alarming. But that described my typical weeknight. There was no actual science to what Rainey Saw, or at least no one had laid down the rules yet. I trusted her to tell me the truth.
“Yeah. It’s not Le Cirque. The people there, they’re very poor, and ragged. She’s tied to something.”
“Still sounds an awful lot like work.”
Rainey shook her head, shuddering. “She couldn’t handle the flames like you can.” She sat up quickly and ran her hands along her thighs. “I think she was burned at the stake.”
“Do you think she was a witch?” So many of the little girls who played with me in my time travels suffered that fate. Once they told their families about me, they weren’t allowed to see me anymore. They had to be taken from me and brought back to God. Many of them insisted on playing with fire, my fire, and invited me back. Lucille insisted it was all in my head, but I felt the heat of the fire on my face. Sometimes I’d be asked to light the pyre as punishment. Their screams still ripped me in two. “It would make sense.”
“Maybe,” Rainey said as she bowed her head down. I reached over to rub the back of her neck. She cooed as my fingers worked her tense muscles. Every night during the show, she set up a booth in the lobby of Le Cirque and read fortunes. Like my memories of the little girls burning at the stake, some things couldn’t be unseen. It took a lot out of her. “Anyone can practice as a witch, though. So many people were sacrificed out of fear. It doesn’t give us any more answers. I can’t tell if she was mortal, but she had a terrible death.”
One I would hopefully never suffer.
“True witches are chosen. They can bend and alter fate.” Kind of like Rainey and I could. Others tried to force their powers, and that’s where they failed. We always assumed it could be the answer, but Lucille had given us very little guidance. We were creatures better kept than coddled. “It would explain a lot.”
“I don’t See Cash, so I can’t tell what he wants with you. If Lucille is telling us the truth,” which was always debatable, “we still don’t know why he would have destroyed your mother, or why Lucille brought us here to battle with Talis de Rancourt.”
I fell back against the pillows. Because if witches and vampires had some long-time feud, it didn’t explain why no one had tried to get Rainey and me on their side. If we were witches, they’d either want to work with us or destroy us. So that didn’t make any sense.
“What else?” I knew our window was closing. Seeing took a lot of Rainey’s energy. What she did with the customers at Le Cirque was nothing for her compared to this. Real Sight taxed her. “Tell me something about her.”
She squeezed my hand; it always helped her see if she had access to one of the person’s possessions. “She always saw the best in people, even when they were at their worst.” Her words weakened. “She had...something to hide. But she loved you very much.”
I loved her too, even though she gave me away. “Do you think we can find her?”
“As long as she isn’t a vampire,” Rainey chuckled. “We’ll keep trying until we do.”
“I’m going to have to talk to Cash. They’re connected, somehow.” My body shook at the thought of it. But I stayed cool. It had to be a sign. “I need to know.”
“Holly.” Rainey lay back down beside me. “He said he needs you for something. If there’s something going on between the vamps and Lucille, they’ll put you in the middle, and the only one who will lose is you.”
She sounded awfully sure of herself. “I thought you couldn’t See vampires.”
“I can’t.” She nestled her head on my shoulder and sighed. She’d be asleep in minutes. “But I see enough crappy examples of human nature every night to know how this is going to end.”
“We aren’t human. And I don’t want to be afraid anymore.” Maybe Cash Logan’s arrival wasn’t such a bad thing after all. “If Cash is the one who can fix that, it’s a risk I have to take.”