Chương 24: Chapter 23 - New Nemesis

Most of the drive home was quiet. Darius's face had looked so solemn that I didn't want to interrupt his thoughts. Besides, I had my own thoughts to deal with. It wasn't until we could see snatches of the mansion lights peeking in and out of view as we drove through the winding road that the count finally decided to break the silence.

"You found them?"

"I did," I admitted. A short silence later, he said, "That's good work. It wasn't an easy task, but you and Iset did it."

"Can we talk about something else?" His eyes flicked over to me, then returned to the road.

"Did you learn something bad?"

"No—well, yes, but nothing I didn't expect. This was all the way back in 1632. The town failed, and everyone's dead." Darius's eyebrow rose.

"Probably." I looked at him.

"Statistically speaking, everyone's probably dead. If you think about it, you and I only know one person who was alive back then—" I grinned.

"Two!"

"Does Jacky count as a person?"

"Does Iset?"

"Touché. So, between the two of us and all the people we know, only two were alive back then, therefore it's unlikely any of them would be alive today."

"And I knew that Anna and the boys were dead, because that's how I met them. I shouldn't be upset…but it's still hard."

"How so?"

"All that's left of Anna is four references. Her little name, lost in those big, long lists, and she's mentioned in one letter. Jan and Jacob don't even get that." I turned to him.

"And you don't get to give me crap about how much they mean to me because they matter. They're damn sweet, and I love them!"

"Emerra, that's the first time I think I've ever heard you swear."

"Well?"

"Well nothing. I'd wondered how a child of the modern age could live so long without learning to curse." I leaned back in my seat.

"It was Ms. Elstein. She didn't like swearing."

"Ms. Elstein? The friend you had back in the hospital?"

"The hospice. She'd always clutch her heart and moan about how I was going to kill her with my shocking language." The memory was enough to make me smile.

"How old was she?"

"Ninety. Ninety and fighting."

"Is she still alive?" I shook my head.

"She died a week before I did. She said I had to outlast her because it'd be a stupid world if a nineteen-year-old died before a ninety-year-old."

"It sounds like she was an interesting woman."

"Yeah. And now she's gone. I wonder how much is left of her. Are there any letters? Or just her name on a death certificate that no one will bother to print out?"

"She didn't have a family?"

"None of us had families. It wasn't that kind of hospice." I played with the plastic around the window button.

"Darius, what's the point?"

"Of what?" I shrugged.

"I don't know. Everything. Life. What's the point if these three beautiful lives wind up as nothing but a few notes in a museum?"

"No, you're going to have to do better than that."

"Huh?"

"It doesn't follow. Just because something isn't remembered doesn't mean it was pointless. Anna had, what? Four references? Do you want to guess how many people have lived and died that had none? Are you going to tell me that all those lives didn't matter?"

"Did they matter?"

"It mattered to them! And they mattered to the people they knew—like those kids matter to you. You try to avoid swearing because of a delightful old lady who isn't known to almost anyone else on this planet. That woman made a difference. They don't have to be remembered by people living centuries later to be important." We pulled up to the front gate of the mansion and had to wait as it opened. Darius looked at me and said, "I think the greatest crime of this generation is mistaking fame for value."

"I thought our greatest crime was pop music." Darius shook his finger.

"No. That's the third greatest crime." I knew he was waiting for me to ask, and I was happy to oblige.

"What's the second?"

"Reality television." I laughed. The gate was open, so we drove on.

"Emerra," Darius said, "I'm not going to give you any crap about how much you like those ghosts—I might lecture you about having enough common sense that we don't have to call in Dr. Belliston again—" If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Yeah, yeah."

"—but I appreciate your capacity to care about other people. I would never change that about you. I'm just worried that you'll keep things back."

"I don't keep things back."

"You do! You absolutely do."

"I talk all the time!"

"You chat all the time, but that doesn't mean you share what's important." I felt uncomfortable enough with that statement, I had to admit, at least to myself, it was probably true.

"You can't protect the dead," Darius added.

"The worst has already happened. Right now, the people that need protecting are down in that town." I thought of Mrs. Park and Stella Baker.

"I know." As he pulled into the garage, he said, "We should head to the library. I suspect Iset is waiting for us, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you found."

"What about dinner?"

"You can eat later." He got out of the car. I got out, shut the door, and called over the hood, " You can eat later, vampire. My stomach has opinions." My stomach did have opinions, and they were all overruled by Igor.

"It's not ready yet."

"But, Igor!" I was sitting on one of the stools at the kitchen island. He was fiddling around with something on the stove that smelled amazing.

"You can whine like a dying chimp all you want. Dinner will be ready in a half hour." I proceeded to whine like a dying chimp and drop my head onto the counter. I heard Olivia's kind and dulcet tones off to my side.

"Oh my god, Emerra. Could you be more impossible?"

"Please don't challenge her," Igor said. Olivia prodded me with a granola bar until I sat up. I took the offering and thanked her. She leaned back on the counter.

"What's your favorite movie?" I spoke around my mouthful of food: "What?"

"I need to know your favorite movie." That was…highly suspicious. Olivia wasn't fond of me, and I knew it. My instinct said if she was asking for personal information, she was looking for a weakness, but I couldn't see how she could use that particular piece of information against me. Asking for a lock of hair? Dangerous. Asking about a favorite movie? I turned my eyes to Igor.

"She asked me too," he assured me. I leaned forward on my stool.

"Igor, what's your favorite movie?"

"The Godfather." He raised both eyes to the ceiling and sighed.

"It was a masterpiece." I grinned. Olivia snapped her fingers in front of my face.

"Hello! Focus here." I turned back to her.

"Your favorite movie?" she said. I pressed down on the granola wrapper lying on the counter, making a small crease in the shiny silver plastic.

"It's called Spirited Away." There was a drop of silence, then Olivia said, "By Hayao Miyazaki?" I looked up.

"You've heard of it?"

"I watched it. It was really good."

"I know, right! That's what got me into anime."

"Yeah. Some people will go overboard." She pushed off from the counter.

"Don't talk about it too much, will you? It's Christmas stuff." Oh. That explained it. I gave her an exaggerated wink. She rolled her eyes and walked away. I forced myself to stand up.

"Igor, I look forward to seeing you in a half hour."

"You'll throw away that wrapper or you're getting air soup for dinner." I grabbed the wrapper.

"Of course!" After stopping by the garbage can, I headed toward the library, but when I saw the lights on in the drawing room, I had to glance in. Conrad was sitting on the floor in the magic circle, playing with the ghosts. I suddenly had to deal with a big mush of sappy emotions, so I watched them in silence for a while. Anna and the boys were trying to teach Conrad Dutch, which sounded really weird to me because my brain would insist on trying to interpret.

Anna would point to an illustration in the old book open on the floor in front of Conrad and say "strawberry" in perfectly good English, then Conrad would say something so indecipherable that my brain couldn't do a thing with it, and Jan and Jacob would laugh. Conrad must have heard me giggle; he said, "Sure, it's all right for you." His comment made the children look up. When they saw me, Jacob and Jan yelled my name and ran out of the circle to greet me.

I knelt down so we could do the whole try-to-touch-but-not-touch routine we'd established in lieu of actual hugs. This went on for half a minute, all while Jan tried to update me on everything they had done while I was gone. Then Anna called out, "Jacob, Jan, be careful." The boys both made a face and stepped away. When I walked further into the room, they followed me.

"How's the language lesson going?" I asked Conrad.

"Not well, but at least Kappa's getting a break." I ran my fingers through the fur on the top of his head.

"Yeah, and I'll bet their chill doesn't bother you much."

"Jacky wants to see you. He's in his study."

"Am I in trouble?" Conrad shrugged.

"Huh. Iset and Darius are waiting for me in the library. Ha! I'm so popular." I looked at Anna.

"What do you think? Is he a good student?" She glanced at Conrad, then said with perfect diplomacy, "He's trying very hard."

"Good for him. I have to talk to a few people, but after dinner I should be able to play with you guys."

"Can you read to us?" Jacob asked.

"Oh! There's an idea. I wonder if we have any Christmas books. I'll ask Iset." I flattened my wolf-boy's ear a bit as I said, "Thank you, Conrad." His ear twitched out from under my palm.

"No problem." When I stepped out into the hall, I hesitated, but not for long. As I turned toward Jacky's study, I murmured, "You can't keep death waiting." Jacky called for me to enter the moment I knocked on the study door. I went in. He was sitting behind his desk, looking at some papers, but he put them down as I approached.

"Emerra, I'm glad you're home."

"Conrad said you wanted to see me?" He motioned to the chair across from him.

"Yes." As I sat down, I said, "Is this about this morning? With the whole spy thing?"

"In a way."

"I don't think Kappa would mind, Jacky—" He raised his skeleton hand to stop me.

"Iset explained it to me. Apparently, the spirit of the season requires subterfuge, which is not something I excel at." That was true.

"You, on the other hand…" he said. I glanced up, but there was no point in trying to read his expression. He didn't have one. He went on, "I understand that you've helped both Kappa and Conrad with their gifts to other people."

"Yeeaaah."

"Could you see your way to helping me?" I put a hand to my forehead. I didn't even like presents! But you pretend you're a spy one time and suddenly you're the foremost consulting expert.

"Jacky…" I stopped myself. It's true that I was unqualified for the job, but sitting across the desk from me was the one person I could say, without hesitation, was more clueless than I was. Not to mention, it was my fault that any of this was happening. Maybe this was the price I had to pay for all those lovely Christmas lights. I sighed.

"Who are you supposed to give your gift to?"

"Darius."" Darius?" I gaped.

"But I have no idea what to get Darius!"

"Neither do I. He's a very private man."

"I mean, what does he even do—besides work and wear suits?"

"I've considered that angle, but I would hesitate before buying a man a suit. It might not fit with his sense of fashion." My eyes narrowed.

"Iset said she had to stop you from buying my entire wardrobe."

"Ah, but you see, Darius has taste." And he stared at me with his gormless, empty eye-sockets. Yup. The only person more clueless than I was.

"I'll see what I can do for you," I growled.

"Thank you." I stood up and walked toward the door. Before I got there, Jacky said, "Have you learned anything more about the children?"

"We've learned who they are, but not how they died."

"And they don't remember yet?"

"I haven't asked recently. I thought they'd tell me." Which, I realized, was a major assumption on my part.

"Don't worry, Emerra, I suspect they'll remember when you do." I looked back at him, but he was already focused on his work. What kind of paperwork did death have? Maybe I didn't want to know. I stepped out into the hall and went over to the library. As I entered, I observed the vampire with heightened interest. Count Vasil, my new nemesis. Iset stood up and came over to me.

"Darius says you found them." I pulled out my phone and started bringing up the photos.

"So, good news first. I met this fantastic woman today who loves computers, the museum takes donations, and she said she'd kiss me if I could help her get a book scanner."