Chapter 46 Arabella ‘Three weeks later’
Arabella
Three weeks later
Emmanuel: If it isn’t my favourite dealer!
I’d be absolutely chuffed to take a gander at your stash of Greek vases.
If you’re selling, I’m buying. And to your other question, one of my staff members does recall purchasing a cache of coins from a gentleman just last month with a long scar across his face.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any CCTV footage or a name, but I wish you well on your search.
“I’M CONCERNED ABOUT YOU, ARABELLA.” Beth frowns at me as she hands around a platter of mushroom cookies that no one eats. “You’re not practising good self-care.”
“What are you talking about? I’m a vampire. I invented self-care,” I huff. “I’ve been staying inside, avoiding sunlight, sleeping all day, and biting people who annoy me for decades, and all I’ve got to show for it is perfect skin and immortality.”
It’s been three weeks since Gideon handed me the paperwork to take over ownership of Sanctus and swore not to pursue me anymore. Three weeks of blissful peace without his terrible puns, insane grand gestures, or compliments about my derrière.
I have everything I wanted. I took Sanctus from Gideon. I had my revenge.
I’m miserable.
I’m hiding my misery by throwing myself into my work as the new director of Sanctus – meeting the management, learning how everything works, and introducing myself to the members I haven’t met, while slowly whittling down the cache Gideon has amassed and attempting to find who stole from his vault.
Three of my contacts in the antiquities trade have reported a man with a scar on his face selling off treasures that might’ve come from the Sanctus vaults, but of course, none can provide me with a photo.
There’s no one living at Sanctus who fits the description, so who is this guy and how is he getting in? Is he our killer? Could it be the same scarred man Gideon saw one hundred and fifty years ago?
That’s what we’re trying to figure out now.
It’s the Wednesday night meeting of the Nevermore Murder Club and Smutty Book Coven, but this week’s novel – the latest Ana Huang – sits unread and undissected while everyone gathers around the new murder board Mina and Maisie put together.
(It includes labels in Braille and string connecting suspects and clues so Mina can read it.) Well, everyone except Beth, who seems more determined to give everyone food poisoning than to catch our killer.
Beth offers me a small vial containing a faintly pink liquid. “This is a healing elixir. I think it will make you feel better. And if you like it, tell all your vampire clients. And are you sure you won’t agree to run a pole dancing class? It could be in honour of Alyra—”
“Beth, could we concentrate on this murder investigation for one minute?” Mina snaps. “We now have three murders connected to Sanctus Estate, and our killer is going after vampires, too. I think that’s a little more important.”
“I’m trying to help,” Beth sulks. “Arabella’s not the only one who could do with a relaxing pilates class to work the tension out of their body.”
“You want me to do pilates? The thing that killed Jesus.” I shake my head. “Hard pass.”
“What if we’re looking at this all wrong?” Maisie frowns at the board. “What if the murders have nothing to do with Sanctus? There might be another connection we’re not seeing.”
“Like what?”
“All three victims have connections to members of the Nevermore Coven.”
“That’s because we’re all up in everyone’s business!” Isis cries.
“Isis is right.” Komal chews on one of Celeste’s cheese scones. “Everyone in the village knows us. And I’d hardly call Maisie threatening to have James Pond peck Danny O’Hare’s codger off a ‘close connection’.”
I barely listen to their bickering. I want to find the killer as much as anyone, but I can’t stop my mind wandering to a golden-haired terror who’s done something I never expected and kept his word.
I haven’t seen Gideon since Alyra’s funeral – no mean feat on his behalf, considering I live and work on the estate.
I know he’s intending to leave – I saw a moving van outside Sanctus House and workers carrying down some of his designer furniture – but there’s a lot to process, especially since the phones are ringing off the hook with new inquiries after his explosive update on Sepulchrr.
Not seeing him has allowed his grief-filled eyes from our parting to haunt my dreamless sleep.
Okay, fine, not just my sleep.
I see him now on the edge of my vision, a whisper of a future I could have had.
I hear his silky voice saying the things I long to hear for the rest of my life.
We’re not soulmates, Arabella. The gods didn’t bring us together. I willed you back to me. I knitted the threads of fate together with the sheer force of my desire to see you again.
I thought we’d been through the foreplay. I stole from you. You tried to have me killed. Ours is a romance written in the stars.
Every time you say my name like that, I want to braid our bones together.
I wish…
I wish things had been different.
But it’s better this way. I’m better off alone. And he’s better off without me. In time, he’ll see that.
We’re vampires. All we have left is time.
My fist clenches around Beth’s healing elixir. I got over Gideon once before. I can do it again.