Page 78 of Always Darkest

He told much the same story that he had to Saber and Doug, going through the victims, if that’s what they were, one at a time,ending with Laurel Jennings, who had apparently died of acute alcohol poisoning and cocaine overdose, but was also drained of blood.

For a moment Elijah stopped speaking.

“How many bodies in total?”

“Seven over a few years,” he said. “And those are the ones I’ve personally seen and attended to. Dr. Maddens tries to get to them first.”

“Are you suggesting a conspiracy?” Doug asked, and Elijah looked at him with that flat, frustrated expression.

“No,” Elijah said. “I tend to look for the simplest explanation, and I think the simplest explanation is that nobody wants to deal with them, so it keeps moving up the chain of command, from the morgue, to law enforcement, to, I don’t know, local government. Maybe there’s a conspiracy to protect the culprit, but I think it’sfarmore likely that it’s a conspiracy of laziness and avoidance. Nobody wants to open a can of worms and tell the public something or someone is killing people, especially young people, and draining their blood. It would cause panic and put pressure on authorities toactuallyfigure out what’s going on.”

“That’s a very…cynicaltake,” Lozen said, and Elijah smiled a wry smile for the first time and shrugged.

“I’m a verycynicalguy.”

Then, Saber told her story, quickly, almost rushing, leaving out any reference to Ansel. She never said the word “vampire,” but did say that she saw a woman drinking someone’s blood in the mansion.

Lozen seemed nervous when it was her turn to speak and began by making a joke that she was mostly just along for the ride. Then she talked about her cousin, about her fears.

Finally, when she was finished, they all turned to Mia, waiting expectantly.

“Just me then, huh?” she asked, and laughed a little.

“Just you,” said Doug, and Saber saw that Mia’s cheeks flamed a little bit.

“As I said earlier, I own the herb and health-food store downtown, and when Lozen and Saber came to buy herbs and charms to ward off vampires, I recognized the ingredients. We got to talking, and I confirmed that I knew of vampires living on the island.”

“How?” Elijah said, sneering. “How do youknowthat? How could youpossiblyknow that?”

“I was told,” Mia said, taking a sip of tea. “By my aunt.”

“How could—” Elijah interrupted, but Doug stopped him.

“What did your aunt tell you?”

“That starting in around the 1980s, vampires began to use Bainbridge as a kind of enclave. It’s close to a city, where there are plenty of people that might go missing or disappear, but rural enough that the vampires can live quite privately. It’s in the Northwest, so fall and winter are very dark, giving them longer time awake, and since it’s a prosperous community the vampire’s wealth, some of them are vastly, almostunimaginablywealthy, can go unnoticed without being a subject of interest.”

“Huh,” said Lozen. “That all makes perfect sense actually.”

Elijah laughed mockingly.

“How does your aunt know all this?”

“She passed, actually. She was really my great-aunt,” Mia said. “As far as howsheknew, I’m not at liberty to say.”

“So, rumors.”

“I’m telling you what I know. I don’t care if you believe me or not.”

“Fair enough,” said Elijah. “I don’t believe you.”

Mia took a sip of tea and smiled at him, a serene, angelic smile.

“So,” Doug said, “now we have the facts, the rumors, and the personal anecdotes that make up a sort of hazy picture of the problem.”

“If it evenisa problem,” Elijah corrected. “It could be a series of coincidences and, sorry, Saber,delusions.”

“But you don’t think it is or you wouldn’t be here,” Lozen said pointedly to Elijah, who nodded.

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