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“Did Mother put you down here, Gretchen?”
The immortal child lunges towards Topher once more. Perfectly styled blonde curls bounce with her movement as she growls once more, and chill bumps cover my skin with the sound. “No, the other one did.”
“The other one? Someone other than your maker?” Amelia asks, kneeling closer to the girl. Gretchen lunges once more, biting the air as she moves and coming remarkably close to Amelia’s hand. “Who put you down here?”
“I smell his blood. Set me free.”
“I’m sorry, Gretchen. We can’t do that,” Amelia answers.
“Like hell, we can’t,” I retort. “She’s nothing more than a child.”
“Look at her, Elsbeth. She’s wearing clothes from another century. She’s not a child. She’s a killer, trapped in the body of a child for all eternity.” Amelia steps between me and the young girl, blocking my view.
“Help me,” Gretchen whines. Her voice takes on the timbre of her appearance. “I won’t hurt anyone. Please, help me. I’m scared. They…they hurt me.” She begins to cry, reminding me of my sister Bonnie from so many years ago.
“Move, Amelia,” I demand. “I will not let that child suffer.”
Amelia’s eyes turn black in an instant. “Elsbeth, I will not set this creature free. Do you understand me?”
“The woman smelled funny,” Gretchen says from behind Amelia’s legs. “She smelled like fire.” She looks at me with her answer. “Hot fire,” she adds.
Amelia turns back to the girl. “The one who put you down here smelled like fire?”
“Someone who smells like fire has to be Marnie or Kragen, except Gretchen says it’s a woman, which only leaves one of the people in the equation. Am I the only one who knows what that means?” I raise my voice louder than needed.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Topher says, closing the gap between the child and his wife.
“Jump to conclusions? I spent a hundred years being held captive by that asshole. I know what he smells like. His daughter smells just like him.” I don’t know why I’m taking my anger out on the only friends I’ve ever known.
“So do you!” Amelia matches my energy. “Yousmell like sulfur.Yousmell like KragenandMarnie.”
I take a step backward. “You don’t think I…”
“No,” she interrupts. “I don’t think you had anything to do with this. I’m simply stating the fact that you smell like Kragen because he was your maker. There are others out there that would carry his smell. Hell, it wouldn’t even have to be someone he turned. Itcould be an old lover. Kragen and Marnie don’t hold the patent for smelling like fire.” I stare at the hybrid, not sure how to respond. The thought of me carrying around Kragen’s smell for three hundred years never even occurred to me.
“What the hell is that?” Micah interrupts the insanity from the bottom of the stairs.
With the combination of Topher and Micah’s blood, Gretchen’s face transforms from the sweet child she was moments earlier into a monster equal to Kragen in its appearance. “I’m hungry!” she screams. She fights against the chains, pulling with all of her strength. The chains rattle and shake, refusing to give way.
When Gretchen realizes the silver isn’t giving way, she begins chewing at her wrist, biting hunks of flesh away, and spitting them across the room.
“Gretchen?” I focus on keeping my voice as calm as possible. “What are you doing?”
“She’s doing the only thing she knows,” Amelia answers. “She’s an animal trying to get her next meal.”
“We can’t just leave her here.” My voice cracks at the realization that it leaves us only one other option.
“We won’t,” Amelia says. The timbre of her voice tells me what she’s going to do without saying the words. “She’ll be out of her misery.”
I back away from the beautiful girl. “I can’t watch,” I whisper.
“Take her upstairs,” Topher barks an order. Thorne wraps his arms around my shoulders, leading me awayfrom the immortal child. Micah joins us as the three of us leave the basement and the young girl who never had a chance to live.
“Did you find anything?” Thorne asks Micah, trying to distract my thoughts. I appreciate the effort.
“Nothing out of the ordinary. Three bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms. There was definitely evidence of a massive party, but nothing stood out as unusual,” he answers.
“Gretchen said she had ten brothers and sisters. Do you think that means there are ten other immortal children out there?” I ask the two of them. Both men look at the stained flooring, answering with their actions instead of words.
