Page 38 of Mortdale

Folding it neatly, I scribbled my initials on top of it and handed it to Thomas. “You’ll take it to her. Don’t tell her what you heard Agnes tell me or I will be starving you until I die.”

“If you die when I’m gone?”

“I won’t die until you come back.”

“I eat your corpse. That was our deal.”

“I will hold up our bargain, you ugly pettifogger.”

Dropping on my husband’s chair, I ran my fingers back and forth along the length of the wooden table. Only more account books were stored on the shelves. When I pulled on the last shelf, it was locked. Pulling a pin out of my hair, I worked the lock in under a minute.

The shelf was mostly empty, except for the stack of letters still on their envelopes and a photograph that most likely was Piper when she was a baby.

The letters all had one sender. Cassandra Clemonte-Duncan.

Running my finger over the broken seal flap, I decided to open one.

My dearest brother,

I feel strange. John’s presence makes me uneasy, and I miss him so much at the same time. I can’t help but push him away. He can’t understand what I am feeling. Nor can I.

It’s happening to me, too, isn’t it? Like the others. Maybe our mother wasn’t insane. Or am I? And the others, are they insane, too?

Please, return to Mortdale.

I fear for my baby. You’re the only one who can protect her.

If something happens to me, don’t let it happen to her, too.

I am scared, Logan.

-Your beloved sister, Cassandra

I folded the letter back, placing it how it had been before I stared off into the distance. Words floated in echoes around me, each letter pounding against my ears.

Like the others.

It’s happening to me, too, isn’t it?

Like the others.

I’m scared, Logan.

My eyes slid over his table. To the three framed photographs lined up along the left corner of his work desk. I grabbed Cassandra’s.

Heart near jumping up my oesophagus, I brought it closer and closer and closer to me until I spotted it. A mark on her shoulder. An upside down half-moon mark.

Impossible.

No.

How could it be? She was a vampire.

Just when I reached for another letter, the door handle rattled, and I ducked under Logan’s table, hiding.

“The door’s unlocked,” I heard Rupert tell someone. “He never leaves this door unlocked.”

Shit.