Page 45 of Cold Sacrifice

“Sure,” Lucy said. “I’ll bake something gooey and delicious.”

Trinity laughed. “I have no doubt.”

Finally, Lucy went into the house with Ash. Zach and Remy followed behind Trinity, Clementina, and me, and Jared and Rick led the way.

When we arrived at the grave, Bastien was already there.

Chapter Sixteen

I was counting on Bastien to have not only the blood we’d need, but the magic. If he couldn’t somehow transfer it over—and I was sure Trinity would have the specifics about how exactly he should do that—then the meeting would be for nothing, and the spirits would remain trapped.

“I lost two as we slept,” Bastien told me, staring into the grave we’d dug up. “It doesn’t matter what safeguards I put into place, how many guards I hire. The killer finds a way.” He looked at me finally, and there was something dark and terrible in his stare. “It’s one of the turned necromancers, isn’t it? That’s why you’ve asked me here.”

Trinity stood a few feet away, quiet and patient, waiting for us to be ready for her. But I had to talk to Bastien first. “Were you part of the purge, Bastien? I talked to her. She told me what happened. Did you help Frederick round them up, murder them, and throw them into this hole?”

Anger flashed in his eyes. No guilt or shame, but anger. And fear. There was fear, dark and hot. “I didn’t turn them into monsters,” he said, “but when they became what Frederick created, I helped end them. I helped bury them.”

“Because Frederick forced you to,” I said.

He frowned at me. “Because I wanted them destroyed.” He put his stare back on the dirt-covered bones.

“How could you do that?” I murmured, horrified by his lack of remorse. “How could you kill all these women and—”

“Do you remember Frederick at all, Kait? By the time they died, these necromancers, these mutant vampires, they were not women. They were monsters. The things I saw them do…” He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opened them again, there was only rage. “I have seen monsters. I have lived with monsters. But I have never seen anything worse than these…things, not before, and not since. Even Frederick and Kaloni feared them, as they should have.”

“They collected necromancers,” I said, my voice stronger, “and they turned them into vampires. When the turned necromancers became exactly what they were forced to be, you all freaked out over the loss of your control and butchered them. Murdered them.”

“You still don’t understand,” he said. “It spread like a disease. The turned ones began to leave the territory to turn others. Not just other necromancers. They turned humans.” He looked at me. “They turned wolves. Animals. Other vampires. Ours is not the only city hiding the graves of these things. And once they’d been turned and filled with Kaloni’s magic, they ceased being anything resembling the supernaturals they were before. Those necromancers were already dead by the time we put these abominations down.”

“What did they do?” Sam asked, fascinated. “What did they do that was so much worse than the things we all do, the things we all see?”

But Bastien shook his head. “I will not say,” he whispered.

And that was the moment I realized he was telling the truth. He wasn’t to blame for Frederick turning the necromancers into blood-sucking monstrosities. I’d had it all wrong. He’d simply helped hunt and kill the results of Frederick and Kaloni’s depravity.

I gestured for the witch. “This is Trinity,” I told Bastien. “She’s here to help me free the spirits of the necromancers. They’re trapped in their grave. The one who escaped is somehow…living. She’s the one compelling your people to kill themselves.”

He squared his shoulders and cast off his memories. He became the master, cold and blank and powerful. “Their spirits can’t hurt anyone,” he said. “Perhaps they are pure, now.” He gave Trinity a nod. “What do you need from me?”

“Blood,” she said. “And a hint of the magic used to create them.”

“I can give you my blood, but I do not have the magic.”

“Bastien,” I said, my chest tight, “we can’t release them without the magic.” I looked down into the pit at all the dismal, agonized faces, and I didn’t see monsters. I saw only despair and desperation. “I have to free them.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I…” Then he frowned when his gaze snagged on Zach.

“What?” I asked.

“Frederick’s slave was tortured with the magic. The residue will still be inside him.”

At his words, Zach became abruptly lost in the nightmare of his former captivity. Fury engulfed him, and he started toward Bastien with his blades in his hands, death in his eyes. Remy was right behind him, because if Zach was going to attack the master, Remy was going to help him do it.

I stepped in front of Zach and caught his face between my palms. “It’s okay,” I murmured. “It’s okay.”

Jared came to stand beside me. Or maybe he simply wanted to be between the hunter and the vampire master. “Zach,” he said, his voice low. “You’re not there anymore.”

And the life came back into Zach’s eyes. His face reddened, and he pushed his blades back into their sheaths. When Jared moved aside, Zach put his stare on Bastien. “Don’t ever call me that again.”