The Survivors: Body & Blood (book 3)

Undecipherable, pt. 1

I FOUND SADIE AND GINNY SITTING ON THE BED IN SADIE'S ROOM at the Laughing Horse. Of course, they asked me what had happened.

I fessed only relevant parts. "Narcisa's dead."

Ginny gasped. "Oh my god, what happened?"

"She started killing humans, and went on a rampage. She needed to be stopped."

"By being killed?" Sadie asked.

Rather than explaining, I settled on, "Do you trust my judgment?"

There was a pause then, not as Sadie asked herself the question but instead as she settled herself so I'd know what she was about to say was true. "Yes."

"Good. Then trust that it had to happen," I said. And before they could ask more questions, I asked. "Where's Everett?"

"He's having dinner with Kutoyis in town," Ginny said.

"Noah and Ben are talking with Andrew outside the City. Andrew has come back to life after seeing Noah. I believe it's renewed his faith that this might not happen the way they fear it will," Sadie said. "Which I'm cautious about, but I understand. It's made me hopeful, too. It reminds me that everything is still possible."

I don't know when I'd assumed Sadie's mental health as my responsibility, but it had happened somewhere along the way, and I was happy to hear her say this. I wondered if this meant more that I had a problem with trying to fix all the girls in my life, or if it was just that my initial responsibility — Ginny — was doing so well that I could handle another charge.

But I had to keep checking up on Sadie. Asking questions. Getting her to tell me what she would admit to thinking. Figuring out what she was actually thinking. She was such a puzzle, that one. An undecipherable code. But something told me I might be the one best suited to crack her, for better or for worse.

I guess that's what made me say off-handedly, "Hey, Gin, why don't you meet up with Everett and Kutoyis? See how they're doing?"

"Good idea. Gives me a chance to practice this!" she said, and for drama's sake snapped her fingers as she disappeared.

"Needed me alone, did you?" Sadie smiled.

I cut the bullshit. "We have to go back to creepy-Tituba town, in England. If we're going after Raven, we all know our best in to him is Sam. And that's where Sam is. Or is likely to be."

"Says who?"

"Says Narcisa. Watch." I grabbed her hand and put it to my forehead, giving her the memory of my conversation. I tried really hard to make sure it only began when Narcisa was talking about Sam and Raven and ended before I decapitated her.

Sadie's eyes widened in fear, making the purple notes in them look a little brighter. "She was working for him?"

"From the beginning, it seems," I said. "I don't know how that's surprising, in hindsight. I mean, Parker was one of theirs."

"But she . . ." Sadie's voice trailed off, and I wondered what she was remembering: The time my family killed half of Narcisa's, or the time Narcisa had told her we were a particularly lethal breed of the world's most notorious supernatural creature, or the time Narcisa's lover died in front of us and upon bringing him home, Sadie was so tortured by Narcisa's grief that she jumped ship for a month to pretend like her life wasn't happening.

So I just said, "I know," like I did even though I didn't. And Sadie said nothing. "I know," I repeated, as if to reassure myself that I did, in fact, know what she was thinking. "But we're in no shape to turn down a lead when we've gone one, are we?"