"Fiona," Jagger said, "I'm begging you, for everyone's sake, to take care, now more than ever. Please. Go home, and let Billy stay with you and your sisters until I can get there. This killer is after you. Somehow he knew you were meeting Billy here. He intended to catch you unaware. Please. You are responsible not only for us but to us--and in turn, we are responsible for you. I balance dangerously between a police force that has no idea we exist and the reality of what we are. I have to be here when backup arrives--and I have to be here alone."
With the situation put in that perspective, she felt like a fool, but she had no intention of betraying that fact.
"All right. Billy, let's go," she said.
"Of course," he agreed, nodding earnestly.
Together, they hurried out the door, and she and Billy headed away from the main gate. They could already hear sirens, and with the police arriving soon, they would have to scale a wall to get out.
A minute later, after leaping gently to the pavement, they hurried back into the French Quarter.
Looking at her, Billy laughed.
"What?"
"You look like a corpse."
"Thank you."
"No, you're all gray and dirty from hiding in that vault."
"Oh, that makes it so much better."
"I'm just hoping we don't meet anyone on the way back."
"Me, too. When we get there, you explain to my sisters while I hop in the shower, okay?"
"They won't suspect me, will they?" Billy asked.
She shook her head. "Not when you're with me," she promised, even though she was all too aware that Caitlin certainly seemed to hate Jagger. Maybe she just felt threatened by his close relationship with Fiona.
"It'll be fine--you'll explain, and I'll shower and try not to look like a corpse."
"Okay, deal. And then, perhaps..." Billy murmured as they walked.
"Perhaps what?" Fiona asked.
"Perhaps I could see her tonight?" he asked wistfully.
"Abigail, I mean."
"Billy, David is working with her on her new identity," she reminded him.
He swallowed. "But her memorial is tomorrow. It will be a tough day for her. She might need a friend tonight," he said.
"Perhaps," she said softly, feeling suddenly very fond of Billy.
Someone out there was planning to kill her.
It wasn't Billy, and there were very few others she could be so certain about.
Tony Miro arrived in the first of the screeching police cars.
Jagger met him at the front gate, which had been opened by a representative of the church, as a number of other officers spilled from their cars.
"We need to get some floodlights and search the entire cemetery," Jagger said. "Someone was in here tonight, and we need to find him or at least whatever traces he left behind."
Police with portable floodlights went marching grimly into the cemetery. With three bodies so far, no one complained that it was a tedious task that would probably lead to nothing, as the other cemetery searches had.
But it didn't lead to nothing. They hadn't been there long before Sean O'Casey, who'd been among the first arrivals, shouted, drawing Jagger and a half dozen others to where he stood.
He was over by the Grigsby vault, hunched down by a gargoyle that guarded the family gates.
"What?" Jagger demanded.
"I haven't touched it," Sean said, pointing. "There!"
Jagger knelt down and saw that something was stuffed behind the stone monster.
Celia Larson and several of the crime scene techs ran up just then. She pushed her way through the cluster of officers, shouting, "Damn it, don't go touching anything without gloves on!"
Jagger didn't have gloves, so he waited for Celia, who immediately reached behind the gargoyle.
"Damn," she said, looking at him, her eyes wide.
"What the hell is it?" Sean demanded.
"A nightgown. A white nightgown. Just like the others," Jagger said, and stood. He felt sick, thinking how close Fiona had come to being a victim tonight, but he had to remain stoic. It was his job to keep the balance.
He was suddenly nothing less than desperate to be with Fiona.
But he was the lead investigator; he had to supervise the search for clues that was going on with such grim determination.
While the officers and techs continued to comb the cemetery, he put through a call to Fiona. When she answered her phone, his relief was limitless.
She and Billy were both at her house, and he spoke to Billy for a few minutes before hanging up, glad to hear that both Caitlin and Shauna were being courteous. They were all watching a comedy Shauna had rented, Billy reported. Yes, Fiona seemed ready to crawl the walls, but they had gone through the house, closing and locking windows and doors, and they were armed and ready in case of attack.
There wasn't going to be an attack on the house, Jagger was certain. But it didn't hurt that they were on the alert.
He thanked Billy and hung up, then called David Du Lac. It took a while to get him. Valentina answered the phone, her voice low and sultry as she questioned him, then explained that she would have to find David, implying that it could take some time.
Jagger suggested that he really needed her to hurry up.
Finally David came to the phone.
"David, have you seen Mateas Grenard?" Jagger asked without preamble.
"Grenard? No," David said. "He hasn't been around at all today. Pretty much no one has. The place is more than half empty. People are getting scared."
"Yes," Jagger agreed. "And things will get worse if we don't find this guy."
"Why are you looking for Grenard? Do you actually suspect him? Personally I think the guy is all mouth," David said. "Mouth, not teeth."
"A witness gave the police artist a description of someone seen in the vicinity of the cemetery after the last murder. And that someone looked pretty much identical to Mateas Grenard," Jagger said. "So keep an eye out for him. And if you see him, call me. Immediately. All right?"
"Of course," David agreed. "Of course."
Jagger closed his phone and began to pace in front of the Grigsby tomb. It seemed forever ago that they had found the first victim.
Forever...and yet the murders had taken place in almost no time. If the killer kept up this pace, they were in serious trouble.
The nightgowns...The nightgowns were his only real clue.
And they had found one here tonight.
One intended for Fiona.
He could barely restrain himself while the team went through the cemetery. Finally they determined that they weren't going to discover anything else that night, so he said his goodbyes and left.
Forgetting his car, heedless of those around him, he slipped out the gate, around the corner of wall, turned to shadow and flew--like a bat out of hell--to Fiona's.
The mood was, beyond a doubt, tense.
When they heard someone knocking on the front door, all three sisters and Billy Harrington leaped from their chairs. Fiona wanted to kick herself for overreacting, then wondered why she cared, when the whole evening hadn't gone well. Caitlin and Shauna had been horrified by her appearance when she and Billy had walked into the house, and it had only gotten worse when they'd heard the story.
She had told them about her trip to the church, and the holy water, and that Billy had passed the test. After that they had tried to relax, watching a movie, even laughing on occasion.
They were still as tense as taut wire.
"It's just the door," Caitlin said.
"It's Jagger," Fiona said, and hurried to answer.
"Don't open it without checking!" Caitlin warned, running after her.
Fiona paused, looking back at her reproachfully. "No, of course not," she said.
"Jagger doesn't need to knock, does he? He's been invited in," Caitlin reminded her.
"He would knock anyway," Fiona said. "He's polite, okay?"
She looked through the peephole, and it was indeed Jagger. She quickly let him in.
He didn't care about Caitlin standing there staring at him with ill-concealed hostility, as he pulled Fiona into his arms. He didn't do anything, though; he just held her. She could feel him trembling again, and she realized she'd been angry earlier when she should have been gratified.
He was afraid for her. Afraid as she had been in the tomb, hiding in the vault, hearing the gate creaking as it opened.
Afraid as she was now, because her parents had seemed all powerful to her, and they'd had to use all that power and give up their lives to stop the violence that had broken out before, and now it was all up to her.
She held Jagger in return, drawing strength from him. She wasn't alone. She had her sisters...and she had Jagger.
Caitlin cleared her throat. "So now the killer is threatening my sister. What's taking so long? Why haven't you found this monster?"
Jagger was still holding Fiona close, but she could tell from the sudden tension in him that he was staring at Caitlin.
Just as Billy and Shauna came running up, Jagger said, "I will find the killer, Caitlin."
Fiona looked up at him. "We will find the killer." She turned to Caitlin. "We'll find him. I swear it."
"Before the next victim dies?" Caitlin asked. Without waiting for an answer, she turned and headed for her own apartment.
"She's just scared," Shauna said, when Caitlin was gone.
Not to mention that she hated vampires and always had, Fiona thought.
Billy ignored the tension and turned to Jagger. "I'm so glad you're here and I can go. Jagger, please, I need to see Abigail. I mean, come on. It's not like I haven't been to Underworld often enough before. And there's going to be a memorial service for her tomorrow. She needs me," Billy said.
"I think it would be fine," Fiona said.
Jagger looked at her, and a small smile just barely lifted his lips.
"Fiona is the Keeper," he said. "If it's all right with her, it's all right with me. I'll call David and arrange it. Just make sure you're back in your room by morning."
