“She was very extravagant,” Maxine said. “She wore the most beautiful scarves you’ve ever seen, Olivia! She even came with tarot cards and a crystal ball.”
Richard seemed annoyed by Maxine’s interruption. “Greta, of course, being a typical teenager, didn’t want to hang around with a bunch of old fuddy-duddies. We never included her in our dinner parties anyway, because we didn’t wish to subject our friends to her capriciousness. Greta was chatty, and we knew she’d monopolize dinner conversation.”
I, on the other hand, would have done just about anything to have five minutes with Tilly at the dinner table, even if it was only to chat about what had transpired on her favorite soap opera that day. I missed her so much.
Richard continued, “On the night we had the fortune teller over, Greta wandered into the room.”
“Richard thought the fortune teller was a charlatan,” Maxine said haughtily. “But I knew she was for real.”
“Anyhow,” Richard powered on with a curt look aimed at Maxine, “things changed when the fortune teller saw Greta.”
“Before that, she’d been joking around and telling our guests the sort of fortunes everyone wants to hear.You are greatly respected and have many riches coming your way—that sort of thing,” Maxine said with a wave of her bony little hand. “She grew very serious the instant she laid eyes on Greta.”
“She jumped up from the table and ran from the room so fast that she knocked over a guest’s drink.” Richard seemed particularly agitated by this fact.
“I caught up with her before she had a chance to leave,” Maxine said. “I demanded to know why she was behaving so strangely. She claimed she was feeling ill and needed to go home. I knew she was lying, so I told her that I wouldn’t pay her until she explained herself. She said I could keep her money, and she ran out.”
I asked, “Why didn’t you stop her?”
“We couldn’t hold her prisoner, now could we?” Maxine answered, I assumed, ironically.
I could only blink at her in response.
“We tracked the fortune teller down a few days later and demanded an explanation,” Richard said. “She took some persuading, but eventually she talked.”
I could only imagine what they did to scare the truth out of her. “What did she tell you?”
Richard said, “She told us that our daughter was with child, which we just could not believe.”
“But she was,” I said. “With my mother.”
Richard nodded. “She also told us that the fetus was tainted, and that the father was supernatural—an abomination of nature.”
“Not of mortal origins but also not immortal either,” Maxineadded. “She warned that Greta would be in danger if she further associated with the father.”
I studied their faces. From what I could tell, they believed what they were saying. “You don’t mean . . . like a vampire?”
Maxine smiled with coldness. “More like a half-breed.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t make sense. Vampires are unable to procreate.” Also, if my mother’s father was a vampire, then that would mean that I was part vampire, which I plainly wasn’t. I wasincapableof turning vampire.
Richard said, “The woman didn’t know what the father was specifically.”
“We went home right away to talk to Greta. After much hounding on our part, she admitted she was pregnant. Still, she swore that the only thing off about the boy was that he was from New Jersey,” Maxine said, pursing her lips in displeasure.
New Jersey, like it was on par with him being a serial killer.
I asked, “Did you track him down? The father?”
“No,” Richard answered. “He tracked medown while the sun was out, so that’s how I’m certain he wasn’t full vampire. He said he’d been watching us.”
“Who? You and Maxine?”
“Yes, and my hunting club. He knew we were hunting vampires. Falling in love with Greta was a byproduct of his stalking,” Richard said. “More unnerving was that he said he’d been following my hunting group since its inception, yet he couldn’t have been a day older than seventeen, maybe eighteen.”
I frowned. “When was your group founded?”
Richard paused for dramatic effect. “1780.”
