“Kate—I didn’t do anything. What the hell? What’s going on?”
“You bastard. You unimaginable bastard. Itrustedyou. I thought you wanted to protect Allie, not hurt her.”
“Hurt her?” That was Mindy’s voice, but I ignored her as well.
“What are you talking about?” Jared asked. “I don’t want to hurt Allie.”
“She can defeat Lilith? Bullshit. You want her because she canbeLilith.”
“No.” He shook his head. “No, no, no. I don’t want any of that. I want Lilith gone.”
“Bullshit.”
I heard a strange buzzing, and realized it was coming from my back pocket. The unpleasant beeping sound of a call that had been disconnected. “Stuart. Can you?—”
Thankfully, he understood and took the phone from my jeans, then ended the call. I needed to call Father back, but first I needed to deal with this traitor.
“He’s telling the truth,” Mindy said, stepping into my line of sight. “At least, he mostly is. At least about wanting Lilith gone.”
I looked between her and Stuart, then over to Laura, who shook her head as if to say she didn’t know what Mindy was talking about.
“Stuart, can you find something solid and wooden and pointy. And a mallet. I want you to babysit this guy.”
“On it,” he said, then headed toward the garage.
“Okay, Mindy. What are you talking about?”
She took a tentative step closer to Jared. “They’re blackmailing you, aren’t they? You really do hate Lilith, but they’re blackmailing you.”
Jared stayed silent, so I jabbed the pencil down until he nodded. “Yes.” He turned his head away, not meeting my eyes. And he didn’t say another word.
I considered torturing it out of him—it was tempting, that was for sure—but I turned to Mindy instead. Right then, I needed information. “What do you know, Mindy? And how on earth do you know it?”
“I—well, when I was pissed at Allie I started researching him.” She nodded to the vampire on the floor. “I told you I didn’t trust him.”
“You researched a vampire?”
“Well, he moves in the world like a human, right? So I checked what I could find. Addresses, driver’s licenses, his parent’s information. Which was really him, right? So I just kept going backward. It was kind of fun, actually, and I?—”
“Mindy, sweetheart,” Laura said. “What did you learn?”
“He’s got a sister. Three generations back, there was always a sister. So I figure she’s a vamp, too. But where is she now?”
“Staked?” Cutter asked, but I shook my head.
“Blackmail. That’s what you said, right?” I directed the question to Mindy, who nodded.
“Blackmail?” Stuart repeated, as he came back in with a garden stake and a rubber mallet.
I nodded to Cutter. “Can you two keep that stake at his heart and get him in a chair. And if he lies, pound it home.”
They did, with Stuart holding Jared in place by the shoulders, and Cutter keeping him in place with a well-placed stake and a clear willingness to use the mallet.
“Are you sure?” I asked Mindy.
“No. Except it makes sense. His sister suddenly doesn’t seem to exist. But now he’s interested in Allie? If Lilith was such a big deal to him, why didn’t he come help us the last time Lilith blew into town? He showed up now because Lilith needed him. That’s what I think, anyway.”
“It’s a good theory,” I admitted, remembering that in addition to singing, Mindy worked on the school paper.
