“You do not have to tell me; I was just curious. You speak of her highly.” I shrugged, nonchalantly swishing the liquid in my cup.
“She is a force,” Edith said softly. “Sometimes I am afraid to say her name. I fear she will appear if I do.”
“I am sure you are safe. She must be very busy.” I kept my questions light, but I was restraining myself from prying.
“Alina is her name,” she practically whispered.
“Alina,” I couldn’t help but purr as it slipped off my tongue. “A beautiful name.”
“It is fitting for her.” She smiled shyly.
“Is she waiting for you now?”
“She is expecting me to be at work.” Her smile faded. A guilty furrow of the brow gave her away. She reminded me of my sister, so very expressive. Her face could not lie.
“I see. So you are not allowed to be here?”
“It’s not like that! She just gets anxious when we hunt on our own. I am conducting my own research. I feel I need to do it myself sometimes.”
“Fair, there is no use denying your nature.”
“She’s different. She thinks we can do some good in the world.” Edith smoothed down her skirt. “It gives us some hope that we aren’t some sort of plague or curse on mankind.”
“Mankind,” I scoffed. “I’m pretty sure we were here first.”
“Doesn’t mean we have to make people suffer for it,” she said softly. “I’m sure you would think the same if there was a chance you might harm the ones you love.”
My lip twitched in a sneer, but I dampened it.
We sat silently for a while, finishing our drinks before she eventually slipped away. It seemed like fate, meeting Alina’s pet here. It sounded like she ran her dogs on short leads. Destiny was in our favor today. It was a matter of time before she would be by my side once more.
13
THE POISONER
“What do you think could have caused it?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I trailed off.
The answer is Vipera blood.
“You will make a terrible undertaker,” Henry scoffed. “Have a guess.”
“Poison?”
“That is a lazy answer.”
“But itisa possibility.”
“Obviously. But then it turns into a matter of whether the poisoning was accidental or malicious, something much harder to prove.”
“Allergy, then.”
“That’s just another type of poisoning, Miss Lis. Whatcausedthe poisoning?”
I lifted a shoulder, biting my lip.
“You are a lousy thinker today.”
