“Your father?”
“You would think, but no. That group was founded by the Templars and is run by their descendants.”
Knights Templar. She should have known they’d have a hand in world affairs. “Do any of them know the secret of Oak Island?” She couldn’t resist asking.
“Probably and we need to have a serious conversation about your streaming addiction soon.”
Sorcha would argue that, but he was right. She spent way too much time watching everything Hulu and Netflix had to offer. And don’t get me started on Amazon Prime. “Fine. Does your father have his own group?”
“Of course, he does. Circle of Fyre.”
That made sense. “Isn’t that a bit on the nose?”
“Not as much as Infernal Order would have been.”
“Point taken. Is there any group we’re missing I need to know about?”
“Just the Order of Blackthorn.” He pointed to the pictures on his screen. “That’s why I don’t think this is being done by a serial killer.”
“Why? The victims all look alike. It’s an easy MO that makes sense.”
“Yes, and killing the heir to the Order of Blackthorn makes a lot more sense.”
It might, but she wasn’t quite ready to go there. She really wanted this to be human in nature and not a turf war between preternatural superpowers. “Walk me through your thinking.”
“I ran across Amandine a few weeks ago. Didn’t think anything about it as she was with a friend in a coffee shop, studying late at night. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was weird. An immortal being attending classes at a local university? Granted eternity can get boring. Not as boring as class, if you ask me. But who am I to judge kink? Anyway, I put it out of my thoughts until now. Now I’m thinking what if our perp is trying to get Amandine and the others were a mistake? It would explain the condition of the bodies.”
“How so?”
“Order of Blackthorn is made up of the more usual paranormal creatures. Vampires, werewolves, boogeymen, etcetera.”
“And Amandine is…”
“Vampire. They’re hard to kill. But if you bleed them out and ravage their body, they can’t regenerate.”
He was right. That would explain the overkill. “But wouldn’t staking their heart be quicker and easier?” Not to mention a lot less messy.
Creating a bottle of water out of thin air, Luke opened it and took a drink. “Stop watching movies and bad TV. Nothing is that easy to kill…well, maybe a Daimon. But not all their marks are in the center of their chests either, and you better have the strength of a Dark-Hunter when you stake that mark or all you’ll do is piss the Daimon off.”
Sorcha’s eyes widened as she made a note on her tablet about that. “Daimons…must pierce their mark. Don’t stake vampires unless I’m wearing tennis shoes.”
Luke moved to stand beside her. “Exactly. They tend to take those stakes and return the favor.”
She cringed at the image that went through her head. “Ouch. Duly noted. But I still don’t see how these all tie together.”
Luke gestured at the photos with the water bottle in his hand. “Look at them. They could easily be mistaken for each other.”
“True. And?”
“If you were given a picture of Amandine so that you could find her…”
“It would be easy to mistake them.” She finally saw what he did. “But why kill them and frame you for it?”
“I was my father’s heir. If you wanted to start a war between the secret factions…”
“Murder the heir of one organization and blame it on the heir of another.”
Setting the water aside, Luke nodded slowly. “I’m thinking the killer thought each one was Amandine and framed me for the kill so that her father would demand my head for it.”
