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THE OTHER DOOR

“She’s in the basement,” I said, breathless, walking with rapid steps down the wide wooden stairs, my wedding dress sweeping the wood behind me. I had a sudden flash of myself as Scarlett O’Hara, sashaying down the wide staircase of Tara.

Not the best image to have pop into my head, under the circumstances.

Especially considering what I’d just seen inside these walls.

The other seers and Nick stood in the foyer.

They stared up at me as I came down the last flight of stairs, and I found myself thinking Nick had the same thought as I did about the antebellum imagery.

It probably thrilled him as much as it did me.

Neither one of us were big fans of people romanticizing the horrors of that time, though. Even when I wasn’t in a murder house owned by the descendent of serial killers, that kind of thing had never been my cup of tea.

“She’s in the basement,” I repeated looking from Nick to Black.

Black frowned.

I saw his gold eyes dart to Dalejem and Jax before returning to me.

“What makes you think that, doc?” he asked casually.

I shook my head as I reached the last step, walking out gingerly onto the threadbare carpet covering most of the foyer.

“I don’t know how I know,” I admitted. “I just realized I knew. I knew where she was. I don’t know if someone dragged her down there, or she fell through a laundry chute, or a trap door, or what… but I suspect she didn’t end up there by choice. Someone wants us in the basement. There’s something Brick wants us to see down there.”

Remembering what Dex and I saw upstairs, I pointed up.

“There was another recording on the third floor. Denis was trying to hide their baby daughter from Virginie. Virginie wanted to kill her as part of some ritual meant to give them eternal life and supernatural powers or whatever… she told Denis she had promised their daughter as part of the price. She claimed there was no way out of it. Denis wanted to use some other kid, pretend it was theirs.”

“Did she kill him, doc?” Black asked. “Did she kill Denis?”

I shook my head, but not in a no.

“I have no idea. The recording ended before it went there. She was holding the scythe, trying to convince him to give up the baby, that she’d give him a new baby later––”

“As a vampire?” Black grunted, folding his arms. “Good luck.”

I shrugged. “Well, that’s the thing. Dex and I wondered if maybe the ritual wasn’t about that. Or maybe notonlyabout that. Maybe she was trying to do something more drastic than just have them changed into vampires. Maybe it was something more.”

“Like what?” Jax asked.

I turned to look at him, then shrugged.

“I have no idea. Maybe she just didn’t know how the vampire thing works. Maybe she really believed she needed to do all of this to make them immortal. Or maybe she just liked killing and it was all just some bizarre rationale. Dex and I couldn’t figure it out by watching the recording. We tried asking Denis questions, but he didn’t tell us much.”

Again, Dalejem, Black, Nick, and Jax exchanged looks.

They returned their gaze to me.

“Agreed,” Black said, reluctant. “About the basement. We were just talking about that. Jax thought he felt her down there. I’m less sure… but the basement’s locked, and none of us can feel her anywhere else in the house. And there’s something deeply weird down there.”

I nodded, remembering feeling something strange in my light earlier when we looked at the house’s energy. Recalling the memory, I couldn’t really pinpoint what it had been, though. Whatever that throbbing feeling I’d felt in the basement was, it wasn’t familiar to me.

It struck me that it felt almost like a heartbeat.