Keeper of the Dawn. Heather Graham

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СКАЧАТЬ to be argumentative or cast aspersions on anyone. But this is ridiculous. When we left the police station, I agreed to come here to talk with Sailor, as my Keeper, but if no one’s going to take me seriously, then forgive me, but I really should be leaving.”

      She’d come straight here—from seemingly endless hours of police paperwork. From questions that she answered as best she could when there was no true answer to some of them, or no answer she could give in the world of men. She’d been very careful, trying to be forthright without giving away any information that would make the human employees of the police department suspicious.

      And worse, her car was at the impound lot. She’d had to ride with Brodie and Mark, and she was stuck here until she could ease her way out of the conversation and get someone to drive her home.

      She spoke in an even tone to Rhiannon. “Forgive me. This—It’s senseless,” she said quietly. “The fact that you’re Keepers makes you responsible for dangerous situations, but it doesn’t preclude the rest of us from acting when those we care about are threatened. I really would like to just go home now, if you don’t mind.”

      “Alessande,” Sailor protested gently. “We’re not attacking you—really.”

      “No, I don’t mean to attack,” Rhiannon said softly. “If it seems like we are, it’s because we’re frightened—frightened for you.”

      At that moment Barrie Gryffald, Keeper of the Valley shapeshifters, burst into the house. “I heard what happened! Oh, my God! Alessande—you’re all right?”

      “I’m fine, Barrie, thank you,” Alessande said.

      “But you set yourself up—were you able to find out anything about Regina?”

      “Regina?” Rhiannon asked.

      Alessande lowered her head for a moment. She looked up at Barrie and shook her head slowly. “No. I’d hoped I’d be taken wherever she might be and that…”

      “And that you could save her,” Barrie finished.

      “She’s innocent and young and…she disappeared two nights ago now. I’m afraid. The longer she’s missing…”

      Regina Johnson was eighteen and on her own. She’d come to L.A. straight out of a foster home in San Francisco. Alessande had met her when Regina had agreed to play a minor role in a fantasy movie being filmed at a small studio run by one of Alessande’s friends. That was a negative about being Elven, at least in Alessande’s mind. Many in the Elven community flocked to L.A. because they had excellent prospects for success in the movies. Elven tended to be blond, blue-eyed, statuesque and filled with a natural charm that the camera seemed to love. Elven who didn’t work in the movies tended to work on them.

      “All right, yes, I did—do—want to save her. But that’s simply part of it. Okay, most of it,” Alessande said in a rush. “But it’s not only Regina. She was just the last to disappear, so there’s still hope for her. And I feel so bad for her. Growing up, she didn’t even know that she was Elven, didn’t know that there was a whole community of Others just like her, that she was normal…and she comes here, settles in, starts to work—and disappears.”

      “You felt bad for an orphan because you were orphaned, weren’t you?” Sailor said.

      “Yes,” Alessande admitted. Her situation hadn’t been quite as bad. She had never known her own father, but she had a brother two years younger from her mother’s second marriage; his father and their mother had been with them until dying in an accident when Alessande was seven and Conner five. After that they had been adopted by Elven parents and had grown up in a family where they were loved and understood. That had been back in Northern Scotland, many years ago. Her brother was still dear to her, but he’d remained behind in the Old World when she’d left in the middle of World War II, unable to stay behind after the love of her life had been killed during the invasion of Normandy. She loved her brother dearly, and one of them traveled back and forth every few years to visit. Her adoptive parents were still overseas as well, having chosen to retire to Cork, in Ireland. She saw them as often as she could.

      Regina had not had the benefit of a brother or loving adoptive parents. She’d thought there was something seriously wrong with her for most of her life. Alessande had met her soon after she’d discovered what she was and had wanted to make the world right for her.

      Then…

      Then she’d been kidnapped—right when being kidnapped seemed to mean showing up dead just a few weeks later.

      “The point is,” Alessande said, “Regina was the third young woman to disappear—and the other two were apparently held somewhere for weeks before they were dumped.”

      “We all understand trying to save a friend,” Barrie said. She walked over to the sofa in front of the fire and took a seat, looking around Castle House as if she were assessing it—as if she’d never been in it before. Like the guest cottages, Castle House was eclectic, filled with old charm and curios.

      The houses seemed to suit the unique personalities of the three women. Castle House boasted carved-wood details, and Alessande loved it. Her own cabin was built of wood, which was always comforting to her, and from it, she drew her strength.

      Barrie was apparently trying to figure out where to start. A reporter, she was up on the news almost as it happened. “It’s true,” she said now, looking over at Rhiannon. “Leesa Adair disappeared six weeks ago. Her body was found two weeks later and—” she paused, wincing “—and the medical examiner said that she’d only been dead a day or two. Judith Belgrave disappeared four weeks ago, and her body was found just two days ago. Whoever is kidnapping these women is holding them for weeks before they wind up dead.”

      Rhiannon had taken a seat on one of the overstuffed armchairs by the sofa, and now she looked from Alessande to Barrie. “But though they bled out, they were not truly drained. If a vampire were behind this, I guarantee you—a rogue vampire wouldn’t waste a murder. Those girls would have not had one drop in their bodies.”

      Alessande winced. “I hate to say this, but usually when something involves magic and illusion—like this Sebastian Hildegard cult—shapeshifters are involved.”

      “Naturally I’ve thought about that,” Barrie said quietly.

      “Let’s back up a minute,” Rhiannon said, turning to Alessande. “Exactly how did you almost become a sacrifice to Sebastian Hildegard? Brodie and Mark were out at the cemetery earlier because an anonymous tipster had called and said that they suspected a ‘cult meeting with murderous intent’ would occur there at midnight. But what made you think that the cult was connected to the dead women and Regina’s disappearance?”

      “And how on earth did you arrange to get yourself taken?” Sailor demanded.

      “And why, if they were holding the other women before killing them, did they decide to sacrifice you so quickly?” Barrie asked.

      Alessande looked from one cousin to another.

      “I read the news stories about the other women who were kidnapped and traced their routes—and I knew where Regina had gone the day she disappeared,” Alessande explained. “She had just gotten a job at the House of Illusion when—”

      Sailor interrupted her with a tone of anger and impatience. “There’s been trouble there СКАЧАТЬ