The teenager just stared at her, her gaze coolly mocking. Naomi turned to me and said, "She doesn't know any more than I do."
She glared at the girl one more time, then stalked off. The girl had come out the clear winner in their engagement. I found myself thinking she'd make a good wolf.
"I'm Mercedes Thompson," I said, turning on the stool so I could put my elbows on the butcher-block table and lean back in a nonthreatening manner. "I'm looking for Stefan."
She glanced around as if looking for him, too. "Yeah, well he ain't here."
I nodded my head and pursed my lips. "I know. One of the wolves he was with last night was returned to us in very bad shape."
She raised her chin. "You aren't a werewolf. Stefan said."
"No," I agreed.
"Anything that could take out Stefan could wipe the floor with old Andre out there." She jerked her chin toward the front door. "What makes you think you can help Stefan?"
" Marsilia believes I can." I watched the impact of the name hit her. For a moment, even with the veil of dark hair that covered her face, I caught a glimpse of the fear that rose from the depths of the house. Everyone here was very afraid. The house reeked of it.
"If Stefan doesn't come back," she told me very quietly, suddenly sounding much older, "I think we're all dead, not just Doctor Tightbritches. Sooner or later, we're all gone. The Mistress won't want us free to blabber about them. So she'll farm us out to the rest of her vampires, put us in their menageries. Most of them aren't as careful with their food as Stefan. No control when they're hungry."
I didn't know what to say that didn't sound like a platitude, so I picked a thread out of her speech and plucked it. "Stefan keeps you alive longer than the others are able to?"
"He doesn't kill those of us in his menagerie," she said. I remembered that the London Zoo had once been known as a menagerie. She shrugged with studied casualness. "Mostly, anyway. When he gets us, we have to stay a couple of years, but after that, ' cept for Naomi-and that's hardly Stefan's fault either-we're free to go."
"Why a couple of years?" I asked.
She gave me a "how stupid are you?" look. "It takes that long for him to establish enough of a connection to make sure we won't go telling anyone we meet about vampires."
"How long have you been with Stefan?"
"Five years this August," she said, though she couldn't be over twenty. I hid my shock, but not well enough because she smirked at me. "Twelve. I was twelve. Stefan's a big step up from my folks, let me tell you."
Vampires are evil. Funny how I kept trying to forget that about Stefan.
"You probably know more about vampires than I do," I told her, changing my tack so I could get a little more information. "I grew up with the werewolves, and even though I've known Stefan a long time, most of our conversations are about cars. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?"
"What do you want to know?"
"How much do you know about the thing that he was hunting?"
"He doesn't talk to us much," she told me. "Not like he used to talk to Daniel. He said it was a vampire demon thingy."
I nodded. "Close enough. Apparently if I can kill the vampire, the demon will just go away. No more vampire demon thingy. Marsilia told me how to kill vampires." I stopped speaking and let her think about that a minute. She was pretty bright, it didn't take her long to come to the same conclusion I had.
"Man, that's pretty scary, going into a battle with the Mistress as your intel. Sure, I'll tell you what you need to know." She ran her eyes over me and was unimpressed. "She really thinks you can kill this thing?"
I started to nod, then stopped. "I have no idea what Marsilia thinks." Uncle Mike hadn't thought me hunting the sorcerer was stupid. I wasn't sure if I should trust the fae any further than I trusted the vampire. I shrugged finally and told her the truth. "I don't really care. I'll kill the sorcerer or die trying."
"What did she tell you?"
"She said I could kill a vampire with a wooden stake through the heart, holy water or sunlight."
She leaned a hip against the fridge and shook her head. "Look. The wooden stake thing works, but it's better if it's oak, ash, or yew. And if you kill them that way, you have to cut off their heads or burn the body to make sure they stay dead. Remember, a dead vampire is ashes. If there's a body, it'll come back-and it'll come back angry with you. Cutting off their heads is pretty good, but difficult. They're not likely to stand around and wait for the chainsaw. Sunlight's good, too. But the stake and sunlight, they're like kicking a guy in the balls, you know?"
I shook my head, fascinated.
"They all know about it. They're not going to put themselves at risk if they can help it. And if you screw it up all it does is piss ' em off more. Holy water's mostly out. You'd need a whole swimming pool full of holy water to kill one."
"So how would you kill a vampire permanently?"
She pursed her lips. "Fire's best. Stefan says they burn pretty well once they get started."
"Stefan told you all of this?" I tried to imagine the conversation.
She nodded. "Sure." She gave me a considering look. "Look, I don't know where he went, but I know he was keeping a sharp eye out on the local news and the papers. He had a map of the 'Cities and he marked where there was violence. Yesterday he was pretty excited about something he'd noticed about the pattern."
"Do you have the map?" I asked.
"No. He took it with him. And he didn't show it to any of us."
I slid off the chair. "Thank you..."
"Rachel."
"Thank you, Rachel."
She nodded her head and then opened the fridge again, dismissing me. I walked to the front door slowly, but no one else appeared, so I let myself out.
Andre was waiting for me, sitting on the hood of his car. He jumped off and asked, "Did they know anything?"
I shrugged. "They didn't know where he was, but I found out how he decided where to look. Maybe it'll help."
I looked at Andre and wondered if Marsilia had left out the part about decapitating the staked vampire on purpose. It didn't take much thought for me to decide she had.
"How would you kill Littleton?" I asked him.
"Fire," he said promptly. "That's the easiest way. Staking works, but you have to decapitate them afterwards."
It didn't mean anything. From my question he'd have known I'd asked Stefan's people.