Arc 7: Chapter 6: Penitents
I stared at the scene with a dull sense of helplessness. More people were gathering around, having noticed what was happening.
Lucienne crawled on her hands toward Eilidh, and when she saw the injury her cheerful face turned sad. Tam had approached too, and he dropped to his knees next to the woman with a gasping exhalation.
“Damn it,” someone said from right next to me. Falstaff. He looked at the dying woman with undisguised frustration.
“She’s fading,” one of the women kneeling next to Eilidh said. I recognized her as the one who’d threatened Kross before, the one wearing a powdered black wig. Only, the wig had fallen off to reveal shortly cropped hair just as dark.
The speaker was a vampire, like Catrin. No… not quite like Cat. This one wasn’t a half breed. Her ghostly eyes stared at the dying woman intently, but turned to the Keeper as she spoke. “She still has years on her contract.”
Falstaff nodded, but said nothing. He looked at Eilidh, who stared back with wide eyes. Again she tried to say something. Lucienne hushed her and brushed her hair back, like a concerned mother.
When I realized what they meant, I felt cold.
The Keeper knelt next to the dying woman. “I know you’re not the one who made this deal, Eilidh. I know it isn’t fair, but I’m still owed. You understand?”
Eilidh mumbled something incoherent. The Keeper sighed.
“It’s not so bad,” one of the others said, smiling with inhumanly sharp teeth. “You’ll be young and strong forever. One of us, truly this time.”
I saw fear in Eilidh’s dimming gaze. Fear of those around her, or of the end fast approaching? I couldn’t tell, and she could not tell us.