"Andre's menageries don't last very long." Rachel told me. "He's never created a vampire except for Daniel because he kills them before their time."
I don't know what she saw in my face, only heard her start to speak quickly-something to the effect that Andre wasn't evil. "...not like Estelle or some of the others who like to play with their food."
But I wasn't listening to her, I was looking at Daniel's tear-streaked face. I'd only met him the once, and I recognized his scent more than his features. He was standing behind Rachel, looking at me and whispering. It took me a few seconds to realize that it had been him I'd seen curled up by the sink. I hadn't recognized his scent then, but the dead don't always appear to all my senses.
Then I realized what he was saying and stopped fretting about why I hadn't realized who he was the first time I'd seen him.
"He ate me," he whispered in a quietly frantic voice. "He ate me." Over and over.
"Where?" I asked coming to my feet. "Where is he, Daniel?"
But it was no use. Daniel was no Mrs. Hanna, who had died quietly and gone on with her usual routine. Some ghosts have urgent business to conduct-stopping over for a few minutes to leave a final message of love, or anger, with someone important. Some of them, especially the ones who died in traumatic ways, are caught in the moment of their death. Those are the most common kind-like Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, who runs screaming in the halls of the Tower of London.
"Daniel?" I asked, though his lack of reaction had robbed me of some of my urgency.
Rachel had quit speaking, hopped off her stool, and looked at Daniel. Naomi was just staring at me.
He faded after a moment more, and even after I couldn't see him anymore his voice lingered.
"Did you see him?" whispered Rachel.
"That's a cruel trick to play," Naomi snapped at me.
I looked at her. "You live with vampires and don't believe in ghosts?" I asked.
"Daniel's dead," Rachel whispered.
I nodded. I wondered how a vampire could be a ghost-weren't they already dead? I was starting to get punchy from lack of sleep.
Naomi turned to the girl, "Rachel-"
"I saw him, too," she said hollowly. "Just for a moment, but it was him. If Daniel's dead... Stefan wouldn't let anything happen to him, not if he were alive." She looked around a little wildly and then left the room. I heard her quick footsteps up the stairs.
"What did he tell you?" I couldn't tell by her words if Naomi believed me or not, but it didn't really matter.
"Nothing." I decided not to share what he had said. It wouldn't help anyone here, and it didn't sound as if Rachel had heard him. I got up and opened cupboards at random until I found a glass. I filled it with water and drank, pretending my throat was dry because I was thirsty, not because I was scared. Had the sorcerer really eaten Daniel?
Unwelcome, the memory of Littleton killing the woman at the hotel hit me as a full-throttle flashback: sight, smell, and sound. Just for a moment, but for that moment I was back in the hotel room. I must not have acted strangely, because when I turned back to Naomi she wasn't looking at me like she'd have stared at someone who'd screamed. I set the glass carefully down on the counter.
"If vampires live in their menageries," I said, proud of my steady tone, "who lives in the seethe?"
"Only the strongest vampires can live on their own and survive purely on human blood. All the others live in the seethe. They are the Mistress's menagerie," Naomi told me after a moment.
I worked it out. "She feeds on the vampires?"
Naomi nodded. "And gives them a little, very little, blood in return. Without that blood, the weaker vampires would die-and only the Mistress is allowed to feed other vampires and feed from them. She keeps humans there, to nourish them all, but without her, the lesser vampires would die."
"Allowed to feed?" I asked. "If there is a rule against it, that must mean that she gains something from feeding off vampires."
"Yes. I'm not sure what-strength and power, I think. And the ability to limit the actions even of those vampires she didn't directly beget. She made Stefan, and, I think Andre. But Estelle and most of the others aren't hers. When she quit paying attention to the seethe, Stefan and Andre ran things for her. But some of the older vampires became unruly."
"Estelle and Bernard," I suggested remembering the man in the dapper suit.
Naomi nodded. "The four of them, Stefan, Andre, Estelle, and Bernard are the only vampires strong enough to live outside the seethe. Stefan says that once they can live without feeding from the Mistress, vampires start to get territorial, so they're sent out to gain their own menageries." She paused. "Five, actually. The Wizard lives on his own."
"The Wizard?" I asked.
She nodded her head. " Wulfe. You've seen him because Stefan said he was present at the trial. He looks younger than Daniel and has white blond hair."
The boy who'd worked the magic on the chair.
"While Marsilia wasn't paying attention, Estelle and Bernard managed to make a few new vampires and kept them to themselves."
"They're feeding off the new vamps," I said, following her story. "That makes them more powerful than they otherwise would be."
"Right. This part I'm not certain of."
"Okay."
"There's some reason that Marsilia can't take the new vampires from them. I think it's because once the new vampires have exchanged blood with their maker a few times, they'll sicken and maybe die without the blood of that particular vampire. Vampires reproduce very slowly so they are very careful with new ones-even if it means that Bernard and Estelle gain power that Marsilia cannot afford for them to have."