“Elijah,” one of them said. “Come to us.”
“Elijah,” the other said. “Don’t you miss us?”
They were dressed as Plain folk, but their white shirts were stained with blood from neck to waist. I knew them. Seth and Joseph.
“You left us a note that said you missed us.”
I turned to Elijah, who sat stupidly on the floor, crying and holding his eye. “You knew they were here.”
“Ja,” he sobbed. “I saw them at dusk, five nights ago. I took my father’s wagon to go and get some fresh air . . . I was tired of being cooped up in the house. And I saw them, standing just beyond the gate, on the road. They called to me. Like now.”
I sucked in my breath. “You let them in.”
I heard a scraping outside the house. I stifled a scream as I whirled and saw Joseph peering through the window, stroking the screen. I reached up and slammed the window glass so hard it cracked a pane. Joseph laughed, and I heard him drop to the ground as lightly as a cat from a fence.
I whirled back to Elijah. “How could you let them in?”
He lowered his head. “I was so happy to see them . . . you can’t imagine. But they blew past me like leaves.”
“Why didn’t they kill you?” I demanded.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I think they remember me.”
“No. They have no sentimentality.” I kicked him in the ribs. “Why didn’t they kill you?”
“I don’t know,” he whimpered.
I grabbed his jacket, dug through his pockets. My fingers closed around a piece of paper. When I pulled it out, it was parchment. I shook it in front of his nose like a dog who’d had an accident. “Where did you get this?”
“Herr Stoltz made it for me.”
I opened it up, expecting a Himmelsbrief. But it was an elaborately painted document, showing stylized doves and hearts and tulips. In the Hexenmeister’s hand, the words Grow old with me were printed in Hochdeutsch. A list of ministers’ signatures endorsed Elijah’s character. Both our names were printed on it, with space for us to sign.
It was a Zeugnis, a marriage contract. I let it flutter to the floor. Some of the Hexenmeister’s magic must have worked into it, enough to keep Elijah safe.
I looked down into the yard, and my breath clotted in my throat.
Seth, the youngest, was kneeling down with his arms open. The door creaked open, and a small figure ran across the yard into his embrace.
“No!” I shrieked.
Seth stood up, cradling Sarah. He grinned over his shoulder at me, displaying long teeth and inhuman eyes.
“Come down here, pretty one,” Joseph said. “Come here and we’ll let the little girl go.”
I glared down at Elijah. He rocked back and forth, his hand pressed to his eye. “How dare you bring this to our doorstep!” I cried.
He didn’t answer me. I grabbed the lantern and stepped on the Zeugnis as I left the room.
I descended the stairs. My parents were seated at the table with Ginger, their heads bowed in prayer. I touched my father’s shoulder, but he didn’t respond. I shook him hard, but he didn’t move. Neither did my mother. Ginger stared at her plate with the same catatonic, glassy-eyed stare that I’d grown accustomed to. The vampires had put them under their spell, the same spell that had drawn me out of the house two nights ago. The same spell that had drawn Ruth and Sarah to the door.
My hands balled into fists. I would not allow them to hurt my family.
I clutched the lantern close to my chest, so close that I could feel the heat through my dress. I shoved open the screen door and into the darkness.
Joseph smiled when he saw me, lips peeled back from his teeth. “I was always a bit jealous of Elijah.”
“You had Ruth,” I said, my voice quavering.
He gave a small, boneless shrug. “Ruth was not very interested in me. Not until the end.”
I shuddered, remembering the corpse at the threshold of the Hersberger house. It had not occurred to me that he had slaked appetites other than for blood with her mutilated body.
“Unfortunately, it seems as if Ruth will no longer be the recipient of my ministrations.”
“Ruth’s dead,” I said.
His eyes narrowed. “Did you have anything to do with that?”
“No.” I glanced at Seth, who held Sarah, squirming in his grip. “Let her go. Let my family go. You can have me.”
Joseph laughed. “You overestimate your value. I pressed my ear to your kitchen window. I heard your mother whispering about you being a defiled woman. So Elijah finally got some?”
“Let her go,” I said. “I’ll do anything you want. Willingly.”
Joseph flicked a glance at Seth. “For a moment.”
Seth placed Sarah on her feet. As if sleepwalking, she stumbled back toward the house. I saw her through the safety of the threshold before I turned my attention back to the vampires.
Joseph crooked his finger. “Now. You promised.”
I took a step toward him. Then another.
Then I flung the lantern at his face. He shrieked, clawing at the burning kerosene.
Seth was fast. He grabbed me by the waist, then howled. I struggled to reach into my pocket, hauled out the Himmelsbrief, and waved it in the air like a flag. It seemed to burn him to hold me, and his grip faltered.
“Get off of her.”
I was thrown to the ground by a force that knocked the wind out of me—and Seth off of me. I rolled, gasping for breath, to see a Plain man brandishing a shovel. It made a ringing sound as it collided with the vampire’s head.
My heart soared as I saw the stain of a familiar tattoo on the man’s arm.
The Himmelsbrief had fluttered to the ground a yard away. Instinctively, I reached for it.
But something clutched my ankle. Something that burned.
I shrieked. Joseph, engulfed in flames, had latched on to me. The fire lit the edge of my skirt. I kicked and fought against him, desperately reaching for the Himmelsbrief.
And Joseph abruptly let go. I rolled away, slapping out the fire on my skirt and stuffing the Himmelsbrief in the top of my dress.
“Ginger!”
She stood over the flaming man, beating him with a fireplace poker. In the glare of the fire, I could see hate and fury boiling in her eyes, the first emotion I’d seen in days.
“No . . . more . . . killing . . .” she panted.
Joseph snarled and hissed at her, snatched the poker away as if she were a child.
“Bonnet! Here!”
I turned. Alex threw me a garden hoe. I turned the metal end away from me and charged Joseph.
The shaft of the hoe pierced his chest, slammed him to the pumpkin patch. I put my full weight against it, driving it into the soft, tilled soil. He flailed liked Ruth had, squirming and spitting. Fire splashed onto the pumpkins, and I smelled roasted pumpkin seeds and meat.
I held on until he stopped flailing, until his burning chest cavity was pressed into the earth.
I released the hoe, turned back to the house.
Alex stood over Seth. The shovel was embedded in the vampire’s neck. Black, viscous fluid leaked onto the earth. But his eyes were closed.
I ran to Alex, threw my arms around him. I wound my fingers in his open shirt. It smelled like blood. “You’re alive.”
“Yeah. Well . . . not for lack of trying by your Elder guys.” He kissed the top of my head. “They roughed me up, tied me to the horse. Spooked him with gunshots to send him running west. Horse ran for what seemed like forever.”
I fingered scratches on his face. “Like the cow in your myth?”