Chilling Cadence

Fourteen

The graveyard was filled with officers by the time Sheriff Clearwater allowed Cadence to leave the scene. The entire area had been warded off with yellow tape, and the two squad cars had tripled. Officers swept the graveyard with dogs, searching for any trace of the so-called assailant. When they had shown up with the dogs, Cadence’s eyes had shifted over to Lorelei involuntarily. She knew there was nothing to find because the assailant was in the basement of the church.

But Lorelei’s face had been as unmoving and unbothered as it always was. She was at complete ease as they took the dogs and headed off in the direction Lorelei had pointed them in.

There was a gathering of people standing by the yellow tape, locals, and visitors alike. They openly gawked at Cadence when she stepped underneath the tape and walked stiffly to where she had parked her car.

Inside, she cranked the heat up. She hadn’t felt cold at all when she had been using magic to overload the Cyhyraeth or when she had been talking to Sheriff Clearwater but now, the cold was suddenly hitting her at full-force. She pressed her shaking hands against the vent. When the heat met her nearly frozen hands, they burned a little.

Cadence glanced over at the church that was housing her mother. One thing her Grandmother had taught her after the incident that had occurred when she was twelve was to keep a tight lid on her emotions. Cadence was a strong Witch and in terms of raw power, she rivaled Alisyn. If that power went astray, Cadence knew firsthand what kind of disasters occurred because of it. So, ever since then, Cadence had always known what she was feeling. She had always understood it and worked through it so as to avoid disaster.

But right now, she truly didn’t know. She couldn’t understand any of the emotions that she was feeling right then, staring at the church and thinking of the woman who was inside.

A knock on the window startled her from her reverie and she jumped, swiveling around the passenger’s seat window with wide eyes. Lorelei was standing there, one eyebrow raised in amusement as she took in the horror on Cadence’s face.

Cadence let out an annoyed breath and unlocked the passenger’s side door. The Vampire came inside, letting in the cold of the October air swirl through her cozily heated car.

“Are you going to explain your relationship with our Necromancer friend to me?” she demanded.

Cadence swallowed, her throat dry all of a sudden. “You already know my relationship with her. You were there when I called her mother.”

“I was. But I was under the impression that both of your parents and your Grandmother, who raised you, were dead.”

Her head whipped over to the Vampire beside her so quickly, she was momentarily dizzy. When the blank surprise in her mind cleared, she put two and two together.

“You dug into my past.”

“Before you arrived,” Lorelei said in confirmation.

“Is that a normal thing that normal towns do?” she snapped. “Digging into people’s lives?”

“It’s not a normal thing that normal towns do, but Glasskeep isn’t a normal town. Letting any old riff-raff in creates trouble and that trouble affects the peaceful life we have all worked so hard to build here. It isn’t easy for creatures like us to have a place where we can live without hiding what we are. Glasskeep is such a place. It’s necessary to ensure no one else causes problems.”

The way she said it reminded Cadence of what Chau had said a few days back. That not everyone who arrived in Glasskeep was necessarily good. Thinking back to Darius, Cadence could understand that. When she thought of him, she could still see his too-wide smile.

“As the one who founded this town,” Lorelei went on. “I have a duty to protect the peace of it. So when you applied, of course, I looked into you. And that brings us to the matter at hand, I thought both of your parents had died.”

Cadence pursed her lips. “You’re not the only one surprised about that. Grandmother always told me they had died. My mother had lost all of her emotions summoning the dead to protect me when I was younger and she left. My dad went after her, thinking he could bring her back to him. From what I understand, he lost his emotions, too. And then they died.”

Lorelei was silent, and then, “So your grandmother lied to you.”

“Probably.”

“Are you not upset at that? Although I’m not prone to fits of anger, like the one you experienced from me tonight, I am prone to displeasure. If someone had lied about something so important, I imagine I might feel quite displeased.”

Cadence let out a humorless chuckle. “What the difference between being dead and losing your emotions? At least with them being dead, I could remember them as the way they were, with rose-tinted glasses. Grandmother did it to spare me, to give me something nice to remember. A Witch who has lost their feelings is nothing anymore. They’re even crueler than a Vampire can be. You say that Vampires can fall in love now and then, that Vampires sometimes feel curiosity or amusement. A Witch whose lost her soul can’t feel any of that. Not love for their family, not amusement or interest. They have no hobbies, no likes or dislikes. The only thing alive is their bodies and their sense of self-preservation.”

Grimm, who had hopped into the backseat at some point, jumped on the armrest beside her and rubbed against her arm comfortingly. She barely noticed him at all. She could only remember her Grandmother, then. The woman who had raised her had lost herself bit by bit, piece by piece to protect Cadence. Each piece of herself that she had lost turned her more and more into a cruel creature Cadence didn’t recognize. And only in a moment of clarity, did her Grandmother make the decision she could live with, taking her own life before she could take Cadence’s.

That was when Cadence vowed she would never use powerful magic. She would never let the well of the heart and soul be emptied. Grandmother had given her life to protect Cadence, and Cadence wouldn’t let that sacrifice be in vain.

Cadence yet again, found herself glad she was with Lorelei and not anyone else. The Vampire didn’t speak another word as Cadence put the car into drive and headed toward her house. Lorelei was completely impassive the entire ride, completely unaffected by Cadence’s brief moment of weakness. If Cadence had been around someone else, she would have felt embarrassed about her outburst. She disliked showing emotion around others almost as much as she disliked using magic.

It was oddly…reassuring to know that Lorelei didn’t care how much emotion Cadence showed. Even if Cadence had broken down into sobs, she was certain the Vampire would feel nothing. There was no pity or empathy, no awkwardness or desire to help. It really was comforting.

Cadence parked her car in front of her house. She and Lorelei exited quietly, saying nothing. Grimm hopped out and jogged toward her house; he was tired after changing form and annoyed that he was tired. When he was one of the rulers of Hel, he could use all kinds of magic in rapid succession and still feel energized. He didn’t like the weakness he felt in this body.

As Cadence was heading up the pathway to her house, Lorelei spoke up.

“I meant to ask what you did to stop the Cyhyraeth.”

“I used the souls of all of those who had died on this land to overload the creature,” Cadence answered. “Cyhyraeth’s are only meant to be able to store souls until Samhain, but if you force them to eat those souls before then, their bodies go into a kind of overload.”

“I see.” Lorelei turned as if she were going to walk away before turning back to Cadence. “Did you hear any voices?”

Cadence’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Voices?”

The Vampire looked at Cadence for a long time, her eyebrows narrowed as if she were thinking incredibly hard about something.

“It’s good if you didn’t,” she finally said. “In fact, you hearing his voice is for the best. We’ll interrogate your mother tomorrow night. I’ll fetch you from your shop.”

And this time when Lorelei turned away, she didn’t look back.

AS CADENCE LAY in bed with Grimm curled up on the pillow beside her, she couldn’t help but wonder about what Lorelei had meant. More specifically, she wondered about whose voice Lorelei had asked her about. She had left so quickly after asking that Cadence hadn’t had any time to really ponder her question enough to think about what she had really said. Now it was replaying in Cadence’s head.

Whatever it was, Lorelei seemed disturbed at the prospect of Cadence hearing “his” voice.

Cadence turned on her back, staring up at her ceiling in the dark even though she could barely make it out. This house was pristinely kept, there wasn’t the slightest scratch on the ceiling or walls, there wasn’t even so much as a scuff mark.

Cadence closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think too much about anything. The moment she did, she didn’t know if she’d get a wink of sleep.

You’re more powerful than I thought you to be, my little nightingale. You have my attention. When I’m free of this prison, I’ll take you as mine.

Cadence started and bolted upright. Her eyes scanned the darkness, her heart beating wildly in her chest. Even though the voice had sounded like it was close by, there was no one in the room but Cadence and Grimm.

“Is something the matter?” Grimm asked. His head had been raised from where it had rested on his paws and he was staring at her seriously.

“I thought…I thought I heard something. I guess I was wrong.”

Grimm watched her with unfathomable eyes as she lay down and rolled to her side. Cadence could hear shifting behind her and she knew that Grimm was stretching.

Even though she waited and listened, she heard nothing else. No one spoke to her and the only breaths she could hear were hers and Grimm’s.

It was only because of her conversation with Lorelei, she concluded. That was what had her thinking she was hearing voices all of a sudden.

Feeling slightly more comforted by that, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.