The muscle in Andre’s jaw ticked. And ticked again as I waited for him to rally against Caleb’s—and Oliver’s—theory. I even wished for that frightening laugh of his, just to hear his absolute disbelief.
But he hadn’t said anything. Only stared at me with agony in his eyes.
“You think the theory might be valid?”
He watched me for moment before responding. “It could be.”
I looked away. “But I’m your soulmate.”
“Yes, you are. Nothing changes that,” he said, his arms tightening around me. “And I will die before I give you up to him.”
“But if it’s a prophecy … then it will come to pass.”
“It was also prophesied that you’d become my queen and exterminate our people, and that hasn’t yet come to pass.”
A darker thought entered my mind. “Or perhaps you do die for me, Andre, you and every other vampire. Perhaps the devil still gets me anyway. Perhaps both prophecies come true.”
Andre stepped closer to me. “You can choose to be bound by those prophecies, Gabrielle, but I won’t.”
His words angered me. “And what am I supposed to do, ignore them?”
“Belief—not fate—rules the world,” he said. “Believe in us, believe in free will.”
His words reminded me of what Leanne had told me two months ago: You’ve outwitted fate over and over again.
My eyes moved up to Andre’s. Perhaps I really was his curse. The soulmate he could never quite have. I guess it really did come down to what you believed in at the end of the day.
And me, well, I believed in happy endings.
“Okay.” I nodded to him as the thought seeded itself in my mind. “I can do that. I can believe in us.”
We stayed in the game room just long enough for the alcohol to work itself out of my system. Eventually Andre led me out.
“Even if the devil is behind the murders,” he said, opening the door and holding it open for me, “he did not kill those victims, Gabrielle. People of flesh and blood did this. They are who you need to worry about because they, and not the devil, are the ones doing the killing.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. Capture the killers, avoid the devil.
“Can I see the files again?” Andre asked.
“Sure.” I led us back to the study, where my book bag containing the files lay. Oliver and Caleb were already inside, Oliver texting like mad on his phone, and Caleb pacing the room.
As soon as we entered, Caleb froze, his eyes scouring me as though he feared Andre had hurt me. I rolled my eyes. “Dramatic much?”
“I was worried,” he said.
Behind me Andre went rigid, and I heard the low growl he made. “Worried about what, shifter?” Andre said, his words even.
I crouched in front of my bag. “Caleb—don’t answer that. It’s a loaded question. Andre, please don’t eat my friend.”
Andre sighed, his anger morphing into exasperation. “I don’t know how many times we must go over this, Gabrielle, but I don’t eat people.”
I stifled my smile and grabbed the file folders from my bag. “Here they are,” I said, standing up and handing them to Andre.
“What’s going on?” Caleb asked.
“Andre’s helping us on the case.”
Caleb scowled at that, but said nothing.
I turned my attention back to Andre. He opened the topmost file and picked up one of the photos from the second crime scene. From what I could tell, it looked to be a close-up of the altar.
Andre made a small noise.
“What?” I asked.
“These aren’t just images of Hades and Persephone,” he said, shaking his head. His eyes scoured the photo. “These are images of the Eleusinian Mysteries.”
“What are the Eleusinian Mysteries?” Caleb asked.
Andre glanced up from the photos. “They were initiation ceremonies for the cult of Persephone and Demeter. These were secret religious rites that reenacted the abduction of Persephone.”
All three men looked at me.
I took a step back. “What?”
“Nothing … Persephone,” Oliver said.
I slitted my eyes at him. “Don’t call me that.”
“Then what should I call you—Denial?”
“How about Gabrielle?”
Oliver buffed his nails on his shirt. “Well that’s just no fun.”
“The cult is still around,” Andre said, “though I believe it’s now called the Eleusinian Order. And if I had to place money on it, I’d guess that’s who’s behind the murders.”
Caleb cut in. “So if this cult believes that Gabrielle is Persephone, then we a big problem. Their goddess is still among the living.”
Oliver’s eyes cut to me, and he raised his eyebrows. “Me thinks I know how this story ends.”
I did too. If this murderous cult believed I was their Persephone, then they might take it upon themselves to unify me with my Hades.
They might take it upon themselves to kill me.
“So if the devil is behind these murders, then why two? And why in different cities?” I asked Caleb over breakfast the next morning.
By then the storm had died down enough for travel, and we were up early to find out whether today we’d get back to work or be sent home. We’d already contacted Grigori and let him know about our findings, so our “expertise” would hopefully no longer be needed, and we could get the hell out of here.
I didn’t have much time left in Romania, regardless; I knew that I couldn’t hold my protective boyfriend off for much longer. Last night Andre seemed ready to drag me kicking and screaming onto his jet and fly my ass out of the country. The only reason he hadn’t done so probably had something to do with the fact that his pilot had Christmas off.
“Well, we know it’s not ley lines,” Caleb said, “and if the devil is behind this, then some meaningful pattern will eventually show up.”
Hopefully this detail wouldn’t matter now that we’d essentially proved a cult was behind the murders. The Politia could just round up everyone in the cult and smack charges on them all.