My grandfather interrupted my thoughts. “Renée, this is what you were born to do. It will always be inside of you, no matter how much you fight it. Any talent can be used for both good and evil. If you think it’s unfair, then use your talents to make it fair. Work with what you have.”
“Are you saying I’m supposed to train to kill the Undead? Even if I wanted to, which I don’t,” I stressed, “I wouldn’t know how.”
“There are a number of options. One way to ‘kill’ an Undead, so to speak, is to completely destroy its body. Fire, explosion, etcetera. Though I find that method to be a little messy and hard to control. The fire spreads, and suddenly you have the California wildfire situation.
“An alternative method is to capture the Undead and bury or embalm it by force. Your parents were fond of that method. It’s far more difficult and dangerous, but they found it the most humane.”
I swallowed. I didn’t want to do any of that.
“Of course, there is another option.”
I twisted the telephone cord around my finger, waiting.
“Teach them how to value the lives of others. The way that Gottfried does. The way that your parents did, as ‘teachers.’”
“And you? You’re a Monitor too?”
“It’s in our blood. In your blood.”
“A Monitor,” I repeated softly.
The realization came over me quickly, and when it did, I collapsed back into my chair. If Dante found his soul somewhere and tried to take it back, I would have to kill him. And if he didn’t, he would gradually waste away. Any way I looked at it, the outcome was the same. I was destined to watch him die.
My grandfather was saying something, but I wasn’t listening. Cutting the conversation short, I told him I had to go. And throwing on a coat, I climbed into the chimney.
CHAPTER 18
The Gentlemen’s Ballet
I RAN DOWN THE HALL OF THE BASEMENT AND slipped out the fire escape and into the cool New England night. I had to talk to Dante. Once outside, I snuck around the building and was about to run onto the path when someone whispered my name.
“Renée.” I jumped, and then relaxed when I saw Dante waiting for me in the shadows by the stoop. “I looked for you in the nurses’ wing, but you weren’t there. Are you okay?” Putting a finger to my lips, I glanced around and pulled him behind the building.
I told him everything. Well, almost everything.
“But what I still don’t understand is why Gideon killed Eleanor,” I said. Dante thought. “Last spring, when Gideon suspected Cassandra was dead, he was furious. He wanted revenge....”
“So he went and found the files,” I murmured, “to see if she had been buried, and if so, to find out who did it.”
Dante nodded. “He found something in the files. Some sort of evidence.”
My shoulders dropped when I realized it. “Minnie’s drawing. Her testimony. She said that Brandon Bell was the one who did it.”
“Killing Brandon would have been very difficult, considering he’s a Monitor, so Gideon decided to kill his sister,” Dante said. “But he didn’t just kill her. He purposely turned her into an Undead, the one thing he knew Brandon wouldn’t be able to live with.”
“Brandon understood what had happened to Eleanor,” I continued, “and wanted to punish the person who killed her. He found Nathaniel with Eleanor’s diary and the files, and assumed it was him, then buried him to make an example of him to all the other Undead. Revenge,” I said. “Just like a Greek tragedy.”
“Brandon is losing it,” Dante said when I was finished. “He’s doling out his own personal justice.”
Neither of us spoke for a long time. Finally, I broke the silence.
“We have to tell someone.”
Dante surveyed the lawn. “You have to stay here.”
I shook my head. “No I don’t. Why would I do that?”
“It’s not safe.”
“But it’s safe for you?”
“Renée, I’m already dead. But you...you’re mortal. You could get hurt.”
I took a breath. “Actually, that’s not completely true....”
That’s when I told him that I was a Monitor. That practically everyone else in my family had been one too. After I broke the news, I closed my eyes, not wanting to see his reaction. He was silent for a long time. Finally, he bent over and kissed me on the forehead. “I’ve always liked you the way you are, and still do.”
But just as the words left his mouth, a hand grabbed my arm. And it wasn’t Dante’s.
“Caught in the act.”
I gasped. Dante and I turned to see Mrs. Lynch smiling behind us. She was gripping me so tightly that I could feel her fingernails pressing into my skin.
“To the headmistress’s office.” She could barely contain her excitement.
I shook my head. “No, please, we can expla—”
Dante cut me off, taking my hand. “Mrs. Lynch, I made Renée meet me here. It’s my fault—”
“How valiant of you,” Mrs. Lynch said. “But I highly doubt that.” And with that, she tightened her grip on my arm and dragged us toward the headmistress’s office.
Archebald Hall was empty and dimly lit now that it was after hours. All of the secretaries had gone home or retreated to their quarters. I gazed at the portraits hanging on the walls as Mrs. Lynch led us into the office, her heels pressing softly into the carpet. She rapped twice on the door, and the headmistress opened it.
“Caught these two again, outside after curfew,” Mrs. Lynch said.
“Thank you, Lynette,” the headmistress said, gazing at Dante and me, her eyes placid. “Come in.”
She shut the door behind us. “Please, make yourselves comfortable.”
The two chairs that were normally in front of her desk were gone. So instead, we stood in the center of the room while the two Siamese cats circled in and out of Dante’s legs.
Headmistress Von Laark sat behind her desk and folded her hands. “It seems as though fate has brought us together tonight. I was planning on summoning you both anyway, but your continuing disregard for the Code of Discipline seems to have done my job for me.”
I shifted uncomfortably.
“Do either of you know why I wanted to see you?”