“What was your life like before you got into this line of work?” Sierra asked Ruby.
“Poor. Very poor.”
“So you became a prostitute for the money?”
“What other reason could there be?” Ruby said.
“Did you grow up in Chicago?”
“Yes.”
“What about your parents?”
“They died of the flu when I was twelve.”
“In 1919?” Sierra asked.
Ruby nodded.
“When did you come to this house?”
“I used to walk by it on my way from the tenement to church. Hal didn’t own it then, I don’t think.”
Could she somehow have passed by when Adele died? Sierra wondered. The odds were completely against that, probably one in a billion. Was there a connection between Ruby and Sierra’s family? “When did your parents die? What day and month?”
Ruby gave her the info. Sierra checked the city’s death records. Adele had died the day before. While she was at it, Sierra checked the property records for the house to see who owned it after Adele’s death. The house was purchased by Gregori Dimitrov and then was sold to Hal in 1923.
Dimitrov was a new name in this puzzle. Did he have something to do with the key Ronan was seeking?
Sierra’s great-uncle’s father purchased the house in 1930 at bargain-basement prices because of the Depression. Did the key have something to do with her own family?
“You’re a redhead. I thought you’d get mad more often,” Ruby said out of the blue.
“My hair is auburn.” Sierra felt like pulling her hair out in frustration.
“Which means red. What’s the big deal?”
“I’m sick of people using me for their own purposes.” Sierra got up and started pacing around her bedroom.
“What people?”
“You’re right. I didn’t mean people. I meant ghosts and vampires using me,” Sierra clarified.
Ruby shrugged. “Only the strong survive.”
“You survive to drive other people mad.”
“That’s not what I meant by thinking you’d get mad more often. I meant angry.”
“I am angry. Can’t you tell?”
Ruby squinted at her. “Not quite.”
Sunset was fast approaching, which meant that the time to leave for the cemetery was coming. Sierra switched on the overhead light and wished her emotions weren’t so conflicted about this entire mess. She hated the fact that Ronan could order her around. She hated the fact that one kiss from him turned her into a sex maniac. Yet she respected his loyalty to his sister.
She had to stop letting her emotions get the best of her. She needed to view this entire thing as research for future books. Not that she’d tell anyone about Vamptown or reveal its presence in her writing.
“You wouldn’t be able to,” Ronan said as he stood in the doorway.
“Wouldn’t be able to what?” Sierra said.
“Tell anyone about Vamptown.”
Damn. He was reading her mind again. “Why not? Because of the vampire bond between us?”
“Because I compelled you while you slept.”
“No you didn’t. I still know about Vamptown. And I’m an entity empath. I can’t be compelled. You said so yourself earlier today,” Sierra reminded him.
“Normally that would be true.”
“As if there is anything normal about any of this,” Sierra muttered.
“Agreed.”
Nerves nearly closed her throat, making it hard for her to swallow or speak. “What did you do?”
“Prevented you from speaking or writing about Vamptown. The only exceptions are the nonhuman residents of Vamptown. You are still able to talk to them about it.”
“Is this why I have had a headache all day? Because you messed with my mind?” Her nerves were now laced with a huge dose of anger. “What exactly did you do?”
“Don’t panic. I didn’t touch you.”
Okay, she could tell that much was true.
“Not that I didn’t want to,” he added.
Also true.
“What about my dreams?” Sierra demanded. “Could you read them like my thoughts?”
“No. All I did was focus my mind-reading abilities on a certain frequency…”
“What am I? A radio?”
Ronan ignored her snarky comment. “Pat e-mailed me the specific instructions last night while you slept.”
Was that why the oldest vampire had been so quiet during the séance today? He had a guilty conscience. Yeah, right. Like vampires had a conscience.
“Otherwise you’d be a security risk,” Ronan said. “Trust me, you do not want to be a risk of any kind to a vampire, or in this case an entire clan of vampires.”