Midnight Curse

He raised his eyebrows again. “You’re saying there are no evil psychopath vampires?”

I sighed. “Of course, it’s theoretically possible, just as with humans. But that’s why all vampires go through a twenty-year apprenticeship after they’re turned. If Molly were a serial killer, her master would have terminated her a hundred years ago.”

He rubbed his face with both hands. “It’s a good argument, Scarlett. Wouldn’t Dashiell realize all of this too?”

“Yes, but the Trials are tomorrow night. Dashiell isn’t concerned about justice. He’s concerned about squashing it quickly. And there’s Molly, literally caught red-handed.”

Jesse pointed a finger at me. “That’s another thing I don’t get. I think I remember you mentioning the Trials once, but what exactly happens?”

“It’s a little like a cross between a human court trial and a business convention,” I explained. “They do trials for about eight hours, and then they party until sunrise.”

“Who goes on trial?”

“Anyone. If you have a grievance with someone else in the Old World, you can ask to be put on the agenda. Usually, it’s minor skirmishes between two different races. Both parties get to speak, and then they each get a sort of rebuttal. Then Dashiell and the others decide. It’s actually pretty simple.”

“Do you get a vote, now that you’re a partner?”

I watched him suspiciously. Had there been the slightest note of bitterness when he’d said “partner?” Not the time, Scarlett. “No. We talked about it, but four voting members would wreck the numbers. I do have the opportunity to put in my two cents before they vote, though.”

He nodded. “Give me an example of a typical case.”

“Okay, um . . .” I tried to remember some of the cases I’d read about that afternoon. “At the last Trials, a vampire named Gregory accused one of the witches of bad-mouthing him to his favorite human. Not only did she tell the human that Gregory was a douche, she also made the human a witch bag to protect her from being pressed.”

“I remember Gregory,” he said, making a face. I’d forgotten that Jesse and I had questioned him during our first case. “What happened?”

“The witch explained that Gregory was stealing money from this woman and forcing her to run his daytime errands, which was hurting her job.” I smiled. “Besides, Gregory is a douche. Dashiell and the others basically agreed that the witch was justified. She got a verbal reprimand for handling it herself instead of going through the proper channels, but that was it.”

He blinked a few times. “That seems . . . pretty fair. I’m kind of surprised.”

“It’s not a medieval inquisition, Jesse; the three of them are fairly reasonable people. Even Dashiell.” I suddenly remembered the look on his face as he dragged Molly away, and I winced. “Well, most of the time.”

“What are the punishments like?”

“For all the minor stuff, it’s usually monetary. Pay damages, restitution, or whatever. It’s often kindergarten stuff: you broke his toy, buy him a new one. But in very rare cases, usually involving vampires, they might serve time.”

Now it was Jesse’s turn to stare in surprise. “You guys have a prison?”

I shrugged. “Dashiell has a couple of cells in his basement. They’re almost never used, though. A vampire would have to do something bad enough that it can’t be fixed financially, but not so bad that they deserve a death sentence. Not a lot of crimes fall into that category.” A new thought occurred to me. “That’s where Dashiell will be keeping Molly now, I bet.”

Jesse started pacing the small kitchenette as he considered this. The pacing reminded me of Eli, and I felt a jolt of guilt. My phone was still off, and I doubted Dashiell had bothered to fill him or Will in on what had happened. But I was also still angry.

Jesse turned to face me again, and I pushed the thought aside.

“You said it’s usually between two species, but not always,” he reminded me. “What are the exceptions?”

“There are two.” I held up one finger. “If the disagreement is with Will, Dashiell, or Kirsten. For example, Kirsten sells spell materials to one of the witches, and the witch feels she’s been overcharged. Those kinds of trials are really rare, especially because no one wants to be the idiot who accuses Dashiell of something. It happens once in a while, though, and then I do get a vote, instead of whoever’s been accused.”

“What’s the second exception?”

I held up another finger. “Crimes against the Old World itself. People who did something that could have exposed us. Some of my cleanup jobs end up on trial, like if someone did something risky or exceptionally stupid. Last time, one of the werewolves went on trial for filming himself changing.” I shook my head. “He said it was for his personal curiosity, but Will was pissed.”

“So that’s how Molly will be tried?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re sure she’ll be sentenced to death?”

“For killing twelve girls with her teeth? Hell, yes.” A terrible new thought hit me, and if I hadn’t been sitting down, I would have dropped. “Oh, my God.”

“What?”

I met his eyes. “I’ll have to be there. Like, next to her. When she dies.” Killing a vampire was difficult and messy, and it left a body that decayed back to the condition it would have been in if magic had never touched it. It was much simpler and cleaner to kill a human being, so the null at the trial would need to stick close to the accused. “I had forgotten,” I said softly.

Jesse shot me a sympathetic look, and for the first time since I’d arrived, he looked like his old self. “One thing I don’t get,” he said. “So Molly commits this huge crime—”

“Blood-gorging,” I supplied.

He nodded. “And you were there when she was caught. So why didn’t Dashiell just kill her right away?”

“Because killing a member of the LA Old World is a big deal,” I answered. “This is the only major city on the continent where all three groups share power and live in peace. The only way that works is if we agree that all our lives have value. If Dashiell had just chopped off Molly’s head without a trial, or at least consulting the others, he would be contradicting that.”

“Everyone was ready to kill the nova wolf,” Jesse pointed out.

“Because Remus was never part of Will’s pack. It was also very likely that the only way to stop Remus was to kill him—it’s very hard to take a werewolf alive, unless I’m right there. But even in that case, Will consulted Dashiell and Kirsten before deciding.”

Jesse nodded, acquiescing. He rubbed the stubble on one side of his face, considering the situation. “The timing is still weird. What would have happened if the Trials weren’t coming up? If this thing with Molly had just happened on some random Thursday?”

It was a good question. No vampire had blood-gorged in LA as long as I’d been the only crime scene cleaner, but it had happened once under Olivia. “In that case, I think they would have held a sort of miniature version of the Trials, with just Dashiell, Kirsten, and Will.”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“Say I’m the one who set her up,” Jesse began. “What do I gain by doing it tonight instead of two months from now? If the trial happens either way . . .”

Another good question, and one I should have considered earlier. “Publicity,” I said finally, thinking it through. “By the end of the night every vampire in LA is going to know what Molly did, and it’ll start trickling into the other communities, if it hasn’t already. There’s no way this can be hushed up or glossed over. And that means Dashiell is going to have to make an example of Molly, especially since one of those girls was a Friend of the Witches. Since it’s the Trials, he’ll have to do it publicly.” I wasn’t sure if whoever had orchestrated the massacre had known one of the girls was a Friend of the Witches, but it seemed likely. That particular element made the whole thing political—and potentially explosive.