A Study of Poisons

NINE

       "Tell me why you're here again." I started, asking the French Vampire who sat on my bed. I didn't even remember invited Natalia in my room, or when she got here. I was too focused on the photo of Maggie. It was crossed in my mind as I laid back away from it. I was getting a headache from just thinking about it.

The Vampire played with her nails as she kicked her feet into the air. "I'm avoiding all the boys." She said nearly singing me her answer.

"Why?" My brow rose as I watched her, her red eyes flashing my direction.

Natalia looked like she didn't want to give away her answer. She blushed and held her hands to her face to cover her cheeks. "It's my lady week and it's so embarrassing when they can smell it." I got flustered, looking away and outside the window.

Blinking the heat away from my skin, I coughed. "Vampire's get periods?"

She laughed, "Yes. We aren't undead, just enhanced near death." I already knew that fact but I still escaped my mind. I wondered if she felt the pain then, I'd trade that over anything. Natalia rolled over to me. Her hands touching the picture, "What are you doing?" Her finger slid over Stalin's face, sending a chill down my spine.

I confessed, "There is something bugging me about Maggie's life." I stood to my feet and started taking my uniform jacket off. It was so uncomfortably hot in the manor today. It was killing me. "She was a Russian Spy for the Cold War who hates the crown. My thing is, during the Cold War she wasn't a Vampire- because all Vampires were against the Soviet Union. Even those against the royal family." I rolled my blouse sleeves up and watched the night mark across the sky.

"Maybe she turned on her own." She wondered.

I thought about it, but considering the timeline it still didn't make any sense. "Or she became a Vampire after the war, but that means she would need supernatural ties." I tapped my foot. Rolling my hair through my fingers I pulled my hair back with a hair tie. It's been a while since I've worn my hair like this.

Natalia sat up, putting her weight into her back hands. Settling down on my bed. "A witch maybe?" She looked more comfortable than I usually did.

"The Soviet Union persecuted all witches the only account of spell casting is with the Keepers- before we aided Vampires." It was like a lightbulb went off. Something sparked, it connected. I drew around my room and found my notebook. Trying to figure out if it would have worked. The timeline, the way she acted, the photo. It did. If Maggie was a Keeper it made sense.

I smiled, Natalia caught me. "So, Maggie was a Keeper?"

We both went for the door of my room, before leaving I grabbed a jar filled with white ashes. The hallway was silent, the room dissolving around us. The both of us following down the stairwell. Headed straight to Maggie's old room. "Her room was extremely clean, we have no evidence of her being one." I claimed but if I could prove it then we had one foot in, to solve the assassination attempt. Natalia was more invester than I was, I mean- Alex was her friend longer than I was his Keeper. I assumed she wanted to solve it as fast as she could to get him out of harms way.

"What if she casted a spell, would we be able to find out?" Natalia was quick, I thought about it and the answer would be yes. I would need supplies and I would need them quick. The faster we got to her spell the more evidence I would have.

I wondered what kind of spell casting Maggie used, it would be easier if she delt with the blood occult. That was I can handle whatever spells she has placed. My fingers went to my mouth, I chewed down on my nails as I spoke. "Only if she used a marker. For that I would need a piece of her and willow ash." I showed her the jar I carried in my hands.