"So, it was Irina seeking to escape the prison I put her in."
"Yes."
"And she cannot escape now?"
"Mr. Benchley, you will have to reach an agreement with her. Sooner or later, you will have to release her. Because she will try again and again. And it is better to graciously grant something than to have it forcibly extracted."
"I might be putting the others in danger."
"So, negotiate now, put the conditions you want, and hold her to it. She is fae, and there are ways to hold her. There are unbreakable oaths that bind fae. I will help you set it up."
Amos sighed. He could not forget Charlie running for his life. Or the mockery in Owen Raft's voice, telling him that he did not know anything. Or Dinah at the hospital, and being told how she had dragged herself after Irina had drained her. Maybe it was not her fault, maybe she too was a victim… but still he could not forget.
"I need to know, Professor…. I am supposed to be a supernatural creature, but I know less about the supernatural than you do. I do not even know what it is that I am, and how I am supposed to be."
"You seem to be doing just fine. You already avoided the big mistake that many a new vampire makes."
"Which is?'
"Leaving drained corpses about…. Which happens because they find themselves changed, with a lot of new needs and abilities, and they do not know what happened… It is like they are suddenly at the wheel of a speeding car, and they do not know how to stop it, or how to turn it… Unless someone tells them what the brake is for and what the steering wheel is for, they will crash. Sometimes they get lucky and they figure it out before much damage is done."
"Somehow I knew to avoid the worst. Never drained anybody to the point of death. Something prevented me."
"Well, I understand that this was imposed on you by a spirit of revenge."
"Yes. Punishment for my family's involvement in the slave trade?'
"That spirit wanted you to suffer. And if you get killed you cannot suffer anymore. You cannot be punished further. So, it gave you the brakes and steering wheel. But still you killed."
"Not for blood…It was just blind fury."
"Yes. But the result was to have people hunting the killer. Eventually they would have caught you. That's why you were chained in the coffin. To keep you alive – and to torture you further."
"I can see that. Can you tell me more as to what I am?"
"By all means."
-0-
"Because Romney always knew what Amos was. Unlike in the show where he is supposed to be this expert on the occult but never figured out that he was working with a vampire. Not much of an expert, really."
-0-
Dinah hung up the phone and sighed. "Well, that was nice while it lasted."
"What was?" Louis asked.
"Our freedom. Mother is coming back."
-0-
"Of course, we did not know it then, but Maurice Crandall arrived, with Owen Raft in tow."