Chapter 9.
"Are you a witch-hunter?" Aphrodite Nicolai asked. They sat on the marble deck of her two-story beach villa overlooking the ocean. The ethereal woman was pale, with puffy eyes, and unkempt graying hair in her face. She was nothing like the vibrant, glowing being she had been the previous night. She sat on her cushioned beach chair with her legs up. "Eurydice said you were investigating the murder of my Antonio?"
"I’m an independent, Ma'am," Dylan said, nodding. It was best not to stray too far from the truth. She sure doesn't look well. Filipe managed to arrange this meeting with Antonio Nicolai’s wife—a fae, not another vampire or human. This was the only real lead they had on the mysterious murdering munchkin, at least until they found out anything new on Dobson, and Dylan also couldn't ignore the possibility that Aphrodite might also be a target.
He looked to Louis who sat down near the woman. "We want to help, ma'am," Louis said. "You loved him very much, didn’t you?"
"More than what mortals call 'love'," she answered after a moment. "I was his muse. Antonio and I did everything together. We were matches. It is . . . empty inside now." She shivered and removed a tissue from the box beside her. "My people bond completely to those we are close to, those we choose. Vampires are one of the few beings we cannot kill when we love them. Yesterday, I thought he would be with me for eternity."
Confused, Dylan studied the woman. He had thought most fae were blood bonded to demon-blooded vampires. Had Nicolai’s relationship been different? He pulled up a chair. "Aphrodite, I was on the beach the night your husband was killed. I'm sorry; I couldn’t reach him in time."
"And yet you didn’t say anything to the police?"
"I’m a revenant, ma'am; where I come from, they don’t take to us very well." He folded his hands and looked down. "But I can say this: I can help. I’ll find his killer for you. If you let me."
"How do I know you didn’t kill him?" She fixed him with a narrow stare that put him momentarily at a loss.
Finally, he shrugged and grinned. "If I’d killed him, why would I have come to you offering my services?"
She did not immediately answer; he noticed she was now gazing intently at Louis.
Her face became puzzled. "I feel the Mother in you. Why?"
"The mother?" Dylan had no idea what she was talking about. What was she sensing in Louis? Something that Jason and the others couldn't?
"We stand on the Mother, do we not? She is everywhere," Louis answered. Well, if you can call that evasion an answer. Nice dodging, Louis. I wonder if she’s going to let that pass.
But Louis was continuing. "Mrs. Niccoli, Dylan is giving you the straight dope. He saw a child kill your match. A fairy child, and she might be in peril as well; no child should be used as a weapon, and those who would do such a thing . . . "
"One of my people?" Horror washed over Aphrodite's features, and tears filled her eyes. She stood up and walked over to the rail. She wasn’t stick-thin like the idealized, attenuated fairy images Dylan was used to seeing on TV. Aphrodite had a curvy, hourglass figure, reminding him of Marilyn Monroe. "A fairy? How pure? Was she from Beyond the Veil?"
"I don’t know. I couldn't tell. She confused my Sight," Dylan said. "That’s why we’re here."
"I can’t tell you anything about my people from behind the Veil," Aphrodite said, brushing strands of hairwearily from her face. "Was she a water nymph? A selkie, or a finman? They declared war on us; most of the Earthly fae following them hearken from the sea. They follow Circe, and there is no word yet as to whether she has recruited from the Veil. The only one who could directly speak to the Veil has broken and is no longer with us."
Dylan raised a brow. "Why would the fae want to kill Antonio?"
"I have no idea." Aphrodite caught her breath and clutched the marble rail. "He was helping the fae. My husband spent most of his life speaking against forced fae and vampire contracts. I was his equal, his muse. I wasn’t even taking his blood. I chose to live a natural life." She looked back at them. "He would free fae and send them overseas. He did everything he could to ensure the proper treatment of my people, and he supported fae-run contract business that allowed the fae to choose their mates based on compatibility and symbiosis, and investigated improper treatment of them."
"Aphrodite, do you not realize that you have just given us a motive for murder?" Louis asked. "Not for the fae, no, but for the demon-bloods who bond with them."
"The demon-bloods would not kill Antonio." The conviction in her voice was absolute. Aphrodite turned and pressed her hips into the rail behind her. "His views are not uncommon among his people. Yes, there are several ancient ones who dread the fae, and like us controlled, but Antonio was working for a greater goal. He was set on a task, by the father of the demon-bloods, High Councilor Lucius Enki. The great Mother is ill, and Antonio and I were charged with the task of moving human economies toward an environmental agenda. We were to create financial markets for environmentally friendly power sources, material products, food and tourism, as well as influence eco-friendly politicians."
Lucius. He almost blanked out the rest of her words, hearing the Murray Clan highblood’s name. Both Daniel and Liam talked about him. Wasn’t he involved with Keenan Murray, Aedan, and Anna? Why would a known corporate robber baron give a damn about the environment?
Did this great Mother business have anything to do with Liam’s story about fading fae power and the lack of belief?
What did Lucius want with it? Did he want power from it? Was this linked to the Veil falling?
"Who is the Mother?"
"The Earth," Aphrodite said.
Louis nodded. "It's a belief in fae and shape-shifter society that the Earth is a living being. Not like a separate being or god, as the Greeks or the Romans had it, although some aspects of their faith might fit. The land, the actual, physical planet, is a living, breathing creature." Louis explained. "They have many different names for her, but they use the term "Mother" universally to each other."
"The planet is alive?" There were quite a few religions following similar doctrine. Religions of the type his family’s faith had always called "pagan." Dylan felt uncomfortable. Christianity had crushed several pagan faiths. Now he wondered why? If destroying the belief in a living planet threatened its existence, why do it? He thought of Dobson and wondered if it was about feeding off enmity and despair. "Ma’am, did he have a run-in with the Blackwell family?"
"The bankers?" She frowned. "Well, he was getting resistance from the Tilermans, Kaiser, Cook; they’re oil people, and the Blackwells often invested in fossil fuels. What Antonio was trying to do in the US was funnel money away from the fossil fuel industry and put it into renewable energies. He met a great deal of resistance from the older demon-blooded families who had founded their fortunes on fossil fuels, and plastics and industries dependent on them. He even got threats from other industries that relied on other natural resources like lumber, water and steel; they could see where the environmental campaign might take him."
"What about the non-American companies and industrialists?" Dylan asked, feeling a bit affronted.
"We had similar reactions in the Arab States, Asia and in Europe, but some of their people were at ground zero when Paris went, which changed a lot of things," Aphrodite answered. "It was really a selection of demon elites in the US who didn’t care that the Earth was dying. They just planned on harvesting as many souls here as they could until they found a new world to exist on."
"Crap," Dylan said, appalled. "Like a bunch of locusts? Eat one world, move to the next?"
Louis appeared perplexed with the thought. "How do they expect to leave the planet? They’re not disembodied like their ancestors. They’re half human."
"All I can tell you is it was their rumored plan; I do not know how they would execute it." Aphrodite said quietly. She wrapped her arms about herself, shaken. "And if they are using a fae child to commit these crimes, it’s a message from them. They’re meeting our challenge, and taking their own side, regardless of what it will cost."
Back again to Dobson and his people. Dylan felt a chill. Dylan and Louis exchanged glances. In theory there was a long list of possible suspects . . . but Dylan just knew where the investigation was going.
And now he knew the stakes were even higher than he had imagined.