Part 26:
 

Rating: PG
 

The club was okay. It was the local Black Iris. Arianna had seen better, but it was suitable.

She had apologized to Brett for punching him as he drove them there.

“I’m sorry for hitting you earlier,” she had said. “Nothing personal. You actually seem like a really nice guy. But you were annoying me.”

He had laughed, and commented that it was spoken like a true Night Person. Arianna knew there were no hard feelings.

She was sitting at a table waiting for Alexander to return with her soda when a Hispanic girl with silvery brown hair approached her.

“Hi,” the girl said. She smiled pleasantly. “You’re a witch, right?”

Arianna nodded. She noticed the dangling black foxglove earrings the girl wore. “Werewolf?” she asked. The girl smiled, revealing straight white teeth.

“Yes,” she answered. “My name is Lupe. Do you mind if I sit down for a moment?”

“Sure.” Arianna shrugged. “Go ahead.”

The girl sat down across from her. She was about Arianna’s age, and very slender. “Can I ask you a few questions?”

“What are you, a Night World census taker?” Arianna joked, and Lupe laughed.

“No, I’m actually looking for someone.” Lupe pulled some drawings out of her shoulder bag. They were all portraits of a pretty girl with light hair, and a birthmark along one cheek. She handed the pictures to Arianna. “Have you seen a girl that looks anything like these drawings?”

Arianna studied the portraits. They were drawn very well, as if by someone who had memorized the features of each girl. She glanced at the signature. She couldn’t read it, but the initials were clearly TD. “You say a girl that looks like these?” she asked. Lupe nodded. “But they’re all different girls.”

“Notice the similarities,” Lupe pointed out. “The shape of the jaw, the angle of the nose. And they all have the same birthmark in the same spot. The girl I’m looking for could look exactly like any one of these, or none of them. But she slightly resembles all of them. Do you see what I mean?”

“Not really.” Arianna handed the pictures back. “What, are these all victims of some crime, and you figure that whoever’s next will resemble them?”

Lupe burst out laughing. “Oh, no, it has nothing to do with…well, actually, it kind of does, now that I think about it. But it’s one specific girl that we’re looking for.”

“Sorry, I haven’t seen her.”

Lupe sighed. “Thanks you for at least looking at the drawings. Most people don’t even do that. The person I work for really wants to find her, so if you ever see a blond, blue-eyed girl with that birthmark, call this number.” She handed Arianna a small card. “It would mean the world to my employer.”

“Why do you want to find her so bad? Aside from that she might be the next victim.”

“Because she’s the only victim,” Lupe muttered as she replaced the pictures in her bag.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Lupe looked up at Arianna. “Have you ever been in love?” she asked abruptly.

“Um, yeah,” Arianna answered. It seemed she was talking about this a lot lately.

“Do you know what it’s like to lose the person you love?”

Arianna stared at the table where someone had carved their initials. “Yes.”

“Then imagine you had a chance to get that person back.” The girl’s yellow eyes bored into hers. “Well, that’s what we’re doing. Only this girl doesn’t know anything about my employer, because every time she comes back, she’s killed. We’re trying to get her before she’s killed again.”

“Killed?” Arianna raised an eyebrow.

Lupe nodded. “She’s an Old Soul, a human who’s been reincarnated over and over again. And my employer is her soulmate, meaning that they are meant to be together, just he and she, through every one of her lives. And he can’t be with her, because every time he finds her, she dies. Can you imagine that? There are times when he waits hundreds of years for her to show up again, and each time, he’s too late to save her.”

“That’s a living hell,” Arianna gasped. “That’s torture.” She paused. “He’s a vampire, right?” The other girl nodded. “So why doesn’t he just kill himself?”

Lupe’s eyes widened. “No! He can’t! No one knows for sure if vampires come back. As far as we know, they just cease to be. That would delete all chances of them ever being together.”

“Who’s the one who keeps killing the girl?” Arianna asked.

“A very evil woman,” Lupe replied. “But it is his face this girl sees as she is being killed. To her knowledge, it is her soulmate, the love of all of her lives, who has killed her each time.”

“That’s terrible…” Visions of Mark floated through Arianna’s head, and when she placed herself in this situation with him, it was completely dreadful. She could not imagine a more horrible curse than the one this woman had bestowed on this pair of soulmates.

“I’m so sorry I can’t help you,” Arianna said. “But if I ever see her, I will call. The world’s a big place. How do you expect to find her?”

Lupe sighed. “We don’t truly expect to, but we have to look. If there’s any chance at all of finding this girl…then we have to go for it.” She stood. “Sorry for taking up so much of your time. I usually don’t get into such detail when I ask people, but I’ve been here for a week and with no luck. Not to mention I’m by myself. Anyway, it was nice
talking to you. Thanks for your help.” She started to walk away, then turned back. “Oh, hey, what’s your name?”

“Arianna.”

Lupe smiled. “’Bye, Arianna.”

“’Bye, Lupe.”