Page 29 of Kissed the Mark
I cleared my throat. “How did he go to thepast? Francesca Gallo didn’t seem to think it was possible.”
“It’s possible enough, isn’t it? Shesucceeded. I know she’s been studying time, which was why I went toher first. I thought she told me it wasn’t possible because shedidn’t want me to do it. The thing is, the stuff they teach atuniversity—why would they want you to know if you could time travelor not? We would have all kinds of anomalies if people could justpop into the past any time they wanted to. I wanted to get in touchwith Viktor so I could ask him how he did it.”
I placed my hand over hers where she heldthe notebook—her fingers were trembling. “Leandra,” I said gently,“what if it’s just a legend?”
“I thought about that too,” she said. “Buthe’s lived much longer than most vampires have been able to, sothere’s some basis for it. Most of us will just kill ourselvesafter a few hundred years pass and we get bored, or we get so boredthat we do something destructive enough to get ourselves killed bythe little societies we live in.” She sounded very bitter aboutthis.
“And you don’t want to have an out? If youever decide you’ve lived long enough? You’re basically immortalnow.”
“I won’t ever feel that way. I never have.”Her eyes flashed. “Not everyone chooses to become a vampire,Olympia. I sought someone out and had them change me. I wanted tolive forever. I still do.”
This was news to me. “Why did you lie to mebefore?” I swallowed, my throat incredibly dry. “And why are youtelling me now?”
“After Francesca fetched my past self andlet her loose so I couldn’t have her, I needed to track the old medown. You know how crafty I can be,” she said. “I knew it wouldn’tbe an easy task. I needed a bounty hunter to do it.”
“And everyone else said no.”
“That’s true. I think it always was going tobe you, though. You have the best heart,” she said, looking meright in the eye.
Every instinct in me wanted to break eyecontact, but I resisted the urge. “So you made up a sister.”
“I did have a sister. But we weren’t evenfrom St. Louis, so you were never going to find out anything aboutus at the library. I wanted your tracking skills, just to hunt downa new vampire that looked a lot like me. It was an accuratedescription. And I mean, you did find her.” She still hadn’t brokeneye contact. “For the record, I paid Francesca very well to do whatshe did for me. I didn’t threaten her.”
I didn’t know if I believed that, but I waswilling to push past it for some answers. “So we were looking forthe product of Francesca’s magic the whole time.”
“Yep,” she said. “And I was continuing to doresearch to see if there was anything special I had to do when Ineeded to kill her. But I never got the chance. And she’s a goosenow or something?”
“Um, or something.” It occurred to me thatif Leandra knew what had actually happened, she might kill me forit. “I don’t know where she is now.”
“That’s alright. We will find her.”
“What if you kill her and it just undoesyou? And you’re dead in the present, too?” I asked.
Her shoulders slumped. “That’s why I wastrying to get in touch with Viktor so badly. I needed to knowexactly what he’d done. These diaries are incredibly helpful—but ifthere’s anything he left out, I could do the literal opposite ofwhat I’m trying to do and die instead.”
“Let’s hold off on it until we know forsure,” I said carefully.
“I’m glad she’s a goose now. We can justkeep her in a cage and feed her here until we know more, and then Ican kill her in her bird form and she’ll hardly be able to defendherself.”
That didn’t sit right with me at all. Whatexactly did she have in mind? We would lift up every goose in townand run a lie detector test on it:Hey goose, are you actuallyLeandra?Beep.
“Oh!” Leandra gasped. I froze, waiting forher to catch me in my web of omission. “I have something for you.”Momentarily, she escaped to the other room, leaving me alone withthe piles of books. She returned with a brown parcel. “This is akind of thank you.”
I accepted the gift. There followed a momentof awkwardness, like when you didn’t know if you were supposed toopen your birthday presents before or after the cake, or right whenthe person handed them to you. Leandra nodded to me encouragingly.I tugged at the string and slowly unwrapped the present, Leandra’seager gaze on me the entire time.
On top was a new smartphone. “Give me yourold phone,” Leandra said. I passed it over, the shattered screenreflecting off the lights in the room oddly. In two seconds flatshe had my old SIM card out with a paperclip and had inserted itinto the new phone. Again, I’d never even seen Leandra use her ownphone. The shock made the reality of the second present evenweirder.
“It’s…a pair of jeans?” I asked, notunderstanding.
“No, silly. Unfold it.”
I did. It was a jean jacket—brand new, linedwith silk on the inside. On the inner left seam, my name was sewnin cursive:Olympia Carter. It wasn’t the same exact kind asmy old jean jacket, but it was close, and the material felt moreexpensive.
“Leandra… I can’t accept this. Why…what?” Isputtered.
“I teased you about it before,” Leandrasaid, “but it really was very sweet of you, when you thought I’dlost all my memories and you took me in. You even fed me and keptme out of trouble. I was very touched by it. Stupid of you toassume that I had lost my memories instead of the truth, but still.Who else would do that for me?”
Guilt crept in at the periphery at all thetimes I had considered leaving her at the lake or turning her overto the vampires. “Thank you for the gift, but what do we do aboutPatricia?”
