"It could have been some kind of special effect," Samantha suggested. "Like that anointing cream or whatever she called it? For all we know it could have been made of sterno or some other flammable gel. Then she ignited it somehow, and that caused the pulse of heat and the flicker of blue light."
I sighed as I thought it over. It was possible, but that didn't explain what the ignition source was. I was watching and Penny had the jar in her left hand and her right hand was empty.
"I didn't see a lighter or spark or any other way she could have set the stuff off," I finally replied. "Why don't you want to believe it was some kind of witchy vampire magic?"
My girlfriend shook her head, "I just have a hard time buying it. I have a hard time buying almost everything she said."
"Yeah," I grimaced. "I'm not going to argue with you there. But she knew a lot of stuff that I don't see how she could have known otherwise. And she did some other inexplicable stuff too right? Like hiding her scent, and not being affected by the sunlight?"
Sam frowned, "Right... I really hope we can go see her again to learn that trick. If there really is magic, that's the kind of magic I want."
It was about four in the morning and we were in the SUV, on our way back to the hotel. Sam was behind the wheel again, and we were both still processing everything we learned from Penelope Westcott.
After she did the empowerment thing with our tattoos the three of us returned to her living-room and continued our conversation. She told us a bit more about the Slúag Marb, like how they couldn't be forcibly ejected from a host body but they could leave willingly. And since old vamps tended to decay quickly once they were dead, the Slúag usually couldn't or wouldn't return after they'd vacated a body, they had to pick a new host.
She explained they kept possession of vamp bodies because of the plentiful food supply in terms of human blood, but it was a weakness because that was the only way they could be killed, if the body died with them in it. So their main defensive manoeuvre if they were in a position where they might die was to vacate the body.
Me and Sam both figured Molly and James didn't know about the silver in my bullets, so they didn't think they were in mortal danger. Penny theorized that leaving silver dust spread through their bodies might have prevented the Slúag from leaving them, since they couldn't pass through silver in their incorporeal state. Which explained why they didn't try to escape as soon as I shot them. That might have explained the convulsing too, beyond just the pain of the silver burns. They might have been trying to get out but instead were trapped in place by that dust.
As for Slúag Isabelle, we both agreed she probably assumed she could easily defeat me, or maybe she was reluctant to leave her cozy matriarch body. Or maybe she wasn't thinking rationally, she might have been so bent on revenge after I killed her friends that she didn't stop to think about her own safety.
The bottom line was, it sounded like we got lucky that night we faced off against Isabelle and the others. And I couldn't argue with that. I escaped the whole thing without even a scratch, while my girlfriend got a silver crossbow-bolt in the gut and lost part of her hand.
It was kind of ironic but out of the three of us, Sam was the only one who got hurt and the only one who didn't actually harm any of the Slúag Marb. I killed three of them, and Reuben used the axe to make sure. Sam did take out Cynthia though.
And everyone in the Family believed it was all Samantha. I knew my girlfriend felt guilty about getting all the credit, or the blame, when it was actually me. But it was kind of strategic. The longer everyone believed I was nothing more than a young seven-year-dead vamp sidekick to the legendary elder-killing warrior Sam, the greater our chances of using that surprise to win the next battle.
Thinking about that sent my thoughts back to the rest of our conversation with Penny.
Sam asked her what Isabelle talked to her about, and why she gave Isabelle those little bottles of ancient blood.
Penny explained that Isabelle knew there was something bad going on with the Family's leadership, but she didn't know what. She came to Penny looking for help, she wanted Penny to join her and confront the elders directly. Penny refused, she told us she was very much a 'don't get involved' kind of person.
Instead, she gave Isabelle those vials of blood and told her how to use them. She figured if Isabelle was strong enough, she'd be able to confront the elders on her own.
Of course we knew Isabelle never did that. Sam wasn't surprised. She explained, her Dame was only decisive and quick to act when she already knew what the outcome would be, or when the stakes were low. Sam said she could easily imagine Isabelle would have wanted to study and evaluate and examine the situation indefinitely. And although Isabelle was curious and experimented on my girlfriend, she was reluctant to experiment on herself.
All that made sense to me. It explained why Isabelle spent almost sixty years studying the elders and making notes about the situation, but never actually did anything about it. And she probably never hit on the idea that we were being kept and raised like livestock.
Our visit finally ended when Penny decided she'd had enough of our company and showed Sam and I the door. She warned us not to tell anyone about her, she wanted to keep her existence a secret. And while she'd had enough of us for now, she didn't tell us not to come back.
I already knew my girlfriend was planning or hoping to visit the enigmatic Penny again. She was still stuck on the idea of being immune to sunlight. I found that kind of ironic, since between the two of us I was the one who was most uncomfortable being out in the daytime. I was used to it by now, but I still didn't enjoy it. Sam always acted like it didn't bother her.
About a half hour later we were back at the hotel. We parked in the underground lot then made our way up to our room.
As we both got undressed, Samantha commented "What Penny said about the Slúag Marb not getting any vamp memories when they take possession? That totally fits with what Isabelle observed with Claudia, and what I saw with Isabelle. Like the personality shift, the way she became distant and unapproachable and everything? It makes total sense, they'd want to distance themselves from any old friends and acquaintances who'd otherwise notice stuff was wrong."
I agreed, "It also explains why Slúag Isabelle didn't know anything about the journal, or the ancient blood, or even the letter. Isabelle did all of that stuff in secret and told nobody. But stuff like what she did to you, she reported that to Claudia. If we're assuming Slúag Claudia and Slúag Isabelle were the same entity, it makes sense how she'd know that stuff but not the other details."
"Right," Sam nodded. "And it means we might have a way to verify whether or not another specific vamp has been possessed. We just have to test them on something that wouldn't be public knowledge."
I frowned, "Who are you thinking about? Wait are you saying maybe Jess is one of them?"
My girlfriend sat naked on the edge of the bed and shrugged, "I'm saying maybe we shouldn't assume she isn't. I think she's acting a lot more evasive and flakier than she used to, but I can't say she's changed enough to be sure it's not her."
"Do you know Jessica well enough that you could quiz her and find out?" I asked as I sat next to her on the bed.
Samantha shook her head, "No. But I bet Reuben does, and he's only a text or a phone call away."
I nodded, "Good thinking."
She dug out her phone and tapped out a quick message to Reuben, to find out if he was available for a chat. A minute or two later the phone rang, and she put him on speaker.
I sat on the edge of the bed beside my girlfriend as the two of us gave him an update on everything so far, though we didn't say anything about Penny since the kid asked us not to tell anyone about her. We did explain the new stuff we'd learned about Slúag Marb, but we kept quiet about how or where we learned it.
Finally Sam asked him, "So I was wondering if there's anything secret and personal you know about Jess that we could use to test her, to make sure it's really her and not a Slúag Marb that's just studied her and learned to mimic her."
She added, "It couldn't be anything that was in an email or a text. It won't work if it's something she could find in a chat history or email records."
Reuben sighed, "I'm a little uncomfortable because if that really is Jessica then I'd be betraying her trust by sharing private personal information with you."
"I know Reuben," Sam replied. "And I'm sorry to have to ask this, but I'm sure you understand why I'm doing it. Even forgetting how she betrayed us four years ago, she's acting sort of evasive and flakey right now. We can't trust her. If she's one of them, we need to know."
"Ok Sam, give me a few minutes to remember some suitable details. I'll text you what I can come up with."
"Thanks Reuben," Samantha replied. "We'll keep you updated on how things are going."
I added, "We're meeting Jess and the others again on Friday, to compare notes and work out our plans. If we don't like what we hear from them, we might just pack up and leave."
He responded, "Whatever you do make sure you stay safe."
Me and Sam agreed then bid him a good day before we disconnected.
I looked at my girlfriend and pointed out, "If Jessica is Slúag Marb, that makes it easy enough right? We just kill her and leave? If she's not, it doesn't really solve much. We still don't know if we can trust her or not."
"Yeah," Sam agreed as she put her phone on the bedside table. "It won't confirm if she's really an ally, but it might reveal she's actually an enemy."
After a brief pause, she looked at me and asked, "We've got about a day and a half till we meet with Jess and the others. Do you have any plans or anything you want to do?"
I slipped an arm around her as I cuddled close. I was quiet for a few moments, then finally nodded "Yeah. Tonight, like around eight or nine at night, I'd like to go drop in on my folks. There's some stuff I'm curious about."
Samantha put an arm around my shoulders and held me as she replied, "Ok Tara. You know I'll be there for you, I'll back you up whatever you want to do."
I leaned my head on her shoulder and added with a sigh, "There's a pretty good chance you'll find out my deadname when I'm talking with my parents. I'm honestly kind of amazed yours didn't come up when we met your mom."
She was quiet for a moment before responding, "If it does come up, I'll do my best to forget I ever heard it. And yeah, I didn't even think about it when we saw my mom. Now it almost makes me wonder if she knew? Like she said when she saw me out the window back then, she said I reminded her of him? I don't know how that's possible though."
"Seeing my parents isn't going to be anywhere near as nice as visiting your mom was."
Sam gave me a kiss and said, "You never know, cutie. But whatever happens we'll deal with it together."
I smiled, "Thanks Sam."
She gave me another kiss and replied, "Any time, Tara."
This gives me a bad feeling about Sam's mom...I could be reading into nothing, but given the paranoia about Jess, it would understandably be there for her given what they now know about the slugs. It's not that big of a stretch to say she's also Sluag and killed her own husband.
