Dead in the Family

through the windows of their house.” Judith looked away. “She fell in love. For several nights, she listened to the family. During the day she would dig a hole in the woods and bury herself. At night, she’d watch.
    “Finally, she decided to act. She realized—even Lorena realized—Bill would never forgive her if she killed his children, so she waited until he came out in the middle of the night to find out why the dog wouldn’t stop barking. When Bill came out with his rifle, she crept up behind him and took him.”
    I thought of Lorena, so close to my own family, right through the woods. . . . She could have come to my great-great-grandparents’ place just as easily, and my whole family history would have been different.
    “She turned him that night, buried him, and helped him resurrect three nights later.”
    I couldn’t imagine how shattered Bill must have been. Everything gone in the blink of an eye: his whole life taken and altered and given back to him in a terrible form.
    “I guess she took him away from here,” I said.
    “Yes, that was essential. She had arranged a death for him. She’d smeared a clearing with his blood and left his gun there and rags from his clothing. He told me it looked as though a panther had gotten him. So they traveled together, and while he was bound to her, he hated her, too. He was miserable with her, but she remained obsessed with him. After thirty years, she tried to make him happier by killing a woman who looked very much like his wife.”
    “Oh, gosh,” I said, trying not to feel sick. “You, huh?” That was why her face had been vaguely familiar. I’d seen Bill’s old family pictures.
    Judith nodded. “Evidently, Bill saw me entering a neighbor’s house, going to a party with my family. He followed me home and watched me, because the resemblance caught his fancy. When Lorena discovered this new interest, she thought Bill would stay with her if she provided him with a companion.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m really, really sorry.”
    Judith shrugged. “It wasn’t Bill’s fault, but you’ll understand why I had to think about it before I came in answer to your message. Solomon is in Europe now, or I would have asked him to come with me. I dread seeing Lorena again, and I was afraid . . . afraid she would be here, afraid you would have asked her to help Bill, too. Or she might have made up this story to bring me here, for all I knew. Is she . . . Is she around?”
    “She’s dead. Didn’t you know?”
    Judith’s round blue eyes went wide. She couldn’t be any more pale, but her eyes closed for a long moment. “I felt a strong wrench around eighteen months ago. . . . That was Lorena’s death?”
    I nodded.
    “That’s why she hasn’t summoned me. Oh, this is wonderful, wonderful!”
    Judith looked like a different woman.
    “I guess I’m a little surprised that Bill didn’t get in touch with you to tell you.”
    “Maybe he thought I would know it. Children and makers are bound. But I wasn’t sure. It seemed too good to be true.” Judith smiled, and she looked suddenly pretty, even with the fangs. “Where is Bill?”
    “He’s through the woods.” I pointed in the right direction. “In his old home.”
    “I’ll be able to track him once I’m outside,” she said happily. “Oh, to be with him without Lorena near!”
    Ah. What?
    Before, it had been okay for Judith to sit and talk my ear off, but now all of a sudden, she was ready to take off like a scalded cat. I was sitting there with my eyes narrowed, wondering what I’d done.
    “I’ll heal him, and I’m sure he’ll thank you after,” she said, and I felt like I’d been dismissed. “Was Bill there when Lorena died?”
    “Yeah,” I said.
    “Did he suffer much punishment for killing her?”
    “He didn’t kill her,” I said. “I did.”
    She froze, staring at me as if I’d suddenly announced I was King Kong. She said, “I owe you my freedom. Bill must think very highly of you.”
    “I believe he does,” I said. To my embarrassment, she bent to kiss my hand. Her lips were cold.
    “Bill and I can be together now,” she said. “Finally! I’ll see you another night to tell you how grateful I am, but now I have to go to him.” And she was out of the house and zipping through the woods to the south before I could say Jack Robinson.
    I kind of felt like a very large fist had hit me upside the head.
    I would be a total sleaze to feel anything but happy for