Until I Die

It was too incredible to describe.
Um, yeah, Claudia? I’m dating this dead guy named Vincent and Papy won’t let me see him, because if I do I might be killed by these evil zombies that are out to get him . My friends would think that my grief had driven me mad.
I shook my head in frustration and dialed Vincent’s number. His voice sounded calm, but I could tell he was as shaken up as I was.
“What’s the verdict?”
“Papy said I can’t see you anymore.” I couldn’t help my voice from wavering.
“What else could we expect? He’s a rational man.” His voice shifted from cautious to warm. Caring. “Kate … I wish I were there with you. Are you okay?”
I sniffed and pushed my palm hard against my forehead to keep the tears from coming. “I’m all right. And I see where he’s coming from. But he’s wrong.”
“He’s not wrong about the fact that I bring danger into your life.”
“The danger’s already here, Vincent. It’s too late to think of that. Those numa are after me now. So thinking about it rationally, it’s even more dangerous for me to stay away from you. Besides the fact that I don’t want to stay away from you.” My tears won out, and I began to cry. For about the thousandth time in one day.
“It’s going to be okay, Kate,” Vincent said softly.
I grabbed a tissue and breathed deeply, trying to compose myself. “I owe Papy my respect. But I just can’t obey him in this case.” Vincent didn’t respond.
Something that had been nagging at the back of my mind for the last few hours began to emerge and form into a coherent thought. The whole revenant revelation and anti-Vincent campaign by Papy had overshadowed something important. But now I began to realize the repercussions of something the numa had said, and my heart was suddenly in my throat.
“Vincent—today in the gallery. That numa said something about me killing Lucien.” I shivered, although it was about seventy degrees in my bedroom. “How could he know that? No numa were there to witness it, and only your kindred know what happened.”
“I was wondering if you had picked up on that,” Vincent responded darkly. “I’ve been discussing it with the others since I got back.”
“Could there have been a volant numa spirit accompanying Lucien who returned to tell the others what happened?”
“No—I was volant too, remember? I would have known if someone else was there.”
“Then how …”
“Only revenants knew about that. It has to be one of our own who shared the information.”
“What?” I sat there stunned, waiting for some kind of explanation.
“Ambrose and Gaspard and I have been talking about it. It’s the only answer. Somewhere in Paris, a revenant is talking to the numa. Maybe even working in conjunction with them. I’m sure of it. We all are. Not just because of this. The report I got in Berlin was that there was some sort of information leak.”
“But why?”
“I have no idea.”
“And how did the numa know that I visited the guérisseur ?”
“They could have been following you. Watching you.”
“But Jules was with me. Surely he would have known if numa were around.”
Vincent hmm -ed in agreement.
“Who else knows I visited Gwenhaël?”
“Well, by now our whole house does. I discussed it with them when you and I got back from the south. And then gave them the update when you told me that she had fled after the numa came to her shop. But I doubt they’ve mentioned it to anyone else. As far as we’re concerned, until her son contacts you to say she’s back, that path’s hit a dead end.”
As he spoke, an idea came to me. I hesitated before voicing my suspicion, knowing it sounded crazy. “But let’s say it is someone in your house. Arthur made it really clear what he thought about letting a human be involved in revenant affairs when he voted me out of that meeting. And then, when he saw me in JB’s library—the day I returned the book—he said that there was information in there that humans shouldn’t know about.”
“Now wait a minute, Kate,” Vincent said forcefully. “If you’re saying what I think … Arthur might not like the fact that you’re as involved as you are in our business, but he would never put you at risk. There is no way he would purposely sell you out to the numa.”
“No, you’re right,” I conceded, feeling worse about my theory sounding stupid to Vincent than I did for falsely accusing Arthur. And then I thought of something else. “Wait,