Inside the World of Die for Me Read online

  CONTENTS

  Introduction

  1. Character Close-Ups

  2. The Die for Me Timeline

  3. Revenant Mythology

  The Origin of the Word “Revenant”

  The Origin of the Word “Numa”

  The Origin of the Word “Bardia”

  Creating the Signum Bardia

  The History of the Revenants

  The History of the Revenants’ Guérisseurs

  The Nature of Revenants

  The Story of L’amur immortel (Immortal Love)

  4. The Paris of Die for Me

  Amy Plum’s Paris

  Revenant Map of Paris

  Supernatural Sites

  5. Deleted Scenes

  Die for Me Outtakes

  Until I Die Outtakes

  If I Should Die Outtakes

  Die for Her Outtake

  6. Gaspard’s Epilogue

  7. Inside the Minds of the Characters

  8. An Immortal Interview: Readers’ Questions for Amy Plum

  9. Volant Vibes

  10. Art That Will Animate You

  11. Revenant Reads

  12. Movies for Mortals

  13. Dining with Gods

  14. Parlez-Vous Die for Me?

  15. Test Your Revenant Knowledge

  Acknowledgments

  Excerpt from After the End

  Back Ads

  About the Author

  Books by Amy Plum

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  INTRODUCTION

  WAY BACK IN JUNE 2009, I WAS IN MY HOME IN the Loire Valley, sitting in the antique bathtub (aka my Idea Factory), musing about the book I wanted to write. I had just finished a short story that could best be described as psychological horror and wanted to do something different. So my mind was already on dark things when I began concocting Die for Me. And while I sat buried in bubbles, wondering who my heroine would be, this sentence popped into my head: “Ten days after my sixteenth birthday, my parents were killed in a car accident.”

  That’s how Kate introduced herself to me. I knew the book would be a romance, that it would be set in France, where I live, and that it would fall on the paranormal side of fiction, so the next question I had was what kind of being this girl would fall in love with.

  Finding that answer was more difficult than I expected. I began by compiling a list of all of the mythological creatures I could think of. It ran from vampires and werewolves to nymphs and satyrs. It was a long handwritten list, stretching over a couple of pages. I considered them one by one, musing about which would be interesting to write about. I felt intimidated by all the established rules—by all the different versions of the creatures that were already out there. I didn’t feel like I had anything to add to them.

  Finally I had crossed out everything except gods and zombies. (Ghosts still weren’t completely out of the running.) So I tried to come up with a way to combine them. And that’s where my revenants came from: undead saviors who occasionally take on ghostly form.

  My mother used to accuse me of doing things the hard way. Mom knew me all too well. Thinking up a mythology is no easy task. I was halfway through the first draft and still asking myself, “Why would a creature die and come back to life over and over again?” I was at a friend’s house chatting about something completely different when the lightning bolt hit me. They die saving humans’ lives.

  I kept having lightning-bolt moments throughout the series. Which is a good thing. Because when I wrote Die for Me, I wrote it as a stand-alone. Just in case, I left the ending a bit open so that other books could follow, but wasn’t delusional enough to think that my first novel would be bought as a series.

  So when I found out (to my amazement) it would be a trilogy and started writing Book 2, I thought, “Great. I killed off my bad guy at the end of Book 1. What am I going to do now?” I didn’t even know there was a Champion, much less who it would be. Thankfully, the characters revealed the story to me little by little, and when I finished Book 3, I thought, “Oh! That’s what was supposed to happen!” It had all just fallen together. As if it had already existed and it was my responsibility (and privilege) to discover it and present it as best I could to my readers.

  It was hard saying good-bye to my characters. A little too hard, obviously, because when my readers asked for more, I happily obliged. I let them vote on what story they wanted next, and they overwhelmingly chose Jules as the focus. So I wrote the novella Die for Her. But that still wasn’t good enough. My readers wanted Jules to have a happy ending. So I completed the series with the novella Die Once More, in which his happily ever after is ensured.

  As I have said many times, I feel honored to be the writer to whom the revenants entrusted their story, and I hope I’ve been faithful in its retelling. If you are ever saved by a bardia, don’t hesitate to ask them how I did. I can only hope they’ll give me a thumbs-up, but I imagine they would say that my books were only the tip of the iceberg. They have many, many stories left to tell.

  May you all walk with revenants.

  —Amy Plum

  CHAPTER 1

  CHARACTER CLOSE-UPS

  AMBROSE BATES

  Born: March 15, 1922

  Died: November 8, 1944 (at age twenty-two)

  Hair: Black

  Eyes: Brown

  Other: Very muscular; 6’5”; baritone voice

  Preferred weapon: Battle-ax

  DESCRIPTION

  Ambrose Bates was born and raised in Oxford, Mississippi. He enlisted in the army in World War II, leaving behind his elderly parents and the girl he loved. His African-American 761st Tank Battalion was sent to England. While stationed there, Ambrose received a letter from his girlfriend informing him that she had found someone else. Feeling like he had nothing to return home to, Ambrose fought like a madman after his battalion landed on Omaha Beach on October 10, 1944, preferring to sacrifice himself for his fellow soldiers who had loved ones waiting for them.

  He died in Lorraine after taking out an entire German guard post single-handedly. Ambrose’s war story was influenced by the true story of Sergeant Warren G. H. Crecy, “The Baddest Man in the 761st.” Jean-Baptiste found Ambrose’s mangled body on the battlefield and brought him back to La Maison.

  After the heartbreak with his human girlfriend, Ambrose didn’t intend to ever fall in love again, opting instead to pick up girls for fun with Jules. Finally, a few decades before the series started, he fell for Geneviève but was too respectful of her marriage to her human husband, Philippe, to let her know. He hoped that when Philippe died he might have a chance at winning Geneviève’s heart. He was unaware that Charlotte had long harbored a love for him.

  Ambrose loves music and has a fondness for jazz from the era when he was human. He comes across as easygoing and affectionate to friends, and downright frightening to enemies. He has nicknames for everyone: he calls Kate “Katie-Lou,” Jean-Baptiste “JB,” and Vincent “Vin,” and he likes to annoy Charles by calling him “Chucky.”

  Ambrose passes his free time bodybuilding and playing the trumpet. He is such a big movie buff that Jean-Baptiste built him a home cinema in La Maison. He drives a motorcycle and a 4x4.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  Sitting next to the first boy was a strikingly handsome guy, built like a boulder, with short, cropped hair and dark chocolate skin. As I watched him, he turned and flashed me a knowing smile, as if he understood how I couldn’t resist checking him out. (Die for Me, Chapter 2)

  QUOTE

  “Well, I’m glad we’re starting with the easy questions,” he said, stretching his powerful arms and then leaning toward me. “The answer would be . . . because we’re zombies
!” (Die for Me, Chapter 13)

  ANTOINE MERCIER

  Born: 1940 (age seventy-one)

  Hair: Full head of gray hair

  Eyes: Green

  Other: High cheekbones, aquiline nose. He wears what Kate calls an “old man hat” and reading glasses, and he smokes a pipe.

  DESCRIPTION

  Antoine Mercier—or “Papy” as his granddaughters, Kate and Georgia, call him—is a successful French antiquities dealer, buying pieces from around the world and selling them out of his gallery on Quai de Conti.

  The only thing Antoine prizes more than his collection is his family. While he isn’t an overly strict guardian, he is very protective of Kate and Georgia. He dotes on his wife, Emilie, and delights in showing her off at restaurants and shows.

  Over his career, he has become aware of the existence of revenants, at least the fact that they exist in mythology and that there are secret collectors who will pay a fortune for anything referencing these supernatural beings.

  Like Georgia, Antoine is very social; Kate says that he chats with anything that moves. He sometimes calls Kate ma princesse, just like her father did.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  On my way past the living room, I spotted Papy in his armchair, reading a newspaper and looking every bit like an older version of my father. He still sported a full head of hair at seventy-one. His noble looks, which had been inherited by Georgia, had unfortunately skipped right over me. (Die for Me, Chapter 25)

  QUOTE

  “Is this just a skirmish,” he said, glancing at the vase, “or a full-out war? Not that it’s any of my business. I’m just wondering when you’re planning on calling a truce and restoring peace to the household. If it goes on much longer, I might have to leave on an urgent unforeseen business trip.” (Die for Me, Chapter 20)

  ARTHUR POINCARÉ

  Born: 1472

  Died: 1492 (at age twenty)

  Hair: Long, streaky blond

  Eyes: Blue

  Other: Kurt Cobain look-alike, clean-shaven face

  Preferred weapons: pair of short-swords

  DESCRIPTION

  Arthur Poincaré was a counselor of Violette’s father and was inducted into Queen Anne of Brittany’s court when Violette became lady-in-waiting. He died alongside Violette during a kidnapping attempt on the young queen. His body lay next to Violette’s in Anne’s chapel, waiting until Violette’s father could arrive to retrieve them and bury them in Breton soil. Anne was alerted when Violette and Arthur suddenly “recovered.”

  One of Anne’s advisers had heard stories of revenants and convinced Anne to keep Violette and Arthur as immortal bodyguards. After Anne died of natural causes, Violette and Arthur moved to the Château de Langeais, the medieval castle in the Loire Valley where Queen Anne had gotten married. Here, they served as the guardians of the castle. They lived for five hundred years in a platonic but codependent relationship, with Arthur acting as Violette’s “protector.”

  Being part of the “old guard” and knowing a great deal about revenant history, Arthur and Violette went to La Maison when Charles and Charlotte were expelled from the house.

  Arthur has spent the last few hundred years writing novels under several pseudonyms, including Pierre Delacourt (historical thrillers), Aurélie Saint-Onge, Henri Cotillon, and Hilaire Benois—some of the most famous authors in French literature.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  The boy moved in a distinctly old-fashioned style, stepping up to her side and holding his arm out for her to take it with the tips of her fingers. He was probably around twenty, and if his streaky blond hair hadn’t been tied back into a tight ponytail and his face so clean-shaven, he would have looked exactly like Kurt Cobain. With a major case of blue-blood. (Until I Die, Chapter 2)

  QUOTE

  Lowering himself to one knee in front of Georgia, he took her hands in his. “Ma chère mademoiselle, may I have the sincere pleasure of being the one you choose to introduce you to the art of combat? I would consider it the greatest honor.” (If I Should Die, Chapter 10)

  AVA LAWRENCE WHITEFOOT

  Born: March 2, 1941

  Died: January 12, 1967 (at age twenty-six)

  Hair: Thick, black, long flowing hair that frames her face

  Eyes: Almond shaped; a tone between brown and dark green

  Other: 5’9”; high cheekbones, glowing copper-colored skin, bow lips

  Preferred weapons: Glock and short-sword

  DESCRIPTION

  Ava was born to a racially diverse family, with an African-American grandmother and a Cherokee grandfather. Her mom’s side is also Dutch, Scottish, Irish, and French. She jokes that she is the American melting pot.

  She was brought up on Long Island and moved into Manhattan for college, studying art history at New York University. Her friends were all writers, artists, and musicians, which is how she met Andy Warhol’s Factory crowd. Andy latched on to Ava immediately, and she became his muse. He introduced her to “everyone who was anyone,” making her an instant celebrity.

  She soon fell for another of Warhol’s favorites, an artist named Rosco. Ava and Rosco were the “It Couple” of the New York scene, and after a year they became engaged. Soon afterward, Ava was killed in an accident at a party held in an abandoned theater in the Bronx. She plunged to her death from a high balcony, saving a girl who had been standing near Rosco.

  Theodore Gold saw her light and took her body from the mortuary, caring for her until she reanimated. The first time she was volant she discovered that the girl she had saved was also engaged to Rosco, and that she was just one of several women he was seeing.

  She moved to Brooklyn, not only for fear of being recognized, but also because she wanted nothing more to do with the limelight. Since then she has kept a low profile, living by herself in an apartment not far from the bardia’s headquarters, the Warehouse, in Brooklyn.

  Although she no longer wanted to be involved in the art scene, Ava finished her degree in art history and went on to become the world expert on Warhol and his crowd. Using various pseudonyms to mask her identity, she writes books and articles concerning American art after 1950.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  The woman is stunning—in an exotic kind of way: long black hair, copper-colored skin, almond eyes, and high cheekbones. I rack my brain but am sure I haven’t seen her before. I would have remembered. (Die Once More, Chapter 1)

  QUOTE

  “You’re in our neighborhood, eight in the morning, full daylight. Know what that tells me about you and your friends?” she asks. “It tells me you’re expendable,” she says, and pulls the trigger. (Die Once More, Chapter 3)

  BRAN TNDORN

  Born: 1960 (age fifty)

  Hair: Dyed black, slicked back

  Eyes: Huge, chestnut-brown

  Other: Pale skin; 6’2”; skeletal frame; dresses in strange, old-fashioned clothes

  DESCRIPTION

  Bran is a member of the Tândorn clan, one of several families of “flame-fingers”—guérisseurs who historically treated the medical and psychic needs of revenants as well as humans. The Tândorn line was prophesized as the family to produce the VictorSeer—the guérisseur who would recognize the Victor, or, as the revenants call it, the Champion. His mother, Gwenhaël, claimed she did not have this gift, and indeed, it was Bran who was destined to bear this responsibility. When Bran inherited his mother’s powers, he had the signum bardia tattooed on his arm, as was the custom of his male ancestors.

  He divided his time between his home in Carnac, Brittany, adjoining a field of Neolithic standing stones, and the family shop, Le Corbeau, in northern Paris, where he sold religious relics. His task was to care for and learn from his mother until she passed her gifts to him.

  Bran has two sons. He and their mother, once Bran’s great love, are now good friends and share the upbringing of their children.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  His head tilted slightly sideways at my words, as if he found the idea of someon
e being surprised by a speaking statue curious. What a strange man, I thought. With his slicked-back, dyed-black hair and the huge eyes that projected surreally from bottle-thick glasses, he looked like a cartoon version of the store’s avian namesake. Serious creep factor, I decided, shuddering. (Until I Die, Chapter 27)

  QUOTE

  Well, that explains why the power transfer didn’t work. . . . It’s simple. This boy is not the Champion. (If I Should Die, Chapter 11)

  CHARLES AURELIEN LORIEUX

  Born: January 1, 1927

  Died: February 1942 (at age fifteen)

  Hair: Golden red

  Eyes: Same bewitching green eyes as his twin sister, Charlotte

  Other: Pale skin; 5’10”; slender

  Preferred weapon: Sword

  DESCRIPTION

  A decade after becoming a bardia, Charles fell in love with a human girl named Madeleine. Bowing to pressure from Jean-Baptiste, he didn’t allow himself to see her, which is why Vincent’s relationship with Kate upset him.

  Over the years, Charles’s bitterness about his fate as a bardia enmeshed him in a private philosophical debate over what his life was worth. He spent his hours reading at Paris libraries, becoming obsessed with existentialist theories and coming to the conclusion that he would be better off ending his life.

  Charles is a more sensitive and deeper thinker than most of the Paris clan, profoundly concerned with the revenants’ role in humanity. When he runs away to join Uta and her clan, who emphasize the bardia’s higher purpose, he finally finds peace.