Inside the World of Die for Me Page 3

  After World War II, Jean-Baptiste led the battle against the Paris numa, whose number had exploded during the dark days of the war. Many bardia were destroyed, to the point that Jean-Baptiste brokered a secret peace agreement with Lucien, the numa leader. He surrendered several of his Paris properties for the numa to live in, hiding that fact from his kindred, who believed the numa to be itinerant. Another stipulation was that he declare a ban on hunting down and killing numa—dictating that bardia only kill them defending humans or in self-defense.

  Jean-Baptiste facilitated his task as leader of the revenants by keeping a large network of policemen, doctors, paramedics, and mortuary workers in his pocket. None knew what was going on, only that they were paid well for their assistance and discretion.

  Although Jean-Baptiste had assisted in the rescue of many new bardia and allowed his favorites to remain in La Maison, he always felt a special affinity for Vincent. Considering Vincent as a son, he quickly named him his second. Over time he became convinced that Vincent was France’s future Champion.

  With all the responsibility that he held for France’s revenants, Jean-Baptiste timed his reanimations carefully, avoiding death for decades and aging into his sixties so that he didn’t risk being out of action during an emergency. Over the centuries, the urge to die waned for Jean-Baptiste, and he was able to avoid death for long periods without the extreme discomfort that younger revenants experience.

  Jean-Baptiste was a member of the group of collectors who hoarded all revenant-themed objects, keeping them out of public view. Focusing on books and manuscripts, he kept his substantial collection in the library of La Maison.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  His longish gray hair was smoothed back with pomade, and his face was punctuated by a long, hooked, noble-looking nose. I immediately recognized in his face and dress the mark of French aristocracy. (Die for Me, Chapter 10)

  QUOTE

  “Although the rest of my kindred may reside here, this is my house and I, for one, feel that your presence here is very unwise.” (Die for Me, Chapter 12)

  JEANNE DEGOGUE

  Born: 1953 (age fifty-five)

  Hair: Graying blond (worn tied up in a bun)

  Eyes: Brown

  DESCRIPTION

  Jeanne is the cook and housekeeper for the revenants. She got her start helping her mother at La Maison at age sixteen. Her family has worked for Jean-Baptiste for nine generations. She has a husband, children, and four grandchildren in Paris.

  Her paternal grandmother is Italian, and Jeanne has inherited several of her recipes.

  Jeanne carries on her mother and grandmother’s tradition of storing locks of the bardia’s hair in small boxes in her room. She keeps them on a type of altar, with candles, and prays for the safety of the revenants she cares for.

  Being the only other woman in the house, she provides a sense of stability for Charlotte, who sees her as a type of aunt figure. Kate specifies that even though she’s nominally the cook and housekeeper, she’s more like a house mom.

  Jeanne’s perceptive, caring nature ensures that she knows what is going on with everyone in La Maison: Charles’s confusion, Charlotte’s unrequited love, and Jules’s feelings toward Kate. She was the first to notice that something had changed with Vincent after he first saw Kate.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  I turned to see a plump middle-aged woman wearing an apron. She had soft rosy cheeks, and her graying blond hair was tied up in a bun. (Die for Me, Chapter 14)

  QUOTE

  “You’ve given new life to my Vincent. He might be strong of spirit, but he’s a tender soul. And you’ve touched him. For as long as I’ve known him, his only motivation has been vengeance and loyalty, which may be why he’s one of the few survivors. But now he has . . .” She paused, thinking twice about what she was going to say, and settled for, “You.” (Die for Me, Chapter 36)

  JULES MARCHENOIR

  Born: 1897

  Died: September 1916 (at age nineteen)

  Hair: Sandy brown, curly

  Eyes: Tawny brown/chestnut

  Other: 5’9”; large rough hands, always has stubble, freckles on arms, messy clothes

  Preferred weapon: Sword

  DESCRIPTION

  Jules Marchenoir was born and raised in a small village not far from Paris. Because of the artistic talent he showed at the young age of sixteen, he was sent to study painting in Paris by his father, a doctor, and his mother, a midwife.

  He worked alongside Picasso, Braque, Gris, and others in the legendary artists’ studio the Bateau-Lavoir. He was good friends with Amedeo Modigliani, whom he accompanied on several drinking binges.

  His schooling was cut short in 1914 when he was drafted into the war. He fought for two years until September 1916, when he was killed in action at the Battle of Verdun. He saved the life of Fernand Léger, a fellow artist, by handing him his gas mask during a mustard gas attack. Jules died in his place.

  After he animated, Jules continued to paint, but had to stay out of view of the art world, which knew him to be dead. Because he used a series of pseudonyms for his paintings, he never gained the fame and approval he had dreamed of as a young man. He has long given up the desire for recognition and contents himself with refining his technique and painting subjects that he loves.

  A notorious flirt, Jules thrives on the attention of women. Flattery is like an art form to him, and he’s had a century to perfect his moves. He ropes Ambrose into going out with him to pick up girls but is careful to follow Jean-Baptiste’s rules for not bringing lovers to any of the revenants’ permanent addresses. Although he appears to use women, he actually has his own strict code of conduct—never telling them anything that isn’t true, never cheating, never making promises he can’t keep, and breaking things off by making the girl think she is leaving him.

  His affection for his kindred is deep, and his friendship with Vincent, who he calls “Vince,” is as close as that of brothers. His pet name for Kate is “Kates.”

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  Facing away from me was a wiry-built boy with slightly sunburned skin, sideburns, and curly brown hair, animatedly telling a story that sent the other two into peals of laughter. Now that I saw him from straight on, I was struck by how attractive he was. There was something rugged about him—unkempt, scruffy hair, bristly razor stubble, and large rough hands that gesticulated passionately toward the painting. By the condition of his clothes, I guessed he might be an artist. (Die for Me, Chapter 2)

  QUOTE

  “Sorry I’m not your boyfriend. And I mean that in all sorts of ways,” he said with an amused smile as he leaned forward to kiss me on each cheek. (Until I Die, Chapter 11)

  KATE BEAUMONT MERCIER

  Born: December 9, 1993

  Died: February 23, 2011 (at age seventeen)

  Hair: Dark brown, long, wavy

  Eyes: Blue-green, almond-shaped

  Other: 5’9”; pale skin, size 10 shoes

  Preferred weapon: Long sword

  DESCRIPTION

  Kate was born in New York and given her mom’s maiden name (Beaumont) as her middle name. She has French roots on both sides of her family. Her father grew up in Paris, and her mother was raised in Georgia.

  Her family lived in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, and Kate spent her childhood playing in Prospect Park. As a teenager, Kate preferred reading and going to museums to going out, but sometimes accompanied her sister, Georgia, who thrived on the New York nightlife. Georgia would choose dates for Kate, guy friends she called Kate’s “party boys,” who would accompany her little sister to the parties and clubs they went to. Besides a few stolen kisses with these short-term escorts, Kate had never had a boyfriend.

  Kate spent every summer with her grandparents in Paris and speaks French fluently. She had always dreamed of moving to Paris someday, so when Georgia decided they would move there after their parents died, Kate went along with her decision.

  Kate’s mother told her that, t
hough she was impetuous, she had an old soul and to trust her intuition because she had the ability to see things for what they were. This theory was put to the test when Kate met Vincent and found out what he was. She wavered several times between following her mind—after all, he was an undead boy who had lived many lives, and she was just a “normal” teenage girl—and following her heart. In the end it was her instincts that won out. She knew she was supposed to be with Vincent, and everything kept pointing to that fact.

  Kate began displaying traits early on that, if anyone had been looking, signaled the fact that she was much more than a normal teenage girl. She not only was a latent revenant but held all the qualities needed to be the Champion. The fact that she won over all the revenants, including Jean-Baptiste, the fact that she could hear Vincent speak to her when he was volant, and the fact that she had a sense of numa auras—all while she was still human—should have tipped someone off. But it wasn’t until she offered her life instead of Vincent’s and was killed by Violette that Bran revealed she was indeed the Champion and possessed all the characteristics specified by the prophecy.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  To see us together, you would never guess we were sisters. My long brown hair was lifeless; my skin, which thanks to my mother’s genes never tans, was paler than usual. And my blue-green eyes were so unlike my sister’s sultry, heavy-lidded “bedroom eyes.” “Almond eyes” my mom called mine, much to my chagrin. I would rather have an eye shape that evoked steamy encounters than one described by a nut. (Die for Me, Chapter 1)

  QUOTE

  Besides the alternate universe offered by a book, the quiet space of a museum was my favorite place to go. My mom said I was an escapist at heart . . . that I preferred imaginary worlds to the real one. It’s true that I’ve always been able to yank myself out of this world and plunge myself into another. (Die for Me, Chapter 5)

  LOUIS CHASTAN

  Born: 1998

  Died: 2011 (at age thirteen)

  Hair: Longish, light brown

  Eyes: Dark brown

  Preferred weapon: Learned sword, but wasn’t comfortable with it

  DESCRIPTION

  Louis’s father disappeared when he was nine, leaving his mother, an uneducated, simple woman, to find what work she could while Louis took care of his younger brother and sister. When Louis was thirteen, his mother met a man named Frankie, who seduced her with promises of wealth and security. Once Frankie had moved in with the family, he quickly showed his true colors, getting fired from his job and spending his days on the couch, binge drinking.

  When Frankie began selling drugs out of the apartment, one of his clients abused Louis’s little sister. Louis told his mother, who threatened to kick Frankie out. This spurred several weeks of violent arguments, culminating in his brother suffering a broken arm and his mother being knocked unconscious.

  Louis used Frankie’s phone to call his drug contact and told him Frankie had been cheating him. Henchmen were sent to confront Frankie, and in the ensuing showdown he was killed, as well as Louis and his little brother. Three days later, Louis awoke as a numa because of a cosmic technicality: He had betrayed someone to their death and died soon afterward.

  In preparing for her takeover of Paris’s revenants, Violette had instructed Nicolas (her second and a numa Seer) to find all animating numa and make sure they were cared for and trained, in order to build a Paris army. Louis animated soon after this order was given and was taken in by Nicolas.

  Louis was a part of the numa guard who helped Violette escape Paris with Vincent’s body. He accompanied her to Langeais, and it was while they were there that Violette decided to choose him as her consort.

  Because of the accidental nature of his animation as a numa, which was based more on circumstances than Louis’s true nature, he has the possibility to be one of the extremely rare numa that can be assisted by a flame-finger to transform into a bardia. Kate saw an example of this in a fresco in the guérisseurs’ archives, which gave her the inspiration needed to spare his life.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  It was a boy. He must have been thirteen. His longish, light brown hair swept down over his eyebrows, nearly hiding his dark brown eyes. The monochrome numa aura outlined his body. A young numa. This must be Violette’s new companion. (If I Should Die, Chapter 35)

  QUOTE

  “I’m just . . . I’m sorry about all of this. I don’t want to be this way. She found me and made me her favorite, and all I want to do is die. But that’s not even possible for me anymore.” (If I Should Die, Chapter 37)

  LUCIEN PHILIPPE HENRI POITEVIN

  Born: January 7, 1913

  Died: June 28, 1944 (at age thirty-one)

  Hair: Blond, swept back in waves

  Eyes: Light brown

  Other: 6’7”; chiseled cheekbones, broad shoulders, massive presence

  Preferred weapon: Sword

  DESCRIPTION

  Lucien Poitevin was born in a small town in the French countryside and joined the local police as soon as he finished high school. Always hungry for power, he struggled his way up the hierarchy using any means necessary to rise above the competition. When World War II broke out, he had already become an important police chief in Vichy, a town in the south of France that became the capital of the German-controlled French government.

  During the war, the Vichy government set up a paramilitary force called the Milice in order to fight the Maquis in the countryside and the Resistance in Paris. Lucien rose quickly through this organization’s ranks, not balking at the darker roles of this group: rounding up Jews for deportation and extracting information and confessions from anyone they captured by their notorious torture methods.

  As part of the Milice, Lucien betrayed hundreds, or indirectly, thousands, of his own countrymen to their deaths. He quickly became a top man in the Vichy regime’s information and propaganda ministry, married the daughter of a high-ranking Vichy official, and moved to Paris.

  In June of 1944, a group of fifteen Resistance fighters, dressed as members of the Milice, broke into the Ministry of Information building where Lucien and his wife had been moved for their safety. They found the couple in their bed and killed them. There were several revenants among this group, including Vincent.

  (This part of Lucien’s story was influenced by the true story of Philippe Henriot.)

  After Lucien animated as a numa, he spent the next few years making alliances with his fellow evil revenants. With their help, he hunted down everyone involved in his death—both human and bardia—and destroyed them. Vincent was the only one to have survived, and he became Lucien’s archenemy.

  Lucien managed to organize the Paris numa—as much as that was possible for such self-serving, anarchic beings—and became at the very least their spokesman if not their official leader. It was Lucien who brokered the peace agreement with Jean-Baptiste after the years of violent struggle between Paris’s bardia and numa post–World War II, thus cementing his position as their de facto leader.

  In the relative period of peace that ensued, Lucien followed the example of numa before him: He set up businesses like nightclubs and restaurants that helped mask his kindred’s activities in prostitution, drugs, money laundering, and other dealings that could lead easily to human betrayal.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  Finally getting a view unhampered by the crowds, I saw that he was everything that Georgia always went for, combined into one man. At least six-five, he looked like a mix between a surfer and a football player: windswept blond hair and suntanned skin but massive enough in build to single-handedly plow through an entire defensive line. His brown eyes were so light and crystalline that they looked like frozen butterscotch. (Die for Me, Chapter 24)

  QUOTE

  “Well, spit on my empty grave—if it ain’t the attack of the Disney princesses!” (Die for Me, Chapter 37)

  NICOLAS DE MONTMORENCY

  Born: 1470

  Died: 1510 (at age forty)

 
Hair: Wavy, dark brown mixed with gray

  Eyes: Gray

  Other: 5’9”

  Preferred weapon: Sword

  DESCRIPTION

  Nicolas served as Lucien’s second, and then oversaw the Paris numa for Violette until she could take her place as their leader. He is recognizable by his long fur coat, which Kate described as looking like it was designed for a Renaissance lord in a costume drama. He is a Seer—able to spot numa-in-the-making before they animate.

  Nicolas is known for his short temper and love of ostentatious gestures. He prefers to hide safely behind a leader and serve as second in control rather than stick his neck out and rule.

  Violette had him and the other numa watch Philippe’s funeral at Père Lachaise. He followed Kate to the tomb of Abelard and Héloïse, where she caught sight of him walking among the stones. He would have approached her if the volant numa spirit with him hadn’t alerted him that Vincent was on his way.

  Violette used Arthur to pass messages to Nicolas, which is why Kate and Georgia saw the bardia and numa talking together at La Palette.

  It was Nicolas who Violette met at Montmartre, outside Sacré-Coeur, when Georgia barged into their meeting and started the skirmish that ended with Vincent’s death.