Inside the World of Die for Me Read online

  Violette sent Nicolas with white lilies to inform Kate that she had taken Vincent’s corpse to her castle in the Loire Valley to destroy it. He assisted Violette in entrapping Mamie at the Crillon Hotel, and then accompanied Louis to visit the numa arms dealer in Passage du Grand Cerf, where he was killed by Ambrose after having murdered Geneviève. His body was taken to the bardia-run crematorium, and he was destroyed.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  I couldn’t see his face, but his hair was a wavy salt-and-pepper—dark brown mixed with gray—and he was as tall as me. . . . A man in a long fur coat who was walking away from me. (Until I Die, Chapter 5)

  QUOTE

  “Charming. As if you could fight me. Actually, I am under strict orders not to touch you. Violette is of the opinion that letting you suffer would be more fun.” (Until I Die, Chapter 39)

  THEODORE GOLD

  Born: 1838

  Died: 1868 (at age thirty)

  Hair: Blond

  Eyes: Blue

  Other: 5’10”; always wears white. Looks like a young Robert Redford.

  Preferred weapon: Sword

  DESCRIPTION

  Theodore Gold was a friend of Edith Wharton’s, having grown up in the ultra-wealthy circles of New York’s upper class. He died saving a child from being crushed by a horse-drawn buggy on one of the treacherous streets circling Union Square.

  Gold went to Paris in the 1860s and was a member of the group who founded New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, helping secure the Cesnola Collection.

  He traveled to Paris in September 1939, just before World War II, and assisted with the evacuation of the Louvre Museum’s collections. He and his French colleagues packed all the artwork and shipped it to various locations in France to protect it from the invading German army. It was during this time that he met Jean-Baptiste. (This part of Gold’s past—as well as his precious metal-inspired name—is based on the name and true story of Charles Sterling, a Jewish curator who was responsible for evacuating the Louvre’s collections. He and his family escaped with the help of the director of the Met, and he worked at the museum for several years before returning to his job at the Louvre postwar.)

  Gold returned to Paris a few years after the war, with several other American bardia who wanted to help their Paris kindred with their struggle with the numa. All his countrymen were killed and only Gold survived. Jean-Baptiste brought him to act as a witness at the peace agreements with Lucien, swearing Gold to secrecy.

  Gold used his unlimited time to research Rome and Byzantium and published several books on antiquities, changing his writing style and using the names Theodore Gold Jr. and Theodore Gold III when his age became suspicious. He used a similar subterfuge with his job as head curator of antiquities at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, taking long leaves of absence until the staff he once worked with retired or died and his new colleagues wouldn’t recognize him. Gold established a secret revenant-themed collection in the basement of the museum, showing it only to the bardia who visit him from around the world.

  Gold is the Seer for New York City and bought the building called the Warehouse in the 1950s to use as the bardia’s regional headquarters. As the official American bardia historian, he serves as the speaker for the council. And although he claims that everything is done democratically in America, it’s clear Gold is actually the leader of the New York kindred.

  Gold lives in a luxurious ultramodern apartment on the top floor of a building facing the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York’s Upper East Side.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  With his timeless look and white suit, he reminded me of a young Robert Redford in the seventies version of The Great Gatsby. Or a character straight out of an Edith Wharton novel: handsome and wheaten haired, with that tanned just-stepped-off-the-yacht look that very wealthy people have. (If I Should Die, Chapter 22)

  QUOTE

  “I know that Jean-Baptiste is like a father to you. . . . But I charge you, Vincent Delacroix, with relaying this information to your kindred. Otherwise, when the time comes and the battle begins, their blood will be on your hands.” (If I Should Die, Chapter 31)

  UTA HELLEWEGE

  Born: 1949

  Died: 1968 (at age nineteen)

  Hair: Blue, short-cropped and spiky

  Eyes: Hazel

  Other: 5’3”

  Preferred weapon: Battle mace

  DESCRIPTION

  Uta is the leader of the German clan that Charles joins when he runs away from Jean-Baptiste’s house in the south of France. Also the Seer of her clan, Uta is the reason that the German revenants arrived in Paris in time to help fight the final battle, after seeing Kate’s light and following it from hours away.

  Uta’s tough-looking appearance and an intense personality belie her touchy-feely approach to her kindred, picked up in her hippie days. Vincent describes her clan as resembling Alcoholics Anonymous for bardia: talking about their feelings, going on motivational wilderness retreats, and emphasizing their positive role in the world.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  She looks like Lisbeth Salander’s tougher little sister, her wiry body painted with tattoos, face dotted with piercings, and blue hair cropped short and sticking out as if she used a live electrical wire to style it. (If I Should Die, Chapter 46)

  QUOTE

  “Maybe in your case it’s not physical strength. Seems like you’ve got a lot in here,” she says, thumping her chest with her fist. “Doesn’t always take muscle to be mighty.” (Uta to Kate, If I Should Die, Chapter 46)

  VINCENT PIERRE HENRI DELACROIX

  Born: June 12, 1924

  Died: 1942 (at age eighteen)

  Hair: Thick, coal-black hair

  Eyes: Blue

  Other: Olive skin; 6’2”

  Preferred weapon: Sword—but has a mastery of all traditional ancient weapons

  DESCRIPTION

  Vincent Pierre Henri Delacroix was born and raised in Brittany, a northwest region of France. Following French tradition, his middle names are from his father (Pierre) and grandfather (Henri). His village was occupied by the Germans during World War II. At age eighteen, he watched the ruthless murder of his parents and fiancée, Hélène, by two drunk officers. To avenge their deaths, he joined the Maquis, the rural arm of the French Resistance.

  He and a friend were arrested by the occupying forces on suspicion of stealing weapons. His friend had a wife and child at home, so Vincent took the blame, claiming he had masterminded the weapons raid. He was shot in the town square and his friend was set free.

  Jean-Baptiste noticed the story in the next day’s paper and saw Vincent’s light. He followed it to the hospital where Vincent’s corpse was laid out. Claiming he was family, he took Vincent’s body back to Paris and cared for him until he animated.

  When Kate asks Vincent if he ever found the soldiers who killed Hélène, he admitted to killing them but said it wasn’t enough. He went after every other murderous villain he could find, including occupiers and collaborators, working in conjunction with the Paris Resistance.

  During the numa-bardia skirmishes following World War II, Vincent became, as Jeanne described it, “an avenging robot,” throwing himself in harm’s way, as if dying for hundreds of strangers could make up for Hélène’s death. His only motivation has been vengeance, which might be why he survived this long. Jeanne said that after he met Kate, he came home with a spark of life in his eyes—the first sign of life she had seen in him for decades. Kate is the first girl Vincent has fallen for since Hélène’s death.

  Over the years, Vincent kept watch over Hélène’s family from afar, leaving anonymous flowers when her father passed away and watching her sister Brigitte’s son after she died in childbirth. He kept tabs on the son, who moved to the south of France and has a family of his own, including a daughter who looks like her grandmother. Having that link to the past makes Vincent feel grounded.

  Jean-Baptiste assigned Vincent the task of managing the French revenan
ts’ legal affairs, sending Vincent to law school to get his degree.

  Vincent also spent his free time learning French, English, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Latin. His hobbies are art, reading, cinema, and fight training. He became passionately interested in ancient and antique weaponry after being introduced to the subject by Gaspard.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  He was breathtaking, with longish black hair waving up and back from a broad forehead. His olive skin made me guess that he either spent a lot of time outside or came from somewhere more southern and sunbaked than Paris. And the eyes that stared back into my own were as blue as the sea, lined with thick black lashes. (Die for Me, Chapter 2)

  QUOTE

  “Ma Kate, qui était à moi, qui n’est plus à moi,” he whispers as he kisses me. And then he says it in English. “My Kate, who was mine, who is no longer mine . . . because now you belong to fate.” (If I Should Die, Chapter 40)

  VIOLETTE DE MONTAUBAN

  Born: 1478

  Died: 1492 (at age fourteen)

  Hair: Black

  Eyes: Gray

  Other: 5’2”; rosebud lips; high-pitched voice of a little girl mixed with the self-assurance of an older woman; well-versed in Old French, English, and Latin

  Preferred weapon: Other people

  DESCRIPTION

  Violette de Montauban was born in the fifteenth century to a noble family. Her father was a marquis, and, like other girls of noble birth, she joined Queen Anne of Brittany’s court at age twelve, where she served as a lady-in-waiting.

  Violette died while unintentionally saving the young queen’s life during the same kidnapping attempt that took Arthur’s human life.

  In an effort to understand her unexplained fate, Violette devoted her life to the study of revenant history. She obtained more knowledge about both numa and bardia than any other “living” revenant, and, as the world expert on her kind, was an influential figure in the bardia’s worldwide Consortium.

  But slowly, her desire for knowledge evolved into a quest for power. Like Jean-Baptiste, she began to suspect that Vincent might be the bardia’s future Champion. Over the years, Jean-Baptiste sent Vincent as his messenger to deliver previously undiscovered revenant texts to Violette. On one of these occasions, in the 1980s, Violette let Vincent know she was interested in him, seeing the chance to win over the future Champion and harness his power. Oblivious of her motivation, Vincent spent several days with her, thinking it might be his only chance to find a long-term partner. When he realized he didn’t feel anything for her, he ended it, much to Violette’s chagrin. Afterward, Vincent asked Jean-Baptiste to send someone else on those missions, and Violette hadn’t seen him since.

  Violette never wanted to be a bardia. She said she had her immortal future decided for her at an age when she hadn’t even lived life. She resented being at the mercy of humans to keep her alive, and rarely went out into modern society, sacrificing herself for humans only when she was elderly. Violette never lost the arrogance of her noble class and was a paragon of bigotry. Jeanne explained that where she once looked down on peasants, she now scorned humans.

  Her only desire was to possess the power over her own destiny; thus her plan to obtain the Champion’s power to overthrow the bardia and rule over the revenants of Paris. She preferred becoming a numa and betraying humans to remaining a bardia and having to save them.

  Before the events of the story took place, Violette had already begun her takeover of the Paris numa. She approached them claiming to be the bardia emissary of a powerful American numa. She negotiated a truce with them and began giving them orders, commanding Lucien to bring her Vincent’s head, instigating his attack on La Maison. When that was botched by Kate’s intervention, Violette manipulated Jean-Baptiste into inviting her and Arthur to La Maison.

  AT FIRST GLANCE

  The girl’s snow-white complexion was set off by black hair that was pulled back from her face with a bunch of vivid purple flowers. She was tiny and fragile-looking, like a sparrow. And though she looked younger than me, I knew that for a revenant that didn’t mean a thing. (Until I Die, Chapter 2)

  QUOTE

  “You’d like that, Arthur, wouldn’t you? Whatever happened to my old companion, who agreed that humans were barely worth the blood we spilled for them?” (Until I Die, Chapter 36)

  CHAPTER 2

  THE DIE FOR ME TIMELINE

  FROM THE FIRST CHAPTER OF DIE FOR ME TO THE last words of Die Once More, the events of the series span almost exactly two years. Here are the highlights.

  2009

  DIE FOR ME BEGINS

  December 9

  Kate’s sixteenth birthday.

  December 19

  Kate and Georgia’s parents die in a car crash.

  December 25

  Georgia decides that she and Kate will move to France to live with their grandparents.

  2010

  January 19

  The sisters leave Brooklyn and arrive in Paris.

  January 22

  Vincent sees Kate while walking with Jules and Ambrose.

  Next two weeks

  The bardia watch Kate and Georgia. Jules and Ambrose give Kate the nickname “Sad Girl.”

  February 9

  Kate and Georgia’s grandparents take them to spend a few months in their house in the French countryside.

  June 22

  The Mercier family returns and settles back into the Paris apartment.

  Friday, July 9

  Kate finds Café Sainte-Lucie and notices Vincent, Ambrose, and Jules.

  Saturday, July 17

  The sisters see Vincent jump off the Carrousel Bridge to save a girl’s life. They are ushered away by Ambrose after witnessing the bardia-numa sword fight under the bridge. Lucien spots the sisters as he escapes.

  Saturday, July 24

  Kate and Vincent speak for the first time at Café Sainte-Lucie when she accidentally leaves her bag at her table and Vincent gives it back (but not before demanding her name as his reward).

  Thursday, July 29

  Kate narrowly escapes being killed by falling masonry while reading at Café Sainte-Lucie. Vincent, who is volant, sees it about to happen with his future-sight and has Charlotte warn her, saving Kate’s life.

  Tuesday, August 10

  Kate runs into Vincent and Jules (and Ambrose, volant) at the Picasso Museum. When Jules leaves, Vincent invites Kate to have a coffee and they begin to get to know each other.

  Saturday, August 14

  Vincent takes Kate to the Village Saint-Paul. She helps him choose a teardrop necklace as a gift for Charlotte. Spotting Lucien, Vincent rushes with Kate to Jules’s studio. Jules insists that she leave, but when she follows them into the Métro, she witnesses Jules being hit and killed by a train. Vincent takes her to La Maison. She is appalled by his nonchalance about his friend’s death and leaves, saying she never wants to see him again.

  Thursday, September 9

  Kate and Georgia start school.

  Friday, September 17

  Kate finds an obituary with Vincent’s photo from 1968 and soon afterward encounters Jules—alive—in a museum. She races to La Maison to apologize to Vincent and finds him dead on his bed. She spends the night in Charlotte’s room—against her will.

  Saturday, September 18

  Revenant Reveal: Kate meets the members of La Maison. They tell her what they are, much to the chagrin of Jean-Baptiste and Gaspard. Kate meets Jeanne and has breakfast with the group before leaving with Vincent’s promise to visit her soon.

  Monday, September 20

  Vincent leaves a note on Kate’s door, saying only, Soon. V.

  Tuesday, September 21

  Vincent meets Kate after school and drives her on his Vespa to the Île Saint-Louis. He explains more about what he is and lets her know the difficulties they might face if they decide to date. They go to a restaurant in the Marais and afterward kiss on the Pont des Arts.

  Wednesday, Septembe
r 22

  Vincent picks Kate up after school and takes her to Les Deux Magots for hot chocolate.

  Saturday, September 25

  Double date with Kate, Vincent, Georgia, and Ambrose. A numa attacks and kills Ambrose. Jules possesses his body long enough to get him home to La Maison. In their haste, they leave Georgia behind. She is furious and refuses to speak to Kate.

  Friday, October 1

  Kate visits Papy at his antiquities gallery, where she notices an ancient Greek vase with a representation of warring numa.

  Vincent and Kate go to the site of the boat accident where Charles was killed saving a child. Kate is traumatized: The scene brings back memories of her parents’ death. She decides she can’t live with the revenants’ frequent deaths and breaks things off with Vincent.

  Thursday, October 14

  Kate runs into Charlotte and Charles. Charles insults Kate and stalks off. As they sit by the river, Charlotte tells Kate of Charles’s angst, of her loneliness, and the story of her and her twin’s death.

  Friday, October 22

  Kate sees Vincent speaking in an intimate manner with Geneviève at La Palette and thinks they are together. The sisters go to Lucien’s club, and Georgia introduces him as her “special friend.” Kate spots Charles talking to Lucien outside the club.

  Saturday, October 23

  Jules finds Kate at the Café Sainte-Lucie. Kate mentions she saw Charles. As Jules draws her portrait on a scrap of paper, he tells her Vincent isn’t in love with Geneviève—he’s in love with Kate.