The sun was still above the horizon, but in the bustle of the city it was lost behind the buildings. Deep violet shadows gathered and threw fingerlike tendrils across the churned snow. Katelina and Ume left the abandoned building behind and walked down the street. The buildings around them were also empty, marked with signs written in a symbol language Katelina didn’t understand. The street ended at another, and it was like stepping from a graveyard into the throbbing pulse of life. People zipped past on bicycles and women in dresses and headscarves moved in chattering groups. Cars wound down the road, but the pedestrians appeared unconcerned, and crossed in front of them at will.
Despite the people Katelina felt they stood out; Ume in her bizarre pajama-like ensemble and herself in a dusty, too big black trench coat and rumpled stocking hat.
Ume shielded her eyes and gazed at the skyline. “I wonder how far the Birlik is?”
Katelina shrugged. They walked in silence, threading their way through the people, eyes on the tall onion domes of a distant building, until Katelina couldn’t take it anymore. “You know Sushel is up to something.”
“I think so, yes. He and I were never the best of friends and now…” Ume trailed off into a sigh. “He blames me for Ken’s death. It doesn’t help that Aki—Verchiel—was the one who killed him.”
Katelina remembered Verchiel stabbing one of their attackers through the heart. “I can see how that would make it worse.”
“Before Ken joined us, Sushel was always a loner. When they first met they were enemies, but they turned into best friends, and though they didn’t advertise it I believe it turned into something more. I understand his anger. I felt the same when Sibila was killed.”
Ume stopped and Katelina imagined she was waiting for a response. “Who’s Sibila?”
“She was my best friend. She had a mate once, but he was killed long ago, and so she was alone and I was alone. We became friends quickly and did everything together; trained together, worked together. Shortly before I first met you we heard rumors about the resurrection of the Children of Shadows, and Fethillen sent out spies. Sibila and Tye did not return. I begged to search for them, and finally Fethillen relented and sent someone. They brought back Sibila’s blood stained sickle and I knew she was dead. The Children of Shadows, or one of their allies, killed her and Tye. That was why I was so eager to go to Indonesia. I wanted blood for blood.”
Katelina remembered Fethillen’s words, “I cannot find their base, and so I send people to search. Most come back; two do not.” Sibila and Tye were the two who’d disappeared.
“I’m sorry.”
“We all have many things to be sorry for,” Ume said quietly. “Blood for blood did not work out and yet I feel it was Sibila who led me there to find Aki. I believe she wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be alone.”
“What about the Black Vigil? If you’re with them you’re not alone.”
“Yes and no,” Ume said. “You’ve probably noticed there is a lack of… warmth. It is more business than pleasure. Not to say I don’t have attachments to some of them; Gorn, Laura, Jewel, Kellin, but it isn’t the same as love. I loved Sibila as a sister, but I do not love the others, and I doubt they love me.”
“It’s just as well, since Sushel is trying to convince them to kill you when Fethillen’s not looking.” She covered her mouth, as if she could stuff the words back in.
Ume sighed sadly. “I’m not surprised. I wonder if he’ll be able to win them to his side?”
The sky darkened and the city lights grew brighter. Katelina took a couple photos of the skyline and one of a tiled building, and then she and Ume turned back. As they drew near Jorick dropped out through the window and straightened, his expression one of urgency. He spotted Katelina and ran to her with a cry of relief. Before she could react, he’d swept her up into his arms and pressed his forehead to hers. He let out a long sigh of relief that melted into a growl of anger.
“Where have you been?”
“Ume and I went for a walk.” She was confused at the sudden one-eighty.
“What were you thinking?” His dark angry eyes snapped from one to the other. “You went for a walk in a foreign city, with no papers and no protection! Do you realize what could have happened?”
“I’m sorry,” Ume said quickly. “It was my fault.”
It felt like the conversation on the plane, “Little woman needs to know her place!” And Katelina snapped, “There’s nothing to be sorry for. Ume and I can take care of ourselves.”
Verchiel dropped through the window, his tone agitated. “The Russians saw her earlier but— Kately! There you are!”
“Yes,” Jorick said coldly. “I found her.”
“All’s well that ends well,” the redhead quipped. “Might I suggest we hop back inside and discuss our plans for the evening?”
Much to Katelina’s disgust, the vampires fed on rats. Loren and Micah left and returned with bottled water and steaming cartons of takeout. It was some kind of meat mixed with rice and carrots. Katelina was so hungry she barely tasted it. As she finished her share she heard the bald vampire say, “By the way, you have to have the fucking local currency to buy shit.”
“However did you manage?” Torina asked with mock interest.
Loren grinned. “We got it from a guy in the alley on the way over there.”
“Tasted better than rats, that’s for sure.” Micah licked his lips and laughed.
Katelina swallowed the last bite and stared at the empty carton. They’d killed someone to get the money for the rice she’d just eaten. How was she supposed to feel about that?
“You should see this shit. It looks like play money.” Micah pulled a colorful bill out of his pocket and waved it around. “Guy had a crap ton of it on him. Bet he’ll be running to the police later bitchin’ about being robbed. He’s lucky we’d already had a snack.”
Katelina felt better. At least the mystery man wasn’t dead. She finished off the last of her bottled water, and then mentioned the Russians’ attempted escape. Verchiel played his mind reading-guessing game, but all he could come up with were images of their miserable shed and the shabby little house. “Unless they want to go home, I’ve got nothing.”
When everyone was packed and ready, they climbed out of the window into a silent street. Most of the earlier bustle had faded, though cars still wove down the streets and a handful of pedestrians moved through the gloom. The street lights were sporadic and on some streets nonexistent. Whenever they passed into a black patch Katelina tensed, waiting for something to leap from the shadows.
The people and cars thinned as they neared their destination. “Almost there,” Jorick whispered, and led them up an alley, their backs against a building. It should have been a busy area, but the buildings around it stood dark and empty. Some showed stress damage; cracks and chips, broken windows, and flashes of soot. Katelina imagined that they’d been evacuated and forced to remain closed after the attack.
Jorick came to a stop and Katelina peered around him to see the Birlik, or what was left of it. A single, tiled wall and half of a tower stood. The rest was an elegant pile of rubble dusted with snow and lit with the flashing lights of a police barricade.
Her voice caught as she whispered, “My god, how did Cyprus do that?”
“They probably used explosives,” Jorick said.
Micah grumbled from the back of the group, “I can’t see shit. What’s going on?”
Katelina pressed her back against the wall and peered out again. “There are four—no five police cars and several guys in uniforms. Some of them look like policemen but the others are dressed in gray. They don’t have any guns… No, wait. The ones in blue do.”
Micah made a noise of impatience. “Fuck it. We can take them.”
“I’m sure we could,” Jorick replied. “But we don’t need to.” He stepped forward and straightened his shirt. “Stay put, all of you. I’ll find out what’s going on.”
Katelina peeked around the corner as Jorick stepped into the light and walked toward the policemen. His long dark hair flapped in the wind, and the purposeful set of his shoulders reminded her of an action hero.
She watched as he came to a stop before a barricade. “The police are challenging him.”
Verchiel leaned around her, practically crushing her against the wall. “They’re asking him for his papers and of course he’s pulling his usual trick—oh nice. He’s doing all of them at once. I can never manage more than one.”
Katelina shrugged loose of him and elbowed him back. “If you can hear then you can tell us what’s going on.”
“Nothing much,” he said, which Katelina could already see. “He’s probably probing their minds to find out where the survivors went. Ah, wait, look at that.”
Two more policemen appeared from the rubble and marched toward Jorick. Their movements were too fluid to be human, which meant they were…
“Vampires,” Verchiel muttered.
Katelina tensed as they confronted Jorick. Would they arrest him on orders from the Sodalitas?
“They want to know who he is… ha! He’s lying. Either they aren’t mind readers, or else they don’t care about the truth because they’re accepting it. They told him some of the Birlik is operational but most is in ruins. There’s no power or water.”
As if to prove their words, the streetlights flickered and winked out, leaving only the eerie blue lights of the cop cars to illuminate the scene.
Verchiel went on, “They told him that if he has business to go to the evacuation site. Some of the survivors remain there, though if he’s looking for someone in particular they may have gone already… A group of them left together.”
Jorick nodded and then turned back toward the alley. He’d only gone a couple of steps before he went rigid and spun back. Katelina flattened Verchiel against the wall to get a better view. The vampire policeman were also tensed, their eyes on a point too dark for her to see.
“What is it?” she demanded.
Verchiel squinted, then sniffed. His violet eyes went wide, and he grabbed Katelina by the shoulders and half threw her deeper into the alley. Ume caught her, and she’d just righted herself when she saw the flash of his sword.
Before she could ask what was going on, Verchiel disappeared. It took the other vampires a moment to process his actions, and then Micah and Loren took off around the corner. Ume dropped her backpack, jerked an ornate handled sickle from it, then followed at a run. Oren and Torina looked at one another, and finally the lion-maned vampire told his sister, “Stay with the humans,” before he took off too.
“You’re kidding!” Torina called after him. When she got no answer she fell into a pout and glared at the four of them. “Why can’t you take care of yourselves?”
“I assure you we can, Torina-sama,” Etsuko replied politely.
The Russians clung to one another, and Katelina moved past them to stick her head around the corner. The streetlights were on again and the rubble was crawling with vampires in black, complete with shiny bladed weapons, ninja style hoods, and blazing white emblems on their backs. It was the Children of Shadows.
Katelina gasped. “What are they doing here? Aren’t they supposed to be blowing someone else up?”
“Obviously there was a change of plans,” Torina replied disinterestedly.
The mortal policemen stood with mouths open, wide eyes fixed on the vampires swarming toward them. The two vampire policemen were on their radios, probably calling for back up.
Micah and the others reached Jorick as he leapt over the barricade and crashed into one of the ninja-style vampires. Micah gave a loud snarl and did the same. Verchiel disappeared and then seemed to reappear amidst the rubble, swinging his sword. Loren had the good sense not to bother with his silly pocket knife. Instead he heaved up a nearby chunk of rubble and flung it. Micah momentarily abandoned his attack to heft one that was four times the size. Katelina could imagine him saying, “This is how you do it!”
The chunk of stone smashed into the vampires and knocked them on their backs. While they were down Ume swooped in and slashed at their waving limbs with her sickle.
The spell of terror on the human policemen was broken, and they went for their guns. The air shook with the sharp report of rounds firing, one after another. Vampires on both sides jerked as the bullets impacted. Micah gave a furious roar and turned on one of them. The terrified cop dropped his empty magazine and popped a second in. He fired his rounds in quick succession, and Katelina saw blood flowers blossom on Micah’s tank top.
The street lights flickered like a strobe then flashed on again to show the cop clicking the empty gun. Micah grabbed the man by the throat, his fangs flashing. Katelina looked away and then back in time to see Micah throw aside the man’s head. It arced through the air, silhouetted against the street lights and the snow, a trail of blood flying behind it like the tail on a macabre shooting star.
Before Micah could go after any of the other policemen, the vampire officers turned their rifles on them. Katelina watched in horror as the humans’ bodies jerked and crumbled to the ground in bloody heaps. One of them ran for his car, and a vampire policeman bounded after him. He grabbed him by the arm and flung him into what was left of the building with enough force to break his back. The policeman lay on the rubble, his head lolling from side to side, and the vampire paused long enough to shoot a bullet into his brain before he tossed aside the gun and went after the nearest enemy.
Loren had taken a fallen vampire’s sword. He swung the weapon clumsily, and hopped back and forth, dodging his opponent’s blows. Jorick was nearby, his hand gory and a dead vampire at his feet. He turned in time to grab the teen’s foe and fling him to the ground. Loren grabbed another chunk of rubble and threw it onto the vampire’s head. Though Katelina couldn’t hear the crunch, she imagined it as a wave of crimson shot out.
Loren gave a smug grin, but his self-satisfaction disappeared when one of the ninja-style vampires grabbed him. He flung the teen toward another vampire, whose sword was at the ready. Ume dodged between them, knocking Loren aside with her arm, and, though she spun toward the assailant with her sickle, she wasn’t fast enough. She took the brunt of the blow with her left arm and shoulder. She fell back with a cry, clutching her bleeding wound. Her opponent rammed the blade of his sword through her chest. Katelina stifled a scream as Ume crumpled to the heap of rubble.
Verchiel was suddenly there, standing over Ume’s fallen form. With a swish he took off the vampire’s head and with a second motion he rammed his bloody sword through the vampire’s heart. He twisted the blade, then kicked the limp body off of the weapon.
The street lights blinked out, leaving everything washed in tones of black and blue. Loren flung himself blindly toward Ume, but Oren caught him and pulled him out of the way.
Enemies set on Oren and Torina gave a low, angry growl. “If you little humans can take care of yourselves, you’d better do it.” Then she took off for the fight.
Working together, the vampire police made quick work of their enemies. Loren knelt next to Ume, and Verchiel fought a pair of vampires with flashing swords. Jorick threw down another vampire that had a gory hole where his heart had been.
Katelina tried to make sense of the chaos when a new vampire dropped to the ground from the top of the ruined tower. He landed in a crouch and rose slowly. He wore a long black coat, emblazoned on the back with a golden eye. On one arm he wore a weapon straight from a comic book; a metal glove reached to his elbow and blades extended out between his fingers.
It was Ronnell, the wind walker, one of Malick’s former henchmen.
Ronnell set upon them like a whirlwind. He moved so fast that Katelina couldn’t see him, only the reactions of those he injured. Verchiel abandoned his adversaries and disappeared too. He and Ronnell reappeared, their weapons locked, and then Ronnell ripped loose and they disappeared again.
The lights came back on, brighter than before, and Oren gave a shout. Katelina and the other vampires followed his gaze to the top of the wall where a vampire stood. Katelina squinted and could see long copper hair blowing around his face and a black trench coat whipping behind him like a cape.
It was Cyprus.
“Where is Wolfe?” he shouted.
Jorick ran toward the building and, like a preternatural panther, bounced his way up. He stopped at the top, one hand reaching for Cyprus’ feet, and the other clutching the wall, the tip of Cyprus’ bladed weapon at his throat.
“Where is Wolfe?” Cyprus shouted again.
Katelina couldn’t hear Jorick’s answer, but she guessed it was to the effect of “He’s not here.”
Cyprus roared in frustration. “Where is he?”
Micah called out what she was thinking, “Why don’t you use your fucking demon eye shit. You’re supposed to be able to see the future!”
The shadows in the abandoned buildings suddenly came to life and ten vampires dressed in black swarmed into the fray. Like cartoon characters, they wore black masks over their eyes. Ornate sickles glittered in their hands.
The Black Vigil had finally arrived.
Jorick used the distraction to grab Cyprus’ foot. Unbalanced, the demon eye lashed out with his weapon and Jorick jerked back. Katelina muffled a squeal, but Jorick didn’t fall.
A sound filled the air, steadily growing louder, like the beat of a drum or the rotor of…
“A helicopter?”
Etsuko made a noise of surprise and Katelina looked to see the Russians’ retreating figures racing up the street in the opposite direction of the commotion.
“God dammit! Don’t they understand we’re helping them?” Katelina hesitated for a minute and then pounded after them. Police cars screamed past her, no doubt headed to the mess at the Birlik, and Katelina wondered whether they were humans or vampires. That scene was going to take a hellacious cover up.
She gained steadily on the escapees, and finally cornered them against a tiled building. The woman broke into sobs and Katelina’s patience ran out. “What in the hell is your problem? God, we should’ve left you in Russia!”
She regretted her words, but it didn’t matter. They couldn’t understand her anyway.
She grabbed the woman’s arm and tugged on her. “We need to go.”
The woman cried out and struggled to get free. The male snapped something in Russian and snatched at Katelina. Impatiently, shea lashed back and sent him sprawling on the sidewalk.
The woman gave a little cry and melted into terrified compliance. The man slowly slid backwards, lifting himself on his elbows and waving his hands in surrender. Katelina couldn’t believe she’d been able to knock him over so easily. He might be half starved, but he was taller than she was, and surely a life of work had made him stronger.
Blue lights flashed and a police car pulled over. The cop popped out, and called to her in a foreign language. He definitely wasn’t a vampire, which meant she was in real trouble.
Before she had time to analyze that thought, he was on the sidewalk. He looked from her to the other two and suspicion settled over his face. He changed to broken English and asked to see their documentation.
Shit.
The policeman turned his full attention to the Russians, and Katelina used the momentary distraction to do the only thing she could think of: she threw a punch directly at his head.
He turned a nanosecond before it connected, and her fist slammed into the side of his face. She could see it all in slow motion, feel his nose crack against her knuckles, see the way he stumbled sideways but didn’t fall. He recovered quickly and lunged toward her.
Get away!
His eyes went wide and he fell back. His feet slipped and he crashed to the pavement and lay immobile.
Oh God, is he dead?
“Does it matter?” another voice asked.
The other door of the police car opened and a second man leaped out and shouted something. She grabbed the gun from the fallen officer’s belt and pointed it with as much ferocity as she could muster. She didn’t want to shoot the guy. He probably had a family and friends. Her imagination was instantly populated with the people he knew and the hole he’d leave if she had to kill him.
Shit!
“Katelina!”
She looked to see Jorick running toward her. He had a cut on his face and his forearm, but seemed otherwise unharmed. He skidded to a stop, grabbed the gun from her hands, and threw it to the ground. The man standing by the car, hands in the air, went slack and Jorick snapped, “What are you doing?”
“They ran away.” She motioned to the cringing couple. “After I caught them this cop showed up. I hit him. Harder than I’ve ever hit anyone! His nose broke! And then he slipped or something and I think I killed him!”
Jorick poked the bleeding cop with his foot. “He’s still alive, though he’ll wake up angry.” He grabbed her hand. “We need to leave.”
Katelina glanced back to the Russians. “What about them? You said you were going to turn them in at the Birlik.”
“Change of plans. We need to go. Now.”
Annoying or not, she couldn’t abandon them, so she grabbed the woman. “Come on, we’re going!” she shouted, though even she didn’t know where they were going to.