“Where am I?” Katelina was aware of her voice only after she’d spoken the words aloud. Her body ached and her senses were bathed in darkness.
The answer was a single word, like a breath of peace from warmer places. “Safe.”
Safe from what? Her memory was numb, but she ached to understand. An urgency pressed beneath the surface. Something terrible had happened. Falling rocks, screams, blood. And among the chaos had been her… what? Her friends? Were they all right?
“They are safe,” the voice soothed again, the words followed by a touch; a hand on her head. “Close your eyes and see.”
But she didn’t have to close her eyes because the scene was there, as bright and clear as if she was a participant. There were names attached to the actors in the drama, but she couldn’t find any feelings about them. Did she know them?
Etsuko sat on a chaise longue in the motel room, wearing a pink kimono, her hair pulled up. Her attention moved between her needlework and a clock, as if she was counting the minutes.
Someone pounded furiously on the door and Etsuko jumped. She laid her needlework aside and hurried to answer the frantic summons. The door was barely open when a vampire burst inside, his long lion-colored hair wild around his face.
“Oren-sama, I did not think to see you. The sun is rising–” Etsuko broke off as she noticed his state of disarray. He was streaked in blood and dirt, his shirt was torn, and a wound on his shoulder bled freely. “You are hurt.”
He pushed past her and threw his suitcase on the bed, as though to pack, and then flung it aside again. Etsuko turned to close the door, but two more vampires forced their way through. Like Oren they were dirty and bloody. The teen had thick, curly hair and a sunburned face, while the bald vampire’s head glowed pink. They were sunburned.
Etsuko bobbed her head quickly. “Loren-sama. Micah-sama. I must guess from your appearance that the battle has happened? What was the outcome, if I may ask?”
“That son of a bitch took her!” Micah roared. “We need to go after him!”
Took who? Katelina wondered.
Micah snarled and Etsuko asked, “Who was taken?”
“Katelina,” Loren answered.
The scene wavered for a moment. Katelina. The name was familiar, and she felt like it belonged to her, but it didn’t stir an emotional connection.
The scene cleared and the teen rushed on, “Malick showed up and did some weird thing to her. Verchiel said Malick ‘activated a kill switch’ – he said he’d suspected it was there but he’d never expected it was to make her kill herself. He figured, if anything, it would be Jorick. Anyway, Jorick attacked Malick and cut off his hand. It’s still there at the guild-whatever, so it won’t grow back on. The Scharfrichter took it and are going to do something with it. I dunno, maybe put it in a box as a trophy. As I was saying, Jorick injured Malick, then all of a sudden Samael dropped down from the sky, exploded Ronnell’s head, grabbed Katelina, and jumped out again – whoosh – like Superman. Malick laughed and laughed, then he did something similar and Jorick started after them, but Wolfe tackled him and told him the sun would be up any minute. And he was right, we barely made it here.” Loren unconsciously rubbed his pink nose. “But they had this huge argument about it and Jorick said he meant to follow anyway.”
Jorick. The name felt at home on Katelina’s lips and something stirred in the back of her thoughts. There was an image of a man with long black hair and pale skin. Dark eyes the color of night.
The images disappeared as the door flew open and a red haired vampiress stormed in. Her dress was torn and her exposed skin was rosy from the sun. “Thanks for leaving me to pay the taxi. That would have been great if I’d burst into flames.”
“I ain’t got any fucking cash, Torina.” Micah snapped, then he turned to Oren. “So, we goin’ after Lunch or what?”
“Go where?” Torina asked and threw herself into a chair. “Do you have any idea where he went?”
“That son of a bitch Sorino is a tracker. We’ll make him hunt Samael down, and if he refuses we’ll take that pretty boy of his as a hostage until he agrees!”
“You can’t do that,” Loren said. “Now let me finish. Wolfe and Jorick had this huge argument. There were a bunch of those other Munich guys, too. Sadihra was there, and they kept trying to drag Jorick downstairs before the sun came up. And that’s when Verchiel grabbed Kai and took off.”
Verchiel. The name conjured a vision of red, like a crayon. But before Katelina could grasp at it, Torina demanded, “He did what?”
Loren shrugged. “He said he was faster and could make it further before he had to hide out, and since Kai’s a human I guess he thought he’d come in handy.”
“Sorino will kill him,” Oren said.
Torina wiped her face and frowned at the dirt on her hand. “He’ll have to beat Jorick to it.”
“Anyway,” Loren went on. “The whole place is a huge mess. Most of the building is leveled. There’s like walls left here and there, but that’s it. Between the bodies and the rubble it’s going to take them a month to sort it all out, but there’s no time now coz the sun’s up and all the human disaster people are there, and everyone’s scattering like roaches.”
Oren hesitated and moved to the window. He lifted the corner of the coverings, only to drop them quickly. “The sun is clear of the horizon. We’re helpless until it sets.”
“And that’s why we need to go,” Micah argued. “The fuckin’ mummy can’t go anywhere until the sun goes down, so he’s trapped, too. The city’s not that fuckin’ big. We sniffed out the god damn Black Vigil, we can sniff him out. We can load up on fuckin’ sunscreen or umbrellas or some shit.”
Oren turned to face him. “Do you remember Finland and the sun? Did you notice that of all of us Jorick was the least affected? Why do you think that is? Because he‘s the oldest. Samael is...I can’t even guess how old he is. For all we know he can walk in full daylight with no effect. I doubt very much he’s as trapped as we are.”
Etsuko took a chance to interject another question, “If I may ask, where is Ume-sama?”
“She’s still at the fortress thing-a-majig,” Micah said. “She got hurt pretty bad, but she’ll heal up with some rest and be back tomorrow.” His tone turned bitter, “Which will be fine because we’ll be sitting here like jack-asses with our thumbs up our butts!” Micah kicked the table leg with enough force to snap it. The table leaned dangerously and then crashed to the floor in a shower of glass.
“I didn’t know you liked the little human that much,” Torina said.
Micah spun to face her. “I don’t like that son of a bitch kidnapping our-” he broke off.
“Our pet?” Torina asked with a smirk. “Oh forget it. We all know you’re fond of her. She is a bit like a Chihuahua, I suppose. I only hope Wolfe stopped Jorick from doing something stupid.”
Something stupid? Katelina wondered. What did she mean?
“Pardon my ignorance, Oren-sama,” Etsuko began. “But won’t any of the guilds do something?”
“Good luck with that,” Micah spat. “By the time they decide to move their wrinkly asses it’ll be too late. Look at how long Malick’s been terrorizing the world and they still ain’t done shit. Samael will have drained her dry by then.”
“I don’t think that’s his purpose,” Oren said. They all turned to him and he sighed. “After the Raven Temple, Jorick probed the human’s mind to see if Samael had done anything when he spoke to her. He found something in it; a door, he called it, and he left it. Apparently, shortly after that she started to have messages in her head and strange dreams. He noticed something odd once or twice, but it was always in the heat of some calamity and by the time he had a chance to look into it he’d forgotten. She finally said something to him when she got the last message, ‘I’ll be there soon’. And then he probed deeper into her mind, found the dreams, and it all made sense.”
“Well I’m glad it made sense to him, coz it sure as fuck don’t make sense to me. What door?”
“I bet that’s the kill switch thing Verchiel was talking about,” Loren chimed in. “But if so Malick did that when they were in Munich the first time, not Samael.”
“I don’t know,” Oren said testily. “Jorick told me this before the fight and he just assumed it was Samael. Who would have guessed she’d be so easy to tamper with that two vampires would do it?”
“So why did Samael take her then?” Micah asked angrily.
Oren tried to look patient but failed. “I’ll explain it another way. Do you remember the scroll we got in Egypt?”
“Yeah, yeah, the one that said where the temple was and had some legend about an apocalypse. So?”
“Do you remember what it said? ‘When the Heart has been given to the broken body within the temple of the Raven Queen and the sleeping wreak their wrath. Then all will tremble at the might of the master and his consort in the time of the Great Destruction.’ We assumed it meant that Lilith was the consort and that the one who woke her was the master, but it isn’t. Samael is the master and–”
“You’re joking!” Torina cried. “He chose her to be his consort? She’s not even pretty.”
Anger sparked in Katelina and then disappeared under the soothing peace.
What does it matter?
“I don’t think it has to do with a choice. She’s simply the one who woke him up, the one whose blood he drank first. No matter how she came to do it, she’s the one who gave him the heart and let him feed off her. I imagine it’s a reward of sorts.”
Nothing matters.
“A thank you gift,” Etsuko said quietly.
“Well what a gift.” Torina wiped at her face again and stood. “I can’t take it. I need a bath.”
In the end it will all fade away.
“What about Lunch?” Micah demanded. He looked from one to the other. “Am I the only one who gives a shit?”
“No,” Loren said. “I’m worried too, but I know it will be okay. Jorick’s going after her.”
Even this.
THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES IN BOOK 7-
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