“Malick?” Katelina echoed the name with the terror it deserved. “Did they find him?”
Wolfe ignored her for Jorick. “He’s using the nuclear codes he stole. The Höher Rat have chosen you to go to Russia and your Guild has demanded that Executioner Jamie accompany you. There is no time.”
Katelina’s heart stopped at the word nuclear, but her senses returned. “I’m going.”
Jorick spoke before Wolfe could argue, “Yes. She comes with me.”
“Then bring her. We do not have time!”
Katelina followed them to the Scharfrichter’s office. Jamie joined them at the door and they hurried inside. Two heavy wooden desks faced each other, both manned by Scharfrichter on phones. An L shaped counter was littered with glowing computer monitors and surrounded by a crowd of both Scharfrichter and guards. In the center of the chaos stood a vampire in royal blue robes, no doubt one of the Höher Rat. He gave orders in German, his eyes on a computer monitor.
Wolfe saluted. Though he didn’t speak English, Katelina assumed he was explaining her presence. The robed vampire nodded, then turned to Jorick, looking annoyed. “Malick has commanded that you come alone. However, Wolfe and a guard will accompany you, and your guild has requested that Executioner Jamie go with you.” His curled lip gave his opinion on the matter. “What’s one more?”
“Why would he demand my presence?” Jorick asked.
“He wants you to bring him the immortal crown.”
“The what?” asked Katelina.
Jorick shrugged and Wolfe looked aggravated. “It’s the golden crown worn by Ishkur. The symbol of his authority.”
“Yes,” the robed vampire said with annoyance. “After much debate, the Kugsankal have agreed to let you take it, but it must be given back on your return.” His eyes bored into Jorick’s, trying to press his will into the vampire’s skull. “You will use it to get close to Malick, then you will kill him. You will not let him have the crown!” His voice dropped to normal. “Wolfe will escort you to receive it.”
The Scharfrichter had a hurried conversation with him, and Katelina whispered to Jorick, “What does he want with a crown?”
“It’s a symbol, apparently. No doubt he would wear it as proof that he’s defeated the True Council. Perhaps older vampires will respect that.”
“You don’t know?”
He arched an eyebrow. “I’m not that old.”
After saluting his superior, Wolfe practically dragged them out the door. Maeko and Hikaru stood casually at the end of the corridor. She bowed as the men hurried past, then grabbed Katelina’s wrist and pressed something into her palm with a wink.
A strange thought popped into her head, “If you need me, you can contact me this way.” She looked to Maeko. With a nod the girl took credit for the message.
Katelina shoved the tiny note in her pocket, and caught up with the others at the elevator. As they descended, the heavy sensation of the ancient masters grew stronger. Katelina handled it better than she had on previous visits, but their power still jarred her.
They passed through private elevators, locked doors, and narrow corridors to reach the plush waiting room. Fake plants and leather couches had a layer of dust that spoke of infrequent use.
The presence of the ancients seeped through the walls and Katelina took a deep, calming breath. It wasn’t as if the Kugsankal would hurt her. Would they?
Wolfe peered into a large gilt framed mirror on the wall. A click echoed and the wall slid aside. They walked single file through a claustrophobic corridor to reach a large chamber, lit by a single bulb. On previous visits, the room had been mostly shadows, now Katelina could see it clearly. The walls were decorated in carved wooden panels that stretched upwards for several stories. It made her think of concert halls, where the domed ceilings amplified sound. Since the ancient Kugsankal rarely spoke aloud, perhaps it was made to amplify something else. Psychic energy, maybe?
Four doors sat in the back wall. Katelina had a vague thought that they must lead to the vampires living quarters. There’d been four of them before Ishkur murdered the leader and took over. She wondered what the bedroom of a two thousand year old vampire looked like. They probably didn’t sleep in coffins like the modern ones.
In the center of the room was a long table. Seated behind it were the three vampires who made up the Kugsankal. Katelina had never been able to look at them for very long, but now she could.
Inanna sat in the middle, the shortest of the three. Her long hair was silvery white, and her cerulean eyes were like pieces of a winter sky against the snow of her skin. She sat with her back straight and her hands folded in her lap. A delicate silver crown sat on her head, woven of threads that looked more like spider web than metal. Katelina hadn’t noticed it before, probably because she’d never been able to look long enough.
On her left sat a male. His long chestnut hair gleamed like polished wood and his black eyes were dark, deep holes that she’d once fallen into. He was dressed in black robes. A bronze crown on his head bore a small red gem in the center. One hand rested casually on the table top, adorned with a matching ring.
Katelina looked to Ishkur last. Over a burgundy tunic he wore a sleeveless robe embroidered with gold. His hair was long and black, as was the hint of a beard on his chin and jaw. His orangey colored eyes peered at her from beneath arching eyebrows. An image rose to her memory; Lilith’s lover standing over Samael, satisfaction on his face. She felt anger flare then die as Samael’s words came back to her, “He is of no importance.”
She looked from his eyes to the golden crown on his head. Instead of a stone, the center had a golden flower studded with white and yellow gems. “It’s a lotus flower,” she thought, though she wasn’t sure how she knew.
Inanna’s voice rang through her head. “You return to us again, though you are not the same. Perhaps you should have remained. It would have saved you the pain of choice.”
Katelina clenched her hands into fists at her side. “What choice?”
Jorick looked at her curiously, and Inanna’s voice returned. “The choice of two masters. Whom will you follow? Your lover, or the one who offers to make you a queen?”
“I’ve already chosen,” she snapped.
“You forget that I can see everything inside you.”
Fury replaced any fear she felt and she screamed silently, “Get out!”
The three vampires flinched, and all eyes moved to her. She took an unconscious step backward and grabbed Jorick’s hand.
Ishkur swept to his feet. Like Samael he was short, a remnant of ancient humanity, but seemed larger.
He stopped before them. His orange eyes flicked to Katelina and his face hardened. Wordlessly, he removed the crown and handed it to Jorick. There was a moment where Katelina could almost feel the vampires’ silent conversation, but she couldn’t hear it.
Ishkur turned on his heel and strode back to the table, his movement tight and precise.
Wolfe hurried to put himself between them. He bowed low to the ancients, then herded them out of the room. Katelina felt Inanna’s eyes boring into her all the way down the corridor.
Wolfe waited until they reached the floor above before he jerked the crown from Jorick’s hands and snapped at Katelina, “You do not talk back to the Kugsankal!”
“Then tell them to stay out of my head.”
Jorick stepped in front of her and growled low. Wolfe started to respond, then broke away. “We don’t have time for this.” He gently wrapped the crown in a large handkerchief, as if it might disintegrate just from being looked at, and carefully slipped it in his coat. “This way.”
Outside waited an SUV and a guard. He tugged at his uniform and Wolfe snapped, “Salute!”
The guard looked up and Katelina cringed. It was Braydon.
“What is he doing here?” Jorick demanded.
“He has elected ten years servitude to the Sodalitas,” Wolfe said brusquely. “The Höher Rat has decided that since he was one of Malick’s minions he could be useful.”
Though Jorick snarled in Braydon’s face, he didn’t retaliate.
Jamie pulled Jorick away. “You can threaten him later.”
The flight was short, as airplane trips went. Just over three hours later, Katelina stepped out onto a brightly lit airfield. Huge planes lurked in the distance, and a sprawling complex twinkled against the night. It wasn’t the small airstrip she’d expected.
Three vampire guards wearing heavy black coats and stereotypical furry hats marched forward to meet them. They saluted, and Wolfe replied in broken Russian. Katelina didn’t bother to ask Jorick what they were saying.
“They want to know why there are so many of us,” Jamie said.
Katelina looked to the Executioner in surprise. “You speak Russian?”
“No. But thoughts are often more visual than verbal, and I can guess from the images flashing through their minds.”
Verchiel had once told her something similar, though she hadn’t been sure whether to believe it or not.
Wolfe turned to Jorick. “The sun will rise soon. They have transportation to take us to the Konfederatsiya, where we will be staying.”
Katelina didn’t ask what the foreign word meant. She filed it under “Russian Guild” and stuffed her hands in her pockets. It was only then that she realized she had no winter coat. Despite the frosty wind, she didn’t feel cold.
They followed the vampires through a guarded gate and down a narrow walkway where a human stood guard.
“The security seems unusually heavy,” Jamie commented.
One of the guards replied, “Security has tightened at airports since the Tokyo incident. The Japanese can say it was an accident all they like, but many suspect otherwise.” He gave Jamie a hard look that said he wouldn’t be fooled.
Tokyo. Katelina clutched Jorick tighter and suppressed a shiver. Malick and his goons had attacked the airport thinking they were inside. In an effort to clean up what they feared were vampire corpses, the Japanese Guild had crashed a plane full of passengers into the building to create an inferno. All those innocent people had died because Malick had been hunting her and Jorick. The weight of the guilt still made her sick.
“And then Syria,” the guard added. “Have you heard? All the employees at an airstrip were slain. All humans.”
Though she didn’t say anything, Jorick’s comment popped into her head, “So much death for so little gain.”
The vampires led them through the building. Katelina could smell the concentration of humans—and human blood—and her stomach rumbled. At last they turned down a long set of stairs. The deeper they went, the fainter the smell became, and Katelina relaxed.
“You’re a glutton,” Jorick teased. Her eyes flamed with offence and he laughed. “I’m only joking, little one. Fledglings are usually hungrier.”
“Just as children are always crying to be fed,” Jamie said.
“Etsuko isn’t,” Katelina muttered.
“Of course she is. She just does a better job of hiding it.”
The stairs ended in a series of basement-like rooms full of tools, boxes, and odd bits of machinery. If they were taking transportation to the Russian Guild, why were they in a basement? It felt like a trap to her; something Malick had cooked up. She imagined phantoms in every shadow. With Braydon stalking behind them, it seemed even more likely. Maybe he’d been left behind so they’d take him prisoner, try him, and send him here, another perfectly orchestrated scheme.
The door they stopped in front of was metal and looked like it belonged to a bank vault, or an old cold war bunker. It took two of the fuzzy hatted vampires to turn the giant wheel-like handle. The seal released with a hiss, and the thick door groaned as it opened.
“This way, please.”
The tunnel was dark, or should have been, but Katelina’s new eyes could see without the light. The walls were cinder block and damp with moisture. A far off drip echoed. Something scurried, unseen; tiny feet whispering on the cement floor. It was the scene of a horror movie, but she didn’t know what part she was playing anymore. Was she still the damsel in distress, or had she become the monster?
The vampires opened another bunker door at the end of the tunnel to let golden light in. The rooms beyond had vaulted ceilings, with ornate stained glass insets, ornamental brick walls, and polished wooden benches. Everything gleamed. Even the light fixtures were gilded.
A vampire stood behind a ticket booth. The train schedule behind him explained everything.
“A vampire subway?”
“They call it the Metro-2, I believe,” Jamie said. “Moscow is famous for it.”
Braydon cleared his throat and murmured, “It was built in the 30s.”
Jorick glared, as if he’d just remembered the vampire’s existence, and Wolfe commented dryly, “They do teach you something in America.”
“I’m not American,” Braydon said.
One of the furry hatted vampires interrupted to motion them on. “The train will arrive soon.”
Katelina had never been on a subway before, though the platform reminded her of the train stations on the other side of Russia, when they’d been hunting the Heart. There was something similar about the architecture and the carved wood.
“Probably from the same era,” Jorick said. “And likely to be as uncomfortable.”
Jamie smirked. “You don’t like trains?”
“No.”
The one word was packed with enough venom for a novel. Katelina gave him a curious look, and Jamie chuckled. “We’ve all had our share of the cattle car.”
“Cattle car?”
Jorick made an unhappy noise in his throat and Jamie explained, “Passenger cars have many windows, but not cattle cars. Though some of us objected to traveling with the animals, there was a certain logic to the arrangement. It meant fresh blood was available. However, I suppose the smell was…off-putting.” Jorick growled and Jamie went on. “They weren’t completely sun proof, so one had to wrap up and there was the risk of getting trampled. The Guild eventually had special passenger cars made for us. I can’t recall if Jorick was still there.”
“No. I’d left by then. And I wish I’d stayed gone.”
Neither Jamie or Katelina reminded him why he was stuck being an Executioner again. One of Malick’s last official acts, before he rebelled and left The Guild, was to reinstate Jorick as punishment for killing Executioners in Oren’s war. Katelina had hoped that the new regime would release him from service, but she was still waiting.
“You may wait an eternity,” Jorick muttered.
A low rumble started in the distance, growing louder and louder, until a sleek silver train came into view. Brakes squealed and it slid to a stop. Just like in the movies, doors opened, but instead of pink cheeked city-goers towing children or looking irrepressibly cool, a group of pale vampires hurried out, lugging suitcases.
The guards motioned Katelina and the others inside. On one corner of the vinyl benches sat a pair of vampires, their hands intertwined. Katelina met the woman’s eyes and a strange, warm feeling spread through her, as if she was looking at Jorick for the first time.
Jorick tugged her to a seat. The feeling disappeared when she broke eye contact with the vampiress, but she looked at her from the corner of her eye. Was the woman a whisperer? Usually, they made a person think or feel something for a reason that benefited them. What reason could the vampiress have had for that?
She felt the woman looking at her, but stopped from alerting Jorick. She didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing that her whisper abilities had bothered her.
The train stopped. The doors opened and a vampire in a suit got on. He glanced at them, then headed into the next car, his cellphone pressed to his ear. Katelina jerked her head toward him questioningly, and Wolfe gave a puff of impatience. “It’s an underground. There are multiple stops.”
When the train stopped again, the guards stood. Katelina and the others followed to a brightly lit platform. They waited as the couple from the train had their tickets stamped at the window. When it was their turn, the guards flashed IDs to the ticket man. He nodded and motioned them through a turnstile.
A long room stretched out, complete with giant chandeliers and a brightly colored mural. The guards led them on to a check-in window. Katelina spotted the couple from the train just ahead of them. They were still in the middle of paperwork when one of the guards pushed his way past them. He rattled something off in Russian, flashed his ID, then motioned the rest of them to follow.
They hurried through what looked like an office lobby with silver elevators. The guards practically herded them into one and, as the doors swished closed, explained, “We have orders to take you to the command center immediately.”
The command center was a large, octagon room at the end of a guarded hallway. Tables were set in a u-shape with vampires huddled around them. Like the Scharfrichter office in Munich, some were on the phone and others were on laptops, tapping keys at whirlwind speed. A giant map was on the back wall, studded with colored push pins. Several monitors hung near it with displays that ranged from modern to old style radar. It was as if every war movie command room had been jammed together at once.
In the center of the chaos stood a tall, thin vampire with long chestnut hair. Both his skin and his eyes spoke of age. He rattled off a string of directions to his subordinates, then turned his attention on the newcomers. One of the furry hatted vampires hurriedly introduced Wolfe and Jorick, before trailing off uncertainly.
Jamie gave his own introduction. Katelina hesitated, unsure what to call herself. She wasn’t Jorick’s human anymore. Should she call herself his girlfriend? His assistant? Companion?
The brunette held up his hand. “It is no matter. They are here. I am Valdare. Of more pressing concern is the maniac who has taken over the silo.” He motioned their attention to one of the monitors where grainy security footage appeared. Two figures crept down a narrow corridor. It was Raoul, Malick’s French whisperer, and Catya, the woman who’d helped kidnap Katelina. A guard turned toward them, hand on his gun, when he went slack. His knees gave way and he fell to the floor. Katelina recognized the woman’s work from the fight in China. Then, she’d been the one pinned to the ground and helpless.
Raoul lifted the guard by his throat and tore out his chest. He tossed the body aside, and the pair disappeared from the screen. The scene changed and they walked past another camera, Raoul still shaking the blood from his fingers. The scene changed again, yet another security camera angle, this time to a long room. Three men dressed in military uniforms dashed onscreen, Ak74s ready. Though there was no sound, when the men fell into line she could tell they were firing. Not that bullets will do any good, Katelina thought. Unless the vampire was young, they’d only leave small holes, not kill them.
Raoul and Catya appeared at the edge of the screen, both bloody from a victim who’d been unfortunate enough not to be near a camera. The vampires charged through the bullets and made quick work of the men, leaving them broken on the floor.
“We can skip to the end,” Valdare said.
The scene changed to a control room of some kind. A man was strapped into one of the chairs, while his fellows stood, pistols aimed at the door. Raoul burst through first and made quick work of them. The man in the chair fought to unbuckle himself. Before he was free, Catya walked in and he went stiff, his eyes wide with terror. She shot him in the head with one of his dead comrades’ pistols, then flopped into the nearest chair and blew her bangs from her eyes. Raoul pushed a body out of the way to take the other seat, and fiddle with the control panel. The grainy footage left details to be desired, and Katelina couldn’t be sure if he was hitting buttons, flipping switches, or just poking around in general.
Both vampires turned toward the doorway. A moment passed before Malick seemed to float through, wearing an expensive suit and a long black cloak. He sailed past his underlings and picked up the phone.
“That was when he phoned us,” Valdare said. The footage continued to play; the ancient master on the phone and his subordinates seated straight backed and at attention.
Jorick asked, “What did he say?”
Valdare met his eyes; emerald green clashing with black. “He said that unless Jorick brings him the immortal crown, he will fire all of the silo’s missiles at the United States.”
Katelina’s heart froze in her chest. The U.S.? But that was… “That’s where my mom is! That’s where everyone I know is!” Images of World War II documentaries filled her head. She imagined the street she’d grown up on reduced to ashes, the town, the state. Millions dead. And as Boris had said, if the U.S. was attacked they would fire on Russia and then…then the whole world would go up in a plume of fire and smoke. “Jorick, you have to stop him!”
“To that end, we will send you to him with the crown. You have it?”
Wolfe patted his coat and Valdare nodded. “Good. The underground can take you safely there, and the facility is subterranean. However, the sun is in the sky. Should you try to leave it from above…”
They nodded and Valdare went on. “You will not allow him to abscond with the crown, do you understand? It is your mission to kill or capture him and his accomplices. The crown is your key to unlock the door. It must be returned unharmed to the Sodalitas.”
Jorick cocked an incredulous eyebrow. “And you think he won’t read that from our minds the moment we enter the silo?”
“Of course he will,” Valdare said. “But he will think he can overpower you and take the crown anyway. You must not let him.”
Jorick looked back to the muted screen. The ancient master flung aside Catya’s victim and took his chair. Then, he turned toward the camera, his expression smug, as if he knew Jorick would be watching in a few hours’ time, and wanted to let him know that things were going according to plan.
Valdare gave hurried orders to the others. He switched to English as he addressed them. “A guard will escort you to the station where a special train will take you to the facility.”
They followed a hatted vampire out of the command room and back to the elevator. The doors swished closed and the guard introduced himself, “I am Pavel.”
Katelina nodded, though her mind was elsewhere. She needed to call her mother and tell her…what? To leave? Where the hell was she supposed to go? “Shouldn’t someone warn America so they can evacuate?”
“The United States governments have been contacted,” Wolfe said.
“The humans?” She couldn’t imagine a vampire calling the president.
“I doubt they called the president directly, but there are contacts,” Jorick said.
Katelina remembered when she was at The Guild the first time. Verchiel had mentioned that there was some kind of human emissary there. “Do all the governments have a vampire minister that deals with the guilds?”
“It’s nothing that official,” Wolfe said crisply. “Suffice to say there is someone who knows, and when the rest of the humans need to be warned, it is handled. Undoubtedly your president was told that terrorists have taken over the silo, and that the Russian government is doing everything in their power to take it back.”
“Are they?” Katelina asked as the elevator doors opened. “Can’t they change the codes, or lock the computers out or something? They’ve had three or four hours since he took over.”
Wolfe gave her a hard look. “As none of us work at a Russian missile silo; we do not know the particulars. Those who do, issued the orders, and the orders say that we go to the silo and attempt to capture Malick. One does not question orders, only follows them. I suggest you learn that if you plan to continually interfere with your boyfriend’s assignments.”
“Leave it,” Jorick snapped at Wolfe, then glanced at Katelina. “Wolfe is thoughtless, but correct. That’s the attitude one has to have to do a master’s bidding. That’s why I was glad to leave it behind.”
The train station was empty, as was the platform. They sat on a bench and waited in silence. Nightmarish visions played through Katelina’s head. She saw her town destroyed, her mother a radiated zombie, everyone and everything she’d ever known gone. Under the immediate terror, she felt fury. Malick had taken away so much. He’d stolen her life, ripped away the sunlight and her right to choose whether to become a vampire or not, ruined the future Jorick had planned for them. And now he threatened this? She would see Malick dead, if she had to do it herself!
The train that pulled into the station was chrome and crimson. Pavel led them into the second of two cars. Instead of benches there were rows of individual seats upholstered in red. Katelina was barely seated before the train started forward, moving faster than the last one.
“This trip will be longer,” Pavel explained. “The underground silos are some distance from the city.”
“And what’s to stop Malick from firing the missiles in the meantime?” she asked.
Her only answer was the chugging of the subway.