Katelina woke to the dimness of the cave and Ryuu’s soft moan. His breathing was rapid and shallow. He opened heavy lidded eyes only to close them again. Was he sick?
She reached to check him for a fever. The smell of his blood made her stomach rumble. A scenario played through her head that involved just a small taste…
She pulled back with disgust. How long would it take to get over this?
The vampires seemingly came to life one by one. Hikaru stepped carefully over his mistress to check their human. “Altitude sickness,” he announced.
“Is that a thing?” Katelina looked at Jorick, who shrugged.
Maeko knelt next to Ryuu and brushed hair from his face. She made soft cooing sounds. Katelina wasn’t sure if they were words or nonsense.
The child-father peered at them. “Are you having trouble with your human?”
“Ryuu-chan will need to remain here. Hikaru-san will stay with him.” Maeko pressed a kiss to the teen’s forehead, then stood and bowed. “I apologize for any inconvenience.”
Jorick laid his hand on her shoulder. “It’s fine. Humans are fragile. Sometimes we forget.” He caught Katelina’s gaze then looked away quickly, guilt in his eyes. “We should feed.”
“Yes.” The child turned to the others and raised his voice so that it boomed off the walls. “Once we have fed, we will meet at the mouth of the cave. From there, we will position ourselves for the ambush. Then Malick the deceiver will die!”
They headed outside. Sorino, Lurid, and Kai hovered near the entrance. The slender vampire smirked as they walked past and laid his hand on Kai. “Hunt in the wild if you prefer. I thought to bring my own provisions.”
With a scowl, Katelina followed Jorick and Jamie up the mountain side. She arrived at the top, without any life threatening accidents, to find the helicopter waiting where they’d left it.
“Where did he get this, anyway?”
Jorick answered, “It isn’t his. It belongs to the pilots. They’re some of the mercenaries he talked about.”
“You read that from their minds, but you couldn’t find where Malick was going to be? I get that you couldn’t mind read the father-kid, but some of them are young.”
“They didn’t know,” Jamie said. “I don’t think the Father even knew at that point. While we were feeding yesterday a message came for him. That’s when they called the meeting and made plans.”
“You mean that’s when we had our chance to get away?” At Jorick’s expression she let it drop.
She managed to take her turn from a mammal without getting hair in her teeth, which was good because she’d left her bag in the helicopter.
They joined the others in front of the cave. The child-father appeared, the bearded vampire behind him. At a motion from the boy, the old man pulled a map from his robes and spread it out on a rock. The child pointed to several locations and talked about strategy. It seemed weird coming from a little boy’s mouth, like things often did with Maeko, and Katelina edged away.
Kai stood near the cave and she stopped next to him. “Are you okay with the altitude?”
He nodded uncomfortably and hitched his backpack up his shoulder. Katelina decided his immunity must be because he was more vampire than human.
The men broke up. Jorick and Jamie approached Katelina. “He’s going to come through this valley. The entourage should consist of no more than twelve, including a wind walker that we’re familiar with.”
Arlen.
Jorick continued, “They’ve picked out strategic points that overlook the road. We’ll break up into groups and ambush him when he passes below.”
Maeko appeared from the cave carrying Ryuu’s backpack. She bowed and apologized for Hikaru’s absence. Again, Jorick told her it was all right, then led them down the mountainside to a large rock. He crouched and the others followed suit.
Katelina peered around to the thready path below. “How long until he gets here?”
“It should be no more than an hour,” Jorick answered. “If the Father’s intelligence is correct.”
They settled in to wait. Maeko got into the backpack and methodically loaded spare magazines for her handgun, stacking them neatly next to her. Katelina tried to stay calm. There were twenty-four of them. They should be able to overtake Malick’s twelve, Arlen or no Arlen. Though she wished again that they’d brought Verchiel.
“We don’t need him,” Jorick snapped.
Katelina leaned against the rock and looked further down the valley to where the child-father hid. Her gut reaction was that battle was no place for a kid. She quickly corrected herself. That “kid” was a maniacal monster. Why was it so hard to remember that?
She knew why. Had the old man been the Father of Shadows she’d have no such qualms, no such sympathy. She’d scream “Kill him!” and mean it. But, because he wore a child’s face, her maternal instincts said that maybe he wasn’t really that bad. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding. Maybe he was just a lost little boy that needed a balloon and a hug. It just showed how confused her instincts were.
She started to comment on it when Jorick and Jamie stiffened. She listened intently, as they did, and heard dirt and rock sliding downhill behind them. She turned but there was nothing except a soft cloud of dust.
The Executioners stood. Jamie drew his sword. Maeko pointed her gun at the dissipating cloud. Katelina surveyed the mountainside. She looked to the right, where she knew Sorino, Kai, and Lurid waited. She could see the dark skinned vampire leaning around an outcropping, his sunglasses perched on his head and his attention on a seemingly uninhabited ridge above them.
The cold wind whistled around the rocks. Little crystals of snow reflected the moon like tiny lights riding the currents.
An explosion above them sent chunks of ice and stone into the silent sky. The others ducked and Katelina fell back against their shelter in surprise.
“Bombs?” Maeko asked.
Another exploded to their left, near the hiding place of the Father.
“More likely grenades,” Jamie said. He crept forward in a crouch. “Malick?”
“The Father’s inside man sold us out.” Katelina pried a frozen rock from the ground and held it at the ready.
Jorick motioned them to silence. “I’m not so sure.”
“Who else blows things up besides Xandria’s master?”
The next explosion was closer. As the dust settled. Katelina saw Jorick looming over her like a vampiric shield. He glanced down to check that she was unharmed, then he and Jamie made eye contact. In unison they moved up the slope, flanking the crater.
Maeko aimed her gun after them. Katelina looked down to Sorino. Lurid had come out from behind the rock, and moved slowly upwards, something metal in his hand. Sorino leaned out from behind their outcropping. Katelina imagined he had his strange duck-foot pistol.
A cry came from farther down the valley. As if it was a signal, a string of explosions tore through the rock and dirt above. Jorick and Jamie drew back just in time. The cloud of dirt and snow rolled like a wall. From it burst figures in black, shouting a battle cry. They rushed down the mountainside, gleaming silver sickles in their hands.
Sickles?
Maeko fired her gun at the enemies while Katelina gaped. Since when did Malick’s goons use sickles? That was more like…
“The Black Vigil.”
She grabbed for Maeko’s gun. The girl avoided her and continued to fire.
“Maeko! It’s Fethillen’s group! Don’t shoot!”
“I am sorry, Kate-chan, but I do not think they recognize us. They will not show the same mercy.”
Katelina hurried up the slope to warn Jorick, but he’d already clashed with one of the attackers. He wrestled the sickle away from them and ended the fight with a single swipe. His enemy’s head bounced down the mountainside, not far from her, to disappear in the cloud of dust below.
He hurried on, the bloody weapon in his hand.
Katelina looked up and down the valley to see black suited vampires fighting the Father’s followers. They hewed and hacked at one another, wreathed in smoke and dust.
She hurried up the mountainside, dodging Maeko’s steady gun fire. She topped the ridge to find it empty. A glance back revealed the battle in all its glory. She could see the vampires she’d come with spread along the incline, divided into their small ambush groups. The smoke drifted away to reveal the Black Vigil’s true numbers. A quick count came up with thirteen. As she watched, a couple fell at the hands of Lurid and the Father’s bearded follower.
She sought for Jorick and Jamie amidst the chaos. An explosion to the right caught her attention. She looked to see Lurid stumble backwards, blood on his face. Her eyes traveled down to Sorino, who leaned casually against his rock, something gold in his hand. As she focused, the details jumped out at her. He was looking at a—
“Pocket watch?”
With a nod to himself, he shoved it into his coat. He motioned Kai to follow and started up the rocky slope. Katelina watched as he skirted the edge of the fighting and was allowed to pass unchallenged. Suspicion burned in her, but she quenched it with the thought that she’d also made it to the top. Except Jorick and Jamie went first, and killed everyone in my way.
She dropped to the ground as he topped the ridge. Without looking toward her, he followed it to the right and disappeared. When she was sure he was gone, she raised to a crouch and hurried after him, her attention divided between the fighting and what was in front of her. She saw that Maeko had resorted to her throwing stars. Farther down, two of the mercenaries, splattered in blood, took on one of the Black Vigil. Beyond that she could see the bearded follower and his closest associates battling a knot of attackers. Behind them the father crouched, a weapon in his hand and his child face twisted into cold loathing.
The ridge she followed grew narrow and disappeared against the mountainside. A fissure in the rock was a deeper black than the night. She stood and slipped through it. A few feet in, the rock was so close her nose nearly touched it. She stopped as claustrophobic panic seized her. She thought Sorino had come this way, but what if he hadn’t? What if she just got stuck?
She took a calming breath and pushed on. She soon saw fingers of light stretching over the wall. She slowed and eased herself forward until she could see out the crack and into a large chamber. The room was carved from the rock with smooth walls and a soaring ceiling. Near the back, it narrowed to a fissure again. A small red lantern sat on the floor. In front of it was Fethillen, crouched and ready, a sickle in her hand. Sushel stood between her and Sorino, his lip curled.
Katelina expected Sorino to ask what Fethillen was doing there, or to demand to know why she was attacking, or how she had found them. Instead he gave a sarcastic bow. “I believe you know why I’m here.”
Fethillen motioned Sushel to stand down. “The Father has not been captured yet.”
“The deal was that I found the Father for you, not that I had to capture him. I’ve done what I promised. I request you deliver your part of the arrangement.”
Deal? Was he saying…It was Sorino who had sold them out? Sorino who’d told the Black Vigil when and where to attack? What in the hell?
Sushel stepped forward threateningly. “Perhaps we’ll change the arrangement.” He raised his weapon.
Sorino sighed and snapped his fingers. “Olly, olly, oxen free.”
Katelina tried to disappear against the wall, though she knew it was futile.
Fethillen looked around quickly. “You have friends hidden?”
Sorino’s voice was smug and cold. “If you can ever call a tiger a friend.”
Panicked, Katelina shuffled sideways, moving back the way she’d come. She had to get out and tell Jorick what she’d seen. If they caught her, they’d kill her.
Two black shapes dropped from the fissure above her to land in the room, as though they’d been hiding in the darkness above her. She caught her breath and moved closer to the opening to see Jamie, his sword in his hand, and Jorick, his shoulders set in anger.
Fethillen shoved past her subordinate. “The tiger shows himself. I’m surprised you allowed one such as him to keep you on a leash.”
Jorick growled. “I wear no one’s leash, least of all Sorino’s.”
“Then why are you here? If you are not with him…” The calculations seemed to run behind Fethillen’s eyes, then her face twisted into a mask of fury. “Is it true? Have you joined him?”
“Joined is a loose term,” Sorino said. “Unless you take oaths seriously.”
“You swore an oath to the Father?” Fethillen demanded.
Katelina tried to communicate with Jorick, tried to make him say that it meant nothing and was only convenience. Instead he asked, “What business is it of yours who I ally myself with?”
Sushel shoved between them. “We have sworn to eliminate all who are unified with the Children of Shadows. Fethillen warned you before not to get in our way.”
Jorick scoffed. “In the way of what? Sacrificing your followers? The last of the Black Vigil is dying on the mountainside so that your master can have the satisfaction of murdering her son again.”
Katelina stifled a gasp. Son?
Sushel looked sharply to Fethillen. Her face twisted and then smoothed. “We hunt the Father—”
“Don’t,” Jorick said. “You may lie to your coven and say you don’t know who the Father of Shadows is, a faceless, nameless vampire you called him. Perhaps at one time you really didn’t know, but you’ve surely discovered the truth by now.”
“I have no son,” Fethillen snapped.
Sorino smiled. “Come now. Any good scholar knows the stories. Before she was made immortal, Memnon’s sister was raped and gave birth to a child she despised, a child that her brother adored and turned, after his mother had drained him. A child raised on blood and murder. The first child of the shadows.”
Fethillen’s anger tore through Katelina. She clutched the rocky wall and told herself that it wasn’t her emotion, but it did little to help.
“You think you know,” Fethillen snarled. “He was a demon! The son of a demon! He should have been dashed to death at birth!”
“Old world superstition,” Jamie said. “There are no demons.”
“Were you there?” Fethillen spun on him, her sickle raised. “It’s easy for men to judge, to say that you should love the son of the devil, because it is not men who bear the burden.”
Sushel recovered from his shock to step forward. “What right do you have to say these things, to question our motives? You have shown yourselves to be untrustworthy traitors who side with filth. Perhaps you were always their ally. That would explain why you fought us in the forest, and why you were more concerned with destroying Malick than the Father. The Father also hates Malick, doesn’t he?”
As Sushel spoke, Fethillen’s eyes bulged and then burned. She pushed past him to Jorick. “Is that true? Did you deceive us?” He didn’t answer and she raised the sickle to strike. “Answer me!”
“Why?” Jorick asked. “You’ll believe what you want.”
“He used us!” Sushel shouted. “He thought he could take advantage of us because we had a woman as our master! He thought we were weak!”
Jamie started to interfere, but Jorick shook his head. “Fools won’t listen to reason.”
“Now we are fools?” Fethillen shouted. “You believe you are superior, dream stealer, because you can take other’s memories by force. Because you can see their intentions while hiding your own deceit. I did not trust you from the start, but I convinced myself you could be useful. I regret now that I did not listen to Sushel and execute you and your coven. I will make up for my mistake.”
She charged. Jorick dodged back and Jamie rushed forward. Sushel threw himself between them, meeting the sword with his sickle. Jorick shoved him out of the way, then sprang at Fethillen. The vampiress leapt backwards, catapulted herself off the wall, and somersaulted over his head to land behind him. She took a swipe with her blade that threw blood droplets, and hopped away.
Jorick spun toward her to find Sushel blocking his path. The vampire swung at him, but Jorick ducked and slammed him in the stomach with his elbow. Sushel stumbled backwards. With a roar, Fethillen did a spinning, slicing move that left Jorick with a cut on his cheek.
What the hell? Come on Jorick! You can beat her!
A thought jumped to the front of her mind. “She’s older than he is.”
Katelina looked sharply to Kai and Sorino. The teen stood behind his amused master, his eyes hidden and his face unreadable. Had Kai known that Sorino was selling their location to the Black Vigil? They were linked, so how could he not? The idea stung. Though she disliked Sorino, she’d grown fond of Kai. That he would let them walk into a trap showed his lack of mutual regard.
“He tried to warn you,” Sorino called silkily, unheeded by the combatants.
A memory was pushed into her mind. She saw the vision: flames, Sorino waltzing through them, then the word “beware”, followed by Sorino’s interruption. “What are you doing?” She had taken it as a question for her, a demand to know why she was in his pet’s head. Had it really been a question for Kai, asking why he was trying to warn her?
“Stay out of my head!” she called silently. Silky laughter followed and in her fury she shouted, “Get out!”
She felt the wave, like a shock of energy that slammed through the room. The vampires stumbled. Fethillen fell back, eyes wide, attention darting from corner to corner. “What was that?”
Jorick whirled toward Katelina’s hiding place, surprise on his face. Sushel leapt on him. Jorick lurched forward. His attacker wrapped his legs around his enemy’s upper body and one arm around his head. He brought the sickle to his throat.
Katelina darted from the fissure. She slammed into them and they toppled over. Sushel fell free. He didn’t have time to get up before Jorick grabbed him by his neck and smashed him into the wall.
“I’ll take him,” Jamie called.
Jorick threw Sushel to his ally then gave a spinning kick to the back of Fethillen’s legs. Her knees buckled, but didn’t give in. She turned her fury on him. He danced away as she slashed again and again.
Katelina looked for a weapon and then remembered Micah’s advice. “Fuck weapons. Your fist is your fuckin’ weapon.”
Right.
With a cry, she threw herself at the attacking vampiress. They crashed back into the wall. Fethillen swiped at her. Katelina ducked out of the way and Fethillen charged Jorick.
“We weren’t working with the Children of Shadows!” Katelina cried. “Jorick only swore the oath to find out Malick’s location!”
Sushel dodged Jamie. “Then why are you still with him?” It was the same question she’d asked, and she had no satisfactory answer. When she didn’t respond Sushel yelled, “See? They have no defense.”
“You’re trying to twist things because you want revenge!”
Two of the Black Vigil burst through the crack and pulled up short when they saw the commotion. Fethillen did a back flip that landed in front of them. “Speak quickly!”
One of them rattled something off in a foreign language. Sushel laughed and set on Jamie with renewed vigor. “Your friends have fallen.”
Katelina imagined the mountainside strewn with bodies. Among them lay Maeko in her bright pink boots. The thought turned her stomach but she didn’t get a word out before two battle worn vampires popped into the room, hauling a bleeding, squirming child between them.
The hatred that rolled over Katelina made her sick and she lurched under the weight.
Fethillen congratulated her allies in a foreign language then looked to the boy. “So it’s true. You took up the mantle of the monster.”
He spit blood at her and sneered. “Why shouldn’t I follow in the footsteps of my master?”
Fethillen snarled in his face. “Do not fear, heresy, I will see that you follow his path all the way to hell.” She drew the golden dagger from her thigh.
The child’s eyes lit. “Yes, Kierza. Kill me with the dagger you stole from Memnon. It will be an honor to die by his blade.”
She grabbed the boy by the front of his battle stained shirt. “Don’t call me that, foul demon. Kierza is dead!”
“She is not dead. She is alive inside of you. You are one of us. We share the same blood; the blood of our master, our eternal father, Memnon.”
“He is no master of mine! Only a man possessed by demons, by evil, tainted by the desires of the devil!”
The boy chuckled. “You cannot cleanse your blood by changing your name, just as you cannot erase a child by murdering him.”
Fethillen thrust the dagger into his stomach, then pulled it free. Katelina gaped at the crimson blood that bubbled out of the wound. Hatred, anger, fear—emotions that weren’t hers warred within her. The woman drew back and stabbed the child again; murdering her son.
“You are not my child, demon! You are a travesty, a blasphemy! A dark blot on the world that should never have been!”
“And what are you? A murderer. A kin slayer. A traitor. You swore your loyalties to our master, and then you turned your back. You betrayed him and you killed your brothers and your sisters.”
“One cannot betray a maniac, only escape from their clutches.”
“You say escape as if he held you, as if he forced you to murder, to bathe in their blood, to follow his path. You stayed by choice, and you left by choice. You call him monster, call me demon, but your hands are stained the same color. You cannot wash it away by destroying those who see it. Your sins will not die with me.”
Fethillen roared and stabbed the boy again and again. Scarlet ran down his body in rivulets and he screamed. Katelina saw a flash in her head, a child lying in the trampled snow, his throat gaping and his limbs broken. Left for dead by the woman who should have loved him. The vision was gone, replaced with the present, with the bleeding screaming boy, held captive by four vampires, with his furious mother, her face more animal than human, and with the flashing, bloody dagger that sliced again and again.
Katelina laid her hand to her head and tried to stop the swirling thoughts. Fethillen was his mother, the one who should have loved him. She raised him with the name demon, then wondered why he acted like one, why he had become a monster like she was.
“The monster must die.”
In a daze, Katelina shoved Fethillen out of the way. The vampiress stumbled and two of the child’s captors broke free and tackled Katelina to the floor at his feet. Before she could get free, Fethillen knelt over her, one knee in the middle of her chest, the cold blade of the dagger pressed to her throat.
The blonde vampiress bent close and increased the pressure. “You show the truth at last. How long have you worked for him?”
Katelina forced words past the edge of the blade. “We haven’t!”
“You lie, and a liar has no honor. As you lived, so you will die.”
“No she won’t.” Jorick grabbed the red lantern and readied to throw it. “Katelina, move!”
Fethillen looked toward the sound of his voice. Katelina used the distraction to pull loose from her captives and roll away. Though they were older than her, thanks to Micah’s blood, they weren’t as strong. For the first time she was grateful for it; grateful to him.
There was a crash. The sound of shattering glass. Screams. Suddenly the cavern was bright as daylight. Katelina pulled up to see flames leaping over the writhing figures of Fethillen, her four followers, and the child-like father.
“Noooooo!”
The scream tore through Katelina’s surprise. She saw Micah stumble to a stop. In front of him stood Loren. He struggled to hold back a screaming girl with violet eyes and a black ponytail.
It was Ume.