“What have you done?” Ume cried over the echoing screams.
The vampires who’d held Katelina and the Father rushed Sushel, shrieking for help. He shouted at them to stay away and climbed into the narrow crack at the back of the room.
The child stood, wreathed in flame, his hands in the air. Maniacal laughter poured from his melting lips. “We go like our master! Like Memnon we become ashes! Even in death we are one!”
With a single blood curdling cry, Fethillen tackled him to the floor. They twisted and writhed in a blazing heap while Ume screamed, “Water! Hurry!” She pulled off her shirt and ran to them. She waved it like a blanket, but it fanned the flames, so she tried to smother them. The cloth was thin and useless. She leapt back with a cry, her hands red and blistered. Tears coursed down her face. “No! No!”
Loren scooped his arm around her. He pressed her back against him and tried to cover her bare breasts. “We need to go.”
“Fethillen!” Ume reached for her master with bleeding hands.
“Shhhhhh.” Loren lugged her back to the crack and called to Micah, “Let’s go!”
The bald vampire helped Loren stuff Ume through. The teen went next, then Micah turned to the others. “Yo! Jorick, don’t you fucking get my fledgling killed, huh?” Then he hurried out.
The flaming vampires had fallen to the floor in the back. Sushel slid out of the crack and catapulted over them, then ran after Loren and Micah.
Katelina leaned against the rough wall. She felt empty, like someone had ripped all of her emptions out at once. The anger and the hatred were gone, replaced by confusion.
Jorick caught her as she stumbled. “We’re going!”
She motioned to the burning bodies. “What about them?” Their cries had died, but it looked like the Father and Fethillen were still moving. “Can’t we save them?”
“Not now. They’re beyond repair.” He dragged her to the entrance, Jamie on his heels. “We need to go.”
Katelina choked on the smoke and surrendered. She worked her way through the fissure as fast as she could. They emerged on the mountainside and hurried down the ridge, away from the crack and the foul smoke that coiled into the night sky like a serpent.
Oren and Torina stood waiting on the ridge, eyes on the mountain. When Jorick stopped next to them, Torina wiped soot from his cheek and frowned. “What in the hell happened in there?”
Katelina was trying to piece together an answer when she realized Oren shouldn’t be there. “Where did you come from?”
“Munich,” Torina answered sarcastically. “The Japanese boy told us to come help you fight Malick. Did you kill him?”
“No,” Jorick bit off. “We missed him, assuming he even passed this way. On reflection, it makes little sense that he would travel the mountains by road. He’s more likely taken to the skies.”
“A little late for that conclusion,” Katelina muttered.
He gave her a sideways look. “I’m sorry. Airplanes have existed for less than a sixth of my lifetime. I don’t think about them.”
“I like them,” Torina said. “I always hated traveling. It’s much quicker by air.” She turned serious. “If Malick wasn’t here, then who were you fighting?”
“The Black Vigil.”
Maeko joined them. Her pigtails were tangled and her face was smeared in dirt. Through a tear in her shirt Katelina could see a bloody wound.
Jorick gave Oren a quick rundown. The lion-maned vampire nodded. “I’m not surprised. I always suspected Fethillen would be a problem.”
Torina flicked ash from Jorick’s shoulder. “I can’t say I’m sad, but that explains why Verchiel’s little sister is hysterical.” She motioned down the mountainside where Micah leaned against a rock, picking his nails with a knife. “You’re friendly with her, aren’t you?”
It took Katelina a moment to realize Torina was talking to her. “Yes.”
“Then you should probably check on her. I can’t imagine those idiots know how to handle a grief-stricken woman.” She flipped her hair. “Not that I care.”
Katelina pushed away the last cobwebs of perplexity and headed toward them. She hated to leave Jorick alone with the man-eating vampiress, but surely he could handle himself against her.
Micah caught sight of her and called, “Hey, Lunch! You look like shit.”
“You’re not much to look at either. How’s Ume?”
“Fucked up.” He led her farther down the mountain, to a stony outcropping. Loren sat in a hollow rock, holding Ume against his naked chest. She clutched Loren’s shirt around her and sobbed. Katelina laid a tentative hand on her shoulder. The vampiress looked up. When their eyes met, breathless sorrow slammed into Katelina, and she reeled back.
Ume buried her face and the feeling slowly faded. Loren stroked her hair and looked to Katelina. “What the fuck happened in there?”
She tried to organize the disjointed pieces in her mind. “Fethillen tried to kill us. Sushel said we’d been working with the Father of Shadows since the beginning and she went nuts.”
Micah snorted. “Why would she listen to that shit? We were trying to kill him, like, last month.”
Katelina stopped from explaining until she’d dragged him away from the sobbing vampiress. He shook her off and scowled. “What the fuck?
She gave him a quick run-down and finished with, “It was our best chance to kill Malick. Now we’ll have to fight both him and his army.”
“Where is the Father of Shadows?”
“He’s dead. He and Fethillen burned together.”
“Huh. Kind of fitting.” He went back to cleaning his nails, and Katelina suddenly recognized the dagger—gold with a deep blue sapphire. “Where did you get that?”
“In the cave, where you guys were setting people on fire.” He held it out. “Here. You might as well take it. I just lose shit. Besides it looks all girly.”
She weighed the dagger in her hand. “I think it was Memnon’s.” She could feel him getting ready to ask “Who the fuck is that?” and added, “He was the first leader of the Children of Shadows. Fethillen’s brother.”
“More of that ancient vampire shit. It’s time to get rid of all the old geezers and start over. Those wrinkly fucktards don’t make any sense. They’re all so fucking old that their brains have turned to mush and cobwebs. They need to get the hell out of the road and let us run things.” He broke off and elbowed her. “Looks like big brother showed up.”
She followed his eyes to see Verchiel leaning against the hollowed out rock. His forehead was creased and his lips moved, though Katelina couldn’t hear the words.
Micah motioned her to silence and moved closer, his hand cupped to his ear. She imitated him and caught the edge of the conversation. “—I know it feels like your world has just imploded but—”
Ume pulled away from Loren, holding the shirt closed with one hand and wiping tears with the other. “I-I appreciate this but-but not now.”
Verchiel nodded. “If you want to talk…” He broke off and caught Katelina’s eye. “I’ll be back.”
He trooped toward them, hands in his pockets. When he stopped next to Micah, his heavy expression was gone, replaced by his usual grin. “Kately! I hear Fethillen tried to kill you.”
She stashed the dagger in her cargo pocket and shrugged. “Yeah. It’s kind of a blur.”
“Rumor is you tried to save the Father of Shadows.”
Micah chortled. “Seriously?”
“I didn’t try to save him, just…” But she had. Sort of. “I don’t know.”
He patted her on the shoulder. “It takes a while to sort out the difference between someone else’s emotions and yours sometimes. You’ll learn.” Micah gave him a quizzical look, but he didn’t explain further. “So why wasn’t I invited to Russia? Not like I had anything else to do. These guys aren’t friendly, and Etsuko wouldn’t let anyone near your human.”
“My human?”
Micah rolled his eyes. “Xandria. Shit, Lunch. You forgot already?”
It wasn’t that she’d forgotten she’d just… “I’ve been busy. Where, uh, where is she?”
“You’re a crappy pet owner.” Verchiel ruffled her hair. “Don’t worry. She’s fine. She’s with Etsuko.”
“So you’re all here? How?”
Verchiel shrugged. “We got into China early last night then drove here. Oren rented a plane from Munich, but he only paid for a one way trip. Since we were supposed to be killing Malick he figured we could leave at our leisure.”
Micah scoffed. “Cheapskate said it cost too much to keep the pilots on hold. At least he rented the trucks. We can chase the old bastard in those.”
Katelina rubbed her head. “What trucks?”
“They’re parked out of the way,” Verchiel motioned to the right. "And they're not that fast, or we'd have been here sooner."
"As if you'd have been much help.” Jorick joined them and gave Verchiel a dark look. “Oren suggested that both of you help with the prisoners.”
Micah grumbled about working with Guild dogs, but stomped his way up the mountain. Verchiel gave them a wink, then dashed past him.
Katelina watched them go. “What prisoners?”
“Three of the Black Vigil, including Sushel. Oren and the others rounded them up while we were in the cave.” Jorick cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Are you…”
“Okay? I don’t know. I’m not even sure why I interfered. Fethillen was right. The Father of Shadows was a monster, but it seemed wrong to let her butcher him like that.”
He pulled her to him. She returned the embrace until the smoky smell of his clothes overwhelmed her. “I guess I felt sorry for him. He never had a chance to be anything but evil, and he was right, too. She couldn’t erase what she’d done by killing everyone. Hell, she didn’t even care that her coven was pretty much wiped out.”
“I imagine she cared in her own way. It doesn’t matter. It’s over.” He offered her a thin smile.
“And it’s all Sorino’s fault, the double dealing…Where is he, anyway?”
Jorick sneered. “He’s in the cave picking through the bones, no doubt for that amulet he wanted.”
“That’s just sick!”
He nodded and took her hand. “Come, let’s kill him.”
Though the smoke was gone the smell remained. They waited for Sorino on the mountainside. Eventually Micah and Oren joined them, both enthusiastic about the upcoming confrontation.
Sorino appeared, brushing ashes from his jacket. Kai walked behind him. He carried five blackened sickles, the weapons of the dead.
Sorino stopped before the crowd and looked down his nose at them. “What do you want?”
“We could ask you the same fucking thing.” Micah crossed his beefy arms. “You sold out Lunch and the Executioner assholes.”
Sorino rolled his eyes. “I sold information to the Black Vigil regarding the Father of Shadows, for which I was not paid, thanks to our rash…friend.”
“You have your prize,” Jorick said.
“I have the seal, yes, but not what Fethillen promised me.”
“You mean your money for betraying us?” Katelina demanded.
“I betrayed no one.” He brushed soot from his sleeve. “It isn’t my fault that you stuck your proverbial noses into my business.”
“Was Malick even coming this way?” Oren asked icily.
“No. The message from the Father’s follower was a fake, meant to lure him here.”
“It worked,” Katelina sneered. “You might have told Jorick what you were up to!”
“Why? So you could spoil everything by thinking at full volume? You’re no worse for wear, and you’ve taken care of a problem that was likely to haunt you. You should thank me. Now, if we’re quite finished, I’m on the hunt.”
“For what?” Micah asked.
“The rest of the sickles. As the weapons of an extinct cult, they will become very collectible. Come, Kai.”
He pushed past them and started down the ridge, then turned back, a calculating expression on his face. “I don’t suppose you’ve come across a golden dagger?”
Dagger? He didn’t mean…She refused to think about it. Not in front of him.
“What dagger?” Oren asked suspiciously.
Sorino narrowed his eyes at them. “Never mind. Should you find it, I will make it worth your while.”
“I hate that dick,” Micah muttered as Sorino and Kai moved down the mountainside. “And that kid is creepy.”
Oren waved him to silence and zeroed in on Jorick. “I know you read his mind. What dagger is he talking about?”
“Apparently it was a sacred dagger that Memnon used to sacrifice victims. Fethillen must have stolen it when she left the Children of Shadows. Wolfe took it from her when she was captured and Sorino tried to bribe the guards to sell it to him while it was impounded at the Stronghold. When they refused, he ambushed Fethillen after the trial and offered to track down the Father in exchange for it.”
Katelina remembered Sorino’s annoyance that there was someone who couldn’t be bought off. It served him right.
“We’re just gonna let him go?’ Micah asked, incredulous. “Seriously? Let’s impale that fucker on something and leave him for the birds to pick apart.”
Oren scoffed. “He isn’t worth the effort. We have a more important matter: what to do with the prisoners.”
“Kill them?” Jorick suggested.
”No!” Katelina cried. “You can’t.” She looked from one vampire to another and found cold eyes looking back. “It’s not their fault that Fethillen went crazy.”
“Let’s release them,” Micah said. “Then they can ambush us farther down the road and rip our hearts out for killing their master. Great fucking plan.”
He had a point she didn’t want to concede. “Ume knows them. Maybe she could talk to them.”
“Now, or after she’s quit sobbing?” Oren asked sarcastically.
“She’s pretty much calmed down,” Torina said as she came to a stop. “Who do you want her to talk to?”
“The prisoners.” Micah rolled his eyes.
“Then you should have told them that.” She nodded to three of the Father’s battle weary mercenaries. They walked up the hill, the bearded vampire in the lead. His face and hair were splattered in crimson and his hands were gory.
“They already disposed of the prisoners,” Torina explained. “He cut off their heads, ripped out their hearts, then stuck rocks in their mouths. It was bizarre, but hey, problem solved.”
Katelina gaped. “Does Ume know?”
“I didn’t tell her.” Torina adjusted the bodice of her bright yellow dress. “Maybe it’s best if she doesn’t find out. She’s not a mind reader.”
The mercenaries stopped next to them. The bearded leader nodded to Jorick. “We were hired to kill an ancient master and his followers. One is as good as another.”
“If you’re looking for payment—”Oren began, but the other cut him off.
“Payment was given in advance. We came to tell you our contract is fulfilled. Now we will go. Unless you would like to hire our services?”
“No,” Jorick said, though Micah and Oren looked thoughtful. “Thank you, but where we’re going will be worse than this.”
“That sounds dangerous, and expensive.” The bearded vampire laughed. “Pity. If you change your minds you can find us at what is left of The Faction’s citadel. I believe they call the country Cambodia.”
The mercenaries headed off and Katelina turned to Jorick. “Can we please get the hell out of here?”
Sorino and his entourage were nowhere to be found. The general attitude was good riddance, so they headed to the trucks, a pair of vehicles that looked more military than civilian, with heavy canvas covers and large tires. Xandria stood near one smoking. When she saw Katelina she cried “Kate!” smashed out her cigarette and hurried toward her, then shrank back. “What are you covered in?”
Katelina looked at her dirty arms and hands. “Fethillen, mostly.”
“Ewww! What did you do? Set her on fire? Never mind. Where have you been and why did you leave me—” Xandria dropped her voice and eyed the others “—with the bad guy circus. Etsuko is okay but I don’t know about the rest of them. That Oren guy is one of those brooding silent-disapproval sorts.”
“I’m sorry. Malick took over a nuclear missile silo and there wasn’t time.”
“Shit!” Xandria dragged Katelina to one of the trucks. “What happened?”
Katelina spent the bulk of the trip talking to Xandria and listening to Ryuu snore. If Hikaru was right, he would get better once they moved to a lower altitude. Ume sat next to Loren, her face rigid and her eyes on the floor. Katelina could only imagine what was going through her mind, and none of it was good.
Oren let them out in front of a hotel. Katelina was grateful that the early morning streets were deserted. She could just imagine people staring as they swung out of the vehicles.
The hotel was modern with a huge lobby and glass sculptures. Their dirty, stained appearance drew strange looks from the staff behind the counter. Things got even more uncomfortable when they were asked for passports and visas.
The terror was short lived. Jamie and Jorick used their whisperer abilities. Then came paying. Verchiel brandished his Guild issued credit card. Jamie flinched. The Guild would already know they’d given Wolfe the slip, and now they’d know exactly where they were.
They moved away from the desk and farther into the lobby to hand out keycards.
“Torina can share with the human,” Oren said as he handed his sister her key.
She huffed. “Why should I have to share?”
“Because everyone is sharing, and you’re both females.”
“Etsuko is female. So is Verchiel’s little sister, or the Japanese shrimp.”
“They’re not my fledglings,” Oren said firmly.
“Then who does that Lickspittle belong to if not you?”
Oren narrowed his eyes. “Do not call Etsuko that. I’ve told you before that it’s time you learned your place.”
“Any blood debt I owed you is long paid, brother!”
The employees at the hotel counter stared openly. Apparently the “whispered” suggestion to accept them was wearing off already.
Jamie motioned toward them. “Perhaps this could be discussed another time?”
Oren ignored him. “It isn’t the matter of a blood debt. You are in my coven.”
Torina scoffed. “Your coven? What happened to deferring to age? Jorick is the oldest, isn’t he? Doesn’t that make this his coven?”
Another member of the hotel staff joined the pair and the three leaned over the counter. How long would it be before they called the police?
“He’s declined leadership multiple times.”
“That was before, when we were attacking Kateesha and The Guild. That was your war. This is his. He’s the master of the war coven. He’s the one in charge. Until he says—”
“Share with the human and be quiet!” Jorick snapped. “You’re making a scene.”
Torina spun on him, but Jorick grabbed Katelina’s hand and dragged her toward the stairs. “I’ve had enough of these idiots.”
Katelina couldn’t agree more.
The room was as shiny and modern as the lobby, with a giant tinted window. Jorick drew the blackout drapes and frowned at the effect. “The light may leak around the edges.”
“You could stack the furniture in front of it,” Katelina suggested. “I’m going to take a shower and get this smell out of my hair.”
The bathroom was painted bright red with shiny white fixtures. She peeled off her ruined clothes to stand under the rainfall shower. She scrubbed away the soot with a washcloth that quickly turned black.
The scene in the cave played in her mind and she leaned against the tiled wall. Verchiel had hinted that she’d been caught up in—and acted on—someone else’s emotions. Could that really happen? If so, whose were they? The child-father, nameless only because his mother had never called him anything but monster?
She couldn’t deal with it, so she turned off the water, tugged on a nightshirt, and headed for the bed, while Jorick took his turn in the bathroom. When he finished he returned with the dagger she’d left on the counter. “Where did you get this?”
She clicked off the TV. “Micah gave it to me. He found it in the cave.”
Jorick weighed the blade. “Do you know what it is?”
“It was Fethillen’s.” With a sigh she added, “It’s the dagger Sorino was looking for.”
Jorick tapped it against his palm absently. “It serves him right. Besides, it would be better if you were armed. Yes.” He set the dagger aside and smiled. “Finders keepers.”
He slid into bed next to her. She snuggled closer to him and laid her head on his chest. She breathed in the familiar comforting scent of him, warm and safe. In his arms it seemed impossible that she’d watched Fethillen and the child-like Father burn, that tomorrow they might face Malick in a final showdown that could leave one or both of them dead.
She held him tighter, as if she could keep him alive by hanging on. Micah had taught her how to fight, or had started to. Thanks to his blood she was stronger now, maybe even stronger than Jorick if she tried. She couldn’t defeat Malick. She couldn’t stop Jorick from fighting. Maybe she could protect him. Maybe this time she could be useful.
Jorick pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You’re always useful, little one.”
“No, I’m not. But I won’t let you die.” She tipped her face up to meet his eyes. “I can’t.”
“I have no intention of dying, not when I have this to live for.”
She nuzzled her cheek against his skin. “You can’t control if someone kills you. You’re not God.”
“Says who?”
She looked up sharply and he sighed. “No, I am not God, but I promised you shortly after we met that I wouldn’t leave you, remember? I don’t make promises lightly.”
“You can’t promise what you can’t control.”
“I can control it. For once, trust me Katelina. I’ve been in plenty of battles.”
The redhead they’d killed in Tajikistan had been in plenty of battles, but he was dead. Was there someone mourning him? She tried not to think about it, not to put herself in their shoes and suffer the crushing ache of loss.
“Aren’t you afraid?” she asked. The question hung heavy in the air and she wished she could draw it back, but there it was, not a heartbeat after he’d asked her to trust him.
“Yes.”
She caught her breath.
He offered a weak smile. “You didn’t want to hear the truth?”
“No, of course I wanted the truth. I just…”
“It’s not the truth you expected. Regardless, it’s what it is.” He drew her back to him. “I’m not afraid of dying, I’m afraid of failing. Again. I had the chance to kill Malick before and I didn’t. I meant to, after Velnya died. I stormed the citadel, though to be honest I had very little resistance, and burst into his chambers. He knew I was coming. The other Executioners were waiting, one after another, and I fought my way through them while Malick watched. While he gloated. While he spurred me on with placating words. When the last of my had-been allies lay at my feet, I attacked Malick. I used everything I had and he laid me low. Then he let me go.” The words were bitter. “As though to say I posed so little threat he could let me do as I pleased.”
He growled. “He deserved to die then. Now he deserves to be torn to shreds and buried for a thousand years while the worms carve tunnels in his flesh and insects eat his eyes and tongue.”
The imagery was vivid and disgusting, but she didn’t disagree. Though her memories of the torture were foggy and incomplete, she knew somewhere deep that it had been horrific, that he had broken her. Then he’d had her killed, not for anything that she’d done, not because he hated her. Because he wanted to punish Jorick.
“Yes, for that,” Jorick said quietly. “For all of that and more. For leaving that…kill switch in your head. For letting the redhead feed from you. For all of the things he allowed his lackeys to do. For forcing us to chase after the Heart, and leading us to wake Samael. Had I killed Malick when I first tried, none of those things would have happened.” His tone turned desperate. “What if I fail again? What will he do in the next hundred and fifty years? Who else will he destroy?”
Katelina wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, like she could force all the pain out of him and into herself. When she found her voice it was as raw as his. “You won’t fail because you can’t. You asked me to trust you, and I do.”
He drew a deep, shuddering breath. “Yes. He will die.” He caught her face in his hands. “He will die and his body will burn.”
“I know.” His eyes blazed with dark purpose; a foreshadowing of Malick’s pyre. She sank into the imagined flames and let them wrap around her until she disappeared into the throbbing center of his determination. He was all there was, all there had ever been. His thoughts swirled around her like a thick black fog: dark, angry, guilty, trembling with so many emotions that he couldn’t reconcile them. He’d never been afraid before, not of Claudius, or Kateesha, or even the Children of Shadows. He’d known he could beat them, had never doubted it, but this…
She saw Malick through the mist, wearing strange clothes, his hair in a ponytail, his beard bushy. He spoke words she didn’t recognize, yet she knew what they were. “Work for me and I will reward you in ways you cannot imagine.”
“You’re a demon.”
The master laughed, flashing fangs. “Better to work for the demon than to be fed upon.”
The scene changed. A woman lay in her arms, clothing torn and bloody, her hair a mess. Her face was a blur, lost to memory and time, but the agony was fresh; the anger devoured her, tearing, rending.
A new room. From the view it was as if she knelt before Malick. “Please.”
The master smiled. “Yes, I will give you the power to kill your sister’s murderers. Drink from me. Become my son in blood!”
The dark fire consumed her, then it was gone and she was on the hotel bed clutching Jorick and trying to come to terms with the room and with herself.
Jorick stared down at her. “You…”
She shook her head to drive away the last tendrils of foreign emotions. “I…I don’t know. It happened with Kai.”
She quickly explained and he rubbed his chin. “You’re right, I hadn’t noticed. I thought there was something strange about your anger at the airfield, but I chalked it up to the adjustment period. You’re sympathetic by nature, and easier to manipulate, so in the cave I thought the Father had done something to you. When all of this is over, we’ll explore your abilities.”
She nodded uncertainly. Training with Kai was one thing, but with Jorick…what if she didn’t catch on fast enough? What if she wasn’t good enough? What if she disappointed him?
“You will always be good enough, whether you can read minds or not, whether you’re strong, or weak, or mortal, or immortal. I don’t love you because of what you can do. I love you because of who you are. You will never disappoint me.”
He pulled her close. “I love you, Katelina. I will always love you.”
She buried her face against him and squeezed her eyes closed. “And I love you, Jorick.”