The dark haired vampire made a low noise. “No, thank you. You can handle it on your own.”
“Suit yourself. Though Ark wants to talk to you. When you get done, have Sorino call me and I’ll set it up.”
Ark. The leader of the Executioners, who was a mind reader, not to mention a haughty bastard.
Katelina gripped Jorick’s arm. “If he thinks he’s going to drag Jorick back…”
“I’m pretty sure that’s the last thing on his mind.” Verchiel’s phone pinged before he could elaborate. “There’s Ark again. I’ll see you guys later. Room one-twenty-two.”
He was gone so fast he was just a blur to her immortal eyes.
Jorick scoffed. “He enjoys disappearing like that, as if it makes him special. Come, little one, let’s find your mother.”
She followed Jorick through the sliding doors, then past the entryway, into the kind of chaos she’d only seen on TV. Hospital beds were stuck in the hall, full of people whose gauze was stained with fresh blood. She looked away from a woman with burns, and a child clinging to her grandfather, her tiny face half bandaged, her eyes full of tears.
Jorick skipped the ER doors to head down the corridor. Patients lined the hallway past Radiology. At the nurses’ station, people in scrubs dashed to and fro, too busy to notice them.
Katelina counted off the room numbers until they found one-twenty-two. She pressed her palm to the closed door, as if she could see through it by feel. It wasn’t her mother she didn’t want to face right now, but Brad.
Brad had been Sarah’s boyfriend until she was taken by the vampires. Since Katelina disappeared with Jorick at roughly the same time, everyone thought she and her best friend were kidnapped—or murdered—together. Brad and Katelina’s mom teamed up to find them, including maintaining a website, making posters, putting in calls to TV shows, and canvasing the town.
Katelina came back, Jorick in tow. Though she couldn’t tell Brad or her mother the truth, she made it clear she and Sarah weren’t together. With Sarah presumed dead, Brad and Patricia worked to find her body. They grew closer, until they’d announced they were living together last Easter. Brad, the modernistic neat freak, and her scatter brained, sloppy mom. How in the hell could that work? Katelina’d tried to talk to her mom about it, but the answer was that it wasn’t any of her business.
“And it isn’t,” Jorick said softly. “Any more than it’s her business that we’re together.”
“You’re not thirteen years younger than me,” she whisper-yelled, afraid Brad would hear through the door.
“No, I’m more than five hundred years older.” He gave a wry smile. “It seems a little hypocritical to fault them when our age difference is greater.”
It was a fact she chose to ignore. “Yes…but you don’t look five hundred years older.”
“Your mother doesn’t look thirteen years older than Brad. I’m sorry. You know I’m hardly her biggest fan, but this time I agree with her. If they’re happy together it’s none of your business. You’re only upset because you considered Brad a peer, and your mother an ‘adult’. Now your peer is crossing the line into your ‘adults only’ world. It makes you question where you are, and where you should be.”
“That’s ridiculous. I’m upset because he’s supposed to be Sarah’s boyfriend. They dated for two years.”
“Though he obviously cared about Sarah, he wasn’t as ‘in love’ as you expected him to be, or he wouldn’t have moved on that quickly.”
“Who’s to say he won’t move on from my mom that fast?”
Jorick shrugged, still irritatingly calm. “Maybe he will. That’s something she has to deal with, not you. I’m sorry, little one, but it’s time for you to leave it alone and let them be.”
Her reply came out a sputtered sound of anger as Jorick pushed the door open. With a final dark glare, she marched inside. Curtains were pulled around the first bed, but the second was empty. Brad was slouched in a chair in the far corner. His face was smeared with dirt and blood, his clothes torn and dirty. His head was wrapped in gauze and his arm was in a sling.
When he looked up, his eyes went wide. “Katelina!” He jumped to his feet, winced, and swayed. “Fuck. Sorry.”
She caught him and eased him back to the chair. “It’s all right. Where’s Mom?”
“In surgery. She hasn’t woken up since…They said they stabilized her, but then everything crashed and they took her away again. If she dies…” He turned desperate eyes on her. “It’s all my fault.”
Katelina froze. “How is it your fault?”
“If we’d stayed at the restaurant…We were out with Linda and Ben. It was getting late, and they always get on my nerves. I talked Patricia into leaving. We got home…” He shook his head and muttered, “Sarah.”
The name was enough to freeze Katelina’s blood. If Lilith and Samael were fighting… She didn’t have time to wait for Brad’s explanation. She pushed for his memories and, unlike the vampires’ unyielding minds, his human brain parted easily. Suddenly she was there, climbing out of the car, laughing. She saw her mother get out of the passenger side, wearing a black dress and a little wrap.
She looks good.
The thought died as her eyes swung to the porch. Something moved in the shadows. Stepping forward, she heard Brad’s voice come from her mouth. “Hello? Is there someone there?”
The movement came again. Someone stepped from the darkness, into the yellow glow of the streetlights. Though the face was turned down, she recognized the mop of curly hair and the curvy frame.
“Sarah? I thought you left with Katelina?”
Sarah looked up, but her eyes were wrong. Hard. Cold. Glittering. Like eyes from the horror movies she’d made Brad watch. Like a demon or a possessed person or—
She screamed. Brad shielded his ears, and saw Patricia do the same. Then he was flying through the air. He slammed into the neighbor’s car. The world blinked off and on, a flurry of destruction. Like a tornado.
Patricia!
He crawled, using his good arm and dragging one leg. Where was she? Was she all right? He needed to get to her, he needed—
Pain exploded in his skull and everything went black.
Katelina dropped back into herself, and staggered from the shock. She blinked Jorick’s curious face into focus. Brad, meanwhile, gave a shuddering gasp and broke into tears. His misery echoed inside her, as sharp as if it was her own. His ache, his pain, the screaming guilt that he should have protected Patty. It was something Katelina’d felt before, once when she thought Jorick was dead.
Jorick moved her to the edge of the bed. She took slow breaths, trying to cleanse away Brad’s feelings. Kai told her before that she went too deep, saw things in a way she wasn’t supposed to, but that was all she could do. She couldn’t touch the thoughts on the surface, couldn’t hear another person’s silent comments. She could only get lost in their memories.
The soft sound of Brad’s sobs pulled her from the echoes. She forced herself to move to him and lay a hand on his shoulder. “She’s going to be okay.”
“Is she?” he demanded. “She’s dying and I don’t know why.” He motioned to the muted TV, running pictures of a disaster area. “The news says terrorists, but why was Sarah there? I know I saw her on the porch before everything exploded. Or I think I did.” He sagged. “Maybe I imagined it. Everything happened so fast. The officer I talked to said I saw a suicide bomber that reminded me of Sarah; that my memory is playing tricks. Maybe he’s right. There was something wrong with her. Something…different. But I don’t understand why terrorists would strike here. We’re nothing! Nowhere! Why not New York or Chicago or Toledo? Hell, even Detroit would have made more of a statement.”
“Maybe not,” Katelina said. “Everyone expects cities to be attacked. We think the small towns are safe. They might be saying nowhere is.”
“Maybe,” he murmured, his attention back on the television.
Katelina returned to the bed. “How long a
go did they take her?”
Brad squinted at the clock on the wall. “Half an hour? An hour? I’m not sure.”
“It’s okay. I guess all there is to do is wait.” She glanced at Jorick. “If you want, you can…”
He gave her a tightlipped, fang-concealing smile. “I’ll stay with you.”
She caught his hand and gave it a grateful squeeze, then followed Brad’s gaze to the muted television. Closed captioning only half worked. Amid the symbols and gibberish, a news anchor announced a radical group had taken responsibility for the bombing. Katelina wondered if the group existed, or if it was a complete fabrication of The Guild’s damage control.
It was after four a.m. when they brought her mother back. The nurse’s aide shoved a sheaf of papers at them with “information”. Katelina asked when her mother might wake up. The overworked woman answered, “It could be a couple of hours,” then took off.
Katelina and Brad drifted to opposite sides of her mother. Brad took Patricia’s hand, his eyes locked on her. There was something in his gaze Katelina didn’t want to see, but her mother’s face was no better. She looked old, or older than usual. Katelina’d never noticed the lines around her eyes, or her mouth. Now they stood out in harsh contrast against her gray pallor. Hair that she’d recently cut into a more modern shape was stuffed in a surgery cap. Blood was still smeared across her cheek.
Katelina wet a paper towel and washed the grime away. She expected the gray to go with it, but it didn’t. The sick, bloodless color remained, a testament to what she’d been through.
Brad’s memory resurfaced. The flash as the world flew past, the crack of pain, the terror. The worry still echoed in his eyes and blanketed the room with a truth Katelina didn’t like to think about. Though her mother was “her mother” she wasn’t immortal. She was fragile. Any minute something could take her away.
A knock came on the door. Jorick opened it on Sorino. The vampire talked in low tones, but Katelina’s immortal ears could hear; Verchiel was on the phone again. It would be dawn in an hour and a half and Ark was ready for the meeting.
Jorick looked to Katelina. Though he didn’t send a mental message, she knew he was asking permission to go; making sure she’d be all right without him.
Except there was no reason for her to stay. Soon the sun would be up and she’d be tucked away for the day in a closet. Until then, there wasn’t much point in watching her mother sleep.
Or thinking about how frail she looks.
“I’ll come with you,” she announced. Brad gave her a quizzical look, and she explained, “Who knows how long until she wakes up. Besides, her roommate would probably like us to clear out.”
A cough from the other bed sounded like agreement. Katelina patted Brad awkwardly on the shoulder before she followed Jorick out of the room and down the hall.
“You’re sure you want to go?” he asked.
She nodded. “I want to be there when you talk to the Executioners and make damn sure they don’t rope you into anything.”
Jorick gave a patient sigh. “They’re not going to. I have Eileifr’s word.”
“Right.”
Sorino cleared his throat. “Not to interrupt. I’m sure your…friends have a suitable situation. All the same, I prefer one of my own. If you would kindly drop Kai and I at some accommodations?”
Jorick agreed quickly and, when they climbed in the van, it was only Brandle that joked, “You’re splitting up the party? I doubt you’ll find a room.”
After trying three motels it looked like he was right, but at the fourth Sorino came back looking smug. “Come, Kai. We’ll need our luggage.”
Jorick pushed out of the van. “I think I’ll help. To make sure you don’t take anything by accident.”
The meaning was clear. Katelina settled back in the seat as they opened the back and combed through the bags.
“No electricity here, either,” Des commented at the dark building. “I’m surprised they’re open.”
“They’re only doing their civic duty,” Brandle said cheerfully. “They couldn’t allow paying customers to sleep somewhere free.”
“From all the cars, I’m surprised he got a room.”
Brandle chuckled. “I doubt he got it honestly. Whisperers—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. They make everyone do what they want.” Des glared out the window, as if the night had personally injured him.
Brandle changed topics, “How was your mother?”
When Des coughed, Katelina realized he was talking to her. “Alive, at least.”
“I’m sorry. The suffering of loved ones is hard to face, especially immortal to mortal. I wonder if the old way wasn’t kinder.”
“You mean when your master basically kidnapped you and you never saw anyone you loved again?”
Brandle nodded. “Something like that.”
Des drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Is that what happened to you?”
Brandle looked away, into years long gone. “After a fashion. He was a…lord, many miles from my village. Local legend said that he would come down from his towers now and then to choose new men for his glorious armies, men who would never come home. I thought it more fancy than reality, until he came to my village. We men were presented. He chose me and another. We marched for many nights back to his land. There we were turned, given new names, and a new life. I never saw my wife or my children again.”
“You were married?” Katelina gaped. “And you didn’t try to go back?”
“Things were different then. Attitudes were different. We knew our place. If we forgot, there were examples to remind us. Had I tried to leave, I’d have been killed. What good would that do anyone? I’m sure she remarried, maybe had more children—she was young enough, and had the hips for it.” A wink softened the comment before he turned serious. “Those were the days before the Sodalitas and the Kugsankal ruled. There was no universal law; each coven was a body unto itself, and the master a lord. There was none of this living alone, or in small groups of three or four. You banded together, lived as a colony, or died alone. This era of peace…it’s relatively new.”
“Peace?” Des asked. “I’ve seen plenty of coven wars.”
“Not like they were. This—” Brandle motioned to the mess outside,“—This is far closer to what it was like then. Blood in the streets, fire in the sky, screams in the dark. Mortal and immortal alike, murdered because they were in the wrong place, or because someone offered offense, or because their killers were bored. Now most of the maniacs at least pause before committing atrocities.”
“It looks like Lilith paused,” Des said sarcastically.
Brandle’s chuckle held no mirth. “Maybe not Lilith, but younger ones, at least. Look how long it’s taken William to rise up and join a movement.”
“Who?” Des asked, but Katelina remembered him.
“He was at the party,” she explained. “He joined Lilith.”
Brandle nodded. “As did Angelica. Both are my friends of many years, friends I hate to see lost down dark paths.”
“Is that why you’re here?” Des asked.
“That and more.”
Des shook his head. “I don’t get why anyone would join Lilith. What did she offer them?”
Brandle sighed. “William is under the impression she’s going to overturn the Kugsankal. He invited both Angelica and I to join him. Obviously, I refused.”
Des frowned. “Who are the Kug-whatever?”
“The True Council,” Katelina said. “In Munich, Germany. They’re the ones who—”
“Yeah, yeah. The ones who rule over all the different guilds. I remember.”
Brandle nodded. “Yes. They’re ancient, though not as ancient as Lilith and Samael. I doubt she’d need an army if she planned to attack them; she could do it alone, and would have long ago if that was her goal. It’s more likely she’s planning to fight an equal. I told William as much, but he didn’t want to listen. Like many of the old ones, he resents the
Kugsankal for imposing laws and breaking up the feudal system.”
“And you don’t?” Katelina asked.
“No, I don’t.” Brandle brightened. “Ah. Your master returns.”
Jorick climbed in and gave a sigh of relief. “That’s one down, though I’m sure he’ll be back.”
Sadly, Katelina knew he was right.
The Executioners were staying in an abandoned mansion outside of town. The house had belonged to Claudius, the vampire who was responsible for screwing up Katelina’s life, having Sarah “killed”, and a host of other things. Katelina wished they’d been able to torture him for a few days before he died.
Having been involved in the war, Des didn’t need directions, and twenty minutes later they pulled up to wrought iron gates. Katelina could see the mansion, hulking in the background. The heavy fence hemmed it in, protecting it from the outside world—or would have except the gates were open.
Inside, the driveway circled a large fountain decorated with vampire fanged cherubs and ugly blue spray paint.
“What the hell?” Katelina motioned to the defacement. “Why would someone do that?”
“Because youth doesn’t understand the value of things,” Brandle said. “They see only the now, not the millions of yesterdays it took to create something.” As they parked in front of the sprawling mansion, the vampire nodded to the caved in front door. “Like the person who destroyed that.”
Jorick made an uncomfortable noise. “I think that was done in haste rather than with destruction in mind.”
Whether Brandle caught on or read it in their minds, Katelina wasn’t sure, but he chuckled. “I see. Are you responsible for the artwork as well?”
“Hardly.” Jorick shot him a hard look and climbed out.
Katelina followed, eyes moving over the structure. Though the central part of the mansion was uniform, additions were stapled on at odd angles, creating a strange profile. The house was decorated in heavy gothic elements: leaded windows, gargoyles, and stone rosettes. It looked like a murder house in a horror movie. From what Katelina knew of the former owner, no doubt it was.
Goddess of Night (Amaranthine Book 9) Page 7