“My town?” Sarah demanded. “Please. It’s not mine. It’s just a place, Kate. Just a place where we were miserable, looked down on, told we were nothing. Or at least I was. Since I became this I’ve been thinking about the past a lot. I always thought we were misfits, united by others’ cruelty, but we never were. You had chances, opportunities, people who loved you.”
“So did you!” Katelina cried. “Fine, your mother was useless, but my mom—she took you in. She bought you birthday and Christmas presents every year. Hell, she let you live with us for a while. She was there for you, and this is how you repay her? Repay me? We were friends, Sarah. My god, people called us sisters. And this is what you do? You try to fucking kill my mother? You destroy the one place that means something to me. You join a psychopath who wants to kill me and everyone I love?”
“Kali is not a psychopath!” Sarah shrieked. “She understands me, something you can never do. I thought you could, I thought you did, but my eyes have been opened.” She pointed to her head. “I can see your thoughts now. I was never your friend. I was your pity project.”
“Oh bullshit!”
“Then choose. Me or Jorick. Pick me and I’ll leave Kali. I’ll even fight her. But Jorick dies right here, right now.”
Katelina couldn’t process the insanity. “Stop being ridiculous.”
“There. That you’d choose me is ridiculous. But if you choose Jorick, if you fight against me, knowing your allies plan to kill me, that’s not ridiculous, is it?” Her voice turned cold. “Vampire blood gave you strength, but it gave me clarity. I can see the world and the people in it for what they are. I can hear their thoughts, their petty judgements, and I know—I know what they think of me, what they care about. I know what you think about me. I’m a burden, an inconvenience, someone who was neatly taken care of, a fragment of an old life you’re finished with. But, here I am, complicating things, demanding, wanting—wanting to be the one you choose. Only I won’t be. You say we were sisters, but we weren’t. I was your friend because there was no one else. Now that the world is at your fingertips, I’m an inconvenience. You wish I’d stayed dead.”
“Yes!” Katelina shouted. “Because you’re not the Sarah I knew, the Sarah I cared about. That Sarah is dead, and this bitter, angry, insane person—”
Sarah launched herself at Katelina. Jorick caught her and threw her back. She slammed into the wall and slid down to the floor.
“Katelina, get the child!” Jorick narrowed his eyes at Sarah. “Don’t try to interfere. Lilith may have sealed your mind, but she didn’t make you any stronger.”
Sarah stuffed an escaped curl behind her ear. “Interfere with you taking that thing? Please! I’d pay you. I kept hoping she’d escape, so I could kill her ‘accidentally’, but would she? I practically threw her off the plane at my father’s and she—”
Katelina scooped Estrilda up. Heavier than she looked, Katelina was grateful for the titan powers she’d gotten from Micah. “What the fuck is wrong with you Sarah?” Then she processed the last sentence. “Your father’s?”
“Didn’t you see it?” Sarah asked. “I heard someone set it on fire afterwards, to destroy the evidence. It was my deal with Kali, and my way of proving to her I was worthy. I killed my so-called mother, and that monster who pretended to be my father.”
It clicked into place. After the divorce, Sarah’s dad stayed in Ohio for a while before he left for a “shit town” in Texas.
It was more than Katelina could deal with. That Sarah would…
“Of course I would,” Sarah stood slowly, hands ready to attack. “I’d kill him a thousand times over. As for the rest of those people…they harbored him. They tolerated him. They should have shot him on sight, or hung him. Instead they let him live among them, like he was a normal person—like he was worth something. They deserved it! So do you and your boyfriend, and all your groupies! Every goddamn one of you! And you’ll get it. Kali will kill you. She’ll drink your blood and—” She strangled off, eyes wide.
Katelina followed her gaze to the door where Des stood, wiping his gory arm on his t-shirt.
“Des,” Sarah whispered. “You…”
“Yeah, I came, though it looks like you don’t need me.” He flinched at the sight of the child in Katelina’s arms, but took her. “The battle outside is about done. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
He dashed back the way he’d come. Katelina hesitated long enough to see confusion on Sarah’s face, then she followed, Jorick behind her.
Torina and Anya’s fight had spilled outside. The redhead slammed Anya into the side of the plane. Her hair was mussed, and her dress was torn. Both her nose and one ear bled freely. Still, the fire in her eyes said she wasn’t done.
As they hurried down the steps, she called, “Did you get—” She broke off when she saw the child in Des’ arms. “All right.”
Anya struggled to her feet. Crimson ran from her nose, and from cuts on her bare arms. “I don’t know where the hell you’re going with Kali’s prize.” She spat out a mouthful of blood. “Des. I might have known you’d be licking Torina’s shoes again.”
Torina hit her with an uppercut that knocked her to the ground. “I wouldn’t let your leftovers touch my shoes, let alone lick them.”
Torina took two steps away when Anya swept back to her feet. She grabbed the redhead around the neck and twisted. There was a loud crack. Torina fell to the ground, limp, her neck broken.
Katelina cried out in horror, but calmed herself quickly. It took more than that to kill a vampire.
Des turned back, maybe to help with Anya, maybe to see what was happening. With a snarl, Anya pulled something out of her jacket. “This is for my brother, you piece of shit!” She ripped something off the object, then threw. It glinted as it sailed through the air, struck Des in the chest, then bounced to Estrilda’s lap—
Then it exploded.
Katelina dropped, hands up. She lowered them to see Anya lying flat on the ground. The vampiress tossed aside something small and metal—a pin—and pulled into a crouch, her hand in her pocket again.
Jorick tackled her before she could pull the second pin. The grenade bounced away and rolled to a stop. Katelina cowered. When nothing happened she lowered her arms.
A silent scream sounded in her head. She looked toward Des and Estrilda. Blood was splattered for several feet. Neither of them moved. Slowly, Katelina crept closer. Bits of shrapnel had torn into the wing of the plane, and were embedded in the ground. The screaming in her head grew louder and louder. Her vision narrowed until that blood was all she could see. So much blood.
“Jorick!” she shouted, as if he could make the screaming stop, make the blood go away.
He was at her side, Torina slung over his shoulder. “Are you all right?”
The plane roared to life behind her. She spun to see Anya disappear inside it. A wave of energy slammed into them. She and Jorick stumbled back. A second wave knocked them to all fours. Katelina looked up as a blur passed. For a split second she saw a bloody Ishkur, his arm around Lilith’s waist. Though she knew better, she couldn’t stop from meeting the vampiress’ eyes, like burning coals in the dark. The world expanded, then contracted, until it was all blackness.
She shook the darkness away, but the plane was gone. Jorick was awake next to her, lying in the dirt, blinking, Torina draped across him.
How long was I unconscious?
“Long enough,” came Samael’s voice in her head. “The whore is wounded. I did not kill her, but now she knows she is not immortal.”
Katelina nodded, trying to come to terms with where she was and what was going on. Several feet in front of her was a splatter of blood and gore that had been Des and Estrilda.
“Oh my God!”
She jerked to her feet, and Jorick leapt after her. He pulled her back, using his body to shield the sight. “You don’t want to look.”
“Is he—”
“Yes,” Jorick said quietly. “He’s dead.�
��
“Estrilda?”
“I don’t know. Go back to the complex and I’ll look.”
She wanted to be the protected princess, but she needed to know. “Just look now.”
Brandle limped over, bleeding from his stomach, chest, and forehead. Verchiel joined them, several long cuts across his face. He peeled off his tattered coat and shirt, then knelt down.
Katelina couldn’t see what he was doing, but a moment later he handed something to Brandle, wrapped in his bloody shirt. She saw the top of Estrilda’s head for a second before the blond turned away. Something about the size of the bundle looked wrong.
“I sense life in her,” Brandle said. “I’ll take her inside.”
Katelina sighed with relief. If Estrilda was alive, she’d heal with blood or sleep.
But Des won’t.
She peeked around Jorick. The upper half of Des’ head stuck out from Verchiel’s coat, burned and flecked in gore. His legs stuck out from the bottom, his tennis shoes splattered in scarlet. Around him were scattered jelly-like clumps of blood and meat. She thought she saw a dismembered finger among the mess, and looked away. Her imagination filled in what it looked like under the coat.
Micah stalked toward them, covered in dirt and blood, Loren on his heels. “What the fuck are you assholes standing around for? We need to chase that bitch down and—” he broke off as he stuttered to a stop. “Who’s that?”
“Des,” Jorick answered.
“What the fuck?” Micah crouched down and laid a hand to the top of Des’ head. “Hey, jack ass, you better…” He jerked his hand back. “What the fuck? Is he dead?”
“Yes,” Jorick said.
“Oh, you fucking son of a bitch,” Micah muttered. “You mother fucking son of a bitch.”
Loren put his arm around his friend’s shoulders and tried to lift him. “Come on, Micah. We need to—”
Micah ripped away. “We need to bury this son of a bitch. That’s what we need to do. Getting himself fucking killed. Jesus. Look at this fucking mess.” Micah motioned to the blood and gore scattered around them. “What the fuck is this?”
“Anya,” Katelina whispered. “She had grenades.”
Micah’s face hardened. Katelina stumbled under a wave of fury that wasn’t her own.
“That fucking bitch. This is what he gets for hooking up with her. But he wouldn’t fucking listen, huh?”
Loren tried to move Micah again. The bald vampire pushed him away with more force. Verchiel caught the teen’s elbow and shook his head. When Loren started to argue, the Executioner said, “Don’t you have a human to check on?”
Loren looked quickly to the vans. One was turned on its side. “Oh fuck! Xandria! I gotta…I’ll see ya.” He tore across the field and through the ruined fence.
Jorick hefted Torina’s limp body over his shoulder. “Come little one. Let’s see if there are facilities to clean up, then we’ll burn Des and deal with the others.”
Katelina looked past him to Lilith’s fallen. She’d lost five in all. From their mangled bodies, she guessed Zander could take credit for most of them.
Not the one Des killed.
“Little one?” Jorick touched her arm.
She wanted to go with him, wanted to see Estrilda, but she couldn’t move. She was rooted to the spot.
She looked helplessly to Jorick. Something shifted in his eyes. “I’ll see you inside.”
He walked away. Silently she called for him to come back. She didn’t want to deal with this; couldn’t deal with this.
She looked for Verchiel, but he’d disappeared. She and Micah were alone. Misery washed over her. She tried to shake out of it, but it burned, like an ember in her chest. She blinked tears, and realized they weren’t hers.
They were his.
“Micah?”
He didn’t turn around. “What the fuck do you want?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then get your ass in there with everyone else.”
She hesitated. “I know he was your friend.”
“No, he wasn’t my fucking friend, but he was all that was left. Herrick…Benjamin…they’re fucking dead, fucking lost to a goddamn war. Though Des was a fucking asshole, he was it. Now his goddamn guts are scattered across the fucking ground. Fuck!”
Benjamin. It was a name Katelina recognized. The owner of a motel that catered to vampires, Benjamin had been killed by Claudius’ goons, part of Oren’s war. But the other one…
“Who’s Herrick?”
“Fuck, you mean who was Herrick. Didn’t you listen, princess. He’s dead. He’s fucking dead, like everyone else.” Micah punched the ground and came away with a sludge of dirt and blood on his knuckles. “You son of a bitch. You were all that was left.”
“All that was left of what?”
Micah growled. “Of… I don’t fucking know, all right? Jesus! Would you get off my back?” He drew a frustrated breath and his voice turned eerily calm. “When I got turned my fucking master ditched me. He pulled me outta the goddamn water, fucking drained me dry. He filled me up with his blood, then left me lying there. I didn’t know shit, didn’t understand what the fuck was going on. Herrick found me a couple months later. He explained shit, took me to see Benjamin. That fucking old coot. Goddamn cranky ass bastard with his goddamn cigars, and spitting whisky in a fucking bucket because he wanted the taste but couldn’t drink it anymore. Everyone gave him shit and he didn’t fucking care because it was his goddamn place. You could deal with it or get the fuck out.
“And Herrick. There was a goddamn idiot. He had this crazy fucking idea that he had to ‘watch over’ his brother’s descendants. Some bullshit about being guilty for not makin’ him a vampire. He was okay ‘til the last one, this Caroline. For some reason once she grew up he got hot for her. Heh, he used to get pissed if I said it that way. Said it made it sound cheap, like it was some kind of goddamn noble love from Shakespeare. He followed her every night, when she walked her dog, like a stalker. He said it was to make sure nothing happened to her. How fucking stupid did he think I was? He was hoping to get forced into talking to her, coz he was scared to do it on his own. He swore he was gonna, after the war was over. Fucking fooled him, coz he didn’t come back from the damn war, did he? He was killed by a fucking Executioner, in that goddamn shamble of a battle with Kateesha. Fucking Guild dogs!
“And now this.” Micah fell back on his haunches and wiped his face with his fist, leaving a smear of blood. He looked over the ruined body. “Des was always a fucking pretentious prick. Like he was better than the rest of us. He would sail in and out, off with some fucking bitch for months, or off to his mom’s, or wherever the fuck he went. Then he’d come back to town acting all cool, in his fucking designer sunglasses, with his fucking art work, and all his shit. He thought I was ‘crude’, and I know he fucking thought I was stupid. But he was the one who was stupid. He’s the one who’s fucking dead, and here I am, crude and stupid, and still fucking alive.” He leaned over the body, as if screaming directly at Des. “Suck that bitch, huh? Suck that!”
Micah staggered to his feet. “Fuck this shit. Leave him here for the goddamn buzzards. I’m done.”
He turned for the compound. Katelina hurried to catch up.
“Why the fuck are you shadowing me? Why aren’t you with your lover boy?”
“I don’t know.”
“Guess that makes two of us.” He looked down at his bloody hands, at the crimson on his shirt, and his jeans. “Goddamn. Des made a fucking mess. He can’t even die without being a goddamn pain in the ass.”
Katelina didn’t know what to say.
Chapter Fourteen
Inside the fence, Micah took off to “find smokes”. Katelina assumed it was code for “I want to be alone”, so she let him go.
Loren stood near the vans, his arm around Xandria. Unhurt, the woman’s hands shook as she punctuated her mile an hour words.
“Oh my God, did you see—”
Kateli
na interrupted them, “Where did they take Estrilda?”
“Maybe inside?” Loren pointed to the ruined building. “I’m sorry. I didn’t pay attention.”
“It’s okay. Thanks anyway.” Katelina ducked through the hole in the wall. “Hello? Jorick?”
As she made her way through the damaged rooms, she recognized the paintings from her dream. Her pace quickened. Sure enough, she found the vault door, torn wide open. Inside, Sorino and Kai stood among shattered glass cases.
“This is where you’ve been?” she asked sarcastically.
Sorino looked up from a statuette. “Hello. Yes, we have been here for a few minutes. If you mean we were here during the…battle, you’re mistaken. Had we been, Lilith would have killed us.”
“Maybe. Or maybe she’d have looked at you as harmless flies and ignored you, like she did the rest of us?”
Sorino’s smile left her unsettled. “What an interesting theory.” He set the statuette down and retrieved some broken pottery. “Did you want something? Or are you here in an observatory capacity?”
She scowled. “I’m looking for Jorick.”
“He’s obviously not here.” When she didn’t move, Sorino snapped impatiently, “He’s in the main coven house. Off you go.”
“Why are you in a hurry to get rid of me?”
“Fine, stay. You can help Kai carry artifacts. I’m sure he’d appreciate it, wouldn’t you?” He chuckled, but the boy stayed impassive.
“Kai should tell you to fuck off.”
“I wonder when your righteous anger will cease to be amusing? Either get a box, or go away. I have a lot of work ahead of me.”
Though she wanted to meet his challenge, she wanted to see Estrilda more.
Without a goodbye, she made her way outside where she spotted Verchiel. Still shirtless, his expanse of milky skin was dotted with dirt and blood. The scratches stood out on his face like scarlet slashes.
Behind him walked three men, their eyes glazed and movements stiff. She recognized one as the driver of their van.
Crap. I forgot about them.
Goddess of Night (Amaranthine Book 9) Page 22