Katelina stiffened. She’d looked for betrayal from Des, but Brandle…
“It was long ago. I hold no grudge. He followed his master’s orders. After that we were forced to cede the territory. William organized another coven from the remnants, with the plan of overthrowing the Sodalitas, but it disintegrated into murder and robbery. I left. He’s never gotten over the idea of rebellion. I’ve tried to show him how much better a life of peace can be, but he doesn’t want it. He wants lords and power and intrigue. I got too old for that some time ago.”
“Is that when you changed your name?”
He chuckled. “No. I did that just before the party. It came from a book, if you’d like to know. Sadly, Brandle was a side character who turned out to be the villain. Aside from that, he was marvelously interesting, and it’s a good name. Acwellen is too old fashioned to keep anymore.”
Katelina agreed, though she wasn’t sure Brandle was better. “Was Acwellen your real name?”
“It was the name my master gave me. I’ve carried it for too long.”
It wasn’t just his voice tone, but things he’d said before. “You had a bad time, after you were turned?”
His lips tightened. Katelina was ready to apologize when he said, “I wouldn’t call it bad. Not until Mirabel was killed.”
Katelina wasn’t sure who that was, or if she should even know.
“She was my mate. A village girl who belonged to my master. He allowed me to turn her. When he was killed in battle, his heir was not so kind. He took her for himself. Had that happened later, she’d have been my property, and he’d have been punished. But this was before the Laws, before the Sodalitas. He used her as he wished, then dumped her in the courtyard to wait for the sun. It was all a show of power; the men liked me more than him and, given the choice, would follow my orders over his. With the help of a few, I took her back, and we rode away into the night.”
When his pause stretched, Katelina prompted, “He caught you?”
“Funnily enough, no. I imagine he was glad to be rid of me. Mirabel and I settled near a human village and enjoyed happiness for many years. Then a band of vampires came; rogues they’d be called now. They burned the village, slaughtered the inhabitants. Blood ran in the streets. When they finished there, they came for us. My compatriots had long moved on. There was only Mirabel and I. We were no match for them. They hacked her to pieces, and left me staked to the ground. Not to spoil the ending, I obviously survived. Mirabel didn’t.”
“I’m sorry,” Katelina murmured.
“I thank you for your sympathies. I won’t pretend that I haven’t had lovers since her, or that I haven’t been in love, but she was the first in my immortal life. One never forgets the first, they say.” He looked off into the distance for a moment, then snapped back. “I have a dozen more stories as cheerless as this. More than a dozen, perhaps. It’s the reason I refused to help William overthrow the Sodalitas. Whether he likes it or not, we need them. Someone must maintain order. Without that, there is only chaos; a world where we must live in packs or risk being slaughtered like dogs. It’s not a life I wish to go back to.”
She cleared her throat, not sure what to say. Finally, “Speaking of William, what about him and Angelica? They didn’t exactly jump to leave Lilith.”
“I know. I’d hoped to talk sense into him, but I don’t think I can. Angelica blames her sisters — they moved in with her recently, and they bicker nonstop — but she’s really there to watch over him. If I can tie him up, she’ll follow. It’s doable,” he added. “I do have phantom abilities, and William has no special skills at overcoming them. I just need to get behind him with some rope.”
She thought of tying Sarah up and dragging her back. But…“Will that really help? Once you free him, won’t he just go back? Or join another maniac?”
Brandle looked into the distance. “That’s what I’m afraid of. His disillusionment, his anger, are things within him — things I can’t fix. Not even with rope.” He winked, leaving her with only his milky white eye for a moment.
She tried not to stare and he smiled. “It’s an odd thing for a vampire, isn’t it? Most masters look for physical perfection, but mine wanted soldiers. Pity he didn’t realize it came from a farming accident.”
Katelina coughed on her smoke. “What kind of farming accident did that?”
“My brother had a wild swing with a sickle.” He chuckled. “After that, I learned to stay away from him in the field.”
Of all the things she’d imagined, that wasn’t it. He laughed at her surprise. His mirth was so warm after the misery of the day that she couldn’t help but join in.
Inside, Katelina changed into her pajamas. She was on her way back from the bathroom when she ran into Loren and Zander. The teen was mid-sentence. “—amazing! The way you took them out, like some kind of kung-fu. Where did you learn to fight like that?”
Zander looked at the boy curiously. “Is training not a part of your discipline?”
“Um…not really,” Loren said. “I mean Micah showed me some things, and Jorick has before, but nothing like that.”
“Our training is part of worshipping the Goddess. It teaches control, patience, and many other things. The scriptures bid us to be ‘ever ready to treat with conflict’ yet ‘use that knowledge only when no other recourse is offered.’”
Katelina moved on, imagining Zander and the others as Shaolin monks in some far Asian temple.
She bedded down in the front room, conscious of the empty couch across from her. Though vampirism saved her from being stiff in the morning, it didn’t make an uncomfortable couch more comfortable. She tossed and turned before she finally dropped off.
A heavy black dream melted into her mom’s living room. A fourteen year-old Sarah was hunched on the couch, an ice pack to her face. Bruises on her bare arms were like dark finger-paint. Her shirt was torn.
“I’m sorry,” she gulped between sobs. “I-I got scared.”
Katelina patted her hand and looked to her mother. Patricia’s arms were crossed. A valley of fury formed between her eyes.
“I’m not angry with you,” she said firmly. “You did the right thing.”
She turned for the phone. Sarah leapt to her feet. “No! Please, don’t call my mother.”
“I wasn’t going to, honey. I’m calling the police.”
Sarah clutched her. “No. Please don’t! Not again! He just gets angrier. Please. It was my fault.” She dropped back, shaking with her sobs. “My fault.”
Patricia took hold of her shoulders. “Honey, it is never your fault, do you understand? Never. No matter what you’ve done, there is never an excuse for this.”
“I…The school. They sent someone again. To the house.”
Katelina bit her lip. That explained what the counselor wanted when he called Sarah to the office yesterday.
“Good.” Patricia pulled her into a hug. “Maybe they’ll arrest him.”
Sarah wriggled free. “But they won’t. They don’t care—they were only there for two minutes and they didn’t even come in.” Sarah hung her head and her voice turned brittle and bitter. “Mrs. Braumins already explained it to me.”
Patricia shoved her giant glasses up her nose. “What did she say?”
“She said I’m a Townsend, and no one cares about a Townsend. The best thing I can do is stay quiet, keep my head down, and try to last until I’m old enough to move out.”
Patricia pursed her lips. “Don’t you listen to that, Sarah. You’re as important as everyone else, no matter what your name is. Do you understand?”
Sarah sneered. “Tell that to the rest of the town. People only care about who your parents are, your grandparents. How much money you have. People like us don’t even register.”
The front room faded, replaced with a movie-style medieval castle. A little girl screamed, engulfed in flames. A faceless Baron watched. Then Anabelle appeared, not wearing a mask, but whole and perfect. With a scream, she raced to save he
r daughter, battling the blaze with her bare hands. Fire licked her face and her palms.
Though Katelina hadn’t been there, had no idea what had been said, in her dream Estrilda lay in her mother’s arms and croaked silently, “It’s my fault.”
The dream washed out. Katelina landed in an abandoned house. Torn curtains fluttered like tattered butterfly wings. Broken glass crunched under her feet. She moved through beams of slanting sunlight until she reached an open cellar door. Down sagging stairs, Samael sat on an old suitcase.
He cocked his head to one side as she drew closer. “You carry great sadness.”
“Estrilda—the child we wanted to rescue—she’s dead. And Sarah…She betrayed us. She joined Lilith on purpose and she’s the one who…” Katelina couldn’t finish. “I don’t understand. I’ve known her since I was seven. That she had this person inside her all along; this crazy, evil person who wants to hurt, and kill, and destroy…”
She tried to soak in some of Samael’s peace, but it wasn’t there. There was only cold emptiness—the same cold emptiness she felt.
“She said I wished she’d died, and I told her she was right. But that’s not true. I wish she’d lived—I wish the Sarah I know lived. But she didn’t. I don’t know if she died in that cage, or if it was the night they escaped, or if something happened at the party in Canada, but she’s gone and this, this monster walking around in her skin…”
Samael stood, hands folded behind his back. “She is the product of the one you call Lilith, and her poison. That is what the whore does; she poisons all she touches. Has she not turned one of the Kugsankal to her side? A lover of old, yes, but so many centuries have passed that he should have grown in wisdom and temperance. However, one look from her, and he is on his knees, fighting and bleeding at her command. She is a blight! A foul thing that must be destroyed!” Samael punctuated the last sentence with an impassioned wave of his fist. “And she will be, no matter who she hides behind. Her lover, the army she is gathering, all will fall like threshed grain to lie bloody at her feet, then she will follow.”
All will fall. She thought of what Sarah had said, “You fight against me, knowing your allies plan to kill me…”
And they did. Had Samael once considered sparing her, he wouldn’t anymore, not since she’d joined Lilith willingly.
“Samael. You can see inside of everyone, can’t you? Read their minds, even from a distance? Sarah…is she still in there somewhere?”
He turned to her with indifferent eyes. “She is a handmaiden to the whore, poisoned by her words and deeds. One cannot save a frost blighted flower, only pluck it.”
“But—”
“Rest. When the sun sets, I go on the hunt, and you return to your home.”
“But Lilith—”
“I will kill her. Look to the one you call your mother, while you still have time.”
“Wait! What do you mean? Please!”
“Sleep.”
The cellar evaporated, leaving her to scream alone in a void.
Katelina woke with a start. Samael’s final words shouted through her head. She needed to call…who? The hospital wouldn’t give her information. She didn’t have Brad’s number. Should she call every nursing home in the area? If she found the right one, would they tell her anything?
She checked her watch; it was after eight and the fit function said she had a heartbeat of seventy-two. Even if she knew the nursing home’s numbers, the night staff would tell her to call back in the morning.
“This sleeping all day is a pain in the ass!”
Jorick stirred from the opposite couch. He gave the gasping breath that signaled he was awake. She wondered if she did that. She hadn’t noticed it, but she wasn’t sure he knew that he did.
He sat up and rubbed his head. “Were you shouting?”
“Yes. Sorry. I had another dream. Samael said I needed to get back to Ohio while we still have time, but he didn’t explain what he meant.”
“I hate to sound pessimistic, but I think the meaning was clear.”
“That’s what I thought. How many more have to die? I wish I’d never woken him!”
“Samael?” Jorick moved to sit next to her. “He may have been the catalyst, but he’s not the cause. Had you not woken him, someone else would have, and this would still happen one day.”
“But not to us. Not to Sarah and Mom and Estrilda and…” She broke off and buried her face against him. “It would be someone else suffering, not us.”
“I know, little one. But who’s to say they’d be able to handle it? Another might have taken Samael up on his offer, then you’d have both him and a queen with limitless powers. Who’s to say what they’d do together? They might destroy the world. Then all the people you love would die, and you’d still be suffering.”
“So it’s better to suffer in the epicenter than on the edges?” She couldn’t hold onto the sarcasm. “I’m sorry. I know you’re trying to help. I’m not sure anything can.”
He met her eyes. “I can think of some things that would. But for now, finding your mother will have to do.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Come, let’s feed.”
Since the stored blood was gone, they hunted. Jorick charmed some gophers that left Katelina feeling worse. When they got back to the complex, she packed and wished she was still mortal enough to enjoy tequila. It was the perfect time to drink a bottle or two.
She didn’t share her dream with the others. What was the point? She hadn’t learned anything of use, and she didn’t feel better. She felt worse.
The ride from the complex to the airfield was cramped and boring, though not as cramped as it could be. We have two less people.
With that depressing thought, she followed the others through the airport and eventually out to the small plane. When they took off, she leaned back and closed her eyes without bothering to pray they didn’t crash.
They were mid-flight when Verchiel climbed into the seat in front of her, his chin propped on the back. “You seem morose.”
“You think? We failed at everything we said we were going to do. We didn’t save Estrilda. We didn’t save Sarah. We didn’t kill Lilith. We got Des killed. God, has anyone notified his mother?”
Verchiel scratched his head. “No. I guess we should, to be polite.”
“Yeah. I think she’d appreciate it.”
He tugged his phone out, then stuffed it back in his pocket. “After we land I’ll use the app to look up her number. They’ve been in the same place for years. It should be in the database.”
The vampire app mapped where all the vampires in North America lived—or was supposed to. Verchiel had pointed out discrepancies before.
“Hey!” He covered the pages of Jorick’s book with his hand. “You’re going to let her be depressed?”
Jorick growled low. “Her mood isn’t your concern.”
“I dunno. It’s not like you’re doing much about it.”
Jorick growled again, deeper and more threatening. Verchiel backed off, hands in the air. “I’m just saying, maybe put the book down and talk to her.”
The redhead walked away. Jorick looked to Katelina. “Do you want me to close the book and talk to you?”
She started to say, “Obviously,” but then she thought about it. She didn’t want to talk. She wanted to stew in her misery. “There’s nothing to say.”
“You’re sure?”
She nodded. With a satisfied grunt, he went back to his story.
It was two in the morning when they got to Oren’s house. After the phone conversation she’d overheard, she expected some kind of romantic reunion between Oren and Etsuko, but they only exchanged nods.
I guess he really hasn’t changed.
It was oddly comforting; the thought of a romantic Oren was disturbing.
Though they couldn’t call random nursing homes that late at night, they could look for Brad. “When we were here for Easter, he still had his apartment. Sarah was staying there. There’s a chance he�
�s gone back there now that…” Now that mom’s house is gone. The words stuck in her throat, so she left it with a shrug.
Micah looked thoughtful. “Brad was that preppy pretty boy that schmoozed all over your mom at Easter?” She nodded. “Eh, I’m up for checking it out, as long as I get to have a snack while we’re in town. Those gopher things weren’t filling.”
Katelina asked, “Who are you going to snack on? There’s a curfew, and you can’t eat Brad.”
“I’ll find someone. Look, you want a ride or not?”
A few minutes later, Katelina climbed into the back of Micah’s black sports car. Jorick took the front passenger seat, in case they needed to get past anyone. And it was a good thing, because the roadblocks were still up.
Jorick got them through easily, and into the town. A lot of the mess was cleared away; windows were boarded up. Stacks of cut up trees and rubble waited on corners to be collected.
Brad’s building was in a part of town that had been spared. Katelina let out a breath of relief to see it intact.
“Okay, kiddies,” Micah said. “I’m gonna go with you, coz I’m curious about this shit, then I’m gonna go for a walk, if you get me.”
“Don’t do us any favors,” Jorick muttered sarcastically.
“Be nice,” Katelina hissed. The last thing they needed was for Micah to get pissed and leave them stranded.
She dragged Jorick into the building. The lobby light hummed as she checked the names on mailboxes. She pointed to number thirty-three. “His name’s still here, though that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Are we gonna knock on his door, or are we planning to run reconnaissance first?” Micah asked impatiently. “Number thirty-three, right? I remember what he looked like, so if you don’t wanna go, I will.”
“No, I’ll go.” Katelina pushed past him and up the stairs. On the third floor she made a right turn, then headed down the hallway. The carpet was as hypnotic as she remembered. Two tone burgundy, the pattern looked like rows of little moustaches.
Goddess of Night (Amaranthine Book 9) Page 26