Children of Shadows

by Naylor, Joleene

  She sat frozen on the bench, even as the guard motioned to her. Neither Jorick nor Verchiel turned around, and without some kind of reassurance she couldn’t force her legs to work.

  “You’ve been called,” Wolfe hissed. “Go!”

  She made herself stand and straightened her shirt nervously. She’d been ready for this earlier, but after the reprieve it was worse.

  The entrance to the dock-like box seemed a mile away, but she made it without incident and stepped inside. A bench ran the length of the back, though since neither Jorick nor Verchiel sat she thought she shouldn’t, either.

  Jorick caught her hand and squeezed it tightly. He gave her a pained smile, as if to say it would be all right. Without the sincerity it was hard to believe.

  The robed vampires turned their eyes on her and she could feel them in her mind all at once. She gasped and clutched the sides of her head and stumbled backwards. Jorick caught her and she squeezed her eyes shut. Get out! she thought furiously. All of you!

  Jorick jolted next to her and the other vampires gave an audible gasp, then fell into a flurry of conversation. With her head free of their invasion, she relaxed and opened her eyes to see Jorick staring at her with naked alarm.

  “What?” she whispered.

  The gold clad vampire pounded the wooden rail and the councils fell silent. He then stared hard at Katelina, and his expression went from cold irritation to near fury.

  “This human has been tainted by the one known as Samael!” he cried. “It is this council’s finding that this matter is of too great import to be decided on, except by the Kugsankal. Therefore, the human and her Master are to remain here until the Kugsankal can be consulted and come to an agreement on what is to be done. Final judgment has been made.” He pounded the rail again, as if it was the punctuation to his sentence.

  Katelina gaped and turned to Jorick, but he stared straight ahead, his expression hard and his eyes like two dark flames.

  Verchiel bowed. “If I may address your excellencies? What of myself?”

  Katelina felt a sudden urge to smack him. Himself indeed! What in the hell was going on?

  “You may come or go as you will, or as your guild commands.” The gold robed vampire gave them all a sharp once over, stopping on Katelina. “You are dismissed to the confines of the stronghold.”

  Wolfe moved before them and bowed low. Verchiel did the same, and Jorick gave them a vague incline of his head, then they filed out of the box and followed the Scharfrichter to the door.

  Katelina could hear the councils whispering behind them, like buzzing bees. She didn’t understand. What did they mean tainted? Why did she have to stay? What in the hell was going on?

  Before Katelina could demand an explanation Wolfe gave them a stiff half bow. His face was as inflexible as ever, but his eyes were intrigued. “Jorick, you are free to roam the stronghold, but not to leave it. Verchiel, if you would like to contact your guild, then you may do so at the Scharfrichter office, or at the main desk in the entrance hall. Should you require anything else, no doubt someone will be happy to assist you. If you will excuse me, I have other duties to attend to. Guten Abend.” Then he turned on his heel and strode away.

  Katelina turned to Jorick, “What’s—” but he shook his head.

  “Not here.”

  She wanted to ask, “Then where?” but he took her hand and tugged her down the corridor. Verchiel followed. Despite his casual attitude, she caught worry in his violet eyes when he glanced at her.

  The elevator was crowded and Katelina huddled against Jorick’s side, as if she could sink into him and disappear. The doors swished open on their floor, and Jorick strode down the corridor. He unlocked their bedroom door and then motioned Katelina in.

  Verchiel followed, and Jorick barred him with an arm. “You’re not invited.”

  “Ah, come on. This involves me, too. It’s not like I could go home in good conscience while you guys are stuck here.”

  “I said no!” Jorick roared.

  Katelina flinched and spun back to stare at them through the doorway. “Does it really matter?”

  “See?” Verchiel said with a wide grin. “She wants me!” He disappeared then reappeared inside the room next to her. “To come in, I mean,” he added with a wink.

  Jorick snarled and charged inside, and Verchiel made a show of ducking behind Katelina as if she was a shield. They went in a half circle before Katelina jerked away from them. “For the love of God, who cares? Shut the damn door and tell me what the hell is going on!”

  Jorick gave a final growl and then slammed the door while Verchiel dodged to one of the deep red chairs and dropped into it. “Looks like that incident with Samael has come back to bite you. Heh-heh. Bite you. Get it?”

  “Shut up,” Jorick snapped, then turned to Katelina. He opened and closed his mouth rapidly, as if trying to speak, and then ran an exasperated hand through his hair. “Samael.” The word came out in a long, low growl.

  “What about him?” She looked back and forth between the two vampires. “Why do we have to stay here? Because he bit me? What the hell does that matter?”

  Jorick turned his back to her, and she could see his tense shoulders rise and fall, as if he was trying to stay calm.

  Verchiel sighed. “It’s not a matter of being bitten, Kately, but of being healed.”

  Jorick turned back and met her eyes. His voice was even, though obviously at great control. “At the temple, Samael fed on you, Katelina. But who healed you?”

  She realized the vampire at the trial had meant Jorick. “One did not even know it had occurred.” She hadn’t thought to tell him—surely he’d known. Then again, maybe he hadn’t. They’d been separated when it happened, and when they were reunited again it was already healed. But why hadn’t he seen it in her mind?

  “Katelina!” His voice snapped her back to the present. “If Samael fed on you, then who healed you?”

  “I…I don’t…”

  Verchiel swept to his feet. “Since it’s come to this—”

  “Don’t.” Jorick held up a hand to silence him. “Don’t lie and take the credit.”

  The redhead shrugged. “I wasn’t going to. It was Samael, after he sent the shower of rocks down on everyone.”

  Jorick’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know?”

  “Because I wasn’t under the rocks. I’m a bit faster, as you might have noticed.” He absently brushed at his shirt, then met Jorick’s hard gaze. “Things were a bit dusty, but I did see that Samael had picked her up from the floor. When the clouds settled I saw him taking his arm back from her, then he stood there, staring at her, which is where you eventually came in.”

  Jorick made a long, low sound of fury, then turned and slammed his fist into the wall. The plaster cracked and fell away to leave a hole down to the lathes.

  Katelina jumped back, and Verchiel snickered. “You won’t get your deposit back.”

  “Shut up!” Jorick spun on him. “If you knew, why didn’t you say so sooner?”

  “Because there were more important things to worry about.”

  “More important than Katelina?” Jorick took a deep breath and spoke to himself, “All right. All right.” He massaged his forehead. “His blood is old. Beyond old. I can’t… there is no comparison.”

  Verchiel brightened. “Luckily he’d only recently been bloodless, so it hadn’t had time to really soak in yet. That’s probably why it didn’t turn Kately into some sort of super creature.”

  It was her turn to glare at him. “What are you talking about?”

  “You know. When a vampire first drinks they’re a lot like a container, holding the blood. Normally they have a lot of vampire blood pumping through their veins so it mixes up pretty fast and they could even turn you within half an hour or so of feeding, but Samael didn’t have any – well, obviously there was some in the deep tissue, but you know what I mean. He didn’t have enough to count, so when he drained everyone dry there wasn’t a lot of his
blood for it to mix with, meaning it wasn’t even a fifth as potent as it would’ve been had he waited an hour or two for it to process and become assimilated.”

  “God, you make it sound like the borg.” She dropped into the nearby chair. “So what would’ve happened if he had waited?”

  “I can’t even guess,” Jorick said. “As it is, he’s done enough.”

  “What has he done?” she cried wretchedly. “They said tainted. What the hell did they mean?”

  At her distress, some of the fight left Jorick. He moved to stand in front of her, took her hands in his and met her eyes. “Tainted was a poor choice of words, little one. You’re not tainted but…” His eyes dropped away. “I noticed it when we first arrived, then thought I must be wrong.” He paused, as if trying to find the right way to phrase it. “At the trial…did you not notice that you…you blocked them from reading your mind, Katelina. All of them. That’s quite a feat for a vampire, but for a human…” he trailed off and shook his head.

  A strange panic bubbled up in her. What did he mean? Yes, they’d been prying into her mind and then… and then…

  Get out.

  “Oh my God. What does that mean?”

  “Honestly, little one, I don’t know.”

  Silence fell as she tried to absorb everything. If she could do that—really do that—what else could she do? And what did that make her? Some kind of freak. Not vampire, but no longer human.

  Jorick caught her chin in his hand and stroked her cheek with his thumb. “No. You’re still human. You don’t drink blood. You can walk in daylight. Your soul is intact.”

  “Don’t start,” she muttered. A theological conversation was more than she wanted to deal with. “I thought you checked me over after the fight in the temple. Verchiel said you were making sure Samael hadn’t embedded a kill switch.”

  It was Jorick’s turn at confusion. “A what?”

  “I don’t know.” She looked at the redhead accusingly. “He said certain vampires could implant some terrible action in a person’s mind, with a trigger, and when the trigger happens the person goes crazy and kills everyone in sight. He said you’d checked for that.”

  Jorick made a strange noise and looked away.

  “You did, didn’t you?”

  “You’re fine,” he said at last. “Yes, I checked and there was nothing out of place, all right?”

  She felt a little better, though not a lot. “What happens now? With the Kugsankal, I mean?”

  “I don’t know. Someone will have to wake them.”

  “If they’re not already awake,” Verchiel suggested. “They were up and about the last time we were here. With the way they look at time, we’ve barely been gone. Hardly worth climbing back into bed for.”

  Katelina shivered as she thought of their last visit to Munich and the secret council in the basement. The Kugsankal, or True Council, was made of the oldest living vampires—or near enough, depending on how Samael fit into the equation. After thousands of years, the True Council had handed the day-to-day activities of ruling over to others, such as the Höher Rat and The Guilds in all the other countries, and locked themselves up in the deepest parts of the underground stronghold where they lived in a sort of sleep-like state, only waking or being woken when matters requiring their ancient power or wisdom occurred.

  While they had been there last time Malick had attacked, looking for Jorick and the Heart, and Inanna, one of the Kugsankal, had actually left her basement to confront him. That was something unprecedented. What was it Cyprus had said?

  “I’ve never seen them, and I doubt many living vampires have, short of Wolfe who leads the Scharfrichter. The trio remains isolated on the bottom most level of the stronghold. As far as I can tell, it’s been decades since they left their chambers.”

  Verchiel grinned. “As Wolfe said, we walk among the legends, huh? Ah, cheer up, Kately. Things are just starting to get exciting.”

  “I don’t want exciting!” she cried. “I want to go home!” She buried her face in her hands. This had turned out to be every bit the disaster she’d expected. Could things get any worse?

  Chapter Five

  Verchiel disappeared to “look into some things.” Jorick was perfectly kind to Katelina, but she could feel the fury that rolled beneath the surface. It wasn’t directed at her, rather at Samael, the Höher Rat, and potentially the rest of the world.

  A knock sounded on the door and Jorick opened it to find Sadihra. She’d changed into a purple sweater and in place of her Scharfrichter amulet hung a piece of polished amethyst.

  “Wolfe just told me,” the Scharfrichterin said as she stepped inside and closed the door. “Is it true?”

  The muscle in Jorick’s jaw flexed. “That depends on what he said.”

  “He said she fed upon Samael, and that the Kugsankal must decide what to do.”

  Jorick made a noncommittal noise and Sadihra closed her eyes. “Oh Gott!” She opened them again and turned serious, her usual smooth veneer in place. “They will keep her here, hoping to use her in some way against Samael.”

  Katelina stiffened at her words. “But how would I be useful?”

  “It’s hard to say,” Sadihra answered. “Whenever you drink a vampire’s blood you become connected to them in some way. The how is different in every case, perhaps depending on the vampire, or on the human, or on the amount of blood. There were experiments done, of course, in the Dark Ages, but the results were never conclusive.”

  Katelina could well imagine Dark Age vampire experiments. “But I’ve had blood from other vampires and never been connected in a way that could be used against them. Malick could only use me against Jorick because Jorick cared about me and chose to be worried. It isn’t as if hurting me could hurt Jorick miles away.”

  Sadihra shrugged. “Then perhaps it’s something else?”

  “Like the mind thing?” Katelina asked.

  “Mind thing?” Sadihra looked quickly to Jorick. He explained in a handful of words and the Scharfrichterin looked at Katelina as though she was something mysterious that had crawled from under a rock. When she finally found words she said, “Be careful, both of you.”

  She started for the door, then stopped. “Did Wolfe tell you the results of the Black Vigil inquiry?”

  “No,” Jorick answered. “We had very little time for conversation.”

  “Join us for dinner. There is a restaurant.”

  Though Katelina wasn’t so sure about dinner with Wolfe, Jorick nodded. “We know where it is.”

  “Good. We will see you at three. Yes? Until then, good evening.”

  She hurried out the door and Katelina threw herself back on the bed with a groan.

  It was nearly three when Jorick and Katelina went to the restaurant. Wolfe and Sadihra sat at a table in one of the smaller rooms. A handful of tables were scattered around them, but most were empty. Though Katelina couldn’t say why, she got the impression it was some kind of VIP room.

  Sadihra greeted them, and Wolfe gave them stony nods. A waiter took their order; blood for the vampires and a pasta dish for Katelina. Once he’d gone, Wolfe turned to Jorick. “The Höher Rat spoke to the prisoners we brought with us.”

  “And?” Jorick asked.

  “Their evidence held true. They would give very little information about their so-called order, except to say its function is to destroy the Children of Shadows, which they claim is not defunct as we all believe, but instead has been secretly thriving.”

  “The last of that cult died when I was still a fledgling,” Jorick said. “Malick helped hunt Memnon himself. I watched him burn, and I watched his followers burn.” He paused a moment then added with no emotion, “I helped to light the fires for some.”

  Wolfe nodded. “I was there, too, if you’ll remember. They weren’t all they were rumored to be, just a squabbling bunch of immortals scrabbling for power.”

  “There was a lot of that back then,” Jorick said.

  “Yes, before the
Kugsankal stamped out the last of it and organized the new system. With the recent upheavals, I worry those times may come again. If the group really has resurfaced then it’s no wonder. Malick may have set a dangerous precedent.”

  The waiter interrupted with the food, and it was only after the glasses of blood were poured from a large crystal decanter that the conversation resumed.

  “As I was saying, the research department found mention of The Black Vigil in a collection of letters from the ancient materials department. They were a group from Moldavia, led by a Dumitru, who organized them in the fourteenth century, initially to fight another ‘evil’ master. Eventually they evolved as enemies of The Children of Shadow, though it doesn’t say why. There was some hint that they had a change of leadership, but no specific name is given. They disappeared from records in the sixteenth century, presumably wiped out by the Children, and no one has seen or heard of them since.”

  “I see.” Jorick sipped from his glass. “So they are both dead orders, so to speak.”

  “Or un-dead,” Katelina muttered to herself.

  “It doesn’t say exactly when they disappeared, does it?” Jorick asked thoughtfully. “If they were enemies of the Children of Shadows I feel we should’ve run across them.”

  “The last mention is some time before Memnon was destroyed, so there’s a chance they were gone before we were involved. We were both young then.”

  Jorick nodded. “Did they manage to trace either of the prisoners? Their masters, covens, and such?”

  “No. They both swear allegiance to a Fethillen. They claim she’s the leader of the Black Vigil, and at least six hundred years old, but there are no records of her. Of course, that doesn’t disprove her existence, since even The Sodalitas’ records are very incomplete. It isn’t easy to keep track of every vampire in the world.”

  Katelina tested her dinner and found it tasty. “So what are they going to do with them?”