“You’re sure this thing will make it?” she asked as she took a seat and eyed the frayed seatbelt.
Jorick’s answer was pure logic. “I doubt Fethillen would fly on it if she thought it was deficient.”
“Who said she knows anything about helicopters?”
As if summoned, the tall blonde vampiress climbed onboard and stopped near them. “We’ll be ready to go shortly. I see your coven is ready?” She nodded toward the hatch where Micah climbed in, carrying his and Torina’s bags.
“Yes.”
“Good. We cannot make the whole flight tonight. We will stop to refuel and then will fly a bit longer and finally stop in Russia for the day. I have made arrangements for us to stay with a coven there. Tomorrow we will reach Uzbekistan and see what we can discover. ”
The thought of two days in the helicopter of death left Katelina horrified, but Jorick only nodded.
Fethillen went on, “We do not advertise our existence, and so we do not contact the Sodalitas in each country for their help. The flight plan is no problem should we fly over controlled airspace, the helicopters are registered to a corporation. But customs is often difficult when we are forced to encounter it. Russia is not so hard to manage with the right amount of money but Uzbekistan is more problematic. We will have to land unscheduled in Uzbekistan and hope there is enough fuel to allow us to leave again, as there will be no way to get more there. If we are harassed by officials from any group we will do what must be done.”
With that, Fethillen left to take one of the pilots’ seats, and Verchiel appeared and sat next to Katelina. “Isn’t this exciting?”
“Not really.” The whole thing sounded terrible, and to make matters worse, she saw Sushel climb on board.
“Just what we need.”
“At least the Children of Shadows won’t be there,” Verchiel said cheerfully. “In two days they should be in a neighboring country, attacking another citadel.”
Though it felt wrong, she heard herself say, “We can hope.”
Chapter Thirteen
The Russian coven that Fethillen had made arrangements with lived outside the town on a snowy, winding road. A pair of humans wrapped in fraying coats and threadbare scarves met their visitors and ushered them inside. When they removed their winter gear Katelina noted with horror that though one was a woman they were both identically bald. Around their necks were thick metal collars, and rusty cuffs chaffed their skinny wrists and ankles. The humans were dotted with bandages and scabs, proof of what the vampires used them for. Their hollow cheeks and pale skin spoke of ill health and their slumped shoulders and shuffling gait whispered their hopelessness.
Like scared animals, they didn’t meet the visitors’ eyes directly, and they barely looked at their masters. Three bearded vampires and a pair of pale females took over the welcome and indicated their facilities for housing humans. Katelina was grateful to lock herself in the bathroom and took her time “freshening up”. Though it was hardly a room from House Beautiful, it was a million times better than the shabby outhouse.
When she emerged, dressed in clean clothes, Jorick led her through the house. What was essentially a living room held several chairs and a heavy desk piled with radio equipment like Fethillen’s. A bearded vampire hunched over it, wearing a pair of 1980s style headphones and adjusting radio knobs.
They walked past him and into the kitchen. The female slave stirred a pot of something that smelled vaguely disagreeable. Oren and Etsuko were already seated at a table, and Jorick and Katelina took the other two chairs. A pair of bowls and spoons were laid out, while another set waited on the countertop.
Katelina fiddled uncomfortably with the spoon, conscious of the bald woman and her unhappy circumstances. “Where are the others?”
“Feeding,” Oren answered. “I imagine we’ll have to wait until you’ve finished before we can go.” He scowled hard at Katelina, as if it was her fault that she and Etsuko needed to eat.
Katelina didn’t feel like talking. She could hear the odd little click-clicks of the vampire using Morse code, and she wondered who he was sending a message to. How many vampires could there be who used that?
The cook gave the pot a final stir and then lifted it from the stove and carefully filled the two bowls on the counter. Then she turned to the visitors and ladled a thin, purplish soup into Katelina’s bowl, complete with mysterious white lumps Katelina thought might be potatoes.
The woman shuffled around the table and started to do the same for Etsuko when the heavy pot slipped from her hands and splashed vibrantly colored soup over herself, Etsuko, Oren, and the table. She gave a mortified cry and rushed to get a rag. A constant flow of Russian poured from her lips as she tried to clean the mess and Etsuko assured her again and again that it was all right.
Katelina noticed the radio silence a moment before the bearded vampire strode into the room. With his broad shoulders, dark hair, and angry eyes he looked like a depiction of a furious war god and she drew closer to Jorick.
It only took the vampire a moment to size up the situation. Then he gave a loud, angry exclamation, and grabbed the bald woman by the arm. She pleaded with him, even as he dragged her out of the house. The door slammed, like some final pronouncement, and Katelina jumped.
“What’s he doing?”
Before Jorick could answer there was a loud crack, like a whip, followed by a shriek. Katelina clutched Jorick’s arm as both sounds were repeated several times. At last silence fell, broken by the sound of heavy boots stomping their way back into the house.
The bearded vampire ducked into the kitchen and offered them a toothy smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He picked up the pot from the floor and discarded it with a sneer, then took a moment to wipe something red from his hands. Katelina wasn’t sure if it was soup or blood.
“I must apologize for the carelessness, yes?” He picked up a bowl of soup from the counter and held it out to Oren. “Your human may have her portion, she won’t need it tonight.” He broke into a hearty laugh.
Oren muttered a thank you and handed the bowl to Etsuko. The bearded vampire nodded, as if to approve the situation. “My name is Yaroslav. I am the leader. When you have finished with your meals would you like me to put up your humans? We have very good place in the shed. Plenty of hay. Very warm. I lock them in myself each morning so they cannot escape and I will give my good word that no one will take liberties with your servants. It is… impolite for one man to steal another man’s bread without asking.”
The comparison left Katelina with clenched fists, but Jorick only said, “Thank you. We prefer to keep them with us.”
Yaroslav gave Katelina and Etsuko a good once over. “I see they have no collars? Very progressive thinking. You are sure they are, how do you say, well trained? It is not that we are untrusting by nature, but…” he spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “You understand it makes for nervous bedfellows.”
And well it should, Katelina thought angrily. If anyone deserved to be staked to death in their sleep it was this group.
Jorick remained calm. “I can assure you neither are prone to violence.”
Some of the friendliness slipped from Yaroslav’s face. “While I appreciate such promises, my friends may not. If you will excuse me?”
“Of course,” Jorick replied.
Yaroslav muttered something under his breath and stalked back toward his radio.
“What an asshole,” she hissed angrily.
Jorick shrugged. “They’re more traditional about their humans. Eat up. Oren and I still need to feed before dawn.”
The covens’ basement was dark. The only light came from a feeble candle held by one of the bearded vampires. It revealed the outline of five large wooden boxes and the rough texture of an unfinished dirt floor.
“There is space enough, if you are friendly,” the vampire said in his thickly accented voice.
Fethillen nodded. “It will do. Thank you.” She motioned to her followers and
they fell into line and laid down in rows, as if by practiced maneuver. Ume hesitated before she laid down between Quenby and another vampire, and Katelina thought she saw a flash of fear on her face. Did she know about Sushel’s plan?
Katelina woke the next evening to darkness. Jorick helped her to her feet and guided her up the stairs. In the living room the bearded vampire sat before the radio. He was turned away from it, and draped across his lap was the bald woman. Her pale breasts were naked to the cold air. Bruises and bites marked her torso, and heavy scabbed lash marks cut across her back. Her pale tortured arm was jammed in the vampire’s mouth, and he fed from her greedily. The woman’s eyes were closed and her face was a mixture of pain and something else that made Katelina look away.
Jorick led Katelina out of the house to where Oren, Etsuko, and Verchiel waited. “Shall we?” the redhead asked cheerfully, though he didn’t wait for an answer before he started across the snowy yard.
Katelina paused at a small shed whose door hung open. She poked her head inside and drew it back as quick. The smell was thick and overpowering; sweat, blood, and God knew what else. A bucket stood against the back wall and scattered bits of hay littered the floor. She realized instantly what it must be: the human’s shed.
Jorick gently urged her away and she said savagely, “We have to do something.”
“About what?” Oren asked disinterestedly.
“The humans. We can’t leave them in these conditions.”
Jorick cleared his throat and Oren said, “Yes we can. It’s none of our business.”
“How can you say that? Never mind. I shouldn’t expect anything else from someone who used to feed on their servants.” She turned to Jorick. “We have to—”
Oren cut her off. “My previous household arrangements are no business of yours. However I did not feed from my servants.”
Katelina called to mind an image of their maid, skinny and covered in bandages. “Right, then who did?”
Oren growled and Jorick interrupted before the fight could escalate, “The children. They were too small to catch their own food. Now enough.”
She had a sudden punch of guilt. The children. Oren’s children, turned vampires by their mother and murdered by Malick’s favorite Executioners. “It doesn’t matter,” she said quickly. “What matters is that we need to do something about these humans. Did you see that woman? He whipped her. They sleep in a smelly shed with a bucket to piss in. It’s horrible and illegal!”
“Not by the vampires’ Laws.” Jorick didn’t meet her eyes. “Katelina, vampires kill humans. Why would they think mistreating them is worse? It’s the same with humans and animals. No one bats an eye to a dog chained to a porch, or a pig left with only a leaky shed and a trough.”
“But those are animals,” she cried. “And some people think it’s wrong.”
“And so do some vampires,” Verchiel said. “You didn’t see grumpy boots throwing his slaves out in the rain.” He jerked a thumb toward Oren. “But that doesn’t give him the right to interfere in someone else’s situation.”
She didn’t bother to look to Etsuko for support. No doubt the Japanese woman would agree with Oren from some sense of duty. “I love how you sanitize this. Someone else’s ‘situation’, as if those aren’t human beings suffering! You compared them to dogs, and I guarantee if I came across someone beating a dog I’d at least turn them in. Unlike vampires, humans have laws about that kind of thing.”
Jorick’s tone was pained patience. “If vampires had laws about it, the answer would be to kill the humans, Katelina, just as humans ‘put down’ abused animals. Would you rather they were dead?”
“That’s the best you can come up with?”
Jorick started to rebuff her, then held up his hand. “Never mind. Let’s feed so we can leave.”
They walked for a minute when Jorick turned to Verchiel. “I don’t suppose you have any foreign connections worth mentioning?”
“Me?” Verchiel asked. “Not really. Why?”
“In that case go on. I’ll be back.”
Jorick stormed toward the house and Katelina watched him go with confusion. “What’s he doing?”
“He’s not thinking of trying to intervene on those humans’ behalf, is he?” Oren asked sharply. “The only thing he could do is buy them and we hardly need two half-starved slaves tagging along.”
“He could turn them loose afterwards,” Verchiel suggested. “Of course they’d have nowhere to go and no money, and the coven will take new ones.” He grinned. “I’m surprised. I didn’t peg ol’ Jorick for a soft touch.”
Oren gave Katelina a cold look. “He never used to be.”
The vampires caught something furry that Katelina tried to ignore. They’d finished and were trying to decide whether to go back to the house or wait for Jorick when he appeared, looking grim.
“Happy Saint Valentine’s Day.”
Katelina peeked out from her coat. “What?”
“You wanted a present, so you got a present. And now we’re broke,” he added with irritation. “I assume that makes it expensive enough? Loren said the gifts had to cost a small fortune.”
Oren groaned. “You didn’t.”
“Of course. What else was there to do? We’ll turn them over to what’s left of the Birlik in Uzbekistan. Unless you’d like to keep them?” Katelina stared at him, and he said, “There’s no point in turning them loose here. The coven would simply track them down again. Now if you’re finished interfering for the night, I’d like to feed so we can go.”
The humans didn’t speak English. When Fethillen impatiently volunteered to explain the situation to them in their native tongue, they gripped each other tightly, and stared at the ground with large, terrified eyes. Getting them to the helicopter was even worse, and when they were forced inside, the bald woman broke down in tears.
“Is this necessary?” Sushel demanded.
“If Jorick’s coven wishes to buy more slaves it is their choice,” Fethillen said. “Admittedly this is not the place for them, but tomorrow, when they do not need to hunt for their food and we do, you may think differently.”
Katelina gaped. If Fethillen had told the humans that, then no wonder they were upset.
“I believe she only said we were their new owners,” Jorick assured her as he fastened his seat belt.
Micah sat next to Katelina. “So what’s the fucking deal with those bald people? We taking them as a brown bag lunch or what?”
“No! Jorick’s going to turn them in to the guild-thing in Uzbekistan because their owners were torturing them.” Owners. “I mean, those vampires were torturing them.”
“Right, and the what’s-it in Uzbeck-whatever are gonna be nicer? You two are whacked.”
She didn’t bother to reply.
Fethillen landed the helicopter in a snowy field outside of the city. The engines stayed on and the rotors whirred overhead, even as she walked back to the cargo area. Katelina caught Jorick’s eye, but he didn’t comment.
“We wish to remain undetected, so we will part ways with you here,” Fethillen shouted over the noise of the engines and rotors. “We have two hours until sunrise. That should be enough time for you to get to the Birlik. You have official titles. You can use these to seek accommodations and ask questions. Of course, you will not mention us.”
It was an order, not a question, and Katelina expected Jorick to tell her to get bent. Instead he nodded.
Fethillen added, “If all goes well we will meet tomorrow night. If not, it is hard to say.”
In other words there was a chance they might abandon them? Though Katelina wasn’t fond of the Black Vigil, she didn’t like the idea of being left behind.
Jorick nodded again and stood.
Ume was on her feet quickly. “I should go with them. If something happens I’ll be able to contact you.”
Fethillen pressed her lips together and studied the girl, while Sushel poked the vampire next to him and mouthed, “I told you.”
Finally Fethillen said, “Yes. Perhaps you should. There is much animosity.” She let her eyes slide to Sushel. “By tomorrow some of the anger may have cooled.”
Ume nodded and grabbed a backpack from under her seat. She pressed her clenched fist to her heart, like an ancient Roman salute, and repeated something in a foreign language. Katelina assumed it was an oath of loyalty, though she couldn’t be sure.
Someone opened the helicopter’s door, and Katelina hurriedly grabbed her bag and followed Jorick out. She landed in snow and quickly moved aside for the next vampire. The helicopter’s blades whirled up freezing cold air, and she could see the lights in the nearest house snapping on one by one.
Torina hopped out last, landing in a crouched position. She reminded Katelina of a sleek jungle cat, luring the unsuspecting in with her pretty coat and then attacking.
Jorick moved them away from the helicopter, and they’d barely stumbled out of the whirlwind when the lumbering aircraft lifted off. Katelina threw up an arm to shield her face and shouted, “They’re leaving?”
“Before the authorities arrive,” Jorick called back to her. “As should we.”
“Authorities?”
“Yes, they frown on unauthorized helicopters landing in fields. Come on!”
They hurried in the opposite direction of the house, but Katelina could already see a tiny figure out on the lawn, staring up at the departing helicopter and then scanning the darkness.
Loren herded the bald humans along, casting uncertain glances at Katelina. The pair kept their eyes on their shuffling boots and murmured a low, terrified conversation that grew more audible as the sound of the helicopter died away. Katelina wanted to reassure them, but she knew it was useless. How could anyone who was born in the last twenty years not know at least a little English? Especially when their vampires did.
“They haven’t had much of an education,” Verchiel said.
“Do you speak Russian?” she asked hopefully.
Children of Shadows Page 18