Chapter 120
Oren returned with Torina and the black vampire she'd been all over at the farmhouse. Katelina learned that he was Des, the vampire Jorick had called from the restaurant pay phone, and that he'd helped Oren and Jorick with the war on Claudius long before Katelina or Patrick had gotten involved. However, his opinion of Jorick had changed in the last few days.
He sniped a few remarks, and then they got down to business. Jorick pointed to some of the papers on the table. "According to these, Kateesha met with someone from The Guild on more than one occasion. The lieutenant, as he apparently likes to call himself, claims that she had their blessing. But-"
"But, she was trying to overthrow them," Torina finished for him. "The Guild wouldn't bless that!"
A smug light gleamed in Jorick's eyes and he held up a stack of papers. "No, she wasn't."
"Really?" Des sneered. "Then why did she kidnap the human to draw the Executioners?"
"Yes," Oren agreed, irritated. "My intelligence said that she wanted to fight The Guild."
Jorick scoffed. "Then your intelligence was wrong. There's no mention among any of the papers about attacking The Guild or kidnapping the human. In fact, the only comments about Shelay are obviously meant to be private observations on the lieutenant's part." He rifled through the papers until he found the ones he wanted, then read aloud, "'Though, I fail to understand why the queen is so fascinated with her. She says there must be something in it; something revitalizing. But, I don't see it, and I don't think she does either.' And then there's this comment on the battle with the Executioners. 'Wisely, our queen turned the human over to them. I had expected it to cause her great unhappiness to do so, but on the whole she seems only to be annoyed that The Guild interfered with her entertainment. For my part, I can't say that I miss her at all.'"
Katelina suddenly felt something sick twist in her stomach as she recalled Kateesha's words about trying a human. "My God. She wasn't bait, she was Kateesha's lover."
"Apparently," Jorick agreed. "Though she cared for her very little to turn her over so easily." His gaze shifted to Katelina and then he cleared his throat and looked back to the others. "Kateesha's war wasn't with The Guild, but with the humans."
If there'd been crickets, their chirp would have been the only sound in the room.
Finally, Oren asked incredulously, "What?"
Jorick flipped through the papers, his brow creased. "The plans are extensive. She intended to coordinate with other covens all over the country, one in each state, so that they could start the attack at the same time." He rubbed his chin and skimmed through a paragraph. "However, the plan was in its infancy. She'd only been in contact with one other coven, and they hadn't accepted her proposal yet."
Des crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Jorick with thinly veiled hostility. "And just what was her proposal, exactly?"
Jorick shuffled through the papers again. "They would form a sort of loose confederacy, under her ultimate leadership. Each coven had to agree to supply a hundred vampires to the cause."
"A hundred?" Oren demanded, his eyes wide. "No coven is that extensive! It's too many vampires to support in a single area!"
"She was importing some from Mexico, just as your prisoner said. And according to this, they should be here any day. As for the other covens-" Jorick paused and a sardonic smirk settled on his lips. "-They were to manufacture them. According to the battle plans laid out here, most of them would have been nothing but cannon fodder, so it hardly mattered how strong they were."
Des narrowed his eyes. "I just don't understand the point of it. The Guild would squash it before they could accomplish anything."
"I don't know about that," Oren said slowly. "Fifty covens attacking simultaneously? Each with one hundred or more? How could The Guild stop it before someone saw?"
"They'd kill the witnesses," Torina suggested with a shrug.
"But what about the internet?" Katelina asked suddenly. The vampires stared at her, but she refused to be intimidated. "With cell phones and digital cameras and online video sites and photo albums, there's no way they could control it. People would upload the pictures and the videos and they'd be visible worldwide."
"And I imagine that was Kateesha's goal." Jorick dropped the papers to the table with finality. "Once that many people had undisputed evidence before their eyes, the world would change. It wouldn't matter what The Guild did to try and silence it."
Katelina balked at the thought of the new world Jorick spoke of.
Des, however, refused to accept it. "What about this Guild representative they claim she met with? They wouldn't agree to that! It goes against every Law we have!"
"I suppose that depends who the representative was," Jorick said. "It doesn't say specifically that The Guild gave her a blessing, only that someone within it did."
Oren's brow wrinkled. "Even Malick wouldn't dare."
"I don't know," Jorick admitted.
Oren looked to Jorick, then back to the papers. "What do we do about it?"
"I'd start by asking this lieutenant," Torina purred, her hand on Des' arm. "As I recall, he's going to be executed shortly?"
"Yes," Oren agreed, reluctantly. "We should ask him."
Jorick picked up a sheet of paper that was lying off to the side by itself. "We should also talk to Thomas. I believe the lieutenant's book keeping has left a lot of questions that only he knows the answers to."
Des' eyes narrowed dangerously, "And what does it say, exactly?"
Jorick's tone was unemotional, but Katelina thought she saw a smug smirk crease the corners of his mouth. "According to this, Thomas met with Kateesha the night before the war coven was attacked." His gaze flicked meaningfully to Oren, then back to the paper and he read aloud, "'Thomas reported that Jorick and his pet have joined Oren's coven. Oren offered him leadership, but he evidently refused. The rumor is that he and his human were attacked, but no one seems to know the extent of the battle or what happened. Thomas was angry that we didn't tell him about Adam and Nirel's involvement, but the queen soothed him and he left in good spirits, with the promise that everything would be ready for the attack tomorrow night.'"
Oren cleared his throat uncomfortably, and Des snatched the paper out of Jorick's hand. "Where does it say that?" But, he apparently found it on his own. "There's no way to prove this is real! Jorick was left alone with the documents. He could have forged this."
Torina peered at the paper, a frown on her face. "If the handwriting matches..."
"It proves nothing!" Des snapped and threw the paper back on the table. "He could have faked that. There are plenty of examples here."
Torina's brow puckered in irritation, though her voice stayed sweet, "And why would he do that?"
"To clear his name, of course!" Des cried. "Everyone knows it was him."
Torina dropped the sweet act. "Do they? I don't remember that."
Des snorted contemptuously. "Of course. And if you need more proof, he had his human drink from Kateesha-"
"That hasn't been proven yet!" Torina snapped over the top of him. "Why would he do that?"
Des opened his mouth to reply, but Oren shouted over both of them, "Enough! We can argue this later. There are more important things to deal with right now."
"More important than Jorick lying?" Des' eyes suddenly lit with inspiration. "How do we know any of this is real? Maybe Jorick manufactured it all." He spread his hands to indicate the papers. "It would explain Kateesha's supposed pointless plan."
"Unless he can write a page a minute, he wouldn't have had time. We both saw the paperwork with our own eyes, before Jorick was ever left alone with it." Oren took a deep breath. "No, I won't argue this now. We'll talk to the lieutenant first."
"Yes," Torina echoed, her voice hard. "Let's see what he has to say."
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