Chapter 152
When Katelina came to, they were speeding down the highway. The windshield wipers swished back and forth to combat soft flakes of snow. She blinked groggily and then cried out as she spied Verchiel and it all came crashing back.
He laughed at her. "You know, you made quite a scene back there."
"You're an ass! Your sister? We don't look anything alike!" In fact, his facial features were almost Asian.
"I know, but people always accept the option that means they don't have to get involved. You should behave. Jorick told you to cooperate, and he meant it by the way." He tapped his head to indicate he'd read the other vampire's mind. "He didn't mean for you to run off with no way to get ahold of him."
"I'd have found a way."
"Really? Such as?"
She had no answer, so she glowered silently. He reached between the seats and fished out a travel can of chips and a bottle of soda and dropped them into her lap. "You should probably feed - erm, eat. I did promise Jorick I'd feed and water you."
"Ha ha. Funny. You know he's going to kill you." Images of Claudius' beheaded body danced through her mind, followed by a certain sick satisfaction.
Verchiel nodded good naturedly. "No doubt he's planning my demise this very moment, but I don't think he'll follow through with it."
"Oh, he will." She jerked her gaze to the window, comforted by the certainty of Jorick's revenge. Still, no matter how fierce he might be, would he make it in time? She'd seen what agents of The Guild were like. They were terrible monsters - the kind who would bash a baby's skull into a tree and burn humans alive! She had no illusions about what they'd do to her!
Verchiel intruded on her silent thoughts. "You're marked, so you're not an ordinary human, as far as The Laws are concerned. They can't just kill you without a reason, you know."
"That's not what I've heard." She replied icily.
"Jorick's bitter." He waved it away with a gloved hand. "Sure, some enjoy their job more than others, Senya especially, but not everyone in The Guild is evil. In case you've forgotten Jorick used to be an Executioner."
"Yes, but he isn't one now. Besides, I've seen what you and your friends do."
He looked surprised. "Have you? And where was this?" When she didn't answer, he connected it himself. "If you mean at Oren's coven, they may have gone overboard. Bren always enjoys - I guess I should say enjoyed - a production. Still, they didn't kill anyone that they weren't supposed to."
"And what right do they have to decide who they're supposed to kill?"
"They don't, unless they're attacked. That's why we take an Execution Council when there's a debate. We only follow orders, you know."
"So they were ordered to burn Alexander alive?" she shouted, her hands clenched into white knuckled fists. "What did he ever do?"
He looked thoughtful."Who was Alexander?"
"Oren's little boy! They threw him into the fire and made his parents watch while he burned to death!"
Verchiel flinched involuntarily. "Well, no. They were probably ordered to destroy him, since he was a child. He can't take care of himself -"
"Yes, I know all about that!"
"Oh, then you should understand."
"I understand they're sick bastards! And so are these council people if they said to burn him alive!"
Verchiel cleared his throat and stared at the highway slipping past. "I doubt they said to burn him, only to deal with him. The method is up to the Executioner."
"Well isn't that just jolly? And I suppose it was up to whoever had to kill Shelay too?"
"Who?"
"Don't you know anything? She was a singer! Remember? Kateesha supposedly kidnapped her and the stupid Executioners got her back so they could cut her up and leave her in a ditch!"
Verchiel shrugged. "Sorry, I wasn't on that case. That was Senya and her crew, though I heard about it. They had to make it look like a murder, and then the human had drunk vampire blood, so they had to remove her organs. It shows up as an anomaly when the autopsy people run tests."
"Oh, the horrors! Maybe they should have left her alive!"
Verchiel sighed. "It's just the way those things are always handled. Be glad she was a high profile human, or she'd have just been killed and incinerated. No one would ever know what happened to her."
She sneered at him. "I guess that makes it okay since it's always handled that way."
"Do you think it would be better to just put vampires out in the open? How long would it be before they took over completely? Have you seen movies where vampires run wild? They have human farms and human slaves. Do you think reality would be any different?"
He was right about that, but she refused to agree. "Maybe."
"You know better. And if someone has to be sacrificed now and again for the good of the whole, that's just life. Cruel? Sure, but it's the way reality works. It's no different than killing a rebel leader to stop a war. One man dies and hundreds are spared death on a battlefield."
She had nothing to say, so she muttered, "Whatever."
***
It was an hour until dawn when Verchiel deftly snatched out a US travel atlas from between the seats. He flipped the pages one handed and checked a map against the highway signs. He nodded in satisfaction then tossed it at her. "Put that back, would you?"
"You." She refused to acknowledge the maps, but her curiosity got the better of her. Casually, she picked it up and flipped it open. She found herself looking at the maps for Idaho and Indiana, both a mass of multi colored lines. Penciled in various locations were stars, squares, triangles and twinklies with names or numbers scrawled next to them. There were a few eraser smudges that showed where marks had been removed.
Stubbornly, she snapped it closed, and bit her lip to keep from inquiring. Verchiel absently tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. "It's the location of all the known dens. The different symbols mean different things, like who's loyal to The Guild, who's revolting, and who needs to be wiped out one of these days."
"I didn't ask," she said brusquely.
"No. But you wanted to know."
His smug grin irritated her even more. "Seems pretty low-tech."
"What? Were you expecting a laptop and wi-fi?" She didn't answer and he broke into laughter. "I like gadgets as much as the next guy, but paper never needs to be recharged. Besides, I can edit that myself. If I need to change something on the database, I have to submit the change and then someone has to approve it and post it, and of course someone will always challenge it because they haven't heard about it yet, and yada, yada, yada. It's a process."
She didn't want to speak to him, but she couldn't stop herself. "Database?"
"Yeah." He pulled a phone out of his pocket and ran his finger over the touch screen to unlock it, then he tossed it to her. "Here. Look for the icon that says V-Map."
She gripped the phone excitedly, but realized she had no one to call. She didn't know Oren's stupid number and 9-1-1 would be a waste of time. With no other options, she did as he instructed. "A phone app?" The idea was absurd, but she hit the icon. The screen went black and then slowly loaded a map. A tiny pink dot moved jerkily down a line that was labeled "State Hwy 52".
"That's us. Now, compare that to the map. You'll see mine's better."
She gave both a cursory glance. "You're missing some."
"I bet not." He craned his neck and studied the screen. "There, the green square. Tap that." It brought up a new box and he asked, "What's it say?"
She rolled her eyes impatiently, but read back the information. "Carvelho sisters. Agnes & Iris. Turned August 1962, approximately 24 & 26. Master: Nirel Cummings. Abandoned. Blood debt: paid. Allegiance: none Abilities: none of any interest -" she broke off. "My god!"
He waved her comment away. "Scroll down and check under notes and tell me what it says."
"It says, 'location disputed. Information suggests this den was abandoned. Further investigation needed'."
"Exactly. They've been gone for a year now, but they're still listed at that location. Meanwhile, if you flip over to Florida, you'll find them listed there too, because that's where they're actually at! See what I mean?"
She stared at the phone in disbelief. "So, is Jorick in here?"
"Of course." Verchiel snatched the phone out of her hand before she could look anything else up. "Everyone is. Or they're supposed to be. As slow as they are at updating it, I bet there's a lot of vampires who've been overlooked."
"That's just- bizarre! You have a vampire map phone app!"
"Yeah. What? You think just because I don't have a GPS stuck to the dashboard we're behind? Oh, I know." He broke into a broad grin. "It's Jorick, isn't it? Living in the dark ages. We're not all like that. Just the ones who can't let go."
Though she secretly agreed with his assessment, she snorted contemptuously. "And you have a paper map. What's your point?"
He started to defend himself, but stopped. "Touch¨¦."
