Chapter 177
The next morning Katelina took a shower, packed, and then reluctantly let Jorick take her to the sixth floor restaurant. Oren accompanied them, probably to make sure that Jorick didn't get distracted.
Katelina ate quickly, and the vampires each had two glasses of blood. When they returned to their room, they found a notice stuck to the door that said they were free to go. It was marked with a symbol that looked like the Executioner's necklaces. Jorick said it was Malick's seal. She thought it ironic that the Executioners seemed to wear it as a badge of honor when it seemed more like a mark of ownership.
Oren dashed into the room and was back in the hallway with the luggage before the door could swing shut. He met Jorick's eyes and held them. Katelina didn't need to be a telepath to know that he was saying, "Let's get the hell out of here." For once, she agreed with him.
They took the elevator to the sixth floor. Instead of turning down the familiar corridor towards the restaurant and lounge, they went through a door that was cattycorner from the elevator. Inside was a pair of couches, a set of stairs and two doors. The stairs went upwards, and of the two doors one was marked "Humans Only Beyond This Point". The second had a glowing red EXIT sign over it, which she found bizarre. Surely they didn't have to obey the fire code? She sniggered as she imagined a fire marshal demanding to inspect them, let alone trying to write up the vampire guild for not being up to code.
Jorick opened the exit and led them into a hallway. They followed it around a bend and to a smooth wooden door. When Jorick knocked, a familiar looking square in the center of it slid aside to reveal an eye. The owner grunted, then slammed the peephole shut and jerked the door open.
They filed inside quickly, and Katelina looked around to discover that she was back in the guardroom she'd first entered The Guild through. Only, instead of coming out the shiny padlocked door, they'd gone through one of the others.
"Leaving?" the guard asked with no enthusiasm.
Jorick nodded crisply. "Yes. We checked a car."
"Name?"
"Jorick Smit."
The guard sighed and turned to the computer terminal. He cursed under his breath as he jabbed keys and jerked the mouse around. "This stupid piece of junk."
Jorick tapped his foot impatiently, and Oren edged for the door.
With a final string of curse words, the guard grabbed an overflowing folder from a shelf under the terminal. He flipped through random slips of paper, then paused and held up one that was bright orange. "Three? This says party of two."
Jorick's impatience turned icy. "Yes, we picked one up."
The guard gave a long-suffering sigh. "Look, it's my job. I have to keep track of everyone who comes and goes this way. If you don't like it, then go through the upstairs office next time."
Katelina wanted to shout that there wouldn't be a next time, but Jorick just remarked, "Yes. I believe we shall."
The guard made him sign the paper and declare the names of the party, and then he handed him what looked like a receipt. "Have a nice trip. Come again." He didn't sound like he really cared either way.
The brown stone corridor beyond was exactly as Katelina remembered, only less sinister. They moved through it at a clipped pace. When they reached the ladder, Jorick wordlessly picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Though she complained, he climbed quickly, and set her down once they'd reached the dark garage above.
Oren threw the luggage up through the hole and then bounded up, only using the ladder to bounce off of. He'd scarcely cleared the opening when Jorick slammed the metal trap door with a clang that rang of finality.
"Let's go," Oren declared and Jorick nodded his agreement.
By the garage lights, Katelina could see that there were a lot of cars. If each car could hold two or more vampires- She stopped her mental calculations when her stomach churned. She didn't want to think about it.
They came to a halt between a black sports car and a red SUV. Oren searched through his pockets while Jorick sniffed the air. He sighed and then called loudly, "Do you need something, Ark?"
Katelina stiffened at the name of the head Executioner, though Jorick didn't seem concerned. For a second, the silence hung tense and thick, and then a thin brunette stepped from the shadows. There was something about his face and the shape of his nose that made Katelina think of the movie with elves in it. He took a step towards them, stopped and studied them from a distance.
"Yes?" Jorick prompted, impatient and aggravated.
"I have a message from Eileifr. He said if you truly value peace, then you must follow your plan and let nothing distract you."
Oren and Katelina both looked to Jorick for an explanation, but the raven-haired vampire only shrugged. "Thank you, Ark. Tell him I intend to."
"I'm not your messenger." With those words, Ark turned on his heel and disappeared towards the trap door.
Oren muttered in disgust and turned to unlocking the black sports car. Katelina watched with surprise. "Whose is this?"
"Micah's. We thought we needed the speed." Both his tone and sideways glance at Jorick said that "we" was really only one of them.
She couldn't imagine Micah willingly loaning them his car, especially since he'd lost his hand in the fight.
The memories made her flinch. Though Micah sounded okay on the phone, the last time she'd seen him his skin was ashen and his wrist a bleeding stump.
Oren opened the door and Jorick stuffed Katelina through it and into the backseat. They handed the luggage in. When the doors shut and she was sure they were committed to leaving, she asked, "Who's Eileifr?"
"He's a member of the High Council," Jorick explained as Oren started the car and dropped it into gear. "He was the one you spoke with in the audience chamber."
"Oh, right. With the long hair." Jorick nodded and she chewed her lip. "What did he mean by that? What plan? And why?"
"Who can say." Jorick cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Eileifr is what they call a Demon Eye. He can see something of the future. It's his ability, if you will. But the future is always in flux, so many consider it all but useless."
"Is it?" Oren asked mildly.
No one answered.
Someone, perhaps Ark, had already opened the garage door, so they sped through it and out into the night. None of them spoke again until the grain elevator was out of sight, lost to distance and darkness.
"Good riddance!" Oren declared suddenly. "In all my days, I've never been so glad to be away from a place."
Jorick looked amused. "Really? I thought you were in a hurry to attack them?"
"That's different."
The amusement in Jorick's eyes died. "No, it isn't. I had hoped you would see how fruitless an attack would be. How do you plan to get inside? There are cameras and the entrances are guarded."
"The cameras can be disabled if we have someone who knows how to do those things. And as for the rest . . ." Oren cleared his throat and glanced back at Katelina, as though he were revealing secrets in front of an enemy soldier. "If Traven is still with us, then it may not be as fruitless as you think. Do you remember the Mexican?"
"Guatemalan," she corrected, though no one acknowledged it.
"The explosives expert? What good will he be? Even with a truckload of dynamite, how will you get to Malick? He is your goal, isn't he?"
"Of course. I don't think it's going to be as hard to draw him out as you think. You've said yourself that he wants a fight."
"And when you draw him out, how will you kill him?"
Oren didn't reply. They fell into silence and Katelina stared out the window. She saw imaginary phantoms in every dark hollow; phantoms with cold eyes and brown hair who screamed as Kateesha died. She was glad to be away from the Citadel, but at the same time she was safe there. The Guild was after Alistair, or they were supposed to be. He couldn't walk back in without getting arrested. Out here, there was nothing to stop him.
"Except Jorick - if he can catch him."
Honestly, she wasn't sure he could.
