Chapter 259
Eileifr nodded, and the guards that ringed the prisoners moved back and motioned for them to come forward. Katelina watched as they splashed out of the pool and formed a tightly packed group some feet away. She held her breath as she looked from one to the other. Micah stood at the front. Loren leaned against him, pale, withered, and barely conscious.
Torina stood behind Micah, soaked in blood. From her stance and expression Katelina guessed she was injured though where and how badly she couldn't tell. Her eyes moved away and picked out Alex, Yaul and Saeed. They were bloody but alive. Then, she saw Traven. He was awake and his face restored, no doubt thanks to Jeda, who clung to his arm. With her head held high and her dark hair tumbled about her face, she looked like a deposed fairy-tale queen.
Traven had four vampires left, including Jorge and Benny, the woman with the large glasses she'd met at the ranch house. Fabian was behind them, scowling darkly.
Heng called loudly, "We will make sure everyone is accounted for."
A greater guard holding a clipboard stepped out from under the veranda. Two more moved to the cloth covered mound. They flung the covering aside to reveal a pile of twisted, bloody limbs. At the sight, Katelina's stomach clenched.
The guard with the clipboard nodded once and turned his attention to the prisoners. "We will start with the dead. You will identify them as they are held up. Name and Coven."
A mangled body was held aloft by one of the other guards. The gashes in the half naked torso revealed a matted, gelatinous substance that had once been blood and organs. Katelina looked away, sickened. Jorick tightened his arm around her.
The guard repeated his instructions for identification and someone in Traven's coven called out a name. The guard made a checkmark on the clipboard and another body was held up. Katelina didn't want to look, but she couldn't stop herself. The woman was one she didn't know. Her missing arms made Katelina think of Loren; the explosion of blood and his horrible, high pitched screams.
As the body was identified she turned to Jorick and buried her head in his side. "How long is this going to go on?"
"Until they're done."
While she hid her eyes two more unfamiliar names were spoken, and then there was silence.
"Who is this?" the guard snapped. "You will identify the name and coven voluntarily or the information will be taken from you!"
Katelina looked, then wished she hadn't. One guard held the body, complete with hollow, congealing chest, and the other held a severed head by a handful of long, silvery blonde hair.
Fabian's voice shook, and his eyes snapped cold fire. "Luna," he hissed, his fists clenched at his side. "Her name is Luna."
"Coven?" The guard's pencil hovered over the board expectantly.
Micah looked at Fabian and Katelina saw the approximation of pity pass over his features. "She was with Oren," the bald vampire answered.
With a checkmark and a nod, Luna was tossed into the pile with the others. Her head landed on the floor next to the heap with a sickening plop. Her pale eyes were open and her lips were pulled back from her teeth, frozen in a snarl.
Katelina tore her eyes away and the guards held up the next body. Their cavalier attitude towards death both scared and appalled her. They cared for their own, but had no feelings or sympathy for anyone else's. Jorick was right when he'd once said that most immortals were selfish people.
Katelina's eyes were drawn again and again to Luna's severed head. The silvery hair trailed over the floor, clumped with blood. Jorick had said there'd be casualties. Somehow it was worse than she'd imagined. She hadn't known Luna, but to see her like that twisted her insides. The idea that Loren had lost his arm, or that Oren might be dead instead of safely hiding, made her feel even worse.
They finished cataloging the dead and moved to the living. Each prisoner was forced to step forward and give their name and coven. Katelina noticed that Traven's vampires listed both Jeda and Traven as the coven masters. They'd done it for the dead too, but she hadn't paid enough attention to think about it.
"I didn't know they shared leadership."
"They don't." Jorick nodded as Jeda stepped forward and uncomfortably identified herself as belonging to Traven's coven. "And they never have."
Katelina assumed that she was supposed to understand something from his statement, but she didn't.
When everyone except Oren was accounted for, the remaining seven Executioners were called, one at a time, to give evidence about the attack. Heng asked each one if they'd seen Oren. They all agreed that he'd been at the forefront of the battle. No one knew when he'd disappeared or where he'd gone.
Jorick was the last to be called. While he calmly answered Heng's questions, Verchiel slipped behind Katelina. "Looks like he got away with it. I told you not to worry."
"There's no proof he had anything to do with it," she whispered back fiercely.
"I never said he did." He tugged at the coat she was still wearing. "You're too short. It's dragging in the water."
"Do you want it back?" she snapped.
"No, it's all right." He looked to where the snow drifted through the ceiling. "It's probably cold in here. Just don't get anything else on it."
Before she could answer, he was gone.
Jorick returned and the group of masters folded in on itself to deliberate. Katelina hung onto Jorick's arm, her fearful eyes on the ancient vampires. They broke up and Eileifr moved to the front to address everyone assembled.
"We have reached a decision. Tonight's attack could not have been possible without the interference, nay almost guidance, of Malick, the head of the High Council. He was aware of the intentions of this war coven and yet he made no move to impede the attack. It is our suspicion that he as much as helped, not only by refusing to report their plans to the High Council, but also by deliberate acts which range from possible sabotage to ordering all Executioners to stand down and allow the attackers to penetrate our defenses. Under normal circumstances, such as these would never have been able to attack, let alone inflict the damage they have.
"Nevertheless, punishment must be meted out, as this is a grave and mutinous offense. It is the will of this council that the leader of each of the three covens will be punished as both a warning and lesson to those who followed them into a foolhardy war that could not be won."
