Chapter 364
Katelina gaped at Ume and stuttered, "Your b-brother? Are you serious?"
"Why? What has he said about me?"
"Nothing," Katelina answered truthfully. "Verchiel says he doesn't remember anything from before he was turned into a vampire." Katelina rubbed her face. "But if you're his sister-did Kateesha turn you too?"
Ume scowled. "Is that her name? The one who lured Aki away?" Katelina didn't answer and she went on, "He left with a strange, dark woman. I tried to follow him, but I was unsuccessful. If it hadn't been for rumors-" She took a deep breath. "I knew there was something unnatural about her or she couldn't have bewitched him into abandoning me. Our parents were dead and I had no one else. In my ignorance I thought the woman was a witch or a demon. Then I discovered what she really was, and there were rumors she'd made him one, too. So when Fethillen offered to share the gift with me I accepted. That's how I came to be a member of the Black Vigil."
Katelina had nothing to say. She could only stare. Now that she knew their connection she could see a resemblance; the same violet eyes, the same Asian inspired features, and yet Ume's hair was a normal, natural black.
Ume filled the silence, "It's odd for the quest to end where it started. Like an eternal circle."
"What do you mean?" Katelina asked.
"The city where we found you at the marina. That was where we used to live when we were human. Though it was different then. They called it Batavia." She stopped. "I'm sorry, I doubt you want to hear about it. It isn't very interesting and my memories are mostly impressions and disconnected pieces." She fell silent for a moment, then said, "If he remembers nothing of before, it makes sense he wouldn't know me. I'm not sure he'll welcome the information."
"I don't know. I think he likes not having the burden of a past, but sometimes not knowing where you came from must be like a kind of hole, you know?"
"Maybe. But how do I tell him? When I thought he knew, it was simple, but if he doesn't? We were only together for sixteen years before he disappeared, and that was more than three hundred years ago. I'm not sure a family tie from that distance matters. But I spent so long looking for him that it became a sort of life defining quest. To find it ended so unexpectedly, and in such a way-it wasn't what I imagined. When I called to him I expected him to be surprised; so far as I'm aware he didn't know I'd been turned into his kind. It never occurred to me that he wouldn't recognize me. Maybe I should go?"
"No," Katelina said. "If you've been looking for him that long, it seems a shame to abandon him like that."
They fell silent. Katelina wished she hadn't gotten involved. When she'd thought Ume was a jilted lover it was one thing. That would've been Verchiel's fault, but a sister he couldn't remember because Kateesha had screwed up the turning process-That was something Katelina didn't want to be tangled up in.
She looked up as Wolfe walked through the door, his usual cold expression in place. He glanced at Katelina and as quickly dismissed her and headed toward Jorick. She squinted in their direction and tried unsuccessfully to hear their conversation. Most of the other customers scrambled to get to the other side of the store, their eyes on Wolfe and his medallion.
Jorick gave a sharp, unhappy nod and then he and Wolfe walked toward the girls. He paused to give Ume a calculating look, then addressed Katelina, "The Kugsankal wish to see us and make their decision."
The words were straight from a nightmare. Katelina clutched the arm of the chair. "That was fast."
"Yes. It is considered top priority." Wolfe said. "I will lead you to them."
Katelina tried to reason her fear away. They wouldn't really lock her up as some kind of unallowable freakwould they?
"I won't allow them to do that," Jorick said fiercely. "We escaped this place once, and can do so again."
Wolfe cocked an eyebrow. "I wouldn't say that if I were you."
Katelina forced down her terror and stood. Ume did the same, and Katelina tried to appear calm. "We're in room number 491. If you want to come by later we can finish our discussion."
Ume's smile was brittle and forced. "Yes. And good luck."
"Thanks." Katelina gave her a halfhearted wave, and let Jorick lead her out of the bookstore. They were going to need all the luck they could get.
Wolfe led them to an elevator and then down to what appeared to be the bottom most floor of the stronghold. The elevator opened on a red carpeted corridor and Katelina shivered. She could feel the energy of the ancient vampires seeping through the stones, threatening to suffocate her with their years.
They wound through several corridors until they came to a silver door overlaid with gold bars, like an old-fashioned elevator. Wolfe pressed a button on a cybertronic box next to it. Katelina remembered that he'd said its facial recognition software was based on a photo database, but she wasn't sure how that worked.
The bars slid aside and Wolfe unlocked the door behind them. The hallway inside was narrow, and they walked single file, Wolfe in the lead and Jorick in the back. Katelina felt sandwiched between them, and as they headed deeper and deeper, door after door unlocked and left behind, the airless sensation grew until she stumbled and leaned against the wall.
"It's all right," Jorick said. "You've seen them before."
"It's worse this time, like they're more aware."
"More awake, perhaps," Wolfe said stiffly. "Come, please."
At last they reached a tiny but ornate elevator. Wolfe pressed one of the glowing green buttons, and the elevator dropped to open on a room decorated with a heavy couch and several fake plants. Wolfe moved to a gilt framed mirror on the back wall, and paused as a piece of wall slid aside; a secret door.
"This way, please."
Beyond the mirror was a hall that ended at a door. Katelina struggled to make herself walk against what felt like a pounding current of consciousness, as if the air had turned to treacle. The room on the other side was lit by a single shaded bulb in the center. What was visible of the walls was carved wood, and the rest was lost to a darkness that seemed alive.
A voice in Katelina's head said, "Come." And though she didn't want to, she obeyed. It was one of the Kugsankal, so ancient they preferred telepathic conversation to verbal.
Katelina stopped in the center of the room. At a low table, at the edge of the light, were three motionless vampires. Like marble statues carved by a master, their faces were ageless. They could have been anything from six to forty-six, as if vampirism and time had washed even that characteristic away.
Katelina had been unable to look at them on her last visit, but this time she noticed a few things. Inanna sat in the middle, the shortest of the three. Her long silvery hair fell around her face and her cerulean eyes burned like the heart of some flame. The male on her right had black shoulder length hair and the hint of a beard. Like Inanna, it was his eyes that were the most jarring; they were an orangey brown, and made Katelina think of blood.
The last male sat with his hands folded on the table. Dark chestnut hair fell to his shoulders and his eyes were thankfully closed.
Then, he opened them.
If Inanna was icy fire, this was a black hole, like falling into nothingness with no way of knowing if she could ever get back. Jorick, Wolfe, the room, even the other two members of the Kugsankal disappeared. There was nothing but cold, endless darkness. A scream lodged in the back of her throat, but she couldn't make a sound; couldn't move, couldn't pull out of the blackness. There was a door whose edges were even darker than the void, and she reached for it, though she knew that what lay beyond should not be seen. Not yet.
"Release her!"
The command was sharp, like a fiery blade that cut through the freezing night. The darkness dissolved and she was suddenly back in the room, clutching Jorick's arm and staring into the expressionless face of an ancient vampire.
A voice sounded in her head, "How interesting."
She wanted to ask what was interesting, but her tongue wouldn't work. Jorick drew himself up next to her and glared at the Kugsankal, pushing with a wave of will that would have left Katelina breathless under different circumstances. "Your judgment should be made."
"Yes," the voice said inside Katelina's head, and no doubt in Jorick's. "You will remain with us for the time being, for your own protection."
But I don't need protected! Katelina wanted to cry.
It was Inanna who answered. "How little you understand, child. You may go."
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