Chapter 377
They sped down the quiet lanes of midnight Munich. Katelina peered over Jorick's shoulder, for the tell-tale lights of pursuers. It was strange, both trips to Munich had ended in an escape and yet this one seemed to go unnoticed.
"With a distraction like that it should," Verchiel quipped. No one commented and they dropped back into silence.
They pulled into the airfield and made their way to the tarmac where a black plane waited, lights on and door open. Jorick led them to the plane and one by one they boarded. It was identical to the airplane that had brought them there, and maybe even the same one. Katelina picked a seat in front of a fold down table and buckled herself in. Jorick grabbed Ume and ducked into the cockpit and Micah flopped into the seat across from Katelina. "All right Lunch, why'd that German chick help? Jorick didn't tell us, but I bet he told you."
Though Katelina glared at the unwelcome nickname, she didn't see the harm in telling him. "Wolfe's missing, and she wants us to look for him."
Jorick reappeared and took the seat next to her. He gave Micah an icy look, but the bald vampire buckled his seat belt and crossed his arms.
When the airplane leveled off, most of the vampires removed their seatbelts. She expected Micah to move, but he settled in. "Lunch says we're lookin' for that bastard Wolfe."
"No," Jorick said. "There's no point. I doubt he was ever in Syria. More likely China."
"China?" she echoed.
"I don't have any details, only a- sense. The Kugsankal are restless, and China is in their thoughts."
Katelina gaped. "You can read their minds? My God, Jorick!"
"Not the way you think. It was a stray flicker. I couldn't tell you which one thought it, only that it was there, for an instant. I don't even know if something has happened, or if it's something that will happen in the future. Either way, we're going to Finland."
Katelina shifted in her seat. "So you'll call Sadihra and tell her you looked and didn't find him?"
"No. She said to call her when we found him. If we don't find him-" He trailed off and shrugged.
"Doesn't that seem dishonest?"
"Fuck no," Micah said. "Take our freedom and fucking run with it. I for one am glad to be out of that place."
"And when the pilots return and tell her we went to Finland instead of Syria?"
"They won't," Jorick said simply. "I've already spoken to them."
"You mean you've already brainwashed them, or enchanted, or whatever nice, cozy word you like to use."
Verchiel leaned on the back of Micah's seat. "You never know, we might actually run into Wolfe. If I were the Kugsankal, I'd send him to look for The Black Vigil. See? Mission accomplished without wasting a bunch of time in the Middle East."
"You don't understand." Katelina turned to Jorick. "What if I was the one asking someone to go look for you? What if they said they would and then took off? Meanwhile I'd wait for news, worried sick."
"I can't imagine Jorick being separated from you long enough to go missing," Oren drawled from his seat.
Jorick gave a heavy sigh, as if he'd resigned himself to a conversation he didn't want to have. "If you had not heard from me, little one, then I would either be dead, in which case someone rushing to find me would be useless, or else I would be hiding for a reason, and someone looking for me would only complicate matters, and possibly put me in danger. Wolfe knows what he's doing. If he's fallen off the map then either he's dead, or he's done so by choice, and I have no intention of following him around as though he needed looking after. I would expect him to do the same."
"What? Lie to shut me up, then go off and do whatever he wanted?"
Micah snorted. "That's what you have to do with women."
Katelina's eyes bulged, and Verchiel nodded. "Sometimes you have to pat them on the head and tell them what they want to hear. Especially when they're being unreasonable."
"How is wanting to know if her boyfriend is alive unreasonable?"
"It's not, in and of itself," Jorick said. "But"
"But she should stay home where he left her and not cause any waves," Verchiel finished with a grin.
"Of all the sexist, chauvinist-" Words failed her.
"Look," Verchiel said. "Sometimes men do know what they're doing, and if you meddle with it, you can cause a lot of trouble."
Micah nodded. "Like when someone tells a woman to stay the fuck where she is so he can fight someone else, and then the bitch has to interfere. All that does is fuck him up because now he's got to protect her and fight off the original guy at the same time."
Loren joined the conversation. "I saw an anime once where this girl did that. The hero had to go have some samurai duel or something, so he leaves her home and what does she do but go rushing down there, and then the evil samurai guy almost killed her, and so then the hero dude got nearly killed trying to save her. If she'd stayed home in the first place he'd have been fine and coulda totally whooped the bad guy, no problem."
"Exactly!" Micah said.
"It doesn't necessarily make you weak to stay where you're told once in a while," Verchiel said. "It means"
"That you know your place?" Katelina snapped.
"No, that you trust your man." He gave her a wink and she glowered.
"Yes," Jorick said slowly, though it obviously pained him to agree with the redhead. "Sadihra should have faith in Wolfe's strength and ability to take care of both himself and her. She should trust that he knows the best course of action and is taking it."
"Of course he does, because he's a man." Katelina savagely unbuckled her seatbelt and jerked to her feet. "Excuse me, but the bullshit is getting a little deep in here."
Torina didn't bother to look up from her magazine. "And the way to handle men is to blink your eyes, pout your lips, look helpless, and let them pretend they're the mighty hero you can't live without. While they're busy on their epic quest, you quietly deal with it yourself." She noisily turned a page. "Men are easy to handle, you tickle their chins and stroke their" she broke off with a suggestive smirk. "Egos."
Micah scoffed. "As if a woman could handle shit herself. All she does is make a fucking mess of it. Then the man gets back and has to fix her shit."
Torina looked over her magazine with large, fluttery eyes. "You know, you're right. I guess we do need our big strong men to handle things. I know I could use someone to carry that heavy duffle bag around." She gave an undignified snort and turned back to her reading.
Despite her obvious sarcasm, both Loren and Micah offered to help her. Katelina rolled her eyes in disgust. It appeared the real way to handle men was to flash cleavage and promise them a ride if they did what you asked. And she wasn't that kind of woman. "You're all idiots," she muttered and then stormed to the kitchen in search of something with high alcohol content.
There was nothing but soda, so she pretended it was something better. When she calmed down she took a snapshot of the plane's interior and then buckled herself securely in her seat. The flight was short, relatively speaking, and she was glad when they landed. Until the plane came to a full stop and she slid back the cover over the window to see the thick, falling snow.
They disembarked. The wintery wind slapped her hair in her face and flapped the long coat around her legs. She hadn't bothered with a hat or mittens, and the freezing temperature bit into the exposed skin. She was almost grateful when a man in a heavy coat and balaclava hurried out. He met them on the snow covered tarmac, muttering unhappily about the lack of a flight plan. Jorick caught his eyes and the man's face went oddly slack and then quickly reanimated. "Obviously it was a mistake. I remember receiving the paperwork. I'm sure I filed it myself." He gestured for them to follow him to the building. "I don't believe the customs official has arrived. There were arrangements made for him to meet you at this time?"
Jorick murmured something and the man nodded. "Oh yes, yes, of course. Inside."
Once they were through the door, the man went slack again. Then he mumbled some apologies and hurried off.
"Customs?" Katelina asked. She still remembered her last brush with officials in Japan, and it was not a good memory.
"If we leave quickly we don't need them," Jorick said.
Quenby looked alarmed, as if she'd noticed Jorick's ability, and Verchiel said, "It helps that passengers traveling by private plane receive special treatment."
