Chapter 409
Despite Katelina's protest, he didn't stop until they reached the edge of the jungle. Ume and Kai were waiting patiently, and Loren was notably absent. No doubt he'd run at the first opportunity.
Verchiel shrugged Katelina off and Ume asked with a note of concern, "Did you find them?"
"Yes, and then we left," Katelina said irritably.
Ume looked horrified and Verchiel said quickly, "It was nothing like that. He's on his way back, so I thought it was a good idea to beat him here, if you know what I mean."
"You don't want him to know you were spying?" Ume suggested.
"Not to mention he'd probably get upset at the idea of me and Kately alone in the dark, dark jungle." He leered at her and she shoved him back.
"Quit being stupid! He did say Loren was supposed to be guarding us, though."
"Yeah, I heard that, too. Where did he wander off to?"
"I don't know," Ume said quickly. "But I'll do it. I hate to see Loren get into trouble."
Katelina bit back her objections. Ume was trying to be nice, so there was no point.
They were back in the house when Jorick showed up. He didn't say anything about where he'd been, and Katelina stopped from saying that she knew. She supposed he was entitled to private conversations without her. She had conversations without him, after all. Just not with Torina's male equivalent.
They went to Quenby's funeral, though it was far from satisfying. The Black Vigil set her body on fire, as usual for vampire funerals, but there were no words spoken, no ceremony. It was as if she'd ceased to matter. Their cold attitudes explained how they'd so easily discarded Ume after her disappearance.
Katelina thought that someone should be depressed, and she made a good effort. The problem was she didn't know Quenby well enough to manage tears. Still, it felt wrong that no one cried for her.
She leaned on Jorick's shoulder and sighed. He wrapped an arm around her. "Not everyone is the same, little one."
"You've spent the last months convincing me vampires are more than cold blooded monsters; that they love and care for one another, and then this? I-I don't know."
"Of course they care, but everyone expresses grief differently. Fethillen isn't the kind to cry and dwell on it. Better to be busy working toward the next step, to prove the death was not in vain."
"I guess." She turned from the crackling bonfire. She noticed Wolfe near one of the sheds. From his posture she guessed he was on the phone again. "Did you find out who Wolfe was tracking down in China?"
"No. I haven't had a chance to talk to him."
"Maybe you should make time?" Instead of talking to Torina.
"Maybe I should, but isn't it time for your dinner now?"
Katelina was in the middle of cooking when Ume and Fethillen joined them around the fire. Ume took a nervous seat on one of the logs, and Fethillen crouched next to Jorick. "When we were in the oasis, you touched your human and she was immune to- to the sound. How?"
Katelina tried not to look too interested in the answer, though it was something she'd wondered.
Jorick stabbed at the fire with a stick. "It's the same thing Malick does, only in reverse. No doubt when he began he had to touch his victims."
Fethillen nodded. "I see. So you could do this to anyone? Not just your human?"
"I assume so." He stopped prodding the fire to meet her eyes. "Why?"
"It might come in useful. Can the other do it?" She motioned to Verchiel.
The redhead sat at the edge of the light cleaning his sword. Without looking up he said, "I don't think so. I can barely shield myself."
"I see. And what of Wolfe? Does he have any mental abilities?"
"Not that I know of," Jorick replied. "The last I knew he was a hunter. Like you, it may be his age that helped him. Sorino is a whisperer. Whether he's accomplished enough to cause such an effect I can't say." He glanced at Kai, but the boy didn't answer.
"I understand." Fethillen stood and dusted off her legs. "Thank you." Then, with a nod, she strode back toward her people.
Ume stayed behind, toying with a stone. "I'm sorry."
Verchiel looked up in surprise. "Sorry for what?"
"Getting taken. Because of me Quenby is dead. She was a better fighter than I could ever be, and better at tactics. I'm surprised Fethillen was willing to risk her for me."
Katelina stirred the rice and asked sarcastically, "Are you sure it was for you or because she hoped it would give her a chance to infiltrate the Children of Shadows?"
Ume frowned and focused on the rock in her hand. "That makes more sense."
"Why does she hate them so much?"
Ume hesitated and then said, "Memnon was Fethillen's brother. They began the Children of Shadows together, only Memnon took it in a different direction. To quote Fethillen he 'grew drunk on the blood and the power'. She swore to stop him and failed, Malick beat her to it, and so she's spent the years since destroying any trace of the group."
"Her real name isn't Fethillen, but Keirza," Jorick mused. "No wonder Wolfe couldn't find her."
"She changed it when she left him," Ume said.
Katelina gaped, the spoon held in midair. "Then all of this is partially her fault? She's trying to destroy something she helped to make."
"I think so, yes." Ume nodded. "She carries guilt, though she doesn't admit to it, at least not to me."
"If she's devoted her life to exterminating them, what did she do when she thought she was finished?"
Ume's smile was strange. "We trained, and we looked for them, just in case. I don't think she could fathom the success, and maybe she is the tiniest bit glad to see them resurrected because it gives her a purpose. I understand. When you define yourself by a goal and that goal is met there's a moment of floundering darkness. You don't know what to do next." She dropped her eyes and flushed. "I suppose that's when you have to make a new goal."
Katelina unconsciously tapped her chin with the spoon. "I wonder what her new life mission would be? What can compete with wiping out an army of monsters?"
"I don't know," Jorick said. "But I do know your dinner is going to burn if you don't stir it."
Katelina's answer was an unintelligible sound of aggravation.
