Chapter 417
Verchiel followed them back to their room and slid inside with them. Jorick tried to get rid of the redhead, but he refused to go. Jorick was mid growl when someone knocked on the door.
"That's Wolfe," Verchiel said cheerfully and scurried to answer it. The Scharfrichter paused at seeing him, and then noticed Jorick and strode inside.
"Sadihra called. Der H?here Rat has foreseen the upcoming battle and is sending the Scharfrichter."
"Well that should make things interesting," Verchiel commented. "I bet she's upset that she's suspended."
"They've revoked her suspension," Wolfe said coldly.
Jorick raised an eyebrow. "Sadihra and Cyprus-"
"Yes." The one word held a paragraph of anger, unhappiness, and dissatisfaction. "They'll arrive at the Persatuan tomorrow. I've arranged to meet with her, assuming the attack hasn't started."
Though it could've been anything from a restaurant to a city, Katelina didn't bother to ask what the Persatuan was. She took most foreign words to mean the local guild or the country's version of Executioners.
Something stirred in her memory, like a half forgotten dream, "It is all meaningless. Even this will fade and pass away to nothing." Though the words felt comforting, she shivered.
It was near dawn before they scraped Verchiel off. The hotel rooms had broad windows, but they also had blinds and two layers of darkening curtains. Jorick closed them all. "It should be fine. If not I can always move."
Katelina wasn't sure where he was going to move to, but she curled up next to him in bed. Worries whispered through her mind, and she finally asked, "That voice. Who do you think it is? Malick? The Kugsankal?" Samael? The last name was too terrifying to say.
"It doesn't matter. I'll take care of it."
"How?"
Jorick gave a heavy sigh. "By doing whatever is necessary."
"You can't kill them! They're too powerful."
"Nothing is beyond death, Katelina, not even an ancient vampire. Until this is over stay close, and don't worry."
Don't worry. As if that was really an option.
***
Katelina and Jorick woke the next evening and went to the hotel restaurant. Jorick ordered a coffee, which he played with while Katelina ate her breakfast. Kai and Sorino joined them, and Katelina waited for Etsuko until she realized she wasn't coming. Vampires didn't need food.
They did need blood, and oddly by the time they met up in the lobby Jorick was the only one who hadn't fed. Katelina didn't like to imagine whator whomthe others had fed on.
Wolfe told them he was going to the Persatuan to wait for Sadihra, and Oren suggested that, as a new fledgling, Etsuko should stay at the hotel.
"You'll want to bring your weapons," Wolfe said, though his expression said he knew they didn't have any.
Verchiel patted his coat and lifted his bag. "I have everything I need right here."
The bag seemed like a good idea, and Katelina hurried back to their room to fetch hers. It was a small bag, anyway, and she was tired of leaving luggage behind.
She got back to find that Kai had done the same, and that the vampires had split into groups. "We'll look for the Black Vigil and then meet up at the Persatuan," Jorick explained.
Sorino latched onto Katelina and Jorick and, with no way to escape him, the four headed out.
"There's no point looking around here," Jorick said as his eyes leapt from one towering, glittering building to the next. "They're more likely to be in the slums."
Sorino hailed a taxi, and they climbed inside. The taxi driver was patient with having to stop randomly so that Sorino could climb out and look around, then climb back in and order him on. Finally, at a place where the modern city turned into something from a documentary film, Sorino announced they were done and paid the driver.
The world they'd been in moments before was glittering lights, concrete, and steel, but now they were pressed in on all sides by small, tin roofed shacks. It reminded Katelina of the summer headquarters, only smaller and far more crowded. There were people and things everywhere; possessions, trash, little bits of life.
Sorino cruised down the street, dressed in a purple suit and ruffled shirt, rings on his elegant fingers, and a jewel topped walking stick in one hand. Against the backdrop of poverty he looked like a political message about wealth inequality.
No one approached them. Some of the people looked at them, but looked away as quickly. Katelina remembered when she'd first met Oren and his coven. Though they'd looked beautiful, she'd had a strange, creepy feeling that she should run away, that something was wrong. No doubt the locals could sense that same wrongness from Jorick and Sorino.
And maybe from me, she thought uncomfortably. How much vampire blood did one have to drink before they seemed wrong, too?
Sorino moved expertly down narrow lanes, winding toward a muddy river. He paused at the edge of it, and then turned and led them past the crowded rows of buildings to one with a boarded up door. He motioned to it and Sushel popped out like a jack in the box, his face twisted in fury and his sickle raised. He stopped, glared at them, and then ducked back inside.
Sorino bowed to Jorick, and the dark vampire swept through the door. Katelina hesitated, and then plunged after him. Inside it was mostly dark, and it took her eyes a moment to adjust. She could see the outline of the Black Vigil members, some seated, some standing, all waiting.
Fethillen moved into the light. "We did not know where to look for you."
"We're staying at a hotel," Jorick said.
Fethillen looked surprised and Sorino said smoothly, "I see no reason to be uncomfortable."
"No, I imagine one like you wouldn't." She turned to Jorick. "The Children have not been sighted yet, but the Persatuan seems to be preparing."
"You've scouted it out already?" Jorick asked with mild interest.
"Of course. Obviously they've figured out they're the next target."
"The Sodalitas have figured it out, too," Jorick said. "They're sending the Scharfrichter. Wolfe's gone to meet them."
Fethillen tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I see. What will you do?"
"We're going to check things out, then we'll wait. You?"
"When the Children appear we will strike." She paused, as if considering her words. "They use explosives, yes? Perhaps it would be best to allow the Scharfrichter and such to take this first strike, and attack once the explosions have ceased. Why throw our lives away when they are needed to fight the real threat?"
By real threat she meant Cyprus. Like in Uzbekistan where they'd waited until Jorick and the others had dealt with the police and fought half of the battle before they joined in. Let the little people fight the little people and save the big fish for her.
Katelina wanted to object, but the explosives scared her more than the vampires did. She remembered Oren's attack on The Guild; how the building shook, how the ceiling gave way, how Loren's hand and arm had exploded in a splash of crimson, leaving him crippled for eternity. If the blast could take limbs, it could also take their lives. She trusted Jorick to hold his own against most of the attackers, but how could he defeat C-4?
"Where will you be waiting?" Jorick asked.
"When the time comes we will be there."
Sushel moved to the door again. "Ume is here."
"Then let her in."
Sushel growled, but let Ume, Loren, and Micah pass. Ume gave a truncated version of the fist to chest oath, no doubt a form of salute, and Fethillen motioned her to stop. "That is no longer necessary."
Ume faltered and Fethillen said, "I have always known you would leave us when you found him."
There was a moment's silence and then Ume said, "It isn't him. Aki has his life, and he has challenged me to look at mine. I thought that I was one of you, that we were a family, but I see now that isn't so." One of the others started and Ume held up her hand. "I don't mean that some of you aren't as family to one another, but I'm not. As you said, everyone has waited for me to find Aki and leave, even me, and so I've always been on the outside. It was only you and Sibila who didn't treat me that way, and Sibila is gone now. Since I returned from Munich it's been worse, some have even called for my death." She looked to Sushel and then back. "I miss Sibila. Her ghost haunts the headquarters and always will. Nothing is the same without her. You've taught us that death is not an ending, we only move on to a new life. Sibila has moved on and I think I should, too."
Fethillen nodded. "You have served us well. May you find purpose in a new life."
Sushel made a nasty comment under his breath, and Loren asked tentatively, "So you're going to join us?"
"If you'll have me," Ume said.
The teen lit up and Micah slapped him on the back. "Just coz you think you got a chick don't change nothing. You're still a pipsqueak."
Loren stuttered something that sounded like a denial and Ume flushed.
