Chapter 479
Jamie fell silent. Katelina looked over the chilly valley. Through the hole in the house she could see the gory room. A few stray limbs littered the floor. The rest were in the yard, piled in little mounds on tarps. A heap of plastic bags revealed the pieces they'd already sorted out.
A vampire in a plastic suit and rubber gloves rushed over. It was the van driver from yesterday. "You survived! When you didn't come back I feared the worst."
Katelina gave him a nervous smile. "Yeah, we bumped into someone we knew."
"That's always good. It was probably better than the root cellar we had." Hands on his hips, he turned to survey his teammates' work. "Interesting developments. It is not just humans there, or just vampires, but a mix of both. Men, women, children. Very strange."
"How can they identify everyone?" Katelina asked.
"We can tell from the bones what they are; you know, man or woman or such, and the teeth are a giveaway to the other, but as to knowing which arm goes with what spleen-no idea. We're bagging the identifying pieces, like heads and hands and body parts with distinguishing marks. The rest we're sorting by part type, like intestines or feet. The whole lot will go back to the Sodalitas. They have people who will try to sort it better and identify those that we couldn't."
He dropped his voice, "I mentioned I had a case already? That missing family? The father is here, and I bet the mother and child are as well. But why? Not for food, because no one destroys their supply like that. And the vampires. I thought at first they might be the rebel's followers; maybe they staged a coup, but we have identified two, one from the Philippines and the other reported missing from Madrid three days ago. Neither were known to be a part of the rebel group. Why did they come here? Or were they all kidnapped?"
He smiled. "See? Interesting. No time to stand and talk. I must get back to my work." He gave Jorick a snappy salute, then headed back to the grisly sorting.
Katelina looked to Jorick who shrugged. "I know as much as you do."
Somehow, she doubted that.
***
When the vampires finished sorting, they headed down the mountain to a collection of waiting vehicles. Wolfe glared at Jorick as he motioned him into one of the SUVs. Jamie shook his head silently and Katelina tried to figure out what was going on.
They rode to the airstrip listening to foreign rock music. Katelina could hear the plastic bags rustling in the back and thought about what the driver had said. Why would Malick have such a weird assortment of people and vampires? One of the humans was from Kiev. The family their driver had been looking into was obviously local. One vampire was from the Philippines and the other was from Madrid. Why would Malick have prisoners from all over the world?
She held back a grunt of annoyance. Why didn't Jorick seem the least bit concerned?
As they neared their destination, Wolfe leaned forward to squint through the windshield. "There's another plane."
The SUV rolled to a stop. Jamie threw open the door and climbed out. Jorick motioned to Katelina and followed.
With a suspicious look, Wolfe strode toward the waiting planes. A vampire in blue saluted him, and Wolfe pointed back to their vehicle, no doubt to tell him to get the bags of body parts loaded.
Just as Wolfe had said, there were two private planes; the black one from the Sodalitas and a smaller, white one. Their jet was aimed down the runway, ready to take off, while the other was pointed the opposite direction, as if it had just landed. The whining of the motor and the gleaming lights supported that impression.
Jorick met Jamie's eyes. She could feel the turmoil pass between them. It throbbed like a living organism, pulling first one way, then the other, to finally fall dead as they broke eye contact.
"This is the last time, Jorick."
The dark vampire nodded, and motioned Katelina to his side. "Do exactly as I do."
The look in his eyes silenced any arguments. There would be time later to demand what in the hell he was up to.
Wolfe marched to the foreign craft and banged on the door. Katelina wondered briefly what would happen if it turned out to be a bunch of jet setting humans. She doubted they'd take his, "mission from the H?here Rat" seriously.
The plane's door opened. Wolfe hopped back to avoid the fold-down stairs. A short man stepped out. His mustache drooped like his shoulders and his eyes shifted from figure to figure. Katelina could smell his mortal blood.
Wolfe drew himself up. "I need to see your identification."
The man nodded and muttered something, then shuffled to the front of the plane. He rummaged in his coat. Wolfe caught up to him and repeated the request. Katelina could see the man's hands shake as he searched for his papers.
Jorick clamped one hand over Katelina's mouth and dragged her into the white airplane. Jamie followed. They were barely inside before someone slammed the door.
Katelina jerked away from Jorick and spun wildly around. Maeko sat buckled into a seat at the far end, her hands neatly folded in her lap. Ryuu was next to her and Hikaru stood near the hatch.
"I believe we're ready," Maeko called.
With a nod, Hikaru disappeared into the cockpit.
"What" Katelina didn't get her sentence finished before Jorick stuffed her in a seat.
"You should fasten your belt."
Her hands worked on their own. The plane was running across the bumpy terrain toward takeoff before she figured out what was going on. "Maeko? This is your plane? Then who was the human outside?"
"A local man," Jorick said. "Hikaru supplied some suggestions to him."
The plane pulled up and Katelina gripped the arms of the seat. Hikaru was a whisperer? In the present company she and Ryuu were the only ones who weren't.
The plane leveled out and she relaxed. "We're ditching Wolfe?"
"Apparently," Jamie said.
Maeko removed her seatbelt and stood before them. "Sorino-san and his dark friend left the stronghold shortly after Kate-chan, but headed to another destination."
His dark friend. No doubt she meant Lurid. "We're following them?" Katelina demanded. "Why?"
"Because Sorino-san is looking for the Father of Shadows."
Jorick nodded. "And the Father of Shadows is planning to attack Malick. We'll let him lead us to him, without Munich's involvement."
Katelina rubbed her head. "Don't we need Munich, and the rest of the idiots, to fight all of Malick's goons?"
"The others will meet us," Maeko said cheerfully. "Takeshi-san stayed behind so we can coordinate."
Katelina turned angrily to Jorick. "You had this planned since we left?"
"It was my idea to leave Takeshi-san," Maeko clarified.
"But Jorick knew about it since yesterday." No one spoke and Katelina snapped, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"You're easy to read," Jorick said. "I'm sorry, little one. I didn't want to chance Wolfe finding out. He may not be a mind reader but some of the vampires from the Birlik are."
Even though she was one of them, as immortal as they were, she was still the weak link. With a half grunt-half roar, she slammed her fist into the arm of the chair. The plastic snapped, the metal bent, and it gave way with a loud clunk.
She stared at the broken seat for a moment, then threw off her belt and stormed to the back of the plane. It was that or punch Jorick in the nose.
