Chapter 484
With a jolt, Katelina landed in the present and stepped back a pace. The terror slowly drained off and left her bent over, palms resting on her thighs for support. She looked up to see Kai, his eyes hidden behind his hair.
"What in the hell was that?" The voice at the end had sounded more like Sorino than Kai.
The boy spoke to her silently. "You should not immerse yourself like that."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean? You're the one who showed that to me."
He shook his head.
"You're telling me that I can't catch a word that you're thinking, the easy stuff, as Jorick calls it, but I stumbled on-what? One of your memories?"
He shrugged his shoulders.
Frustrated, she sat next to him. If it was one of his memories what was it from?
"When Sorino found me."
"And the thing at the end?"
His only reply was, "Their meeting is over."
She started to ask where the information came from, but she knew, perhaps from having been inside Kai's mind. Sorino and Kai were linked, as she and Jorick had once been. That was where the voice had come from. It was Sorino, telling her to get out of his pet's head.
They stood and headed down the hill to find that the meeting was indeed over. Jorick and Jamie stood outside the Father's building, lost in a muttered conversation.
"Well?" she demanded.
"Malick will be near Yushu City tomorrow," Jorick answered. "We're leaving within the hour."
She didn't know where that was, and she didn't care. "Thank God. I'll be glad to get away from this bunch."
Jorick's words made her stiffen. "We'll be traveling with them."
"You said we had to stay because we didn't know where Malick was. Now we do."
Jamie shook his head. "He swore an oath."
"Oaths can be broken." They both stared and she rolled her eyes. "They're only words."
"Your word should mean something," Jorick barked. "When you make a promise to me is it 'only words'?"
"That's different." She dropped her voice. "You're not a mass murdering lunatic."
"Ask the remnants of Claudius' coven if I'm a murderer. Ask what's left of Kateesha's coven, or your little human Xandria. She thinks we're the bad guys."
"She's wrong. Everyone you've killed had it coming. The people the Children of Shadows destroyed didn't. Like Braydon's father."
"I doubt very much that Claudius' coven thought they deserved it." He cut himself off. "It doesn't matter. I made a promise, and I will keep it. If you object, you and Jamie can go back to the Sodalitas."
Sorino and Lurid stepped out the door. She refused to fight in front of them, so she purposefully turned away and asked Jorick, "We're not riding in the helicopter, are we?"
"Then you've decided to stay?" Sorino asked smugly. "That's good. I'm sure Jorick wouldn't want to part with his companion." He chuckled. "Come, Kai."
They headed up the hill and Katelina resisted looking for a rock to throw after him.
Jorick nodded to the bag she held. "You have everything? I doubt we'll return here."
They met Maeko at the top of the hill. The child-like vampiress greeted them, then followed them through the helicopter's back hatch. The interior looked like something from a military movie, with a metal floor and exposed girders. The seats were made of red hammock-style cloth. Part of them were folded up.
She counted the ones that were down. "How many of us are there?"
Jorick took a seat. "Twenty-four. Six of us, three with Sorino, and fifteen with the Father."
"How can you call him that? He looks twelve."
"You should have learned by now that physical appearances mean very little. Besides, I don't have another name for him."
Katelina stopped from suggesting Bob.
When everyone was seated, the engines started up. The noise was beyond deafening. Katelina covered her ears with a cry. She peered through scrunched up eyes to see that the other vampires didn't seem affected.
Jorick held her gaze and the thought yelled through her mind, "Block it out."
"How?" she shouted.
"The same way you've been blocking out sounds."
She gave an exasperated sigh. Were vampires non-specific by nature, or was it just the ones she knew?
Maeko bobbed her head. "Kate-chan overthinks these things. A baby does not ask its parents how to breathe, how to focus its eyes. If it did, the parents would have no reply. These things are instinct. Kate-chan should relax and she will find that she already knows how to do anything she needs to."
The words sounded pretty, but they did little to help her. It was nearly an hour later when she noticed that the sound had faded. She wasn't sure whether she'd blocked it or gone deaf.
Conversation was minimal. Katelina looked over the array of vampires, always stopping on the so-called father. She could feel his age; less than Malick but more than Jorick, like Fethillen, only stronger. Much stronger. She felt it, she knew it, and yet the child face left her wanting to offer him a lollipop.
He met her gaze with his dark eyes. For a second everything disappeared except the two black holes. The sensation ended quickly and left her unsettled. She reminded herself that behind those round cheeks was a maniac who'd butchered hundreds.
The helicopter landed to refuel. An argument between the pilots and someone outside was in a foreign language, but the anger was palpable. She thought about those flight plans Amari had mentioned. "so you don't get shot down." Had this bunch filed them?
They lifted off again. When they finally touched down Katelina decided that the vampires must have done things legally since they were still alive.
They disembarked on a mountainside. The stars stood out clearer and brighter than she'd ever seen them. Crunchy frozen snow on the rocky landscape told her that it must be freezing.
She wandered to the edge of a drop and looked down to a twinkling town. Dark, snowy mountains stretched in all directions as far as she could see.
The bearded vampire stepped up to take charge. "There is a cave where we may shelter for the day. Tomorrow we will lay an ambush."
The child-father turned to Jorick. "You and yours will sleep close to me, in a place of honor."
Katelina bet it had more to do with making sure they didn't get any clever ideas of striking out on their own. After all, Ryuu's humanity was an advantage during daylight hours.
Like mine used to be.
They climbed down the side of the mountain. Ryuu hung onto the rocks, shivering and gasping for air until Hikaru scooped him up and carried him on his back. The teen looked practically unconscious by the time they landed before the cave.
"Is he all right?"
"It is the altitude," Hikaru said.
They filed inside. The deeper they went, the tenser Katelina became. Though she could see in the dark, the world was dimmer and the narrow passage was claustrophobic. What if the tunnel collapsed? What if it was really a trap? Did the child-father plan to herd them into a bottleneck and kill them? She stared at the back of his head bobbing in front of her and tried to see through his skull.
The leading vampires stopped so suddenly that she almost ran into them. The child-father gave her a condescending look, then motioned in front of himself. "We are deep enough to shelter. I would be honored, Jorick, if you and yours would choose the first beds."
By beds he meant spots on the rock floor. Jorick nodded and laid down first. He motioned Katelina to join him. She hesitated, her eyes on the child-father and his mercenaries. Just because they hadn't made a move yet, didn't mean they wouldn't.
With nothing else to do, she stretched out next to him. Hikaru laid Ryuu down on the other side of her and carefully covered him with a blanket and extra clothes from his backpack. Katelina scooted closer to Jorick, her eyes on the shivering teen. It felt weird sleeping that close to him, like the beginning of a sleazy movie.
The other vampires followed suit. The tunnel was wide enough to allow them in a single line. She wondered who they put closest to the door. That was where any possible attack would come from.
Jorick tightened his hold and brushed his lips against her ear. "It's all right."
Sure it was. They were sleeping in a narrow unexplored cave full of strangers. They'd made a bargain with a child-faced mass murderer that she couldn't decide whether to hate or buy sweets for. Tomorrow, they would face Malick and his minions, assuming the mercenaries didn't butcher them first and that Ryuu didn't freeze to death.
Everything is great.
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