Chapter 486
Maeko fired her gun at the enemies while Katelina gaped. Since when did Malick's goons use sickles? That was more like-
"The Black Vigil."
She grabbed for Maeko's gun. The girl avoided her and continued to fire.
"Maeko! It's Fethillen's group! Don't shoot!"
"I am sorry, Kate-chan, but I do not think they recognize us. They will not show the same mercy."
Katelina hurried up the slope to warn Jorick, but he'd already clashed with one of the attackers. He wrestled the sickle away from them and ended the fight with a single swipe. His enemy's head bounced down the mountainside, not far from her, to disappear in the cloud of dust below.
He hurried on, the bloody weapon in his hand.
Katelina looked up and down the valley to see black suited vampires fighting the Father's followers. They hewed and hacked at one another, wreathed in smoke and dust.
She hurried up the mountainside, dodging Maeko's steady gun fire. She topped the ridge to find it empty. A glance back revealed the battle in all its glory. She could see the vampires she'd come with spread along the incline, divided into their small ambush groups. The smoke drifted away to reveal the Black Vigil's true numbers. A quick count came up with thirteen. As she watched, a couple fell at the hands of Lurid and the Father's bearded follower.
She sought for Jorick and Jamie amidst the chaos. An explosion to the right caught her attention. She looked to see Lurid stumble backwards, blood on his face. Her eyes traveled down to Sorino, who leaned casually against his rock, something gold in his hand. As she focused, the details jumped out at her. He was looking at a
"Pocket watch?"
With a nod to himself, he shoved it into his coat. He motioned Kai to follow and started up the rocky slope. Katelina watched as he skirted the edge of the fighting and was allowed to pass unchallenged. Suspicion burned in her, but she quenched it with the thought that she'd also made it to the top. Except Jorick and Jamie went first, and killed everyone in my way.
She dropped to the ground as he topped the ridge. Without looking toward her, he followed it to the right and disappeared. When she was sure he was gone, she raised to a crouch and hurried after him, her attention divided between the fighting and what was in front of her. She saw that Maeko had resorted to her throwing stars. Farther down, two of the mercenaries, splattered in blood, took on one of the Black Vigil. Beyond that she could see the bearded follower and his closest associates battling a knot of attackers. Behind them the father crouched, a weapon in his hand and his child face twisted into cold loathing.
The ridge she followed grew narrow and disappeared against the mountainside. A fissure in the rock was a deeper black than the night. She stood and slipped through it. A few feet in, the rock was so close her nose nearly touched it. She stopped as claustrophobic panic seized her. She thought Sorino had come this way, but what if he hadn't? What if she just got stuck?
She took a calming breath and pushed on. She soon saw fingers of light stretching over the wall. She slowed and eased herself forward until she could see out the crack and into a large chamber. The room was carved from the rock with smooth walls and a soaring ceiling. Near the back, it narrowed to a fissure again. A small red lantern sat on the floor. In front of it was Fethillen, crouched and ready, a sickle in her hand. Sushel stood between her and Sorino, his lip curled.
Katelina expected Sorino to ask what Fethillen was doing there, or to demand to know why she was attacking, or how she had found them. Instead he gave a sarcastic bow. "I believe you know why I'm here."
Fethillen motioned Sushel to stand down. "The Father has not been captured yet."
"The deal was that I found the Father for you, not that I had to capture him. I've done what I promised. I request you deliver your part of the arrangement."
Deal? Was he saying-It was Sorino who had sold them out? Sorino who'd told the Black Vigil when and where to attack? What in the hell?
Sushel stepped forward threateningly. "Perhaps we'll change the arrangement." He raised his weapon.
Sorino sighed and snapped his fingers. "Olly, olly, oxen free."
Katelina tried to disappear against the wall, though she knew it was futile.
Fethillen looked around quickly. "You have friends hidden?"
Sorino's voice was smug and cold. "If you can ever call a tiger a friend."
Panicked, Katelina shuffled sideways, moving back the way she'd come. She had to get out and tell Jorick what she'd seen. If they caught her, they'd kill her.
Two black shapes dropped from the fissure above her to land in the room, as though they'd been hiding in the darkness above her. She caught her breath and moved closer to the opening to see Jamie, his sword in his hand, and Jorick, his shoulders set in anger.
Fethillen shoved past her subordinate. "The tiger shows himself. I'm surprised you allowed one such as him to keep you on a leash."
Jorick growled. "I wear no one's leash, least of all Sorino's."
"Then why are you here? If you are not with him-" The calculations seemed to run behind Fethillen's eyes, then her face twisted into a mask of fury. "Is it true? Have you joined him?"
"Joined is a loose term," Sorino said. "Unless you take oaths seriously."
"You swore an oath to the Father?" Fethillen demanded.
Katelina tried to communicate with Jorick, tried to make him say that it meant nothing and was only convenience. Instead he asked, "What business is it of yours who I ally myself with?"
Sushel shoved between them. "We have sworn to eliminate all who are unified with the Children of Shadows. Fethillen warned you before not to get in our way."
Jorick scoffed. "In the way of what? Sacrificing your followers? The last of the Black Vigil is dying on the mountainside so that your master can have the satisfaction of murdering her son again."
Katelina stifled a gasp. Son?
Sushel looked sharply to Fethillen. Her face twisted and then smoothed. "We hunt the Father"
"Don't," Jorick said. "You may lie to your coven and say you don't know who the Father of Shadows is, a faceless, nameless vampire you called him. Perhaps at one time you really didn't know, but you've surely discovered the truth by now."
"I have no son," Fethillen snapped.
Sorino smiled. "Come now. Any good scholar knows the stories. Before she was made immortal, Memnon's sister was raped and gave birth to a child she despised, a child that her brother adored and turned, after his mother had drained him. A child raised on blood and murder. The first child of the shadows."
Fethillen's anger tore through Katelina. She clutched the rocky wall and told herself that it wasn't her emotion, but it did little to help.
"You think you know," Fethillen snarled. "He was a demon! The son of a demon! He should have been dashed to death at birth!"
"Old world superstition," Jamie said. "There are no demons."
"Were you there?" Fethillen spun on him, her sickle raised. "It's easy for men to judge, to say that you should love the son of the devil, because it is not men who bear the burden."
Sushel recovered from his shock to step forward. "What right do you have to say these things, to question our motives? You have shown yourselves to be untrustworthy traitors who side with filth. Perhaps you were always their ally. That would explain why you fought us in the forest, and why you were more concerned with destroying Malick than the Father. The Father also hates Malick, doesn't he?"
As Sushel spoke, Fethillen's eyes bulged and then burned. She pushed past him to Jorick. "Is that true? Did you deceive us?" He didn't answer and she raised the sickle to strike. "Answer me!"
"Why?" Jorick asked. "You'll believe what you want."
"He used us!" Sushel shouted. "He thought he could take advantage of us because we had a woman as our master! He thought we were weak!"
Jamie started to interfere, but Jorick shook his head. "Fools won't listen to reason."
"Now we are fools?" Fethillen shouted. "You believe you are superior, dream stealer, because you can take other's memories by force. Because you can see their intentions while hiding your own deceit. I did not trust you from the start, but I convinced myself you could be useful. I regret now that I did not listen to Sushel and execute you and your coven. I will make up for my mistake."
