Chapter 487
She charged. Jorick dodged back and Jamie rushed forward. Sushel threw himself between them, meeting the sword with his sickle. Jorick shoved him out of the way, then sprang at Fethillen. The vampiress leapt backwards, catapulted herself off the wall, and somersaulted over his head to land behind him. She took a swipe with her blade that threw blood droplets, and hopped away.
Jorick spun toward her to find Sushel blocking his path. The vampire swung at him, but Jorick ducked and slammed him in the stomach with his elbow. Sushel stumbled backwards. With a roar, Fethillen did a spinning, slicing move that left Jorick with a cut on his cheek.
What the hell? Come on Jorick! You can beat her!
A thought jumped to the front of her mind. "She's older than he is."
Katelina looked sharply to Kai and Sorino. The teen stood behind his amused master, his eyes hidden and his face unreadable. Had Kai known that Sorino was selling their location to the Black Vigil? They were linked, so how could he not? The idea stung. Though she disliked Sorino, she'd grown fond of Kai. That he would let them walk into a trap showed his lack of mutual regard.
"He tried to warn you," Sorino called silkily, unheeded by the combatants.
A memory was pushed into her mind. She saw the vision: flames, Sorino waltzing through them, then the word "beware", followed by Sorino's interruption. "What are you doing?" She had taken it as a question for her, a demand to know why she was in his pet's head. Had it really been a question for Kai, asking why he was trying to warn her?
"Stay out of my head!" she called silently. Silky laughter followed and in her fury she shouted, "Get out!"
She felt the wave, like a shock of energy that slammed through the room. The vampires stumbled. Fethillen fell back, eyes wide, attention darting from corner to corner. "What was that?"
Jorick whirled toward Katelina's hiding place, surprise on his face. Sushel leapt on him. Jorick lurched forward. His attacker wrapped his legs around his enemy's upper body and one arm around his head. He brought the sickle to his throat.
Katelina darted from the fissure. She slammed into them and they toppled over. Sushel fell free. He didn't have time to get up before Jorick grabbed him by his neck and smashed him into the wall.
"I'll take him," Jamie called.
Jorick threw Sushel to his ally then gave a spinning kick to the back of Fethillen's legs. Her knees buckled, but didn't give in. She turned her fury on him. He danced away as she slashed again and again.
Katelina looked for a weapon and then remembered Micah's advice. "Fuck weapons. Your fist is your fuckin' weapon."
Right.
With a cry, she threw herself at the attacking vampiress. They crashed back into the wall. Fethillen swiped at her. Katelina ducked out of the way and Fethillen charged Jorick.
"We weren't working with the Children of Shadows!" Katelina cried. "Jorick only swore the oath to find out Malick's location!"
Sushel dodged Jamie. "Then why are you still with him?" It was the same question she'd asked, and she had no satisfactory answer. When she didn't respond Sushel yelled, "See? They have no defense."
"You're trying to twist things because you want revenge!"
Two of the Black Vigil burst through the crack and pulled up short when they saw the commotion. Fethillen did a back flip that landed in front of them. "Speak quickly!"
One of them rattled something off in a foreign language. Sushel laughed and set on Jamie with renewed vigor. "Your friends have fallen."
Katelina imagined the mountainside strewn with bodies. Among them lay Maeko in her bright pink boots. The thought turned her stomach but she didn't get a word out before two battle worn vampires popped into the room, hauling a bleeding, squirming child between them.
The hatred that rolled over Katelina made her sick and she lurched under the weight.
Fethillen congratulated her allies in a foreign language then looked to the boy. "So it's true. You took up the mantle of the monster."
He spit blood at her and sneered. "Why shouldn't I follow in the footsteps of my master?"
Fethillen snarled in his face. "Do not fear, heresy, I will see that you follow his path all the way to hell." She drew the golden dagger from her thigh.
The child's eyes lit. "Yes, Kierza. Kill me with the dagger you stole from Memnon. It will be an honor to die by his blade."
She grabbed the boy by the front of his battle stained shirt. "Don't call me that, foul demon. Kierza is dead!"
"She is not dead. She is alive inside of you. You are one of us. We share the same blood; the blood of our master, our eternal father, Memnon."
"He is no master of mine! Only a man possessed by demons, by evil, tainted by the desires of the devil!"
The boy chuckled. "You cannot cleanse your blood by changing your name, just as you cannot erase a child by murdering him."
Fethillen thrust the dagger into his stomach, then pulled it free. Katelina gaped at the crimson blood that bubbled out of the wound. Hatred, anger, fearemotions that weren't hers warred within her. The woman drew back and stabbed the child again; murdering her son.
"You are not my child, demon! You are a travesty, a blasphemy! A dark blot on the world that should never have been!"
"And what are you? A murderer. A kin slayer. A traitor. You swore your loyalties to our master, and then you turned your back. You betrayed him and you killed your brothers and your sisters."
"One cannot betray a maniac, only escape from their clutches."
"You say escape as if he held you, as if he forced you to murder, to bathe in their blood, to follow his path. You stayed by choice, and you left by choice. You call him monster, call me demon, but your hands are stained the same color. You cannot wash it away by destroying those who see it. Your sins will not die with me."
Fethillen roared and stabbed the boy again and again. Scarlet ran down his body in rivulets and he screamed. Katelina saw a flash in her head, a child lying in the trampled snow, his throat gaping and his limbs broken. Left for dead by the woman who should have loved him. The vision was gone, replaced with the present, with the bleeding screaming boy, held captive by four vampires, with his furious mother, her face more animal than human, and with the flashing, bloody dagger that sliced again and again.
Katelina laid her hand to her head and tried to stop the swirling thoughts. Fethillen was his mother, the one who should have loved him. She raised him with the name demon, then wondered why he acted like one, why he had become a monster like she was.
"The monster must die."
In a daze, Katelina shoved Fethillen out of the way. The vampiress stumbled and two of the child's captors broke free and tackled Katelina to the floor at his feet. Before she could get free, Fethillen knelt over her, one knee in the middle of her chest, the cold blade of the dagger pressed to her throat.
The blonde vampiress bent close and increased the pressure. "You show the truth at last. How long have you worked for him?"
Katelina forced words past the edge of the blade. "We haven't!"
"You lie, and a liar has no honor. As you lived, so you will die."
"No she won't." Jorick grabbed the red lantern and readied to throw it. "Katelina, move!"
Fethillen looked toward the sound of his voice. Katelina used the distraction to pull loose from her captives and roll away. Though they were older than her, thanks to Micah's blood, they weren't as strong. For the first time she was grateful for it; grateful to him.
There was a crash. The sound of shattering glass. Screams. Suddenly the cavern was bright as daylight. Katelina pulled up to see flames leaping over the writhing figures of Fethillen, her four followers, and the child-like father.
"Noooooo!"
The scream tore through Katelina's surprise. She saw Micah stumble to a stop. In front of him stood Loren. He struggled to hold back a screaming girl with violet eyes and a black ponytail.
It was Ume.
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