Chapter 493
Two hours later, they rolled to a stop before a barricade. Policemen in black SWAT-style attire surrounded the vehicles, machine guns pointed. As they drew closer, Katelina realized they were vampires.
She looked at their automatic weapons. They should know better. Unless they could unload a cluster in their heart, bullets couldn't kill a vampire.
The door to a small, clapped-together shack opened. A vampire in a long black coat emerged. Light glinted from the gold medallion around his neck. It was one of the Scharfrichter.
The driver put his hands up. He rattled off a string of Chinese to say he knew nothing. The policemen motioned them out of the cars. Katelina looked at Jorick's calculating expression.
"Best do as they say," Sorino suggested. "For now."
They piled out and the Scharfrichter surveyed them. "Identify yourselves."
"Would you like driver's licenses, or passports?" Sorino asked.
"Don't be funny."
"That's going to be hard for him," Micah said. "He's as fucking funny as they get. Damn fruit."
The Scharfrichter turned on Micah. "Where are you going?" His eyes landed on Jorick and Jamie's necklaces. "You are Executioners."
At the title, the driver backed away, eyes wide. The Scharfrichter motioned to the police. One of them spoke to him in Chinese. The man nodded vigorously and nearly tripped in his haste to get back in the vehicle. The other drivers did the same. The SUVs backed down the highway before they turned u-ies and disappeared.
The Scharfrichter threw a, "stay here" at them and strode back to the shack.
"He's calling Wolfe," Sorino said.
"Of course he is. They've been ordered to keep an eye out for us." Jorick met Jamie's eyes. "It might be best if we're gone when he returns."
The Executioner sighed. "Fine. Incapacitate but don't kill."
"You took all the fun out of it." Micah scoffed.
The vampires charged the armed guards. Jorick, Jamie, Oren, Torina, and Verchiel knocked their targets to the ground in one swoop. Their guns fell into the grass and the vampires kicked them away. Micah ripped the weapon from his enemy's hands and used it to bash him in the head. Lurid snapped his opponent's neck. But, with only one arm, Loren couldn't grab both his target and their gun. The guard fired several shots. Loren jumped clear as Takeshi fell backwards in an explosion of red.
Micah slammed the guard into the barricades. The wood splintered and blood sprayed from the vampire's fractured face. Micah snapped his neck, then threw him to the ground. He made to slam his fist into his enemy's chest when Jamie cut in front of him. "No."
Katelina turned to Takeshi. Maeko and Hikaru were already next to him. Blood soaked the grass, pouring from the stump of his left calf.
"Holy shit." Loren knelt next to their fallen ally. "He blew his fucking foot off."
Micah hurried to them. "You okay pipsqueak?"
With a nod, Loren pointed to Takeshi. Micah gave a low whistle. "How the fuck did that happen?"
The shack jerked open. The Scharfrichter's eyes bulged in outrage. He reached into his coat and stormed toward them. As he came, he snapped together a stick with a blade on each end of it.
Micah dragged Katelina after him. "Me and Lunch will take this one."
Jorick lunged to interfere, but Oren caught him. "Let her do something useful."
The Scharfrichter charged with a cry, spinning his weapon in practiced arcs. Katelina ducked to one side and Micah dodged to the other. He spun to kick the Scharfrichter in the back of his knees. His enemy was faster and slammed him in the head with his elbow.
Katelina fingered the dagger in her pocket. With Sorino watching she didn't want to risk it. She seized a rock from the ground and flung it at their attacker's head.
The Scharfrichter stumbled under the blow, then sprang at her. Katelina could see a trickle of blood down the side of his face as she dodged him. Micah tackled him to the ground. The Scharfrichter tried to stab him. At close quarters, his weapon was more awkward than useful.
Micah's arms bulged with the effort it took to hold the vampire down. "Drain the bitch!" She stared at him in confusion, and he shouted, "Don't just stand there. Cut the bastard and drain out his blood so he can't follow us. Shit, am I speaking Russian?"
Since Jamie didn't want them dead, it made sense. Verchiel tossed his sword at her feet. She pulled it free of its lacquered sheath and stabbed it into the side of the bucking, furious Scharfrichter. She pulled up toward his head, like opening an envelope. His dark blood poured out onto the grass and he gave a cry of pain that trailed into curses in English and German.
Verchiel was suddenly at her side. He pulled the sword away and made a show of shaking it off, then wiping it on the grass. "Don't leave blood on it or you'll ruin it."
The vampire's struggles lessened, then ended. Micah stepped away to reveal a withered, husk-like creature. Resembling a victim of starvation, his skin clung to his bones. He stared at them with angry eyes and rasped out, "You will be punished."
"Not today." Micah lifted his foot to kick the Scharfrichter in the side, but stopped when Maeko laid her hand to his arm.
"We must go before Wolfe-san appears."
Micah growled. "Did you find the kid's foot?"
Xandria gagged and turned away. "I did." She dropped to her knees to throw up.
Katelina quickly found the source of her disgust. Takeshi's shoe lay on the ground in a splatter of gore. The stump of his ankle was blown open, like a tree hit by lightning. The muscles and bone were blasted and she was pretty sure part of it was missing.
Loren pulled off his flannel and wrapped the bloody remnant in it. "Maybe we can save it. Come on."
Takeshi was as pale as the guard they'd bled. Someone had used Ryuu's coat as a tourniquet, but the vampire was still withery. Hikaru hitched him up on his back with the command, "Sleep. There will be less pain."
They left the outpost behind and marched into the darkness. They hadn't gone far before Jorick suggested they abandon the road. "Wolfe will come that way."
Like in the mountains, Katelina noticed that Ryuu walked slower than she did. Only now they also had Xandria. She didn't blame them for lagging; Ryuu had been sick and as far as she knew neither had had any food yet.
She moved to walk next to Xandria. "How are you doing?"
"As good as any human traveling with vampires." Her eyes flicked over the group and back to Katelina. "We're really going to pick a fight with the old guy?"
Katelina drew a deep breath to steady her nerves. "We're going to kill him."
"I could murder Sanjay for getting mixed up with him. Things weren't that great before but they've been shit since. Cye's dead. Who knows where Sanjay is? Fuck explosives. Fuck master plans. Fuck all of it."
Even with the slow humans, it didn't take long to reach the town. Street lights glowed but the buildings gave back only dark windows. Their footsteps echoed in the empty lanes.
"This way." Verchiel motioned them to turn.
"Can you sense him?" Loren asked.
"No one can sense Samael-sama," Maeko answered. "Not even while you are with him."
Xandria leaned on a parked car to catch her breath. "You met him?"
"Yes. Jorick-ue asked us to help find Kate-chan. We first inquired at the Yononaka and they told us of rumors of an ancient master in South East China. We went to Hong Kong. There I heard that this park had closed because of dangerous gasses. I did not think much at first, but the more I thought, the more I wondered, so we came here to investigate."
"And?" Loren pressed.
"Samael-sama said that Kate-chan had been taken by Malick-san. I asked him to help us recover Kate-chan, but he said, 'My help is not needed.' At the time I found it cold. Now I see that he was right. We were able to liberate Kate-chan without him."
Barely, Katelina thought with a hint of bitterness.
They exited out into the broad area before the complex's main gates. Ropes and signs barred people from approaching and the gates' metal doors were padlocked.
A gust of wind blew dried leaves and bits of trash. Katelina shivered. The strange stillness of the city seemed compounded, as if the complex was even emptier than the evacuated streets. The resulting loneliness left an ache inside of her.
"It is Samael-sama," Maeko murmured.
Lurid asked, "Now what?"
"Last time, I jumped over the wall," Verchiel said.
As they agreed to try that, a black coated vampire stepped from the shadows. Irritation lined his face, and the street lights glinted from the jagged blades on his spear-like weapon.
It was Wolfe.
