Chapter 609
Verchiel dragged Katelina to the door. She hoped a little of the blood made it down her mom's throat. At least enough to keep her alive. They could always come back and try again later. Maybe if she got a syringe-
"She'd choke," Verchiel commented.
"Who would?" Des asked as they joined him. "Are you ready?"
"Not quite," Verchiel said.
"You're coming with us? I thought you were supposed to finish the hospital." Des narrowed his eyes.
"I can do it in half an hour, tops. You guys better pull up a chair in a waiting room. Unless you brought your own car?"
He had them there. Though she wasn't against walking, there was the problem of all the roadblocks and the curfew. Without a whisperer, they'd never get through, unless they started incapacitating people.
"Glad you're seeing things my way." Verchiel mussed her hair and winked. "Go find a quiet, out of the way place to wait. I'll join you in half an hour. Oh." He leaned close and dropped his voice to a whisper. "You might get some blood to heal that. Don't want it bleeding all over everything."
She looked to the dark stain that stuck her sleeve to her arm. When she looked up, Verchiel was gone.
Since she wasn't a whisperer, she couldn't get someone to willingly give her blood, so she snagged rolls of gauze and medical tape from a cart of supplies, then hurried down the hallway, following signs for a waiting area.
Though the room wasn't locked, it was dark. They left the light off as they took seats. Des flipped through magazines while Katelina worked on her arm. She prayed silently that Verchiel found somethinganything that might lead them to Sarah and Estrilda.
When she finished her bandage, Des asked, "Do you think Sarah escaped?"
"I hope so."
He closed the magazine and stared at nothing for a moment before speaking. "She's a strong woman. She's been through a lot already."
"Yes," Katelina answered slowly.
"What I mean is, if anyone could escape and take care of themselves, I think she could." Des hesitated, as if looking for words. "I realize we didn't know each other long, but we connected." He ran his hand through his short hair. "Or I think we did. She told me a lot of thingsthings I don't think she'd tell just anyone. About her past, about what happened to her." He pursed his lips then pushed on. "And I told her a lot of things. She didn't judge me for them, and I didn't judge her. I'm not saying we're in love, or we're the next Romeo and Juliet, but I think there could be something there, you know?"
Katelina didn't, but she murmured a sort of vague agreement.
"I warned her about KaliLilith, I guess. Sarah was crazy about her, but then maybe it wasn't her fault. As powerful as Lilith is, maybe she made Sarah like her." He slammed his fist into the chair. "I was at the damned ball. I should have been able to get Sarah away from her. Instead she-"
"I know," Katelina said quietly. "But you're not the only one. We were all there."
Des took a sharp breath through his teeth. "All right, when the joker gets done, where should we start looking?"
"Brad saw her at Mom's. It seems as good a place as any. If she's not there, maybe there's some kind of a clue."
"Or maybe the other one got away. What's her name?"
Katelina stiffened. "Estrilda."
"Right. She's Andrei's daughter, isn't she?"
Katelina's chest tightened until it was hard to speak. "You-you know about her?"
"Sarah mentioned her. About how the girl wanted to be friends because they both had asshole fathers, but Sarah-She didn't dislike her. The kid just made her uncomfortable, because of the mind reading and because she's all scarred up."
Katelina tried to swallow down her anger. "Sarah told you about her after she promised not to? I warned her that children were illegal, and she still-"
"Whoa, whoa. Children? You mean Estrilda is an actual child? As in a child they turned into a vampire? I thought it was just someone they treated like a kid. You know, with maybe developmental issues."
Shit.
Des bounced his leg uncomfortably. "I'm not going to turn them in, if that's what you're worried about. I know I've had my problems with you and Jorick, but I'm not a complete asshole."
Katelina released a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Thanks."
"Yeah." A moment passed, then he asked, "I guess Brandle and Sorino already know she's a kid?"
"Brandle does. As for Sorino, he's probably picked it out of my mind by now."
"Yeah. I can't say I like the guy. It's like he's always up to something."
She nodded and played with the tape roll. In her mind's eye, she pictured Estrilda. Though she couldn't attend the ball downstairs, she could still dress up. She smiled her strange lipless grin and spun. Her purple skirt swirled around her. The wings attached to her back sparkled.
"I am a fairy."
The door opened, pulling Katelina back to the present. Verchiel strolled in.
"So?" Katelina asked as she stood to join him.
He motioned them toward the exit with his head, and didn't speak until they were outside in the heavy spring night.
"No one saw anything useful. Good news for me, because I didn't need to play with their memories, but bad news for the search. However, a lot of patients were sent to neighboring hospitals. I let Ark know, and he's trying to figure out whether we need to send damage control to each."
"Meaning you'll have to go," Katelina said.
"Actually, I think they're happy to leave me here doing clean up." They stopped next to the bright orange car. "The human-I don't know what agency. The people who deal with terrorist stuff. Anyway, they've mapped the epicenter of the attack. Two locations were harder hit than the others."
"Those are?" Des asked.
"A residential block on Sycamore and your mother's block. They're clear across town from each other."
Sycamore. Sycamore. The name meant something to her, or should. Then it hit her. "Sarah's mom."
Verchiel perked up. "What?"
"Sarah's mom lived on Sycamore. That's where Sarah grew up. After she graduated, her parents got divorced and her dad eventually went to Texas, but her mom kept the house."
Verchiel nodded. "If I were Sarah, and I'd escaped a crazy vampiress, I'd go to my mom's house first. Though I'm not sure why she'd go to your mom's? Was she looking for her ex-boyfriend?"
"Maybe. Or maybe it was my mom. Sarah-" She glanced uncomfortably at Des. He obviously knew about Sarah's past. "Sarah's dad was an abusive alcoholic, there's no other way to put it. Sarah spent a lot of time at my house, with me and my mom. When she finally moved out in high school, she stayed with us for a while. She always kind of looked at my mom as a second mother. Actually, I always thought she liked my mom better. Her mother didn't do a lot to save her from her dad, you know? She wasn't a bad person, just-weak, I guess. Sarah never trusted her."
Verchiel nodded. "Makes sense, since they think it started on Sycamore. Sarah might have gone there first. Lilith followed. Sarah escaped and ran to your mom's house. From there, Ark thinks she went downtown."
"Should we look there first?" Des asked.
Verchiel tapped his chin. "No. If she's still free, it's because she's somewhere unexpected; somewhere Lilith hasn't looked yet. Or, somewhere Lilith's already looked and hasn't backtracked to."
"Mom's house?" Katelina suggested.
Verchiel nodded. "That seems most likely, especially since she considered it a safe place from her childhood."
Katelina caught his arm. "You said Sycamore was badly hit. Could you find out what happened to Sarah's mom?"
"I can try. What's her name?"
"Maria Townsendno. She went back to her maiden name after the divorce. Maria Hernandez."
"I'll look into it. In the meantime, let's see if we can get through these roadblocks and find your friend."
Katelina climbed into the backseat and said a silent prayer. If only Sarah and Estrilda were safe, she'd give anything. Almost anything. Not Jorick, or her mother or-the list went on. It bothered her how little she was willing to surrender. Maybe she wasn't as good a friend as she thought?
As the CNA warned, the checkpoints gave them grief over the time, but Verchiel got them through. Until the last one.
"I'm sorry," the soldier said, trance-like. "No vehicles allowed. You'll have to proceed on foot."
Katelina motioned Verchiel to park. They climbed out of the car to hurry past the soldier into the Barber's yard. Bits of rubble crunched in the grass as Verchiel led them around the damaged house.
On the other side, Katelina stumbled to a stop and clutched his arm. Where there had once been houses, there was only wreckage, as if someone had flattened a four block radius. Yards were indistinguishable from one another, heaped with bricks, plaster, and broken trees. Electrical lines snaked across the street. Everything was coated in white dust, like a sick snowfall.
Verchiel steadied her with a hand to the small of her back. "Do you need to sit down a minute?"
"No," she whispered, but she did. She needed to sit down and cover her face with her hands, block out the horror, the destruction, the complete annihilation of everything she'd known.
She forced bravery she didn't feel. "Come on. We need to look for Sarah."
Verchiel took her arm, to help her pick through the mess. The three blocks to her mother's house never felt so long, and yet so short. When she reached the area, she had a hard time picking out which smashed heap it was.
"This one," she said at last.
Gone was the neon green bungalow, replaced with a shattered roof laying over a splat of debris. A tree had fallen across what was once the front yard. Her mother's VW bug was overturned in the middle of the street.
It was an overload that left Katelina numb, like looking at someone else's disaster. This couldn't be anything she'd ever known. Not when it looked like this.
She picked her way to what had once been the porch, buried knee deep in rubble. After a long, slow, inhale, she closed her eyes and tried to reach out with her mind, sensing for Sarah or Estrilda.
At first there was nothing, only the soft sound of a still night, then she could feel the roof, the layers of wood and shingles. Then came the plaster, the wood, the thickness of the mass, on through to the basement, only partially caved in. A spark of life made her breath hitch, followed by another and another and another. Not people, but mice; mice living in the basement walls.
She opened her eyes and sagged. As she turned to Verchiel, a noise caught her attention. She spun to see a bulky shape standing on what had once been the roof. Fangs gleamed in a smug smile.
"I told you this was it."
