Chapter 627
Verchiel wisely went the long way around the fire. When they stopped at a pine forest for Micah's promised treat, the redhead enchanted several squirrels. Katelina drank one, and quickly poked the body into a tree. Micah went through three of the animals. Though he was healed, the missing goatee still amused Katelina.
The car made funny noises and lurched all the way back to the motel, but they made it.
In the parking lot, Verchiel poked what was left of his windshield and looked sadly at his sooty, paint bubbled, smoke blackened car. "It's brand new." A chunk of pebbled windshield dropped into the driver's seat. "I guess I'll have to get her fixed."
"That's an understatement," Loren said.
Xandria popped out of a motel door. She looked at the teen and exclaimed in a foreign language. Though Katelina didn't know the words, she understood the meaning. It was something like, "Oh my God, Loren! What have you done?"
Verchiel caught Katelina's arm to tug her toward the building. "Now that she sees him like that, she realizes she could have lost him, and will soon be examining her feelings."
"They're not a couple I want to talk about," Katelina mumbled.
"You better get used to them, at least for the time being." They reached the room the Executioners were in. Verchiel pushed the door open. "You guys still here?"
Jorick stepped up. "Where else" He took in Katelina's blackened appearance and Verchiel's scorched clothes. "What in the hell happened?"
Katelina felt him in her head, but she wasn't in the mood. She imagined a brick wall clamping down. His growl said it worked.
"Katelina," he warned.
Verchiel grinned giddily. She smacked him in the arm. "You can tell him all about it. I just want a shower and some clean clothes."
"The proprietors have been evacuated." Jamie looked up from his crossword puzzle. "Get a key from the office and take a room. Everyone else has."
Katelina waved her thanks. As she left she heard Jorick threatening Verchiel. "I swear to God if she's been hurt-"
She fetched her suitcase from the van, then trudged into the open motel office. Like an old movie, the keys hung on a pegboard behind the counter. She nabbed a set and headed to the corresponding room.
Inside, it looked much like the Executioners' suite; the same pale blue carpet and painted walls. The bathroom had a pink tub and toilet, both tiny. Katelina hoped the shower at least had decent water pressure.
She stripped off and climbed inside, pulling the shower curtain closed. The water took forever to warm up. As she bounced in and out of the cold stream she thought of the movie Psycho. Sans the giant, spooky house, the place had that kind of retro serial killer vibe.
As if from her fears, the curtain was suddenly jerked open. She screamed and threw her soap at the lurking shape. She grabbed the shampoo bottle, ready to fling it, when Jorick shouted, "It's me!"
She felt first relief, then anger. "What in the hell are you doing?" She threw an arm over her breasts. "You scared the hell out of me!"
"Then we're even. How do you think I felt when I saw the pair of you at the door, covered in soot? Then you closed your mind."
"Oh no you don't. Don't you act like that was some kind of betrayal. My thoughts aren't public property, Jorick. They're mine. Remember when you used to respect that? If you want to know something, you can ask, like a normal person."
He ground his teeth. "It's faster."
"And it's rude." It was hard to be taken seriously naked. She pulled the curtain closed, until only her head stuck out. "I assume Verchiel gave you the details?"
"No. Micah did. When I catch the redheaded idiot-Do you not understand how dangerous fire is to our kind? You could have been killed!"
The desperation in his eyes quashed her smart ass reply. "I know. It wasn't our plan to get stuck, and it wasn't anyone's fault." She relented and let the curtain go to reach for him. "We're all right."
He pulled her wet body to him. "Thankfully. But next time-"
"There won't be a next time." She nudged herself free. "You're getting all wet."
"I can change. Or join you."
The gleam in his eyes made her stomach clench in anticipation. He peeled off his shirt. As he reached for the button on his slacks, someone pounded on the bedroom door. Oren's voice followed, "The Mexicans are here."
Jorick swore and pulled his shirt back on. "Later." He gave her a heated kiss, that left her reaching for him, then hurried out.
Katelina fetched her soap and finished her shower quickly. She wanted to see these Atormentadores for herself.
When she was done, she headed outside. A dark pickup with Mexican plates was parked in the center of the hazy parking lot. She passed it and hurried to Ark and Jamie's door. Before she could knock, Verchiel appeared. Though he was clean with new clothes, his coat was still singed and ashy, as if he'd only shaken it out. "Coming to meet the Atormentadores?"
The door jerked open. An angry vampire with a dark red-brown ponytail grabbed Verchiel. The gold medallion around his neck said he was one of the Mexican Executioners.
"Who are you?" His eyes dropped to the redhead's amulet. "Another one? How many did your Guild send?"
Ark's voice came from inside, "Only two. He's freelancing."
"He's been freelancing in the dirt." The Atormentador released him forcefully.
"It's not dirt." Verchiel motioned Katelina through the door ahead of him, then followed. "It's ashes, from the fire you started. It's lucky the two of you were nearby. Your response time is surely some kind of record. Your report said fifteen minutes after the attack? How far is the border from here?"
The Atormentador sneered. "What are you implying, friend?"
"Nothing. But I'm sure the High Council will have some questions, like what you were doing in our territory?"
"We don't need the permission of The Guild to travel."
"No," Ark agreed. "Unless it's in an official capacity. What were you doing here?"
The second Atormentador stood, hands on his hips. His dark hair was cropped short, with a matching moustache. "None of your business."
Katelina looked past them to where Jorick leaned on a dresser. She could feel his animosity. Though she was furious about what they'd done to the town and the survivors, she knew his anger went deepermaybe deeper than the story about the succession.
"Now, now, Paco," the redheaded Atormentador said. "We can be generous to our friends. We were sent north to see the damage in Ohio. As luck would have it, the destruction came to us. Had your Guild been kind enough to share details of the earlier attack, we'd have never been sent."
"Wouldn't that be a pity?" Verchiel asked sarcastically. "Then we could have dealt with the aftermath ourselves."
"Hours later?" Paco demanded. "You're lucky the cell signals are so bad here. The fifteen minutes it took us to arrive left time enough for something to have leaked. Had they had longer, had someone been able to contact the human media, imagine what would have gotten out then."
"It couldn't have been worse than this," Ark snapped. "A fire that destroyed a village and everyone in it? Do you realize how bizarre and suspicious that looks?"
Paco snorted. "No worse than the way you handled Ohio, right, Hugo?"
The other Atormentador snickered. "It's not ours to judge, huh? They handle things their way and we do it ours. Next time we'll leave it for them to clean up; leave the survivors bleeding and dying in the streets, screaming about monsters."
Ark glared. "We need neither your opinion nor approval, however you need ours, and you don't have it. The chaos you created is ridiculous. You destroyed any witnesses or evidence that could have helped locate the perpetrator. We're going to file a complaint with Munich."
"Go ahead." Hugo crossed his arms. "The last time we worried about what they thought was before you stole California."
"We didn't steal anything," Jorick said. "It was already awarded to the human government. We only followed the borders."
"Human borders mean nothing to us," Hugo snapped. "Unless it is convenient for your greedy"
Jamie swept to his feet. "Enough! We're not here to hash out old territory disputes."
"No," Hugo said coldly. "You're here to remind us you're in charge." He broke off into Spanish. Though Katelina didn't understand it, she knew it was an insult.
"And we're here to find out what happened." Verchiel took a step forward. "And to find the perpetrator. We don't plan to leave a maniac running free, destroying whole villages."
"Then enjoy your hunt." Hugo's laughter melted into an almost sinister seriousness. "You play your game, but you know who did this. It had to be an army of ancients. If there is one, you know who they are, though you're not sharing the information. No worries, we will find out on our own."
Jorick fixed them with a hard stare. "You'll go home and stay out of this."
"Or what?" Hugo sneered. "You'll kill us where we stand? My Guild knows where we are, and they would know who to blame."
Jorick closed the space between them, teeth bared.
Verchiel chuckled. "Except Jorick's not with the Guild. We can't control him. I mean, I'll fill out the incident report, but it won't do your entrails much good when they're splattered on the wall."
Paco scoffed. "We don't fear you, and neither will the ancients when you find them. They will tear you apart, as they did the humans. It will be no loss. Good luck," he added sarcastically, then they left, slamming the door behind them.
"That was pointless," Katelina muttered.
"No, it wasn't," Verchiel said. "We learned that Lilith didn't kill everyone. There were survivors, which means her purpose was not total annihilation. It also means she accomplished her goal and didn't need to keep going. That tells us that Lilith doesn't destroy for the fun of it, only for a purpose. No wasted energy on her part. And, since the Atormentadores don't know who attacked, or why, it means that none of the survivors knew either. The damage was obviously extensive, because they attributed it to an 'army of ancients', and they believe we're organized and on top of things, or they wouldn't have accused us of playing a game."
Katelina crossed her arms. "But we don't know where Lilith is going, or why she attacked the village."
"Not yet," Jorick said. "But we will."
