Chapter 634
Torina and Anya's fight had spilled outside. The redhead slammed Anya into the side of the plane. Her hair was mussed, and her dress was torn. Both her nose and one ear bled freely. Still, the fire in her eyes said she wasn't done.
As they hurried down the steps, she called, "Did you get" She broke off when she saw the child in Des' arms. "All right."
Anya struggled to her feet. Crimson ran from her nose, and from cuts on her bare arms. "I don't know where the hell you're going with Kali's prize." She spat out a mouthful of blood. "Des. I might have known you'd be licking Torina's shoes again."
Torina hit her with an uppercut that knocked her to the ground. "I wouldn't let your leftovers touch my shoes, let alone lick them."
Torina took two steps away when Anya swept back to her feet. She grabbed the redhead around the neck and twisted. There was a loud crack. Torina fell to the ground, limp, her neck broken.
Katelina cried out in horror, but calmed herself quickly. It took more than that to kill a vampire.
Des turned back, maybe to help with Anya, maybe to see what was happening. With a snarl, Anya pulled something out of her jacket. "This is for my brother, you piece of shit!" She ripped something off the object, then threw. It glinted as it sailed through the air, struck Des in the chest, then bounced to Estrilda's lap
Then it exploded.
Katelina dropped, hands up. She lowered them to see Anya lying flat on the ground. The vampiress tossed aside something small and metala pinand pulled into a crouch, her hand in her pocket again.
Jorick tackled her before she could pull the second pin. The grenade bounced away and rolled to a stop. Katelina cowered. When nothing happened she lowered her arms.
A silent scream sounded in her head. She looked toward Des and Estrilda. Blood was splattered for several feet. Neither of them moved. Slowly, Katelina crept closer. Bits of shrapnel had torn into the wing of the plane, and were embedded in the ground. The screaming in her head grew louder and louder. Her vision narrowed until that blood was all she could see. So much blood.
"Jorick!" she shouted, as if he could make the screaming stop, make the blood go away.
He was at her side, Torina slung over his shoulder. "Are you all right?"
The plane roared to life behind her. She spun to see Anya disappear inside it. A wave of energy slammed into them. She and Jorick stumbled back. A second wave knocked them to all fours. Katelina looked up as a blur passed. For a split second she saw a bloody Ishkur, his arm around Lilith's waist. Though she knew better, she couldn't stop from meeting the vampiress' eyes, like burning coals in the dark. The world expanded, then contracted, until it was all blackness.
She shook the darkness away, but the plane was gone. Jorick was awake next to her, lying in the dirt, blinking, Torina draped across him.
How long was I unconscious?
"Long enough," came Samael's voice in her head. "The whore is wounded. I did not kill her, but now she knows she is not immortal."
Katelina nodded, trying to come to terms with where she was and what was going on. Several feet in front of her was a splatter of blood and gore that had been Des and Estrilda.
"Oh my God!"
She jerked to her feet, and Jorick leapt after her. He pulled her back, using his body to shield the sight. "You don't want to look."
"Is he"
"Yes," Jorick said quietly. "He's dead."
"Estrilda?"
"I don't know. Go back to the complex and I'll look."
She wanted to be the protected princess, but she needed to know. "Just look now."
Brandle limped over, bleeding from his stomach, chest, and forehead. Verchiel joined them, several long cuts across his face. He peeled off his tattered coat and shirt, then knelt down.
Katelina couldn't see what he was doing, but a moment later he handed something to Brandle, wrapped in his bloody shirt. She saw the top of Estrilda's head for a second before the blond turned away. Something about the size of the bundle looked wrong.
"I sense life in her," Brandle said. "I'll take her inside."
Katelina sighed with relief. If Estrilda was alive, she'd heal with blood or sleep.
But Des won't.
She peeked around Jorick. The upper half of Des' head stuck out from Verchiel's coat, burned and flecked in gore. His legs stuck out from the bottom, his tennis shoes splattered in scarlet. Around him were scattered jelly-like clumps of blood and meat. She thought she saw a dismembered finger among the mess, and looked away. Her imagination filled in what it looked like under the coat.
Micah stalked toward them, covered in dirt and blood, Loren on his heels. "What the fuck are you assholes standing around for? We need to chase that bitch down and" he broke off as he stuttered to a stop. "Who's that?"
"Des," Jorick answered.
"What the fuck?" Micah crouched down and laid a hand to the top of Des' head. "Hey, jack ass, you better-" He jerked his hand back. "What the fuck? Is he dead?"
"Yes," Jorick said.
"Oh, you fucking son of a bitch," Micah muttered. "You mother fucking son of a bitch."
Loren put his arm around his friend's shoulders and tried to lift him. "Come on, Micah. We need to"
Micah ripped away. "We need to bury this son of a bitch. That's what we need to do. Getting himself fucking killed. Jesus. Look at this fucking mess." Micah motioned to the blood and gore scattered around them. "What the fuck is this?"
"Anya," Katelina whispered. "She had grenades."
Micah's face hardened. Katelina stumbled under a wave of fury that wasn't her own.
"That fucking bitch. This is what he gets for hooking up with her. But he wouldn't fucking listen, huh?"
Loren tried to move Micah again. The bald vampire pushed him away with more force. Verchiel caught the teen's elbow and shook his head. When Loren started to argue, the Executioner said, "Don't you have a human to check on?"
Loren looked quickly to the vans. One was turned on its side. "Oh fuck! Xandria! I gotta-I'll see ya." He tore across the field and through the ruined fence.
Jorick hefted Torina's limp body over his shoulder. "Come little one. Let's see if there are facilities to clean up, then we'll burn Des and deal with the others."
Katelina looked past him to Lilith's fallen. She'd lost five in all. From their mangled bodies, she guessed Zander could take credit for most of them.
Not the one Des killed.
"Little one?" Jorick touched her arm.
She wanted to go with him, wanted to see Estrilda, but she couldn't move. She was rooted to the spot.
She looked helplessly to Jorick. Something shifted in his eyes. "I'll see you inside."
He walked away. Silently she called for him to come back. She didn't want to deal with this; couldn't deal with this.
She looked for Verchiel, but he'd disappeared. She and Micah were alone. Misery washed over her. She tried to shake out of it, but it burned, like an ember in her chest. She blinked tears, and realized they weren't hers.
They were his.
"Micah?"
He didn't turn around. "What the fuck do you want?"
"I don't know."
"Then get your ass in there with everyone else."
She hesitated. "I know he was your friend."
"No, he wasn't my fucking friend, but he was all that was left. Herrick-Benjamin-they're fucking dead, fucking lost to a goddamn war. Though Des was a fucking asshole, he was it. Now his goddamn guts are scattered across the fucking ground. Fuck!"
Benjamin. It was a name Katelina recognized. The owner of a motel that catered to vampires, Benjamin had been killed by Claudius' goons, part of Oren's war. But the other one-
"Who's Herrick?"
"Fuck, you mean who was Herrick. Didn't you listen, princess. He's dead. He's fucking dead, like everyone else." Micah punched the ground and came away with a sludge of dirt and blood on his knuckles. "You son of a bitch. You were all that was left."
"All that was left of what?"
Micah growled. "Of- I don't fucking know, all right? Jesus! Would you get off my back?" He drew a frustrated breath and his voice turned eerily calm. "When I got turned my fucking master ditched me. He pulled me outta the goddamn water, fucking drained me dry. He filled me up with his blood, then left me lying there. I didn't know shit, didn't understand what the fuck was going on. Herrick found me a couple months later. He explained shit, took me to see Benjamin. That fucking old coot. Goddamn cranky ass bastard with his goddamn cigars, and spitting whisky in a fucking bucket because he wanted the taste but couldn't drink it anymore. Everyone gave him shit and he didn't fucking care because it was his goddamn place. You could deal with it or get the fuck out.
"And Herrick. There was a goddamn idiot. He had this crazy fucking idea that he had to 'watch over' his brother's descendants. Some bullshit about being guilty for not makin' him a vampire. He was okay 'til the last one, this Caroline. For some reason once she grew up he got hot for her. Heh, he used to get pissed if I said it that way. Said it made it sound cheap, like it was some kind of goddamn noble love from Shakespeare. He followed her every night, when she walked her dog, like a stalker. He said it was to make sure nothing happened to her. How fucking stupid did he think I was? He was hoping to get forced into talking to her, coz he was scared to do it on his own. He swore he was gonna, after the war was over. Fucking fooled him, coz he didn't come back from the damn war, did he? He was killed by a fucking Executioner, in that goddamn shamble of a battle with Kateesha. Fucking Guild dogs!
"And now this." Micah fell back on his haunches and wiped his face with his fist, leaving a smear of blood. He looked over the ruined body. "Des was always a fucking pretentious prick. Like he was better than the rest of us. He would sail in and out, off with some fucking bitch for months, or off to his mom's, or wherever the fuck he went. Then he'd come back to town acting all cool, in his fucking designer sunglasses, with his fucking art work, and all his shit. He thought I was 'crude', and I know he fucking thought I was stupid. But he was the one who was stupid. He's the one who's fucking dead, and here I am, crude and stupid, and still fucking alive." He leaned over the body, as if screaming directly at Des. "Suck that bitch, huh? Suck that!"
Micah staggered to his feet. "Fuck this shit. Leave him here for the goddamn buzzards. I'm done."
He turned for the compound. Katelina hurried to catch up.
"Why the fuck are you shadowing me? Why aren't you with your lover boy?"
"I don't know."
"Guess that makes two of us." He looked down at his bloody hands, at the crimson on his shirt, and his jeans. "Goddamn. Des made a fucking mess. He can't even die without being a goddamn pain in the ass."
Katelina didn't know what to say.
