Children of Shadows

by Naylor, Joleene

  The loud speaker crackled to life and an urgent message went over it, calling for immediate backup. The pack surged forward again. This was it; their window, and she was stuck and probably going to be crushed by the Scharfrichter!

  “Get back!”

  The vampires around her fell away, leaving her room to breathe. Their faces were startled, but they didn’t have time to do more than stare before Verchiel appeared next to her and dragged her down to her knees.

  “What in the hell are you doing?” she cried. “We’ll get crushed!”

  “This way.” The redhead dragged her through the forest of feet and legs. She half crawled, half stumbled until she reached the edge of the crowd, where she practically fell out. Verchiel caught her and dragged her to the stairs as an army of guards and Scharfrichter came storming up them.

  Verchiel let her go and quickly knelt. “All the reinforcements are coming, and this place is about to turn into a war zone. Climb on!”

  There were times when she’d have argued, but this wasn’t one of them. She threw her arms around his neck and, as he stood, hitched her knees up around his waist.

  “Don’t scream,” he ordered and then took off, streaking down the stairs. His bright red hair flapped in her face, and she turned her head, but the blur of stairs and wall made her sick, so she squeezed her eyes closed and buried her face against the collar of his coat.

  They skidded to a stop and Katelina groaned and tried to adjust to the halt. The elevator doors swam before her and she heard another round of shouts over the loudspeaker, this time in German.

  “So that was the great underground movement?” Katelina asked, still clutching him.

  “No, the underground movement is the reinforcements I mentioned. That was just the spark to get things rolling. The rebellion proper was waiting for the signal to start, like we were.”

  “That was the signal, right?”

  Katelina looked over to see Ume and Loren. She wondered what they were doing together, but the pleased look on Loren’s face gave her a hint.

  “It damn well better be the signal.” Micah came to a stop and dropped a backpack to the floor. “Where’s the rest of the gang?”

  “I’m here,” Torina announced as she and Quenby arrived. The redheaded vampiress wore a 1950s style winter coat and lugged an overstuffed duffle bag. Katelina could imagine her saying, “I did get rid of things. This is only the ten or twelve necessary outfits and coordinating shoes and accessories.”

  Verchiel grinned, and Torina ran her eyes over them. “Is it fashionable now to wear a human on your back?”

  Jorick’s cold voice came from behind them, “No, it isn’t.”

  Katelina scrambled to get down as Jorick pushed his way to the front, Oren and Etsuko behind him. The lion-maned vampire wore his usual long gray coat and had a satchel slung over his shoulder. Etsuko’s puffy white coat and fur lined hood looked too warm for the indoors, and forced her to carry her bulging overstuffed backpack like a carry-on.

  Jorick gave Verchiel a dark look, and then hit the button for the elevator. The doors whisked open and they stuffed themselves inside. Jorick hit the button for the bottom floor, and Katelina and Oren exchanged questioning looks that quickly melted into feigned cool indifference. It wouldn’t do for them to agree, but she couldn’t stop her thoughts. What in the hell is he doing?

  When the elevator stopped, Jorick led them out into the red carpeted corridor. They wound through the hallways, closer and closer to the secret entrance of the Kugsankal, and Katelina tensed. The thrum of their years pounded in her ears and stole her breath. The sensation grew almost unbearable as they passed the silver door and Katelina shivered. She imagined she could feel the ancients reaching up through the hallways and elevators, ready to drag her down to their subterranean sanctuary. She wanted to push them out, but was afraid it would draw their attention away from the swarm upstairs.

  The loud speaker sounded again. The voice was filled with panic and choked off into a semi-hysterical scream. Verchiel shrugged as if to say whatever happened up there wasn’t his fault, but she wasn’t so sure.

  They turned a corner and came to an abrupt stop. A vampire stood in the middle of the corridor, a surly expression on his face. Though he was dressed in jeans and a sweater, Katelina recognized him. It was Burton, the guard Micah had assaulted!

  Katelina clutched Jorick’s arm and tried to communicate the danger to him. No doubt catching them would earn him his lost favor and end his suspension.

  “What are you doing?” Burton demanded.

  “Exactly what you think,” Jorick said impassively.

  Burton looked past him and locked eyes with Micah. The bald vampire responded with a sneering grin that invited violence.

  Burton looked away. “Then follow me.”

  He moved to an air conditioner grating in the wall and snapped out the cover to reveal a long, dark tunnel. “She’s waiting in the garage.” Jorick started forward and Burton cleared his throat noisily. “The orders were not to wait for you.”

  Katelina gave him a puzzled look, but Jorick nodded stiffly and crawled into the hole. Katelina looked from him to Burton. When he didn’t clarify, she followed Jorick on her knees. The tunnel was really an air conditioner shaft. The only light came through the opening, and as they crawled forward it faded and left her blind. She strained against the darkness until she fancied she could see the vague outline of Jorick ahead of her.

  “Stop.”

  Jorick’s command came too late and she ran into him. Someone ran into her, and from the “oofs” and “watch its” she imagined everyone running together like a train buckling on a track.

  There were a few clanging sounds and then the noise of ripping metal. Jorick moved forward and after a moment called back, “Come but be careful. There are sharp edges.”

  She felt her way forward and cautiously crept through the hole he’d created. What was beyond wasn’t made of metal, but cold stone. It was another low tunnel and she moved forward slowly. Luckily the passageway was short, and soon she sensed that the walls had fallen away.

  “We’ve crossed under the street,” Jorick said as he helped her to her feet. “That was probably once part of a sewer.”

  “Ewww!” She wiped at her clothes as if removing invisible but ancient yuck.

  “It’s fine,” Jorick said. “Now we have to climb, and we need to hurry. They should be close to quashing the rebellion.”

  “I don’t know,” Verchiel commented from her right elbow. “They’re organized in waves.”

  Katelina squinted against the black and thought she saw the outlines of a ladder. “How am I supposed to go up that in the dark?”

  “Climb on my back,” Jorick ordered impatiently. When she was in position he said, “Hold on,” then pulled them upwards quickly. She couldn’t see, but she could imagine the height, and squeezed her eyes closed against it, as if that would blot out the image of falling stories to their death.

  Or at least to her death.

  When they reached the top, Jorick knocked on the ceiling, and then a trap door opened and light flooded the shaft.

  Katelina shut her eyes against the onslaught, but opened them again as Jorick pulled them out into the cavernous room above. She dropped slowly to the floor and looked around the brightly lit garage. A plethora of black vehicles were parked in shiny rows and Sadihra stood nearby.

  The rest of the group climbed out, and Katelina noticed with surprise that Oren had carried Etsuko. He set her down wordlessly, and then glared at Katelina, as if he wanted to make sure there was no mistaking his motives.

  Loren popped up. He gave a self-satisfied grin, obviously proud that despite his one arm, he’d made it to the top unassisted. Micah was the last out. He slapped the teen on the back and then they all turned to Sadihra.

  “I see we have quite a gathering.” The Scharfrichterin pressed a button on a key ring remote. One of the SUVs beeped and the headlights flashed. She held the keys out to Jo
rick. “I have two pilots and a plane waiting at the airfield. You can find it by following the GPS built into the dash. Leave the keys in the center console and the SUV in the parking lot.”

  Jorick took the keys, studied them a moment, then turned to Oren. “GPS?”

  The lion-maned vampire shrugged and Verchiel snatched them. “Global Positioning Something. I got this.”

  Sadihra winced but only said, “You should not be harassed. The pilots believe the mission is sanctioned but covert, and so have orders to maintain radio silence with The Sodalitas. Contact me as soon as you find Wolfe, no matter what his condition.”

  Though Sadihra hid behind the words, Katelina knew what she really meant; even if Wolfe was dead.

  They jammed into the SUV. Katelina sat in Jorick’s lap, squashed against Loren until she felt they might really be Siamese twins. Verchiel drove the vehicle out through an automatic garage door. As they turned onto the street, Katelina caught a last glimpse of Sadihra framed in the gaping door, her face creased with worry.

  Chapter Ten

  They sped down the quiet lanes of midnight Munich. Katelina peered over Jorick’s shoulder, for the tell-tale lights of pursuers. It was strange, both trips to Munich had ended in an escape and yet this one seemed to go unnoticed.

  “With a distraction like that it should,” Verchiel quipped. No one commented and they dropped back into silence.

  They pulled into the airfield and made their way to the tarmac where a black plane waited, lights on and door open. Jorick led them to the plane and one by one they boarded. It was identical to the airplane that had brought them there, and maybe even the same one. Katelina picked a seat in front of a fold down table and buckled herself in. Jorick grabbed Ume and ducked into the cockpit and Micah flopped into the seat across from Katelina. “All right Lunch, why’d that German chick help? Jorick didn’t tell us, but I bet he told you.”

  Though Katelina glared at the unwelcome nickname, she didn’t see the harm in telling him. “Wolfe’s missing, and she wants us to look for him.”

  Jorick reappeared and took the seat next to her. He gave Micah an icy look, but the bald vampire buckled his seat belt and crossed his arms.

  When the airplane leveled off, most of the vampires removed their seatbelts. She expected Micah to move, but he settled in. “Lunch says we’re lookin’ for that bastard Wolfe.”

  “No,” Jorick said. “There’s no point. I doubt he was ever in Syria. More likely China.”

  “China?” she echoed.

  “I don’t have any details, only a… sense. The Kugsankal are restless, and China is in their thoughts.”

  Katelina gaped. “You can read their minds? My God, Jorick!”

  “Not the way you think. It was a stray flicker. I couldn’t tell you which one thought it, only that it was there, for an instant. I don’t even know if something has happened, or if it’s something that will happen in the future. Either way, we’re going to Finland.”

  Katelina shifted in her seat. “So you’ll call Sadihra and tell her you looked and didn’t find him?”

  “No. She said to call her when we found him. If we don’t find him…” He trailed off and shrugged.

  “Doesn’t that seem dishonest?”

  “Fuck no,” Micah said. “Take our freedom and fucking run with it. I for one am glad to be out of that place.”

  “And when the pilots return and tell her we went to Finland instead of Syria?”

  “They won’t,” Jorick said simply. “I’ve already spoken to them.”

  “You mean you’ve already brainwashed them, or enchanted, or whatever nice, cozy word you like to use.”

  Verchiel leaned on the back of Micah’s seat. “You never know, we might actually run into Wolfe. If I were the Kugsankal, I’d send him to look for The Black Vigil. See? Mission accomplished without wasting a bunch of time in the Middle East.”

  “You don’t understand.” Katelina turned to Jorick. “What if I was the one asking someone to go look for you? What if they said they would and then took off? Meanwhile I’d wait for news, worried sick.”

  “I can’t imagine Jorick being separated from you long enough to go missing,” Oren drawled from his seat.

  Jorick gave a heavy sigh, as if he’d resigned himself to a conversation he didn’t want to have. “If you had not heard from me, little one, then I would either be dead, in which case someone rushing to find me would be useless, or else I would be hiding for a reason, and someone looking for me would only complicate matters, and possibly put me in danger. Wolfe knows what he’s doing. If he’s fallen off the map then either he’s dead, or he’s done so by choice, and I have no intention of following him around as though he needed looking after. I would expect him to do the same.”

  “What? Lie to shut me up, then go off and do whatever he wanted?”

  Micah snorted. “That’s what you have to do with women.”

  Katelina’s eyes bulged, and Verchiel nodded. “Sometimes you have to pat them on the head and tell them what they want to hear. Especially when they’re being unreasonable.”

  “How is wanting to know if her boyfriend is alive unreasonable?”

  “It’s not, in and of itself,” Jorick said. “But—”

  “But she should stay home where he left her and not cause any waves,” Verchiel finished with a grin.

  “Of all the sexist, chauvinist…” Words failed her.

  “Look,” Verchiel said. “Sometimes men do know what they’re doing, and if you meddle with it, you can cause a lot of trouble.”

  Micah nodded. “Like when someone tells a woman to stay the fuck where she is so he can fight someone else, and then the bitch has to interfere. All that does is fuck him up because now he’s got to protect her and fight off the original guy at the same time.”

  Loren joined the conversation. “I saw an anime once where this girl did that. The hero had to go have some samurai duel or something, so he leaves her home and what does she do but go rushing down there, and then the evil samurai guy almost killed her, and so then the hero dude got nearly killed trying to save her. If she’d stayed home in the first place he’d have been fine and coulda totally whooped the bad guy, no problem.”

  “Exactly!” Micah said.

  “It doesn’t necessarily make you weak to stay where you’re told once in a while,” Verchiel said. “It means—”

  “That you know your place?” Katelina snapped.

  “No, that you trust your man.” He gave her a wink and she glowered.

  “Yes,” Jorick said slowly, though it obviously pained him to agree with the redhead. “Sadihra should have faith in Wolfe’s strength and ability to take care of both himself and her. She should trust that he knows the best course of action and is taking it.”

  “Of course he does, because he’s a man.” Katelina savagely unbuckled her seatbelt and jerked to her feet. “Excuse me, but the bullshit is getting a little deep in here.”

  Torina didn’t bother to look up from her magazine. “And the way to handle men is to blink your eyes, pout your lips, look helpless, and let them pretend they’re the mighty hero you can’t live without. While they’re busy on their epic quest, you quietly deal with it yourself.” She noisily turned a page. “Men are easy to handle, you tickle their chins and stroke their—” she broke off with a suggestive smirk. “Egos.”

  Micah scoffed. “As if a woman could handle shit herself. All she does is make a fucking mess of it. Then the man gets back and has to fix her shit.”

  Torina looked over her magazine with large, fluttery eyes. “You know, you’re right. I guess we do need our big strong men to handle things. I know I could use someone to carry that heavy duffle bag around.” She gave an undignified snort and turned back to her reading.

  Despite her obvious sarcasm, both Loren and Micah offered to help her. Katelina rolled her eyes in disgust. It appeared the real way to handle men was to flash cleavage and promise them a ride if they did what you asked. And she wasn
’t that kind of woman. “You’re all idiots,” she muttered and then stormed to the kitchen in search of something with high alcohol content.

  There was nothing but soda, so she pretended it was something better. When she calmed down she took a snapshot of the plane’s interior and then buckled herself securely in her seat. The flight was short, relatively speaking, and she was glad when they landed. Until the plane came to a full stop and she slid back the cover over the window to see the thick, falling snow.

  They disembarked. The wintery wind slapped her hair in her face and flapped the long coat around her legs. She hadn’t bothered with a hat or mittens, and the freezing temperature bit into the exposed skin. She was almost grateful when a man in a heavy coat and balaclava hurried out. He met them on the snow covered tarmac, muttering unhappily about the lack of a flight plan. Jorick caught his eyes and the man’s face went oddly slack and then quickly reanimated. “Obviously it was a mistake. I remember receiving the paperwork. I’m sure I filed it myself.” He gestured for them to follow him to the building. “I don’t believe the customs official has arrived. There were arrangements made for him to meet you at this time?”

  Jorick murmured something and the man nodded. “Oh yes, yes, of course. Inside.”

  Once they were through the door, the man went slack again. Then he mumbled some apologies and hurried off.

  “Customs?” Katelina asked. She still remembered her last brush with officials in Japan, and it was not a good memory.

  “If we leave quickly we don’t need them,” Jorick said.

  Quenby looked alarmed, as if she’d noticed Jorick’s ability, and Verchiel said, “It helps that passengers traveling by private plane receive special treatment.”

  It looked as though the airport was only just opening for the morning. They hurried past the sluggish activity and eventually ended up in the airport lobby. They made their way to a cluster of glass doors that looked out on a snowy parking lot. Katelina shivered just looking at it.

  Ume frowned. “Fethillen doesn’t know we’re here. She won’t send a car.”