Children of Shadows

by Naylor, Joleene

  The pair stepped inside and Katelina bit back her surprise. Etsuko was dressed in a plum colored kimono with her hair in its usual updo. It was a far cry from the woman Oren had half carried to the hotel; her hair loose around her shoulders and her Kimono tied on sloppily.

  She stepped forward, holding two small gift bags, and bowed. “Greetings Jorick-sama and Katelina-san. I hope you are well.”

  Jorick made a non-committal noise and Katelina tried not to stare at the tiny, pointed teeth that flashed when Etsuko spoke.

  “Yeah, we’re fine. How are you?”

  “I am well, thank you.” She moved in front of them, bowed even lower and held the gift bags out. “I must humbly thank Jorick-sama and Katelina-san for all that they did for me while I was ill. Please accept these humble tokens of my appreciation. They are not much. The gift shop did not have a large selection.”

  Katelina and Jorick looked at one another and then each took the offered bags. Katelina dipped her hand inside and pulled out a vividly painted hair comb with some kind of carved motif at the end. She looked over to see that Jorick held a brightly decorated box.

  “Thank you,” Katelina said quickly. “They’re lovely.”

  Etsuko bowed again. “Thank you Katelina-san and Jorick-sama. I am humbled that you like them. If you will excuse us, I need to see Torina-sama and Ume-sama as well.”

  Katelina nodded and Etsuko went to the door. Oren opened it, and as she went out he cast back a hopeless look.

  Jorick grinned. “I think Oren’s bitten off more than he can chew this time.”

  Katelina laid the gift aside and dropped onto one of the chaise longues. She sifted through a pile of brochures until she came to a list of hotel amenities including—“Self Laundry! Do you think that means a laundromat?”

  “We could look,” he said without enthusiasm.

  There were no directions, and they wandered over the hotel, peering through open doorways. There was a miniature gym, a coffee shop, a café, a dark banquet room, and an indoor swimming pool. To Katelina’s surprise, Verchiel was splashing around in it enthusiastically. He clapped eyes on them and lit up.

  “Look! A pool!”

  “I see it,” Katelina replied. “We’re looking for the laundry room.”

  “Forget laundry come—wait. Laundry? You’re doing real laundry?” He swam to the edge and climbed out. Katelina looked away from his too tiny speedo.

  “Oh God, not those again.”

  “What? They cover all the bits, just barely though, thanks to my extreme—manliness.” He winked and grabbed a towel from the rack as Jorick growled a warning. “I’ll get my clothes and meet you there.”

  Katelina didn’t know where ‘there’ was, but they eventually found it. There were eight gleaming stainless steel washers and dryers in neat rows.

  She emptied her coat and stuffed it in the washer. She followed that with her and Jorick’s clothes and finally with the bag itself, leaving a little pile of unwashable items on the countertop.

  Verchiel popped up from nowhere. “Don’t forget mine! I don’t have much, so we can share a washer!” Without waiting for permission, he crammed his clothes in.

  Jorick gave an unhappy growl, but settled down to wait. Katelina browsed a rack of newspapers. None of them were in English, but she paused at one that had huge photos of destruction. The scene was like something from a war zone; an entire city block had been leveled and if she squinted at the blurry image she thought she could see what looked like people among the mess, or bits of them, at least.

  An English credit line under one photo had the word Cambodia in it, and she tossed the paper at the guys. “Is that the Asian Association?”

  “I imagine so,” Jorick said and handed it back.

  Katelina took a seat next to him and stared at the photos. She remembered Amari’s words, “Bloodier than The Faction. They’re saying hundreds of casualties, and that’s just the vampires. I don’t envy the cleanup crews.” The ones she didn’t envy were the victims. The Children of Shadows were obviously using bombs. Vampires were bad enough, but how in the hell were they supposed to combat explosives?

  The voice in her mind whispered, “Do not fear.”

  She appreciated the feeling of peace that settled over her, but Jorick was next to her. He could just say that everything would be all right.

  “You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

  Jorick looked up. “Doing what?”

  “That mind message thing. I’m not complaining. I know you mean well, but come on, we’re sitting next to each other.”

  His brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

  “Just now, when I was thinking about the mess in Cambodia and you said ‘Do not fear’.”

  His confusion turned to concern. “When?”

  “For crying out loud! You just did it.”

  “No, I didn’t.” He glared at Verchiel, but the redhead held his hands up.

  “Not me. You saw what I can do at the stronghold. No conversations, just tiny thought implants, and unless they’ve already got the idea percolating in their brain they come out sounding fake.”

  Katelina looked from one to the other. What were they trying to say?

  “Who did it sound like?” Jorick asked fiercely. “Male? Female? Was it like one of your own thoughts or a distinct voice?”

  “It sounded like you!” she cried. “Like they always do.”

  “Always? When did it start?”

  She didn’t understand. It had to be him. “It’s the same thing you used to do after we were linked. Remember? You’d tell me things, like ‘come here’ or other bossy crap. Then you quit after the linking ended.”

  He looked alarmed. “And when did I start it again?”

  “I don’t know—the first time we went to Munich. You told me to imagine a wall to block out the mind reading.”

  “And that sounded the same?”

  “I guess so—I don’t know. How am I supposed to remember?”

  He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look into his eyes. “Katelina! This is important, do you understand? Did it sound the same?”

  “Yes—well… maybe not. Maybe that was more like I was thinking it. But I knew it was you.”

  “And this?” he asked sharply. “You said it was a voice? When did it start?” She looked blank and he repeated the question.

  “I…I don’t know.” His voice and expression scared her. “Jorick, what is it?”

  “When?” he bellowed.

  Verchiel cleared his throat loudly. “You might want to, I don’t know, take it down a notch?”

  Jorick rounded on him, but before he could shout Katelina said, “When we were talking to the Kugsankal. You shouted ‘Release her!’ at them.”

  He spun back to her, his eyes wide. “No I didn’t. They blocked me from the interrogation process. When I got impatient I told them their judgment should be made. I didn’t do anything else.”

  And suddenly he was there, in her mind, scraping through the last month, listening to the random remarks: the plane, Uzbekistan, Malick’s. When he finished he sat back, his face paler than usual. His dark eyes stood out like two livid spots of night. “I didn’t do any of that.”

  A strange cold terror wrapped around her heart. “But if you didn’t—“

  “I’ll be there soon.”

  She jumped to her feet and looked wildly around the room. Jorick stood and grabbed her. “What is it?”

  “I’ll be there soon,” she whispered. “That’s…that’s what he—it—the voice just said. Couldn’t you hear it?”

  “No.” Jorick dropped his hands and looked to Verchiel.

  “Me either.”

  Jorick turned back to Katelina. “I can hear it in your recent memories, but at the time there was nothing. Like when the Kugsankal spoke to you.”

  The Kugsankal? Did he mean they were the ones speaking to her, or that it was someone as powerful as they were? Because, she could only think of one v
ampire that fit that description, and the idea was terrifying.

  Verchiel followed them back to their room and slid inside with them. Jorick tried to get rid of the redhead, but he refused to go. Jorick was mid growl when someone knocked on the door.

  “That’s Wolfe,” Verchiel said cheerfully and scurried to answer it. The Scharfrichter paused at seeing him, and then noticed Jorick and strode inside.

  “Sadihra called. The Höher Rat has foreseen the upcoming battle and is sending the Scharfrichter.”

  “Well that should make things interesting,” Verchiel commented. “I bet she’s upset that she’s suspended.”

  “They’ve revoked her suspension,” Wolfe said coldly.

  Jorick raised an eyebrow. “Sadihra and Cyprus…”

  “Yes.” The one word held a paragraph of anger, unhappiness, and dissatisfaction. “They’ll arrive at the Persatuan tomorrow. I’ve arranged to meet with her, assuming the attack hasn’t started.”

  Though it could’ve been anything from a restaurant to a city, Katelina didn’t bother to ask what the Persatuan was. She took most foreign words to mean the local guild or the country’s version of Executioners.

  Something stirred in her memory, like a half forgotten dream, “It is all meaningless. Even this will fade and pass away to nothing.” Though the words felt comforting, she shivered.

  It was near dawn before they scraped Verchiel off. The hotel rooms had broad windows, but they also had blinds and two layers of darkening curtains. Jorick closed them all. “It should be fine. If not I can always move.”

  Katelina wasn’t sure where he was going to move to, but she curled up next to him in bed. Worries whispered through her mind, and she finally asked, “That voice. Who do you think it is? Malick? The Kugsankal?” Samael? The last name was too terrifying to say.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’ll take care of it.”

  “How?”

  Jorick gave a heavy sigh. “By doing whatever is necessary.”

  “You can’t kill them! They’re too powerful.”

  “Nothing is beyond death, Katelina, not even an ancient vampire. Until this is over stay close, and don’t worry.”

  Don’t worry. As if that was really an option.

  Katelina and Jorick woke the next evening and went to the hotel restaurant. Jorick ordered a coffee, which he played with while Katelina ate her breakfast. Kai and Sorino joined them, and Katelina waited for Etsuko until she realized she wasn’t coming. Vampires didn’t need food.

  They did need blood, and oddly by the time they met up in the lobby Jorick was the only one who hadn’t fed. Katelina didn’t like to imagine what—or whom—the others had fed on.

  Wolfe told them he was going to the Persatuan to wait for Sadihra, and Oren suggested that, as a new fledgling, Etsuko should stay at the hotel.

  “You’ll want to bring your weapons,” Wolfe said, though his expression said he knew they didn’t have any.

  Verchiel patted his coat and lifted his bag. “I have everything I need right here.”

  The bag seemed like a good idea, and Katelina hurried back to their room to fetch hers. It was a small bag, anyway, and she was tired of leaving luggage behind.

  She got back to find that Kai had done the same, and that the vampires had split into groups. “We’ll look for the Black Vigil and then meet up at the Persatuan,” Jorick explained.

  Sorino latched onto Katelina and Jorick and, with no way to escape him, the four headed out.

  “There’s no point looking around here,” Jorick said as his eyes leapt from one towering, glittering building to the next. “They’re more likely to be in the slums.”

  Sorino hailed a taxi, and they climbed inside. The taxi driver was patient with having to stop randomly so that Sorino could climb out and look around, then climb back in and order him on. Finally, at a place where the modern city turned into something from a documentary film, Sorino announced they were done and paid the driver.

  The world they’d been in moments before was glittering lights, concrete, and steel, but now they were pressed in on all sides by small, tin roofed shacks. It reminded Katelina of the summer headquarters, only smaller and far more crowded. There were people and things everywhere; possessions, trash, little bits of life.

  Sorino cruised down the street, dressed in a purple suit and ruffled shirt, rings on his elegant fingers, and a jewel topped walking stick in one hand. Against the backdrop of poverty he looked like a political message about wealth inequality.

  No one approached them. Some of the people looked at them, but looked away as quickly. Katelina remembered when she’d first met Oren and his coven. Though they’d looked beautiful, she’d had a strange, creepy feeling that she should run away, that something was wrong. No doubt the locals could sense that same wrongness from Jorick and Sorino.

  And maybe from me, she thought uncomfortably. How much vampire blood did one have to drink before they seemed wrong, too?

  Sorino moved expertly down narrow lanes, winding toward a muddy river. He paused at the edge of it, and then turned and led them past the crowded rows of buildings to one with a boarded up door. He motioned to it and Sushel popped out like a jack in the box, his face twisted in fury and his sickle raised. He stopped, glared at them, and then ducked back inside.

  Sorino bowed to Jorick, and the dark vampire swept through the door. Katelina hesitated, and then plunged after him. Inside it was mostly dark, and it took her eyes a moment to adjust. She could see the outline of the Black Vigil members, some seated, some standing, all waiting.

  Fethillen moved into the light. “We did not know where to look for you.”

  “We’re staying at a hotel,” Jorick said.

  Fethillen looked surprised and Sorino said smoothly, “I see no reason to be uncomfortable.”

  “No, I imagine one like you wouldn’t.” She turned to Jorick. “The Children have not been sighted yet, but the Persatuan seems to be preparing.”

  “You’ve scouted it out already?” Jorick asked with mild interest.

  “Of course. Obviously they’ve figured out they’re the next target.”

  “The Sodalitas have figured it out, too,” Jorick said. “They’re sending the Scharfrichter. Wolfe’s gone to meet them.”

  Fethillen tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I see. What will you do?”

  “We’re going to check things out, then we’ll wait. You?”

  “When the Children appear we will strike.” She paused, as if considering her words. “They use explosives, yes? Perhaps it would be best to allow the Scharfrichter and such to take this first strike, and attack once the explosions have ceased. Why throw our lives away when they are needed to fight the real threat?”

  By real threat she meant Cyprus. Like in Uzbekistan where they’d waited until Jorick and the others had dealt with the police and fought half of the battle before they joined in. Let the little people fight the little people and save the big fish for her.

  Katelina wanted to object, but the explosives scared her more than the vampires did. She remembered Oren’s attack on The Guild; how the building shook, how the ceiling gave way, how Loren’s hand and arm had exploded in a splash of crimson, leaving him crippled for eternity. If the blast could take limbs, it could also take their lives. She trusted Jorick to hold his own against most of the attackers, but how could he defeat C-4?

  “Where will you be waiting?” Jorick asked.

  “When the time comes we will be there.”

  Sushel moved to the door again. “Ume is here.”

  “Then let her in.”

  Sushel growled, but let Ume, Loren, and Micah pass. Ume gave a truncated version of the fist to chest oath, no doubt a form of salute, and Fethillen motioned her to stop. “That is no longer necessary.”

  Ume faltered and Fethillen said, “I have always known you would leave us when you found him.”

  There was a moment’s silence and then Ume said, “It isn’t him. Aki has his life, and he has challen
ged me to look at mine. I thought that I was one of you, that we were a family, but I see now that isn’t so.” One of the others started and Ume held up her hand. “I don’t mean that some of you aren’t as family to one another, but I’m not. As you said, everyone has waited for me to find Aki and leave, even me, and so I’ve always been on the outside. It was only you and Sibila who didn’t treat me that way, and Sibila is gone now. Since I returned from Munich it’s been worse, some have even called for my death.” She looked to Sushel and then back. “I miss Sibila. Her ghost haunts the headquarters and always will. Nothing is the same without her. You’ve taught us that death is not an ending, we only move on to a new life. Sibila has moved on and I think I should, too.”

  Fethillen nodded. “You have served us well. May you find purpose in a new life.”

  Sushel made a nasty comment under his breath, and Loren asked tentatively, “So you’re going to join us?”

  “If you’ll have me,” Ume said.

  The teen lit up and Micah slapped him on the back. “Just coz you think you got a chick don’t change nothing. You’re still a pipsqueak.”

  Loren stuttered something that sounded like a denial and Ume flushed.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  They left the Black Vigil for the Persatuan. It was a building ringed with arches and palm trees and topped with an onion shaped dome. Jorick hung back and sent Sorino to find Wolfe, but the vampire didn’t reach the building before the Scharfrichter appeared, Sadihra at his side.

  “I’ve been waiting for you,” Wolfe said brusquely. “The Scharfrichter are patrolling the area. So far there’s nothing to report.”

  Jorick nodded. “We spoke to Fethillen. They’re hiding out until the Children show themselves.”

  “It seems everyone’s waiting,” Sadihra said. “By the way, I’d like to thank you for finding Wolfe.”

  The Scharfrichter growled low and Sorino bowed dramatically. “You’re very welcome.”

  When Sadihra looked surprised Jorick said, “He’s a tracker.”

  “I thought he was a whisperer?” Katelina asked.

  “He’s both.” Jorick turned to Sadihra. “How are things in Munich?”