The Children of the Sun (32 page)

When they had first sat down, Theroen had asked Two to fill him in on the exact details of what had happened after he and Naomi escaped. Two had told the story, describing everything in as much detail as she could, including Jakob’s death at Tori’s hands. When Sasha had learned of the poison darts, she had snarled something in a disgusted voice, standing up and going to stare out of the window at the park spread out below her.

When Two had finished, a silence descended. After a time, Naomi broke it. “How many of us are left?”

Without turning, Sasha answered her. “The only council members I can account for are in this room. I was hoping the two of you might know of other survivors.”

Theroen shook his head “We have heard from none.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Naomi said, and she held up her phone. There was a text message displayed on the screen.

“It’s from Lewis,” she said, and read it out loud. “Alive, but hurt bad. Can’t move yet, but have been on the net. Burilgi are terrified. With help, we can build an army.”

“I can reach out to what Ay’Araf are left in the country,” Sasha said. “It won’t be many … perhaps three or four dozen, but most of them are worth ten Burilgi. Do we have the time to spare?”

“Until we know where the Children are and what they’re doing, we can’t say anything for sure,” Naomi said. “It’s simply not safe to gather in large numbers right now.”

“They’ve lost quite a few people during these attacks,” Leonore commented. “Perhaps they will pull back to regroup and assess their damages.”

“I wonder if Tori and the other chick even made it out,” Two said. “I mean … the secret passage was the only exit that didn’t take them right back into the fire, except the windows in the offices, and they all have bars on them.”

“I would love for that to be the case,” Naomi said. “It would … forgive me, Two, but that would be very good news indeed.”

Two sighed, nodded, and said nothing.

Theroen tented his fingers and touched them to his lips. “I am unwilling to bet on Tori’s demise until I have seen her body. Bars on the window may not have been enough to contain her.”

“No, likely not,” Naomi said. “We must assume she is still out there. So, here we are … a council much reduced, but still stuck in the same place we were twenty-four hours ago. I will not try any longer to argue for diplomacy. Any chance we might have had at that is lost. There are only two options left before us: retaliation or flight. We do not know where the Children are, so the former seems impossible.”

“You want to run, then, Naomi?” Sasha asked, and there was a perceptible tone of distaste in her voice. Naomi looked up.

“I don’t want to do anything of the sort,” she replied. “I’m just not sure I see an alternative. I understand that you wish to fight, Sasha. I expect that you will attempt to do so even if we decide at this very moment to flee to Europe. But to fight them, you have to know where they are. Do you? If so, please, share that information with us.”

“You know I don’t,” Sasha said. “But I will not leave my home. I moved to this city in the days before the Civil War, have been here through decades good and bad, and I am not going to flee simply because Theroen’s rogue sister is terrorizing us.”

Theroen glanced at her. “No one is asking you to. If the council decides on that course of action, it will not have the time or resources to argue with those who refuse to leave. Moving the vampires of this country to Europe will be a tremendous logistical task.”

“Are we really considering that?” Leonore asked, and Theroen turned to her, nodding.

“I think we are,” he said. “The other options seem limited.”

“Those of us who stayed could continue on with the fight,” Sasha said, returning to the couches and sitting down, looking intently at Theroen with her watery-blue eyes.

“Of course you could,” Naomi murmured. She was staring at the floor, her lips pressed into a thin, white line. “Who would stop you? Other than the Children …”

“I have a question,” Two said. She was sitting with her legs crossed under her in a leather recliner on the far side of the room, her features obscured by shadow.

“By all means, ask,” Theroen said.

“How many of you would fight if we knew where they were?”

“Perhaps if the others were still alive—” Naomi began, and Two cut her off.

“But they’re not still alive. They’re dead. That’s not what I’m asking you. If we put it to a vote, right now, how would you all vote? If we knew where the Children were, where they were coming from, would you fight or would you run?”

“There are valid arguments for either option,” Naomi said.

“Jesus Christ, can’t you just answer the question?!” Two snarled. “Stop being a politician for half a goddamn minute and say what you mean. Grow a pair, Naomi!”

“Two …” Theroen began, but she waved him away.

“She’s a big girl, Theroen.”

Naomi sighed, shifted in her seat, and looked for a time out the window. She seemed undisturbed by Two’s tone. At last she spoke.

“I would flee. I believe … oh, what does it matter?  Think of me what you will. I would go to Europe and regroup there, even if we knew their exact location at this exact moment in time. Is that enough for you, Two?”

Two nodded. “That’s fine. Sasha?”

“Fight,” Sasha said. “You know that.”

“Yeah. Leonore?”

“I would fight,” Leonore said after some consideration. “I am not much for combat, but I’ve no interest in forfeiting my council seat and deferring to a cadre of elders who will care nothing for my opinion.”

“Fair enough. Theroen?”

He thought about it – thought long and hard, unsure of his own feelings and motivations. Part of him cried out simply to distance himself from the council and its troubles, to go to Europe or anywhere else in the world and recede into obscurity, the state in which he had spent the past four hundred years. Another part of him felt still a great debt to Ashayt, who had brought him back from the very edges of oblivion. Would her death mean nothing, if they chose now to simply give up? Or would she have wanted them to flee, to protect themselves and so prevent further violence from coming to her people?

“Clock’s ticking, hon,” Two said. There was a small smile on her face, and her voice was oddly gentle, as if she understood the thoughts going through his mind. Theroen wondered if she could sense how torn he was.

“I would flee,” he said at last. “I would do it because I do not think a ragtag army of Burilgi and Ay’Araf can defeat the Children, not when we have lost so many fighters already, and not while they still have Tori.”

“She’s the key to it all,” Two said. “She’s not afraid or ashamed, and she doesn’t care about honor. She’ll kill us in any way she can, and that makes her a match even with the best of us.”

Theroen nodded. “She has added training and technology to her already considerable strength and speed. Certainly, she could be defeated if a very talented fighter encountered her in a one-on-one situation and was familiar with all of her weapons. That is an unlikely scenario. I see no way of getting past her.”

“I do,” Two said, and Naomi stirred at this.

“Two, you were amazingly lucky,” she said. “You have no way of knowing if another encounter with Tori would end in your favor.”

“You weren’t there,” Two replied. “You didn’t see the way she looked at me. If I can get to her without Vanessa around … I swear to God, I can get her to talk to me. I can get her to listen to me, and I think I can help her remember who I am.”

“You can’t do any of that because you don’t know where she is,” Theroen said.

“Well I fucking sure can’t do it from Europe, can I?” Two spat.

“So then your vote is to stay and fight?” Sasha asked.

“We are not voting,” Naomi began. “There was—”

“I don’t know what my vote is,” Two said. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”

“Should we not give Lewis a vote? Or at least the chance to speak his mind?” Theroen asked.

“This is still a council meeting, and no formal request for a vote has been called,” Naomi said.

“Well, I formally fucking call for a vote,” Two said. “But Lewis deserves a say.”

“I don’t think he should be involved,” Leonore protested. “He’s not even here!”

Sasha whirled on her. “He’s not here because he fought his way out instead of running for the secret exit the moment the Children arrived. If he says his injuries prevent him from moving, then I believe him.”

“I don’t particularly care
what
you believe,” Leonore told her, raising her eyebrows. “At any rate, I was merely expressing my opinion.”

“When you find my foot lodged halfway up your large intestine, remember that I was merely expressing
my
opinion,” Sasha said.

“Sasha, please,” Naomi said. “This may not be an official council meeting, but I’d like to keep it as civil as possible.”

“It
is
an official council meeting,” Two said. “Other than Lewis, who else is there? We’re all that’s left.”

“In that case, I
insist
we remain civil,” Naomi grumbled. She stood up, moving toward the kitchen. “Would anyone like a refill on their drinks?”

Sasha and Leonore, who were both drinking blood from Naomi’s now nearly exhausted private reserve, both declined a refill. Theroen handed her his wine glass. Two shook her head and said, “I’m going for a walk. I need to think about this shit.”

“Are we to simply wait until you get back to continue?” Leonore asked her, and Two shrugged.

“You do whatever you want. I’m not going anywhere unless I decide to do it. If I don’t see you again, it was nice knowing you, I guess.”

Without further word, she headed for the front door and left the apartment. The others watched her go and, after a moment, Naomi turned to Theroen.

“Are you going to go after her?” she asked.

Theroen met her gaze and raised his eyebrows. Smiling a bit, he shook his head. “After these three years together, I have learned that it is best to let her go. She has thus far always returned for me.”

Chapter 15
Unexpected News

“Look who’s finally decided to show up.”

Two glanced over at Leonore, who was still sitting on Naomi’s couch, though now she had borrowed a laptop and was working her way through what looked like an overabundance of unread email. Sasha was out on the balcony, talking with Naomi. Theroen was watching CNN with the volume so low it was inaudible even to Two’s ears.

“Oh, are you still here?” Two replied, affecting a tone of disinterest, and Leonore glowered at her before returning to her email. Theroen turned to watch Two, an expression of mild amusement on his face. Two stepped over and sat down on the arm of the couch next to him.

“Have you come to any conclusions?” he asked.

“Well, I concluded that this shit is crazy,” Two said, and Theroen’s smile widened.

“We’ve had some news,” Theroen said, and Two found herself momentarily annoyed with his preternatural calm. It was impossible to judge from his tone whether the news was good or bad.

“Oh yeah? What’s up?”

“Let’s reconvene the group,” he said, standing up and walking over to the sliding glass door. He tapped on it, gaining Naomi and Sasha’s attention, and gestured back toward Two, who waved at them. Naomi nodded and the two women made their way inside.

“I trust you found whatever it was you were looking for?” Sasha asked, after they had all taken their seats.

“Not really, but at least I feel better,” Two replied. “Anyway, what’s the news? Anything good?”

“It depends on your point of view,” Naomi said. “Kanene is alive. She called me not forty minutes ago.”

“What?!” Two cried. “That’s awesome! Why wouldn’t that be good news?”

“It’s fantastic news,” Sasha said. “It’s just not the real news.”

“I’ll make you guys a deal,” Two said. “I’ll shut up if one of you will just tell me what the fuck is going on.”

“What a change that will be,” Naomi said, but there was a small smile on her face.

“Ha. Ha. Ha,” Two said, but then held her hands up and closed her mouth, waiting for someone to proceed. After a moment, Naomi took up the task.

“The last we saw Kanene, she was dragging Peter’s body away. She pulled him outside the building, stopping to fight off soldiers trying to kill her. I don’t know how she did it, but she eventually broke through and got his body to an alley. It was there that she was able to determine that there was nothing she could do for him. It hurt my heart to hear the loss in her voice.

“She left his body on a rooftop, and I have promised her we will go and take care of him. She had planned on rejoining the fight, but by that time the cathedral was burning and the streets were full of people. She remained on the rooftop, watching, and when the Children began to disperse, Kanene followed them, moving over the rooftops. After several blocks they reached their vehicle. You won’t believe this, Two, but she literally leapt into a parked cab and did the ‘follow that car!’ routine.”