Vendetta Read online

  When he arrived back home, returning through the hearth portal which had delivered him, Cole found both Brody and Sadie standing in the library. They had plainly been speaking with one another. The expressions on their faces told him with one glance that neither of them were pleased with the direction of their conversation.

  This looked like the same old argument. Brody attempting to hold on to her for safety’s sake, Sadie pulling away as she sought some consolation for her dead mother. For his part, Cole had always tried to stay out of these melees between them. He could sympathize with them both, after all, and had no desire to take sides uselessly.

  The fact of the matter was that Sadie would leave anyway. Nothing either of them had said to her so far had dissuaded her from this need to find Southresh and Adolf and punish them. Cole couldn’t blame her for her feelings, but Southresh seemed, to him, to be out of reach and Adolf excessive.

  The idea that she might find the fallen angel and then somehow outsmart him and dispatch him to Tartarus seemed ludicrous. Oliver James, a man said to be vastly experienced and more powerful than either Sadie or himself, had failed to stop the angel. Not to mention he had never been said to be subject to the kind of emotionalism Sadie was consumed with presently. What hope could she have for success?

  As for Adolf, it was true that he had become a blight upon humanity, and he was directly responsible for her father’s current poor health. His campaign to eradicate the Jews was the most heinous of his crimes so far. However, he was no less inclined to destroy anyone who stood in his way toward world domination. But fighting Adolf meant fighting Lucifer, and this alone made the prospect even less likely to succeed than doing away with Southresh.

  As they turned their attention from each other to Cole, Brody was overcome by a puzzled expression. Cole knew why, but Brody still voiced his question before he could explain.

  “Where is the body?” he asked.

  Sadie must have already been informed about the assassin and our first plan to have her examine his body. She didn’t seem surprised by her father’s question.

  “Since I wasn’t sure when Sadie might return, I opted to take the body instead to Tibet,” Cole replied.

  “To the healers at Shalu?” she asked.

  “Yes. I had hoped also that their numbers might enable them to provide a more in depth analysis since we were dealing with a corpse instead of a living being.”

  Sadie gave Cole a look that told him she wasn’t buying this excuse. He didn’t want to say that it had anything to do with her limited training in the healing arts. But she likely knew that was part of it, even if he was trying to beat around the bush about it.

  Brody was more to the point. “And the results were?” he queried.

  Cole settled in on the information. He hoped to leave any unwanted inferences about Sadie’s abilities behind, in addition to the matter of her many and long absences. He had honestly been surprised to find her back from Germany so soon.

  “I spoke with a monk there, called Chetsune,” Cole began. “He and eleven other monks performed the healing ritual upon the dead man. Upon its conclusion, Chetsune told me that his physiology had been altered by a means they could not determine. However, he did affirm that the man was completely human despite what he had accomplished.”

  “Did they determine why he could do these things?” Brody asked.

  Sadie stood by, listening, though still not looking entirely pleased. Cole could tell something was pressing on her mind. Hopefully they would have an opportunity to speak without her father around.

  “Chetsune noted that the assassin’s strength and speed would have been greatly increased,” Cole continued. “He did mention, however, that the blindness did not appear to be something that was engineered. Most likely a side effect that Adolf put to particular use against the sprites.”

  “And they were unable to determine causality?” Sadie asked.

  “Well, perhaps because the man was dead?” Cole offered. “He mentioned the possibility of radiation, but dismissed it almost as quickly since there appeared to be no residual traces in the man’s tissue. Since he was not surgically altered, Chetsune even hazarded a guess that some sort of pathogen might have been employed to bring about the changes.”

  “But they found no traces?” Brody asked.

  “He did not say exactly,” Cole recalled. “Only that their findings remain inconclusive on that point.”

  Brody nodded gravely. He looked tired, worn down. Most likely the matter with the sprites and their new home in the Amazon had taxed him. Brody would have done the spell himself for them. There was no one else to call for it, and he figured he still owed some debt to their Queen Luxana even in her death.

  “And the body?” Sadie asked. “Surely, you didn’t allow them to keep it.”

  Cole was a bit taken aback by this—more by her tone than the accusation itself. Apparently, matters with Adolf had gone their usual way. Adolf had either not materialized as Sadie had hoped, or he had gotten away again.

  Despite her blunt manner, Cole attempted to answer calmly. “Chetsune expressed a need for the body to be burned,” he explained.

  “Burned?” Sadie exclaimed in some bewilderment.

  “Yes,” Cole continued, determined not to be baited into an argument. “Chetsune was very concerned that exposure to others might lead to further problems. He specifically asked about our exposure to the body before bringing it to them in Tibet.” Cole addressed Brody in particular here, saying, “I gave him permission to burn the body in the interest of preventing any transmission. I hope you don’t mind.”

  Brody was about to agree when Sadie interrupted. “But you don’t know that it was a pathogen, and now we’ll never know because they incinerated the only evidence.”

  “Sadie!” Brody said abruptly. His fatherly tone had the desired effect of halting her outburst. “We cannot be too careful if a lethal pathogen is involved. Cole did the right thing by having the body destroyed.”

  She relented but was not mollified. Brody sighed. All of these matters were weighing heavily upon him. They were upon them all.

  He walked over to his daughter plaintively, laying his hand upon her upper arm. “Please,” he said, “let’s not fight amongst ourselves.”

  She nodded curtly, but said nothing, her eyes still upon the ground.

  Brody leaned forward and kissed her upon the forehead gently. “I need to rest,” he said.

  Cole wondered if he actually required the rest, or if this might only be an excuse to give Sadie and him the opportunity to speak with one another alone. Brody had long held out a hope that Sadie would settle down, forget about this matter of vengeance and marry. They had discussed the issue before, and Brody knew of their feelings for one another.

  “Before you leave, daughter, please come and say goodbye,” he added.

  She nodded again, this time a little more hesitant and her eyes rose to meet his. Brody smiled, kissed her again on the forehead, and then vanished cleanly from the room. No smoke, no lights, or theatrics of any kind.

  Sadie’s eyes then found Cole’s. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  He sighed, not a little relieved, though still tense because of the brief altercation. They were standing only a few feet apart now, but he could sense a great distance between them. The only time this feeling abated was when she was actually gone, her presence a constant reminder of the state of their relationship.

  “No need to apologize,” Cole said, attempting to smile a little. Then, because he felt the question could not be avoided, he asked, “So, you’re leaving again?”

  Cole was attempting not to make it sound like an accusation, especially after having words only a moment ago. It was, however, difficult to make it come out any other way. She had been gone more than present since they had come to live in the United States, always traveling abroad, tracking her elusive prey.

  Her father and Cole had often spoken of this, both of them worrying for her safety. No dou
bt, as this behavior continued, with no relief brought about by success, Sadie would naturally grow more bold in her attempts. Her own safety would be sacrificed for any last ditch gambit, and Cole privately wondered when the day would come that she would not return at all.

  Sadie nodded without replying, as though she had been insulted. “I’ve told my father already,” she said. “I’m traveling to Japan.”

  “Not Berlin?”

  “Southresh is in Japan,” she said. “I believe he is still using his previous host, Toshima. I have intelligence to that effect. No doubt he has the Emperor’s ear. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the reason why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor two years ago. Who else could have persuaded them to risk bringing the Americans into the war by so brazen a move?”

  Cole considered it, nodding slightly. “I’m sure you’re right,” he replied. However, he wasn’t interested in this line of conversation. He wanted to hold her, to persuade her not to leave again. Not even because it was Southresh she intended to find, but because they were drifting apart and it seemed that soon there would be no recovering the closeness they had once known.

  Instead of speaking his true feelings, however, Cole backed away from them, retreating to the shameful tactic of using her father’s health against her. “He’s not well, you know?”

  Sadie looked up at him. She probably smelled a rat in his comment, but it could not be denied that what Cole said was true. And, equally true, was the fact that, as Brody’s daughter, she shouldn’t be gallivanting about Europe and Asia while he was in such a state. All of these things had, by and by, been stated before, either by Cole or Brody himself—all to none effect. There seemed little point in stating it all again now.

  She took two steps toward him, tears held welling in her eyes. “You know that I have to go, Cole,” she said.

  He sighed heavily now, reaching out to take hold of her shoulders. “I only know that you will go. You do not have to do this.”

  “Yes, I must,” she said. She did not draw away from him. “If I do not avenge them, then I will have no peace. What kind of wife would I make then? What kind of mother?”

  “Yet, if you persist in this savage anger, you risk your life and any we could have together.” Cole replied more insistently now. “I have been waiting, Sadie, waiting for years in the hope that we might come together.”

  “I’m sorry if I’m not worth waiting for,” she said angrily, half-heartedly attempting to pull away.

  “You know very well, that is not what I meant. You only mean to deflect my statements because you are unwilling to face the facts.”

  “And what are the facts?” she asked, looking into his eyes steadfastly.

  The welling anger ebbed away from him. Cole smiled a little, feeling exasperated. His mounting bluster deflated. “I love you,” he said. “I have for as long as I can remember.”

  “I’ve loved you as well, Cole. You’ve always been like a brother to me.”

  Shaking his head, he said, “No. I love you. I want to marry you, to raise a family with you. I’ve made no secret about my feelings for you.”

  “I know,” she said.

  “And do you not also love me? Do you not want to be my wife, to have children together, to give up all of this warfare for a better life?”

  The tears which had been building now rolled down her cheeks as she stared into his eyes. Sadie nodded slightly, choking on her next words a little. “I do, Cole,” she answered finally. “But not yet. Not until this is finished. I cannot give myself to anyone right now. I would only hurt you.”

  “It’s too late to worry about hurting me,” Cole said. “Every time you leave, I watch the woman I love placing her life and our future into jeopardy. Do you not feel that we are pulling apart? How long can that last?”

  “Are you saying that you won’t wait for me?” she asked, genuinely now and not just for spite.

  “I’m saying, Sadie, that I fear you will pull so far away from me that you will not care if you return or not. My only hope is that this has not happened yet, that there remains some part of you that wants a life with me and is unwilling to give that future up.”

  She softened then and smiled weakly. Leaning forward she placed a delicate kiss upon his lips. “I haven’t given up that future,” she said. “Only, please don’t give up on me. I still have to leave. But my leaving is with the hope of finishing this course so that I may go on to the life you describe, a wonderful life that I would very much like to have. Can you wait for me?”

  Cole tried to smile, but it was half-hearted at best. Releasing her, he said, “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll look after your father.”

  She nodded and then gave him another small kiss, as though to reassure him of her intentions. Cole received it, but there was little conviction. He did not suppose for one moment that she would ever stop this madness. She would hunt them until they took her life, and he would never see her again.