Part 34 (2/2)
He nodded. ”And it looks like they aren't the only ones.”
”How are they all finding us?” Jenn asked.
He shrugged. ”Apparently the word is out. And I understand that Kent has been encouraging anyone who can to join us to fight Lucifer. It's coming. Somehow Kent knows. He's calling it the final battle.”
”Final battle,” she repeated. ”It doesn't seem possible.”
He nodded. ”I know what you mean. It's been a hard, b.l.o.o.d.y war. But I have a feeling that one way or another it's about to end.”
”Either we win or they do?”
”Kent says that resistance cells are trading information, making preparations,” he said. ”It may be our final battle. But perhaps the fight will go on.”
Jenn closed her eyes at the waves of fear, and some kind of strange, wild eagerness rushed through her. ”Some days I'm so tired that I have to remind myself that I care which way that goes.”
He patted her arm. ”It's understandable, Jenn. But you must remember that you're fighting on the side of right.”
”And you are not alone,” an unfamiliar voice rang out. ”None of us is. Not anymore.”
Jenn turned to see a young Asian man standing just inside the chapel doors. He was dressed like an old-fas.h.i.+oned samurai, right down to the sword slung across his back. His short hair was close-cropped, and there was a ghostly familiarity to his face.
And in a rush she knew who he was.
Kenji Sakamato. Eriko's brother the Hunter.
She blinked at him in astonishment.
”How are you here?” she finally asked.
His smile was tinged with the kind of pain and sorrow that she was all too familiar with. ”I heard that your team was in need of a new Hunter,” he said.
Jenn stood swiftly and crossed to him. She placed her hand on his shoulder, and he didn't shy away from the contact. She looked him in the eyes. ”No one can ever replace your sister. But we are honored to have you with us.”
He bowed and she did likewise.
”My sword is yours,” he said.
”Thank you.”
”I would very much like to meet the good vampire that I have heard of,” he said.
Jenn took a moment to respond.
”That will have to wait,” she said finally.
Holgar had told her that Aurora had Antonio. She tried not to think about what Aurora might be doing to Antonio at that very moment.
Tried, and failed.
”When it is less difficult, I will be happy to meet him,” Kenji said.
Before Jenn could explain, another figure darkened the doorway. The young woman who stood there seemed like she was from a different lifetime.
It was Tiffany, one of Heather's best friends. Jenn remembered her being at Papa Che's funeral.
Tiffany stepped forward, and Jenn was astonished at the transformation in her. Tiffany had always been slender, but now she was lean and tough-looking, with muscles and sinew twisting the length of her arms. Her once-beautiful long hair was now short, functional.
”Tiffany?” she asked, disbelieving.
Tiffany nodded.
”What are you doing here?”
Tiffany leveled intense blue eyes at her. ”After what happened to Heather, I joined the resistance. And now I, we, are here to help.”
Jenn turned to Father Juan. ”Just who else is coming?”
He smiled. ”Everyone.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
When I was a little girl, I had so many dreams. I was going to become a princess, or the president, or an astronaut. I thought anything and everything was possible. Life was an adventure. Then the war came, and I dreamed of fighting the Cursed Ones. Then I dreamed about Antonio de la Cruz.
I stopped dreaming the first time Aurora kidnapped him.
I know that for some people, dreams can come true. I know it, but I don't really believe it.
-From the diary of Jenn Leitner,
retrieved from the ruins
THE MONASTERY OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF ST. ANDREW.
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