Chapter 104
Katelina and Jorick passed close to another small town. Jorick contemplated the building at an abandoned car lot, but most of the roof was missing, so they passed it up and hoped to find something better before dawn. Katelina was ready to cheer when they topped a steep hill to see a broad glow in the distance, but Jorick told her there was no way they'd make it before sun up.
He was right. Half an hour later the sky started to turn a pale gray to the east. Luckily, they spotted a barn from the road and cut across a lumpy, snow covered field to get to it.
"This is trespassing," Katelina pointed out, ankle deep in snow. "It's illegal."
"A lot of things are illegal," Jorick commented casually. "Though, if we could hurry? I don't mean to be overly anxious, but there really isn't much time. I kept putting this off, hoping we'd get to the town, after all."
"And we would have if I wasn't so slow, is that it?"
He held up a hand to silence her. "I never said that. Now, please. We do need to hurry."
Her shoes were full of snow when they reached the peeling barn. Jorick surveyed it quickly and found it solid enough for their purpose. "Come," he gestured with his hand. "This will be fine."
They ducked inside and the smell of moldy straw smacked them in the face. "You're not really planning on sleeping here?" she asked, horror stricken.
"It could be worse." Jorick left her just inside the doorway and scouted around the dirty damp building. When he found a suitable place, he called to her. Her feet and legs hurt so bad that she could only shuffle towards the sound of his voice. Maybe he was right. Maybe it wasn't so bad, so long as she got to sit down!
The darkness made it hard to find him, but at last she stumbled on him, crouched in the corner of an old stall, his face a patch of pale night. "I doubt it's up to your standards," he joked.
She knelt next to him and let her eyes adjust to the dark until she could see his hands and the blanket like object he held. "And how is this going to be light proof?"
He shook the "blanket" and it rustled noisily; plastic against plastic. That's when she realized it was a large plastic coated tarp, the kind her uncle had used to cover the bed of his pickup when he hauled firewood in bad weather.
"You're kidding?" she asked hopefully.
He shook his head; the pale patch moving side to side in the darkness. "No, I'm not."
"But I'll be suffocated. I need air, unlike some of us."
He responded in exasperation. "I can't help it if I'm more evolved than you and don't need it anymore. You breathed fine in the casket and it was a tighter fit than this. You're just obsessed with suffocating."
"I'm not obsessed. I just want air."
"You'll have air!" he cried and then threw up his hands. "Never mind. Do what you want, I'm going to sleep. Believe it or not I'm tired after fighting and then carrying you for miles."
"Imagine that," she muttered darkly. "Me too."
"Then be quiet." He spread the tarp out and noisily climbed beneath it while she huddled in the corner of the stall, her knees pulled against her chest for warmth.
Jorick's muffled voice came from under the tarp, "You should take off your shoes and your socks. They're probably wet. Unless you want frost bite." She started to tell him he was crazy, but with a sigh did as he suggested and draped the wet socks nearby. Her feet bare, she managed to curl herself into a shivering ball inside the black coat.
"You know, you'd be warmer under here," his muffled voice came again.
"Yeah, and I'd suffocate."
"Suit yourself, Katelina. Goodnight."
"Yeah, good night." She huddled deeper into the coat and tried to close her eyes. Really, she didn't think she'd ever been so cold in her whole life.
***
Darkness stole through the dilapidated barn and found Katelina huddled underneath the dirty, smelly tarp with only a sliver of her face exposed. Her body was curled against Jorick's in search of warmth, but he was like lying against a block of ice - and then the ice stirred.
Jorick took the deep, shuddering breath that signaled he was awake, then he rolled over and jerked the make shift covering off of them. In the gloom she could just see his dark eyes meeting hers. "Good morning."
She stared at him, incredulous that he could say that. "N-nothing good about it," she chattered.
He was startled at her condition. "I didn't realize it was that cold."
"Well, i-it is," she tried to snap, but the effect was ruined. "I'm f-freezing."
"Obviously." He slid his hands under her black coat, and she recoiled instantly at his icy touch. "Sorry," he murmured, as he tried to chafe some warmth into her arms.
"Y-you're so c-cold," she commented between her teeth. "Y-you're not usually th-that cold."
He arched a perfect eyebrow at her. "No, but I'm not usually sleeping in a barn in the winter time." She tried to frown, and he explained patiently, "Think of it like a reptile. They don't produce their own body heat, so they're no colder, or warmer, than their surroundings. It's the same with me. I realize that modern culture would label a vampire as being 'cold as the grave' at all times, but that's absurd. You only associate a freezing body with death because you refrigerate your corpses now. I assure you that an unrefrigerated corpse is not ice cold." He stopped at her look of horror and withdrew his hands. "Never mind."
She didn't bother to reply, and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He worked on her back through her coat, and she burrowed her head against his frigid chest, more from habit than anything else. Jorick took a long, slow breath, and then said reluctantly, "I'm sorry for being impatient with you last night. Just like you, I," he paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "I forget sometimes that you're- different. I should have taken it into consideration."
"It's all r-right," she stammered, still shivering. He released her, only to recapture her and claim her lips in a deep cold kiss. Then they broke apart, and he stood and started picking hay from his hair.
Katelina pulled on her shoes and socks, then she allowed Jorick to tug her gently to her feet.
"It isn't far," he assured her. "We'll get a room and you can warm up while I find you something to eat, then we'll figure out what to do."
She looked at him in mild surprise. "And how do you know there's a motel?"
He smiled. "Not to sound like Loren, but, I'm just that good."
"Of course you are." She rolled her eyes at his egotism. "You're perfect after all. How could I have forgotten?"
***
Snow had fallen while they'd slept. Only a single pair of ruts marked the once clean road, and the dark trees were sprinkled with a dusting like powdered sugar. Though Jorick offered to carry Katelina, she declined because walking would stave off hypothermia. Jorick muttered that she wouldn't freeze, but he didn't sound as confident as he had last night.
They followed the winding gravel road towards civilization. The nearer they got, the closer the trees seemed to get, as if they thought to stop them with a well aimed grab of their naked branches. The imagined enemy made Katelina nervous, and she walked as close to Jorick as she could.
By the time they reached the town, Katelina's stomach grumbled loudly and every inch of her ached. There was a gas station but Jorick only pointed to a motel farther down the street and explained that the sooner they got there, the sooner she could warm up.
Their progress to the motel was slow, but once inside the office, the first thing she was aware of was the warmth. The heat burned her face and, in a matter of seconds, she felt too hot. Jorick, however, leaned casually on the counter. His half smile showed that the temperature hadn't affected him in the slightest.
A balding man with a ticklish mustache appeared, and started the short, but annoying, sign in procedures. Katelina tried to hide her surprise when Jorick flashed some sort of ID. How had he gotten a driver's license? And then, even more surprising, was the tidy fold of cash he took from his pocket to pay for the room. Where had that come from? A suspicion loomed in her mind, but it was one she didn't like to contemplate. Besides, when had he been alone to get a human victim he could rob?
Their room wasn't too far, and though it was nothing unusual, it was a welcome sight. Katelina sat gingerly on the bed, stripped her shoes and socks and tried to rub life back into her purple toes while Jorick took an amble around the room, poking at this and that. "Yes, it's a small window. I think the two dressers will suffice," he murmured absently. Then, he stopped in front of her and announced, "I'll be back with some food."
She gazed up at him miserably, so he leaned down and kissed her. "Lock the door after me, and don't let anyone in."
A moment later he was gone. She forced herself across the room and locked every metal apparatus on the door. Then she cranked the heater up and headed for the bathroom and a shower. Thankfully there was a packet of shampoo and a miniature bar of soap so she could wash away the smell of moldy hay. If only she could wash all the unpleasantness away that easily.
Her mind turned to Oren and his accusations. The idea that Jorick was spying for Kateesha was ridiculous.
Wasn't it?
"Of course it is," she told herself quickly. Jorick hated Kateesha, though, he'd never used the word, and he wouldn't help her. Still, the fact remained that someone had been betraying people for some time. Or else a lot of someones. It had been Patrick who'd told Michael where Arowenia was, and Michael who'd told Claudius. And Kateesha had betrayed them all and made a deal with Troy. So, who was it this time? The butler, maybe? The whole set up was like a plot from a 1930s espionage movie where, right before the credits rolled, it was revealed that all along there'd been one master mind pulling the strings.
But who was it?
