Chapter 116
Surrounded by six of Kateesha's guards, Jorick continued to fight. There was a crunch and a cry, and Katelina watched as one of the oiled guards crumpled to the floor. Despite the victory, there were too many for Jorick to fight alone. Still, it took all five guards to pin him to the floor. Trapped, he writhed and bucked uselessly beneath them in an effort to free himself.
Kateesha stopped her slow escape and crossed her arms over her breasts, a superior gleam in her eyes. "And so, the great Jorick succumbs at last. Bring him to me!"
Her slaves obeyed. They hauled Jorick to his feet and dragged him across the room where they forced him to kneel before her. Kateesha brushed wild strands of dark hair from his bloody face and he flinched away. She dropped her hand slowly and studied him. "I've given you more than a fair share of opportunities, Jorick. Would you still reject me?"
"Always." Jorick's eyes were cold with hatred.
She cocked her head to one side and studied him. "I don't know what you suddenly find so appealing about having a human. I tried one, and she wasn't addicting enough to make me stupid. Yours seems to have sucked all the intelligence out of you."
Katelina could feel Kateesha staring at her, even though the vampiress' gaze was on her prisoner. She wasn't looking at her with her eyes, but with her mind. She was gloating because, even though Jorick had refused her, she'd still won.
"This has nothing to do with Katelina," Jorick snapped. "I wouldn't want you if you were the last woman in the world."
Kateesha snarled, and Katelina made a soft whimpering noise. She couldn't move, couldn't think; couldn't comprehend what she was seeing. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. No matter what, Jorick was supposed to kill Kateesha. But with five vampires holding him, he couldn't. And they all knew it.
Kateesha's face turned into an unreadable mask. "Fine," she said flatly. "Then die." She grabbed Jorick's head in both her hands and twisted it. There was a loud crack and Jorick's body sagged. At her signal, the guards dropped him into a lifeless heap on the floor and stepped back obediently. Kateesha knelt next to him. She bared her fangs and ripped into this throat. His blood flowed, thick and red. It filled Kateesha's mouth and wet her ruined dress.
Time folded in on itself; everything sped by on fast forward while Katelina was stuck in slow motion. Her head was filled with the throbbing noise of a trapped scream and it drowned out the sound of footsteps dashing down the corridor towards her.
The scream forced its way out suddenly, and left her empty. Without thought, she charged, the knife raised as she ran headlong at the vampiress, still bent to her feast. One of the guards cried out a warning and Kateesha snapped up. She spun around and started to rise, just as Katelina collided with her, inadvertently driving the silver blade into her own breast. She froze, a look of confusion on her face, and then she crumpled and landed on top of Jorick. Crimson blood poured out from around the still protruding knife, and she twitched.
The five guards stood back, bewildered and shocked. Then Oren's group stormed into the room. They crashed together, into a snarling, vicious fight, but it was a fight that went unheeded by Katelina. She stood, frozen, and stared at the space Kateesha had been in. Slowly, the truth sunk in, and her knees gave out. She fell to the floor, spent and exhausted. Hot tears cut tracks through the grime on her face.
Her hands shook as she roughly jerked Kateesha's body aside and moved to kneel next to Jorick. He was soaked in blood; his clothing and hair a sodden sticky mess of gore. His skin was translucent and withered, like an apple left in the sun too long, and she could see the shape of his bones through it.
She clutched at him desperately. "Jorick," she sobbed out loud. A memory swam behind her eyes of Jorick sucking the life from Nirel's crushed body, his fangs flashing as he slaughtered him. That was what Kateesha had done, she'd drained him, killed him; gorging herself on his life, like a bloated spider.
"It's not supposed to happen this way!" she cried, the words wet and strange. "You promised we'd go somewhere warm! Oh God!" She found his hand, and fumbled to grasp his fingers, but there was no response. "No, Jorick. No-" she broke off into sobs. Helplessness washed over her as she gazed at his ruined body; his head still at a strange angle. Her mind raced desperately as she tried to think of some way to fix this, some way to undo what had been done.
Her eyes fell to her useless blood covered hands. Blood. It seemed unfair somehow that she had so much and he had none, that Kateesha had taken it all, that -
Blood!
He'd said that blood could heal them! Without thinking, she shoved her sleeves up and jerked the knife out of Kateesha's body. She slashed it across her arm. Blood ran, but, the pain was lost to her shock and adrenaline.
She jammed her bleeding arm into Jorick's slack mouth and forced her blood into him. The world slowed around her; everything a blur except for his face. Her body seemed to disappear and she was left numb, disembodied, and disconnected. She could hear a high and hysterical voice sobbing over and over again, "No, Jorick, no!" She could see Jorick, pale and dead. Blood leaked out around the corners of his bruised lips and ran down his chin in a thin stream, just like in the nightmare she'd had. No, Jorick's nightmare. She was trapped in Jorick's nightmare, drowning in the same crushing overwhelming pain, the same screaming need to save someone. Only she wasn't Jorick. There was nothing she could do. No miracle. Nothing mattered anymore.
She dropped her bleeding arm and whispered, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. This is all Kateesha's fault! That horrible, evil, rotten, fucking bitch!" Her head snapped towards Kateesha's motionless body, and her eyes narrowed in red edged fury. She clutched the dagger in her hand and without thinking she stabbed Kateesha again and again, screaming nonsense, until the vampiress' chest was a mass of shining red and her blood ran in rivers across the cold floor.
In a fit of madness, Katelina threw the knife aside and attacked the immobile body with her hands. She ripped through globs of gore and shreds of flesh, splattering blood and rending aside the ruined bones. In a daze she found her hand wrapped around Kateesha's punctured heart and, without thinking, she ripped it free. A shrill laugh escaped her lips as she held it; this was the one thing they all wanted. Jorick had bled and died for it, for this!
Someone shouted, but it seemed far away and of no consequence. Giddy hysteria filled her and spiteful malice prompted her to draw the bloody lump to her mouth. A shout echoed, closer to her, but again she ignored it. Her lips sealed over the ghastly prize and her teeth sank into it; the surface popped like the skin of a tomato. Dark, thick blood ran over her tongue and down her throat; spicy and pungent like a hot exotic drink.
Someone grabbed her roughly, but it was too late. She cast the empty organ aside, and it fell to the floor with a sickening plop. Her heart raced and her vision cleared. The world snapped into sharp relief and her ears roared with the cacophony of sound around her. She wanted more, needed more of the thirst quenching blood, but she couldn't move. Someone held her back. Their fingers dug painfully into her arm.
She looked up and found herself staring into Oren's face. His amber eyes were filled with horrified fury. The room spun and a sick smile traced across her face. Laughter bubbled from her bloody lips. "She's dead, Oren. Jorick did your dirty work for you. I hope you're proud." The world tilted dangerously, the colors too bright, the sound too loud, and, before he could answer, she collapsed into a pool of darkness, silently screaming for Jorick again, and again.
