Chapter 117
Katelina woke to crushing blackness. Soft sounds drifted from somewhere distant. She strained to catch them, but they stayed indistinct whispers. She sat up, slowly, her joints stiff, and decided that the discomfort was good. It meant she was alive; even if she wasn't sure where she was.
With no present to process, she turned her thoughts to the past. The fight in the throne room, Kateesha's laughter, the blood that leaked from her full lips as she drained Jorick, his face pale and withered like dead leaves, the horror, the ache, the terrifying emptiness.
That was all Katelina felt; emptiness. Her chest was a gaping hole with nothing but reverberating shock inside. She mentally reached out for him, to find nothing. No sense of his presence, no sense of his thoughts, no annoyance or amusement prickling her, no silken caress to soothe her. The tie was broken. He'd gone to a place she couldn't follow.
She sobbed into her hands and screamed out silently for him, begging him to answer her, though she knew it was no good. He was gone and she was alone, surrounded by vampires who'd probably kill her. A vague memory flitted through her mind; a hysterical voice laughing and screaming as she held Kateesha's heart in her hand. Her stomach rolled. She could still taste the spicy exotic blood in her mouth. She could remember how it felt as it ran down her throat, thick and hot. She'd swallowed it and craved more. Finally, Kateesha was dead, but so was Jorick, and she was alone again.
A line of light appeared in the darkness and she heard someone fumbling with a door latch. Fear stabbed through her; was it one of the others? Were they there to kill her? Did she even care?
She was still undecided when the door opened wide and light flooded the room. She raised a shaking hand to shade her face from the sudden brightness. When her eyes adjusted, she found that her visitor was Oren. He stood, framed in the doorway, a flaming torch in his hands. He wore a dark blue shirt tucked into darker pants. His golden hair fell around his shoulders and on his face was an angry scowl. "So, you're awake," he commented flatly. He lowered the torch and met her eyes. A touch of sarcasm crept into his voice as he asked, "Feeling better?"
She hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face against them. Oren was one of the last people she wanted to see.
His footsteps echoed as he walked into the room and came to a stop. He didn't speak, though she could feel him there, watching her. When her paranoia got to be too much, she looked up to see him standing next to a large dark fireplace.
The room around her was small and, like the horrible throne room, the floor was littered with thick furs and the walls decorated with hangings. She sat on a bed that was hung in blue silk and heaped with expensive bedding. At the foot sat a tightly closed teak chest, whose brass fittings reflected the glow from the torch. A small cane table and two matching chairs were near the fireplace and a wardrobe sat against the far wall, half hidden in shadows.
She looked down at herself, expecting to see her ruined clothes, but instead she was in a long, dark red dress. The bodice was made to fit someone with more curves than she had, and delicate white embroidery around the top seemed somehow old fashioned. Where had it had come from?
Oblivious to her confusion, Oren turned and tossed the torch into the fireplace. He stood motionless, with his back to her, and watched as flames grew. Moments passed in heavy silence and then he pulled up one of the chairs. He brought it near to the bed, and lowered himself into it wearily. His amber eyes searched her face and then he asked quietly, "Why did you do that? The heart belonged to Jeda." He gripped the arms of the chair and fought to contain his sudden rush of anger. "We had a deal!"
"No." Katelina's voice shook, but there was force behind it, "You had a deal."
Oren's jaw clenched. "Jorick agreed to the deal. You belong to Jorick, hence you were bound by it. If you were going to do that, then you should have at least turned yourself instead of drinking just enough to create a disaster. Now there's a human in control of Kateesha's coven! Everything is chaos now, thanks to you!"
Fury bubbled up inside her and she ached to vent it in a long string of abuses. He was the idiot who'd gotten Jorick involved in it all. "Why do you care? Kateesha's dead and Jorick handled it all for you, just like you planned from the beginning." She moved to the edge of the bed, and leaned forward, her voice a whisper, "I wouldn't be surprised if you were the one who started the rumors about him being a spy to begin with!"
Surprise registered on Oren's face, then melted into anger. "Why would I?"
"To make sure everyone was right where you wanted them!" She rose from the bed to stand on shaking legs and glare at Oren. "You were too weak to kill Kateesha, so you needed him. Everyone was squabbling over the heart, afraid Jorick would take it, and you couldn't let him do it without the rest of your cannon fodder walking out. But if he did it on his own, no one could blame you. How dare you come in here acting like I'm the villain? Pretending you're some innocent victim in it all!"
Oren stood and shouted over her, "Jorick's the victim! You should be put to death for what you've done!"
"Go ahead and try it," Katelina cried wildly, her eyes glittering slits of hatred. "Jorick is on your head, not mine! Don't you dare blame me, you coward!"
"Me?" Oren took a furious step towards her. "It's your fault! I can only do so much now!" He jabbed his finger at her, the tip inches from her face. "It was your stupidity!"
Despite her rage, she resisted the urge to bite his pointing digit and waved it away with a threatening hand. "My stupidity?" Her hands shook and she fought for control. "You know what? Just - Just fuck you Oren! Fuck you and all the rest of them! All you care about is your stupid revolution, anyway!"
"Yes, I do care about it. I realize you don't give a damn about anyone but yourself, but one would think Jorick mattered enough to you that your brain would at least engage now and then." He rapped the side of her head with his knuckles. "It's your fault that no one knows what to do with him."
"How the fuck is it my fault?" She shoved her twisted face into his. "You son of a bitch! What was I supposed to do?"
Something in his eyes snapped and he roared, "How about not drink from the heart?" He grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "You put him in this position! Do you expect him to be welcomed with open arms when it was his human who broke the covenant? By all that's holy, what do you expect? I'm not a miracle worker! I'm doing what I can!"
She jerked free. "Doing what you can? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"You're alive, aren't you? They wanted to slay you on the spot! And there's a call to kill Jorick, as well!"
"You idiot! He's already dead!"
"Dead?" Oren laid a hand to his head in exasperation. "Jorick isn't dead yet. If they have their way, he will be."
Tears ran down her face and she couldn't stop them. "Yes he is! I saw her drink all his blood!"
"I don't care what you saw." Oren took an unconscious step backwards. "He's perfectly fine or would be if-"
Oren continued to talk, but Katelina couldn't focus on his words. She stood, eyes glazed and mouth open, as the implication slowly filtered through. Jorick. He'd said Jorick wasn't dead.
She bounded towards Oren and grabbed handfuls of his shirt, oblivious to his shock. "What did you just say?"
He tried to pry her loose, horror on his face. "I said he isn't dead, you insane human!" Oren freed himself, then moved away quickly and made a show of straightening his wrinkled shirt. "Obviously your brains have been addled. That can happen when you mortals ingest too much vampire blood, too quickly."
She ignored his last statement. "If he's alive then where is he?" She wanted to believe him, but she'd seen Kateesha drain Jorick dry. She'd seen his withered flesh, felt how cold and lifeless he was. She'd knelt next to him, screaming, and, even now, he was silent to her. If he was alive why couldn't she feel him? "Take me to him!" she cried.
