Chapter 122
The only food in the complex was frozen but, thankfully, precooked beef that had been kept by Claudius for his human slaves. It wasn't hard to imagine where it came from; assuming Loren's tale of hidden livestock was true. If Claudius had had slaves, why didn't he have a kitchen somewhere? Someone had cooked the beef, after all. She wondered if it wasn't as much a lack of selection as it was Loren's lack of knowledge about the complex.
They thawed the meat over the heater, and she managed to choke some down, before Oren arrived and escorted her back to her room. She asked to see Jorick, but he told her that she could talk to him later, as it was nearly dawn. Then he left her alone in the stone room with only a few candles and a book of matches.
By the time he came for her the following evening, she threatened to pee on him if he didn't do something about her lack of a bathroom. Both his disgust and surprise seemed genuine, and he muttered a vague promise that they might move her to the "slave quarters", which were made for humans.
Somehow that made her mood worse.
When her hygienic needs were met, Oren shoved her off on Loren, and left him to lead her back to her room. The teen waited in the corridor while she changed into Kateesha's other old dress. This one was made almost entirely of pale lilac lace with an under layer of some silky material, so light it was almost white. The bodice was tight, as were the long sleeves, and the neckline scooped too low for her comfort.
However, when they met Jorick in one of the corridors, his appreciation was in his eyes. That made the whole thing almost worthwhile.
As they walked to the makeshift courtroom, which had previously been some kind of meeting room, Jorick explained what she should expect. "It will be only the war coven. Kateesha's members won't be allowed to judge you because they've agreed to overlook it, as though it never happened. That leaves only Anya, Thomas, Des, and Fabian who will want you punished."
"And Micah," she added savagely.
"Nah," Loren cut in. "Micah will side with Oren, and Oren will side with Jorick."
She dismissed the boy's optimism. "Somehow I doubt it. He makes his feelings pretty clear."
"Yeah, he does," Loren agreed. "That's how I know he'll vote with Oren. So will Torina, though I think she's siding with Jorick." Loren gave the raven haired vampire a suggestive smirk that earned him an angry grunt, and then he went back to his list. "And I won't vote to have you burned alive or anything."
"It will come down to Jeda," Jorick said quietly. "And, though you did slight her by not allowing her the heart, I don't sense any animosity from her. She was to disband the coven, anyway."
Despite the encouraging idea, it seemed like a very narrow margin to Katelina.
"Narrow, yes," Jorick agreed to her thoughts. "But a margin still."
"Hey!" she cried. "I thought you had to stop that now?"
He gave her an innocent look. "No, I can still hear you when I want to. I just get a reprieve when I don't." His innocence melted into a grin. "I got the better end of the deal, I think."
She didn't dignify him with an answer.
They stopped around the corner from the meeting room, and Loren took a couple of steps away to give them some privacy. "Just cooperate," Jorick told her quietly. "So this can end quickly." She nodded her understanding and he slipped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug that turned into a deep kiss. When they parted, he gazed at her with such confidence and amusement that, for just a moment, she couldn't help but think that Anya had a point. It wasn't really going to be a fair trial. If it was, Jorick wouldn't be so cheerful.
Once she was inside the room, with only Loren next to her, that certainty wavered. Still, she held her head up as he led her past the chairs of vampires. Though Kateesha's coven couldn't vote, some of them were present. There was a thin blonde male, whose hair was tucked neatly behind his ears, a woman with silvery blonde hair and large eyes, and another male with short red hair and a pierced ear.
"The blonde girl's Luna," Loren whispered as they passed her chair. "I heard she was talking to Fabian last night after they let them all out. The blonde guy is Kale. He used to belong to Claudius, and ended up with Kateesha when she took over last month. Micah said he thinks he's going to form his own coven and pick up most of Kateesha's old followers." He paused and frowned at the red head. "And I don't know who that is. But he's-"
"One of Kateesha's," Katelina finished. "Fantastic."
For want of real court furniture, Oren placed a chair in the front of the room and told Katelina to sit in it. She'd have rather stood, but since Jorick said to cooperate, she sat.
Despite her compliance, it wasn't finished quickly. First Oren asked her to tell them what had happened, and then why she'd taken Kateesha's heart. "At any time, did Jorick order or ask you to take Kateesha's heart?"
She fastened her eyes on the vampire in question and drew a calming breath. It was true that she couldn't feel him anymore, but she could see him, and that was enough. "No. He didn't. He planned to incapacitate Kateesha and leave the heart for Jeda."
Oren studied her impassively. "If you knew that, why didn't you leave it for her?"
She lifted her chin a notch. "Because I didn't care what arrangement Jorick made. I thought-" she broke off and her cheeks flushed at her stupidity. "I thought Jorick was dead. He looked dead," she added in defense. "And I was angry. No, not angry. Furious. I was devastated and furious." She swallowed hard, as if trying to force the confession back inside where it belonged. "And I wanted to hurt Kateesha, and that was all that was left." She skipped past the part about wanting to get even with Oren. It couldn't help her any.
Fabian stood up. "But you're a mortal. Why would you even think of that unless he told you?"
"How could he have told her?" Torina argued, without bothering to rise. "She thought he was dead. If he could talk she'd have known he wasn't."
"So she says," Fabian replied. "But fine, for argument's sake, they were linked, remember? He could have told her through that. You know what that's used for."
Oren turned and faced his brother-in-law. "It wasn't always used for murder, Fabian. If you're basing your entire opinion on that."
Anya stood and crossed her arms over her chest. "Fabian's right. I think we should know why he linked her in the first place, since he's never bothered to say."
