Chapter 163
Malick brought his hands together and quickly closed the distance between himself and Oren. "At last I get to meet your fledgling." His gaze was critical and probing, but Oren refused to look away, his golden eyes hard. Katelina could feel the mental pressure that Malick applied to him, and when Oren's eyes finally dropped, the ancient vampire seemed satisfied.
He turned to Jorick, as though Oren wasn't present. "I'm surprised. He has more backbone than I expected, though he's still weak." He drew his thick eyebrows together. "They always are with you, aren't they?" Irritation flickered across Jorick's face, and the older vampire laughed. "You are still trying to protect the world, aren't you?"
When Jorick didn't answer, Malick looked at Katelina again. Just like when Jorick soothed her, the world seemed to disappear, only instead of dropping into a place of comfort, she felt as though she'd suddenly been stripped naked and left to stand before all the world. Prying eyes stared at her. They peeked into every crevice of her consciousness and uncovered every secret. She'd have cried out at the intrusion, but she couldn't. All she could do was stand perfectly still and try to mentally cover herself.
And then the world shifted. She wasn't in Malick's chambers anymore. She was in Patrick's apartment. The smell of clotting blood filled her nostrils. She could see his body sprawled on the carpet, his spine gleaming in the light from the open door. Her stomach twisted and heaved. She was going to be sick.
The apartment melted into a shadowy basement. Jorick was there. He talked in a carefully guarded tone about Claudius and Patrick. She could feel Malick's boredom and the scene changed to another basement; one with a rusty cage. She was naked and cold and stared between the bars. Fear tasted bitter in her mouth. The cage opened, Troy pulled her out and threw her to Claudius. His cool eyes stared into hers and he shouted-
"No! I won't relive that!"
She felt Malick's laughter and then she was in the empty room at Jorick's house; only it wasn't empty. It was full of broken furniture. She hung by her bound wrists from a hook in the wall and screamed while a vampire jammed a knife into her stomach. He brought the blade up, slicing. Jorick charged in. Like a wild beast he killed her tormentors, and then he turned to her, his dark eyes terrified. The scenes that came next weren't her memories, but his. Ones she'd dreamed about: a bathtub, blood, a bite.
She could feel Malick's amusement. They moved on. Other faces and scenes flashed past, some terrible, some so personal they made her want to cover the memory up with her hands. And then they were in Kateesha's stronghold. Jorick lay seemingly dead. She howled in agony. She ripped and clawed the vampiress's dead body.
With a jerk she was suddenly thrown into a more recent place. Oren's brick house. The woods. Cold eyes stared at her from the trees; eyes no one believed existed. The living room window exploded. Verchiel flew through it.
And then it was over and she was suddenly back in the stone room, surrounded by jungle plants and zebra skins. Too many emotions had assailed her too quickly. Too many horrors pressed together at once. It left her sick and shaken. Tears burned in her eyes. She suddenly realized they were silently running down her cheeks, but she was too ashamed to wipe them away.
Jorick's grip on her hand was almost painful and he made a low, furious noise. Malick only chuckled. "She is exactly what I expected from you. I must admit I was intrigued when I heard the story of her exploits. I see now that it was a misplaced excitement."
He moved away and sat on the couch again. "And so the stories are true of Kateesha's demise." Something cold and hard flashed beneath the surface, though his tone remained neutral. "I will not hide my disappointment, my son. You know what my hopes were for you and her. I can see my mistake now. She was too strong for you. You are unable to love one who does not need you to take care of them."
Jorick's eyes smoldered and then went dead. "She was too cold and too cruel for me, Master."
"Ah, but are you so different? Do you not kill without compunction?"
"Only when necessary. Kateesha killed for sport."
Malick eyed him critically. "And should it be any other way? Why should she not have indulged her nature? Do you not do so with yours? You long to fix the broken and do you not collect them? What right has anyone to stop you? And by the same token, what right do you have to repress another? Because you find it offensive? Perhaps others find your habits equally so."
"And if they do? My habits don't infringe on anyone else."
"Don't they? When you must kill to defend your weak ones." He pointed to Katelina and Oren. "How many have you murdered in their name? How many have you helped to kill simply because they asked it of you? In the end, my son, you are no different than Kateesha, and no different than I. You indulge in your passions and your moods and allow others to die to maintain them. Life begets life, and only from death will other lives continue, for without passion there is no life."
"Is this why you brought us here? To bandy philosophies?"
"And do you not miss that now and again? As always, your reasoning is fascinating; if it were not, I'd have never granted your request so long ago." The smile returned to Malick's face. "Do you not miss the days of your childhood, when you were still young and hungry for blood? When there were still vampires worth fighting, instead of these weak excuses that populate the world now!" Disgust shadowed his features. "No more do you see a fledgling with great powers! The new vampires have no patience. Rather than waiting for the centuries to pass and slowly selecting the perfect jewels to immortalize, they turn everything they can lay their hands on, and each generation is weaker than the one before. Meanwhile, the old are dying or wasting away, unwilling to change. What is to become of our race if this continues? Do those whose blood runs old not have a responsibility to one another and to themselves? Not only to preserve that which has already been made, but also to pass their power to those who are worthy of it?"
"I don't know," Jorick answered stiffly.
Malick looked sorrowful. "How you have changed in so short a time. Your inner fire has been all but quenched." His smile turned threatening. "I wonder if I could do something to coax you from your coma of indifference. Your human, perhaps?"
Jorick took an angry step forward. "Leave her alone! She's not a toy for your amusement!"
Malick's laughter echoed around the chamber. "And so you do still live beneath the cold exterior." Jorick growled and Malick tried to appease him. "Come now, I have not harmed her. Can you blame me for my actions? Surrounded day in and day out by those whose age is near my own. Too cold grow old hearts. Why do you think we make new ones? It is through their youth and their passion that we are revitalized. Have you not discovered that for yourself?" He tilted his head questioningly, but silence was his only answer. "I see that your conscious mind has not realized it, though your heart already knows the secret. Why else do you attach yourself again and again to another broken child? You need a new battle to keep you alive, and when that one is won, you must seek out another or else fall into darkness. That is why Kateesha killed. The need to feel alive and connected to this world drives more of our actions than we wish to admit, because when we cease to feel, do we not truly cease to exist?"
"You would exist through another?"
"No. Not through you any longer. It seems your time alone matured you, my son. It is not the company of a cold master that I crave." He looked at Oren, pressing into his mind again. "He has fire, but he is too lost."
His eyes skipped to Katelina, and she physically flinched as he pried behind her eyes, mentally pressing different triggers and applying pressure to painful spots. She tried to resist him, but she broke. Fresh tears dripped down her face and Jorick squeezed her hand until it hurt.
Malick withdrew and sighed heavily. "And like so many of this modern rabble, she lacks the spark of true imagination. Is it too much to ask for someone with spirit?"
Jorick's voice was cold and sarcastic, "And what of Verchiel?"
Malick dismissed the name with a gesture. "He is amusing, in his own way, but he is not as intriguing as you were. He doesn't carry the weight of the world on his shoulders as you did." His voice turned wistful, "You were always so beautiful in your guilty agony, and it only served to fuel your anger! Ah, the way that fury used to dance in your eyes when you killed! What I wouldn't give to see that again!"
Thick silence descended on the chamber. Katelina still couldn't focus her thoughts on anything except Malick and the desire to run. Oren was also quiet, though his amber eyes glowed in attempted defiance. Only Jorick seemed able to really resist Malick's overpowering nature and he said nothing.
Malick stared at them, and the minutes turned into hours. Katelina prayed for an end to the horrible interview. As if in answer, he said suddenly, "I cannot say that your visit has been all that I anticipated or hoped for, but it has been, nonetheless. " He turned thoughtful. "No, on second thought, I would have your presence longer, my son. You and your fledgling. The human may go. She is of no interest to me."
Jorick relaxed visibly and his hold on Katelina's hand loosened. "She will be sent back to the room and left unmolested?"
"Of course." Malick gestured to indicate her unimportance. "Verchiel can escort her." Though Jorick made no comment Malick suddenly broke into an amused smile. "This displeases you?"
"I don't like him near her."
"And why is that?" Malick's smile grew. "Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps there is something else that angers you besides the threat of harm. Or do you fear he will hurt her?"
Jorick's voice was icy, "I don't trust him."
"Ah, so you don't." Malick's eyes glowed with unvoiced laughter. "Regardless, he will take her to your room, and perhaps he should stay and guard her to be sure that she remains 'unmolested'?"
A muscle twitched in Jorick's jaw and his eyes flamed. "Leave her out of this."
"Ah, but I am. I am sending her away, aren't I?"
The double doors opened to reveal the redheaded Executioner in question. He bowed low and then moved to Katelina's side.
"You will not touch her," Jorick snarled.
Verchiel smiled politely. "I fear our master's presence is too much for her so, unless you want me to leave her, I'm going to have to ignore your request." Jorick growled, but Verchiel took her arm. He tugged her towards the door until she was stretched between them, one hand still in Jorick's possession. He made a low, angry noise in his throat and reluctantly loosened his hold until her fingers slipped through his and Verchiel pulled her out the door.
