Chapter 198
Katelina refused to be alone with Kale, so she stayed on the floor between the front seats. She clutched Jorick's leg and fought to hold down her heaving stomach.
Oren gripped the steering wheel fiercely. Blood spots blossomed on his clothes like red flowers, and his amber eyes were wild. "What in the hell was that?"
"How should I know?" Jorick stretched out the front of his shirt to examine it. Light shown through multiple bullet holes. "Look at this!"
Katelina gasped and Oren snapped, "What possessed you to make such a scene?"
"It wasn't my idea! You can thank Kale for that!"
As if summoned, Kale peeped out from the heavy curtain. He looked better since he'd fed; his skin had color and substance. Even his hair seemed less limp. The blood that stained his shirt and his face disgusted Katelina more than his wasted appearance had.It wasn't just the color, but the smell. Though she tried to move away, there was nowhere to go.
"What were you thinking?" Jorick demanded. "Why didn't you leave them to me? I could have controlled them!"
Kale shook his head. "Not all of them!"
"Yes, I could have easily handled two, and even five! Regardless, you only need to control the leader and the weaker ones follow!"
"There are better ways of killing!" Oren cut in. "You didn't have to make such a mess! Someone will have to clean that up."
Kale grimaced. "I'm sorry, I was hungry! They've kept me down there without anything for days! What did you expect me to do?"
Oren gestured him to silence. "And what about the damned alarm, Jorick? I thought you said-"
"Hectia thought they were disabled. You noticed the other alarms didn't go off."
"Well who would have heard them if they had?" Kale asked. "I tried to tell you to enter the key code first!"
Katelina wanted to point out that they couldn't hear him, but she couldn't get a word in.
"The police couldn't have been reacting to that alarm!" Oren argued. "They aren't that fast!"
Jorick ran an irritated hand through his hair. "Maybe they are, or maybe we tripped a silent alarm at some point."
Oren growled. "Probably when we went in the window!"
"Or maybe when you went in the office?" Katelina suggested venomously. "You're so fast to blame everyone else!"
Kale cocked an incredulous eyebrow. "Well it doesn't matter. Your friend will clean it up, I imagine."
Jorick jerked towards Kale and roared, "He?is not my friend!"
Everyone flinched at his sudden rage. Kale muttered an apology, and Katelina asked uncertainly, "How are they going to 'clean it up'? They can dispose of the bodies, and maybe the cars, but someone heard the gunshots."?Unless?they were all deaf.
Jorick shrugged. "They'll call in a whisperer to convince the people that they didn't hear anything, or that it was an explosion or a car backfiring, or some other ridiculous thing." He scowled suddenly. "That idiot Verchiel could surely handle that much."
"Verchiel?" Kale repeated the name slowly, as if looking for something in the sounds. "Is he an Executioner?"
"Yes," Oren replied. "The Wind Walker some call him."
?"Oh, him." Kale suddenly seemed to notice his condition and wiped at his face with his sleeve. "Claudius used to talk to him."
Jorick slammed his fist into the dashboard. "I knew he couldn't be trusted!"
The name Claudius had a different effect on Katelina. Instead of shouting, she tried to curl into herself. Claudius' pouty, teenage face swam behind her eyes. His cold sneer was seared forever in her brain like an ugly scar that refused to fade.
Oren snorted contemptuously. "I might have guessed he was one of Claudius'."
Kale took their anger in stride. "Not in that way. He's the one The Guild sent whenever Claudius complained. He was the one who initially investigated Arowenia's- disappearance, before Senya and her group took over." He cleared his throat nervously, perhaps realizing for the first time that he'd been a member of their enemy's coven and was now completely in their power. "As we've agreed, though, that's all in the past."
"Of course." Jorick dismissed it with a wave and muttered under his breath, "What I want to know is why he let us go!"
Oren glanced at him. "Ask your human. She seems to be on good terms with him."
"No, she isn't."
Under his angry gaze they all fell silent. Katelina tried to banish bloody thoughts from her head, but images popped to the surface: the policeman's throat torn and gushing blood. Oren slamming a cop into the car. Jorick holding a limp body in his hands. Her stomach clenched. The face of the youngest cop wavered before her. He was someone's son, brother, husband or father. She'd seen Jorick and Oren kill before, but their victims had been vampires in battle, not humans with families that would never see them again. It was nearly Christmas, and this year their celebrations would be held around a casket, with tears and anger their only presents.
She noticed Jorick watching her and looked away quickly, though she knew he'd probably seen the thought in her mind. She'd accepted him and the new life; the blood, the gore, the battles. Seeing them kill people- Somehow that was different.
Jorick spoke so low she could barely hear him, "What makes you think a vampire doesn't have someone who cares for them? Oren mourns Jesslynn's death, as does her brother. She had a family, the same as the policemen. Wouldn't you be sad if I died?"
Oren made a noise in his throat. His face gave his negative opinion on the subject.
"Of course! But you're different!"
"Because you care about me?" Jorick smiled but not kindly. "Does that make me different than the people you don't care about? You once encouraged me to kill Hectia and Verchiel, then you balk when the blood is human. So long as the death means nothing to you, it's acceptable. And you humans think we're the monsters. "
"I never said that! I never said anything!"
"You don't have to. And I didn't intend to kill anyone until Kale-"
"I never said you did!" she snapped over him. "I'm sorry. I'm not used to bloodbaths! You might cut me a little slack!"
"The same could be said for you."
With nothing else to say, she let the conversation drop.
