Chapter 205
Jorick drew a tight, discontented breath. "Fine. If you want to stay, Katelina, then stay." His eyes moved to Rachel. "If anything happens to her-"
Rachel nodded, and the two vampires turned and trudged through the snow. Oren's voice came back to them in what was probably a tirade.
Rachel smiled pleasantly and held the door wide. "Are they always like that or is it reserved for special occasions?"
Katelina hesitated. She didn't know Rachel, or the others. What was to stop them from killing her? She glanced to where Jorick and Oren had been, but they'd disappeared into the darkness.
"I swore a blood oath. Surely you're not impolite enough to think I'd break it?"
"No," Katelina managed unconvincingly. "Of course not."
Rachel gave a satisfied nod. She led Katelina inside and through the house to what had been the living room. Except for a wooden chair, the furniture was gone. Rolls of wallpaper were stacked along one wall and a bucket of paste sat at the base of a rickety ladder. The vampiress rolled up her sleeves and turned to the work at hand. "I hope you don't mind. I'd like to have a couple of rooms done before Christmas." She glanced up and added teasingly, "Why don't you take off your coat and stay awhile?"
Katelina peeled off her coat and hat and draped them over the chair. She watched as Rachel climbed the ladder and then unrolled the paper. There was something fascinating about her. She was plain, but at the same time beautiful because she was a vampire. It was a bizarre combination.
Rachel interrupted her thoughts. "Could you cut that off for me? Joseff said he'd help, but he's off pouting."
"Oh, sure."
In years past, Katelina had helped her mother wallpaper and she fell back into it easily. They had several strips cut and two hung before Rachel stood back to survey their work.
"Not too bad." She knelt and applied paste to the next piece. "I hope you don't mind staying. It's been a month with only men for company and I'm starving for a normal conversation. So tell me, how did you and Jorick meet?"
Katelina glopped paste onto the paper. "He called me on the phone."
"He called you? Out of the blue?"
"It was out of the blue for me. He'd been secretly 'keeping an eye' on me for a while. I was sort of dating Patrick before that."
"Is Patrick in Oren's coven?"
Katelina swallowed hard. In the last two months the pain had numbed, but this was still an uncomfortable topic, especially with a member of Claudius' former coven. "He was Michael's brother."
Understanding dawned on Rachel's face. "So you're the one who caused all the trouble." Katelina looked horrified and she laughed. "Oh, you didn't really. They used you as an excuse. Oren and Claudius were looking for a reason to have an open war for years and you were in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Katelina's eyes dropped away and Rachel continued, "Claudius really didn't care about killing you one way or another. He didn't even care about Michael's brother. It was just a way to torture Michael." She offered an apologetic smile. "I know that must sound terrible to you, and it probably is. Claudius was a lot of things, but at least he took care of his own, unlike a lot of Masters."
The words came before she could stop them, "But you just said he was torturing Michael!"
"So I did. But Michael wasn't really a part of the coven. He was just a human Claudius hired to mow the yard. He got nosey and saw too much. Claudius was going to kill him. Some of the others thought it might be fun to turn him and keep him as a servant for punishment, so that's what they did. Michael was just something to amuse them. Claudius only used his brother - and you - to keep Michael upset, but I suppose in the end it backfired. " She met Katelina's eyes. "I have no bad feelings about his death or about Kateesha's. They made their mistakes and had to pay for them. That's how the world works. You make choices and you suffer the consequences." Her voice dropped low, "It's actually kind of romantic."
Katelina froze, her brush inches above the paper. "What?"
"Oh, you know. Claudius loved Arowenia in his own fashion, but he didn't go after her himself. Claudius kidnapped you and Jorick came roaring in and decimated everything." She giggled and Katelina gaped.
"It's easier for me to feel that way," Rachel explained." I wasn't really close to them. Kale was accepted because he was made by one of Claudius' fledglings, and I was tolerated because Kale wanted me, but I was never a part of anything. They all knew I came from another coven and that two of their own had died getting me away." She fell into a thoughtful silence and then added as an afterthought, "Of course, it didn't help that all the other women were so beautiful. And I'm, well, not." Katelina started to protest politely, but Rachel stopped her with a hand. "Call a spade a spade." She gave a dreamy sigh. "I was always jealous of Arowenia's good looks, but I suppose she had a miserable life. I don't think I ever saw her smile, not that I saw much of her, except to help with her hair or her clothing. Claudius liked to keep her separate from everyone else. She was his prize."
Katelina didn't know what to say, so she nodded mutely and wished that Jorick would hurry.
Rachel was oblivious to Katelina's discomfort. "Enough about me. What about you? Now that I've figured out where you fit in, I'm even more curious!"
Katelina swallowed. "About what?"
"I don't know. Everything I suppose. You remind me of myself, in a way. I guess that makes me more curious than it should. I'm not being rude am I?"
"No," Katelina murmured, though she felt the opposite.
"Oh good. I love Kale dearly, but I'm afraid we've known each other so long that we tend to be blunt. The same goes with Joseff, and I don't talk to the other three very much. It's not that I don't like them, but I don't know what to say. Yaul's very temperamental, and Saeed's quiet."
"I've noticed." Where is Jorick?
"What do you do when you're not running around with vampires?"
Katelina stared at the gloppy wallpaper paste, her mind blank. What did she do? "I used to work at a newspaper."
"That sounds exciting!"
"Not really. I mostly fetched things. I was probably going to get fired on the next round of cut backs."
"Why would they fire you?"
"Since the internet, newspapers aren't the big thing anymore. People would rather look up their news for free than buy a paper."
"Oh, I see." Rachel caught up one end of the wallpaper and Katelina scrambled to get the other. "Alex and Yaul are into the internet thing. We had to get it here. Alex has shown it to me, but I can't figure out the point. He talks to people on it, but if he's lonely why doesn't he talk to real people?"
Katelina didn't know what to say, but she didn't have to because Rachel chattered on as they hung the sheet of paper and started on the next. The room was half done when Jorick and Oren returned, an argument hanging between them like a third person.
Rachel offered them a smile. "I reckon you're getting ready to leave us?"
"Yes," Oren said stiffly.
"In that case, I'd better talk fast. I understand that you have to go back to your den, Oren, to bring back the boxes, but I thought perhaps Jorick and Katelina would like to stay? There's no point in them having to ride ten hours to your den and then another ten back with only a few days between. And it would be nice to have the company for Christmas."
A vampire Christmas? The idea was enough to leave Katelina speechless. Panic tightened her chest, but disappeared under the reassurance that Jorick would say no.
Of course he had to be contrary.
"You have a valid point. I'm sure Katelina would enjoy a Christmas celebration with someone who seems- enthusiastic about it." He glanced at Oren and Katelina got the impression it had more to do with being trapped in a van for twenty hours with his fledgling.
"Then it's settled!" Rachel clapped her hands delightedly and Katelina imagined a host of horrors, all tinted red and green.
