Chapter 217
By the time Katelina finished her shower, Jorick was back with the gym bag. The first thing she dug out was a bottle of pain killers. The suggested dose seemed too small, so she took five and prayed they did something to numb the throbbing in her wrist.
She was long out of clean clothes, so Jorick helped her dress in the least dirty; a pair of jeans and the fuzzy pink sweater Rachel had given her for Christmas. He helped her brush her tangled hair and then slipped out of his clothes and bathed while she carefully transferred the contents of her pockets from one pair of jeans to the other.
When he was done, they left the bathroom to find Loren and Oren waiting for them. The teen's hair hung wet around his grinning face.
"I sent Loren scavenging." Oren handed Jorick several flat strips of rusty metal. "That is, once he was done trying to impress my sister with how masculine he is."
"That's not what I was doing!" A flush stole into his cheeks. "We were just cleaning up!"
Jorick examined the offering with a frown. He wiped the strips on his pants, which did nothing. "I suppose they'll work. You could have found something better if you weren't busy running around outside naked."
"I really looked! I swear, that's all there is!"
Jorick turned his attention to Katelina's swollen wrist. He fished out one of his shirts from the gym bag, and ripped it into strips. They wrapped her wrist and then spent several minutes arguing over where to position the metal. Katelina tried to hold back tears and begged them to hurry. Finally, they reached an agreement and used more cloth to hold the strips in place.
Oren gave the finished product a final appraisal, and then went to take a shower. Jorick led Katelina toward the front room, but they didn't make it far before Alex appeared. "Joseff wants to talk to you in the basement about Thomas. Rumors are that you have experience at keeping others in long term captivity." He coughed and, more for Katelina's benefit than Jorick's, added, "Michael and all."
It was another moment of confused loyalties, and Katelina was relieved when Jorick sent her to the living room on her own. The relief was short lived. The Christmas tree was still up, the gleaming ornaments and twinkling tinsel a mocking memory.
Saeed's new book lay on the couch. She picked it up, surprised to find that it was an inspirational self-help book, full of directions on how to "free the soul" and "achieve inner harmony". Though inner harmony was something that seemed far away, she tried to lose herself in the pages.
It was well over an hour later when Loren appeared. He wiped his hands on his hoodie and Katelina could see dirt under his fingernails. "Hey, we're getting ready to have a funeral for Kale in the backyard."
"A vampire funeral?"
"Yeah, what's wrong with that?"
She scrambled for something to say. "Um...I've just never seen one. Usually you guys just set them on fire."
He shrugged. "That's what they're planning to do. I just spent half an hour digging pine needles out of the snow."
Micah appeared. "Like you did it alone." He turned to Katelina with an air of superiority. "If you weren't all injured and useless you coulda helped set shit up."
She scowled and tried to think of a suitable retort. Before she could, Jorick showed up and announced that they were ready.
It took great effort to slide into her coat and pull her hat on her head. Bundled up, she followed Jorick outside into the cold, clear night. A circle of snow had been cleared away in the backyard. In the center of it was a pile of wood that had been heaped with some semblance of precision. Around it, in a ring, stood most of the vampires. They were clean and changed. Though Luna leaned on Fabian, still the worse for wear, the rest looked restored with only a handful of superficial injuries.
Jorick led Katelina around the circle to an empty space. Oren and Yaul joined the circle carrying a bright red gas can and several long sticks with rags wrapped at the ends. Torches. Oren left the gas can with Yaul and his brother, then moved to Jorick's side. "We're doing it the traditional way. They were part of Claudius' coven, after all."
Jorick nodded. "He always liked the dramatic."
The atmosphere suddenly tensed. Katelina followed Oren and Jorick's gaze to the house. The back door banged open, too loud in the suddenly still night.
Saeed walked slowly across the porch. In his arms he carried a red wrapped bundle - Kale's body. His face was set and grim, but lifted high as though he'd been given a great honor. Behind him came Rachel, leaning heavily on Joseff's arm. She hadn't changed or bathed, and her tears cut tracks through the grime on her face.
Something sick fluttered in Katelina's chest as the miniature procession drew towards the circle. Jorick caught her good hand and squeezed it gently.
Saeed walked to the center of the circle and laid his burden on the pile of wood. He stepped back and waited while Joseff took two of the torches from Yaul and led Rachel to her place in the circle. Katelina tried to catch her eyes and communicate her sympathy, but Rachel's attention was on the ground.
With everyone in their place, Saeed lifted his face to the sky and sang out a stream of foreign words. His deep voice rang off the trees and filled the night with a mournful cry.
The song-like prayer ended, and the dark cloak of winter silence dropped, heavy and oppressive. Yaul flipped a cigarette lighter to life and touched the flame to a torch. It blazed to life.
Alex and Saeed each took a turn lighting their torches from Yaul's. Joseff lit both his and Rachel's, then returned to her. He took her hand and forced the torch into her fingers. She lifted her eyes and stared at it dully, as if she didn't understand or else didn't want to see it.
Joseff led her to the center of the circle. The closer they got, the louder Katelina's heart pounded. She didn't want to see this.
The pair came to a stop before the pile of wood. Joseff prodded Rachel gently, but she stayed silent and rigid. Finally, he shouted, "Kale, you will be avenged!" He grabbed Rachel's arm and forced her torch through the wood. It took a moment, and then something whooshed; probably Loren's pine needles. Rachel stared at the flames. With a shuddering sob, she dropped the torch into the pile. She sank to the ground and buried her face in her hands. Katelina wanted to move to her, but uncertainty held her back. What would she say?
With a wild, wordless cry, Joseff thrust his torch into the midst of the blossoming bonfire, then stepped back. He watched with burning eyes as Saeed, Alex, and finally Yaul took turns jabbing their torches into the pile. The flames grew slowly, creeping closer to the red wrapped bundle in the center.
Yaul picked up the gas can and doused the body and wood. The flames roared and tripled in height; orange tongues that licked the sky. Thick smoke, white against the night, curled upwards. The column slowly thickened as Kale's body caught fire.
The smell of burning flesh filled Katelina's nose and she choked and turned away. Tears filled her eyes. In her head she could hear Rachel's chatter as they'd done the shopping, "He's so kind and so gentle. I think I loved him the moment I first saw him-" Those wistful words seemed a world away.
Jorick's arm tightened around her and he pulled her into him. He rested his face against the top of her head. "It's all right."
Katelina pulled away from him. "No it isn't! This is all wrong!" And it was. It should be someone else there, someone that didn't matter, some vampire that wasn't loved.
"Everyone is loved by someone. Even Thomas. Do you think his sister isn't worried about him?"
She started to argue, when a vision swam behind her eyes. She could see herself killing Kateesha and feel the heartbreak; Alistair's heartbreak. Even Kateesha, the vilest, evilest bitch she'd ever encountered, had been loved by someone. The idea that even the bad guys had someone who cared about them was just too much.
"No one is completely evil," Jorick said in answer to her thoughts. "I've tried to tell you that before."
Her revelation was interrupted by Saeed's deep, smooth voice. He stood before the fire, chanting sing-song words in that same foreign language. The song seemed to reverberate inside Katelina's chest and, for a moment, she couldn't breathe. She looked past him to where Rachel knelt alone. She'd never been good with grief, whether her own or another's. She always ran away and left someone else to deal with it. For some reason, she felt she needed to do something this time.
