Chapter 237
When Malick released her, it was like falling from a vacuum into the real world. Her ears roared with the buzz of blood. She gasped for air, suddenly aware that she'd quit breathing. Her emotions and awareness of herself came rushing back. She saw her hand, still stretched towards him, and dropped it, mortified.
Malick gave her a benevolent smile. His voice rumbled like low summer thunder. "Jorick is away on an errand. Do not be afraid, he will return to you before the sun has risen."
She nodded, her fear on her face.
He held out his arms to show how harmless he was. "There's no need for you to be frightened. Only those who disobey me need fear my wrath."
It wasn't a soothing suggestion, but rather a command. As if he'd snapped his fingers and shut off a light, all her fear disappeared. Like a novacained toothache, she knew that it was there beneath the surface, but she couldn't feel it.
"Perhaps now you can ask your questions?"
"Questions?" The only question she had was why.
"Not that one, though perhaps it will come later. First, what of your friend Verchiel? Isn't it strange that he did not retrieve you and Jorick himself? That he did not even see fit to attend your trial?"
Fog slithered through her brain, and words were hard to find. "I don't know if he's my friend."
"Come now, do you deny the feelings I've seen? Or are you unaware of them?" His laughter was warm and rich. "You've noted his absence more than once."
She nodded along to his words. When she spoke, she sounded disconnected from her body. "Where is he?"
"Perhaps you'd care to see?"
The words hung heavy and she couldn't concentrate to answer them. He decided for her, and gestured her to follow. She obeyed and he led her into the black marble corridor. As they passed the elevators, the guards gave them curious but apprehensive glances.
They reached the large silver door that led into the detention center. Malick didn't press a button, yet the door opened. Katelina followed him into the control room to find the two guards at attention, their faces openly nervous.
The master gestured to the door on the right and one of the guards hurried to open it. Malick strode through it, Katelina on his heels. Like the cell block she and Jorick had been in, it was a long, black hallway lined with steel doors.
They came to a stop before one of the doors and the guard nearly tripped over himself in his haste to unlock it.
"Another will come soon. See that he is admitted without delay."
The guard bowed low. "Yes, Master."
Malick dismissed him with a wave and motioned Katelina to enter the cell. The rational part of her brain told her not to, but Malick silenced it.
The cell was nothing more than a bare cement room without even a toilet. In the far corner was a heap of black and red.
The heap stirred.
A lone eye peered through a screen of matted hair. It fixed Malick with a lifeless stare, devoid of recognition, like an abused puppy that had forgotten its master.
Katelina recognized that eye. "Verchiel?"
"Yes." Malick smiled, a slow, cruel smile that made Katelina's stomach clench.
Verchiel growled low in his throat, a warning to stay away, and Katelina drew back. "What's the matter with him?"
Malick's amusement was palpable. "He's been very lonely. Perhaps he craves company?"
She gulped hard and stepped back to the door. Malick's fingertips brushed her back and a jolt of lightning shot through her. She stumbled forward, and Verchiel's blank eye fastened on her. The growl repeated, lower and more savage, and she shuddered. This was not the vampire she knew. This was a dirty, frightened animal.
Verchiel shuffled backwards and then stiffened, one hand raised uncertainly. Slowly, he sniffed the air and then he growled again. This time it wasn't a warning. It was the sound of something starving that had just found food.
Katelina cried out as he gave a vicious snarl and leapt towards her. She raised her arms instinctively, but the onslaught didn't come. Amused, Malick flicked his hand and Verchiel fell back, held by invisible bonds of will power.
The starving vampire struggled and snarled, his body held in a crouched position. His eyes were locked on her, like a predator. His gaze was hungry and showed no sign of recognition or comprehension. His thick hair fell away from his face and Katelina choked. His skin was translucent. It clung to the contour of his skull, withered like a dry leaf. Beneath the surface she could see the writhing lines of veins. They were a strange colorless shade, like old scars. She thought instantly of Thomas as he'd been in the basement; a dry husk desperately eyeing the buckets of blood as Joseff poured them out on the floor.
"Why?" she whispered.
"Can't you guess?" When she didn't answer, he explained, "He is being punished. When last you saw your friend, he was disobeying my orders. He was to remain here while Senya killed a vampire in human custody. Instead, he not only followed her, but he let Jorick and his fledging destroy research that was supposed to remain intact, and then he let them take the vampire away."
"Then why did Verchiel let us all go?"
"I don't know! Maybe you should ask him?"
It was because he wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.
"Let's call it a race, and I won."
Senya. He'd been racing Senya, and he'd beat her, just in time to let them all go. And now he was being punished for it.
"Yes." Malick folded his hands before him and stared at Verchiel. His dark eyes swam with power. Assaulted by an unseen force, Verchiel writhed and screamed, pinned down like a trapped animal.
The sound echoed through the room and Katelina covered her ears. She squeezed her eyes shut, but they popped open against her will and she was forced to watch.
Malick stepped up the pressure until Verchiel convulsed on the floor, his screams high pitched and horrible.
Finally, Katelina flung herself between the master and his victim. "Stop, before you kill him!"
Malick lowered his hands and Verchiel fell still. "You're concerned for him. How interesting. In that case, I'll make a deal with you. Verchiel is a curious creature, and I'm never sure what he'll do. He chose your wellbeing, and that of Kale, last time, but whose would he choose now? Shall we see? I can release him from my control and assuage my curiosity, perhaps at a great personal risk to you, or I can hold him back and keep you safe until we leave - but he will remain as a prisoner. He may well make an amusing example for years to come."
"No." She fought the thick fog that threatened to envelope her. "Not for years, not like that."
"Why not? Didn't you say that you're not sure he's your friend?"
Her eyes locked with Verchiel's. "He doesn't deserve that for sparing us." The world swirled and the mental fog thickened. A voice whispered, "Come", and she did, her mind as blank as Verchiel's eyes.
The starving vampire drew himself up into a crouch, his muscles coiled and ready to spring. Malick held him until she stood in front of him, close enough to touch, and then he let him go. Verchiel snarled and terror flashed in Katelina's blue eyes, but it was too late. He knocked her to the floor and his snapping mouth clamped around her neck. A thousand nightmare memories replayed themselves in her mind and she fought both them and him at the same time.
She could see the side of his face. She watched as the thin, spidery veins turned blue and his skin became less transparent. Fear pounded through her and she struggled to get away. It only seemed to excite him and his eyes grew more animal with her every attempt. Her skin burned. It radiated from the wound in her neck and flowed outward until it reached her extremities. She fought, tears in her eyes and a scream lodged in her throat. "Stop! Oh god! Stop!"
As if by command, the pain was replaced by something else, something far more familiar. A thousand hands caressed her, touching her inside and out, and she gasped for breath against the onslaught. Images and voices flashed behind her eyes, a confused tangle of laughter and sorrow, a never ending circle of chaos. She tried to pull away before she was lost on the tide, but a foreign voice in her head whispered, "More."
"No," she murmured, though she stopped struggling. Soft, warm waves rippled through her. She heard herself shudder, but she wasn't really connected to her physical form. She was lost in a mental landscape that was both familiar and foreign, like having sex with a stranger. The motions were the same, but different. Some inner urge prodded her impatiently. Her mouth was full of the flavor, wet, moist and spicy, but too diluted. She wanted more.
And then on the other side of the illusion someone shouted furious words that didn't make sense through the haze. She was aware of a muffled noise in her throat. Then light and sound slammed her in the face.
She screamed and tried to cover her eyes, but she couldn't block out the sound.
"You son of a bitch!"
A low growl and then Malick shouted, "Enough!"
Slowly Katelina lowered her arms and blinked. Verchiel picked himself up from the floor, his eyes still those of a predator. Bright red blood was on his lips and a thick smear was on one side of his neck. Jorick stood only feet from him, his face and hands clenched in fury.
"Jorick?"
He refused to look at her. "Not now!" His hateful gaze snapped to Malick. "What's going on?"
The master held his hands out in a gesture of helplessness. "I only brought her to see the one she was so concerned for." His eyes were innocence, but the corners crinkled slyly. "Perhaps had you hurried as you were commanded this morning, you could have returned in time to stop your human from making such a rash choice."
Jorick growled and started to turn away. At the last second he lashed out with his foot and kicked Verchiel in the stomach, knocking him to the floor.
Malick's words were a quiet reprimand. "Not fair, my son. If you choose to attack him I will be forced to release him from my hold."
"Go ahead!"
Katelina used the wall to climb to her feet. Her limbs felt week and watery and the small effort of standing left her panting and breathless. Jorick's eyes moved to her and as quickly shied away.
"You should tend to your human. It appears she has a very generous nature and has given far more than she ought to have."
Jorick made a low noise of fury. Wordlessly he strode to Katelina, picked her up and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He spoke to Malick, his voice barely controlled, "She's not a pawn to be used in your games."
Malick's innocent fa?ade slipped away and revealed smugness. "Not true, my son. Everyone is my pawn, whether they know it or not."
