Chapter 414
The seats on the plane reclined, but Katelina couldn't get comfortable. She woke more than once to the sound of Etsuko moaning in Japanese and had finally fallen into a deep sleep when she jerked awake to someone shouting.
"Is this normal?"
Something was being waved in her face. She grabbed it, and recoiled at the wet, sticky texture. She forced her eyes to focus on a towel covered in something gooey and black.
"What the hell is that?"
"You tell me!" Oren cried.
Katelina dropped the seat into a sitting position and struggled to stand. Was the plane leaking something? If so it probably wasn't dangerous, it would only delay them tomorrow. She yawned and wondered toward the bathroom. "Where did it come from?"
"She's throwing it up!"
Alarm bells went off in Katelina's head. Throwing up something black was never good. She hurried to the Japanese woman, who lay on her side. The black vomit was on her lips and she choked and wretched out another string of it.
"Oh my God." She looked up at Oren. "She needs a doctor. Now."
"And where the hell are we supposed to get one?"
"I don't know. Maybe Burke or Celia?" He looked blank and she added quickly. "The people who work here with Amari. Go" she broke off. "No, the sun's up. I'll see if I can find them. You stay here and- and make sure she doesn't choke to death."
Katelina grabbed her coat from her seat and started for the door when Oren called, "Her mouth is bleeding. What do I do?"
"Just, uh, just hang on," and with that she threw the door open and plunged out.
The countryside was transformed under the late afternoon sunlight. The snowy mountains glittered in the distance and the barren lands looked somehow less barren, though she barely noticed as she ran to the building and hurried inside.
Celia, an older lady with graying hair and glasses, sat at the control desk reading a magazine, and she looked up with surprise. "Yes?"
"We need a doctor," Katelina said quickly. "There's a woman, on the plane. She's throwing up black stuff. She has a fever. Her mouth is bleeding."
Celia stared and then said slowly, "The nearest doctor is in the village. It's forty-five minutes one way. Is this, you know." She mimed a vampire bite.
"What? No! She got sick while we were in that stupid jungle and"
"Jungle?" Celia drew back. "I'm sorry. I-I don't know."
Katelina stopped from shouting at her, and ran back to the airplane. Jorick was up, rubbing his face and trying to come to terms with the situation. Katelina pushed past him to see Etsuko bucking with a seizure. Oren knelt next to the couch and held her down.
"Well?" he cried.
"They said there's nothing they can do!"
Etsuko's face was contorted and purple, like a wadded up fist. Blood ran down from her mouth and nose, and her eyes rolled back in her head. Katelina wrung her hands hopelessly. It had to be some freaky monkey illness. She'd known all along that something like this would happen. Ever since that movie. And now there they were, where Neil had died, where Etsuko would.
Oren gave a savage, frustrated growl and Katelina realized the fallacy of a vampire holding a bleeding person. She started forward, the words, "I'll do it," on her lips when Oren reared back and bit into Etsuko's neck.
"No!" Katelina shrieked and lunged toward him. Jorick grabbed her and pulled her back.
"What are you doing?" she shouted, struggling to get free. "Jorick!"
He pulled her away, turning so that he blocked the scene with his body. "Hush, little one. Leave it."
Torina groaned and sat up. "What's all the racket about? You'd think something was on fire." She stiffened, eyes wide. "There's not something on fire, is there?"
"No," Jorick said. "Oren's"
"God dammit!" Torina was up and around them in a moment. She stood, staring, and Jorick let Katelina go and moved to her, ready to hold her back.
Katelina pushed past them and stopped as Oren pulled away from Etsuko's limp body, his lips and chin red with her blood. Katelina gaped, and something sick thudded in her chest. Had he killed her? Was she?
Oren bit into his own wrist and shoved it into Etsuko's mouth. Katelina clutched the seat next to her, watching in horrified fascination as he forced the blood between the woman's trembling lips. Her mouth tried weakly to clamp around the wound. Moments passed, and then Etsuko latched onto his arm, like someone trying to suck the last bit of juice from an orange. Oren's face strained and he tried to pull away, but Etsuko's grip was too strong. He made a strange, pained noise, and tried to pry her fingers loose. Etsuko sat up, clinging desperately, and finally Oren wrenched free with enough force to knock him backwards into the seats.
Etsuko's chin was red like Oren's, damp with his blood. She made a strange, gurgling sound, and a rivulet ran out of her mouth and down her white dress, like the black vomit had earlier. It hadn't worked! It hadn't
Etsuko fell back on the couch with a moan and clutched her face like someone with a toothache. She rolled on her side and Katelina started forward, but Jorick grabbed her shoulder. "Her fangs are coming in. It takes a while. Come." He motioned her toward the other end of the plane, but she was too mesmerized by the drama in front of her.
Etsuko writhed and her groan turned to an agonized cry. Katelina stepped back as the woman thrashed on the couch, clutching her face, her stomach, her chest. The cries turned to screams and Katelina moved quickly to the safety of Jorick's side. "What's happening? What went wrong?"
"Nothing," Jorick said quietly. "Her body is changing from what it was to something else. Do you think that's painless?"
In truth she'd never imagined it before, and she wished it had stayed that way. She turned her back on it and pressed her hands to her ears to drown out the screams. "How long does it last?"
"It takes a full day to be complete, but it isn't all like this. It goes back and forth." He slid an arm around her and drew her close. "When the first wave subsides she'll thirst. You shouldn't be near her."
"You mean she might attack me?" It was contrary to the mild mannered Etsuko she knew.
"Perhaps. Each fledgling is different. You never know how the first lust will take them."
Katelina perched on the edge of a nearby seat. Sure enough, Etsuko's screams turned to moans and then faded away to ragged breathing. At last she said, "Oren- Oren-sama?"
Oren stood, and moved next to the couch. He'd wiped most of the blood from his mouth and chin onto his shirt, but the stain remained. Etsuko stared at him, as if she'd never seen him before, and then she whispered, "I'm, I'm so thirsty."
"Torina, get her some blood from the refrigerator."
"You. She's your fledgling."
Oren spun toward his sister. His amber eyes glittered like cold fire. "I said go!"
She jumped and then covered it with sarcasm. "Whatever."
She disappeared to the kitchenette and came back again with two glass containers of crimson. She shoved them into her brother's hands, then stormed past him and took her seat, her arms and legs crossed and her face furious.
Oren opened the first bottle and handed it to Etsuko. She tried to sip it, but after a drink or two she gulped the whole thing, and grabbed the second bottle from his hands. She downed it and looked on the point of asking for another when she fell back moaning and clutching her stomach.
"Did drinking the blood do that?" Katelina asked.
"No," Jorick answered. "The timing is a coincidence. I told you this goes on for some time." He pulled her down into his lap. She struggled to watch, and then softened against him. He drew her closer and pressed a kiss to her head. "Best try to sleep, little one."
She nodded and closed her eyes, but she doubted sleep would find her.
