Chapter 428
Katelina opened her eyes and blinked against the late afternoon sunlight. She looked around the room. The bed she lay in was built in an alcove. Carved stools sat along one wall, sandwiching an open doorway. A table was laden with random items: a vase, a box, hair combs. There was nothing familiar, only vaguely exotic.
She peeled back the blankets and swung out of bed. Her back and shoulder burned, and her clothing was strange; an embroidered robe with a faint musty odor. Though the cut was different, it made her think of the kimonos that...
That what? The thought ran to nothing and she rubbed her head. In the back of her mind phantoms moved. The shadows of screams sounded. Crimson splashed on dusty stones.
It was a fragmented moment, captured like a photo. She pressed and others popped to the surface. There was a temple gouged into a mountain. Dust, old carvings. A secret door that led below and then an attack. She smelled terror but couldn't feel it, even as she saw herself dragged down to secret chambers.
A mummy laid in a box. Sorino read an inscription on the wall with a smug expression. It wouldn't do him any good because he needed the Heart of the Raven to wake the sleeping mummy and she had that.
He made her draw it out. Made her stuff it between the mummy's lips. The mummy turned into a withered, ancient vampire. It drank from her arm until she screamed. Then it went on a rampage.
The legends said the ancient in the box was Lilith, and that whoever replaced her heartthe legendary Heart of the Ravenwould command her. The legends were wrong. The heart belonged to one of her husband's other wives, and the mummy was her husband Samael. Once awakened, no one could control him.
Katelina saw snapshot scenes of Munich, Germany and of a battle in a Finnish forest. There was a destroyed fortress in Uzbekistan, laid waste by the Children of Shadows, a vampire cult that crushed everything in sight. There was a jungle, then Indonesia. She saw her allies fighting against the wave of black. Micah and Loren. Oren and Torina. Verchiel hanging by his fingers from the ledge as he tossed his sword to Jorick.
Jorick.
He was etched in her mind: long black hair, dark eyes, perfect skin, and gleaming vampire fangs. When she'd last seen him, he'd stood like an unbending storm waiting to unleash its fury. Malick, his former master, cowered away, clutching the stump of his wrist where his hand used to be.
She tried to piece together what had happened next, but there was only blackness and agony-had Jorick-Was he-?
"He is behind. Better to hurt now than later, for betrayal and pain is all a lover brings."
She turned to see a man in the doorway, dressed in an embroidered robe of bright yellow. Long hair fell around his shoulders like a curtain of shimmering night and his face-She couldn't look away. It was as if beauty incarnate stood before her, with eyes that burned like the heart of a dark star. She was lost in their center, and it was only when he closed them that she came back. She stood in the middle of the room, hand outstretched, as if desperate to touch something so exquisite.
She stepped back. Nothing made sense. Where was she? Who was he? But she knew. She knew him with every breath in her body.
It was Samael.
An overwhelming feeling of peace enveloped her. He motioned her to one of the stools and she went without thought.
"There is nothing to fear. I have not brought you here to harm you, only to deliver that which I promised."
His voice was gentle, like whispering rainfall in the spring. She could almost smell the green of the leaves and the damp of the earth.
He laid a hand to her head. Electricity sang through her and memories popped to the surface. In her mind she was back in the cave of the Raven Queen's Temple. She lay on the floor, waiting for Samael to kill her. He lifted her gently and met her eyes. His voice resonated inside her, not as words, but as a sense of meaning. He told her not to fear, that he must prepare the way, and soon her destiny would be fulfilled. She would stand above the world, a queen of darkness who would never know suffering again.
"Why?" She was surprised to find she'd spoken the word aloud.
"Because you woke me. Do you know what it is to lay for centuries, both alive and dead? To feel the pulse of the world, but not touch it? To exist on what scraps her handmaidens slip between your lips?" She drew away from his anger and he softened. "You freed me from the forced slumber, brought back the light." He held out his hand and played through the dancing sunbeams.
She was mesmerized by the motion of his pale fingers. "But you're a vampire."
"After the slow march of time, even the sun begins to lose its power. There is nothing that can stand in the way now. We will find Lilith. We will destroy her and bathe in her blood."
She shook her head to clear her confusion. "You said you'd make me your queen, but what if the person who woke you was a man?"
"Gender matters very little. When they had drunk enough from me they would be beautiful regardless. I am not seeking a lover."
"What if a vampire had woken you?"
"Then I would only need to give them my protection. It is unimportant. There is very little in this world that matters. You will come to understand that." He stepped back, hands clasped before him. "You must feed. There are humans to serve you. You have only to command and they will obey." He bowed. "I will see you soon." Then, he was gone.
Her head still tingled where he'd touched her. She rubbed it absently, and tried to remember what she'd been thinking about. There was only an image of him, burning bright as a star.
The sun dropped in the sky. Katelina gathered her wits and looked for a bathroom. She found a set of doors and stepped out into a paved courtyard. Snow clung in the cracks of the stones and kissed the naked trees. A winter afternoon lit the sky in golden hues that promised twilight's approach.
The robe was long but not warm. Katelina wrapped her arms around herself and looked from building to building. The tiled roofs and bric-a-brac looked Chinese, but not as colorful as she expected. The wooden pillars were dark, and the buildings seemed heavy.
She wandered the complex until she found what looked like a public restroom. There were marks on the wall where a sign had been pried away, but all the plumbing worked. When she finished she stared in the mirror over the sink. Her long blonde hair framed her pale face. Vivid blue eyes stared back, calm despite the strange surroundings.
She checked to make sure she was alone, then unfastened the robe to look at her sore shoulder. The wound surprised her. It was two inches long and looked like a shallow trench. She poked at the scab and flinched. With the pain came a watery memory of a battle - no, the battle. In Indonesia. Someone had shot at her and missed.
She twisted to see her naked back in the mirror. Four jagged cuts ran across it, like claw marks from a giant cat. Or a clawed weapon. A vampire with a bizarre comic book-style glove.
The wounds were clean and neat, so she fastened the robe again. She left the restroom and stood uncertainly on a path. She could see trees and lakes, a curved bridge and decorative pagodas. Mountain-like hills rose in the distance. Where was she?
The door of a nearby building opened and a pair of women hurried out. They both wore jeans and sweaters. As they drew closer, Katelina could see that their clothes were rumpled. The women's dark terrified eyes met Katelina's and skipped away.
"The master has sent us to care for you," the tallest said in thickly accented English. "Please return to your rooms and we will bring your meal."
They bowed, and turned to go, but Katelina grabbed the shorter woman. "Where are we?"
The girl barely suppressed a scream. Her companion motioned wildly for her to stay quiet, then fell to her knees in front of Katelina.
"Please forgive us."
Katelina let go. "For what? What's going on?"
The taller woman pulled her still hysterical companion to her knees. "We beg forgiveness. We will bring your meal to you shortly."
She half stood, still crouching in a ridiculous half bow, and dragged the other girl into the building. Katelina stared after them. She'd seen fear like that before, but it was usually directed at vampires.
The word left her reaching for her mouth. Her probing fingers found her usual human teeth and she heaved a sigh of relief. She wasn't ready to be a vampire yet. When the time came it would be Jorick who turned her.
Jorick. As if his name was a talisman, the forgotten thoughts returned in a rush. Where was he? Why wasn't he with her?
"Because the sun's up." The words were logical, still they felt wrong. What had Samael said? That Jorick was "behind." Behind where? Was he going to catch up? If only she could concentrate.
