Chapter 434
Katelina woke the next morning to fading sunlight. She slipped from bed and scurried out to the public restroom. When she'd finished, she took a moment to examine her shoulder and her back. Tomorrow, they'd be completely healed.
Terror seized her. Without the ancient vampire to wash it away, it took hold. Oh God! Samael planned to turn her!
No.
A vision of Jorick swam behind her eyes and her chest tightened. Where was he? He couldn't let this happen. He couldn't let someone else turn her into a vampire. If she had to change, then he had to be the one to do it. Otherwise-
She forced her memories in order and pulled up everything she could on fledglings. When someone was turned into a vampire they owed a blood debt to their master, leaving them something like a slave. She remembered what Jorick had said:
"Only the master chooses when it has been paid. One vampire's blood debt may be finished in a year, while others have it dangled over their heads for centuries."
Ancients had a different concept of time. What might seem long to her would be only a blink to someone who'd lived six thousand years. How long would her blood debt last?
She had to stop it. She had to get away. She had to find Jorick.
The urgency lasted until she left the bathroom. The nearer she drew to the complex of heavy buildings, the less important it seemed. By the time she reached the doors to her chambers she couldn't remember what she'd been worried about.
Samael waited for her in her room, and offered her his arm. She took it and let him lead her back outside. The sky was streaked with red. To the west it looked like blue velvet.
His voice broke the silence. "Tonight will be the final ritual. You must prepare, however, I thought you might enjoy a walk beforehand."
She wasn't sure if she would, but she nodded anyway.
They wound their way around cold lakes and naked trees, over a decorative bridge, and finally near the wall. Katelina could hear the soft sound of traffic and life beyond it, and wondered again at the proximity of people.
"They will be dealt with," Samael promised. "Come now, it is time."
They turned back, when the ancient vampire went stiff. He moved so fast Katelina could barely see him, and put himself in front of her, one hand raised.
She followed his eyes, but saw nothing except a path and dead grass. As if on cue, the wind picked up. Samael's hair blew back from his perfect face and his robes billowed. He looked like the sorcerer from a fantasy epic, and she lost herself in him.
It was his booming voice that brought her back. "Do you think I cannot see you, wind walker?"
She felt his power coalesce into an invisible ball before them. It slammed into the ground several feet away, sending up a spray of dirt and pebbles. A figure was suddenly visible, sliding to a halt amid the cloud of debris. A black coat flapped and crazy crayon-red hair stuck up at odd angles. Around his neck hung a twisted silver medallion, and clinging to his back, like a baby koala, was a pale blond human. The boy dropped to the ground and clambered away as the redhead whipped a sword from his coat and fell into a fighting stance.
"You know why I'm here."
The face. The voice. The hair. It was-
"Verchiel?"
***
Samael readied to strike again. Verchiel hunkered down, his violet eyes calculating. Katelina could imagine what would happen next. She'd seen Samael explode his enemies' heads before.
With Samael's attention elsewhere, she found a thread of free will and flung herself between them. "Don't!"
"He is your friend?" Samael asked. With an elegant shrug, he dropped his hand. "If he is not a threat, he may live. I have no desire to kill needlessly. He is free to come or go as he pleases."
Verchiel lowered his sword. "That's not what I expected."
"Did you think to find me a blood-thirsty monster? I am sorry you have been disappointed." Samael motioned to Katelina. "Come."
She managed a quick glance to Verchiel before she fell into step behind the ancient master.
"They have come to rescue you," Samael said.
Verchiel was suddenly beside her, stashing his sword in his coat. His eyes held guarded caution as he looked from one to the other. "Are you all right, Kately? Everything- as it should be?"
"She is still human," Samael answered. "Though tonight will end the purification ritual. You may watch, if you wish, as may your human."
"Kai?" Verchiel rubbed his neck uncomfortably, and glanced back to the boy. "Right."
Zhilan and Lin waited in Katelina's chambers. Samael motioned, and Katelina understood. They would take her to be prepared.
She glanced back to Verchiel, and beyond him to Kai. Though her memories of both were sketchy, it seemed wrong to see the boy in his company. He belonged to someone else, didn't he?
Belonged. Like a cat or a prized Chihuahua. She had a sense that it should make her angry, but the emotion was impossible to find.
The women helped her bathe in another room, then brought her back and left her with Verchiel and Kai. The redhead moved quickly to her side. "What in the hell is going on? You're going to let him turn you?"
"I-I don't know." Katelina sat down on a stool and put a hand to her head. "Sometimes it seems logical, and other times I know it's wrong but I don't remember why."
"Um, what about Jorick?"
His name was like a talisman and she nodded vigorously. "Yes. When I'm alone, sometimes I can remember him and then-"
"And then Samael's presence overpowers everything?"
"It's hard to hold on to anything when he's around. He said that will stop after-" but she couldn't finish the sentence. "Everything is so confusing." She looked to Kai again. Still human, he appeared about sixteen or seventeen. Shaggy blond hair fell in his face and obscured his eyes. There was something wrong about seeing him there, and she tried to remember what it was. "Are you all right, Kai?"
The boy nodded and tugged at his wrinkled, dirty clothes.
"He needs a bath and some food," Verchiel said. "We've been traveling nearly non-stop for three days."
The boy might be slender, but he had to be heavy. "You carried him for three days?"
"No. He drove in the daytime. I had to stay in the trunk, of course. I'll give Sorino credit for training him, he doesn't complain."
Sorino. Of course. That was it. Kai belonged to Sorino, and usually the vampire kept him on a literal chain.
"Sorino let Kai go with you?"
"Not exactly. We hightailed it out of there before he noticed."
"And he hasn't caught you yet?"
"No, but he will. And I'll bet Jorick's with him, and whatever army he could raise on short notice. Things are likely to get complicated when he gets here."
