Chapter 449
As Katelina's emotions settled, her rumbling stomach and dry throat reminded her she was starving. Reluctantly, she pulled away from Jorick's embrace. "I need to eat."
He nodded. "They left part of their blood stash behind."
He found her a baggy pair of men's jeans and a t-shirt to change into, then led her down the hallway. The sound of running water was audible, and she asked, "What's that?"
"The fountain."
Though the sound grew steadily louder, it was some time before they reached the source. The noise was deafening, and she drew back to the doorway, her hands to her ears.
The vivid green of the plants along the far wall caught her attention. She could see each individual leaf crisp and clear; see the ladybug that trooped along the edge of a colorful pot, and the tiny, sparkling water drops that hung suspended from the tips of the leaves, as though someone had watered them.
Distracted, the noise of the fountain seemed to disappear and she moved to it. The water looked sharper, like still frame photos, even as it moved.
"You were hungry?" Jorick reminded her.
"Yes." She dipped her hand in the basin, surprised to find water that should be cold was room temperature. Diamond drops clung to her fingertips like tiny rainbow prisms. "Sorry. It's just-everything looks different. Clearer. Brighter. Like switching from standard to high def."
"I imagine there will be a lot of differences." He met her eyes, as if trying to communicate something. "Can you hear my thoughts?"
"No. Should I? I didn't think Micah was a mind reader."
"He's not. But you had Samael's blood first. Sometimes vampirism will enhance latent abilities."
"What about your blood? If I inherited that wouldn't it come from all the times that we-that I?" She couldn't say "drank from you".
He shifted uncomfortably. "Perhaps. We were linked at one time. Normally it takes years of blood, or else very old, strong blood to give a human abilities, and Samael is older and stronger than me. Much stronger. It would more likely come from him."
"You're saying that the other vampires might have given me 'powers', like Kateesha, or Boris?" Or Verchiel?
"No. I assume drinking from Kateesha's heart is why you're fond of her idiotic fledgling, and Boris was half starved and had just drunk from you. His blood was weak. I doubt it made much difference, except to give you an unnatural desire to defend him. Vampire blood will physiologically change a mortal over time. In smaller doses it takes a lot. However, the emotional bond can be achieved with very little. That's why a human slave drinks from their master during the claiming; to create the blood bond."
Verchiel had said something to her before about blood from different vampires creating confused loyalties in humans. Now that she was one of them, wouldn't that go away?
"No. It was created before," Jorick said quietly. "If you drink from a vampire now, it will have no effect. Just as a drinking from a human won't create a bond for you. Come, the lesson is over. It's time to feed."
Feed. The word that she had objected to now applied to her.
They stopped in a room that had several small tables and chairs, like a lunchroom, and a large commercial refrigerator. Oren stood just inside the door, leaning on a counter and drinking from a bag of blood. When he finished, Etsuko, attired in a dark green and gray kimono, handed him another. The Japanese woman had been a vampire less than two weeks, but she wore it as though she'd never been anything else. Katelina remembered the last minute turning on an airplane as Etsuko choked on black vomit and convulsed with fever.
As if Katelina's thoughts caught her attention, Etsuko met her eyes and bobbed her head. "Good evening, Katelina-san."
"Good evening." Katelina's smile was more curious than friendly. Oren could read minds. Since he'd turned Etsuko, could she?
When the vampiress returned the smile, Katelina felt the familiar surprise at her tiny white fangs. She still wasn't used to seeing them on Etsuko. She wondered if she looked as strange.
Jorick grabbed several bags of blood from the refrigerator. He ripped one open with his teeth and handed it to her. She wasn't sure she could drink the crimson liquid but, as she lifted it to her mouth, she caught the scent and forgot her timidity.
She gulped the contents down and greedily took the next that Jorick offered. She emptied the third, suddenly aware that Oren was staring at her.
"What?"
"Nothing." He finished his dinner and nodded to Etsuko. "You might help her clean up."
Katelina looked down at the bright red drops on her shirt.
Jorick offered her a halfhearted smile. "Feeding from a bag takes practice."
Oren didn't comment, but Katelina could guess his thoughts. "Everything takes practice for your human."
Except she wasn't his human now.
She followed Etsuko down the hall to a shower room with a mirror. While Etsuko wet a rag, Katelina let her eyes stray to the glass and gasped. Though she hadn't brushed her long blonde hair, it fell around her shoulders in salon perfect waves. Her face was strikingly pale and her blue eyes were brighter and more absorbing, shot through with shades of indigo and sapphire. But it wasn't her eyes she was staring at. It was the blood smeared around her mouth.
That was when it hit her. She was a vampire.
"Oh my God."
Etsuko hurriedly mopped her face, like a mother with a messy child. "Is Katelina-san all right?"
"No." She clutched the wall for support. "Etsuko, I'm, I'm-"
"You are unwell? The change can take many hours to complete."
"That's not what I mean. I'm-" but she still couldn't say it.
Etsuko seemed to understand. "It is a shock to first see oneself as an immortal. Katelina-san should not worry. She will grow used to it."
Etsuko dabbed at her shirt and Katelina flinched instinctively. "I can do that."
"Of course." The vampiress handed her the rag and stepped back. "It is perhaps not my place to say, but Katelina-san seems-unhappy to be a vampire?"
To be a vampire. The sentence sounded ridiculous, and yet why not? She'd learned to accept the reality of monsters, acclimated to the idea that they were the same as humans, so why was she shocked to be one? She knew it was coming one day and yet-
"It is an honor to be chosen," Etsuko said. "Few humans are given immortality by their masters."
"But it wasn't Jorick, was it?" She closed her eyes to calm the swirling panic. She'd told Jorick they'd figure it out later, but what was there to figure out? She'd been turned by Micah. Micah! The loudmouthed, opinionated ass. And he owned her now.
She groaned and leaned against the wall. "It's all gone wrong. It was supposed to be Jorick, not Micah. And not now. There were still things I wanted to do!"
Etsuko gave her a sympathetic look. "I am sorry. Katelina-san had hoped to be a mother?"
"What? No, not really. I-I hadn't thought about it."
"I apologize. I could not think of anything else that Katelina-san might wish to do that she could not do now."
"Anything in the sunlight." The answer was simplistic, but it was the best she had. "I don't know. I just wanted to be ready."
"Katelina-san was ready, or it would not have come to pass. Things happen when their time is right, not before."
The words sounded wise, but Katelina wasn't finished with her pity party. And that was what it was. Pity me because-because why? Because she had an amazing, gorgeous boyfriend who loved her and now she had forever to spend with him? It sounded ridiculous, even to her.
It wasn't just Jorick she was lucky to have. According to Loren she'd be dead if Micah hadn't turned her. The bald vampire was a pig, but in the end he'd risked Jorick's wrath to save her. Not because he'd gain anything. Because it was the only alternative. And he'd come in the first place. They'd all come. They'd stormed Malick's oasis to rescue her. Micah and Loren and Verchiel
The hazy image of a grave popped into her head and she clutched the sink. No, not Verchiel. Not now. He'd died trying to save her, and he wasn't the only one. Kai had been left a shattered bleeding heap in the parking lot. Neil had been killed in the Raven Queen's Temple. How many other women could say people had literally died for them? She was standing there, whining to herself, when she was the luckiest woman in the world.
And she didn't deserve it.
"Then Katelina-san should do her best to be worthy."
She gave Etsuko a sharp look and the vampiress shrugged her apology. At least it answered the question of whether Etsuko could read minds.
Katelina turned back to her reflection and opened her mouth. Her canines had grown about a quarter of an inch. Though they weren't as pronounced as the lip-overhanging-Hollywood-Halloween fangs, they were noticeably prominent.
She traced them with her tongue, then closed her mouth and tried talking without showing them, the way Jorick did in front of humans. Her words came out an indecipherable mumble that left Etsuko asking, "What did Katelina-san say?"
"Nothing." She turned away from the mirror. "I guess I'm done."
