Chapter 540
It was several hours later when Katelina jerked awake. Her terrified eyes made a circuit of the room, seeking a threat and a weapon. Sunlight gilded the edges of the drapes. Deep shadows colored the corners in twilight gloom. Jorick sat next to her, body tense, lips drawn back from his fangs, his hand wrapped around the bedside lamp.
The door opened a crack. Jorick sniffed then released the lamp and flopped back. Sarah's head popped inside. "Kate! Come quick!"
The urgency in her voice left Katelina scrambling from bed. She was barely in the corridor before Sarah dragged her down the dim hall.
"They went this way. I heard their footsteps."
"Who?" As the words left her lips, she realized it was the stalker that supposedly stood outside Sarah's room every day.
When the hall ended at a T-junction, Sarah hesitated and looked both ways. Katelina tried to sniff out their quarry, but she didn't know what to smell for.
With an aggravated grunt, Sarah pulled her to the right. They rushed to make up for lost time, and rounded a corner on a full row of blazing, uncovered windows.
Katelina gasped as the light hit her. Sarah gave a cry and lurched forward, seeking the shade of an ornate table, pulling Katelina with her. She stumbled and fell onto it, sending them into a tangled heap of limbs and broken wood, directly in a swath of glowing gold. Katelina lifted her arm to shield her head. The heat burned her skin and sapped her reason.
Sarah released her with a wail and tried to protect her face. Thoughtless panic crashed over Katelina, and she struggled to surface from it.
The sun. The sun. Burns.
The golden sunlight seared Katelina's body and mind. Her oversensitive eyes refused to focus, and her skin felt flushed and tight. Sunlight. Sunlight was bad for vampires. It hurt them. It burned them. It killed them.
Only if they let it.
She struggled against the primeval fear and mentally slapped herself. If she didn't pull it together they'd both be casualties of daylight. She had no intention of going out that way.
She squeezed her eyes shut against the burning rays and jerked Sarah to her feet. Her friend struggled and wailed as new parts of her body were exposed, but Katelina was stronger. She forced her around the corner, back to the safety of the shadows. When she released her, Sarah collapsed against the wall gasping. The terror faded from her eyes. Shiny yellow blisters stood out vividly against her pink, burned skin.
Katelina glanced to her own naked arms. Though unblistered, she was colored a light pink, like she'd been in the pool too long without sunscreen.
"Oh my God," Sarah moaned.
Katelina carefully helped her to her feet. "It will heal."
"I know. I've been in the sun before." Sarah limped forward, using Katelina and the wall for support. "But how did my stalker survive the light?"
Katelina chose her words carefully. "Maybe they're really old. The older the vampire, the more sun they can stand. Samael can be in it for hours. Or maybe we made a wrong turn."
"It was this or the storage areas," Sarah muttered. "I doubt they'd go there."
Though Katelina didn't comment, she wasn't sure the stalker even existed.
Once Sarah was back in her room, Katelina slipped into bed. Jorick opened his eyes and she felt the spark as he perused her most recent thoughts.
"Let me see," he barked and threw back the covers to catch up her arms. "You've been burned."
"It's not bad. Sarah's"
"The only reason it isn't bad is because of the blood Samael gave you. It's noon, Katelina, and you're barely more than a month old. You could be dead." His eyes blazed and his voice grew louder. "Enough is enough. I know you want to help her, but these paranoid delusions are getting dangerous."
"Would you be quiet," Katelina whispered fiercely. "Sarah will hear you."
"I want her to. This is exactly the sort of thing I meant when I told you to be careful with her! If she chooses to chase her imagination through sunlight, she can do it alone."
"Don't, Jorick," Katelina warned. "You aren't my father."
"Obviously. If I was you'd be better behaved. Now go to sleep and let this be an end to her nonsense."
Katelina was too tired to argue, but she prayed it didn't come to a choice between them.
***
Katelina was restored the next morning. Sarah's lingering burns earned a few curious looks, but no questions were asked or answers given. Jamie didn't comment, and Katelina suspected he got the story from Jorick's silent messages.
After three servings of breakfast, Sarah was fully healed. Though she didn't mention Jorick's tirade, her tense shoulders said she'd heard.
When breakfast was over, they were thrust into the chaos of the entryway. Planes with human pilots had arrived during the day, and their immortal occupants all wanted inside at once. Fleur got a call from the airstrip in St. Anthony. She and Bishop escaped to bring back what they hoped was the last of the guests.
Katelina stayed as close to Jorick as she could. Flashing eyes moved over her. More than once she felt the invasion of someone in her thoughts, though she was never sure who. Among the day's arrivals were a pair she thought she recognized from Munich's H?her Rat, or High Council. She was trying to decide for sure, when Fleur returned from her second trip of the evening. Behind her came a blonde vampiress pushing a wheelchair. Strapped in it was a bundle of coat and hat, with a pair of eyes.
Katelina grabbed Jorick's arm. "Anya."
He nodded. "Surprisingly they were on the guest list this year."
"Why? I thought you said it was for ancient, important vampires."
"Perhaps they plan to use Thomas as entertainment, like a freak show."
"That's cruel."
Jorick scoffed. "No less than he deserves. I'm curious how Anya communicates with him, since he can't talk and she's not a mind reader."
Jamie leaned over. "If his miserable irritation is anything to go by, I don't think she does."
Anya pushed past the guards to stop in front of Jorick. She sneered and gripped the chair until her knuckles turned white. "You've turned up again, like a bad penny."
"It's you who've turned up," Jorick said. "We were already here."
"Whatever. You know who we are, so let us pass."
Katelina's attention strayed to Thomas. She felt the jolt of his anger. Though she didn't hear thoughts or words, she knew he didn't want to be there, didn't want to be anywhere. There was no life for him like this. Better he had died.
Jorick's touch pulled her back to the room. Anya pushed past with a snarl, only to stop at the bottom of the grand stairs. When she stomped her foot, Cornelius rushed to help her. Anya went ahead to wait impatiently on the landing while the guard bumped the chair up the stairs. With each jolt, Thomas bounced, held in place by a race car-style harness.
"I feel sorry for him," Katelina muttered.
Jorick scoffed. "I wouldn't. Have you forgotten he betrayed us? Had things worked the way he and Kateesha planned, we'd be dead."
"Kateesha never would have killed you," Jamie said.
The dead vampiress' obsession with Jorick wasn't something Katelina wanted to talk about. "Isn't it almost dinner time?"
