Chapter 541
With a shrug, Jorick took her arm and led her to the smaller dining room. Several pitchers of blood were arranged on a sideboard with trays of crystal glasses and bowls of spices. Katelina skipped them, but a vampire behind her liberally sprinkled cinnamon in his glass before he poured his blood in.
"Vampires can't have food," Katelina commented as they moved to a spot near the wall. "But they don't get sick from spices?"
"If they ate the whole bowl they might, but that's such a small amount."
"You're sure about that?" She downed her glass in one go. Embarrassed, she moved the topic away. "I wonder where Sarah is. Maybe all of this imaginary stalker stuff is her way of going crazy?"
"If anyone's going to go crazy, it's me," Jorick teased. "And you're going to drive me there. A suitable vampire mate abandons her family and friends to ride into the moonlight with her lover. But will you do that? No. In more than five hundred years, no woman has dragged me to their mother's house for Easter dinner, until you. And now we have your best friend. I'm terrified your mother will be the next addition."
Katelina elbowed him in the ribs. "I'm not planning to make her a vampire."
He turned serious. "Not now. But when age takes its toll, as you watch her die, you might think differently."
"Did you?"
She felt a stab of melancholy she knew wasn't her own. "I didn't see the decay of my parents, or my brother, or even my in-laws. After Malick gave me the gift we left the Netherlands."
"In-laws?" Katelina echoed. "Brother?"
Jorick shrugged. "Yes. I had a brother who was younger, the baby of the family. Craen. I can't remember much about him, only that he irritated me. He married, though I know even less about his wife or their children."
He'd answered half of her questions. "You said in-laws."
He startled back to the present. "My wife's parents and her siblings. I don't remember their names, though I know I didn't like her sister."
Katelina blinked. "You left your wife for Malick?" Had his loyalty to the ancient monster been so great?
"No. She and our son died of sickness three years earlier." He squinted as if trying to see past too many years.
"You had a son?" Katelina exploded, loud enough that other vampires turned to look. "How in the hell have you never mentioned this?"
He drained his glass and set it on the nearby mantle. "Because it wasn't important. I can't even remember their names. It was a long, long time ago, before I was immortal."
"So what? Because it happened before you were a vampire it doesn't count? Like your life resets with immortality?"
"Yes. That's what it's supposed to be like, what it was always like before. After careful selection by a master, you prepared yourself, then became a vampire and immediately left everyone and everything for a new life."
"So you weren't joking when you made a crack about me hanging on to my mother?"
"I was joking. I only meant that was the way it used to be done. And I'm not going to argue about it. You're just mad I haven't mentioned Griete before."
She crossed her arms. "I thought you didn't remember her name?"
He shrugged. "I didn't, until it slipped out. Now can we be done with this, or would you rather be jealous of a woman who's been dead more than half a millennium?"
Katelina fell silent and followed Jorick out of the dining room, through the house, and finally outside. The wind whipped the naked trees, and she could smell the heavy scent of approaching rain.
"A storm's coming," Jorick commented.
"Maybe. Jamie predicted bad weather days ago and nothing happened."
"It just hasn't arrived yet."
They walked in silence, and finally she asked, "Do you love her? I mean, did you? I always thought Velnya was your first true love, but was it this Grettle?"
"Griete. I suppose I cared for her. Whether I'd use your description of true love, I don't know. I honestly don't remember. I mourned. I have a vague memory that my mother chided me for not remarrying, but perhaps it was only that I didn't wish to be married in the first place. As I've already said, it was a long, long time ago."
Katelina bit her lip and stuffed her hands in her pockets. "So in four hundred years you won't remember Velnya anymore?"
"Maybe. Though I knew her after immortality, and those memories stay sharper longer. Why? Are you hoping I'll forget?"
"No. Just-what if I die? Will you forget about me?"
Jorick stopped walking to take her hands in his. "No, Katelina. If something happened to you, I'd die with you."
He pulled her to him and tried to drown her worries in a kiss, but they hung in the back of her mind. Had he promised the same thing to the others?
Even if he did, what does it matter now?
At the strange thought she whirled around to see Sorino and Kai walking toward them. The vampire looked smoothly amused, but it was Kai who met her eyes and nodded, taking credit for the implanted idea. Though human, he'd ingested enough vampire blood to give him some of his master's abilities.
"Hello," Sorino purred. "Enjoying the evening? It appears a storm is on the way."
Jorick grimaced. "What do you want?"
Sorino cocked his head to one side, as if studying their reactions. "I've been invited into Andrei's study tomorrow after lunch, and wondered if your pet would like to play with mine?" He gave Kai's chain a playful tug.
Though the boy showed no reaction, Katelina growled. "I'm no one's pet, and neither is he."
"Always so concerned with human rights. Amusing, since you're no longer one yourself. Should I take that as a no?"
She'd have loved nothing more than to tell Sorino to shove it, but time alone with Kai was what the doctor ordered. The teen was the one who'd first helped her with mind reading. With an evening to practice, maybe she could figure out how to do it and finally be useful.
Jorick opened his mouth, but Katelina cut him off. "Yes, Kai can hang out with me."
"Excellent. After all, who better to trust him with than the party's security? Tomorrow then." He tipped his hat and tugged Kai toward the house.
Jorick waited until he'd disappeared to snap, "Starting tomorrow I'm on security duty from lunch until dinner. You know the assigned shifts. I don't want to drag him around."
"I couldn't say no and leave Kai at the mercy of God knows who. Besides, I thought we could find a quiet hole somewhere and watch movies on his laptop. He enjoys that."
"I don't like it, Katelina."
She pressed a kiss to his cheek. "There are a lot of things I don't like, but I have to live with them, just like you do."
