Chapter 572
Verchiel hooked his thumbs through his belt loops and mock pouted. "What am I doing here? That's the best greeting you can come up with? They sent me to investigate."
"But they already sent Ark." She thought of his car wreck. Was it worse than the others let on? "Is he dead?"
Verchiel chortled. "Ark is fine. He was in New York last I checked. I'm the one they sent."
"Oh. You were in the car wreck?"
"Yep. The car and the moose didn't make it, but I did. Ta-da!" He held out his arms to show he was in one piece. She remembered the bloody, bandaged vampire Porter led through the door, his head wrapped to "hold it together".
Verchiel shrugged. "Yeah, it was pretty bad, but I'm all healed now. The question is, what's eating you?"
"Nothing. If you're here to investigate, shouldn't you be in the study with Jorick?"
"We're taking a break. I can only interview so many of them before I get bored." He leaned close and whispered, "They all seem suspicious to me."
She couldn't argue with that assessment.
When no further words came, she thought of the last time she'd seen Verchiel. He'd stormed out of the room and refused to talk to Xandria.
She cleared her throat. "Look, about The Guild and the fight we had-"
Verchiel waved it away. "I don't remember having a fight with you. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I was in a bad mood over the debacle with Joseff, and Jorick was, well, Jorick. It's done, so no point in dwelling on it."
Before she could push it, Jorick appeared, his face dark with annoyance. "There you are."
"Hello!" Verchiel waved. "Look who I found."
"Isn't it interesting how you always manage to find her?" Jorick turned to Katelina. "I thought you were moving furniture?"
"We're done. Sarah is playing bridge with Kali, but I didn't want to."
Jorick's eyebrows shot up. "Kali? That's an odd choice."
"Who is she?" Verchiel asked.
"A really old vampiress," Katelina answered. "I think Brandle said she's Egyptian."
Jorick rubbed his chin. "I haven't given her much thought, but I admit she's the only old one I don't recognize."
"How old is she? Is she hot?"
Katelina answered impatiently, "She's-" but past a lot of dark hair and some jewelry she couldn't remember what the vampiress looked like. The twins always overpowered her perception.
"Exotic is a nice way to put it," Jorick said. "Plump would be another."
Plump? Were they talking about the same woman? "I thought she was thin with lots of black hair."
Verchiel rubbed his hands together. "Is she a cupid? They sometimes look a bit different to people."
"No," Jorick said testily. "She's a-" he broke off. "I don't know what she is. Not a phantom or a wind walker, but past that I'm not sure."
"Then let's look her up." Verchiel started for the library.
Jorick muttered something, but he and Katelina followed.
The library was set up like it had been when she'd helped with the questioning. Verchiel bent over Jamie's laptop and clicked several keys.
"Hmmmm. I'm not seeing anything. Am I spelling it wrong?"
Jorick gave a huff of impatience and shoved his way in. "With a K." His fingers hovered over the keys, then he retreated with an aggravated noise. "Go on."
Verchiel moved back and clicked the mouse. "Nope. Maybe-"
After several tries he still couldn't find anything on her.
"I thought you and Jamie checked everyone in?"
"We did," Jorick replied irritably.
"Then there has to be something."
Katelina perched on the edge of the table. "Try looking up Tol and Ren. Maybe she's listed in their file."
"Okay- Tol- there's a few-" he murmured as he skimmed pages. "Okay, I think I have him. Tol, fledgling of Bachius. Twin brother Ren shares a master-do they have white hair?" Katelina nodded and he went back to it. "Turned in 1621-approximately 19 at the time-blood debt long paid-There's an address for them in Burma, but who knows if that's recent. No coven listed, and under known associates there's no Kali."
"Maybe she changed her name, like Brandle?"
Verchiel pulled a chair up and scribbled the names of their known female associates on a piece of paper. "All right. Let me look these ladies up and we'll see if we can find her."
Katelina played with a discarded ink pen. "Is it really worth all of this?"
"She has to be investigated like everyone else."
Jorick sat in the other chair and crossed his legs. "She obviously has a file or Jamie would have noticed it."
"Unless she's a whisperer." Verchiel crossed the first name off the list. "Too young."
He worked his way through all the names and finally announced, "I don't think any of these are her. Half are dead, and the others are too young or too blonde."
"Maybe she dyes her hair?" Katelina suggested.
"Every night?" Verchiel shook his head. "It won't stay. The hair soaks it up, but when you wake the next evening it's all bled into your pillowcase. Trust me. I've tried it."
She hadn't thought about the complications of bright red hair in centuries past. "Why won't it stay?"
"I don't know. I guess it works the same as healing does. The cells repair themselves, and the dye is considered something foreign. But I'm not a scientist."
"I can't believe you don't know how your own body works."
"Do you? Even before you were turned? Tell me how your stomach digested food."
She threw up her hands. "Fine. Back to Kali."
Jorick tapped the arm of the chair thoughtfully. "Find Jamie and ask him."
Verchiel made a mock salute, then disappeared out the door.
They sat in silence and finally she asked, "Why didn't you tell me they'd sent him?"
"Does it matter?"
She shrugged. "It's better than Ark."
"Ark isn't that bad. He's just focused."
"That's one way of putting it."
Jorick sighed. "Like Eileifr, he's under a lot of pressure, only it's partially my fault. I left in a swirl of fury and he had to fill my shoes. Ark is many things, but terrifying has never been one of them. Unfortunately that's what the head of the Executioners needs to be."
"You aren't that terrifying," she teased. At his stony expression, several memories came to mind, the most vivid his fight with Malick.
"You were saying?" he asked softly.
She moved to take his hand. "I'm not scared of you."
He cupped her face and she moved to kiss him when she had a flash: the basement. Kurt's cold breath on her skin, his hand on her cheek.
She pulled away and Jorick frowned. There was the tell-tale spark in her mind and his frown deepened. "Katelina, I think you need to stop practicing on her."
"No, it's okay. I don't know why this one's bothering me."
Jorick pulled her down into his lap and wrapped his arms around her. "Probably because the experiences are too close to your own."
"But they aren't. Troy didn't lock me in a cage-" But he had. He'd ripped off her clothes, checked her over for a tracking device, then jammed her in a cage naked, cold, and bruised.
Jorick tightened his arms around her, as if he was afraid they might still take her away. "I'm sorry. I should have stopped that. I should have"
She swallowed away the memories. "You came. That's what matters."
