Chapter 62
Katelina woke with the taste of a bad dream in her mouth. She shivered in the slowly deepening darkness and looked around the motel room. All of the furniture, save the bed, was stacked in front of the window to block out the sun. But the pile was too small and the last light of a November day splashed around it and onto the bed.
Katelina glanced over to the figure stretched out on the floor, safely out of the way of the sunlight. His long dark hair was fanned out against the ugly carpet and his usually warm eyes were closed in sleep. His lashes rested on his pale, flawless cheeks. He was beautiful; too beautiful, really. She guessed that should've been her first clue to his true identity. When she'd met him, she'd stupidly thought he was human, like she was, but she'd been wrong. Jorick was one of them.
A vampire.
It had been almost two weeks since Katelina's world had been turned upside down by a single phone call. In the days since, she'd learned a lot. Not only were vampires real, but her friend Patrick had been involved with them. In fact his brother, who'd murdered him, had been a vampire.
They were lessons that came at a heavy price. Her best friend Sarah had been killed, and Katelina had barely escaped death herself. Now, she and Jorick were staying in a cheap motel and waiting for the sun to go down so they could travel to his home. Not that she was sure where that was, beyond the description "near the beach". As long as it was quiet, she didn't care.
She slipped from the bed and stole quietly to the bathroom where she shed her clothes and climbed into the shower. As she washed herself, her mind replayed scenes behind her eyelids. Arowenia; the dead child bride. Claudius's den; the torture she'd endured, her rescue, and then the final battle at the dilapidated house where Claudius had been beheaded and Kateesha, an evil vampiress, had claimed his coven.
It had been Claudius who'd hunted Katelina. Claudius who'd killed Sarah and ransacked her house. Claudius who'd ruined everything. Now that he was dead she should have been safe. Instead, she had to fear Kateesha and her jealous lust for Jorick, despite his assurances that they would be all right.
She dried off and examined herself in the mirror. As she thought about Jorick, her eyes went straight to the spot above her collar bone that bore his "mark"; a set of fang marks with a lopsided cross scratched beneath it. When it healed it would leave a scar, but she supposed that was the point: a vampire mark to claim her as his property, or his human slave as Kateesha called it. It was funny, in an ironic way, that the claiming was one of the things that made Kateesha so angry, and yet he'd only done it to make Katelina "legal" and save her from a vampire execution squad.
Katelina dismissed the bad memories and swept her gaze over what was left of her injuries from Claudius and his men. Her black eye was faded and the lump on her head was almost gone. The other bruises were colored in greens and yellows, like a finger-painting gone bad. The worst was her shoulder. The skin was pink and puckered around the stitches and itched - a sign it was healing, or so her mother always said. If only the uneasiness would heal, as well.
Katelina brushed out her long, blonde hair and put on her clothes. The red dress, borrowed from another vampiress, clung to her. She tugged uselessly at it as she walked back into the bedroom. There, she found the sunlight gone and Jorick awake. He'd partially disassembled the stack of furniture and now sat in a wicker chair, wearing nothing but a pair of faded blue jeans.
"Good morning." He gave her a warm smile that flashed his shining fangs. "Did you sleep well?"
She answered with a halfhearted shrug and noticed that he had the gauze and ointment laid out on the small table. "You're playing doctor again?"
"At every opportunity," he murmured meaningfully. He smirked as she blushed, and indicated the empty chair opposite him. "Sit down and we'll get started."
With her cheeks still pink, she did as he asked. Gently, he treated and bandaged her hurts. His lingering fingers did little to calm her pounding heart, but something in the way he watched her made her cautious. He peered at her from underneath his eyelids expectantly, but she didn't know what he was waiting for.
He finished in silence and leaned back in his chair. She cleared her throat noisily, just for the sound, and he finally relented. "I just wondered if you hadn't changed your mind about going home."
She shook her head no and held up her bandaged arms. "I can't go home like this. What would my mom say? I may be an adult, but can you imagine the hysterical fit she'd have, anyway?"
Jorick nodded and commented casually, "Yes, but someone's listed you as a missing person. Perhaps-" he broke off and gestured with his hand to dismiss the conversation. "If you're sure, then it's fine with me." He flashed a tight smile. "How long do you plan to stay away from home?"
"Until I'm healed up, I expect." She frowned as she tried to figure up the date. "It's almost Halloween now, isn't it?"
Jorick shrugged his shoulders. "The last time I noticed the date was August."
"August?" she demanded incredulously, then rolled her eyes. "Never mind. There should be something." She stared uselessly around the motel room, then noticed the room receipt crumpled on floor. She scooped it up, and smoothed the yellow paper. "It's-" a pause. "November first?"
She added dates up in her head, but came to no conclusion before a knock sounded on the door, followed by the call, "It's Oren."
Jorick shrugged his shoulders and stood. "November sounds right." He moved to the door and flipped the row of locks. "Come in."
Jorick's fledgling, a tall vampire with tawny hair and amber eyes, strolled into the room. It wasn't just his coloring, but his mannerisms that made Katelina think of a lion. Though his long hair was tamed back in a ponytail and he wore a button down shirt tucked into jeans, there always seemed to be something just barely contained about the man. She wasn't sure she liked that.
Oren strolled to the middle of the room and glanced from Katelina to Jorick, his face serious. "I think we soon come to a parting." He held Jorick's gaze. "Unless you wish to join my sister and me?"
Jorick shook his head. "No, Oren." His eyes flicked to Katelina and then back. "My fight was with Claudius, and it's over now. I have no reason to war against The Guild."
Oren's jaw tightened at the mention of the vampire government. "Yes, I know. It wasn't your wife and children that they burned." He quickly composed himself. "I apologize. The fault isn't yours, and I don't seek to change your mind. I cannot deny, however, that you'd be an asset. A former Executioner; one whose blood is older than any who currently hold that title."
Jorick held up a hand to stop him. "Perhaps. But this isn't my fight - at least, not yet." He motioned to Katelina. "She's injured and needs time to heal both her body and mind and digest all that's happened. I'm sorry, but that must be my priority, right now." He added, wryly, "After all, I'm the one who brought her into this, as you've so eloquently reminded me many times."
Oren didn't look defeated or disappointed, only unhappily satisfied. "I feared you'd say that." He met Jorick's gaze, his spine straight. "I will not try to dissuade you from the path you've chosen. You've rarely done so to me, and I'll return the favor." He turned and started towards the door, but stopped just before it. "If ever you wish to join us, there will be a place of honor for you." The invitation hung in that air like a tangible object that Katelina wanted to reach up and brush away.
"I know, Oren," Jorick replied, looking past the offer with another tight smile.
Oren nodded crisply. "I'll take you as far as your den, but then I have other things I need to see to."
"I appreciate it." Jorick moved next to Katelina and placed a hand on her shoulder. "And I wish you luck."
Oren nodded to himself. "We will need more than luck." Then he added, "We can feed your human on the way."
