Chapter 65
Jorick woke Katelina the next evening. He checked her wounds and then got dressed in one of his usual ensembles: black jeans and a long sleeved black pullover. He kicked the blue jeans and shirt from the day before under the bed, as though he could pretend he'd never borrowed them from Oren, or even worn them. Then he quickly brushed a kiss across her cheek and promised to return.
After he left, she lay in bed until she summoned the courage to leave the warm covers. The room was as cold as she'd expected, so she quickly pulled on the hated red dress and dashed upstairs.
She stopped at the bathroom, then headed to the kitchen. Kitchens were supposed to be cheerful places, but this one wasn't. Except for a modern washer and dryer, surrounded by books, the room looked dusty and disused. The floor and countertops were covered with faded linoleum that said "1950," and the stove and refrigerator were hardly newer than that. Still, the refrigerator was cold inside, not that there was any food. The only contents were two old-fashioned milk bottles that were partially full of something distinctly crimson. She poked one, but couldn't bring herself to actually pick it up. Disgusted, she turned to the cupboards, but they held only a dusty box of plastic forks and an even dustier box of aluminum foil.
With no breakfast, she roamed aimlessly through the house. All of the rooms were stuffed with antique furniture and books. It gave the impression that there'd once been an organized house under it all but, thanks to ravenous reading habits and an apparent love of furniture, it had turned into some kind of weird movie set - including the mysterious white door.
Katelina stood in front of it, her hands on her hips, and waited for it to explain its existence. When it didn't, she turned the knob uselessly and tried pushing and pulling, but to no avail. It was solidly locked.
She wanted to kick it, then decided that was childish, so she wandered back to the front room. A bitter wind buffeted the house and leaked in through various cracks. The hearth sat in the far corner, empty and black, and she wished for more logs. Heck, she could do without heat if she just had a distraction of some kind. There were a lot of books stacked up but no TV, no DVDs, and no computer - unless Jorick had them hidden behind the locked door.
Katelina stood in the middle of the room, and scowled. "Something is going to have to change around here or -"
The thought was interrupted as the front door banged open noisily. A male in a baggy black hoodie dashed inside and then slammed the door loudly.
"Thank God you're here!" he cried, his back to Katelina as he snapped the deadbolt into place and peered through the door crack. "You have to get rid of them! I've been ducking them for a week now!" His whole body suddenly stiffened, as if he'd just realized who was standing there, and he spun around, his eyes wide. "Who the hell are you?"
Katelina could only stare at the intruder. He was tall, thin, and young; the roundness of his jaw line and baby smooth skin said he might be seventeen. He had a mop of short black hair that curled around his pale face and large doe eyes. A pair of bright red earbuds hung out of his hoodie pocket and made Katelina think of an iPod commercial - if they had vampire iPod commercials, that is, because a set of fangs was clearly visible in his gaping mouth.
"Who are you?" he demanded again, advancing on her. "What are you doing here?"
She stepped back instinctively, her hands up as if to ward him off. "Who am I? Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?"
He knocked her hands aside and grabbed her by the front of her dress, then peered closely into her face. "You're with them, aren't you? What did you do? Follow me here last night? Look, you can just fuckin' forget it! I already told her-"
Something banged into the door and the boy jumped and released her. Katelina took a moment to gather her thoughts, and then she grabbed the nearest book and flung it at him before she ran back towards the basement.
"Hey you!" he shrieked, and pounded after her. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Running for my life!" Katelina thought, but she was far too scared to say it. Here she was, trying to escape the clutches of some evil vampire, not forty-eight hours after she'd been promised peace!
As she neared the end of the hall she glanced back over her shoulder to see the intruder nearly on top of her. With a hurried prayer she tried to leap for the basement door, but he was faster than she was and caught her around the middle.
"Let me go!" she screamed as he hauled her backwards, her arms and legs flailing wildly. "Let me go!"
Something slammed into the front of the house and the boy dropped to the floor, taking her with him. She swung her fists over her shoulders and connected with his head, but it didn't seem to make any difference. "Let me go!"
"Shut up!" he hissed and clamped his hand over her mouth. "Or I'll make you sorry!"
She savagely sank her teeth into his palm. He let out a cry of pain and pulled his hand away long enough for her to shout, "When Jorick gets here he's going to make you sorry!"
The boy stiffened. "Jorick? You know-"
"Jorick," she finished, furiously. "Obviously, or I wouldn't be here! Now let me go or-"
He clamped his hand over her mouth again to muffle her. She struggled, but he hissed in her ear, "If you don't shut up we're both going to be sorry!"
She squirmed in his arms, randomly hitting him, but stopped when she heard a female shout from outside, "I know you're in there! You might as well open the door!"
"Like that's going to happen," he muttered under his breath. "Crazy bitch."
Seconds passed, but the boy didn't do anything further, only stayed crouched down in the hallway, an arm around Katelina's waist and a hand over her mouth. She tried to reason out what was going on and came to the conclusion that the kid probably wasn't a real threat to her, vampire or not. If he'd wanted to kill her he'd have done it by now.
"Let me go," Katelina demanded around his hand. "I mean it!"
Grudgingly, he lowered his hand and loosened the arm around her waist, though he didn't remove it. "Fine. Then be quiet!"
She glared at him, though he couldn't see. The female banged against the outside of the house in a rhythmic pattern, shouting, "Get out here, Loren! You can't get rid of me that easily! You promised! Loren!"
"Loren?" Katelina repeated, surprised when the boy answered her.
"What?"
"If you're Loren, then who's that out there?"
He shifted uncomfortably, but flinched when someone hammered on the front door. "God damn it, won't she just go away?"
The noise was repeated, the female shouted something unintelligible, and then everything went eerily silent. Katelina's heart pounded in her ears, almost louder than her ragged breathing. Her body tensed, afraid of whoever was outside and what they might do.
