Chapter 661
"Jorick?"
Something stirred behind a huge palm. Verchiel stepped out. His face was neutral, but his eyes were hard. "He's in Brandle's room with Oren. They're having a meeting."
Shit. She'd followed the wrong vampire.
"Oh. Thanks."
He leaned on the back of a chair and looked over the pool. "You're welcome." When she didn't move he added, "You'd better run along before he decides to blame that on me as well."
"I wish the two of you would stop it."
"Two?" He glanced at her, then back to the water.
"Oh come off it. You're not that innocent. You're always antagonizing him. I don't know why. Sometimes I think you're hoping he'll kill you."
It was a joke, but neither of them laughed. Finally, Verchiel said, "I can't hate him. I want to, but I can't. Blame it on Kateesha. I think some of her affection for him rubbed off."
Katelina wasn't sure what to say. "Why do you want to hate him? Because he's always giving you a hard time? You do some of that yourself."
"No. I've wanted to hate him for most of my lifeor the life I can remember. Ever since Kateesha started on about him. He was her god, her hero, her strong, beautiful, perfect angel. She'd have sold me a thousand times over for him. She did, in the end. Not so much sold me, as abandoned me."
Ah, yes. Like Oren mentioned to Etsuko, "-she turned Verchiel, but was only with him for a few years before she left to join Jorick and their master...You can see how Verchiel would hold a grudge."
The redhead went on. "The best part is, he wasn't the one to summon her. Malick commanded her to join them in the New World. She could have ignored itwould have, except he mentioned Jorick. She saw his name and lit up. I knew that was it. Stupidly, I thought she'd take me, that I could at least be a third wheel. Instead, I got handed an insincere apology and the chance to watch her walk away." He cleared his throat. "I know you hate her. I know you killed her. But-"
Katelina caught her breath. But what? She was the one who'd killed his master. How did he feel about it?
He looked at her sharply. She wasn't sure if he'd heard her thoughts or guessed them. "I don't blame you. Not really." He leaned his chin on the back of the chair. "It's like everything in life, it depends which lens you looked through. In your view she was a jealous woman who tried to take what was yours at any cost, even your life. In her view, you were a pesky human in the way of what belonged to her. If I'd come with her, I might have seen things her way. But I didn't, and I don't. From where I stand, no one was right.
"But it doesn't change things. You asked me about my connection to Kateesha before. If you want to know, yes, I loved her. She was my entire universe. My mother, my lover, my teacher, the only thing I knew, the only thing I had. Then she left and I had nothing. Just a weak, sporadic talent to mind read, and the ability to move faster than everyone else. Without memories of what came before, I didn't understand any world except hers. When she left, that world disappeared with her. I tried to replace her, but-" He gave a mirthless chuckle. "Two girls in-was it Romania maybe? I don't remember. I couldn't speak the language but it was all right, because I knew French and so did one of them. You can't guess what happened."
He fixed Katelina with a probing stare until she gave an uncomfortable shrug. "No idea."
"It was great. After three months I found out that their nightly visitors were clients who paid to 'look at the demon'the demon being me. Apparently I could grant wishes just by looking at them. The girls made a tidy profit, not that I saw any of it. That's when I learned what the world was. I spent decades studying vampires and humans alike, trying to learn how to fit in, what to say, what to do, how to be, how to avoid it ever happening again." He straightened. "In case you can't guess how the little tale ends, I still haven't figured it out. Not that it matters. I gave up a long time ago."
Katelina rubbed her arms uncomfortably. She'd seen him serious a handful of times, but this- What in the hell was she supposed to say?
He gave a wry smile. "This is where you're trying to decide how to escape." She readied to deny it, but he pointed to the side of his head. "Don't try to fool a mind reader, or someone who's spent so much time watching people they might as well be."
"You're saying you can't-"
"Oh, I can, but I've told you before it comes and goes. Mind reading isn't the only way to know someone's thoughts. You can read them in the way they stand, where they point their feet, where their eyes stray to. The way they keep looking to the door." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "It's all right. You don't need to stay and hear some kind of confession. You're not a saving angel, and I've said all I'm going to."
"I don't"
He smiled. "Of course you do. You were looking for Jorick, not me. You want to know if The Guild ordered Jamie to use you as a lure, and whether I knew about it. Yes, I did, but it wasn't an order. Eileifr only suggested it as a possibility, to keep the casualties low, and the damage to a minimum. If Lilith would attack where you were"
"Then I could go somewhere less populated, or better yet, unpopulated," she finished for him.
"Exactly. Which, if it would work, I imagine you'd be all for. Unfortunately, as I already told Jorick, I don't think it will. That's why I didn't bring it up."
"That's well and good, but you said you didn't have an assignment."
He shrugged. "If I'd said, 'Eileifr wants me to hang out with you guys and call when Lilith shows up,' what would you have said? I'm not here because I was told to be; I'd have been here whether he gave me the order or not."
"When did he give that order?"
"Before I went to Texas."
She frowned. "But we picked you up there."
"I know. I ignored him, and followed Ark and Jamie. Their irritation was genuine. I knew if I didn't go first, there was no way you'd ever get to see the damage. Ark said he wasn't going to let Jorick within a hundred miles of that crime scene. If he had his way, Jorick would disappear in a puff of smoke and never come creeping back to endanger his authority."
"Jorick doesn't want his job."
"Of course he does. Part of him always will. He loves being in command, in control, right in the thick of things. He says he wants peace and quiet, but he had it. Look what he did. He joined Oren's wara war that he had no stake inand practically ran it until the end. He even snuck in the back and finished it for him. Or rather you did."
She cringed. He meant Kateesha- "I"
He held up a hand. "My point is, Jorick may settle down for a while, but he'll never be domestic, never be satisfied wallpapering, putting up tiles, and puttering around the garden. He'll be back in it again. If you're with him, you'll have to follow."
"What do you mean 'if'? Where else would I be?"
"I dunno. Tahiti? Taiwan? Off with Micah?" Her eyes bulged and he grinned. "Okay, how about Samael? Or maybe you'll take after your mom and try for a young one?"
"You're going to get hurt if you keep it up."
"My point is, Jorick may say he wants left alone, but he doesn't. He probably won't rejoin the Executioners, not for a few hundred years, at least, but he'll join something. Do something. You should know what you're getting into before you commit for life."
The words popped out before she could stop them, "He already asked me to marry him and I said yes."
She felt Verchiel's surprise, but it faded quickly. "Did he? In that case, congratulations. Where's the ring?"
"There isn't one. I think it was spontaneous." Her cheeks flushed as she thought of the exact moment.
"Make sure you get one. If you let him out of that, who knows what else he'll skip." Verchiel made a show of stretching and yawning. "It's getting late. I think I'll hit the hay. You better get back to Jorick before he panics."
Katelina bit her lip. "I don't think he's really jealous. I mean-I think he just enjoys blustering."
Verchiel leaned close enough to whisper, "Of course he's jealous, but who wouldn't be." Before Katelina could reply, he was gone, the door swinging slowly closed behind him.
"Idiot."
