Chapter 74
Katelina ate some horrible pizza that she didn't want, then sat in front of the fire to paint her nails. Jorick and Loren hovered on the couch in silence, and then finally Jorick muttered something about "looking for Beldren and Zuri" before he disappeared out the door, leaving Loren to "keep an eye on things".
The door closed with a finalizing click, and Loren moved to the chair closest to the fireplace. He stretched his long legs out in front of him and tapped his fingers to some silent beat, while he studied Katelina as though she was a book he could open and read.
"What?"
He cocked a solitary eyebrow. "You should be more careful."
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Careful about what?"
"When you move things," he replied casually. "The dining room is full of your scent now, and I bet it's strongest in the bottom desk drawer."
Panic fluttered in her chest, but she looked away quickly to compose herself. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Suuuuuuuuuuure." He gave her a conspiratorial wink. "You can just admit it."
"How would you know what I've been doing?" she demanded, and then added hastily, "Not that I've been doing anything."
He puffed out his chest. "I'm just that good." He waited a moment and relented, "I don't really care what you've been up to. But if you don't want old grumpy boots to know, then you'd better try harder than that. Not that it does a lot of good, anyway. Since he can just read you."
She looked back at him quickly, her fears on her face. "What do you mean, 'read me'?"
Loren raised his eyebrows to ask how stupid she was. "He can read your mind if he wants to."
She suddenly thought of Jorick's many "stray" comments; comments made as though he was speaking along to her thoughts. She'd suspected all along, but to have it finally confirmed, almost took her breath away.
"You okay?" Loren asked with a small amount of concern.
"No," she stated flatly. "Why would I be? You just told me that he can read my mind! How the hell am I supposed to take that 'okay'?"
"I thought you knew. I mean, he can do that whole mind thing, you know? They kind of go together. How can he tell people what to think if he can't hear what they're thinking to start with? It's just logic."
"But he told those girls out loud! He doesn't need their thoughts for that!"
Loren rolled his eyes. "He doesn't have to do it out loud. He usually does it silently. I guess it was easier that way since there were two of them."
"Yeah, easier," she muttered. "God. He can read my fucking mind whenever he wants to?"
"Yeah." Loren shrugged. "But he doesn't most of the time."
"How do you know?"
"Coz if he did then he'd know what was wrong with you, huh? It's just-"
She finished the sentence for him, "Logic."
Loren rolled his eyes. "Exactly. It's been a long time since he was human, he's forgotten a lot of things."
"How long has it been?"
"What?" Loren didn't bother trying to hide his surprise. "You mean since he's been human? He hasn't told you?"
"Obviously not, Mr. Logic, or I wouldn't ask you."
"Huh. Weird." He suddenly realized she was glaring dangerously. "Maybe he doesn't want you to know coz he thinks it'll upset you or something?" He scratched his face absently. "Jorick has a lot of secrets and he likes to keep them that way. I bet I don't know a fraction of them."
"I don't know any of them. I'm here with a man - sorry, no, with a vampire - and I know nothing about him. I don't even know his last name, for Christ's sake!"
"Like that matters."
"It matters to me! And where's he from?" She wanted to shake Loren and demand answers, but she knew it wouldn't accomplish anything. He obviously wasn't going to talk. The one she needed to shake was Jorick, but she cringed at the thought. Wouldn't that make her just another whiny clingy woman?
"I don't know where he came from, like, originally," Loren said with a shrug. "Does it matter?"
"Yes! It all matters."
"Not really." He shook his head, so that his curly hair dropped into his eyes. "All that matters is that he's here and you're here." He looked at her seriously. "The rest isn't important."
"Maybe not to you, but it matters to me."
"Then you should think about your priorities."
"Thank you very much, Dr. Phil, but the last thing I need is advice from you."
A grin spread across his face. "Actually, it seems to me you could use it. Ah, take a chill pill, huh? You gotta learn to lighten up a little."
"Why don't you lighten up?" She snapped. It was a stupid reply, but she had nothing else.
With the threat of roaming Executioners outside, there was nowhere to go, so she retreated to the basement bedroom and threw herself on the bed. Maybe Loren was right. Maybe nothing mattered, but she needed something to cling to that made sense in this new world of vampires and wars. She needed organized facts and realities; neat, tidy and manageable. She needed chrome and neon lights, she needed to hear her boss bark at her, smell the bitter coffee, listen to her co-workers tell dirty jokes. She needed her mother calling five million times in one day, because she'd forgotten their conversation, or her friend Sarah's stories about her boyfriend, Brad.
Sarah. That was a name that conjured bittersweet emotions, and one she tried hard not to think about. How could she without her mind turning to what had happened; to what Claudius had undoubtedly done to her best friend? How could she contemplate Sarah's last horrified screaming moments without going insane?
She couldn't, so she forced it back into the mental pocket labeled "deal with another day." The time would come when she'd have to face the reality, but until then she planned to ignore it as best she could. It was easier.
