Chapter 78
They left Oren in the graveyard and drove to the nearest town. Loren dropped Jorick and Katelina off at a fast food place, and then disappeared to "pick something up at the store". Jorick only shook his head sadly and refused to comment, though Katelina suspected the boy had gone to see Oren.
"What do we do if he doesn't come back?" she asked around a mouth full of French fries.
Jorick turned the plastic salt shaker in his hand. "He'll return. He won't leave us stranded here."
"If you say so." She trusted Loren as much as she trusted the rest of the vampires; which was not at all.
Silence fell between them and she thought about bringing up the letters she'd found. She could claim that she'd been looking through the books and come across them accidentally. Though, she wasn't sure how to explain the fact that she'd read them. Accidentally finding a packet of letters was one thing; being able to quote from them was something else entirely.
And so the silence stretched. A nearby TV played the news, closed captioned and muted. The stories were the same as always; the president's approval rating was down, gas prices were up, someone had been killed in California, someone was kidnapped in Florida, and someone was blown up overseas. It was oddly comforting to know that, though she'd dropped out of the normal world, it remained just the same.
"I'm going to go make a call," Jorick announced, and then headed towards the payphone at the front of the store. Katelina nodded vaguely after the fact, too busy reading the story that flashed by on the television.
"- Pop singer Shelay, best known for her hit Down'n Dirty, was reported missing from her New York home on November eleventh, though authorities believe she may have disappeared as early as the ninth. New York police say there was no sign of forced entry, and friends claim she was last seen leaving La Fosse, a trendy nightclub, in the company of an unnamed woman."
A blurry photo flashed on the screen and Katelina gasped in horror. It was Kateesha! But then she chided herself quickly. Of course it wasn't Kateesha, it was probably some pseudo super model who vaguely resembled her. How pathetic was she when she was seeing imaginary phantoms on the news? Oren's prophecy had shaken her up more than she thought.
"-There have been no demands for ransom, and authorities fear the worst, but friends and family are optimistic-"
"Optimistic," Katelina thought with a sigh. "That must be nice." She glanced to Jorick, as though for comfort. He stood with his back to the counters, one lean hip against the payphone housing. His dark eyes skipped around the nearly empty restaurant, but moved back to her often. She wondered vaguely whether he was watching out for her, or keeping an eye on her.
He hung the phone up with a dissatisfied look, and joined her at the table again. She waited for an explanation, and when he offered none, she pushed for it. "What was that?"
"I found out how Kateesha plans to lure an attack," he muttered darkly. "She's taken someone. I don't know who she is, some celebrity. Des said her disappearance is already on the news."
A shiver raced down Katelina's spine, and she stared back at the silent TV, where commercials now played. "You don't mean Shelay, the pop singer? You can't be serious?"
Jorick waved her disbelief away. "Maybe. The name sounds familiar. I didn't think to ask Des what she was famous for."
"Des? Who's Des?"
"A friend of Oren's," Jorick commented dismissively.
With all the weird vampire intricacies, Katelina was certain that was an over simplification, but she'd take it. The other topic was more important. "So, Kateesha kidnapped Shelay? Not really? I mean, I just saw it on TV! That doesn't happen in real life! You don't just, I mean-" She broke off and tried again. "She couldn't really have kidnapped Shelay?"
"Yes, she could, and undoubtedly did," Jorick said patiently. "Now The Guild will have to do something about it."
"You mean Kateesha took her, so they'd have to come rescue her?" The conversation was insane!
Jorick snorted. "They won't rescue her. She's seen-" he paused. "Them. There are laws."
Memories of a bonfire and the stench of burning flesh assaulted Katelina's mind. Yes, she remembered. "-Because his servants weren't marked and had seen what Jesslynn, Oren and the others were, this meant they knew about us and they had to die..."
The thought made her eyes wide. "But they can't kill her! She's famous! She's important! She's-"
"Yes," Jorick interrupted. "They can, and they will. Famous people disappear as easily as normal people. Fame doesn't make you immortal."
"Well, no, but-" she broke off and shivered, unable to comprehend the scope of it. "So when the Executioners come to kill her, or whatever, Oren plans to attack too?"
"Basically. He'll wait until the battle is nearly over and then strike, so the numbers will be fewer. He's counting on battle fatigue, but I'm not sure it will be the ally he thinks." He closed his eyes and sighed. "And Loren will go with him."
Katelina looked more than surprised. "But you said he wouldn't leave us?"
"Not here. He'll travel home with us, then make his excuses. I imagine he's gone to meet Oren now and make the arrangements." He drew a tight breath and, though his voice was flat, something flickered in the depths of his eyes that betrayed his true feelings. "I hope he gets his fill of excitement."
***
It wasn't long before Loren returned. He mumbled an excuse that Jorick barely acknowledged, then they filed outside and climbed into the waiting car. The trip home was long and somehow worse than the original had been. Loren was silent, no doubt afraid of giving away his intentions and unaware that they already knew. Jorick was also quiet and seemed lost in some inner war that no one else knew about. So, Katelina spent most of the long tedious drive with her cheek against the cold window, wishing she was somewhere else.
They stopped infrequently for bathroom breaks, food, and drinks. It was those moments that kept Katelina sane. The brightly lit truck stops were like miniature vacations from the dark silence and her own, equally dark, thoughts. She couldn't wrap her head around what Jorick had told her. The world of celebrities - actors, pop singers, talk show hosts - that was a separate world she'd never been to in person and hardly believed in. The people were "real" insomuch as they inhabited the covers of magazines and television screens, but that was where they ended. In her mind they didn't go home and have a drink, or discuss what they wanted for dinner. They didn't pump gas, or walk the dog, or do any of the things normal people did. Imaginary Shelay couldn't have crossed over into what had become Katelina's world because, frankly, she wasn't real enough. Kateesha was a blood drinking, terrifying monster, but she was real, while Shelay was nothing more than a two dimensional fairy tale persona. And everyone knows that fairy tales and nightmares don't go together.
But what if they did? What if that blurry photo had really been Kateesha? If she could cross over into the fairy world of celebrities, what else could she do? Or better yet, what couldn't she do? What was to stop her from winning?
