She took her treasures to the old shrine and found Jorick sitting among stacks of fiberboard pieces, a sheet of directions in his hands.
“Here.” She held the tools out. When he didn’t even look up she dropped them to the floor. “I also found some decorations.”
“Mmhmmm.”
She stood silent, waiting. Her attention shifted to the metal hook next to the garbage bagged window and the brown stains that ran down the wall. The memories made her sick, and reminded her of their visitor.
As if he’d caught her thoughts, Jorick suddenly looked at her. “Are you going to go put your tree up?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t let one imbecile ruin it for you. If you start doing that, then you’re in for a long life of unhappiness.”
She couldn’t argue with that logic, though she was still uncomfortable as she walked to the front room and opened the box. Her eyes kept moving to the window over the couch; waiting to see Alistair leering in. By the time she got the box opened and all the pieces neatly laid out, there still hadn’t been anything out the ordinary and she relaxed just a little. Jorick was right. They’d both seen much worse things than bloody skulls.
Still, it took some of the joy out of decorating. Even the multi-colored twinkle lights couldn’t completely soothe away her tension.
The mouse eaten angel was perched precariously on the top of the tree and the tinsel was shining from the branches when Jorick appeared. His eyes raked over it unappreciatively.
He pointed to the sad array of tarnished ornaments. “Where did you get those?”
“They were in the basement. I told you that, earlier.”
“Oh, of course.” He put an arm around her and pulled her to his side. “It looks… lovely.”
“I don’t think it’s too bad, all things considered.”
“No, it’s very… nice.” He offered her a smile. “Now, I believe you have five bookcases to fill. I didn’t spend an hour trying to put fake wood together for nothing.”
“Me? I thought since they were your books…” she trailed off and offered him a winning smile.
He was having none of it. “It’s your library. Besides, I thought I had to move the desk?”
“That won’t take all night.”
“It will if I try hard enough.” He dodged her swatting hand and disappeared into the dining room, leaving a trail of laughter behind him.
Jorick had arranged the furniture to hide the blood stains on the walls. He’d even removed the hook and put one of the bookcases next to the window. Katelina’s gratitude faded as she lugged load after load of books into the room. She was still at it long after Jorick had the desk situated. He perched on top of it and watched her with too much amusement.
She dropped a stack of books on the floor noisily and leaned against a bookcase. “This is exhausting.”
“Maybe you’re in bad shape?”
“Granted. But in that case you should help me.” He didn’t move, so she pointed to the garbage bagged window. “You need to fix that.”
“I suppose. It doesn’t still bother you, does it?” Her expression said everything. “Fine. Where am I supposed to get a new window? Would you like me to steal one? Because, if I remember correctly, most building supply shops close when it’s dark.”
“There’s probably one, somewhere.” She turned back to the books and stacked the shelf. When she’d finished she surveyed her work and then him. There was another conversation they needed to have; one she’d almost forgotten about. “So when are we going to go rescue Kale?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
The flat out denial annoyed her more than anything else. “Maybe I should go ask Verchiel. He seemed to know all about it.” Jorick growled low in his throat and she felt a small flush of victory.
“If you must know, I don’t have any plan to rescue Kale, it was only something I’d considered we might need to do! Leave it to that buffoon to make it seem otherwise!”
“You might have mentioned it.”
“I intended to, once I’d decided one way or the other! But there it is. Depending on what Oren can find out, we may have to go get Kale.”
“What about The Guild?” she asked with feigned innocence.
Jorick made an angry noise in his throat. “With idiots like that working for them, you can’t trust them to handle anything.”
She nodded her head and cleared her throat. “What about Alistair?”
Jorick ran an aggravated hand through his hair. “I don’t know. I suppose we wait for him to come to us.”
“What kind of a plan is that?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know where he’s at!”
“Verchiel said he’d been spotted, so maybe you could ask someone.”
“Who? It might come as a surprise, given the recent explosion in social calls, but I’m not part of any local vampire network. I chose this house because of its isolation. Loren and the pack of rogues were an unwelcomed surprise at the time and, other than him, the nearest vampires were an hour and a half away. Vampirism isn’t like joining a social club.”
“Then what are we going to do?”
“What is there to do? If I leave to hunt him, he’ll only circle back and catch you alone. I can’t take you with me, or it defeats the purpose, so we’ll have to wait for him to come to us, and when he does, I’ll kill him.”
She didn't think it sounded like a very good plan.
**********
Chapter Twenty-Four
When Jorick went to feed the next night, she tagged along again. It was an uneventful half an hour, and when he’d finished, they walked back to the house and then drove the short distance to Loren’s. It was becoming a familiar location. As they entered, the fat white cat, now at home on the kitchen counter, hissed and dashed towards the bedrooms.
“You’ve made a friend for life,” Jorick commented as he moved to the phone.
“How do you know it hates me and not you?”
Instead of answering, he called Oren. Though their conversation was a mutual exchange of information, it was short and ended with, “I suppose there’s no other choice.”
He hung up the phone and turned to her, his forehead puckered.
“Well?”
“Oren wants to go rescue him.”
She’d known that answer was coming, but asked anyway, “Why is Oren so keen to help him?”
“If he does, Kale is bound to help him with The Guild as recompense. And if there are any vampires still loyal to him, they’ll have to join. With Traven recruiting, Oren needs to as well.”
She sighed heavily and surrendered. “So when do we leave?”
“Tomorrow.” Jorick drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s a sixteen hour trip.”
“So another two days in the car?” She tried to hide her lack of enthusiasm.
If Jorick had looked uncomfortable before, he looked doubly so now. “No, actually. We thought you could drive during the daylight hours.”
“Me? And where will you be? In the trunk?”
“Oren's going to borrow Fabian's van. We can sleep in the back.” He took in her horrified expression and sighed. “There’s no other choice. If Oren leaves first thing tomorrow evening, the soonest he could be here is three or four in the morning. If we wait to leave, it would be two more days before we’d reach the institute Kale’s being held at, then possibly another two back. I was hoping to have the travel arrangements made by then so we could leave.”
She perked up. “What travel arrangements? Where are we going?”
“I assumed you wanted to go somewhere tropical.” He grimaced. “The main attraction of those places is the sun, you know.”
“You’d go somewhere tropical? Really?”
“Maybe. But it will probably take at least five days to make the arrangements, maybe a week. I can’t go on spur of the moment trips anymore. Between luggage x-ray and security checks, it’s hard to travel with a vampire in
a trunk. So, the sooner we get Kale and get back, the sooner we can go.”
Though she wanted to argue, she couldn’t. Alistair was lurking around, Traven was up to something, Oren was trying to rope them into a war. Yes, the sooner they left, the better. They could relax in tiki huts and sip coconut drinks while Oren committed suicide. It sounded like a great plan.
“All right, but if I have to drive all day, when will I sleep?”
“Tomorrow night? You’ll have until three or four in the morning. That should be plenty of time.”
The thought of switching to a normal schedule seemed weird, even if only for a day or two. “How do you know where Kale is?”
“Oren did that. You remember Hectia, the woman we found at Claudius’ Summer Home? As luck would have it, she’s settled in that area. Disturbingly, it was Traven who knew that.” He raised his eyebrows meaningfully. “I’m curious how he is so well informed.”
Katelina nodded and signaled for him to go on.
“Eventually they located her cell phone number. She knows where the institute is and has agreed to meet us there. I can’t imagine what help she’ll be, but who knows.”
The rescue mission promised to be a disaster, and Katelina just hoped they lived through it.
When they got home, Jorick went first. He did a quick scout of the area, sniffing as he went. When he made it back to the front he still looked unsettled. Katelina hurried to join him.
“What is it?”
“I smell blood.”
The words made her shiver. “Where?”
“I don’t know. Here.” He pointed to the house. “Stay behind me.”
He didn’t need to tell her twice. She let him lead the way up the porch. He listened for a moment before he slotted the key in the lock.
He didn’t need the key.
He swung the door open and his frown turned into a snarl. Katelina peered around him, and the sight made her gag into her hand. Draped around the Christmas tree like grotesque garland was what looked like intestines. Blood dripped from them onto the plastic branches and the tarnished ornaments, and gathered in puddles around the base of the tree. In the middle of the living room floor was a pile of miscellaneous entrails. The multicolored Christmas lights twinkled merrily around the gore; tiny fairy sparkles in a nightmare.
Katelina gagged again and Jorick turned to her, indecision in his eyes. “Cover your nose and come inside. And don’t look.”
She couldn’t stop looking. And, though she covered her nose, the smell still seeped between her fingers and filled her nostrils; a sick, warm smell that meant death. Her stomach heaved again and without warning she took off for the bathroom.
“Dammit! Katelina!” Jorick pounded after her and deftly slid into the bathroom before her, his eyes darting around. “He could still be here!”
She tried to nod, but another heave filled her mouth and she vomited into the toilet. The smell was burned into her nose, and another wave of nausea splashed over her.
Jorick’s lip curled, but he stayed with her until she stopped. “Stay here. I’ll go clean up the mess.”
She nodded and leaned back against the cool tile wall. Though she didn’t want to think about where the internal organs had come from, her brain kept turning to it. Were they from the owner of the skull? Or had Alistair killed someone else? Why was he doing this? If he wanted to kill her then why didn’t he get it over with? Why was he dragging it out?
There were no answers to her questions, though they buzzed around in her head again and again, until Jorick opened the bathroom door and announced it was safe.
“Why don’t you go change?” he suggested.
She nodded numbly and headed down the stairs and to the bedroom. The piece of paper in front of the door should have made her apprehensive, but she picked it up without much thought. When she opened the door, the smell of death blew into her face. She stumbled back, gagging, then stubbornly flipped on the light.
“Jorick!”
Dead animals were heaped on the bed, their stomachs ripped open. Glassy eyes stared at her from their mangled faces. Blood pooled around them, bright against the white sheets, and ran over the edges to thick puddles on the floor. Underneath the heap was a garbage bag, as if Alistair had just thrown it on the bed and ripped it open without bothering to dump the contents out.
Jorick pounded down the stairs and her legs gave way just as he arrived. “What?” He looked from her to the mess on the bed and his face twisted in fury. “That god damn son of a bitch!” His gaze swung back to where she sat on the floor, tears sparkling in her eyes. He moved to her and crouched down. “It’s all right.”
“No it’s not! Dammit, he was in our house! He left this in our bed! How is this all right?”
“I don’t know what you want me to do! I can’t fight an enemy that won’t show himself!” She flinched under his fury and his voice softened. “I’m sorry, little one. Just… I don’t know. Go to the bathroom and wait for me.”
The paper crinkled in her hands and the sound reminded her it was there. She unfolded it and stared at the terrifyingly neat handwriting.
Did you enjoy my present last night? You wanted to know who it belonged to. She looked a lot like you, and she screamed like you’re going to. It’s a pity that Jorick won’t stay out of this. I didn’t plan to hurt him, but I might have to if he doesn’t back off. Or maybe not. He can’t stay with you every moment. As soon as he turns his back, you’re mine. You’re going to suffer like my Kateesha did while you mangled her still living body. You gutted her like an animal, and I’m going to do the same to you.
Katelina gasped and dropped the note. Jorick snatched it up and wadded it into a ball as she broke into sobs. “Oh my god, he’s insane! How much more of this do we have to go through? Every sound I hear, I’m sure it’s him! And now he’s been in our house! Nowhere is safe!”
“Yes it is.” He didn’t sound convinced. “Just go to the bathroom and wait for me. And shut the door.”
She did as he instructed because there was nothing else to do. She huddled in the corner of the windowless room and listened as Jorick made several trips up and down the stairs. Finally, he opened the door, a heavy garbage bag in one hand, and announced that it was finished.
Her eyes moved to the bag. “What’s that?”
“The bedding. We have more, and it isn’t worth trying to save this. Why don’t you go ahead and change?”
The bedroom smelled like a mixture of floral Lysol and some kind of cinnamon cleaner. Though the mattress was stripped and flipped over, she knew what was on the underside. “Maybe the garbage bag caught most of it.” Though she didn’t believe the optimistic thought, she clung to it, anyway.
When she went upstairs she found Jorick in the freshly scrubbed front room, surrounded by maps. She noted the absence of the Christmas tree and wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed or relieved. He glanced up and gave her a tight smile, then went back to his work as if nothing had happened. She wanted to scream at him, but she knew he was just as frustrated as she was. As he’d said, how could he fight an enemy who wouldn’t show themselves?
She watched him work, apprehensive at the confusing honeycomb of lines he drew on the maps. She was the one who’d have to make sense of it all while they slept. When he finished, she made him write each of the turns, changeovers, and important directions in a yellow tablet. The step-by-step instructions would be easier to follow than the squibly tangle of ink.
Bed time came too soon. The bedroom still smelled like cleaners. It burned her nose and made her sick. Jorick gallantly cleaned out part of the junk room so that there was a space on the floor big enough for them to fit. Katelina spread the blankets out, and then snuggled up against Jorick. She buried her face in his chest and willed tomorrow to be better.
She woke from a nightmare. Dead animals screamed while she cut them open and pulled out their insides and draped the gory masses over a Christmas tree. Then, the animals turned into Kateesha. The vampiress�
��s arms flailed and her legs kicked while Katelina dissected her. She plucked out her heart and impaled it on the top of the tree like a star. Suddenly, the battle scene flashed past, again through the wrong eyes, and she woke sick and horrified.
Though she knew she had to spend at least part of the next night sleeping, it was better to get up with Jorick then risk the dream’s continuance. She bundled up and went with him on his “feeding” expedition. It was only five P.M. but the wind was already cold and the darkness complete. Stars shivered over their heads and dead weeds crunched under their feet, lost beneath a thin coating of new snow.
She shuffled behind him, huddled in her coat. Every sound made her jump and her mind kept replaying the letter over and over again. “I’m going to do the same to you.”
A nearby noise broke into her terrified thoughts. She looked to see Jorick similarly alert. He sniffed the air and waited. An opossum rolled out of the weeds and landed in an unhappy ball. It uncurled, glanced at them, and took off.
Katelina relaxed and started forward, but Jorick stopped her with a hand to her arm. When she looked to him questioningly, he only shook his head and brought his finger to his lips. They stood there for several tense seconds. Nothing happened. Finally, she took a step away.
That’s when he struck.
In a blur of motion and cold she was suddenly slammed to the ground. She spit out a mouthful of snow and weeds and tried to get up. There was someone on her back. It only took her a second to figure out whom.
Alistair.
Before the thought finished, Jorick slammed his fist into the vampire and knocked him aside. He landed in a roll and then seemed to disappear and rematerialize behind the raven-haired vampire. Katelina sat up, still choking and sputtering, and tried to point him out, but he was too fast. He’d already slammed Jorick in the head and kicked him in the back before either of them reacted.
Jorick was much faster than her. He spun in a blur and snatched at Alistair, but his attacker was faster still and all he clutched was empty air.
Amaranthine Special Edition Vol II Page 30
