Chapter Twenty

Katelina’s shuddered with fear as the dark demoness
stepped forward. “Aren’t you happy to see me?” Kateesha asked in
mock innocence.
Jorick glanced over his shoulder at Oren and
Kateesha, and gently laid Katelina on the floor. He pulled his long
black coat off and carefully wrapped her in it before he scooped
her up.
Katelina tried to ignore her throbbing body as he
stood and shifted her in his arms. The pain from everything
Claudius had done to her was still fresh, though not as sharp as it
should have been. Her shoulder screamed when she was jostled, but
it was the “inner” pain that hurt most. All of her blood vessels
ached, and the underside of her skin trembled from the seizure-like
state and the burning sensation that had coursed through her. Her
mind still reeled from Claudius’ invasion, and she was so weak.
Somehow what he’d done to her body paled in comparison to the rest
of it. She remembered him laughing at her “primitive fears” and
saying that he could do something much more terrible to her. He’d
been right, the mental assault had been far worse than the
physical.
She licked her lips and found a small smear of
blood. The salty tang tasted almost good, and again she wanted
more. She thought vaguely that it must have to do with having lost
so much.
Jorick interrupted her thoughts as he glanced
towards Oren and Kateesha, his face impossible to read. “As you
said, we’d best be going.”
Oren took a step towards the stairs and then paused
to warn them, “There may be others coming, Claudius had more than
that in his entourage.”
Jorick nodded his understanding and the three
climbed the stairs. Katelina buried her face against his chest to
blot Kateesha from her sight. She couldn’t understand what the
bitch was doing there.
They reached the top of the stairs and entered the
corridor Katelina remembered from the night before. Instead of a
hallway, it was really a long room that ran the length of a small
building. The walls were exposed brick and the floor was the same
cement as the basement. The wooden stairs that ran down to the
basement were at one end, and the large metal door that led outside
was at the other. In the middle was an open doorway that poured
black smoke. The dark mist blocked out the ceiling’s electric
lights and filled the room with a suffocating stench that made
Katelina gag.
As they drew near the smoking doorway Oren’s
redheaded sister stepped out of it. Her dress was splattered with
gore and she licked blood from her fingers like honey. Her eyes
flicked to the three vampires and she stated in a pout, “I can’t
find any more.”
Oren looked around uncertainly. Worry crept over his
features as his eyes swept the vacant room. “It’s not right.”
“I know,” Jorick agreed and squeezed Katelina
tighter. The four exchanged uneasy looks and then continued their
way through the room and out the door. Once outside, the shining
yard light bathed them in its strange glow that made everything
look surreal. The blood that stained their clothing became deep
black splotches. It somehow made it look cleaner and more
sanitized.
Their feet crunched over the gravel parking area and
stopped in front of the white panel van. Katelina’s eyes grew wide
with fear as memories slid over one another: the stench of blood,
Arowenia’s ruined throat, Troy’s threats.
Oren slid the door open so that it gaped like the
mouth of a beast. Jorick took a step towards it, but Katelina’s
body stiffened and she clutched at him. “No,” she whimpered and
gave him a pleading look. “Not in there again.”
Jorick’s brows drew together. “I thought you might
like..” he trailed off and glanced at their companions. “To be
alone?”
Katelina followed his gaze to see Kateesha and her
evil, gloating smile. She shuddered and looked back to the van.
Which was worse?
“Well?” Oren asked with impatience. “Are you taking
the van or not?”
Jorick glanced at Katelina then shook his head. “No,
we’ll ride with you.”
Oren’s nose wrinkled. “You’ll have to ride in the
backseat with one of them.”
Torina half draped herself over Jorick. Her voice
was like warm oil. “You act like that’s a bad thing.” She looked up
into Jorick’s face, batted her eyes and pouted her full lips. “I’m
sure that Jorick wouldn’t mind sitting next to me.”
He gave an annoyed grunt and pulled away from her.
“You can sit in the front seat Torina – Katelina and I will take
our chances with Kateesha.”
Katelina’s mouth opened and she tried to signal him
that she’d rather sit near the slut than the bitch who’d tried to
kill her, but as she turned her head she found herself staring in
Kateesha’s smirking face. The vampiress smiled and reached a hand
up to stroke Jorick’s face. “I’m sure you won’t regret it,
brother.”
He gave her a warning look before he stepped away
and walked towards the car.
A sick panic ran through Katelina. She whispered
into Jorick’s chest as softly as she could, hoping he could hear
her, “Not Kateesha. She – ”
He cut her off, his voice so quiet she wasn’t sure
if he was actually speaking out loud or if she only imagined it.
“Later. She won’t harm you with the rest of us present.”
Katelina made a small whimpering noise in
disagreement, but forced herself to relax a little. Jorick would be
right there with her, and he’d protect her.
Thoughts pressed in on her, unbidden. She tried to
force them away, but she couldn’t silence the voice that whispered
in her mind, “Did he protect you last night?”
Her head jerked up to see Kateesha’s malicious
smile. She narrowed her eyes and thought as loudly as she could,
“Shut up!”
Oren opened the car door, then gently took her from
Jorick’s arms so that the dark vampire could climb inside. Katelina
stiffened, both in pain and the sudden realization that she didn’t
want to be touched by anyone but Jorick. Somehow he was all right;
safe. No one else was. Not now.
But Oren didn’t do anything more than slide her into
the car and settle her on Jorick’s lap. The dark vampire nodded as
soon as he had her arranged and Oren shut the door. Katelina gave
Jorick one more pleading look before Kateesha climbed inside and
seated herself next to him, the smile still plastered across her
too-beautiful face.
Katelina resisted the urge to scream as she felt
Kateesha’s eyes on her. The vampiress whispered inside her head,
using her own thoughts to form the words, “He’ll never believe
you. He doesn’t care or he’d have been here sooner.” For a
sickening moment she found herself believing it, but as she looked
at Jorick a soothing, calm descended on her, like being wrapped in
a warm, dry blanket after coming in out of a cold rain. She turned
her head and glared at Kateesha. “Leave me alone,” she muttered
angrily.
Kateesha blinked innocently as Oren and his sister
climbed in. “What?” she asked, but Katelina didn’t answer her. She
just glared at the vampiress. After everything she’d been through
she didn’t need this. There had to be a way to keep Kateesha out of
her head!
Oren started the car and they pulled out of the
parking lot. Katelina settled against Jorick and closed her eyes.
Her body relaxed as the warm, calm feeling continued to spread
through her. She felt as if she was drifting on the edge of sweet
dreams, and found herself absently wondering where Oren and Torina
had come from. The last time she’d seen them, the house had been
burning and everyone had been dying.
“They’re the ones I had to meet,” Jorick half
whispered to her. “What was left of the coven scattered after that
night and they’ve decided to help me kill Claudius.” His words
caught her attention and brought her back from her slumber like
world.
“I wish you’d killed Claudius,” she whispered and
then added silently, “And Kateesha.”
“So do I,” Jorick whispered with an edge of sorrow
in his voice. “But, don’t worry, he’ll die soon. I’ll kill him
myself.”
A thick silence descended and left them lost to
their own thoughts. Katelina fought against terrifying memories and
fears. Before she got too lost in them, Jorick spoke, “I think we
should take her to a hospital.”
Torina turned around in her seat, surprised. “Do you
really think so? Can’t you just take care of it?”
Jorick shook his head, his voice firm, “Not that
way.”
“I thought you already had,” Oren said without
looking back.
Jorick cleared his throat uncomfortably. “No.”
Before Katelina could ask what they meant, Torina
asked peevishly, “How long will that take? Wouldn’t it be easier to
just give her some blood or else turn her and – ” she broke off
when she noticed Jorick’s hard stare at the back of Oren’s head.
“Are you listening?”
The lion-maned vampire suddenly made a small noise
of understanding. “But do you know where a hospital is?”
“There’s likely to be one in any of towns we’re
already going to go through,” Jorick replied matter-of-factly.
“They’re everywhere now. Most towns have their own.”
Kateesha made a scoffing noise in her throat. “That
sounds like a wonderful idea – and when they want to know what
happened to her?” Her eyes glittered hard and mean in the dark and
the reflection from the dash lights made her look more evil than
usual.
“A dog, of course,” Jorick answered. His words
stirred something buried in Katelina’s brain, but she couldn’t
grasp it.
“And when they want to call their police to come in
and take statements?” Torina demanded. “They don’t allow wild dogs
to just run loose, you know. Humans are all paperwork and red tape
and keeping track. You may have been hiding from their world,
Jorick but – ”
He interrupted her angrily, “I am well aware what
they are.” He took a deep breath, and thought for a moment. “A wolf
then. Some large canine animal – does it matter?”
“It matters,” Oren said quietly. “You know the
rules.”
“Then what do you propose?” Jorick demanded. “Have
you got a better idea?”
“You know my opinion,” Oren said flatly. “But what’s
done is done.”
Kateesha laughed delightedly. “Still arguing like
children.”
“If you won’t just give her some blood, then can’t
we sew her up ourselves?” Torina asked sulkily. “It can’t be that
hard!”
Jorick’s tone remained cold. “Are you
volunteering?”
Kateesha chuckled again while Torina’s nose
wrinkled. “No.”
“How about you, Oren?” Jorick asked sarcastically.
“Kateesha?”
The vampiress next to him purred in response, “Oh,
I’d be happy to try it.”
Again Jorick ignored her. “Unless one of you happens
to be a doctor of medicine then she needs a hospital. She’s
sustained damage to her shoulder and despite my best efforts it’s
still bleeding.”
“Try a hot knife,” Kateesha suggested smugly.
Torina rolled her eyes and made a dismissive
gesture. “I still say give her enough blood to heal her or turn
her.”
Oren interrupted before Jorick could reply, “Fine.
We’ll take her to a hospital. But if it goes wrong, Jorick, then
we’ll leave and may the consequences be on your head.”
“So be it,” Jorick agreed.
Katelina leaned back and stared at the car’s
headliner. She still felt floaty, as though she was above it all.
But the word dog… Patrick. Yes, she remembered now. Patrick always
had bad luck with dogs. At least that was what he’d claimed.
She closed her eyes and searched her memories.
Her fingers trailed over a freshly knotted scar on
his shoulder. “You disappear for weeks and come back with this.
What happened?”
“My brother’s dog,” he laughed. “He has it in for
me. It’s nothing serious.”
A new voice interrupted the scene. It was Claudius
arguing with his underlings. “The human, Patrick, was plainly
marked.”
And so he was, she thought wearily. Marked again and
again, no doubt by Claudius himself. Or was it Troy who’d done it?
Was that what Kateesha meant? Had it been the same for him as it
was for her? Had they tortured Patrick with it? But just thinking
about that monster and his bloody, leering face made her sick, so
she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on the soothing
feeling that wanted so desperately to consume her.
 
They soon found a decent sized town. Blue hospital
signs led them down dark winding streets until they reached a group
of large, modern buildings. Oren parked the car in the section
marked “Emergency Room Patients Only.” As the motor fell away into
silence he said, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Oren climbed out and opened the door, gingerly
taking Katelina again. He lifted her as though she weighed nothing,
and held onto her while Jorick climbed out. Katelina’s eyes strayed
to the large building. Like so many hospitals it was all brick and
green glass. Electric flood lights made the space around the
building a pocket of strangely colored daylight, though the
darkness clawed at the edges. She shivered as she stared at the
glass doors marked “Emergency Room”. The world was suddenly
becoming too real, nightmares and reality crashing together in a
terrible mix that made her chest tighten.
Jorick climbed from the car and took her gently in
his arms. As he caught her gaze an inexplicable feeling of
wellbeing rippled through her. It would be all right, after
all.
He carried her towards the shiny building. The glass
doors swooshed automatically out of their way as they entered,
leading into a lobby done in white and blue with ugly geometric
paintings on the walls. He carried her past rows of empty chairs to
the counter where a woman sat sipping from a mug and staring at a
computer screen. At their approach she looked up, her face
shocked.
“What happened?” she asked, clicking the computer
mouse but staring at them rather than the screen.
A chair patterned in ugly blue sat before the
counter and Jorick carefully deposited Katelina in it, mindful of
her whimper as she was jostled. He looked at the woman and muttered
so that his teeth stayed hidden, “She was attacked by something, a
dog or a wolf maybe – I saw it from a distance, and when I got
there it ran off.” He turned to Katelina and opened the coat enough
to reveal the mess that had been her shoulder. “It tore her up
before I got there.”
“It sure did,” the woman agreed, sucking her teeth.
“All right,” she placed her fingers on the keyboard. “I just need a
little information first.”
Katelina sagged against the chair as exhaustion
washed over her. She forced her mouth to give her name, address,
and social security number. The woman’s eyebrows shot up at the
distance between the hospital and her home address, but Jorick
quickly explained that they were on vacation. The woman accepted
it, though she didn’t look like she believed it. Jorick had to help
Katelina sign the paperwork granting them permission to treat her.
As the demands for information dragged on, his fingers tapped
rhythmically on the counter and his brows drew closer and closer
together. He seemed on the point of saying something when an
attendant appeared with a wheelchair. Jorick scooped her up
carefully and set her in it, following as the attendant wheeled her
back to a room.
The attendant helped her onto a hard cold bed. He
promised someone would be in soon, and disappeared. Katelina looked
at Jorick, worry in her eyes, but he offered her a tight reassuring
smile. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, the nurse came in to
take her vitals and get the story of what had supposedly happened
once again.
“If you’ll remove your coat,” she said cheerfully as
she got the blood pressure cuff ready.
Katelina cleared her throat painfully. This was one
of the moments she’d been dreading. “I can’t.”
The nurse raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean,
hon?”
Her cheeks turned pink and she stared at her naked
legs sticking out from beneath the dark coat. “I can’t,” she
repeated. “I–I don’t have any clothes on under it.”
The nurse’s eyebrows shot up higher and she glanced
sharply to Jorick who only shrugged. “I see. Then let’s get you
into a gown.” She looked at Jorick again. “You are?”
“Her boyfriend,” he said simply. “I’m staying.”
The nurse looked at Katelina and she nodded numbly
in agreement, though she wasn’t sure he was her actual boyfriend.
Still, she supposed it was easier than trying to explain the
truth.
Without asking any more questions, the nurse got a
pink printed gown from a cupboard and laid it on the bed. “Put this
on and I’ll be back.”
When she disappeared Jorick moved to the side of the
bed and wordlessly helped her out of the bulky coat and into the
gown. He gathered the coat up and stood awkwardly next to the bed,
his eyes on the door.
“They’re suspicious,” she murmured. She lay back on
the pillow and stared at the television bolted to the wall.
“It’s fine,” Jorick said softly and patted her arm.
The nurse reentered and gave Jorick a sharp look as she tightened
the blood pressure cuff around Katelina’s arm and clipped the
oxygen monitor to her finger. “Why don’t you tell me what
happened?” she asked Katelina pointedly.
She struggled through a sketchy story about being
attacked by some kind of big animal and Jorick saving her. As she
finished, the nurse gazed at her with narrowed eyes. “And how did
you get the black eye?”
Katelina was shocked into silence. She’d forgotten
about the condition of her face. Oddly enough, none of it really
hurt, though she didn’t have time to figure out why. “I, um, I fell
down the stairs the other day,” she said lamely.
“And what happened to your neck, here?” the woman
asked, pointing to the mark Jorick had left.
Panic blossomed in Katelina’s chest and she looked
to Jorick for help, but he remained stonily silent. “Oh, that. Um…
it’s um…” she swallowed hard. “I mean I was at a party….”
“Are you on drugs?” the nurse asked coldly.
“No, no,” Katelina said quickly. “It’s . . . just a
little joke. We all got one, to look like, um, like vampire bites.
It’s almost Halloween,” she added as an afterthought. “It was a
Halloween party.”
The nurse clicked her tongue. “And this?” she poked
the two small scabs that were left from Jesslynn’s bite. “An older
joke maybe?”
Katelina stared at her feet, sick inside. She
couldn’t think of anything to say except that Torina and Oren had
been right. This was a bad idea.
“Is this necessary?” Jorick asked, breaking his
silence.
“Excuse me?” the nurse looked up at him sharply.
“She isn’t here to have that treated so it’s none of
your business,” he said firmly. “She’s told you what happened to
her shoulder.”
The nurse gave him a cold look and scribbled
something on her clipboard before she left. Katelina watched her
go, relieved that the cross examination had ceased. Absently, she
touched her face, but the swelling was gone, and the lump on the
side of her head was little more than a bump. Maybe she hadn’t been
hurt as badly as she thought.
Jorick cleared his throat and walked to the TV. He
flipped the channels until he found something watchable, then he
pulled the wheeled stool next to the bed and sat down. He heaped
the coat in his lap and gently stroked her hair as they watched a
cartoon about a claymation koala bear and his friends. Katelina
stared at it absently. After everything that had happened, the
bright colors and cheerful voices seemed somehow macabre; reminders
of a world she no longer believed existed. When she closed her eyes
all she saw was Claudius’ twisted face looming above her, snarling
fangs gleaming to a soundtrack of Troy’s crude laughter.
Tears pricked her eyes, then the strange calm
descended again. She glanced at Jorick, but he seemed engrossed in
the television show.
They didn’t get to watch very much of it before a
tall thin man dressed in blue came in and drew her blood. He didn’t
make any comments other than those absolutely necessary and then
left again. He’d been gone for only a moment when the doctor came
in, looking grim and suspicious. Jorick gave up the stool and moved
along the wall, watching as the doctor poked and prodded at her. He
asked no questions other than for her to recount the story about
the dog. He listened to her heart and her breathing, and examined
her shoulder. When he’d finished he nodded to himself. “It looks
like a dog, all right, but a big one.” He narrowed his eyes at her.
“You’ll need some blood. You’re also badly dehydrated. I’m going to
sew this up and have them give you an IV.” He gazed at her levelly.
“You’re lucky. Although it looks bad, it’s mainly surface damage.
None of the muscles were affected very badly. It’s going to be a
scar, but it shouldn’t impede your arm movement.” He cleared his
throat and adjusted his glasses. “You’ve sustained a good deal of
bruises. You said you fell down the stairs?”
She nodded her head and he took a small light from
his pocket and shone it in her eyes. “You don’t have a concussion,”
he announced as he pocketed it again and peeled off his gloves.
“They’ll be in to hook you up and I’ll be back to sew that up.”
He left and she looked at Jorick again, her eyes
wide. His gaze was reassuring, though she suspected he was just as
nervous as she was. He had a lot more to lose than she did if
something happened.
The lab guy returned and did her IV, again saying
almost nothing. Then she and Jorick were left alone in silence.
They watched the television while the bags ran dry. The doctor
returned with a different nurse and gave her a tetanus shot before
he numbed her shoulder and stitched it up. She squeezed Jorick’s
hand tightly and swore to herself that despite the Lidocain she
could still feel the needle slipping through her skin. Even so, it
wasn’t as terrible as she thought it would be.
When the doctor finished the stitches, he cleaned
the scrapes on her arms and face with alcohol pads and took a
moment to examine the two different marks she bore. He clicked his
tongue but made no comment. “I’ll write you a prescription for some
pain pills and some antibiotics. It’s not infected, but better to
be on the safe side.” He peeled off his gloves and threw them in
the biohazard bin as he glanced at Jorick. “Could I have a word
with you?”
Katelina stiffened, but Jorick only nodded calmly.
He paused next to the bed, brushed a kiss over her forehead, and
murmured, “I’ll be right back.”
The door had barely shut when the nurse was at her
side; a short, pudgy woman with kind eyes and short hair. She
leaned close and asked softly, “Do you need some help honey?”
Katelina blinked at her stupidly. “With what?”
The older woman looked at her sympathetically and
laid a hand on her arm. “Getting away from him.”
“What?”
“It’s all right,” the nurse said gently. “You don’t
have to be ashamed, honey. It’s not your fault what he’s done, it’s
his fault.”
“What who’s done? Jorick?” The woman nodded and
then, in a rush, Katelina realized what she meant. “He didn’t do
anything.” She’d been so worried about them guessing the truth that
she hadn’t thought they’d come up with an idea like domestic abuse.
Strangely, it was almost a relief to have the woman asking her
about something as common place and mundane as that. She suddenly
realized how strange her world had become when she considered
something horrible like domestic abuse mundane. “It’s nothing like
that.”
“It never is, is it?” the nurse asked. Her eyes
attempted to penetrate Katelina’s mind but failed. “We can help
you, if you want us to. There are ways.”
“No, seriously it isn’t – it wasn’t him.” She shook
her head and wondered what would happen if they tried to arrest
Jorick.
“You fell down the stairs?” The nurse looked
disbelievingly at her. “And a dog attacked you? And you were at a
party and now have two sets of puncture marks?”
Katelina nodded dumbly, panicking inside. For one
crazed moment she was tempted to break into maniacal laughter and
tell them the truth, but she was pretty sure that they’d send her
to a mental institution if she did.
The nurse shook her head, increasing the pressure on
her arm. “Let us help you. We can get you free from him and send
you home.”
“Send me home?” Katelina asked, catching her
breath.
The woman looked her in the eyes. “Honey, you’re
listed as a missing person, as a probable kidnapping – ”
Katelina’s mouth dropped open and her eyes bulged.
“Kidnapping? I’m not kidnapped!”
“You can tell that to the police,” she said crisply.
“We can help you, but you have to let us. We can’t make you accept
help – ”
“Police?”
The nurse gave her a pitying look. “Of course. We
called them after you were checked in. They’re talking with
him right now and – ”
Katelina fought panic and fury. “I don’t need any
help! I’m not kidnapped! And I don’t need anyone calling the
police! I’m an adult, I can do what I want. They can leave us both
alone. The last time I looked I had the freedom to go anywhere I
wanted to, and do whatever I wanted to, after I turned
eighteen.”
When the nurse continued to press her, Katelina got
angry and loudly demanded to see her superiors and be released.
Just then, the door opened and Jorick came in quietly – sans the
police escort she expected to see. His eyes flicked from her to the
nurse as he walked to the bed. He handed her the coat and then
nodded to the IV and addressed the nurse. “You can take this out
now or I will.”
“You can’t just take her!” the woman spat, outraged.
“Where are the police at?”
“I can leave if I want to,” Katelina said angrily.
“I’ll sign the waver of treatment.”
“That won’t be necessary,” a voice said from the
doorway and they looked to see the doctor and a police officer.
Fear shot through Katelina, but the doctor simply said, “You can
go.” He glanced at the angry nurse. “Unhook her.”
The nurse stared, open mouthed, “But sir –” she
stopped mid-sentence as Jorick turned and looked at her. “Yes sir,”
she said meekly and then hurried to complete the task.
When Katelina was unhooked, they passed the doctor
and the officer – neither of which tried to stop them – and made
their way through the emergency section. Katelina kept staring back
at the policeman, but Jorick walked casually to the nurses’ station
to get her prescription slips, care instructions, and a packet of
pain pills to last her through the night. Katelina didn’t
understand how he could be so calm, or what he could have said to
the police and the doctor. It had to be something other than just
suave words for them to allow her to go! She suddenly wondered if
he was doing what Kateesha had done to her and, though she was
grateful for it at the moment, a shiver went down her spine at the
idea that he could control people.
She signed the release papers and Jorick scooped her
up. The hospital gown peeped through the opening of the coat, but
the woman at the counter didn’t notice it.
They started towards the doors, but she squeezed his
shoulder sharply to make him stop. “She said I’m reported as a
missing person,” she hissed fearfully. “A probable kidnapping!”
He nodded quickly, and pretended to be staring up at
the news running across the TV screen in the corner. “Yes, I know.
I’m not surprised. Your friend was taken a day or two after you
left and Claudius’ men destroyed your apartment. It undoubtedly
looks like a kidnapping.”
“But…” she began, and he cut her off.
“It’s fine,” he assured her. “We need to get going,
the others are waiting.”
His words, “the others”, made her think of Kateesha
and she quickly caught her breath, squeezing his shoulder again.
“No, wait. Kateesha.”
“What about Kateesha?” he asked patiently, eyes
still on the television.
She answered quickly, her voice low, “She killed
Arowenia, and was waiting for them – for Troy and his friends. She
turned me over to them – they had some sort of deal –”
“I know,” he whispered back. He shifted her weight
in his arms started for the door again. “I’ll deal with her
later.”
Not content, she had to ask, “How? And how are you
doing this? Are you –”
“We need to go,” he murmured and then, as if in
confession he added, “My influence won’t last forever.”
The night air was cool against her exposed skin, and
she huddled farther under the coat. She thought about the
painkillers in Jorick’s pocket and about the prescriptions. She
wasn’t sure how she was going to get them filled.
As they approached the car, Oren climbed out and
assisted them while Torina hung out the front passenger window
looking annoyed. “Can we go now, or would you rather spend more
time amongst the humans?”
“Yes, Torina, we can go now,” Jorick replied.
“Perhaps if you’d gotten the information faster we wouldn’t have
been so late and then this little trip wouldn’t have been
necessary.” He gave her a dirty look as he climbed into the
backseat. He got settled and then reached for Katelina.
“I got the information as fast as I could,” the
sexpot retorted angrily. “It wasn’t easy since Elsa’s quit helping
us! Do you know I had to sleep with that guy to get the location of
the den? You haven’t even shown me any appreciation! I went to a
lot of trouble for that stupid little human–”
“Enough of this,” Oren snapped. He shut the door
loudly and then climbed into the driver’s seat. He looked at his
sister as he turned the key in the ignition. “Be quiet Torina,
we’re leaving now.”
“Yes, but–”
“This is no longer my coven, Torina,” Oren’s voice
was emotionless. “Jorick is older than us, and as long as we travel
with him he is the master.”
The redhead started to say something, but snapped
her mouth closed and turned in her seat huffily, her eyes fixed on
the window.
Kateesha laughed softly from her corner of the
backseat. The sound made Katelina shiver. The dark woman gave
Jorick a knowing look. “Yes, let us go before the pathetic human
police come to their senses and try to arrest our new coven
master.”
Katelina shot her a dirty look. She suspected that
she’d been prying in her mind again, and so she purposefully
imagined Kateesha’s mangled corpse. Kateesha’s only response to the
mental image was another bout of silvery laughter.