Chương 15: Chapter 15
The car that waited outside for Katelina and Jorick was large and blue: a relic of an era when people were more interested in size than gas mileage.
Katelina found herself quickly bundled into the backseat. Jorick slipped back into the motel room to return with the ugly orange bedspread. He wrapped it tightly around her, and her soaked clothes, murmuring encouraging phrases to wipe away the horror that shone in her eyes. Her head bobbed in time to his words and she agreed to the nonsense he was saying. She wanted to believe that it was all okay. And then a strange calm feeling descended on her. She let herself go with it, floating away on the tide of safety it offered.
She relaxed back into the seat and Jorick said softly, "I'll be right back," before he disappeared into the motel room again.
With Jorick gone, she suddenly became aware of the driver's presence. He had broad shoulders and long tawny hair that hung in a ponytail down his back. He didn't bother to turn his head, only adjusted the rear view mirror so he could see her. She stared into it and saw a pair of strange golden colored eyes looking back. The amber orbs reminded her of a cat, but she didn't have long to contemplate them before he flipped the mirror back to the normal position, his curiosity satisfied.
Katelina wondered if she should say something, but she couldn't think of any suitable words. She wasn't sure what had just happened or why, and she didn't know who the driver was or how Jorick knew him, let alone if they could trust him. But hell, could she even trust Jorick? She barely knew him. Just because he'd saved her didn't mean they were any closer, and yet she had a sense of uneasy safety just being near him. She couldn't explain it, even to herself, but there was something comforting about him.
The calm feeling began to fade. Her eyes turned towards the gaping motel room door, and she wondered what was taking Jorick so long. Images flashed through her mind of the dead or dying vampires leaping to their feet and striking him down.
Despite her fears, he emerged only a moment later, bearing a bloody blanket. Its lumpy appearance and scarlet stains declared its grim contents.
"The keys?" Jorick asked, as he paused by the driver's side window and shifted the gory parcel in his arms. His eyes shifted around the dark parking lot in search of onlookers, not nervous, only aware.
With a disbelieving shake of his head, the driver climbed out and unlocked the trunk. Katelina cringed as she heard them stuff the bundle inside. She didn't want to think about the cargo that was separated from her by only a blanket and a seat. She shuddered as she imagined the hideous things reaching up and touching her.
The men returned and Jorick slid into the front passenger seat. He glanced over his shoulder to offer Katelina a tight but reassuring smile.
She wanted to ask him what was going on, but figured it was pointless. If she still cared she could ask later, when they were away from the horrible place; away from the pink motel and the ugly carpet and hideous orange drapes and bloody footprints.
The driver asked Jorick, "Are we ready?"
Jorick nodded and dropped back into the seat. He closed his eyes wearily as the car shuddered into gear and they pulled out of the parking lot.
"I take it they found you?" The driver glanced sideways for a moment and Katelina could see his perfect profile. His strange eyes and golden brown hair made him look like a lion. It wasn't just his appearance, though. There was something very feline about him, the feeling of controlled power lurking beneath a peaceful exterior, like a cat coiled and ready to spring on its prey.
"Yes." The street lights flashed past them and splashed dark, twisted shadows across Jorick's weary face. "They found us."
The car fell silent except for the sound of the motor and the wheels on the pavement. They soon left the small town of Dunwick behind them. As it shrunk in the darkness, Katelina began to relax. Her fingers twitched and she wished she'd at least grabbed the cigarettes. She knew smoking wouldn't really make things better. How many times had Sarah lectured her about that? But at least things would seem saner. She wanted a cigarette and her own bed and her telephone. She wanted to curl up under the covers and call Sarah and tell her about this horrible nightmare she'd had, and then she wanted to call her mother and make arrangements for Grave Day like usual. She just wanted reality.
But, her reality wasn't pretty. She'd just been attacked by two vampires and the two packs of cigarettes she'd bought had been abandoned in the motel room with the food; her last twenty dollars gone for nothing, after all.
She leaned her face against the cool glass and stared out into the night flying past them. The trees were illuminated and ghostly in the harsh brightness of the headlights. The rhythm of the tires on the pavement droned in her ears. She closed her eyes and tried to relax to the vibrations of the car. She hadn't been awake for very long, but she was already as exhausted as Jorick looked. Her muscles were taut, and her left shoulder ached again.
The driver's voice interrupted her thoughts, his tones low enough that he probably thought she couldn't hear him.
"So this is the... erm... her?"
"Yes, this is Katelina," Jorick answered.
"What are you planning to do with her?"
The question hung in the air and Katelina felt herself wanting to know what he'd say, her ears tensing for the sound of his answer. Finally, after what felt like uncountable minutes, Jorick cleared his throat. "I don't know," his voice was sad. "I admit I didn't expect things to happen this way."
"I told you it was a bad idea, Jorick." His tone was flat, as though they'd discussed it too many times already.
"I know, I know." Jorick seemed resigned to that fact. "I just hated to leave her never knowing what really happened to him. Besides, who's to say that Claudius wouldn't have gone after her sooner or later? She is a reasonable suspect, you know. Would it be better for it to come as a complete shock?"
"And I suppose you broke it to her gently?" The driver snorted. "I understand your reasoning, Jorick, your true reasoning, but I still stand by my original opinion."
"I'm sure you do, Oren. I'm sure it wouldn't have haunted your dreams, but we're different."
"We didn't used to be, not before...." Oren trailed off.
"Yes, I know. I'll bet you don't even dream anymore, do you?"
There was silence and then very quietly he said, "No, Jorick. I don't."
With the danger past, a strange sense of safety settled over her. Boredom and the rhythm of the highway eventually lulled Katelina into the uneasy sleep of a passenger. She woke in the backseat, a scream trapped in her throat, her head swimming with dreams of blood and fanged vampires ripping her to shreds. She rubbed her head and then checked her watch to find that it was one-thirty in the morning.
She blinked the sleep from her eyes and glanced into the front seat. The pair of men were wrapped in silence, both staring through the windshield. The blonde's hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles white with the effort. A palpable disagreement hung in the air, but she couldn't identify the cause.
Jorick seemed to sense her gaze and turned to look at her. His warm, rich voice rolled back to her through the darkness, "How are you feeling?"
"I'm... okay," she lied. Truthfully she didn't know how she felt. She didn't think she was okay - how could she be? But for the moment she didn't seem to be hysterical. Mostly she was numb.
"Good." He nodded sharply and then jerked his head towards his companion. "I'm sorry I haven't introduced you. This is Oren. We're going to be staying with him and his wife for a little while." He acted as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"Okay," she murmured. She couldn't think of anything else to say. She had a few questions, such as where exactly did Oren live, but she supposed she'd find the answers soon enough. Right now she just wanted to relax and forget.
Jorick gave her another tight smile before he asked, "Did they say anything to you before I got there?"
She realized that he'd never asked her what was going on, almost like he'd already known and maybe even expected it. "They wanted to know where you were."
His voice grew serious and his eyes bored into her. "Did they call you by name?"
She raced over the scene in her head; it was jumbled and confused and tasted like fear in her mouth. "I - I don't think so...." How the hell was she supposed to remember that after everything else that had happened?
"Good." He gave another quick, satisfied nod. "They aren't aware who you are yet - which is an advantage." He paused and rubbed his chin. "Perhaps Michael didn't make it after all."
"I can find out, if you want me to," Oren offered unenthusiastically.
"Yes. I'd like to find out how much Claudius knows. I'm sure that someone made it out alive last night, at least one of them." Jorick seemed to be musing aloud rather than actually conversing.
The talk ceased and the night flew by. Katelina had finally decided she was really being kidnapped, and hauled to a shadowy pier to be sacrificed, when they came to a wrought iron fence that stood open and waiting. They followed the curving driveway and came to a stop before a huge, red brick mansion. Electric light blazed from more than half the windows and Katelina suddenly wondered about who else lived with him. It seemed too big for just Oren and his wife - from the look of the car they obviously weren't rich.
As the men climbed out, Katelina sat froze clutching the bedspread, her mind churning. The mansion was like a scene from a horror movie; the scene right before the girl died. There was room enough inside it for a whole "coven", as Jorick had called it. What if the only reason Jorick had saved her was so he could bring her to Oren's house and sacrifice her in some cult ritual? Maybe the dead things in the trunk weren't really vampires, just warring cult members. The image of the lonely pier was now replaced with a picture of a shadowy basement and lots of candles.
Quà tặng
-- Nhận quà Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực