Katrina, The Beginning (29 page)

“I was worried about the
young vampire, so I looked for him and there he was.”

“So he’s all
right?”

“Yes, he’s all right, and
you won’t believe this, but he
heard
me. His mind actually
heard me.”

“You’re kidding. Didn’t it
freak him out?”

“Of course at first and
that’s what he called himself, a freak and a monster. I just wanted
him to know help was coming and for him to hang on a little longer.
Oh, and I found out his name is Eric.”

“Eric? You’re right, Kat,
this is amazing. I hope he feels a little bit better now, thanks to
you.”

“I do too.”

“Katrina, please come in so
I can do your hair, it must be dry by now,” Sarah
called.

Kate laughed, “Well you
have your orders; you’d better go.”

Sarah dressed my hair, this
time by rolling the sides back and pinning them with an enamel pin
matching my dress.

“Thank you,
Sarah.”

“Now be off, or you’ll be
late for dinner.”

The five of us left for the
dining room, the ‘beauty patrol,’ as Gunter called us. I was
looking forward to seeing Damien, but there was a young man alone,
in a small room, not far away, who was filling my thoughts. He was
also all anyone wanted to talk about at dinner.

“It’s too bad there’s no
way to tell him help is on the way,” Damien said.

“Oh, Katrina took care of
that,” Kate said.

I shot her an angry
look.

“What does Katherine mean,
Katrina?” Father said.

“Well…” I said, still
glaring at Kate. She had her head down, avoiding eye contact with
me.

“Something quite unexpected
happened this afternoon,” I said, knowing what I was about to say
was going to hurt Damien, as speaking with each other with our
minds had been our secret, something we shared alone until
now.

“I decided to see if I
could look in on him; I found that physically he was the same, but
he was in such anguish about his situation, I wanted to assure him
help was on the way.” I looked around before I said, “I projected
from my mind to his, help was coming. I spoke to him and to my
astonishment he seemed to hear me! I told him not to be afraid, I
was a friend and he just had to hang on a little
longer.”

“And she found out his name
is Eric,” interjected Kate, and then looked back down.

“This young man is
definitely unique,” Mother said, “a made vampire that’s existed on
his own, seemingly living as we do and now showing signs of having
a gift.”

This news left everyone
shaking their heads. Damien wouldn’t look at me; I reached my right
hand out under the table and placed it on his knee. When he didn’t
respond, my heart sank, knowing he was saddened by the disclosure,
I was able to communicate with someone else in our secret way. I
didn’t take my hand away; instead I slowly moved it up his thigh.
He was calling my bluff, and now I had to follow through, so I
continued to move my hand slowly up his thigh. As I advanced, to my
surprise he still didn’t stop me. Just then dessert arrived, and as
I started to pull my hand away, Damien placed his hand over mine
and gave it a squeeze. I smiled and turned my head to look at him,
but he still wouldn’t look back.

“I’m glad you were able to
call back your forces in time, Fredrik” Damien said.

I pulled my hand away then
and started to enjoy my dessert.

“Yes, and we have Watchers
in place.” He looked to us, “You must be ready to join them at any
moment, starting tomorrow, so we can put our plan into
action.”

“We’re ready, Father,” Kate
said.

“You’re sure they’re ready,
Fredrik?” Mother said, fearfully.

“Gunter assures me they
are, and Katrina of course has proven herself for some time now, as
Damien can attest; isn’t that right Damien?”

“I’d trust my life to her,”
he said.

Then it was my turn not to
look at him.

“We’re ready,” I said
emphatically. As I looked at each girl, they nodded in
agreement.

“I hope you can rid us of
the latest drama quickly,” Mother said. “If not, we’ll have to warn
the Council and guests set to arrive sooner than ten days from
now.”

I had completely forgotten
about all that. Once Damien was here, the others didn’t really
matter to me.

“Father, it can’t be just a
coincidence the Volator turned up here after attacking us in
Austria, can it? I would like to try to find the Volator we saw in
our vision. At the very least it could save us some time, and at
the most we will see this journal or hear if there are changes to
this plan or additional dangers.”

“Absolutely; go ahead and
try Katrina,” encouraged Father.

“I’ll go right now. I’ll
let you know what happens.”

“Do you want us to help
you?” Kate asked.

“Let me try alone first. I
think you’ve helped enough for one night,” I glared at
here.

“Damien, may I speak with
you for a minute?”

“Of course. If you’ll
excuse us,” he said, as we rose to leave.

When we got outside I asked
Damien a question.

“Do you think you can put a
suggestion into someone’s mind from long distance?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never
tried.”

“Well, let’s try tonight. I
know we’re stronger together than apart.”

We walked into the library
and pulled two chairs together, facing each other.

“Hold my hands. I’ll send
you the image of the Volator we saw; then if we both concentrate on
his image, we should be able to find him. If we can’t pinpoint him,
we’ll ask Kate to join us.”

Then I closed my eyes and
brought the image of the Volator to my mind and sent it to
Damien.

“Got it,” he
acknowledged.

After several minutes of
concentrating together the vision started to form. The man was
standing outside some kind of shop; he seemed to be waiting for
someone. He paced back and forth for some time before he was joined
by another man, not the huge swordsman from before, but someone
else.

“About time,” he said to
the new arrival. “Well, did you find anything new? My father’s
journal says he was going to journey to Romania again to follow up
on a lead. We know he disappeared somewhere between here and there,
with about twenty-five other Volator. The fact that we happened to
come across our young friend, not far from here, must mean there
are others, and Father’s journal have told me how we might draw
them out.”

“There are so few of us
left, Weldon; maybe we need to wait until we can build up our
force. Ten of us are not going to be enough to subdue and kill
these creatures. Besides, maybe the boy is telling us the truth. It
could be true he’s alone, and there are no others.”

“All right, if nothing
happens in the next two days we’ll get rid of him and move
on.”

“Okay, Damien, try to put
the idea into his mind about the journal. He needs to look at the
journal.”

After a few seconds, I
could see the man’s expression change.

“I think it’s working
Damien. Keep it up.”

“I need to go check on
something in my room. Where are the others?”

“They’re camped outside of
the village, in the woods.”

“Did Carl drop the girl at
the mission as he was told?”

“Yes, and he should be back
at camp soon.”

“I’ll meet you there
tomorrow afternoon. We’ll get reports and make our
plans.”

They parted. The one named
Weldon climbed the stairs on the outside of what we now could see
was a beer hall. The vision let us follow him up the stairs, into
the building and down a hallway to a room at the very end. He took
a key from his pocket and unlocked the dark wooden door with the
number 5 carved crudely into it, and went inside. The room was
simple, lit by a single oil lamp. We could see it contained a small
bed with an iron headboard, a wash stand and one wooden chair. He
looked around, stepped to the window, looked around, then went to
the bed, lifted the mattress, and pulled out what looked like a
large, leather-bound book. He opened the book, checked several
pages, then closed it and put it back under the mattress.
Apparently satisfied the book was safe, he left the room, and after
relocking the door went downstairs and into the beer
hall.

“We did it,” I said. I
jumped up and hugged Damien and gave him a quick kiss.

“Let’s go tell your father.
We should be able to finish this tomorrow.”

After one last kiss and we
left the library and flashed out into the night.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

E
veryone was anxiously waiting for us in front of the
dining hall.

“Did you see anything or
hear anything?” Kate asked anxiously.

“Yes and yes. He’s in the
village of Draden, he has a room above the beer house, number 5,
and the journal is hidden under his mattress. He spoke with another
man out in front of the beer hall and mentioned there are ten
Volator, nine of whom are camped outside of the village in the
woods. We heard the other men call the leader ‘Weldon,’ and he will
be meeting the rest of them at their encampment tomorrow afternoon.
He said if they have no news, then he will get rid of Eric and move
on.”

“We will send Watchers
there tonight, to watch and confirm everything, and then we should
be able to act on this tomorrow afternoon,” Father said. “I’ll
speak to Gunter right away; he’s escorting Elizabeth back to our
quarters.”

Soon Father came striding
back, his face stern, and we heard horses thunder out the front
gate.

“They’ll be in place in a
couple of hours,” he said confidently.

“The Volator will all be
together tomorrow afternoon, and the woods are a perfect place for
an ambush,” said Damien.

“We’ll send someone for the
journal and another party to free Eric; those two operations have
to occur at the same time as the ambush,” Father said. “How many
men will you need, Damien?”

“None; the girls and I can
handle this by ourselves. Keep the Watchers in place, just in case,
and forces in the woods ready to clean up after us.”

Damien then turned his
attention to us and said, “Letta, you get the journal and anything
else he left in the room. With your speed no one will see you. When
you get the journal, pass it to a Watcher; we’ll have someone wait
just outside town. Then come join us in the woods. El, can you free
Eric? Watchers will be nearby to help you get in, but with his
blood-lust you’ll have to take him back yourself; we can’t trust
him with a Watcher.”

“Yes,” she said
confidently.

“Get him back here as fast
as you can, and take Crimson with you. He should feed before you
leave, otherwise the Watchers may not be safe,” he
added.

“I’m strong enough, don’t
worry,” she said.

“I know you are…you all
are. We can handle the ten in the woods. We’ll meet just outside
their camp tomorrow morning, once they are all there. El and Letta
will tend to their tasks and we to ours,” said Damien.

“We are all in agreement
then?” Father asked, “and you understand the seriousness your
assignments?”

We all agreed.

“Rest up, then. You’ll
leave at first light,” Father charged, as we all rose to leave the
room.

“I’ll meet you in a few
minutes,” I said to the others.

“We knew that was coming.
Come on, everyone, let’s go,” Kate said. “Thank you for trusting
us, Damien. It means a lot.”

“Your father said you’re
ready, Gunter says your ready, and I’ve seen Katrina in action,
remember?”

“We know. We’re just glad
to see you have confidence in us too,” Rosa said.

The girls left us to go to
their rooms to rest.

“I’m already tested, but
they’re not,” I said, my anxiety for the girl’s safety tomorrow,
showing on my face.

“Are you having doubts?
Because if you are, this would be a good time to voice them,” he
said.

“No, it’s just…”

“What? Listen, we’ll have
back-up. The Watchers will be there and besides, you and I could
handle ten men by ourselves.”

“That’s true,” I sighed,
not feeling much better.

“Instinct will kick in with
them, just as it did with you. Their training has made their
reactions automatic, just like yours. Isn’t this why they came to
train with you in the first place?”

“You’re right; I’m probably
worrying for no reason. It’s just if anything ever happened to any
of them, I don’t know what I’d do.”

He curled his hand around
the back of my neck and pulled me to him. He kissed the top of my
head and I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my head on
his chest.