Chapter 20: Kateesha, Part 3

Traveling by night, it took them a week to get to the Guild's fortifications in Iowa. Half brick, half wood, what would soon be a monstrosity was only partially finished. Kateesha could imagine the coming grandeur, but she didn't care. This was the third location since she'd come to the new country. It would move again.

Malick waited in the audience chamber, a long, low room paneled in wood. Five chairs sat at one end, under an antique tapestry. He sat in the center chair, a pale woman on his left and a dark skinned male on his right; two of the other four council members.

Malick's thundercloud eyes swept over the newly returned pair. His question came like a gentle slap, "Where are those you were sent to bring back?"

Kateesha dropped to her knees before him. "Father, they were troublesome and we were forced-"

"Forced?" The room seemed to shake with his displeasure. "Would you lie to me? I can see the events in your mind! I see the orgy! Is that what you make of your missions? Do my orders mean so little to you?"

Kateesha could feel his fury. "No, of course not, Father!" She dared to look up and offered him her most winning smile. "They were of little use. Ignorant, uneducated, filthy-"

"As were you when I found you!"

The smile disappeared from Kateesha's face. "They deserved their deaths!"

The dark council member leaned forward. "It is not your judgment to make! Your job is to carry out your orders as they are given to you!"

"Yes," the council woman agreed. "You have disobeyed too many times, Kateesha. You are a dangerous element that has proved uncontrollable, and your partner in this is no better. Leave us while we decide what your fate will be."

Kateesha felt the blood drain from her face and her stomach twisted. There was only one fate for breaking the laws: death. Panic consumed her and she threw herself prostrate on the floor, her hands on Malick's feet. "Please Father!" she cried. "We're sorry! We did not mean to disobey you! It will never happen again!"

"So you've said before," the council woman answered sharply. "Yet here we are. Your words are lies that you shine with your charm. I will not fall prey to such traps. Now leave us!"

Kateesha snarled at her and turned her eyes to Malick. "Father, please! Forgive us! I beg you! Have mercy!"

Malick withdrew his feet and pointed silently to the door. His face was as unreadable as marble, and the blood in Kateesha's veins turned to ice.

"Go," the dark council member ordered. "We will call for you when a decision is reached."

***

And so they went. Not just out of the audience chamber, but out of the building, to the stables. Their horses were too tired to be taken again. Kateesha threw a single, regretful glance back at Aethenoth as they rode away on someone else's steeds.

The horses ran full tilt and only when they could take no more did Kateesha call a halt. Daniel slid from his saddle, his eyes on the lonely road behind them. "They'll hunt us."

"Perhaps. Would you rather have stayed there and waited for your death to be handed to you?"

His silence hung heavy. At last he answered, "No."

"Good. Once the horses have rested we'll need to find shelter. It will be morning soon."

Daniel nodded and then, in a tone so low she could hardly hear, he asked, "Do you love me?"

The question caught her by surprise and she laughed. "Should I?"

He looked away. His mouth twisted unhappily. "We've been partnered on several occasions. We work well together. We-" he broke off but she could see the bloody memories in his mind.

"We fuck well?" she asked unabashedly.

He balked at her language, but didn't deny it. "I'll do anything you want me to, you know that."

She patted down the horse absently. "I've heard that a hundred times, or a thousand. That's the second line every man uses, right after you're beautiful'."

"You are," Daniel said quietly. "I've never met a woman like you."

"And that's the third. Next you'll promise me your undying devotion, and maybe your soul." She made a dismissive gesture with her hand. "It's the same. You're all the same."

Except for Jorick.

Daniel had no reply.

***

They rode for days. When they grew tired of running they took a farm house and kept the occupants for their dinner. They dragged their deaths out to a week, but then they drained the final child.

"We will have to hunt tomorrow," Kateesha said as she mopped herself up.

Daniel nodded absently, his eyes still clouded with the after moments of their feast. His clothing lay in a heap beside him and the last of the child's blood was smeared across his chest. He gazed at Kateesha as she cleaned herself and pulled on layers of white linen undergarments. A chemise, a corset, petticoats-

A knock sounded on the door. While Daniel went stiff, shocked back to the present. Kateesha sniffed the air and smiled. She could smell their visitor. She knew who he was and she knew what he wanted, but she was sure she could persuade him otherwise.

She wrenched the corset opened so that her ample breasts nearly spilled out the top, and carefully smoothed her hair. After a quick glance in the mirror, she dropped one strap of her chemise, leaving her shoulder naked and whispering to be touched.

That should be enough.

She opened the door and let her eyes drink in the man before her. Tall and lean with broad shoulders and silky hair as black as midnight. She knew how that hair smelled and smiled at the memory of it wrapped around her fingers.

His voice was neither hostile nor friendly, only impatient. "You know why I'm here."

"No, Jorick," she said innocently. "I have no idea."

"Malick sent me."

"Did he?" She gazed at him from under heavy lids, and let her eyes slide lower, past his belt. Her tongue flicked out involuntarily and traced her full, lower lip. "I thought perhaps you'd come to see me."