Dienstag der 17. März, 1220
Well, this has been an evening to top them all. I awoke to the sounds of furniture being moved. Ghouls were emptying Nora's room. I asked about her whereabouts, and the ghoul was as helpful as ghouls ever are.
Voradore was somewhat more helpful. He told me she died. She left the complex alone while I was writing last evening's entry, and was thrown into her Final Death by one of those mutts. Tad seems less broken up than I would have thought.
I can't help but feel responsible. She wasn't the type to wander outside by herself that close to dawn. I must have misjudged how badly killing the gang leader affected her. She is yet another sin to blacken my soul, as horrid as my family and the Lady d'Lars. It seems that Satan will kill those near to me, whatever I do.
That would be preferable with my new acquaintances, however. Voradore wasted no time in pairing me with a new partner: Katherine.
Katherine is a bitch.
We found the strange wolf-like man, and brought him back to Voradore in spite of Katherine's brute-like stupidity. He calls himself Abarath, and is currently a member of our assigned coterie, by Voradore's order.
The entire time we were out locating and retrieving Abarath, Katherine spent her time glaring at me, sizing me up, I suppose. Abarath, apparently a kindred spirit of hers, brought matters to light and voice, asking her outright how it was she could follow someone as "weak" and "short" as myself. While Abarath spoke with Voradore in his office, Katherine and I finally began to show our true feelings for one another, quite verbally.
Unfortunately, Katherine's idea of "verbally" involves brutally attacking walls with the person she's speaking to as a weapon.
Voradore, somehow aware of the occurrence (possibly because the wall involved had his office just on the other side) erupted from his conference with a mass of animate darkness, demanding an explanation. Katherine dropped me to the floor, the frenzy instantly gone from her eyes, and as I burned precious blood to heal myself, Voradore made it explicitly clear to Katherine what type of behavior would and wouldn't be allowed in Sanctuary.
That might have been the end, at least for the evening, but Abarath then suggested the wonderful idea of going to the training center to spar some. Once there, he went about picking out rather large opponents one by one and fighting them to the floor. As far as I know, he didn't lose. I was content to find myself a bench and read, but Katherine felt it important to "challenge" me for "command" of our coterie, as though we were little more than wolves.
I attempted to remain as I was and read, but she physically pulled me into the ring, and those vampires in the vicinity circled tightly around and refused to let me leave, offering their bodies as a wall, and the rising jeer of "coward" as bait for my own Beast.
I told Katherine I was not interested in a fight, and when she specifically said she would challenge me, I told her I cared not for command, and if it was truly that important to her, then it was hers. That would not suffice, however, and I felt the Beast begin to boil in my blood as the jeering continued.
Truth be told, I believe luck was on my side. Truly, that is the only explanation for how long I lasted. She finished me quickly, frenzying in the process, and in the end I made the acquaintance of her friend the floor at a high velocity. By the time I awoke in the infirmary, the match was long over, and I could think of a dozen or more things I might have done better, and another dozen I may still do.
Katherine came with Abarath to gloat over me before the physicians allowed me to leave, but I had not the strength of heart to deal with her just then. I had been tried heavily in mind, body, and soul, and irony of ironies, only my soul was not found wanting. The night has been a long one, and I have not yet mourned the truly dead.
Udo der Tote