Chapter 30-
(Catarina)
At dusk we check out of the hotel, relocating somewhere quieter because of our new arrivals. We pick Steve's practically empty apartment building. The rooms are cold, damp, and uncomfortable but will do for now. We take three rooms next to each other. One is Steve's apartment already. Shan and I move into it with him. One room is Debbie's by herself. The other has Vancha, Harkat, and Mr. Crepsley. Steve sleeps on the couch, insisting we take his bed. I snuggle against Shan for warmth and a blanket with holes is thrown over us.
We go to the tunnels and split up into teams. Vancha and Steve, Debbie and Mr. Crepsley, Shan and Harkat and me. We don't have arrow guns but all the others do including Debbie. Every one of us has a cell phone. On our way through the tunnels Shan tells Harkat "Can you go ahead a little? I need to talk to Catarina alone."
Harkat looks at me then nods. "Okay." He obediently goes on through the tunnel.
"Cat..." Shan says. I shove him, hard. He hits the wall and it cracks. He winces. "I'm sorry..."
"Fuck you," I growl. I do not forgive him for kissing Debbie. That's what they got in an argument about the night he was attacked by the vampaneze and Steve rescued him.
"It didn't mean anything. I wasn't thinking."
"You're an idiot! I hate Debbie. She's just a stupid little human girl!"
"I'm sorry Cat. I love you! I know I'm an idiot and I made a mistake."
"I will not forgive you Shan," I cross my arms and frown.
"I do care about Debbie a lot but she doesn't mean to me, what you do. I love you so much Catarina. You're my mate. I want to be with you forever. She is a human and she doesn't belong with me in my world. You're a vampire general and all that we've been through, all you do, all we will do together in the future...no one could ever compare to you. Our bond is so strong. We understand each other, we complete each other. I would be nothing without you. You're so amazing. Please Cat..."
I shake my head, too upset. I turn away from him. He sinks down onto the cement ledge he's on and cries. I go find Harkat. By the time I do I am sniffling myself. "Are you okay Cat?"
"No," I kneel down and hug him for a long time. I do not cry but it takes me a while to get a hold of myself. I take a deep breath and finally stand up saying "Thank you."
"No problem," he is curious about what's going on but doesn't ask, respecting my privacy.
Eventually Shan joins us, moping behind us. I say nothing to him. Later, I am looking for comfort. I talk to Mr. Crepsley about the whole thing, whimpering towards the end. "You can cry Catarina. No one is here except for me and I will certainly not hold it against you."
I nod and I do cry. He hugs me, pulling me close to him and I gladly accept the hug. Mr. Crepsley has become like a dad to me strange as it may be. When I calm down I dry my face then sit up. "Darren is young," he tells me. "He makes mistakes as have I in my more foolish days. He loves you. And you love him, yes?"
I nod.
"Then talk to him and work it out. I could not think of anyone more perfect for each other than you two. I know what is going on with him and Debbie. I know what went on. I know you and I know Darren. Trust me."
I nod again. "Thank you."
I do not sleep in the same bed as Shan. I sit on the couch and Steve hesitantly sits beside me. "Darren told me everything. He's really sorry."
I don't respond.
"Are you okay?"
"No."
He frowns sympathetically. "Can I...will you attack me if I give you a hug?"
I shrug so he hugs me lightly then lets go. He forces a smile and says "It's going to be okay."
I curl up on the lumpy cushion, laying my head on the arm rest. Steve puts his jacket over me and sits on the opposite end of the couch. Eventually he falls asleep too.
In the tunnel I whisper to Harkat that I want to talk to Shan alone. He is hesitant but sees I am sure so he leaves. "Where's he going?" Shan questions. I stop him.
"We need to talk."
He stands and faces me on the ledge. He looks sad.
"I talked to Mr. Crepsley about this..."
"What did he say?"
"It doesn't matter," I shake my head.
"I'm sorry Catarina. I don't know what else to say. Please...don't leave me."
"You should have thought about it before you kissed her."
He sinks down and sobs. "I can't be without you...please...I was stupid...forgive me...I love you so much...please..."
I walk over to the ledge and climb onto it. I kneel in front of him and place my hands on either side of his face, forcing him to look at me. Tears are starting to fall from me too now. "You are the most important thing in my world. You always have been since I met you. I love you more than anything. What you did to me...it hurt. I don't know if I could ever go through the pain again. I cannot lose you. Do you understand that?"
He nods miserably.
"If you EVER hurt me like this again I will NOT forgive you. Understand?"
He nods again.
"I love you," I kiss him. He throws his arms around me and kisses back. We make out until I force him to his feet. Then he pushes my back against the wall and continues kissing me, our tongues dancing. I am practically clawing at him, pulling him against me desperately.
"I love you too Cat...so fucking much. I can't even put into words. I'll never hurt you again. Cat..." he pants.
I close the distance between us, my lips on his. We make out passionately again. He is close enough that we have bodily contact and I am the one who spreads my legs a little so he fits between them. I slowly rock my hips against his while still pulling him against me with my arms and hands. His hands are on the dirty wall behind me. After a moment his lips travel down to my neck. I tilt my head, closing my eyes and I moan quietly. He whispers in my ear "I want to make love to you so bad Cat."
"Me too," I mumble. After a little more heated kissing I push him away gently. "We have to stop."
We take a while to calm ourselves down. Then I grab his hand and he smiles. I smirk and we go find Harkat. I am dirty now but that is nothing new. We are always dirty when we emerge.
This time he leaves me with Steve, saying he has to do something. Mr. Crepsley tells me not to worry.
I sit on the couch with Steve, leaning my head on his shoulder. When Shan arrives back he is not with Debbie. He shoves me lightly into our room then closes the door. I wait on the bed patiently. He returns a minute later, walking and shutting the door behind him. He crawls into bed and hands me something, smiling brightly. It's a bouquet of red roses. I smell them and smile lightly. "Thank you."
He also has more gifts in a bag. I pull them out one by one. A new warm blanket, a little white teddy bear with a red heart on it, a small heart shaped box of chocolates, and a small bottle of perfume with a ribbon tied in a bow around it. I smile again. "Thank you so much," I say.
"You're welcome Catarina. I love you."
"I love you too."
We make out, our arms around each other. I lie down against a pillow and he lies over me, reconnecting our lips. After a moment he is tugging my black tunic off. I allow him to. He kisses my neck and my stomach and my chest. I stop him soon. "We can't."
"Why not?"
"Steve..." I respond.
He shakes his head and pulls my leggings off, kissing up my thigh. He sits up and takes off his own shirt and works on his pants. "Don't worry about him. He's asleep."
I frown. "Are you sure?"
"Catarina," he captures my mouth in another heated kiss. He straddles me, only in boxers now. He undoes my bra and slips it off of me without breaking our kiss. He straddles me on his hands and knees as we make out. I wrap my arms and legs around him. In a few more moments our remaining garments are pulled off and we are making love.
(Shan's POV)
Catarina is lying on her belly, her head on the pillow, sleeping. I put the blanket over her naked body and pull her close to me. I keep my arms around her and sleep. When I wake up, her head is on my shoulder and she is still in my arms, fast asleep.
I crawl away and put on my clothes quietly as possible so I don't disturb her. Then I go to the kitchen where Steve is sitting with a glass of water and some make shift breakfast. "Hey man," he says.
I sit down too. "Hey," I run a hand through my messy hair.
"So you and Catarina made up?"
I nod. "Yeah. I'm so lucky to have her."
"From the sounds of last night you sure showed her how you really feel."
"Steve! Shhh...I didn't mean for you to hear that. I told her you were asleep."
"I wasn't," he shrugs.
"I'm sorry," I am embarrassed.
He chuckles. "It's fine. I'll get over it."
(Catarina)
Friday morning we are on our way back to the apartment when Shan picks up a newspaper. It says Darren and Catarina Horston are missing and people are looking for them since a girl from school turned up dead. Mr. Crepsley makes up a story for us when he hears the news. Shan will tell them our dad took us to our uncle's house for health. We will go to school then say we don't feel well and ask our teachers to call our 'Uncle Steve' to retrieve us since our dad is at a job interview. On Monday we'll say our dad got the job so we have to move away to another city.
When we arrive at school the principal tells us how worried he was that the murderer might have gotten us. He says the girl who is dead from school is named Tara Williams. Shan whispers to me that she sits to his left in English. He is worried the next victim might be Richard who sits to his right. "Look sick," he tells me.
I slump down against him and he catches me easily. "Catarina!" the principal is concerned.
"Cat?" Shan asks like he is worried too.
"I feel sick," I mumble.
"Maybe you should go home and rest," the principal says. "Let's get you to the office so we can call your dad."
"He's at a job interview today. You will have to call our Uncle Steve," Shan tells him.
We sit in chairs at the office while they call. "You should probably go home too Darren," the principal offers.
"Yeah I'm not feeling so well either."
"Your uncle is on his way."
"I'm just going to grab some of our homework and I'll be right back," he leaves and when he returns he whispers to me that he checked on Richard and he is okay for now.
We discuss everything with Mr. Crepsley. He says vampaneze could strike Richard or the person in front of Shan or in back of him. He tells us we will stake out their houses and attack vampaneze with arrow guns 9not us vampires of course). Derek Barry sits in front of Shan so Debbie and Mr. Crepsley will go there. Gretchen Kelton sits in back of him so Vancha and Steve go there. It's Friday night, dark and cold and wet. I am still wearing my school uniform and so is he. I huddle against him the whole night. Nothing happens at all.
Mr. Crepsley announces that we will be leaving on Monday as planned, regardless of whether the vampaneze attack or not. Shan reluctantly agrees. The mission takes priority.
Saturday heavy clouds mask the almost full moon. Richard and his brother go to the store. We follow and watch from a distance. On the way back to Richard's house at 8:15 PM Harkat points out a vampaneze. He pulls out his arrow gun, Shan his throwing knives from Vancha, and I pull out one of my two daggers hidden under my tunic. We all end up in the ally and the hooked vampaneze that attacked Shan jumps out. Harkat shoots it in the leg with an arrow. We don't want him to die yet because we want information from him. Hooky (as Shan and Harkat call him) falls down and howls. I hide in the shadows with Harkat and Shan covers his face to keep his identity secret. He yells at Richard and his brother "Get out of here! Run now if you want to live!" They do and so does Hooky.
Harkat calls the others while Shan and I chase Hooky. He stops on a roof and we climb up after him. He throws tiles at us, yelling. The others arrive. Us vampires chase Hooky over the rooftops and the others chase him on the ground. Hooky goes into the tunnels. We all go after him and he leads us to a cave. When we walk in others drop from the ceiling. It's 9 vampaneze and 14 Vampets who all have guns. A door opens and four more vampaneze enter then.
Vancha says it's dishonorable to fight like this. Everyone drops their arrow guns by his orders. A vampaneze in charge tells his people to put down their guns too. Vancha asks if Hooky really is a vampaneze and the one in charge says he was recently blooded. "You use these things to fight for you? Human thugs and crazy hook handed monsters!" Vancha taunts.
"I'm only crazy with rage and it's all his fault!" Hooky points at Shan.
"I don't even know you!" Shan argues.
"Liar, liar, pants on fire!" he takes off his mask.
"Reggie Veggie?" Shan gasps.
"Don't call me that! It's RV!"
I have heard very little about him. I know he was a hippie who thought the cirque was cruel and there was an accident with the wolf man who ate his arms.
"You sent those forms to Mahler's!" he accuses.
"I had help."
"Who ?" Vancha questions.
"I did!" Steve shouts. We all turn to look at him and see he is now holding a knife to Debbie's throat. For the first time hiss gloves are off and the scars on his fingertips are visible. He is a half vampaneze.
"No!" I growl viciously, crouching and full of anger. Shan doesn't attack because of Debbie. Vancha grabs my arm in a firm grip with one of his hands, holding me back. If it was up to me I'd kill Steve now. I could care less about Debbie.
"I knew we could not trust him," Mr. Crepsley says. Steve laughs.
"This was a ploy, wasn't it?" Vancha asks.
"Of course. Darren being attacked and me rescuing him. I was the one who got this all started, lured you back into the city," Steve answers.
"Why?" Shan demands.
"You plotted with Crepsley to kill me with that spider. You were jealous of me."
"No, you're wrong! I saved you! I gave up everything so that you could live. This is madness!"
"Look who it is," he points across the cave where the vampaneze Lord and Gannen are. Vancha charges forward before anyone realizes what he's doing. Mr. Crepsley goes in after him, knives slashing vampaneze and so does Harkat with an axe. I turn just as Shan shouts "Debbie!" and goes to rescue her. It makes me even more furious. He should be joining his companions on our important mission, trying to get to the vampaneze lord. Instead he chose Debbie like always.
I scream furiously and lash out at any vampaneze near me with a dagger in each hand.
I can see out of the corner of my eye what is going on with Shan. RV is now holding his hooks to Debbie, and Shan has a blade to Steve. "If she dies, he dies!" Shan threatens. RV takes Debbie away telling Shan he will kill her if he kills Steve. Then he's gone. The Vampaneze Lord escapes with two guards after them. Gannen looks at Shan amidst the fighting and gives him the death touch symbol. Shan has his sword in hand and he fights vampaneze near him. We all follow him to the exit tunnel. Vampaneze start to go block us but Gannen tells them "Hold!" and they stop. Gannen walks over and stands face to face with his brother.
"Vancha."
"Gannen."
"I will give you a fifteen minute head start. No one shall follow you."
"This is a trick," Vancha snarls.
"I don't lie. The odds are still in our favor. I hope to lose as few of my men as possible."
"I'm not leaving without Debbie," Shan protests. I growl low in my throat, still flooded with anger.
"Take Steve and bargain with RV later," Gannen suggests.
"Fine, deal!" Shan agrees.
"Go now!" Gannen tells us so we do. Vancha drags a vampet hostage with him.