CH30
Irene felt better as she went through the store with Sirene. While they weren't side by side since Irene was picking clothing for someone younger and smaller than what Sirene was searching for.
That was even more pronounced when they both found themselves in the bra area. Sirene was searching for something smaller while Irene was searching for something a little bigger.
Then Irene saw something that just seemed to speak to her and they had it in her size. She snatched it off the rack and bundled it up in all the other stuff she was walking around with. She was hoping that Sirene wouldn't mind that she used her money to buy it with.
Besides it was only going to be Sirene who saw her in it and who took it off of her. Irene suddenly found that she couldn't wait to wear it for her and wondered how long it would take for Sirene to take it off of her body.
They were already walking around with numerous bags when they finally made it to the shoe department, and they still had to go to the make-up area. Dress shoes were too specific to the person and needed to be tried on to make sure they fit properly. They ended up getting everyone tennis shoes for now.
Sirene picked out some combination kits for them to use. "Ready to go?" Sirene asked as she reached for the last bag.
"Yes, please, my hands are about to fall off." Irene held up all of her bags as the thin handles of the plastic bags were cutting into her fingers.
"We still need to get you some food," Sirene pointed out. "Can we come back for that?" Irene wanted to put all of these bags down. Sirene chuckled as they walked to a quiet spot for her to jump them back home.
They handed out bags like it was Christmas and started pulling stuff out of their bags to see what they had to wear. "What's this?" Kate held it up with both hands so she could see it.
It was nice, really nice and incredibly sexy and just as fast it was snatched out of her hands. "That's mine," Irene told her and tried to hide it, not missing the knowing look Kate was giving her.
Everyone was getting dressed when Sirene jumped Irene back into town so she could find something to bring home and eat. "Should we order more steaks?" Irene asked meaning for Kate and Castle.
"Let's see if they ask for one first and go from there."
While Irene was eating the topic got changed to what to do or where to go. "I'm still thinking about going home. Maybe we can transfer Paige's and Irene's school credits. I'm sure Budapest will have hospitals where they can find jobs."
"We have more than enough money to buy what we want and have it furnished to our combined tastes," Kate offered.
"Downtown or out in the country?" Castle questioned.
That was a good question for Kate. "Living out in the middle of nowhere isn't all it's cracked up to be." Sirene warned them. "I know I'm out here all alone, and I did it to myself. It's a good way for a single person to hide. But if we build up a house again, we're going to need to think about that."
"I thought hiding in downtown New York City was brilliant and look how well that worked out."
"That wasn't your fault Kitty. Even our Lord thought it was brilliant. It's why it took so long to find you in the first place."
"We're going to need a real estate agent if none of you have been there lately," Irene reminded them.
"And all real estate agents are only open during the day," Paige pointed out.
"Then I guess it's a good thing one of us is still human then," Kate smiled while all heads turn to look at Irene.
"Why me? I don't know anything about buying a house." Irene was sure this was a dumb idea and doomed to failure.
"You'll do great love. You know that money is no object and we'll teach you what to look for and what we need. The bigger the better. Someplace where we can fit in. Someplace that doesn't scream VAMPIRES LIVE HERE!" Sirene tried to give her some encouragement.
"And since you're not a vampire, you're perfect for the job. You'll fit right in." Kate said encouragingly.
"I only speak English." Irene brought up one last problem.
"I think you'll be surprised how many people speak English," Kate replied. "Now we just need to know what it takes to get her there and where to take her to."
"Ooo, research." Alexis cracked her knuckles and went over to Sirene's laptop.
It didn't take her long. "We can't get there from here. From New York, yes, just not from here." Alexis offered.
"We could use one of our safe houses near New York City." Kate suggested.
"Here's a real estate company that looks nice. Their website is in English. Let's see what they have right now." Alexis began using their search engine.
"They have 3 places listed that have a minimum of 12 bedrooms."
"Any pictures?" Kate needed to know where to jump to. "Plenty."
"We'll jump to New York tonight, sleep there, and jump to Budapest tomorrow. How long will she have?"
That took Alexis a little longer. "Looks like 3 hours before it is dark again in New York."
Kate cursed silently. "Not nearly long enough; she'll be lucky to look at even one location. She's going to need a hotel to spend the night."
"On it." Alexis answered. "Irene now has a hotel reservation at the Corinthia for two nights, just in case. Signature Suite, one king size bed with 1500 square feet of space right in the middle of downtown Budapest. And she has an appointment with a real estate firm to visit those three sites and anything else they may have." Alexis was very pleased; she loved research.
Irene had just been standing there turning her head side to side as those two made plans for her life for the next 2 days. "What am I, a slave?" Irene asked herself and was just getting ready to speak up when Sirene walked over to her and wrapped her arms around her.
"If they'll let us we can move there with them. Neither of us will be alone again. I know we need to talk about this, but this will give you incentive to find the right place." Sirene whispered into her ear from behind.
How did Sirene know she was about to blow up? And yet being included felt so different. They were trusting her to find the right place for all of them. They may be pushing her to do it, but trusting her at the same time. Live, study and work in Budapest. A fresh new start where no one knew about your past and didn't throw looks your way or talk behind your back.
"We need to get you packed and I need a weapon and some spare clips," Sirene commented and jumped only to come back a moment later checking her weapon as Alexis was holding the paperwork she would need. As Sirene handed over her weapon to Kate who had lost hers, a thought struck her, "Oh crap, do you even have a passport?"
"Actually I do. I had all these dreams about going to see Paris or take a ride in a gondola in Venice while he sings to you or see the Pyramids in person. Walk the Great Wall maybe. It was never going to happen but I got the passport anyway. It took a chunk out of my budget and I didn't splurge for nearly a month after that," Irene admitted.
Sirene wrapped her arms around Irene again and held her even tighter. "All of that is about to change. You'll see." And Sirene kissed her in front of everyone. Splurging was soon going to be common practice.
"Getting there is going to be hard on you and I'm sorry. The safe house isn't set up for humans, there is no food where we are going. I think the plumbing still works. I've been paying the bills for it so it had better. We'll jump just before daylight so that you don't have to wait as long."
"Actually when I jump away leaving you in Budapest I'll likely just stay there till I can jump back and pick you up, spend another daylight there before coming back here. You will get to be having all the fun. I'll be trapped in the safe house all this time." Kate tried to make it sound like Irene was getting the better part of this deal.
It was late when they finally did jump after Kate got a kiss from Rick and Irene got a kiss from Sirene.
Irene soon found herself standing in an old cabin by the look of it. "There are bedrooms upstairs, not that I know if they are worth sleeping in. Likely the sheets need washing and there is no washer or dryer. The kitchen is that way and this is the living room. Some blood bags that might have been in there too long are all that's in the refrigerator. Though this place still has its oven and likely everything you need to cook with if you had something to cook with."
"The closest cabin isn't for miles and the closest town is even farther. There is a pond out back that you can go swimming in if you chose, though you may have to go skinny dipping or keep your bra and panties on and get them cleaned at the hotel later."
"There is a TV but it's only hooked up to an old VCR machine with movies in that cabinet there. The water should be running and there are glasses. The only full bathroom is upstairs while there is a tiny half bath near the front door. There should be towels and other things, but you brought most of that stuff from Sirene's home," Kate tried to quickly explain what there was to work with.
"And where will you be?" There were windows everywhere and nothing looked like it could be used to block out the sun. Kate walked over to a door and opened it. "I'm going to be down there." Irene made a face of disgust. "Seriously?" It looked like it was straight out of one of those horror movies where everyone got their throats cut or hung from the rafters. Or man eating worms came up out of the floor drain and tried to eat you with their giant mouth full of teeth.
"I told you, you were getting the better deal out of this," Kate reminded her. "I've got maybe 10 minutes so let me walk you around outside.
The pond turned out to be closer in size to a lake and it even had a dock though it didn't have a boat. "Looks like the row boat is gone. It's likely out there somewhere washed up on shore, or down there." Kate gestured towards the bottom of the lake.
"Try not to go into the woods if you can help it. Likely poison ivy is all over the place here," Kate warned her and they walked to the front of the house where Irene saw a car parked.
"You have a car?" Irene was surprised. If it ran she could go get groceries if she had a map of where she was. "The keys are in the kitchen. The battery is probably dead, however and I don't remember the last time we put gas in it. It may have gone bad by now. There is a battery charger and extension cord in the hall closet if you're brave enough to try it. Or lonely enough. You can always come downstairs and be with me."
"So, you and Sirene?" Irene asked shyly.
Kate wrapped her arms around Irene. "Sirene is yours now. Yes, I still love her and I likely always will. We had 10 beautiful years together and I was so much in love. But I'm in love with Castle now, and not in love with Sirene. She will always have a place in my heart, but she doesn't own it anymore. And I'm happy she has found you. She deserves to be happy and loved by someone. I'm just glad its you." Kate kissed her head, and noticed it was getting light out.
"I gotta go, you're on your own till the sun goes down again." Kate jumped to the basement and was lying down in one of the cots and went to sleep for the first time in her life and not noticing it since she was supposed to be asleep (dead) during this time.
It left Irene looking around. It was going to be a long day.
Irene started with looking at the car. She didn't know what year it was but it was easy enough to work out that it was a VW Jetta that ran on diesel and she actually found a map in the glove box. She hoped it was for this area. Now she just needed those keys.
Sure enough it didn't start. Several minutes later she had the hood up, the battery charger all hooked up then went back inside. Irene didn't trust anything in there so she found the dishwasher soap and loaded the dishwasher with everything she thought she might need and turned it on. Satisfied that it was working properly, she went upstairs and picked a bedroom. She stripped the sheets off and hung them outside from a tree branch. She may not be able to wash them but she could at least air them out, maybe get rid of some of the stink.
Irene had no idea how long it would take to charge the battery so she started searching the VHS collection after turning on the TV and finding out it still worked. That certainly was a surprise since it looked to be almost as old as this cabin was.
"Battlestar Galactica! Really?" The jacket cover even showed the art work. She loaded it into the machine and pressed play and sat back to watch it, which immediately brought on a sneezing attack.
The Galactica was under attack from the fake truce talks when Irene put the old vacuum cleaner away after dumping the full bag outside, far away from the house and sat back down and put her feet up on the coffee table. The stupid dusty sofa was now clean, or at least cleaner.
Irene had seen the movie before and now it simply reminded her of how old school Hollywood that movie was now. Still she was a fan of anything Sci-fi so it was fun. Putting the tape on rewind she went outside to see if the car would start yet. It took a couple of tries but she got it running. Irene started dancing while still sitting behind the wheel. It meant she wasn't going to starve to death even though Sirene had jumped her to Victoria to eat some pub food before leaving. She even had half a tank of gas.
Moments later Irene was emerging from her dirt road onto a black top two lane road that did have at least a couple of cars on it. She was afraid of that. There wasn't a single landmark anywhere in sight. She could drive right past the access road and never know she missed it.
Irene got the pillow case off the passenger seat, found a tree to tie it to, and decided which direction to go. Irene soon found that Kate wasn't kidding, there wasn't anyone within miles of this place. She did come across a gas station that had a knick knack and convenience store next door. It allowed her to fill the gas tank with fresh diesel while trying to find out where she was.
Turned out the closest town was another 6 miles up the road. All 1,112 in population, it didn't even have a stop light. It did have a tiny grocery store that Irene stopped at and went shopping.
Pleased that she had found what she needed, it was time to start praying that the car would start again. Driving past her gas station told her she was going the right way and kept her eyes open for her pillow case.
Irene stopped to recover her pillow case and drove down the dirt road till she was back at the house. The cans went into the cabinets, while the refrigerated stuff went into the refrigerator, and the frozen stuff went into the freezer. The dishwasher was done by then so she opened it to allow what was inside to cool off. But not before she pulled out a glass and put some ice from the store into it and poured her can of Diet Coke into it and went back to the movie collection.
Irene was sitting on the sofa watching "The Day the Earth Stood Still" in glorious black and white when the basement door opened. "Someone has been into town, I smell cooking." It made Kate think of that almost raw steak she had earlier, she kind of wished for another one.
"You don't mind? It was a really small town. Might be where they got the saying 'one horse town.'" Though Irene didn't remember seeing a horse.
"No, of course not. It's good to know you can do it since you're going to be all alone in Budapest. I need to find something to cover up the basement windows since the covers have fallen down on two of them."
"And the sun didn't hurt you?"
Kate thought about it. She had died like usual and she wasn't burnt at all. Maybe the sun hadn't actually hit her. "Apparently not." Kate lifted her arms and bent down to look at her legs. "We better get going since I only have three hours there before the sun comes up."
Irene turned off the TV while Kate made sure all of the doors were closed and locked before holding onto Irene and jumping for a spot near the hotel.
"WOW!" Irene looked at the hotel on the outside. It was all lit up with white walls and a blue roof with a prominent main entrance. "It's gorgeous. You sure we can afford this place?" Irene asked before shaking her head. "Never mind. …$3.4 billion. You could probably buy this hotel."
Kate smiled. "Wouldn't know what to do with it if I had it," she answered truthfully. "Shall we?" Kate motioned for Irene to go first.
After checking in they found themselves on the 4th floor and opened the door to the room. "WOW!" Irene had been in a hotel room before, but this wasn't a hotel room, this was a house!
It had a large living room that even had a bar. There was a sofa, 2 chairs and a TV. Next was a large dining room with a table that could seat 8 people and it even had a full kitchen. Irene started opening cabinets. "It even has plates and glasses. You can cook here." Irene turned to Kate and smiled.
Next came a large bedroom with a massive bed, bathroom with a separate shower and a walk-in closet, ironing board and iron, safe, robes and slippers. "I don't need this much space." Irene was expecting a Motel 6 hotel room, not…this!
"It's perfect. Now you've got me envious of your room when I get a cot in a dirty musty basement." Kate wasn't upset, as a vampire she had stayed in worse.
"Kate, why didn't the sun fry you if the windows weren't closed properly?"
"I… Maybe the rays of the sun didn't hit me."
It gave Irene an idea but kept it to herself for the time being. "Well, we know where your hotel is, let's go outside and see if we can find your real estate agent's location so you can do it on your own in a few hours," Kate suggested.
It turned out to be simple and really close by. Leave the hotel and turn right out onto Erzsebet krt., turn left at the first intersection which was Kiraly u. and down 3 streets to Nagymezo u. and turn right. Down to the second intersection and turn left which was Andrassy ut. Down to the second intersection and turn right onto Dobo u. And the real estate agent was right on the next corner.
"That wasn't hard. God, I love Alexis and her research! Think you can do that again?" Kate asks.
"I think so, let's walk it back to be certain." Irene turns for the hotel.
"Got it?" Kate asked as they stood outside the hotel. "Got it." Irene was sure she could do that again.
"It looks like they don't open for a few hours after the sun comes up so you'll have to wait a little, but you'll have all day."
Kate sat with Irene in the hotel room hoping it would help calm any nerves she would have. "Kate what happens if you end up in the sun?" Irene had a theory but wanted to hear what Kate had to say first.
"It depends. If, say I jump to a location that's in full sun, I'll probably start screaming in pain. That pain will likely prevent me from thinking of where to jump to that should be dark. It will only take seconds to flash fry me and crumble into dust." Kate had seen it happen so she knew it was painful and quick.
"And say only your hand was exposed to the sun?" Irene knew what she would ask next depending on what Kate said.
"My hand would start to fry, much like when you cook something. Just a second will give me a nasty burn turning my hand red, like your sunburn. Another second and I'll have a third degree burn and just a few seconds longer and I'll lose the hand. Why all the interest now?"
"I have a theory based on the sun making it into your basement during the day."
"And the sun must have not touched me while I slept."
"Kate, are you willing to do a test before you leave?"
"You want to see me get a burn on my hand?"
"I don't want you hurt, but I have a theory and you need to risk getting a sunburn to verify it."
"I don't see how it's going to work. The second the sun comes up whether the sun hits me or not, I'll instantly drop dead until the sun goes down. And end up exposed to the full sun and fry."
"Come with me," Irene asked and took her into the bedroom. The dining room had 2 windows, the living room had 3 and the bedroom had 1. "You stand way back here at the entrance to the bathroom with the doors open. If you start to drop dead I shove you into the tub and cover you up with the giant sized comforter off of the bed."
"You'll sleep the day away in the tub instead of a dark, dank basement where the sun might still fry you if your cover doesn't hold."
"What are you trying to prove?" Irene was asking for her to take a big risk for what? So she could see her burn herself?
"I have a theory that the sun won't burn you," Irene said. She saw Kate's face and held up her hand to stop Kate from commenting.
"You took Castle's Lycan blood and he took your vampire blood. I know you said your system would convert it. It's just that Sirene said you should both be dead because you have each others blood.
But what if...what if you're not converting his blood to vampire? What if your 2 blood types have learned to co-exist and they share the blood that you drink?"
"Sirene said you two should be dead and yet you're not, AND you ate a full size New York Strip steak. You yourself said you hadn't eaten anything since before you were turned. So what if..." Irene tried to plead her case while looking at Kate.
Kate thought about it and the more she thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded. She was a vampire not a stinking Lycan!
"You're not going to do it are you?" Irene could see it on her face.
"Do you have any idea what you are asking? Lycans are our mortal enemy, have been before I was even born. You're asking me to verify if I'm a Lycan now because I bit Castle. I find out that I'm a Lycan now I'll wish Sirene was right and that what I did should have killed me. Hell, both of us for that matter." She didn't even know why she was even still listening. It was out of the question!