CH31

It was starting to get light out. Irene hadn't closed the windows and Kate hadn't asked her to. Kate however was fidgeting and working her hands over as she sat there.

"You need to get going Kate, the sun will be up soon," Irene reminded her, however Kate didn't move or jump, she just kept playing with her hands.

"You're thinking about my plan aren't you? I promise to be fast Kate, like really fast. I'm not going to get home without you and yes, I may be rich holding your credit card (which likely had access to millions of dollars), but I love Sirene and I like my life now. I'm not screwing it up." Irene got up and went into the bedroom and stripped the bed down and threw most of it into the bathroom leaving the door to it open and tried to work out in her mind where Kate should stand. She went back to the bed and grabbed 2 of the 6 pillows that were on the bed and threw them into the bathroom too.

Irene was standing in the doorway to the bathroom when Kate finally showed up looking even more nervous and even scared than Irene had ever seen her.

All Kate could think was that if this worked and she didn't burn, she was a stinking Lycan now. But that raised another question. Why could she still jump if she was a Lycan?

Irene had her standing where she wanted her to stand. Kate had her hand sticking out into the bedroom and Irene had her hands on Kate's back with her feet firmly planted, ready to shove Kate with everything she had. "You're shaking." Kate simply nodded since this was possibly suicide in her eyes. Except if that was the case she had killed herself when she bit Castle.

The sun was up because the room was brighter than anything Kate had felt in centuries and she watched as the sun quickly ran across the bed, the floor and up the back wall.

Neither of them noticed that Kate was still standing and still breathing, though Irene could feel Kate was about to break and jump in the tub without her help.

And then it happened. Kate watched the sun hit a few of her fingers and she felt nothing. She pushed her hand further out into the bedroom till all of her hand was in sunlight and still nothing happened.

Kate was desperately trying to get air into her lungs as her shaking started to subside. "How do you feel? Does it hurt?" Irene took her hands off of Kate's back and looked out at her hand.

Irene got no answer so she stepped out into the bedroom and took Kate's glowing-in-the-sun hand and pulled her out into the bedroom. Minutes later Kate was standing in the window looking out onto a sunlit day, something she hadn't done in almost 600 years.

Irene looked up at Kate and saw tears rolling down her face; she just wasn't sure what they meant. "How do you feel?" Irene asked her again. "It's amazing!" She had long since forgotten what the sun looked like as she let the tears run down her face.

Then Kate stepped back and sat on the bed in full sunlight. "I'm a stinking Lycan." Now she really started to cry. She had turned herself into the enemy because she had wanted to save Castle. She had doomed both of them. She just sat there with her face in her hands and cried. Her life was over.

"You don't know that."

"I'M SITTING ON A BED IN FULL SUNLIGHT! By rights I should be dust by now! And I've eaten meat and enjoyed it!"

"But you still drink blood and you can still jump. Show me your teeth. …Show me your teeth Kate." Irene tried to push her finger into Kate's mouth and lift up her upper lip.

Kate finally raised her head and let her. "And you still have your fangs." Irene could see them. "Actually they look a little bigger to me than they used to." Irene was basing that off of the size of Sirene's fangs.

Kate ran her tongue over them and then finally her finger. They were a little bigger than before. Not much but she knew her mouth, maybe almost as well as Castle did after all their kissing.

"So what, Lycans have fangs too."

"In human form?" Irene retorted, which had Kate in a quandary. Human Lycans didn't have enlarged fangs, only when in wolf form.

"It's sunlight here which means it's dark at home. Where is your phone?" Irene went back out into the living room to look for one of their cell phones. To Irene, Sirene's home was home now.

Irene pulled up the number, pressed send, and walked back into the bedroom. She sat on the other side of the bed from Kate.

"Kate! Thank god, we were wondering when you would call. How did it go?" Sirene said seeing the caller ID.

"Actually it's me Sirene," Irene told her.

"Oh my god, what happened? Is Kate there or somewhere else?" Sirene expected a call, just not from Irene using Kate's phone. "Where's mom!" Irene could hear Alexis yell.

"I'm putting you on speaker. …What's going on love, talk to us," Sirene begged her.

"I talked Kate into trying something and now she's scared and crying," Irene began.

"I don't understand, love. Talked her into what and where is Kate now?" Sirene said worriedly as she watched three people practically dancing trying to get Irene to talk.

"I wanted to know what happens when a vampire is exposed to sunlight for even a split second," Irene paused again.

"We get burned, not really bad and it heals quickly enough," Sirene confirmed.

"I had a theory and I wanted Kate to try it to find out if I was right or even close. So we created a scenario that would have Kate expose her hand to full sunlight before I shoved her into the bathtub and covered her up for the day."

"SHIT!" Irene could hear Alexis curse. "What happened Irene?" Sirene switched from calling her love to her name and Irene knew that was bad.

"Nothing actually, she's sitting right here with me on the bed in full sunlight and has been for several minutes."

"That's impossible!" Alexis yelled. The rest of them were silent. "I'm switching to speaker phone," Irene said, and placed the phone on the bed between them. "Kate, talk to them."

"Kitty are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here and sitting on the bed with the sun hitting my face. It's beautiful! I haven't seen sunlight in almost 600 years." She, of course, couldn't see the four of them standing or sitting there with their mouths hanging open.

"I didn't know Sirene, I shouldn't have bitten Castle. I screwed up. …I've turned both of us into Lycans now. I've cursed both of us."

"I'm not convinced totally," Irene spoke up. "Kate still needs blood as does Castle. Granted they both ate a steak that was practically raw, but she still has her fangs. In fact they look a little bigger now based off of the size of yours. Plus she can still jump, since she's the one that got us here in two jumps." Irene ticked off her points. "How many Lycans do you know that can jump like a vampire elder?"

"You know the size of my fangs?" Sirene asked, and then it hit her. She knew the inside of Irene's mouth so of course she knew the inside of hers.

"I don't…" Sirene stopped when her doorbell rang. "Weapons," Sirene whispered and instructed Castle to open the door as she jumped outside where she could stay hidden and yet see who was at her front door.

Castle was near the door and mouthed, 'one… two… three' and quickly opened the door with Alexis and Paige ready to shoot whoever it was. "Richard! What are you doing here?" Hunt was surprised as he walked inside and closed the door behind him.

"Paige, Alexis, where are Sirene, Kate, and that human?" Hunt was still working on all of the names. "Paige, you look different." Hunt walked right up to her and leaned his head in close, getting Paige to lean hers back.

"You've been converted!" Hunt hugged her. "Welcome to the family, child," Hunt sounded happy. "Now can someone answer my question?"

"My Lord?"

"Katherine? Where are you hiding?" Hunt looked around until Alexis picked up the phone. And then Sirene jumped in all set to shoot him.

"MY LORD!" Sirene jumped onto him to hug him and didn't miss seeing him grimace. "You're hurt my Lord."

"Who's hurt, what's going on?" Kate said from the phone.

"May I have something to drink first and then we'll talk," Hunt asked needing the blood rather badly. Sophia had done a number on his back.

"I'll get it," Paige offered and went to the refrigerator that was emptying fast.

"My Lord, what happened?" Kate asked over the phone. Irene was sitting in front of her, their own problem now forgotten.

Hunt accepted his bag of blood and took a big drink. "You two first. Why is Paige a vampire, why is Kate stuck talking to me over a phone and…" Hunt stopped talking and stepped over to Rick and sniffed him as Castle backed away a little. "And why does Richard smell funny?"

"My house is gone my Lord. The Lycans overran us and destroyed it, killing everyone. I left you a voice mail."

Hunt pulled out his satellite phone and cursed. He had jumped without thinking. "I am sorry Katherine, so sorry about your house and your people. If it makes you feel better the Lycan who did it is now dead. …And why are you on the phone instead of here?"

"Irene and I are in Budapest to look for a new house for all of us, including you, my Lord, if you will come."

"Budapest!? Isn't that were you were born Katherine? Wait, Budapest is in daylight now, isn't it?" Hunt was used to jumping around the planet and knew by second nature when the sun was up and where down to about an hour.

"Yes my Lord, it is." Kate felt like shit again. "Say that again?" Hunt responded.

"Paige took three vampire killer rounds to the chest defending me and the house. Sirene turned her though she came back with blood rage," Alexis informed him and watched him nod his head.

"I didn't have time to prepare ahead of time, we only had minutes before the sun came up in Manhattan," Sirene explained.

"Dad was bitten by a Lycan so mom bit him and buried herself with him in an attempt to save him."

"WHAT! …Katherine you didn't?" Hunt was shocked.

"I'm sorry my Lord, but I couldn't lose Castle. It was that or shoot him. I'm only finding out now that I should have shot him." Kate was ready to shoot herself, she just needed to jump to her weapon and shoot herself. Sirene could come and take Irene home.

"I don't think she's a Lycan," Irene spoke for the first time since Hunt showed up.

"So that's where the human is. My apologies, I know you have a name I just don't remember it," Hunt apologized, he didn't mean to insult her.

"Irene, my Lord, her name is Irene," Sirene said. "I'm listening," Hunt responded and Irene took him through everything that had happened including Kate and Rick eating steak.

"By rights you two should both be dead. I've …I don't know what you've done Katherine, but I'll see if I can find out." Hunt pulled a small container out of his pants.

"Give me your arm Richard." Hunt took his arm and without his permission, drew a small vial of blood. "I have a sample of Richard's blood. Don't do anything stupid Katherine until I get back. I'll try and make this fast." And Hunt jumped away.

"He left didn't he?" Kate asked. "And before he could tell us his story," she growled.

"Some things never change Kitty, some things never change."

"You heard him Kitty, don't do anything stupid. Irene?"

"I'll watch her." Irene understood, not that she had a chance in hell of stopping a vampire elder from doing what she wanted to do.

Sirene sat down depressed that Hunt had gotten away without explain himself, again. And Kate didn't have time to think much at all as Irene told her she was going downstairs to look for something to eat and that Kate should come with her so that she could keep an eye on her.

"Fine. …But only because Lord Hunt told me to," Kate countered, knowing that it was a weak excuse.

"You alright?" Irene inquired since Kate was watching everything Irene did. Every fork full.

"I don't know, I feel weird. I should be doing something that feels like needing to drink blood but that's not it," Kate admitted.

"Oh shit, I forgot! You need blood and we don't have any! You're not going to be able to get any for hours yet." Irene started wracking her brain to solve the problem. "Going into a hospital sounds difficult, too many people around. Would an ambulance have blood on board?"

Kate opened her eyes wide. "Maybe we can ask discreetly at the front desk," Irene suggested. Armed with a map from the front desk of the hotel they were walking for the closest ambulance service they could find, which was the wrong way for the real estate agent. However Kate figured she could jump them at least close.

They walked past a building where they saw an ambulance, but it was being washed so people were all around it. It forced them to keep walking and then turned around and walked back.

"You ok? You're not looking too good," Irene said worriedly. Kate shook her head. "I feel like shit."

They saw no one around the ambulance on this trip past it and Kate jumped inside it. She searched it and found 4 bags of blood in a mini fridge. She took two of them and jumped back to Irene and then jumped to their hotel room, where Kate put one in the refrigerator and one in the microwave. Both of them failed to notice that if Alexis hadn't gotten them the room they had, that wouldn't be happening.

Later Kate was sitting at the dining room table sipping the last of her blood poured out of the bag and into a glass from the kitchen. Irene sat down next to her. "Feeling better now?"

"Yeah, we didn't plan this out very well."

Half an hour later they were leaving the real estate office and being driven to their first location.

"This first one is in zone 1 and has 13 separate apartments within the building. It has an inner open air courtyard. It is 4 floors with the first floor units having access to the common area out back. It is 645 square meters in size. Air conditioning, parking inside the building, extra storage in the garage area for each unit. There is a common area that has an exercise room including showers and a sauna. It is listed at 1.5 million euros," their agent told them.

Every separate room had at least two windows and one even had a large glass door leading out onto a balcony. Kate walked everywhere Irene went, inside or outside.

"This second one is in zone 5 and it has 12 separate bedrooms with a large living, kitchen, and dining room. It has a wrap around the building balcony with several doors leading out onto it with a fantastic view of the Danube River. It is 605 square meters. It is listed at 1.75 million euros," their agent explained.

All of the bedrooms and even all of the bathrooms had the very same almost white floor tiles. It was ugly and even Irene hated it.

"This third one is also in district 5. It is an unfinished space that takes up all of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors with the sixth floor being the top floor. There are two separate internal stairways each with access to an elevator at every landing. It is at the very end of Vaci street and overlooks the Vorosmarty Square. It is a highly sought after location. There is space for 12 very good sized bedrooms with a minimum of 6 bathrooms located mostly between each bedroom. There will be another two half baths off of the kitchen and living room. It has a total of 1,405 square meters of living space, not including the roof deck and is offered at 3.63 million euros," their agent said.

Inside they found each and every floor was a blank slate. Concrete floors with unpainted walls and blank ceilings. "Here is the floor plan for the space. Naturally at this point you can make a few changes. The bathrooms cannot be moved since the plumbing is already in place. However you can work with the floor plan to add or subtract space for something. More or less kitchen perhaps. A video room maybe, or an exercise room since all of the floor are concrete floors."

"It is not too late to change finishes to something you would prefer since none of that has been bought or delivered to the site yet and of course you can choose paint colors. The owner has a known and registered contractor that will be here to finish the project," their real estate agent informed them.

It didn't have any balconies or patio space. It did, however, have a lot of windows. "It has a small park out front, and that looks like an outdoor restaurant across the square," Irene pointed out. "Can we walk the area before we leave?" Irene asked and they soon found themselves outside in the sun walking the open square and then down some of the streets.

"Kate, there is a Harley Davidson Dealership right behind our building. We could all get Harleys instead of cars! Please, please, please?" Irene was holding her hands together and jumping up and down. Kate found it cute. "If we select this building, sure."

"It is actually a wise move since there is no car parking near here except first come first served street parking. Your motorcycles could all be parked out here up against the side of your building. Just be sure to lock them in place somehow. I would suggest that you have rings bolted into the concrete to lock them to," their agent recommended.

"I have one more in your size as requested however it is at the very edge of the city. Just beyond will be countryside," she warned them. They were soon on a long drive out to see it.

"WOW!" Kate got out of the car and looked at it. "Kate!" Irene stopped her. "You're not looking too good; we should go back to the hotel."

"Your friend is correct, you are beginning to get a severe sunburn and should likely get out of the sun."

They were being driven back to the hotel which was a long drive, when the agent stopped well short. "This is a pharmacy, you can likely find some sunscreen and some ointment. Perhaps I should go with you since they are not likely to speak English."

"Arra nem lesz szükség." Kate said fluently. "I was born in a tiny village just outside of the city and grew up near here. My Hungarian isn't likely very good anymore," Kate explained as she watched Irene's mouth fall open.

As they pulled up to their hotel, their agent inquired, "How long will you be here if you want to see that last location tomorrow?"

"We leave early the day after tomorrow. We'll call you so you can pick us up."

"That will be fine. Good luck with your sunburn." She drove off as they went inside and up to their room.

Irene took her into the bedroom so Kate could strip and get into one of the robes. Irene was going to call for service to have her clothes cleaned for tomorrow.

She was just hanging up the phone as Kate walked into the bathroom to apply the sunburn cream. "OH MY GOD!" Irene ran into the bathroom to find Kate standing there naked and they could both easily see where Kate was burnt and where she wasn't.

"WOW! So you still think you're a Lycan?"