Catherine (Echoes of Ossiria #1) (4 page)

That’s it!
 
Catherine pivoted and brought the staff up
between his legs as hard as she could, her eyes wide as saucers a second
later.
 

William groaned in
pain and doubled over, but didn’t fall.
 
He limped around the room while she kept a wide berth between them.
 
She was deathly afraid of what he’d do once
he could straighten up.
 
“Good hit,” he
wheezed.

“I…”

“One, I told you
to hit me, and two, always fight dirty if it lets you live another day. Some
punk on the street isn’t going to stick to official boxing rules, and neither
will a demon. Continue, Miss Mitchell.”

“Are you…?”
 
She waved her hand in the direction of his
body, not believing he wanted to go again so soon.
 
Wasn’t he still in pain?

William nodded
encouragingly.
 
“Three, learn to fight
through pain. It’s hardly the worst hit I’ve ever gotten. Come on, now. We’ll
do somethin’ easy. I swing this way, you block it.”

She could do that,
like playing patty-cake with the sticks.
 
Slowly, he pivoted the staff at different angles so she could meet
them.
 
Soon, she got into the rhythm of
it and didn’t realize the speed was steadily increasing.
 

The game stopped
when she managed to get through his defenses and bop him on the nose.
 
“Oh! Sorry!”

He sniffed, but
kept going.
 
“Don’ worry ‘bout it. No
blood, no foul. It proves you’re getting better at reading,” he said with a
grin.

Catherine smiled
back.

A chocolate
truffle was on her pillow that night when she turned in for bed, accompanied by
a note.

Have to respect
a woman that goes for the family jewels.

She giggled and
popped the truffle in her mouth.
 

Mmm,
bittersweet…
 

It seemed like
forever since she’d had any chocolate.

Waking up to find
it was her time of the month was inconvenient, but luckily, she had supplies in
one of her boxes.
 
She went about her day
as normal, though it might have seemed at lunch that the demons noticed her
more than usual.

I’m sure I
imagined it,
she thought, walking to class.

As she rounded the
corner, someone pushed her into the wall from behind.
 
A female someone, judging by the breasts
pressing into her back.

“Nothing personal,
mon
amie
, but I’ve been on bagged blood for a month, and you smell
so
good.
”
 
The redhead French vampire,
then.
 
Colette.
 
She pushed Catherine’s head to the side and
licked the skin over the jugular.
 
“If
you are quiet, I’ll even make it good for you, hmm?” she whispered, then
plunged her fangs into Catherine’s neck.

At least it
isn’t
Tallis
,
she thought, already feeling
woozy.
 
She made her peace with death
just as the arms around her disappeared in a cloud of dust, and fainted as a
pair of strong, pale arms caught her.

****

Catherine’s eyes
fluttered open.
 
“What…?”
 
She was no longer in the hallway, but
somewhere downstairs.

“Stay still.
You’ve lost a bit of blood,” William said.

“She bit me…”

“She’s dead.
Catherine…how long does your…?”

Her brow scrunched
in confusion.
 
“Huh?”

“How long does
your cycle last?”

“Three or four
days,” she murmured absently, her eyes closed.
 
Her head still felt dizzy.

“You’re going to
be kept away from the others, then, for your safety.”

“Okay… William?”
 
It was the first time she’d addressed him by
name.
 

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

Alicia came
bustling in with her arms loaded with sugary foods.
 
He rolled his eyes at her and left.

Chapter Three
 

Week Three

By week three,
Catherine had mastered the waltz, the Viennese version was passable, and she
could carry out a decent tango.
 
Alicia
taught her the tango.
 

The day of the
incident, William ordered her to bed with her books and wouldn’t let her get
back to fight training without having the wound healed by a bit of magic.
 

“How does it
look?” she asked, once the witch was done.

He tilted her head
to the side to put her neck in the light, running his fingertips over the
formerly blemished skin.
 
“Good as new.”

She shivered in a
not-entirely-unpleasant way.
 
Which was
so not good.
 
And weird.
 
Very weird.

To William’s
credit, he didn’t seem the least bit tempted to make her a meal by her…female
issue.
 
But, she was worth money to him,
an asset waiting for a client.
 
He
had
to deliver her in perfect condition.

So far, she could
also walk gracefully in various heights of heels, even on stairs, identify a
hundred different types of demons by picture, carry out perfect table manners,
write the perfect thank you note, and run five miles with only being slightly
winded.
 

Normal?
 
Not so much, but Catherine was extremely motivated by the fear of what
was to come.

Mrs. Crumb deemed
her previous knowledge in history and literature suitable for
conversation.
 

Alicia was
satisfied with her ability to run figures.
 
The genie drilled Investing 101 into her
brain.
 
And the sex
ed
was…enlightening.
 
Alicia had no problem
talking about herself.
 
Once upon a time,
she helped William with something, granting a wish, and he repaid her by
wishing her free.
 
She said there were a
lot of free
djinn
in the world and staying with
William kept her under the radar.

Catherine still
couldn’t believe all these fantastical creatures were real.

They were just
wrapping up another class now.

“Here,” Alicia
said, presenting her with an unmarked brown box.

“What is it?”

Alicia
smirked.
 
“Something to help with your
homework. See you tomorrow!”

Catherine peeked
in the box, blushed, and ran up to her room to slide it under her bed.
 
At least Alicia hadn’t gone into a lecture on
the wonders of said product and its myriad uses!
 
She liked the woman, she really did, but
Alicia had little tact, and even less modesty.
 
Apparently, when you’re several centuries old, you stopped thinking of
such things.

It wasn’t that
Catherine had never experimented with her…lady parts.
 
She’d even looked at them in a mirror before,
but…well, her mother died before getting past the “where babies come from”
lecture and her grandmother certainly wasn’t going to share any tips.
 
Her questions were left to be solved by answer
columns in magazines like
Glamour
and
Cosmo
.
 
Typical for most young women, right?
 
You fumbled about with boyfriend after
boyfriend until you figured out what worked for you, unless you happened to
find that one magical guy who could read you like a book.
 

Alicia also had
another motive for sharing as much as she did.
 
“Things will be different once he turns you,” she’d said. “But you still
have to know how to take care of yourself.”
 
Then, her voice dropped to an intimate murmur.
 
“If you know yourself, you can be prepared
for the pain.”
 
Alicia’s motto was girls
have to stick together.
 
It made
Catherine feel like she had one ally in this house.

And then she
slipped Catherine a note with a summoning incantation written on it, “just in
case”.
 
It didn’t say what it actually
summoned.
 
She didn’t want to know.

Halfway through
her training, now, she was acutely aware time was rapidly slipping away.
 
Only three more weeks until
Tallis
came back to get the progress report from William.

William brought in
a new book for her to study.
 
Well, it
was an old book like all the rest, but new to her.
 
The
History of the Most Feared Vampire Clans of All Time
.
 
“This is the most accurate version in written
form.”

“Alright…”
 
She wasn’t making the connection why that was
important.

“It includes the
clan you’ll be born into, Catherine.”
 
He’d taken to using her first name since she’d been bitten.
 
She hadn’t asked why.

Her mouth formed
an “o” as the light bulb turned on above her head.
 
“
Tallis
is in
here?” she asked, patting the book.

“Among many
others. You’ll get the same stories from him, although they’ll be a lot more
colorful than the truth, the pompous git.”

She nodded.
 
“Will there be a test?”

William shook his
head, a little smile playing at his lips.
 
“Nah, this one’s for your own good. You should, uh…you should have the
truth.”

“Okay,” she
said.
 
“Thank you, sir.”

“
William
.
You’ve been here long enough, and you’re more respectful than Alicia. It’s
William.”
 
He turned away and selected a
Bo off the wall.
 
“So, ready to earn
today’s bruises?”

“If you’re ready
to earn yours,” she countered.

He laughed.
 
“Just as long as you stay away from the
knackers, love.”

In her room, she
picked up the book to read after dinner.
 
The front two pages were a family tree in tiny print, the page number
recorded next to each name.
 
Glasses on,
her finger skimmed down the line as she looked for
Tallis’s
name.
 

Tallis
—sired Peter and Celia.
 
The
book said there were actually four vampire clans, breeds, and
Tallis
came from the Reds.

Skipping ahead to
William’s pages, Catherine’s eyes poured over the book.
 
He was listed as a Gold vampire.
 
The account described his exploits in
gruesome detail up until he and his maker parted ways the last time in Seattle.
 
Was William really so distraught over losing
his sire that he retreated from the world in this house from then on?
 
Alicia had already mentioned it was a modern
business, but Catherine hadn’t guessed it was less than ten years old.
 

Two things stuck
out in his biography—his zest for a challenge and his devotion to his
sire.
 
Had they been entwined?
 
Merely ways to prove himself to her?
 
He was still an enigma.
 

The book seemed to
stop for every vampire in 1975, so she guessed another volume was being written
somewhere at this minute.

She shouldn’t like
him, of course.
 
As decent as he might
have been since she came to stay here, he was still a killer, a murderer, a
vampire.
 
Monster.
 
Feeding was a natural instinct for any
species, but he hadn’t only fed to survive—he’d killed people and enjoyed
it.
 
Meditated on how he would carry it
out.
 
It was all on the pages.
 
Even without a conscience, he’d still had a
choice.
 

Stockholm Syndrome
was not where Catherine wanted to see her life going.

“Just continue
getting yourself through this so you can escape later,” she muttered.
 
“You have to think of how to survive.”

****

The next day,
Alicia came up to say they were going shopping.

“Does William
know?”

The genie rolled
her eyes.
 
“Yes, William knows, it was
his idea! Do you want some fresh air, or not?”

“Yes,
definitely!”
 
Catherine rooted around for
her purse and coat and hurried to catch Alicia in the hall.
 
“Where are we going?”

“Into London, of course. We’re
not going to find you a ball gown in the nearby hamlet.”

“Ball gown? Huh?”

“William’s taking
you to the opera next week. He didn’t tell you?”

“Not yet.”

Alicia tsked.
 
“Just like a man. Well, anyway, we’re getting
you a dress and a makeover, no expense limit imposed.”

“A m-makeover?”

She rolled her
eyes again.
 
“Well, you can’t go looking
like
that
! Haircut, manicure,
make-up
…the works, honey. Trust me,
when I’m through with you, you’ll be the envy of every rich slob stuck with an
old, fat wife. The gossip rags will talk for weeks!”

Gulp.
 
Catherine looked heavenward and sent up a
little prayer.

Alicia chattered
the whole ride to London,
citing their route for best designer fashion efficiency.
 
Catherine tuned it out, looking out the
windows at her first glance at freedom in almost four weeks.
 
Would it be possible to give Alicia the slip
while they were out?
 
Did she want to?

The first stop was
at a salon/spa.
 
To someone used to
getting her hair cut at Fantastic Sam’s, the exclusive spot made her feel a bit
overwhelmed.
 
The women sitting in the
chairs in this place were wearing jewelry worth more than her grandmother’s
house
.
 
Alicia didn’t seem to notice, breezing in
like she owned the place and slapping down a platinum card on the desk.
  

“I need a trim and
a
pedi
, and
she
needs the works,” she
announced, jerking her thumb at Catherine.

“Yes, madam. Any
specific requests?”

Alicia looked at
Catherine with a critical eye.
 
“Her hair
should stay long. Anything else you do is up to you.”
 
She was ushered to a station to have a seat
while Catherine was whisked off further into the shop.

Several people
buzzed around her at once, brushing her bangs off her face and looking at her
hands.
 
One woman held color swatches up
to her face, then shuffled off.
 

A man wearing a
tight tee and designer jeans pushed her into a chair.
 
“What’s your name, love?”

“Catherine,” she
meekly replied.

“Well, you’ll be
Catherine the
Grea
t
by the
time we’re through. How do you feel about color?”
 

“Color? I-I don’t
know about—”

“An intensity
glaze, then. We just have to do
something
about this mousy tone, see?
Going to make your skin tone and eyes
pop
.”

“If you say so…”

He started mixing
stuff in a bowl while the manicurist came over with polish bottles.
 
“Pick one for your toes,” she commanded,
holding them out.
 
Catherine pointed to
the blood red.
 
“Perfect. You use your
hands much,
hon
?”

“I guess so…”

“Thought so. We’ll
do a good buff and shape, then finish with the top coat.”
 
She pulled out her files and grabbed a hand.

The make-up lady
came back with some base colors.
 
She
tested them on Catherine’s cheek and bustled off again to mix the custom
shade.
 

Alicia gave her a
thumb’s up while she talked on her cell.
 
A stylist was combing through her chic middle-parted bob.

Two hours later,
they finally let Catherine look in the mirror.

“Didn’t I tell you
they were fabulous?” Alicia gloated.

“Yeah…” Catherine
said, caught up in the image she saw before her.

She
looked…flawless.
 
Ageless, yet definitely
more grown up than the eighteen-year-old girl that walked in the door.
 
Her hair was glossy enough to be its own
light source, the mascara now on her lashes made her eyes look huge, and her
feet felt soft as a baby’s.
 
The bangs
that had been too long were now trimmed just above her eyebrows, which had also
been groomed into perfect arches.
 
She
was leaving with a bag stuffed full of products to help maintain this “vision”,
though she felt she’d never be able to duplicate their results.

Alicia paid for
their services and dragged her back out to the car.
 
“
Now
you’re ready to walk into Dior!”

Catherine had only
read about shopping being thoroughly exhausting.
 
She’d never experienced it firsthand until
today.
 
Maybe it was a demon thing,
because Alicia was like the Energizer Bunny in her mission to find the perfect
everything.
 
They went to clothes stores,
shoe stores, lingerie stores…it was all one big blur of horrendously expensive
merchandise.