Catherine (Echoes of Ossiria #1) (6 page)

“That’s what
happened tonight, isn’t it? Knew there had to be a reason for the bad-ass
look.”
 
Ooops.

William curled his
tongue behind his teeth.
 
“The
baddest
, baby. You like the way I look?”
 
He said this a little too close to her face.

Catherine’s eyes
watered from the alcohol fumes.
 
“I-It’s
fine…if you’re into that sort of thing.”

“What kind of
‘thing’ is that?”

“You know…the
whole ‘can’t take home to Mom’ vibe. But bad boys always lead to trouble.”

“Hm. Trouble can
be fun.”

“Trouble can get
you
killed
.”

“How can you ever
really feel alive if you don’t test your limits? I bet even you have
contemplated a walk on the wild side at least once…”

Okay, how did this
get turned around on her?
 
“For, like, a
minute. I’m
human
. But that’s not my way.”

“Bet you’ve
dreamed about it.”

“William…”

“Not one, little,
fantasy? ‘S only natural…”

Well, Cathy,
you’re the one that kept talking to the drunk, horny vampire.
 
“Not really. I’m boring like that.”

“Not even with all
Alicia’s sex talk?”

“Geeze, you’re
like a dog with a bone.”

“Better believe
it, baby,” he slurred.
 
“Hey, the
whisikey’s
all gone…”

She put her hand
on his arm to stop him as he made to get up.
 
“Maybe it’s time you called it a night, then.”

“Please! It takes
more than two bottles to get a
vampire
drunk!”
 
He shuffled to the cabinet to retrieve a
bottle.

“If you say so,”
she muttered.
 
Though it took only two
bottles for him to talk funny…

“Ya wan’ some?” he
offered, dangerously tipping the bottle of rum.

“No, no…you go ahead.”

He nodded.
 
“You’re a good girl, Cat. Always polite.
Kitty-cat, pussy-cat, jungle cat… I got books with drawings from all those
expeditions… Very old. You ever wanna drive
Tallis
around the bend, start
singin
’.”

“Really?”
 
Good gracious, his drunken speech was random.

He executed a poor
Boy Scout salute.
 
“True as the North
Star. Hates music.”

“Still… I’d rather
avoid him altogether.”
 
She dropped her
eyes to her cup and swirled the last bit of milk left around the bottom.

He tucked her hair
behind her ear.
 
“I know, pet.
Shows you have a lick o’ sense.”

“I try not to
think about it, or just be brave…but I can’t imagine anything worse then being
at his mercy. And I know I don’t know all he’s capable of, despite being told
what he did to those in the book, but it’s enough… I don’t need to be a vampire
for my blood to run cold.”

“You’ve done well
for yourself so far.”
 

She shook her
head.
 
“If I was really brave, I would
have left. Disappeared.”

“What I don’t know
won’t hurt you.”

She arched her
brow, and he nodded.
 
Well, then.
 
That was something.
 
He wasn’t going to help, but he wouldn’t stop
her, either.
 
It gave him plausible
deniability in front of
Tallis
.

She smiled, then
looked at the clock.
 
“Well, it’s late…
You need a hand upstairs?” she asked, standing.

“’M fine.”
 
He rose too quickly and swayed on his
feet.
 
“I’ll, uh, make the trip with you,
though.”

She smothered a
smile to preserve his pride.
 
“Okay.”

William’s suite
was on the floor below Catherine’s room in the attic.
 
It felt like miles to trek with a heavy drunk
leaning on her for balance.
 
The old
manor had narrow steps for the staircases, his big booted feet slipping off
them with the lack of his usual grace.
 
He nearly took her down a few times when he stumbled and flailed for
something to hold on to.
 

She wrapped her
arm around his waist and continued.
 
“What are you humming?” she asked when they reached his floor and turned
down the hallway.

“
Motorhead
. Bloody brilliant stuff. Not like the dreck they
call modern music.”

She stopped in
front of the big mahogany doors.
 
“Well,
this is your stop.”

“Right…”
 
He removed an old key from his pocket and
inserted it in the lock.
 
Turned to face
her as she stepped aside.
 
“Don’t think
this lets you get out of your lessons tomorrow.”

She laughed.
 
“I wouldn’t dream of it. Goodnight, William.
I hope you sleep well.”

He caught her hand
when she started to walk away, lifting it to his lips to place a kiss on the
back.
 
“Sweet dreams.”
 

She blushed.
 

He opened his
bedroom door and slipped inside.

Chapter Four

The next day,
Catherine knocked on William’s door.

“Enter.”

The door opened
slowly, part way.
 
“Only me. I wanted to
see how you were.”

“In or out, girl.
You’re lettin’ in a draft.”

“Ooops,
sorry!”
 
She slipped inside.
 
“Oh…”
 
She stopped and blushed, averting her eyes.
 
“I-I didn’t expect you to be…um…”

“Two minutes
sooner, and you’d have caught me wandering around
starkers
,
so I’d say your timing is perfect, Miss Mitchell…unless you
wanted
to
catch a peek?”
 
William was wearing
nothing but a towel.
         

“No! I mean, not
that you aren’t worthy of peeking at, if one planned to do so, but that so
wasn’t my plan, and, um, oh God… I’m gonna go.”
 
She turned around, only to find him blocking the door.

“So soon? I
thought you had a question for me,” he purred, stalking her.

“
Eeep
!”
 
He took
gentle hold of her arms.
 
“What are you
doing
?”
 

And pushed her
down to sit.
 
“You were about to run into
a chair,” he said.
 
He picked up the
crystal tumbler of blood again.
 
“Head’s
fine, by the way. Just need my breakfast.”

“Good!
That’s…good…”

“What day is it?”

She thought for a
second.
 
“Friday?”

“Mm, excellent.
I’m thinking, you’ve read about demons, but you’ve hardly seen any. We need an
outing.”

“You and
me
?”

He shook his
head.
 
“Everyone! Been too long cooped up
in the house and such.”
 
Paused to make
notes on a pad on the desk.

“Uh, where?”
 
She dropped her eyes to her lap when the
towel loosened to reveal a couple centimeters of butt crack.
 

“Demon bar or
club, wherever we see first. Alicia can make a few contacts…” he said absently,
and made a couple more jots on the paper, folded it, and turned around to hand
it to her.
 
“Here, take this down to
Alicia so she can get started.”
 

Catherine had
stood, resolutely keeping her eyes at shoulder level.
 

“
What?
”

“Uh, William…”

He looked down,
then behind him, and noticed the towel had caught on the desk chair.
 
“Oh, for heaven’s sake…get out of here.”

Her blush
deepened.
 
She briefly met his eyes, then
sprinted from the room.
 

“You’ve seen
penis!” Alicia exclaimed upon seeing Catherine’s face.

“
What?
No!
I haven’t! I didn’t!”
 
Almost.

“Oh. Well,
poo
. And I thought this day was finally going to get
exciting.”

“Well, I saw
William on my way downstairs and he gave me this for you.”

She scanned the
page.
 
“Uh-huh…uh-huh…I can do this…
unh
-uh,
not on short notice….okay, okay…okay! You can go now.”

Catherine exited
the office, shaking her head.
 
She still
wasn’t completely used to the genie’s no-nonsense manner.
 

Word spread
quickly amongst the girls that William was sponsoring a night out.
 
She wasn’t so excited.
 

When she came
downstairs in jeans, a sweater, and sensible boots, he vetoed the outfit
immediately.
 
“You’re not going to a club
like that! Go put on something appropriate!”

“It’s
cold
outside!” she argued.

“So? You can’t go
into a demon bar looking like that. It screams ‘lunch’.”

She crossed her
arms over her chest and cocked her hip at an angle.
 
“Well, then I’m not going!”

“Sorry, not an
option. You’re going, and you’re going to change clothes
now
.”

She remained
defiant.
 
“
No.
”

The tendon in his
jaw ticking with anger, he charged up the two steps to tower over her.
 
“Get your fucking skinny ass up those stairs
now and do what I bloody tell you.”

She lifted her
chin.
 
“No. I’m not a piece of meat, yours
or anyone else’s. You want me to go; I’m going like this, or not at all.”

He nodded, then
bent his knees and put his shoulder into her stomach, hoisting her over it to
dangle upside-down, and charged up the stairs two at a time.

“William! Put me
down, you Neanderthal!”

“Only if you quit
acting like a spoiled brat.”

She wasn’t going
to go easily.
 
She squirmed and kicked,
pounding his back with her fists, though his leather coat absorbed most of the
blows.
 
He dropped her on the first
landing when she finally managed to kick him in the balls.
 

She took advantage
of landing on her back to kick the side of his knee with her heel.
 
He dropped to one knee as she got up and ran
down the hallway towards the back stairs.

“
Errgh
…Catherine, will you
stop
? This is bloody
stupid. Everybody’s waiting.”

She stopped and
turned around at the end of the hall.
 
“You’re the one who insisted I change clothes and tried to drag me
upstairs. We could be on the road by now.”
 
She turned the corner, heading for the back stairs.

“I’m going to tan
that pretty little ass if you don’t get back here and do as you’re told!”

Have to catch
me first
, she thought.
 

She’d spent her
free time, once she was allowed to roam freely, learning the mansion’s nooks
and crannies as well as doing research in the library.
 
Like many extremely old and large residences,
the house had a few secret passageways like the one she was hiding in now.
 
She was betting on him running past to take
the stairs and not pay attention to her heartbeat in the wall.
 

If his footsteps
slowed, then she’d move.

She watched him
fly past, leather duster billowing behind him.
 
Waited a minute, then opened the door panel and cautiously peeked out,
only to be grabbed by her collar and yanked out of the passage.

William pulled her
out of hiding by her sweater, but the struggle wasn’t over.
 

They came to a
stalemate, her back hitting the wall as she pressed a sliver of wood against
his t-shirt, over his heart.
 
He glanced
down at the pointy object, then at her defiant glare.
 
“Clever girl,” he murmured.
 
“Dust me now, and you have your freedom.”

Option 1) Plunge
the stake through his heart and get the hell out of Dodge.
 
Alicia wouldn’t stop her.
 

Option 2) Drop the
stake and be at his mercy for whatever he planned to do to punish her.
 

He kissed her,
leaning forward enough to press his lips to hers, the point of the stake making
a dent in his shirt and skin.
 
All she
had to do was push and he’d be dead, but…

Her arms wrapped
around his neck, instead.
 
He growled
into her mouth and pressed her body against the wall.
 
It was her first grown-up kiss.
 
His hands were on her waist.
 
She jumped up to wrap her legs around his
hips.
 
He plunged his tongue into her
mouth, grinding his erection into her private parts.

What am I doing, what am I DOING? I’m dead
or unconscious…
 
I’m dreaming.
 
William conked me on the head and I’m
dreaming…there’s no way this is real.
 
How does he taste so good?

Her right hand
clutched the back of his neck, her nails slightly digging into his nape, the
stake somewhere on the floor.
 
Her left
hand clung to his coat.
 
She wasn’t
afraid he would drop her—she wanted to keep him close.
 

“
Ahem.
”

They froze,
waiting for the sound to have been a fluke.
 
Imagined.

“Yes, I’m still
here,” Alicia said, rolling her eyes.
 
“The girls were getting antsy. Should we go without you?”

Catherine slid her
legs down his body and hid her face in his coat.
 
He cleared his throat and turned to
Alicia.
 
“We’ll be right there.”

She shrugged and
teleported away.

Catherine sidled
away from him and started walking to the stairs.

“Cat…”

“Don’t. It was a
fluke. I’m going to straighten up, and I’ll meet you at the car.”
 
She ran the rest of the way down toward the
bathroom by the kitchen.

Why did I let
him kiss me?
 
Why did he let me almost
stake him?
 
This place is stealing my
sanity…

After making
herself presentable, she walked to the foyer to join the other girls.
 
One of them handed her the purse and coat
she’d dropped when William tossed her over his shoulder.
 
The driver was standing by the passenger
door.
 
William was waiting on the other
side of the limo, at the front.
 
There
were six girls plus Alicia to sit in the back.
 
She was glad he wasn’t among them.

Alicia gave her a
sideways glance as she took her seat, but didn’t comment.
 
It wasn’t anyone’s business what she’d seen
upstairs.
 

Catherine sat
primly while the demon girls chattered and speculated on which club they might
be going to.
 
It was oddly comforting and
disturbing that they sounded like the college girls she’d been surrounded by
mere weeks ago.
 
They wanted to go where
it was “cool” and meet hot males.
 
They’d
primped their scales or feathers or whatever to perfection and put on their
most alluring clothes.
 
The couple she
knew had been nice enough, though they clearly didn’t understand the “weird
human girl”.
 

Maybe she could
stick with Alicia all night.

In front of a
building with a red door and small neon sign on a dark street, William gave his
rules to the demon girls before letting them inside.
 
“Remember, while you’re completing your
course with us there will be no going home with any males you meet, and if
you’re hung-over tomorrow you still have to be in class. Practice your skills,
dance, and have a good time.”

At least he hadn’t
taken them to some dive.
 
It actually
looked like one of the nicer places in L.A.
and the clientele were behaving themselves, dancing or huddled in booths for a
drink.
 

He’d been right
about seeing all kinds of demons in the flesh.
 
It was one thing to read about them or see a tiny drawing, quite another
to see them in real living color, and smell.
 
Some demons were rather…musky.
 
Catherine was acutely aware she seemed to be the only human in the
place.

She followed
Alicia to the bar.
 
“You can’t hide from
him forever,” the genie said, waiting for the bartender.

“I can try. I
really don’t want to talk about it.”

“Well, you can’t
follow me around all night like a limpet. I have people to talk to, and you’ll
only cramp my style.”

“Please, Alicia? I
won’t say anything!”

“Fine… I don’t
think you have to worry, though. William’s already busy over there.”

Catherine turned
to see where Alicia pointed, and saw him whispering into the ear of some blonde
chick.
 
She smiled at him, and they
disappeared further into the club.
 
Catherine should have been relieved, but for some reason the
sight…burned.
 

Alicia said sipped
from something pink with an umbrella in the glass.
 
“Come on, before I get bored.”
 
They passed into a different section with
tables and billiard games.
 

She hung back and
let Alicia do her thing, leaning against the wall and watching the
scenery.
 

It took a while to
notice that the cute guy across the room was trying to catch her eye.
 
Me?
she mouthed, pointing to herself.
 
He
nodded and crooked his finger, indicating she should come over.
 
She glanced at Alicia, then pushed off the
wall and made her way across the room.

“Alone tonight?”
he asked.

Ooo, nice
accent
.
 
“With friends,” Catherine
said.

He glanced at the
table where Alicia and the demon were engrossed in conversation.
 
“She didn’t seem to be including you.”

“She’s working,”
she said.
 
“You know how it is.”

“Dangerous friend
you have. How does an American girl come by such a companion?”

“
Long
story.”

“I’ve got some
time, Miss…”

“Catherine.”

He smiled.
 
“Pretty name. So, Catherine, what brings you
to England?”