Katrina, The Beginning (37 page)

“Oh, I know I
can
; I just don’t
want
to.
Who’s going to keep you out of trouble?”

“I’m going to be too busy
to get into any trouble.”

“Damien, when Kate and I
were going over the new maps of America, we got a really bad
feeling when we put our hands over New Orleans area. Kate
experienced boost of energy that actually shocked her. We both
sensed evil there - something we didn’t get from any other
city.”

“New Orleans…I believe
Philepe has been there. I could ask him about it. Anything
else?”

“Not really. But as I
studied the map and viewed the vast wilderness that exists in the
West, I felt it call to me. I believe our future rests in that area
of this new world. Will you be going anywhere in the
west?”

“We’re going to cover the
entire country from east to west, north to south. What I’m really
going to look for, is a place where we can share our lives
together. All of us have family histories, our ancestors’ legacies
- well, except Eric - but now we’ll have a chance write our own
legacy, to do something on our own.”

He made it seem even more
exciting than I had already imagined for myself.

“You’ll find it, I know you
will, and I can’t wait to start our lives together in that New
World.”

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

“H
ey you two,” I heard from a familiar
voice.

It was Quinn, with that
mischievous grin beaming across his face, eyes twinkling in the
moon light.

“Gunter sent me to find
you. He wants all of you to join us for a little celebration
tonight, just something simple for your birthdays; how about
it?”

“It’s very thoughtful of
him.”

“Sounds good to me,” Damien
said.

“Gunter thought it would do
everyone good,” Quinn added.

We walked together to the
Watchers’ compound. Everyone else had arrived and was sitting
around the large fire—except there were five brothers now, not
seven. The thought left a lump in my throat, and I had to bite my
lip, so I wouldn’t cry. I reached over and gave Quinn’s hand a
squeeze, but I couldn’t look at him because I knew if I did, I’d
burst into tears. He squeezed my hand back, then let it
go.

“Look what I dragged in,”
he announced.

“Well good,” said Gunter.
“Grab something to drink and have a seat.”

We did just that. We also
laughed and told stories, sang folk songs, and even danced a few
jigs.

“Now, since we’re
celebrating your birthdays, we have something for you,”

“Gunter
smiling, a rare show of emotion,”
I thought.

“We all worked on them,”
Thomas added.

Gunter handed each of us a
small leather pouch.

“Well, go ahead, open
them,” Quinn pantomimed opening the pouch.

I opened my pouch and
poured the contents into my hand. It was a silver bracelet with
double oval silver links, from which five silver charms dangled:
two stars, a sun, a crescent moon, and a heart.

“Five girls, five
charms—and the hope, wherever you are it will make you think of us,
and how much we love you,” said Gunter.

“Happy birthday,” Thomas
raised his cup in a toast.

“Thank you all,” I
responded, looking at the friends surrounding us.

We all stood for the
toast.

“We love them,” Rosa said,
“but I want to thank you, Gunter. If you hadn’t trained Kat and
Quinn so well, we probably wouldn’t be here tonight.”

“That’s right,” Letta
added. “And thank you for putting up with all of us these many
weeks.”

“That’s true enough, but
you can nominate him for sainthood another day,” laughed
Quinn.

“This night is for the five
of you. You’re now a part of our family, so happy birthday this
year and every year.”

“Hear, hear!” Thomas
yelled.

We all drank a toast, and
then we said our goodnights.

“That was really nice,” I
said to the girls as we made our way back.

The others agreed it had
been a special evening and a wonderful thing for the brothers to do
for us.

“I didn’t want to ask you
earlier, but show us your necklace Kat,” Kate said.

“Damien gave it to me
earlier,” I said as I stopped to show them.

“It’s beautiful,” breathed
Rosa.

Then I opened it and they
all gasped.

“That’s the biggest ruby
I’ve ever seen,” marveled Letta.

“He said it’s his heart,
and he’s giving it to me.”

“Ahhh,” they sighed
together.

“I’m going to miss him, so
much, when he goes to America.”

“The time will pass
quickly. We’ll keep you busy, and we planned to go to each of our
homelands remember?” El said as we started to walk
again.

“You’re right, that’s going
to be fun,” I said, “And Damien is going to try to be back sooner
than the others. Thanks, you all always make me feel better,
El.”

We had a group
hug.

“I love our bracelets,
don’t you?” El was looking at it now.

“Yes, that was so
thoughtful. See why Father and I have always loved them so
much?”

“I certainly do,” El’s face
took on a dreamy look. Rosa caught my eye and raised an
eyebrow.

“We all do, Kat,” Letta
said.

“Avery and Simon were still
so quiet tonight,” Kate’s face showed her concern for her new
friends.

“Gregor and Cedric’s death
is still a fresh wound for them. Emotions are still close to the
surface for all of us; it’s going to take some time,” I
said.

When we got upstairs I
decided to tell them about Damien’s visitor this
morning.

“Did any of you have an odd
feeling this morning?” I asked cautiously.

Kate thought about it and
remembered. “Something woke me up, but I didn’t know what it
was.”

El and Letta both said
they’d had a passing feeling of ‘something’, but shrugged it
off.

“What do you mean Kat?
What’s happened?” El’s face showed an instant state of
concern.

“Damien had a visitor this
morning when he went for a ride…his mother.”

They gasped

“Did you see her?” Rosa
asked.

“Yes. I went out to meet
him, and he was there in the meadow speaking with her. When he
introduced me I realized I knew her…from the visions I’d had
recently. I’d seen her with another woman, who I now believe is
Luena’s mother. The two of them met up with a third woman - the one
Kate and I saw in the image we got from New Orleans.”

“But you still don’t know
who she is, right?” Kate said.

“No, not yet.”

“Seems odd, she just
happened to show up now, after all these years,” Rosa crossed her
arms.

“What did Damien think
about it?” El asked me.

“She’s his mother, and he’s
dreamed of reuniting with her, just as I did with my mother; but I
talked with him and I believe he realizes he needs to be cautious.
He understands the meeting could have been driven by ulterior
motives.”

“What do you think, Kat? In
our vision the other woman felt truly evil,” Kate rubbed her arm as
if suddenly cold.

“He wants me to keep an
open mind. He also reminded me he was under Luena’s influence,
because she threatened the people he loved, and he suggested it may
be the same with his mother.

My thought is, I’d rather
err on the side of caution, because my gut says she’s using him.
They want him on their side, and I think they will use anything or
anyone to achieve their goal.”

“Which is?” prompted
Rosa.

“To destroy our family, for
one, and then rule the vampires. If it means killing all the
peaceful clans, just as they tried to do in the clan wars, they’ll
do it.”

“They’ll have to go through
us,” Rosa vowed.

“That’s right, and so far
so good,” Letta added.

“We were right too - I mean
about them blocking us, because none of us saw or felt anything to
warn us before Damien’s mother, whose name is Daniela, by the way,
showed up,” I emphatically pointed out.

“That’s right. What did
Mother have to say?”

“She’s working on it; we
should know something very soon.”
Sunday,
I thought to myself,
the last night of the full
moon.

“And we’ll be going on our
trip to Paris soon,” El looked excited by the thought, but suddenly
deflated.

Suddenly, we settled into a
strange quiet.

“What’s going through
everyone’s mind right now? What exactly are you feeling?” my
anxiety levels were rising by the second.

“I’m feeling anxious,”
admitted Kate.

“Me too,” While was glad
someone else felt what I did, I was apprehensive about what it
could mean.

“When El mentioned Paris I
got chills,” Letta shivered again.

“Something is going to
happen there, but I feel it’s still necessary we go,” said
Rosa.

“That’s exactly the way I
felt,” El looked to Rosa.

I gasped and said, “I just
remembered something. You know Quinn was gone when his brothers
were killed, and before Eric was rescued, right?”

Everyone nodded.

“I sent him to Paris,
without anyone else knowing, not even Damien. His assignment was to
watch Gerhardt and Philepe’s chateau and general area. When he got
back, and after the funerals, he told me what he saw. He said he
saw Ivan at Damien’s family apartment, having a heated discussion
with someone - a woman. He also saw the same woman outside
Philepe’s chateau with two other women. He didn’t recognize them,
but they seemed to wait outside the chateau until Philepe left, and
then all three entered—through the side gate, not the front, which
he thought was strange. How do you interpret that?”

“Those women are the ones
in our visions,” decided Kate.

“That means Damien and
Luena’s mothers are, or were, in Paris. But didn’t you say she told
Damien she had just been in Romania and Bulgaria?” Rosa had cut
right to the answer about Damien’s mother and the probability she
was using him for her own devices.

“And who’s the third woman,
the one you both saw in New Orleans? And what were they all doing
at Philepe’s?” El said.

“Obviously Philepe isn’t
involved, because they didn’t want him to see them,” I
reasoned.

“She doesn’t seem to be
blocking us,” Kate pointed out.

“I don’t think she has any
idea someone might be looking,” I said.

“We get these visions for a
reason, and so far it’s never been good,” Kate said, with a deep
sigh as she slumped in her chair.

“I have a feeling the
mystery woman is the key,” Letta said with authority.

“I think you’re right,” I
said. Letta as usual had found the answer.

“So should we try to ‘see’
what she’s up to and where she is, and maybe we’ll see the other
two as well,” Kate said.

“She might get tipped off
if we try it now. I say we wait until we get to Paris, but just
have general look just, before we go,” I said worried about the
implications of warning them in anyway.

“Sounds like a good idea,”
El agreed.

“Everyone else agree,
then?” I said looking for support.

Yes they did, proved by the
round of head nods and ‘yeses’.

“Remember, we have to keep
these things between us, agreed? What a day. I’m going to bed,” I
said.

“Goodnight, Damien,”
I said as I slipped into bed.
“Thank you again for the beautiful gift. I love
it, and I love you.”

“Goodnight, Katrina.
You’re welcome and happy birthday. I’ll see you
tomorrow.”

We worked out again in the
morning, but in the afternoon we went over to see if we could help
Mother with anything for that night or the next week.

“Thank you all, but I have
plenty of help, and I want it to be a surprise, so go relax. Rest
and pick out a nice simple but elegant dress, and be ready to come
back here, when I send for you,” she said.

“Looks like we have the
afternoon off,” Rosa quipped.

“I don’t feel like resting.
We’re not those kinds of girls anymore, are we?” grinned
Letta.

“Let’s go hunt; it’s been
too long,” I suggested, warming to the idea after it left my
lips.

El laughed, “Sarah’s going
to yell at us.”

“She probably was going to
do that anyway,” Rosa groused.

We knew only how true that
was; we laughed as we walked over to the front gate.

“Sorry ladies, you can’t go
anywhere without Watchers,” said the guard.