Katrina, The Beginning (39 page)

“Any visitors, Max?” Rosa
asked.

“No, my Lady. Any
instructions?”

“We’re going to rest for a
while, after we speak to the Voss brothers, so please don’t let
anyone else up unless it’s an emergency,” she
instructed.

He nodded and we continued
up the stairway and down the hall to our rooms.

“Who’d think it would be so
difficult to act normal,” said Letta once we got inside.

In a few minutes there was
a knock on the door.

“Come in,” I said and all
five remaining Voss brothers entered.

“We can’t explain much
right now, but you’re the only people we trust without
question.”

“What is it you need us to
do, Katrina?” Gunter asked, accepting my words.

“After dinner tonight, I
need someone to keep Eric and Damien entertained, but they cannot
realize they’re being kept away from us.”

The girls and I have
something to do and it needs to be completed in secret. Don’t give
me that look Gunter. This is absolutely necessary for our continued
safety, and we will tell you more about it later. But tonight, we
need your help to keep Eric and Damien occupied while we conduct
our business. Your job will be to do this without giving away ,
you’re covering for us. 

“I’ll ask your father to
take Damien and some of the others aside under the pretext of going
over plans for their trip,” Gunter suggested.

“Excellent,” I
said.

“I can take Eric hunting,”
Avery volunteered.

“You will need to keep him
in sight, so maybe training or games would be better,” Thomas
said.

I continued, “We also need
Watchers to guard the lower entrance to Father and Mother’s
building and be on guard at the chapel, both at front and the back.
And these things must be done discreetly.”

“Now to the last request.
The five of us will need to get to the chapel after dinner tonight
without being seen,” Kate said.

“You and Kate can escort
your mother, who may have a headache, back to her room, and then
you can use the underground passageway leading to the chapel,”
suggested Gunter.

Of course he knows of all
the passageways, I thought. He’s the lead Watcher, our protector,
so he has to know all the castle’s secrets.

“There’s another passage
leading to the storage room for the chapel,” he
continued

“Does it have an entrance
directly into the chapel, and can they get to it without being
seen?” Avery asked.

“The closest entrance to
the dining room would be in the kitchen pantry; it leads to that
storage room and there’s a door from it directly into the chapel,”
Thomas answered.

“That’s right. The rest of
you can make your way there while everyone is saying goodnight,”
said Simon.

“Actually, this was
supposed to be a surprise, but your father has planned fireworks
for after dinner,” Quinn, saddened by having revealed a
secret.

We all looked at him as if
he were crazy.

“I know, it was supposed to
be simple; but he’s had it planned since we got back. He did ask us
if we minded a celebration under the circumstances, and we all
agreed it was fine. It’d be what Gregor and Cedrik would want. We
all want you to remember their lives, not their deaths, and how
much they cared about you. Anyway, it’ll be the perfect time to
slip away,” Gunter said.

When the shock wore off, we
realized he was right.

“Now then, here’s the
plan,” Gunter said. “After dinner everyone will head outside to see
the fireworks. As soon as they start, your mother will say she
doesn’t feel well, and Katrina and Katherine will go back with her
to her apartment. A few minutes later, the rest of you will
separate yourselves from your families and head to the kitchen;
Thomas of course, will be with you. Quinn will be with Katrina and
Katherine as their mother’s Watcher, and he’ll guard the passageway
entrance once you’re in. Your father will keep Damien busy. Avery
will be with Eric, and Simon and I will be at the Chapel. There
will be plenty of Watchers around your fathers while they’re in the
meeting with Damien, so we won’t be missed. Is everyone
clear?”

We all nodded our
heads.

“All right, we’ll see you
at dinner,” Gunter said, satisfied with the plan.

I walked them to the
door.

“Thank you all. I knew we
could count on you,” I said.

“I’ll go now and speak with
your father about our plans,” said Gunter and turned to
leave.

As they were leaving, Sarah
came in with a tray full of snacks, wine, and Crimson.

“How about a little
something to help keep your strength up?”

“Just what we needed,
Sarah; thank you” I sighed.

“As usual Sarah knew what
we needed before we did,” Kate chuckled.

Sarah gave us the “yes I
did” look, smiled and put the tray on the table.

“Do any of you need
anything else?”

“I don’t think so. Thank
you, Sarah.”

“Then I’ll see you in a few
hours and we’ll get you all ready for tonight,” she said she turned
to leave.

“I didn’t realize how
hungry I was,” Letta said, as we finished every last thing on the
tray.

El said, “I wish we could
have hunted, but the Crimson will give us longer-lasting
energy.”

“I just thought of
something,” said Kate.

“What?” Rosa looked a
little anxious.

“We need to wear our
weapons under our dresses, just in case,” she said.

“How are we going to get to
them in a hurry if we need them?” I said.

“How about skirts and
blouses instead of dresses? We can wear our leggings underneath and
just rip the skirts off if we have to,” El suggested.

“That’s a great idea,”
Letta conceded.

“For the Paris trip, we
should probably have special dresses and skirts made to feature
openings hidden the folds, or pocket access points so we can hide
our weapons and get to them easily.”

“If we make it through
tonight, I’ll get right on that,” Rosa’s voice dripped
sarcasm.

“Kat, what do you think
about Eric? In our vision the Volator said they happened upon him
while he fed on an animal in the forest. Do you think it’s true, or
do you think Luena actually made him?” asked Kate.

“I don’t know for sure.
None of us ever sensed any evil in him when we first saw him,
strange since we had no trouble doing so in other situation or even
our visions

El held her chin as she
often did when she was reasoning something out.

“Even when someone or
something is actively blocking us, we’re still able to sense a
wrongness, but we don’t have any of those feelings with Eric,” she
said thoughtfully.

“He’s an awfully good actor
if he’s in with them.” Although she voiced it, I could see Rosa
didn’t think he was acting at all.

“He said he’d been a
vampire for about three years, but that memory might have been
planted into his mind,” I suggested. I knew Kate, out of all of us,
closest to Eric, wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I
also knew I could count on her if it turned out Eric
was the
problem. If I had any doubt of that, her next
thought convinced me.

“Allwain will know,” Kate
said, “and we’ll deal with it then.”

“Let’s go rest for a little
while, but after we get ready, let’s channel our gifts before we
go,” Without waiting for the others to follow, I went to my
room.

I flopped down on my bed
and stared at the ceiling. What kind of a feeling did I have about
tonight? I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing. I felt power
around me; my skin tingled, my face felt flushed, and then it was
gone and I fell asleep.

“Wake up sleepy-head, time
for your bath,” Sarah said, as she gently shook my shoulder. “You
could have at least taken off your boots before you took your nap,”
she grumbled.

“I meant to,” I said
sheepishly.

Girls started coming in
with hot water and I could hear water going into the other tubs as
well.

“I’m glad your father had
that huge new water vessel made so we can heat all this water at
the same time,” Sarah said as she added bath salts, lavender, and
mint to the water. “All right, into the tub with you and have a
good soak. I’ll be back in a little while to wash your
hair.”

I sank down in the hot,
sweet-smelling water, until it was up to my chin. It felt
delicious. I shut my eyes and luxuriated in my own private world.
In a little while Sarah came back and washed my hair, rinsed it,
and combed it out.

 “
You sure you want
this
outfit?” she asked, wrinkling her
noise in distaste.

“Yes, I’m sure, thank you,
Sarah. I can get dressed myself.”

“All right, if you’re sure.
Oh, and Gunter sent over some fresh Crimson. Why he thought you
needed more, I don’t know, but it’s out there on the table, if you
want it,” she said as she closed the door.

I took out a clean pair of
lambskin leggings and put them on over some silk undergarments and
a pretty lavender off-the-shoulder blouse. Then I strapped my short
sword and dagger as close to my hip as I could and covered
everything with a full, light grey skirt. I put on the necklace
Damien had given me for my birthday, and, even though one was gold
and one silver, I added the bracelet gift from my brothers, onto my
left wrist. I brushed the charms with my finger and took a look in
the mirror. The skirt effectively hid my weapons, I decided. Then I
brushed and smoothed my hair, slipped on my shoes, and headed out
the door.

“You all look just lovely,”
Sarah gushed.

She had made us each a
small bouquet of flowers.

“Happy birthday, girls. I
love you all,” she said, tears filling her eyes.

“We love you too, Sarah.
Thank you,” I said.

We each drank a little bit
of the Crimson Gunter sent over and crossed into the hall, down the
stairs, and across the courtyard. We were joined by Thomas and
Simon, who both looked even more handsome than usual, I thought.
Quinn and Avery met us at the door. Father and Mother were already
inside, as were most of our friends and families.

“You all look beautiful, as
usual,” Avery said.

Quinn added, “Happy
eighteenth birthday, ladies.”

When he smiled, it was
still hard not to melt. I couldn’t help myself; I walked over to
him and brushed the hair from his brow with my hand and kissed his
cheek.

“Thank you,
Quinn.”

We went into the reception
hall, which was filled with flowers and candles. We set our little
bouquets down on the side table, and were greeted with ‘Happy
Birthday’s’ from all our friends and families. Damien was standing
by Father, and when our eyes met my stomach fluttered. He was
breathtakingly handsome man, in his white open-collared shirt, dark
pants, and boots. His hair wasn’t tied back tonight, but was left
free and sexy; and as he walked over to me our gaze never wavered,
until he kissed my cheek.

“Happy birthday, Katrina,”
he whispered.

His hot breath on my neck
gave me chills. I closed my eyes so I could bask in his
scent.

“Happy birthday, darling,”
I heard Mother say.

“Thank you, Mother,” I
answered, “Where did Father go?”

“He went to check on
something,” she said as she winked at Damien. “What a beautiful
necklace.”

“My birthday present from
Damien,” I said and proudly held the heart up for her
inspection.

“You have excellent taste,
Damien,” she told him while examining my gift.

“I think so,” he said as he
smiled at me.

“And what’s this?” she
said, as she examined my bracelet.

“The brothers made one for
each of us; five charms for five beauties, they said.”

“Lovely, just lovely. Oh,
there’s your father, over there with Katherine. I’m going to wish
her happy birthday. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

“Oh, there’s Eric, let’s go
say hello,” Damien said.

It’s all
right,
I told myself,
it’s not his fault…I
don’t think.
He looked healthy, happy, and ever so
handsome.

“Thank you for inviting
me,” he said. “And happy birthday.”

“Thank you, Eric, and
you’re welcome. I’m glad you have your health back. Are you
sleeping well?” I said, thinking back to our vision.

“I still need a lot of it.
Sometimes I fall asleep right after dinner and I don’t even
remember dreaming. I sleep like a rock,” he laughed.

His eyes were full of life.
I knew somehow Luena was responsible for doing this and hated her
for it.

“Gunter said he’s learning
almost as fast as the girls,” Damien said.