Hungry is the Night - Page Ten
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By 12.30, the van was full, and they were on their way to Catlin's flat. Mary-Kate took Juniper in her car, as it had an approved baby seat and Jade drove Damien and Catlin, while Gabriel and Alex took the hired van. Once at the apartment, Catlin invited them all in, and Mary-Kate quickly settled Juniper in her stroller in the bedroom. Then, Alex, Gabriel and Damien went back down the stairs, and jammed the elevator doors open, and packed the elevator full. Jade pressed the "call" button, and once the boys released the door, it came to their floor, where they jammed the door and unloaded. Once it was empty, Catlin hit the "ground floor" button, and the elevator returned to the boys. In this way, they quickly emptied the van, and subsequently made short work of moving the furniture around to accommodate Mary-Kate and Juniper's things. Mary-Kate resettled Juniper into her crib, then Catlin stayed with Juniper while Mary-Kate, Gabriel, Damien and Jade returned to the house, to collect the few remaining items. Alex still made Mary-Kate slightly uncomfortable, so he elected to stay with Catlin. While they were gone, Catlin unpacked Mary-Kate's clothes into the wardrobe, and set about making her bedroom feel more like it belonged to Mary-Kate, then returned to the kitchen, where Alex had unpacked all of Mary-Kate's kitchen-ware, and rearranged the cupboards to fit everything in - including the wine glasses Catlin had left on the counter.
"Thanks, Alex. Tea?"
"It was my pleasure. Yes, please. Black, one sugar. Catlin. You did not tell me that Mary-Kate was a real witch."
"What other sort is there?" Catlin smiled as she flicked the switch on the kettle.
"No, you misunderstand. Mary-Kate is a real witch. It is hereditary, you understand?"
"I know her mother was a witch, yes."
"It is like..." Alex paused. "You know there are people who pretend to be vampires? They wear pointy teeth, and they drink blood, but they are not real vampires."
"Yes."
"Similarly, there are people who pretend to be witches. They do spells and chant under a full moon, but they aren't real witches. They can't do real magic. I believe they usually call themselves wiccan."
"MK isn't wiccan, Alex. She's just a witch."
"Yes, that is what I am saying. But there is no "just" about it. She is a supernatural, just like the rest of us."
"Hang on. Jade said..."
Catlin tried to remember what Jade had said about witches.
"That some people believe them to be supernatural, and others to be merely human?"
"Yes."
"That is true. Real witches are quite rare. Not as rare as vampires, of course, but quite rare none-the-less. I would say that most people who think witches aren't supernaturals have never met a real one."
"So you're saying MK is a real witch. With magic powers and all that."
"I do not know the extent of her training. While talent is inherent, witches need training to become truly great. But yes, she is a supernatural. Able to manipulate the natural order of things. However, I would guess that her training didn't progress very far. She could tell I was old, and something to be wary of, but she couldn't tell what you were. A fully trained witch would be able to tell the difference between a human, a vampire, a werewolf, a sorcerer and another witch with relative ease."
Catlin handed Alex his black tea, then added milk to her own cup before returning the milk to the fridge.
"So Juniper will be a witch as well."
"She already is. She is just untrained. Usually, a young witch will be taught the basics during the first ten years of her life, and then once she reaches puberty, there is some sort of first blood ritual, which brings the witch to her full powers. I don't know the details, of course. The witches guard their secrets quite well. You said Mary-Kate's mother was a witch?"
"She was, yes. She died about six years ago."
"Well, that doesn't explain the incomplete training. Do you think she would talk about it with me?"
"Probably not yet," Catlin smiled. "She's a bit intimidated by you, I think."
Alex's surprise was punctuated by the chime of the elevator, and soon the others were bringing the last of Mary-Kate's items through the door. Alex went back down to the van with Jade, Gabriel and Damien to bring up the final load, and Catlin quickly summarised her conversation with Alex for Mary-Kate, as they made tea for everyone else.
"So. You think he's barmy?"
"I'm not sure, Cat. It would explain a few things."
"Like what?"
"Well, of course Mum taught me things when I was younger, and I do remember this ceremony he mentioned. But I wouldn't have said it was to bring me into my full powers. As I remember it, it was something along the lines of being content with what I had, so he's got that bit wrong. But the bit it explains is the books I inherited, when Mum died. They're all for that sort of thing. I thought they were a joke."
"MK," Catlin said hesitantly. "Would there be a reason your mother wouldn't want you to be powerful?"
Mary-Kate looked startled.
"You think he is right? That he knows more about this than me?"
"I don't know, darling," Catlin soothed. "I was just asking. I don't know anything about this."
Feathers smoothed, Mary-Kate shrugged.
"I can't see why she'd do anything to limit me. I think he's just been told something exaggerated, and believed it."
Catlin nodded, and put the conversation out of her head. The others shortly returned, and after quickly setting up the cabinets and desk from Mary-Kate's craft room in the raised alcove where Catlin's kitchen table had been, they sat around Mary-Kate's dining room table, comfortably chatting. Surprisingly, Mary-Kate seemed to have come to terms with the vampires, and treated them as she would any visitor - with the exception of Alex, whom she was still wary of.
After a time, Catlin mentioned that Mary-Kate should get some sleep if she was going to be able to look after her daughter in the morning, and Jade quickly announced that they were leaving. Catlin slipped in to say goodnight again to Juniper, and then, after a quick kiss for Mary-Kate, they were gone, leaving Mary-Kate to tumble, exhausted, into Catlin's bed.
Over the next few weeks, Catlin spent every evening without fail from sun-down to 11.00 pm at her apartment. Some nights she and Mary-Kate would spend the evening sorting, tidying, packing and arranging their belongings to fit in three people into a space where there used to only be one. Other evenings Catlin would play with, feed and bathe Juniper while Mary-Kate had some alone time, Catlin working hard to tire out Juniper so that she would sleep later in the morning, allowing Mary-Kate some well-needed extra rest. Occasionally she would stay all night, doing nothing more than watching over Juniper, so that Mary-Kate could sleep through the night without being disturbed if Juniper woke. And some nights they would put Juniper down for the night and sit and talk over tea or wine, sometimes laugh, sometimes cry and sometimes do nothing more than sit in companionable silence and contemplate the changes in their lives.
After two weeks the work was started on the apartment next door, with the arrangement being that the wall separating the properties would be left intact as long as possible. A further week after that Catlin noticed that Mary-Kate was always in the kitchen, studying her witchcraft books when she arrived. After assuring herself that Mary-Kate wasn't planning on doing anything horrible to Alan, Catlin slowly lessened her visits, spacing them out with phone calls, hoping that Mary-Kate would find what she needed to heal herself in her studies and would come to think of their joint apartment as her home.
Catlin hesitated at the closed door, then tapped, lightly. Gabriel had found her in the gymnasium, and told her that Alex wished to speak to her. She had showered, changed into a dress, and presented herself at his rooms. Alex opened the door, and motioned for Catlin to sit at his desk.
"Catlin."
"Gabriel said you wanted to see me."
"I do. Two days ago, Mary-Kate paid us a visit."
"She did?"
Catlin hadn't seen Mary-Kate in over a week and was a little hurt that she hadn't said she was visiting.
"Yes. Did you give her the address?"
"No, but I did give her the telephone number."
"Ah. Resourceful little witch," Alex said, approvingly. "In any case, she asked me for some information, which I have prepared for her."
Alex opened a drawer, and placed a large package on the desk.
"Please tell her that I would like the book returned, but she may keep the rest."
"What's it about?"
"It is in reference to our conversation some weeks ago. I gather you mentioned it to her."
"I did."
"Well, she decided she was in need of answers. These are her answers."
Catlin accepted the package, but made no move to leave. It was quite clear that he hadn't finished.
"Furthermore, I have prepared this package for you."
He produced what could only be described as a tome, and placed it on the desk.
"You may keep it. The references are all contained within the house libraries, so you should have no trouble finding further information, should you require it. It lists, I believe, everything you will need to know about vampires, the houses, their histories, and so on. It also has information about many other supernatural species. I believe you will find it invaluable."
Catlin stroked one finger along the spine of the book. It was neatly bound, intricately tooled, and looked very, very expensive.
"Thank you, Alex."
The value of the gift was obvious - he had spared no expense, because she would be representing him. On the spot, Catlin vowed to herself that she would not shame him. She carefully lifted the tome and stood to go.
"One more thing."
"Yes?"
Alex smiled, and handed her a set of keys.
"Your car has arrived."
Catlin shut off the engine with a sigh. The car stopped purring instantly and ticked softly as it cooled. Catlin sat in silence for a moment, listening to the cooling engine and breathing in the new car smell. She had driven over to her apartment and dropped Mary-Kate's package onto the bench with a note. Mary-Kate and Juniper had both been fast asleep, so Catlin hadn't lingered. From there, she'd driven up into the hills and stretched her car's legs, so to speak. She had needed an outing. Having decided to leave Mary-Kate and Juniper alone in the apartment for a few weeks to help them settle in had seemed like a great idea when she decided to do it, and from her phone calls and single brief visit over the past 10 days it seemed to be working, but without their company Catlin felt a little lonely. She stroked a hand lovingly along the dashboard of her car.
Won't be long, my darling, she thought at the car, then climbed out, stroked a hand over the smooth lines of the bonnet, locked up and headed inside to work out.
With her acceptance of a formal place within the house, Catlin's training began. Seeming to sense that Catlin was at a bit of a loose end, her new family stepped in to fill the void with training, hunting, teaching and demonstrations. Monday nights were spent with Alex, learning what she dubbed Vampire Etiquette 101. Alex was a wonderful teacher and Catlin surprised herself by enjoying the classes. She certainly had never enjoyed the deportment classes Ronald had paid for. Tuesday she would go out hunting or stay home and train in the gymnasium, either alone, with Jade or with Damien. She was still unsure how she felt about Gabriel withholding the information about Michael's lupine predisposition from her, so avoided being alone with him as much as possible. This was unavoidable on Wednesdays, as he occupied her night with discussions about the histories of Orchid House. These often turned into lectures, which necessitated a further night in the library, reading up on the histories of the other houses, in order to understand the reasons behind the events. The tome from Alex proved invaluable to her in learning the histories as it seemed that every time she read it, there was more information within the book which expanded her knowledge. She would often read the sections in her tome on the other supernatural creatures, hoping that the same would happen for these subjects, but the knowledge in the tome was nothing compared to Damien's. She asked Damien to write her some new notes, as his personal knowledge far surpassed what was in the book, but he declined to write anything and instead claimed her Fridays for lessons on werewolves and other supernatural creatures. Catlin loved these lessons, particularly the excursions, when he decided she knew enough about the theory of the creatures and took her to meet one in the flesh. Saturday was the big hunting night and she was never alone for that hunt. Occasionally they would all go out together, but her usual partners for feeding and fighting were Jade and Damien. Sunday nights were spent with Jade, learning her area of expertise - espionage and spying.
In this way the weeks passed swiftly and Catlin soon found that she wasn't too lonesome without speaking to Mary-Kate every second day. One Tuesday when Catlin stopped by to check up on them, Mary-Kate appeared as Catlin unlocked the front door.
"Oh, it's you. Come into the kitchen, I just made tea."
Catlin followed Mary-Kate into the kitchen and took down a second teacup while Mary-Kate cleared her papers from the table.
"How's Juni?"
"Fine. She took a few weeks to settle into a routine here, but she seems to have completely adjusted now."
"And what about you?"
Catlin sat at the kitchen table and Mary-Kate poured the tea.
"I'm adjusting. It's strange, not having Alan around all the time, but I'm coping. Silly things get me, like changing the light globe, you know?"
"Yeah, I know. How is he coping with your leaving now?"
"He's mostly over the shock of it now. I still can't believe that he expected me to wait around at home, moping for him, even though he was the one who broke it off."
"Men think differently to women. He saw himself as the provider. The thought that you appeared to take his decision to abandon you in your stride probably threw him a bit. He obviously didn't realise what a strong and resourceful person you are. Hopefully it made him realise exactly what he was losing by walking out of you."
"I'm not strong, Cat. If it hadn't been for you helping me, I would have still been sat at home waiting for him when he came home that Monday, just like he expected."
"I don't believe that, MK. You're one of the strongest people I know. You would have pulled yourself out of that hole on your own."
"Maybe, maybe not. We'll never know, but I am glad that you were there."
They smiled at each other and Catlin sighed.
"What a pair we are, eh? Both thinking we're nothing special, only human, and here we are now - I'm a vampire and you're a witch!"
"So you are of the opinion that witches are supernaturals, not humans?"
"I don't know, MK. You and Juni do have a different feel to you than other humans, but that just could be because you're my best friend and Juni's my god-daughter. I don't know enough about it."
"There's a case for both sides," Mary-Kate admitted. "Though I am starting to believe that my mother did deliberately hold me back from all I could have been."
Catlin carefully put down her cup.
"What makes you say that?"
"The information Alex provided. Cat, there's so much in there and a lot of it is old. Really old. There's rituals in there that I've never even heard of, let alone tried. And the detail... someone couldn't just make up information like that, not unless they were a real witch."
"Maybe a witch did make it up?"
"It's possible, but unlikely. There's too many sources that agree from different times and different countries. I think I'm going to have to accept that for some reason, my mother stunted me and we'll never know why."
"Perhaps she was afraid?"
"Of what?"
"Well, didn't you say to me once that your mother wasn't very strong in the craft?"
"Yes, that's true."
"Perhaps she saw how quickly you were surpassing her and was afraid of how strong you would become."
Mary-Kate was silent for a moment.
"I'll have to think about that."
"I'll pop by next week."
Catlin kissed Mary-Kate goodbye and returned to her car.
Catlin lay back on the roof and gazed at the stars. The moon was dark and the stars glittered brightly. The seasons had turned again and the autumn equinox had passed. Winter was coming and the cold wind heralded the return of longer nights. Alex had announced earlier that he had set the date for the council meeting - it would start on the winter solstice the following year. He had left it as late as he could. In his messages to the other houses, he had written that the longer nights would allow them more time for discussion, but the reality was that he wanted to give Catlin as long as possible to get used to her new role. To his vampiric way of thinking, the 15 months he'd managed to give her wasn't anywhere near long enough. To her still-too-human way of thinking, it was an age. She had allowed that an extra couple of years would allow her to become an expert, but even Jade had laughed at her when she'd mentioned that. She wondered how she would celebrate her 80th birthday. Would she feel old, or young by then? It was hard to know.
Catlin sat up and looked down into the garden. The wind was stronger, sitting, trying to blow her backwards off the roof, and in the garden she saw movement. Curiosity piqued, she moved to the corner of the roof and lowered herself onto the balcony rail, then down to the windows of the second floor and swiftly made her way across the window ledges and into a large tree, just near where she'd spotted the movement. She caught a whiff of wolf, but the unfaithful wind gusted and she couldn't catch the scent. On the other hand, it probably stopped the werewolf below smelling her too. There was movement again and Catlin caught a glimpse of hair that caught the starlight. Catlin edged out along a branch until she was directly above the werewolf and jumped. Something must have alerted him, because at the last minute, he leaped forward and rolled. Catlin landed on her feet and immediately lunged after him. He had come to his feet, tucked his head down and met her head on with his fists. Catlin felt the breath rush out of her lungs as his fists met her solar plexus and she flew backwards into the tree she'd just dropped out of. He followed up quickly, snarling and Catlin surprised herself by hissing back as she pushed herself away from the tree, landing a kick into the side of his knee and a long scratch down his face. The wolf caught her about the neck and pinned her back to the tree. Catlin stilled as she felt the claws pricking her neck, realising that he was seconds away from ripping out her throat and also finally recognising him. Fortunately, he recognised her before he pulled back his clenched fist and stilled, panting. Catlin dangled from his grip for a few long seconds, then he lowered her slowly down the tree until her feet touched the ground. Very slowly, Catlin felt the claws retract, as his hands returned to human hands. Soon his warm hand was resting across her throat.
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