Katrina nodded and sniffed, wiping her eyes with the flat of her hand. She smiled, showing him she was all right.
Kyle reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. “My thanks for being my confessor,” he said as he let her hand fall gently back to her side. “And I do offer my apologies that I cannot wait for Nikolai’s return, but there are things I must see to.”
He bowed to her and disappeared, and Katrina returned to her seat to wait for her husband.
She sat and thought deeply about all Kyle had said, and though she wouldn’t share Kyle’s confession with anyone else -confessors kept their confidences, no matter how horrible or terrifying — she could at least bring up the questions in her mind to Nikolai.
She had a lot of them.
Kyle smiled to feel the familiar presence arrive at his home.
“If I thought you were going to abuse the privilege of unrestricted entry into my home,” he said as he turned to greet Katrina, “I would have rescinded it. How thoughtless of me.”
“Then why haven’t you corrected it by now?” Katrina asked innocently.
“Because I mistakenly had faith that Nikolai would have the very good sense to respect my preferences to be left in peace and not send you here whenever you grew bored of your role,” Kyle replied as he took a sip from his glass. “You always seem to show up at my dinner hour as well. I do not think it coincidence that you disrupt my solitude and my sustenance.”
Katrina could hear the pleasure and teasing he was trying to keep from his tone and smiled at him.
“We expected you for Hallowe’en,” she chided gently. “I mean, ‘All Hallows’ Eve’, as Nik calls it. Should I have personally delivered an engraved invitation? With bows and ribbons on thick vellum with four envelopes?”
“Are you implying that I’m pretentious?” Kyle answered with a question of his own. “Or that I’m rude for not attending?”
Katrina let the silence and her innocent expression answer for her.
Kyle hid a smile. “Silly mortal holiday,” he murmured. “Taken from origins long forgotten by nearly everyone. And I was not about to play ‘vampire’ to frighten children - if indeed they would be frightened of my ‘real fangs’ in this day and age -for your amusement.”
“It was a party for charity, Kyle,” Katrina reasoned.
“A charity to which I made a donation in your honour,” Kyle replied, duplicating her tone. “I don’t believe my presence is required for anything else.”
“Well, I do,” Katrina said flatly, but then paused. She bit her lip. “The church you told me about: Catrine’s church. Is it still around?”
“Yes,” Kyle confirmed. “Why?”
“Can we go? I mean, will you take me there?” Katrina asked.
“You wouldn’t like it. It’s nothing but an old churchyard now.”
“Just take me, OK? I want to see it.”
“No. I’m not Nikolai,” he reminded her. “You can’t just barge in here uninvited and order me about and expect to get your way. Nor can you ply me with your affections like you can him.”
Katrina’s scowl deepened.
Kyle returned her look with a bored, blank expression. Then sighed. “Humans. You have to see to believe, don’t you? Very well then.”
Before Katrina could answer him, they were there. It was dark and cold, and the wind, though gentle, blew through her. Immortal didn’t mean that she didn’t feel the cold, and it was bitter. She chided herself inwardly. What did she expect in November?
A light dusting of snow made the churchyard look like something Tim Burton would film.
“I told you that it was nothing but a churchyard now,” Kyle said. His long chestnut ponytail was unruffled by the wind, as were his clothes. He, at least, looked somewhat dressed for the weather. Kyle manifested a long wool coat for Katrina, and she smiled in gratitude.
“You said ‘churchyard’, not ‘graveyard’,” she pointed out. “Where’s the church?”
Kyle smiled. “Back then, the dead were all buried in churchyards,” he said. “The church itself has long been demolished. I was very glad when it was deconsecrated. It meant that I could visit.”
Katrina smiled too and cocked her head at the grave markers. “Let’s go visit,” she urged.