Chapter 175
Oren jerked to his feet and started out the door after him. Katelina clutched her bleeding throat and whimpered. At the sound, the lion-maned vampire stopped and turned to her. She stared back with terrified eyes. She could almost feel Oren's indecision as he weighed which was more important. With an aggravated snarl, he released the door and closed the distance between them.
"Are you all right?"
She wanted to shout, "I'm bleeding, you idiot!" but she couldn't find her voice, so she shook her head no.
Oren knelt and reached for her. She flinched away. "Would you hold still? I need to see how bad it is!"
She lowered her hand slowly, and tried not to move while he leaned close and examined the wound. Her stomach twisted and her head felt strangely light, though whether from shock or her injury she didn't know.
He set back on his haunches. "It's a clean bite. He didn't drink from you for more than a minute, so I doubt you'll suffer from blood loss. However, I have a few choice words for someone!"
Anger danced in his eyes and he stood and strode to the phone. She pressed her hand back over the wound and tried to come to terms with what had just happened. Her limbs shook and her heart pounded in her ears. She also had a few choice words for someone. She told Jorick that she hadn't imagined the other vampire!
"Hello? I have a human who was just attacked in our room - Yes! I said attacked! I don't know by whom! Aren't your security measures good for something? Don't you have cameras on the floors? I expect something done about this immediately! What? I don't know! I was in the shower." He dropped the phone and glanced at her. "How did he get in?"
She shifted uncomfortably. "He knocked on the door. I thought it was Verchiel again."
Oren's anger was suddenly at her. "You let him in?"
"I didn't let him in! I just opened the door a little bit and he forced his way in!"
Oren motioned her to silence and went back to his conversation. "He knocked at the door and then forced his way in. We're on the fifth floor, room 542. Yes, I expect you'd better send someone. Immediately!" He slammed the phone down. "If this is the best security they can offer, we'll be able to walk in and out with no one the wiser!"
He stormed to the bathroom and disappeared. Katelina stayed where she was. She didn't trust her legs to get her to a chair. She took deep, slow breaths and tried to calm her racing heart. It was all right. The vampire was gone now and, as Oren said, there were surely cameras and security measures. The Citadel was crawling with Executioners and guards. They'd catch the lunatic and- and what? What would they do to him? Was it really a crime to attack a human when many of them did so on a nightly basis?
Oren returned, fully clothed and his hair brushed. "You're not planning to stay on the floor?"
She stood and her knees wobbled. She caught herself on the wall. Oren made a noise in his throat and then took her arm and led her into the lounge area. He deposited her in a chair just as the knock sounded on the door.
Oren opened it to two vampires. One had a shiny club hanging from his belt and the other had a clipboard.
"We received a report," the woman with the clipboard began. "There was an attack?"
Oren's eyes narrowed. "Yes! That's why I called!"
"There's no need to take that tone," the vampire with the club said, his hand on his weapon.
The woman went on as if neither had spoken. "I need your name."
"Oren Cotterill."
"And what happened?"
"I already told them on the phone! The human was attacked. Someone knocked on the door and then forced their way in-"
The woman interrupted, "Who opened the door?"
"She did. I was in the shower."
Despite the fact that Katelina was the one who'd been attacked, the woman directed all of her questions to him. She scribbled down his answers on her paper and made little noises of understanding, even as he raged again about the security.
"I'm sorry sir. Had the attack happened in a public area, we'd have seen it, but we don't have cameras in the rooms."
"Of course you don't," Oren replied sarcastically. "Not that you'll admit to."
The woman glanced over the paper work again. "Does your human need medical attention? There's an infirmary on the sixth floor."
"No, she'll be fine, though she isn't my human."
The woman lowered the clipboard and looked suddenly stricken. "She doesn't belong to you?"
"No, of course not! She belongs to Jorick!"
"Oh dear." The woman flipped through her papers. "He'll have to sign this, and then I'll have to make a note that it was reported by a third party."
"I'm hardly a third party! I was here! He wasn't!"
"It doesn't matter. She's his property, not yours."
Katelina had had enough. "I'm no one's property! This is ridiculous!"
The two vampires surveyed her coolly, and then ignored her. "Where is this Jorick?"
"How the hell should I know? He left to speak with someone and said he'd return shortly."
"Until he comes back, there's nothing we can do. The human's master has to sign for her."
As if summoned, Jorick opened the door. He froze on the threshold and stared from one face to the other. Concern blossomed in his eyes. "What's going on?"
"The hu- Katelina was attacked," Oren answered bluntly.
"What?" Jorick stormed past everyone and stopped next to her. "Who attacked you? Was it that redheaded idiot? Are you all right?"
"No, it wasn't Verchiel. It was that guy from the woods."
Jorick ignored the last statement and caught her hand. Gently, he lowered it to examine her injury. The wound had clotted, but there was still dried blood on her neck, hand and shirt. He let her go and rounded on Oren, "Why haven't you dressed it?"
"It's a clean bite. She'll be fine."
"Are you Jorick?" the woman asked and held the clipboard towards him. "We need you to sign this."
"Sign what? What is this?"
"It's the report about the attack," she answered impatiently. "We can't investigate until you sign it."
"What do you need to investigate? If it wasn't the clown it was one of his friends!"
"No it wasn't. It was the vampire from the woods!" Katelina snapped with more force. "The one you didn't see!"
"The perpetrator is unknown at this time," the woman with the clipboard added, as if her opinion was more important.
Jorick snatched the pen from her, and signed his name with a flourish. "There, for all the good it will do. I'll investigate this myself and, when I find out what happened, you can scrape up what's left of the unknown perpetrator!"
The woman flinched and the man with the club tried to look threatening. "If you'd leave it to us, sir."
Jorick muttered something dark and angry under his breath. The woman handed him a slip of paper and then she and her escort left with the promise that they'd "look into it".
They were barely out the door when Jorick turned back to Katelina. "Now what the hell is going on?"
The story tumbled out in a few sentences. When she'd finished, he was scowling darkly. "So there was someone? I didn't sense him."
"That's because he's a phantom."
Everyone's head snapped around to see Verchiel lounging just inside the door. "His name is Alistair. He used to be in Kateesha's coven."
Jorick's fury turned darker. "What are you doing here? If you're their idea of an investigation-"
"Nope. I doubt they even have the paperwork filed yet. You know how it is. I was called upstairs after a vampire roared through the office without signing out. Apparently, he's a phantom and thought he could sneak by undetected, but that doesn't work on the guard. When he was challenged, he got belligerent, and then disappeared. It isn't hard to put two and two together. He obviously attacked little Kately, then made a break for it, though it will take security a while to figure it out."
She shivered. "What's a phantom?"
"It's a vampire who can disguise their presence," Jorick answered between clenched teeth. "They use mental manipulations to hide their scent, their presence, and in some cases they can even make themselves seem invisible."
"But he was fast. Really fast. Like him," she pointed to Verchiel. "Doesn't that make him a wind walker, or whatever."
"You can have more than one classification," Verchiel answered cheerily. "I do."
Jorick growled at him. "He got away?"
"Yeah, by the time I got there he was long gone. I could have caught him, of course, if I knew where he went. Unfortunately, I'm not a tracker. I don't suppose you know him?"
Katelina's voice was barely more than a whisper. "I saw him at Oren's, in the woods."
Verchiel nodded. "In that case, he's probably been following you. I looked it up and he checked in the same night you did." His eyes flicked to Jorick. "He was following one of us, and I don't think it was me. Apparently, you're not immune to phantoms."
