Chapter 195
Jorick woke Katelina several hours later. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and asked what time it was.
"Nearly one, which should be plenty of time." As an afterthought Jorick added, "We're here."
The back door of the van opened and Oren leaned in, scowling. "Hectia isn't here."
Hectia. The name was only semi-familiar to Katelina, and conjured an image of a dark haired vampiress with a childish temperament. Like so many of Jorick and Oren's relationships in the vampire world, the one with Hectia was tenuous and crisscrossed with lies and carefully balanced politics. A former enemy of Oren's, Hectia believed she owed him now that her master was dead. She didn't really, but Katelina wasn't going to tell her that.
"Maybe she's late?" Jorick climbed out into the snow. "She did agree to help?"
"After a fashion. She was supposed to bring someone who could disable the security system."
The two vampires moved away and Katelina followed uncertainly. They stopped a few feet away and frowned at an old brick building. Antique cornices and stone work accentuated the four floors. Dark, blank windows stared like empty eyes. The building sat back from the street in the center of a little square of snowy lawn, surrounded by skeletal trees and orange tinted streetlights. The neighboring buildings were just as old: large, dark houses and a sleepy church. The air hung heavy with eerie winter silence.
It wasn't what Katelina had imagined. "You're sure this is it?"
Jorick pointed to a wooden sign that proclaimed, "Michigan Institute of Supernatural and Unexplained Sciences".?
"Apparently."
"I thought it would be more high-tech. You know, white walls, lots of glass, an eye scanner."
Oren checked his watch impatiently. "Hectia obviously isn't going to show up. I suggest we cut the power. That should get rid of any alarm system."
Katelina rolled her eyes. "Great idea, except alarms have a battery backup."
"And how do you know about building security?" Oren asked coldly
"The newspaper office where I worked had an alarm system! Most businesses do, you know!" Before she could berate Oren further, an idea struck her. "But not upstairs- my boss said it was a waste of money because people can't get through a third story window - but you two could!" She pointed to the upper stories. "I bet they don't have any alarms up there, either."
Jorick smiled and laid a hand on her shoulder. "You're probably right. From the looks of it, this institute doesn't have much funding. I'm sure they cut corners where they can."
"And what if they haven't? This is an institute for the paranormal. Surely they'd know our abilities?" Oren met Jorick's eyes and held them.
"I doubt the idiots running this place have any concept of us, or our abilities. If they did, they'd have a better facility."
Oren's only reply was, "They have Kale."
Jorick brushed the comment aside and turned to Katelina. "Do you remember anything else about the alarm system?"
"It had a keypad just inside the door, but I didn't know the code. Once, Mr. Fordrent didn't show up for work, so the secretary had to let us in. After the door opened, she couldn't remember the code and the system called the security company. The cops and a guard showed up."
Jorick nodded. "It sounds like we either chance the window or wait for Hectia and her friend."
Oren growled low in his throat. His eyes snapped to the building "All right, we'll try it, but I don't like it."
Jorick turned to Katelina. "You should stay in the van. I don't know what we'll find in there, or what condition Kale is in. It might be best to keep temptation away."
She didn't like the implication in his words, but she liked waiting alone even less. "Anyone could show up! What then?"
Jorick shifted from one foot to the other and Oren gave a disgusted grunt. "Oh, take her. But if she gets in the way, I won't hesitate to leave her."
Jorick's dark head snapped up. "No, you won't."
?
They walked to the building. The two vampires examined it and then nodded in unison, as if they'd agreed on an unspoken conclusion. "I'll go first." Oren glanced at Katelina. "Since I'm not- encumbered."
He crouched low, so that his fingertips brushed the sidewalk, then sprung upwards and caught one of the windows on the second story. Jorick had once helped Katelina break into her old apartment by jumping up the building. Though she'd thought it was terrifying at the time, it was even worse when she could see it in the third person.
At the fourth floor, Oren easily swung onto one of the wide windowsills. Katelina watched with trepidation as he straightened and worked on the window. Like the feline he resembled, he seemed perfectly at home, despite the dizzying height.
The lock clicked. The sound echoed in the heavy air and Katelina tensed. She saw Jorick's eyes shoot around the perimeter, as if seeking observers, but there were none.
Oren looked to them with an expression that said "this is it". Then, he raised the window. They caught their breath, waiting. They didn't hear an alarm, only the winter wind whistling through the naked trees. With a satisfied nod to his accomplices, Oren dropped inside.
Jorick offered Katelina a smile. "It's our turn now, little one." He swept her to him with one arm. "Hold on." Then he leapt. She smashed her eyes shut and swallowed back a scream as the ground fell away. She didn't want to see this.
Though she didn't look, she could feel him spring from floor to floor. Each hop made her stomach tighten. She clutched him tightly and imagined slipping from his grasp and plummeting to the sidewalk below.
Then they stopped. She opened her eyes just as Jorick dropped her into the window. Oren clutched a handful of her coat, which kept her from falling to the floor, but did little else. She used the wall to pull herself upright and sent him a dark look.
He hissed at Jorick, "Are you coming?"
The raven haired vampire held up a finger, his body tense and his eyes on the ground.
"What is it?" Oren asked with alarm. Instead of answering, Jorick disappeared, no doubt dropping down to investigate.
Oren swore under his breath and pulled Katelina to the floor. She jerked loose and he held a finger to his lips. Something in his eyes dared her to make a sound.
Her ears strained in the silence. All she could hear was her heart hammering and, from her position on the floor, all she could see through the window was the tree tops and a shivering moon.
Moments ticked by. Unvoiced horrors screamed through her mind. Were the police there? Was it a security guard? Had The Guild sent a squad of Executioners? Had a blood crazed Kale escaped his prison?
Suddenly a face appeared at the window. She choked the scream into a squeal and flung herself backwards into a pile of boxes. Oren jumped, but caught himself at the last moment. It was only Jorick.
The dark haired vampire swung inside, an amused smile on his lips. He offered Katelina a hand up. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. So what was it?"
"Hectia, and she brought her friend. Jordan, I believe. I told them to work on the alarm and that we'll meet them outside once we have Kale."
"Good," Oren said. "Let's go."
Jorick squeezed Katelina's hand. Though she refused to voice her anxiety, it was there, hiding under her fake calm. No doubt he could see it in her mind. Another of his vampire abilities.
Oren led them into a dark echoing hallway lined with doors. Boxes peered at them from storage rooms, some labeled in tidy black letters. Katelina wished there was time to peek inside them. She didn't believe in aliens, Bigfoot or the other monsters, but if vampires were real, what else was? The institute had captured Kale. What other creatures had they collected? What information was stored away, laughed at by all but those who'd experienced it?
Their secrets remained their own. She and Jorick followed Oren down a narrow flight of stairs to the third floor. It was set up the same, though the doors that lined the hallway were locked. Signs said things like "References", "Resources" and "Interview Room". Though the last one made Katelina pause, Jorick tugged her along before she could examine it.
The second floor held offices, each one neatly labeled. They stopped before a door with a familiar name: Dr. Noah C. Miley.
"This is the man in the article?" Oren asked.
As if to prove how badly organized they were, Jorick tugged a piece of newsprint from his pocket; an article taken from a tabloid. Katelina remembered the contents. There was a photo of Kale, his fangs bared, and Dr. Miley's comments that he planned to do research on the captured vampire that could "change the course of human history." The idea still made her shiver.
Oren peered at the door. "Kale will be in a basement, but the doctor's research may be in here."
Jorick nodded. "You check it out and we'll find Kale. They have my fingerprints, not yours."
