Chapter 267
It was nearly impossible to find normal clothes, but Katelina tried. Neil followed like a nervous puppy, and they drew more attention than she liked. The cashiers rang up her purchases, and each time Katelina told them to charge it to Jorick's account.
After an hour of shopping she'd gotten everything on her list except underwear, and she didn't want to shop for that in front of the guard. She'd have to get rid of him.
She stopped near to a bench and Neil teetered to a stop. He was barely visible under the pile of purchases, including a set of luggage. "Maybe you should take some of that down to our apartment?"
He peeked around the edge of a bag. "I don't have a keycard for that."
She fished her card from her pocket and held it out to him. "Here, use mine."
He shifted the bulk and reached for it, then stopped. "Jorick said I should stay with you, no matter what."
She cursed her boyfriend silently. "It will be fine. You'll only be gone a few minutes. What could possibly happen?"
He peered around the purchases, as if seeking potential hazards. "I don't know. How much shopping do you have left?"
She lied, "Clothes for Jorick, at least."
He groaned softly. "All right. But wait here." He juggled the parcels and snatched the card from her fingers. "I'll be right back."
She waited until he disappeared through the doorway, then hurried to the lingerie shop. There was very little in the way of practical underwear, so she was back in the brick room before he'd returned.
She dropped onto the wooden bench and stretched her legs out in front of her. A pair of vampires walked past and, as their eyes swept over her, she suddenly wondered if sending Neil away had been such a good idea.
The pair moved on and she relaxed. She was just being paranoid. They wouldn't really do anything to her in the middle of the mall.
"What's a little human doing all on her own?"
Katelina jolted. The voice in her head wasn't hers, which meant there was a powerful vampire lurking around.
"Powerful? I'm flattered."
Katelina snatched up her shopping bag and hugged it to her like a shield. She told herself to stay calm. Neil would be back any moment and then-
"But where will you be?"
"Not here." Katelina jerked to her feet and spun towards the exit. A broad shouldered vampire in a green coat suddenly blocked her path. She didn't recognize the bearded face or the dark shaggy hair, but the look in his eyes was familiar and hungry.
She swung the shopping bag in a panicked arc and jumped away. The vampire dodged and grabbed her wrist. He jerked her towards him and pushed his face close to hers, staring deep into her eyes. She struggled to look away from the green orbs but her resistance melted into a pool of nothing and the sounds of the mall faded. She was trapped in the center of a glittering emerald green prism, and she didn't even care.
The voice seemed to come from both outside and inside her head at the same time. "Isn't that better? Now let's go back to my room and discuss how powerful I am."
She didn't notice the bag that slipped from her fingers, or the room that moved past as her legs mechanically followed his lead. The only thing she was aware of was a steady thrumming in her head that grew louder and louder by the second. It vibrated the false green walls of her mental prison and rolled through her.
The thrumming turned into words, murmurs, thoughts. His thoughts. He was bored. It was just a bit of fun and why not? He deserved some fun. "Don't we all deserve some fun?"
"Not with someone else's property."
The new voice jarred her and the green prison flickered. She was suddenly aware of motion. She was walking. Her shoes were soundless on the thick carpet.
"Okay joker, back off."
It was like the voice in her mind but it was in her ears. She clutched at the sensory sensation and clawed toward the real world; light, sound, a corridor lined in doors.
Panic surged through her and scattered the last shreds of the emerald colored prison. Her knees locked and she froze in place. Where the hell was she? It looked like one of the hotel-style corridors, but how had she gotten there?
The vampire in the green coat stopped in front of her and growled low in his throat as a pair of figures approached. It was a tall, thin vampire with long dark hair. Behind him was a young man with an open shirt and a mass of crisscrossing scars. His messy blond hair obscured the top half of his face. What was visible looked to be sixteen or seventeen. He had a black collar around his neck, complete with a slender silver chain that the vampire held like a leash. It was Verchiel's treasure hunting friend Sorino and his human, Kai.
What in the hell is going on?
Sorino's cold eyes flicked from the disorientated Katelina to her captor. "Back off? Might I suggest that you take your own advice?"
"Thanks, but it's none of your business." He spun around, as if suddenly aware that Katelina had broken free of his influence. "Oh no you don't-"
Sorino shrugged. "If you wish to throw away your life playing with Executioner property, who am I to stop you?"
Her captors' face went white and he stepped away from her. "Executioner?"
Sorino's smile was as chilly as his gaze. "Yes, she belongs to one of them. The Hand of Death, they call him. He'll be interested to hear you have her."
Katelina pressed back against the wall, her heart pounding and her hands shaking. Her thoughts were a tangle of fear and confusion. What did Sorino mean by "have her?" Who "had" her? Who was the vampire in the green coat? How had she gotten there? The last thing she remembered was the shopping center. She was sitting on a bench and then-
The green coated vampire shuddered and his face contorted in anger. "He isn't going to hear about it, if you understand me."
"Really?" Sorino asked. "And what's to stop me from telling him?"
Like a scene from a cheesy movie, the green coated vampire cracked his knuckles. "If you can't be a gentleman about it, then I will."
With obvious boredom, Sorino handed Kai the leash and then carefully shrugged out of his purple smoking jacket. "If you must insist on a public brawl, then so be it."
The green coated vampire snarled and charged him. Sorino deftly stepped to one side, and Kai moved to the other. His hair flapped out of his face and for a second Katelina had a flash of calm green eyes.
Well isn't it great that someone can be calm? She thought wildly. Her racing heart sped to a gallop and her knees trembled. Whether it was the aftershock of something the vampire had done, or a reaction to the situation, she didn't know, but all she wanted to do was curl up and hide.
"You should run."
