Amaranthine Special Edition Vol II

by Naylor, Joleene

  It took Oren a moment to answer. “Whichever. Just do it quietly.”

  “I dig you. Anything else?”

  “Not at the moment. How are things going?”

  “The night after you left, I caught Traven on his cell. Reception’s so lousy here he had to go outside to use it. Anyway, he was all talkin’ low and shit, like he was tryin’ to be secretive, but I heard part of it. Stupid ass thought I couldn’t hear him.”

  “Yes, yes,” Oren said impatiently. “What did he say.”

  “He said somethin’ about you guys being gone, so 'we might as well get started now'. Then he said 'I'll see you soon' and "don't forget what you're supposed to do'.”

  Jorick’s eyebrows shot up. “See who?”

  “Man, I don’t know! I asked him, but you don’t think the pussy little rat answered, do ya? He got kinda in my face about it and since then they’ve all been hiding out in the basement, though what the fuck they’re doin’ down there is anybody’s guess. There’s not even a fuckin’ TV! But whatever. Luna’s been keepin’ an eye on them, sort of. She’s been trying to get friendly with one of ‘em, but the guy’s not falling for it. So far, the cowardly snake hasn’t tried to mutiny or anything. It’s just a matter of time, if you get my drift. You guys need to get the fuck back here.”

  Oren snorted. “If you think I’m still here by choice, then you’re much mistaken. They’ve yet to release us. However, there is a rumor that we’ll be allowed to leave tomorrow.”

  “How far away is it?”

  “It’s a two night trip,” Oren answered impatiently. “Are Fabian or Torina around?”

  “Nah, they’re off feeding. You need them for anything?”

  “No, I suppose not. Remember what I said.”

  “Yeah, yeah. New den, be quiet. Blah, blah.”

  Oren nodded to himself and then added, “Oh, and we may hear something from Kale soon.”

  “Kale?”

  “Yes. He is supposed to be checking on something and promised to send word, though how he’ll find us is anyone’s guess.” He shot a sideways glance at Jorick that seemed to communicate how badly he thought he’d messed that up. “We ran into him.”

  “No shit? Well that was lucky.” Something banged in the background and Micah’s voice dropped off as though he were talking to someone else. When he returned he said, “Loren’s back. You wanna talk to him?”

  “No. Just follow my instructions and keep an eye on Traven.”

  “No worries there.” He paused. “Loren says to tell Jorick and Lunch hello.”

  Katelina all out growled that time, and Jorick’s expression was even less tolerant.

  “Yes, I will. Goodbye.” And before Micah could answer he dropped the phone into the cradle. “He can be tiring.”

  “That’s an understatement!” Jorick snapped. “I don’t know where you picked him up in the first place!”

  “He was a friend of Herrick’s and an acquaintance of Des, though not a close one.”

  Katelina frowned at the explanation. “Who’s Herrick?”

  Oren regarded her as a pet dog that had barked out of turn. “I believe he’d been killed before Jorick came to join the fight with Kateesha.”

  Katelina noted the venom and let it go. It didn’t really matter.

  The discussion on what Traven was up to was short. Neither of the vampires seemed to know. When they fell into an uneasy silence, she suggested the artifact Beldren had mentioned.

  Oren stared at her. “What artifact?”

  “Not that again!” Jorick all but rolled his eyes. He offered Oren a brief and reluctant explanation and finished with, “Let him look, not that it will do him any good.”

  Oren shifted uncomfortably. “If that was his goal, why would he offer to join the war?”

  Jorick waved it away, but Katelina wasn’t ready to dismiss the idea. Something Loren had said clicked. “Traven has conditions about what happens when you defeat Malick, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes.” Oren was apparently too caught up in intrigue to remember how lowly she was. “We haven’t discussed them in full yet.”

  “Maybe he’s covering his bases, in case Jorick really didn’t take it and Malick still has it.”

  Jorick gave an incredulous snort. “I wish him luck if he thinks he’ll so much as touch even one of Malick’s possessions, and live to tell about it.”

  Oren flinched at the implication and looked away. After that, they fell into an uneasy silence that was occasionally punctuated with stray comments no one cared about.

  It was nearly two in the morning when a knock sounded on the door. By the time Jorick got to it, there was no one there, only a folded piece of paper. He snapped it open suspiciously and scanned it.

  “Well?” Oren asked with only half interest. “I don’t suppose it’s our official release?”

  “No.” Jorick handed the paper over and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

  Oren read the note in a moment and then tossed it on the table. “I doubt it’s of any importance.”

  Jorick made a low noise in his throat. When neither of the men elaborated, Katelina crossed the room and snatched the paper up for herself. She scanned the messily scrawled words:

  Did you notice that Senya left on a secret mission?

  “Who’s it from?” As the words left her lips, she realized that the other two didn’t know either. “I guess that’s why she quit looking for me.”

  “Maybe.” Jorick took the note from her and studied it, as if it might reveal some secret. Apparently it didn’t.

  Oren dropped back into his semi-permanent seat. “It’s probably that idiot trying to rile you up. You know Senya was looking for her earlier.” He nodded towards Katelina. “I doubt very much that she’s gone anywhere.”

  “There’s one way to find out.” Jorick’s eyes moved from Oren to Katelina, calculating. “If I leave, can you actually stay in the room this time?”

  She started to argue that staying wasn’t a good idea, all things considered, but it was useless, so she only grumbled, “Yeah, whatever.”

  “Good. I’ll be back.” After a quick kiss, he disappeared out the door, leaving Katelina alone with their companion.

  Faced with his impenetrable gloom, she dragged the tatty paperback out again. She’d read only a handful of pages when Oren made a point of getting up noisily and shut himself in the bathroom. She heard the shower start shortly afterwards and felt relieved. That should keep him busy for at least half an hour.

  She’d finished the chapter and started another, an exercise in self-punishment, when a knock sounded on the door. She glanced towards the bathroom. Oren was still inside. The knock repeated and she slid hesitantly off the bed. Should she answer it? It was probably just Verchiel again. She decided he was better than the book or Oren, so she might as well.

  Only it wasn’t Verchiel.

  The door was barely open before a brunette vampire jammed his way inside. He grabbed her by her shoulders and slammed her into the wall. With the breath knocked out of her, she couldn’t even scream as she stared into a set of icy eyes; the same eyes she’d seen at the restaurant and in the woods. Eyes that were certainly not an echo.

  “Recognize me?”

  It was the voice from the lounge. She struggled to free herself, but he was stronger than she was. His fingers were like claws that dug into her shoulders and pinned her against the wall.

  He pressed close to her face and she could feel his breath on her skin. “You don’t, do you?” She didn’t answer and he shook her. “Do you?”

  “The woods,” she whispered.

  He sneered. “Isn’t that cute? The woods!” His hold slackened and she tried to dart away. He slammed her back into the wall, so hard that her head bounced. “You stupid bitch! Try the war den where you and your cowardly boyfriend snuck in and murdered my Kateesha! Remember me now?”

  His voice grew louder, as if volume would jog her memory, but it didn’t help. She’d seen a lot of vampires ther
e, and his face didn’t stand out. She remembered Saeed and his brother. She remembered the Lieutenant and half a dozen others, but not this vampire. “No,” she whispered.

  “No? No? The stupid, lowly human doesn’t even remember me! Ha!” His voice turned into a hiss and he leaned into her again, his nose inches from hers. “I remember you. I remember how you mangled her body while even your allies screamed at you to stop! I remember how you bit into her heart, and how you laughed while her blood ran down your stupid, filthy face! You should have died there! If your allies hadn’t stopped me, you would have! Do you remember me now?”

  Her heart hammered and the edges of her vision grew dark with terror. She remembered the throne room, and she remembered what she’d done, but it was surreal, like a dream. She had no idea what was going on around her at the time.

  Before she could lie, he saw the answer in her eyes. “Then I’ll make you remember!”

  His lips pulled back from his glittering fangs. Like a cobra, he recoiled and then struck at her neck. A scream tore from her lips as his sharp teeth pierced her skin. Pain rolled from the spot, radiating in burning patterns through her body; like Claudius. He didn’t just want to drink from her; he wanted to make her suffer.

  Images flashed behind her eyelids, tinted red like blood. She could see shapes moving, writhing. A battle? Someone screamed her name and suddenly she could see herself crouched over Kateesha, the heart in her hand. Pain exploded in her chest, as if her heart was breaking, and she screamed -

  The scene vanished as the bathroom door burst open and he let go in surprise. Oren bolted into the room, half dressed with his wet hair in disarray. He skidded to a stop, his amber eyes wide. He let out a wordless cry and launched himself at her attacker. He knocked into him and the pair sprawled on the floor in a heap of tangled limbs. Free from his hold, Katelina’s knees buckled and she slid to the floor, one shaking hand held against her bleeding neck.

  Oren slammed his fist into the other vampire’s face, but it was the only hit he got. Like Verchiel, the second vampire was too fast. He threw Oren aside and then, before she could blink, he was suddenly in front of her, a hand around her throat.

  “You’ll die for killing Kateesha, one way or another.”

  And then he was gone.

  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 wound 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 was
n’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.”