Longing for You, стр. 15
She nearly jumped when she heard her phone ring. When she looked downat the screen it said: Katie calling.
Alexis answered immediately, tension and worry already grippingher. It was out of character for Katie to call her.
“Katie? What’s wrong?”
“Alexis, I need help at The Sanctuary. I was just leaving to comehome when I found a human injured. She’s been forcibly turned. She needs ourhelp.”
“I’m coming. Stay with Otto at the front door.”
She hung up and immediately called a group of her vampires toassemble downstairs. She wouldn’t disturb the Principe until she had assessedthe situation. True panic and fear gripped her heart and soul—she had to makesure Katie was safe. Newly turned vampires were volatile and unpredictable.
Alexis hurried downstairs to meet her team, and they set offquickly. When they arrived at the front door of The Sanctuary, Otto wasstanding by himself and looked none the wiser to the incident that washappening nearby.
When she got out of the car she could hear Katie down the sidealley. “Luca, go and talk to Otto and see what he knows.”
“Yes, Duca,” Luca replied.
“The rest of you, follow me.”
Alexis ran at super speed down the alleyway and found Katie on theground comforting the newly turned vampire. What was she doing by herself, downa dark alley, with a vampire?
Alexis’s worry and fear were turning to anger. Katie just wouldnot listen and was going to get herself killed.
Katie jumped in fright when Alexis appeared at her side. Alexispulled Katie towards herself while her people checked over the newly turnedvampire.
“Are you all right?” Alexis asked looking her up and down forinjuries.
“I’m fine. Her name is Josie. She’d been turned and fed for thefirst time when I found her.”
Alexis was thankful for that at least. The first blood a turnedvampire drank was so overwhelming to their senses that they become possessiveof the person they fed on, and addicted to their blood. It was a dangerousposition to be in, as a new vampire could go too far and kill the person theyfed on.
As a matter of policy, the Debreks always fed new vampires fromanother vampire, never the human staff, to keep everyone safe.
There was something strange about this scenario. Alexis sensedthat Katie was nervous. Perhaps it was just the realization of the dangerousposition she had put herself in. She needed to get Katie back to the car, soshe was safe, and so she could read Katie the riot act. She wouldn’t reprimandthe head housekeeper of the Debreks in front of her vampires.
“Let’s get to the car. My vampires will bring the young woman,”Alexis said flatly.
Katie followed, and Alexis could hear Katie’s heart beating sorapidly. Once they got into the car and shut the doors, Alexis turned to Katieand said with fury, “Once again you didn’t listen to me and put yourself in adangerous position. She could have attacked you, fed on you, killed you.”
“I had no choice. I can’t walk away when someone is injured,”Katie said defensively.
“I’m not asking you to. You go and get Otto—he would have handledthe situation—or you call me, and I’d be here as quickly as possible.”
Katie pointed her finger at Alexis. “You always act like I’m anaughty ten-year-old. I can do what I want. I wanted to help a person introuble. It’s my decision how I do that, and it’s none of yours.”
Katie turned away from her quickly, but Alexis caught her arm andKatie hissed in pain.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Alexis didn’t think shehad grasped hard enough to hurt Katie.
Katie said coldly, “Just leave me alone.”
Alexis sighed. If only she could tell Katie that she was angrybecause she was terrified of losing her. They rode back to the house insilence. Katie ran straight upstairs to her room, and Alexis could hear herbedroom door being slammed shut.
She and her guards took the new vampire down to the blood roomwhere she would be fed and monitored until she was stable. Alexis rubbed herforehead. How different this night could have gone. She could have beencarrying Katie’s body back here, and she knew it would have destroyed her.
Alexis had to be tougher on Katie to keep her safe, and if thatmeant Katie hated her, then so be it.
* * *
As soon as Katie got through her bedroom door, she tore off hercoat to inspect her wound. Her wrist was a mess. This wasn’t like in the bloodroom, where the Debrek clan vampires fed with respect and care. Josie had tornat her wrist in the frenzy of her need for her first blood.
The blood was seeping rapidly from her wound, so she hurried overto get the first aid box from her dressing table drawer. She quickly cleanedher wrist and bandaged it up tightly to stem the flow of blood.
She looked into the mirror—she looked pale. It must have been theblood loss and the stress of the incident. She had to hide the fact that Josiehad fed from her, or Alexis would go crazy, and she’d never hear the end of it.Plus, Alexis would tell Byron, and then her parents would know. It would justbe a big fuss over nothing.
Hopefully Josie would be happy with the blood available downstairs,and nobody need know.
* * *
Alexis paced backwards and forwards in front of Byron’s desk.She’d reported what happened to Byron when she got back, and Byron had dressedquickly and met Alexis downstairs.
“You have to have a word with her, Principe, because she won’tlisten to me.”
Byron held up her hands. “Just take a breath, Duca. Katie is safe,but I will have a word.”
“Katie forgets she is not like us. If she is attacked or killed,there is no second chance at life. She could be gone in an instant andI”—Alexis’s emotions threatened to overcome her—“know how much the whole clanwould be devastated if that happened.”
“Yes.” Byron sighed. “Her family is everything to me, so she mustbe well