Hotel Sanguinaria

Chapter Seven

“You’d never believe it, but she has,” Rachael insisted as Shiloh shook her head and Seraph laughed.  “Changed half the hieroglyphics in the Egyptian alphabet to make an entirely new one – pronounced the same, I’d assume, but all different letters – and there’s no way of knowing what she writes.  She never wrote down a translation or anything.”

The door swung open.  Shiloh, Rachael and Seraph looked up to see Lily standing in the doorway.

“Guys,” she gasped.  “It’s Dylan.  He’s been attacked.”

Rachael was on her feet in an instant.

“What?  Wasn’t he in the computer archives?”

“Yes,” whispered lily.  She looked frantic.  “He was on patrol – drew the short straw – and someone must have gotten in and then out without anyone knowing.”

Seraph stood to follow as Lily and Rachael went hurtling down the corridor.

“Come on Shiloh,” they whispered nervously.

Shiloh nodded numbly.  Only a few weeks into her new life and one of her friends had been attacked.  Seraph took off after the others, but Shiloh glanced back.  The table Neith had been perched upon was still there, still full of swaying, strange-looking vamps.

But the girl with the russet-gold eyes was gone.

 *     *     *     *     *

Dylan was sitting in a room Shiloh had never seen before, filled with row upon row of computers.  He was nursing a bloodied lump on the back of his head, wincing in pain.  Lily flew back to him, skidding to a halt on her knees beside him.

“How are you feeling?” Rachael asked as they approached.  Dylan looked up at the group before him, then turned and glared at his sister, growling through the pain that his movement caused.

“Really?” he whined.  “I’m sitting here with enough people swarming all over the place, asking me questions and fretting over my welfare – not to mention you being a qualified doctor somehow – and now you bring our friends to see me in this state?  Really, Lily?”

The words seemed unkind, but the look in his eyes told them he didn’t really mean it.  Seraph was looking around the room, their eyes narrowed in curiosity.

“How could someone have gotten in and out again without anyone seeing them?” they asked, glancing back to the others.  Dylan shrugged.

“No idea.  They got in before the shift started, used a computer and then vanished.”

“How do you know they used a computer?” Shiloh asked.  In response, Dylan nodded to a computer surrounded by people.  One of them was Mo, the blue-haired guy, who was sitting in a chair in front of it, gloves on as he typed furiously.  All of a sudden, he gave a cry of triumph, and Rachael hurried over to see what he’d found.  Shiloh and Seraph followed her.

“Okay, here’s the deal.  Your intruder wasn’t here to access anything sensitive.”

“So then why were they being so secretive?” Dylan had struggled to his feet and walked over, frowning.

“My guess?  They didn’t want anyone to know it was them doing it.  Personal reasons, and all that, but I can tell you they accessed the Eastern European section of our archives.”

“Don’t play this game with us, Mo.  What were they looking for?  Historical stuff about the Common Slavic?”

Shiloh spun round.  Neith had emerged, seemingly out of nowhere, her face set.