Whitestripe

Chapter 10

Firewing grabbed my arm again, though thankfully not so tight, and led me out of the security office and down the hall. We took the stairs that the scuttle took place in and went to the fourth floor. He led me through that door, and in a maze of different hallways, I started losing track of where I was going. We went into what seemed like a very small office with lockers, and he opened one and stood aside. Inside the locker was a large hole in the wall into another room. This room had cells in it as well as a metal bed that resembled an operating table. It had a computer near it as well as a couple of chairs and where the computer was sitting was an array of drawers, cabinets and a sink.

Firewing released me and shut the door behind us, locking it and motioning for me to sit on the table. I complied. He rummaged through some drawers and pulled out some cotton balls, alcohol and gauze with tape. I was confused but didn’t ask. After applying the alcohol on a cotton ball, he came back and stood in front of me, lifting my chin up to look at him. He started rubbing the cotton ball on my forehead. The sting hit me first, causing me to wince, I had been injured and hadn’t realized it. I had been so worried about not killing Gryatt and getting the hell out of there that I didn’t realize I had a decent sized gash on my forehead and probably something similar on the back of my head from making contact with Gryatt’s face. The front of my face probably happened when Gryatt lunged at me from the top of the stairs. It seemed that the gash ran down my hairline, starting about the middle of my forehead to just above my temple, probably from one of the cinderblock lines in the stairwell. Most of the blood ran down the side of my face. My advanced healing mostly stopped the bleeding, but the gash was still there. “For a soon to be dead girl, you’re sure taking good care of me” I whispered. I earned a chuckle. “You’re not going to die or be deported. You were attacked, assaulted, and were fighting in self-defense, just because we’re elders doesn’t give us the right to do whatever we want, and you an immediate death sentence for sticking up for yourself.”

I was confused, I didn’t understand why all of a sudden, he was saying that I was not in trouble when upstairs he asked if I knew what the penalty for attacking an elder was. I must have had a confused look on my face because he responded

“Gryatt was still on the floor. He was listening in. If he knew that I was going to just let you off, he wouldn’t let up on you. You would find yourself in deeper s**t. I meant what I said, I am surprised that we didn’t have to plan for a funeral. Add possible execution to that list. From what I hear about you, you’re a force to be reckoned with. I’m just curious why you allowed yourself to be injured like you had. If you had killed him, it could be seen as self-defense. He attacked you twice.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t realize I was injured. I knew my head hurt from headbutting him, but at the time, my thought was to get out. I was under the impression that if you attack an elder, even if it was in self-defense, it’s easier to replace that enforcer than it is the elder so it's instant death to the person even if they were justified.” I replied, and he shrugged. “So, you ran like a chicken?“ he said. “I just broke his nose. I hadn’t actually really injured him more than what he could heal with his advanced healing. Hell, I think he was healed by the time he came through the door down the stairs.” Why he came after me, I have no idea, I figured he would be the first one calling headquarters to get my ass deported or executed.

I was still wondering how Firewing got here so quickly? The flash of light or fireball or whatever it was, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. Even Gryatt seemed surprised to see him here, so I don’t think it was something that every elder could do. “Where were you when you called me?” I asked, looking up and meeting his gaze. His eyes were a crimson red with I kid you not streaks of yellow and orange in them, it almost looked like they held fire within their depths. If I stared longer, I probably would see them flicker. “Washington” was his simple, straightforward answer. “How did you get here so fast?” I asked in disbelief. “You’re not the only one who has special talents about them, little hybrid.” He winked. He actually winked! This old as eff badass vampire winked at me! Be still my beating heart.