Vampire University

Chapter 5

"My Queen." Rick bowed as required when addressing the Queen.

"What have you learned, Castle?" She wanted an update on the search for Katherine.

"Nothing as yet, my Queen. A complete review of the video footage that we have prior to and after the time we believe that she has vanished has not provided us with any insight into how she even left her suite, let alone the grounds. And all of the cars are accounted for.

"There is one final place for us to search. Her suite. As per our laws even I cannot enter her suite except in an emergency and this does not constitute an emergency. I will need your permission to enter her suite, my Queen." Rick held out an obvious recording device for her to speak into to give him that permission.

There were times when being a Queen had its disadvantages in her eyes and this was one of them. "I grant you and one of your team permission to enter the quarters of Katherine Beckett for a period of 24 hours."

"Thank you, my Queen." Rick bowed yet again, took two steps backwards, and then turned around and left her. One did not just turn one's back on a Queen. Any Queen, since in doing so could cost you your life or at least 50 lashes to your exposed back in a public display.

\0/ V-V \0/

Now outside of his own daughter there was only one person Rick would trust to help him search Kate's quarters. "Ready, Lanie?" They were both standing outside her door.

"You better believe it." The chance to see inside one of the Royals' quarters with your own eyes was a great honor. "I mean yes, sir." Lanie went back to all business.

"That's why I like you, Lanie. You state your mind." Rick reached out and swiped his pass card across the reader. He was the only one with such a card. This was followed by him entering his 10 digit code to gain entrance. Now Kate's personal code was 36964. His code was twice as big. However, his code allowed him and only him entrance to every room in this complex.

With an audible click the door unlocked and Rick went in first. This room was a sitting room, meant to greet guests. It was small and simple and did not reflect Kate's personality in any way.

"This room is yours. Knock when you're done," Rick told her and went to one of the other two doors that had the same lock and repeated the same actions to gain entrance.

Kate's suite was broken up into different sections. Sitting room obviously, living room that doubled as her bedroom, large bathroom, large closet, and one storage room. This room did reflect Kate's personality and save for seeing it on the monitors thanks to the cameras, Rick could honestly say he'd never been in this room. Though he was betting his daughter had.

Rick got to work scanning it till he heard a knock and let Lanie enter. "Now this is living!" Lanie loved this room. "Remind me again how one becomes a Royal?" They both knew that she knew how and it wasn't ever going to be either of them.

"Get to work, Lanie. There has to be an answer somewhere," Rick told her. Now he knew full well that the answer was him. No one had seen Kate and Alexis leave this room and thankfully no one had seen them leave the compound. And he had made damn sure that the cameras didn't see or record anything either.

All of this was simply to buy the three of them more time.

\0/ V-V \0/

There was only one room left and that was the storage room and both of them were standing in the doorway looking inside. "Lunch break?" Lanie asked him since what she was looking at meant perhaps no lunch at all.

"I'll let you explain that one to the Queen," Rick replied even though he could really use a lunch break himself.

"I just knew you were going to say that," Lanie grumbled and kept looking but didn't move an inch. "I happen to like Kate and would never speak ill of her so I would never say to anyone that she's a pack rat. But she's a serious pack rat."

"Yeah," Rick agreed. "The sooner we start, the sooner we finish. And the sooner we can both eat something. So let's get started. According to the map there are walls in here somewhere. None of which are outside walls."

"So how did she escape through this mess?" Lanie only saw lots and lots of work ahead of her.

"Let's find out." Rick grabbed the first item and took it somewhere else as the two of them began to empty the room.

\0/ V-V \0/

Finally literally everything that had been in that room wasn't now. "Do you think she even knows what's in here?" Lanie certainly didn't remember every item that she had moved herself and looked at Castle. "Yeah, she does."

"You take that side and I'll take this one and we'll meet back here," Rick told her and together they scanned the room from wall to wall and floor to ceiling which doubled as the roof. There was no attic in this section of the building.

\0/ V-V \0/

"Anything?" Rick questioned her and saw her shake her head. She had nothing. It was just a storage room that was now empty. "So how did she and your daughter ever leave this room?" There were only just so many doors and no windows and no skylights or other openings.

"I do have a theory about that." Rick had dreamed this one up to buy the three of them more time.

"I'm listening." Lanie was sure she was going to just love this.

"There's a theory going around that some members of certain bloodlines happen to have an ability to do extraordinary things," Rick began.

Now Lanie had heard these rumors but hadn't really put much credence into them.

"What if – if, mind you – Kate had one? Say, invisibility for example," Rick suggested. Lanie was going to be his sounding board to explain it to the Queen.

Lanie raised an eyebrow. "Interesting, but how does it explain your daughter?"

Rick sighed since she shot that down pretty fast. "It doesn't. Plus I don't remember seeing doors simply open or close on their own with no one going through them in all the video I've watched."

"So not invisible." They were back to nothing.

"There's one more that might explain it. Teleportation. Some people call it jumping." Rick said. This one had Lanie looking at him.

"If that ability allows her to take someone with her that might help explain all this." Lanie was onboard even if it was a little out there.

"Even this idea has a flaw in it." Rick looked up at what he and Lanie knew was a camera.

"You didn't see her use this ability, did you?" Lanie was quick and another reason why Rick liked her. She was smart and could think outside the box.

"Sadly no. However..." Rick turned around and looked back into the storage room. Now they both knew it had a camera. Just the one camera in the ceiling.

Lanie was now looking with him. "With that much junk…um, stuff, no one would see a thing." Lanie was liking this a little more now. "So where did she go?"

"That's the million dollar question," Rick admitted since as part of the plan even he didn't have a clue where they would go. For all he knew they could be in Hawaii or even Alaska or trying to still get there.

"We only have one place left to look." Rick looked up to give her a clue.

"Oh crap!" Lanie looked up with him since she just knew what he was about to say.

"I'll take the ceiling while you take the roof," Rick told her.

"I just knew you were going to say that." Lanie hated it when she was right.

"Right after lunch or is it dinner now?" Rick thought they earned themselves a break.

"Okay, I like you again." Lanie was happy since her stomach had been growling at her for far too long.

"Could be worse. Could be raining," Rick shrugged.

"I take it back. I hate you again." Lanie informed him and listened to him chuckle since they both knew she didn't mean it.

\0/ V-V \0/

"My Queen." Rick bowed deeply this time since he was about to spin a tall tale for her to think about.

"What did you find, Castle?" He'd better have found something or she was going to lose her temper with him and since he was the very best this place had she was loathe to do that.

"Sadly nothing, my Queen. There were no openings anywhere that were not unaccounted for. Including the roof." The both listened as a crack of lightning sounded, telling everyone that there was a thunderstorm in the area.

Lanie had reported back to him, soaking wet and really pissed off, that she had found nothing.

"Do you have an explanation for this, Castle?" Before she had him whipped?

Rick began to weave his little tale. "Just one, my Queen. It is rumored that some members of certain bloodlines have a special ability. Supernatural, if you will."

The Queen raised an eyebrow at that since she knew the rumor was true. She had an ability herself, though she didn't see that it had any extra benefit for her. Being able to talk to dogs didn't seem like all that great an ability. Especially given that they had so few dogs and all of those were used to help patrol the grounds. As per the law personal pets were limited and dogs weren't one of them.

"Proceed, Castle." She would listen to his idea.

"What if Princess Katherine had just such an ability? What if her ability was to be able to transport herself from place to place? Some call it jumping. If this theory is to be believed she could use this ability at will. Even take someone with her like my daughter." Since his theory worked on Lanie maybe it would work on her.

Now the Queen raised another eyebrow. If this was true it made Katherine even more powerful than herself. This also made her a threat to her rule and this was something she couldn't allow. First, however, she had to find her before she could execute her.

"There is a perceived drawback to this ability. Does she require line of sight so she knows where she is going? Or does she simply need to have been there before so can see it in her mind and know that it is there?

"As is her right she has access to the cars and has used them in the past. Always with a driver, of course. If she knows of a place off campus and has this ability it is conceivable that she could be anywhere by now. Off campus property." Rick spun his tale for her to think about.

"I do have one more item, my Queen." He was thinking that the more he gave her to think about, the more time it would buy the three of them.

"I know my daughter and she is more than capable of leaving me clues as to where she is and there by know where Princess Katherine is. However, I have yet not seen any such clues and I do have a possible reason for this." Rick was about to give away a great secret. However, it should properly blow her mind and slow her down greatly.

She waited for him to tell her. "If I may, my Queen?" He looked up at the camera and microphone that was ever vigilant and saw her nod.

This had Rick stepping in really close. Far closer than normally allowed for a non-royal family member for a Queen. He literally pressed his lips to her ear and whispered, "Alexis is not my biological daughter." Rick didn't miss her reaction to this bit of news. Everyone simply thought that her mother had died in childbirth and that they had kept their interactions secret. No one had really questioned him. Not even her.

The Queen opened her eyes wide at this and turned to stare at him.

"I may need to expand my search beyond campus grounds, my Queen." He needed for this search to take a really long time. At least long enough to root out the spies even if he didn't know how many there were or in what positions in this University they held.

It took her a moment to get her mind back to working. She had so much to think about. Katherine had just gone from being a person she needed to come back since losing the last member of a Royal bloodline would be a very dark stain on this University. Something that hadn't happened to any University in a very long time. Now she was a possible threat to her rule.

"Proceed, Castle. Just find her." She would deal with everything after she was found.

"Yes, my Queen." Rick did his best to keep his poker face since he now had all that he needed including a way to escape if he needed it. Rick took two steps back followed by two more to gain the appropriate distance between them and turned around and left.

Now if one of these spies had been watching or watched this video they too now had something to think about. Problem was he didn't even know if Kate had any special ability at all.

\0/ V-V \0/

Kate and Alexis came back to their room after going out to walk around and get comfortable with their new surroundings.

"When can we go out and buy new clothes?" Kate didn't mean to moan, she really didn't, but she was. "I understand now why you voided some of my choices but please."

"Not until we have a boat to live on. Our backpacks are only just so big and the bike is also only just so big. So we both have to wait. Go drink some blood or something." Alexis answers back.

Kate sighed but since she was thirsty she went to the refrigerator to get one of her two bags, though one was getting more empty all the time. She squirted some out into a glass and put it in the microwave.

"Alexis, why is our phone blinking?" Kate asked her as she waited.

This had Alexis looking and sure enough there was this little blinking red light. "We have a message." So she picked it up, pressed the red button, and listened to the recording. Then she pressed the number for their room and listened to the message.

"Miss Rodgers, this is Patrick. I trust your mother and yourself are well. The seller has agreed to your offer and your terms. He will meet all of them. He has, however, requested that the formal signing take place 30 days from now once you have signed that you agree to the purchase in my office.

Please call me back at this number and we can arrange a time for you to sign. Congratulations, you are now boat owners." He gave them his number. And the message ended.

Alexis hung up and Kate looked at her while sipping her warm blood.

"He agreed. We just bought a boat!" Alexis smiled at Kate since they had a home to live in. "We don't get possession of it for another 30 days, though." Alexis scrunched up her face and gave Kate her best, "Please don't yell at me. It wasn't my idea."

"THIRTY DAYS!" Kate yelled since she was dying here. She had like 2 days of clothes and not even clothes she really liked. She wasn't even sure what had possessed her to even get them. They weren't her.

"You think you're dying? This means 30 days at $500 a day is, is..." Alexis wasn't ready to do the math.

Kate did it for her. "Fifteen thousand. We can afford it." They had a million, after all. Save that they were going to spend around 400k of that soon. She didn't even know there was such a thing as taxes to be accounted for. Or that they had to pay to dock the boat each month in the same marina. Plus water, plus power, and pay to dump the waste tank each time. But she would learn shortly. They might even be able to get a phone since getting a cell phone was pretty much out. Those could be traced too easily.

"You keep thinking like that, Mom, and we won't even be able to afford lunch," Alexis told her in near shock at how cavalier she was about money.

Kate, however, grinned as she sipped. Alexis had called her Mom so freely that it even sounded like it was supposed to. Kate decided to tease her. "I don't eat lunch."

Alexis growled at her. "Well you don't have much of that left which is the next problem we need to solve soon."

Sadly Alexis had her there. They didn't have humans for her to bite down in the basement any longer. Biting someone here might get them into trouble and they'd just bought a boat.

"Blood is blood, daughter of mine. Dog, cat, horse." She wasn't picky.

"Go buy a dog as a pet. That might work. Except it will pee and poop all over the boat. Take it to the vet for shots. Buy dog food. You know you're kinda expensive to keep around," Alexis teased her in return.

"But you love me." Kate batted her eyelashes at her and kept sipping her blood.

"Don't remind me." Alexis stepped to the refrigerator, opened it, and moaned. "And I'm out of Gatorade. This day keeps getting better and better."

Kate went back to teasing her. "I promise to lock the door and not answer the phone while you take the bike and go buy some. And buy yourself something to eat while you're out. You're getting skinny."

"I'm not skinny, I'm athletic," Alexis retorted. "And don't you have some yoga to do or something?"

"Good thinking. Thank you, sweetie." Kate had almost forgotten about that. She was too busy worrying about how to stay alive on this trip.

Alexis picked up the keys, patted herself down to make sure she had everything, and picked up her helmet. "And don't call me sweetie." Alexis let the door slam closed behind her.

"What ever you say, sweetie. Damn this is fun!" This trip just might turn out to be worth it. "Now if I could just get some decent clothes to wear and I would kill for some heels."

Kate used her finger to get every last drop before putting the glass in the sink and headed for the laptop. It was time to look at those pictures of the boat again. If she could get the damn thing to cooperate.