There'll be Hell to Pay (Hellcat Series Book 6) (29 page)

The door was
open and Gabi could hear them before she reached it. The atmosphere
inside was jovial, giggling and chattering making the room sound
more like a student cafe than a gloomy computer nerve centre.
Walking in silently, Gabi saw that the crew had grown by two; she
recognised two of the Feeders from the Estate: a gangly-limbed guy
a little younger than herself, with ginger hair and the
prerequisite freckles, and a college-age girl with a rounder figure
and a wavy blonde bob framing her pretty face. Murphy looked more
animated than Gabi had ever seen him, and even Sicarius was
grinning at something Jade had said; the light-hearted expression
transformed his face. Whatever was bugging her had nothing to do
with this bunch.

“
Anything to report?” Gabi asked, walking up and planting her
butt on the table behind them as she dunked a cookie in her coffee.
The light-heartedness instantly quieted and they all turned
serious, a couple of faces looking guilty. Gabi realised she had
probably sounded a little harsh. “Hey, I’m not the fun police,
carry on,” she said, around a mouthful of cookie. “Just wanted to
know if you’ve found anything to work with.”

“
We’ve covered all the major airports in Spain for the first
ten days after the abduction,” Murphy told her. “We haven’t found
anyone close to matching the man we’re looking for. Big Bob is
working on cracking the surveillance data for the ports.” He
inclined his head towards the biggest computer box in the room.
Gabi knew Murphy treated it like his baby and that it was the most
powerful machine he and Trish could cobble together. “Trish and her
crew are working on bus and train stations. We’ll let you know the
moment we find something. You know that.”

“
I do.” Gabi sighed. “I just had this—” She broke off as her
phone began to vibrate in her pocket. “Never mind. Call me the
instant you know anything.” She picked up her coffee and walked out
into the corridor before answering the call. “Athena?” she said
into the phone.

“
Gabi, I only have a moment.” There was something in the
Magus’s voice. Fear? Excitement? “Stewart thinks he’s found what
he’s been looking for. At least the general area. I will travel out
there the moment the conclave finishes. Hopefully I’ll have good
news in a few days. I just wanted to put your mind at
ease.”

Gabi’s mind
raced; Athena framed it like good news, but something inside her
still felt wrong. “Do you know where he is?” she asked Athena. “He
could need backup; we might be able to help.”

“
It’s a long way,” Athena said. “He’s heading to some remote
region of Spain.” Cold prickles erupted all across Gabi’s neck and
shoulders. “I don’t think he’s in any danger, but I’ll speak to him
again in a couple of hours.” Athena continued. “I’ll contact you if
we need—”

“
Athena,” Gabi interrupted her sharply, “what region of
Spain?”

“
Um, I’m not sure. Why? Gabi, what’s going on?”

“
We’re closing in on Caspian and Mariska,” she said through
clenched teeth. “We’ve narrowed the search down to
Spain.”

“
Lord and Lady,” Athena hissed. “Holy Lord and Lady. The
thread…it’s a thread to the babies. The Source is feeding the
babies. How—” She broke off. “I’m so glad you called.” Her voice
had transformed into false cheerfulness. “I really hope you enjoy
your holiday. I hear the weather in Spain is perfect this time of
year. I must run now. Send me a postcard when you get there. Yes,
Vincent, I’m coming.” And then the line went dead.

Gabi stared at
the screen for several moments in silence, the unease inside her
mounting with each passing second. Athena had been interrupted, but
it sounded to Gabi like she’d just told them to get the hell to
Spain as quickly as possible. Biting her lip, she called Kyle. They
were going to need Werewolf backup on this one.

CHAPTER
16

It was
beginning to feel like they spent more hours in the air than they
did on the ground. The monotonous hum of the powerful jet engines
was a now-familiar soundtrack to Gabi’s life. She should’ve been
tired; she hadn’t had a solid eight hours of sleep in nearly a
week, but the excitement of finally being so close to finding
Caspian and Mariska had her on edge.

Also, it was strange setting off on an expedition with so few
Vampires at her side. More exactly she didn’t like not having Mac
around. The delicate timing of this particular mission meant they
couldn’t entirely control how and when they travelled. There was a
good chance they would have to travel in daylight. Only three
Vampires in the Clan could do that in relative safety, with a
little help from Savanna’s UV repellent, and of those three,
Alexander still needed to remain in the City. Having to sit this
particular mission out seemed to affect him worse than normal; his
mood had turned absolutely foul in the hours before they left. That
left only Julius and Fergus. Well, she shouldn’t say
only
. If she had to
choose two Vampires to stand beside her in a fight, they would be
her first choice anyway. Still, it just didn’t seem quite right not
to have Mac and the rest of the Dhampir Squad with them.

Not that they
were without extra backup; lying across three seats near the back
of the plane, playing some shoot-em-up game on his phone, was Kyle.
Trish had backed him when he informed her he was joining the team,
and Gabi didn’t have the time to talk them out of it. Much like
Alexander, Derek, as Kyle’s Beta, had been forced to remain behind;
and his feelings on the matter mirrored Alexander’s exactly.
Responsibility was a bitch. Butch was back in the co-pilot’s seat,
and across from her, Lance, the ex-SMV Hunter and Fire-bender
Magus, sat calmly reading a magazine. Gabi envied him his total
unflappability. It must be something they were taught during their
Adept training, because most Magi she knew were equally unruffled
in high-pressure situations.

The final two
members of the team were making use of bunks in one of the cabins.
Sasha, the ex-Lady Helsing, and one of her Kresnik sidekicks, known
to this day as Big Dog, were sleeping off a nightshift. Sasha
managed two of Julius’s nightclubs under Liam’s guidance, while Big
Dog headed up security at both venues and reported to her. The
Vampire blood the Lieutenant had secretly fed them had not only
made them impossible to mind-wipe but also enhanced their physical
abilities, already well defined by being experienced Parkour
practitioners. While they were no true match for a Vampire or
Werewolf, they were handy in a fight, especially a fight where
Vampires were at a disadvantage and Werewolves could be compromised
by their adversary.

Personally, if
they had to have humans in the team, Gabi would’ve preferred
Sicarius’s backup. She’d come up against him once and lost—not that
it had been a fair fight, him having a handgun and all. He hadn’t
spoken much of his job, but for him to be the Decurian assassin, he
was unquestionably good at his work. She did understand Julius’s
reasons for leaving the man behind, despite his best efforts to be
included. Sicarius was not simply good at killing, he was also an
astute observer. Though they’d decided to trust Eka with Tabari’s
life, there was no way they would gift him the knowledge that
Caspian was a Maker.

Julius and
Fergus were both taking the advantage of some daysleep. It would be
late afternoon, local time, when they landed in Madrid, and Gabi
would have to wake them then. Even Razor was catching some shut-eye
on the seat next to her because who knew when they’d next get the
time to rest.

Lance seemed to read where her thoughts had gone. “You should
get some sleep,” he said without looking up from his magazine; it
was
Classic Car Weekly
, which surprised Gabi, she didn’t know cars interested him.
“We still have six hours in the air. Stewart will meet us at the
airport; he may already have news. There may not be any downtime
after that.” She knew he was right, just as he knew she wasn’t
going to take his advice.

She suppressed
a frustrated growl and stood, stretching before aiming for the
kitchenette. If she couldn’t rest, she might as well stock up on
energy another way, and maybe a full stomach would make her eyes
heavy and her brain switch off. A raid of the cabinets produced two
dozen individually sealed muffins in assorted flavours, a dozen
pre-packaged sandwiches with a variety of fillings, half a dozen
meat pies and several microwave meals. She chose a bacon and egg
sandwich and a blueberry muffin before opening the fridge for an
energy drink. Curse Murphy for introducing her to the damn things,
but they were a good alternative to coffee in the summer heat.

“
Want something?” she asked the other two.

“
Fruit?” Lance said hopefully.

She rechecked
the fridge and threw him an apple from the well-stocked crisper
drawer.

Kyle grinned.
“You know me, load up a tray.”

She added a
mandarin and handful of fresh cherries to her own tray before
filling another tray for Kyle and, balancing one on each hand like
a good little waitress, sashayed down the aisle. Kyle sat up and
she set the trays down with a flourish before plonking down onto
the seat next to him.

As she took the
first bite of her sandwich, the Skype jingle sounded from her
tablet over on the centre table. She jumped to grab it, flicked out
the stand, and set it on the table between the food trays before
swiping the screen awake. An icon with Murphy’s face blinked at
her.

“
Murphy,” she said, answering quickly. His attention wasn’t on
her; she could hear him typing furiously in the background. He
glanced up for a second and she could read the excitement on his
face.

“
Hang on,” he said distractedly. “I’m just trying to change
your flight plan. Ha. There.” He looked up at her, with a vicious
smile. “You’re about to be redirected to Alicante-Elche Airport in
the Valencia region of Spain.”

“
You’ve found them?” Her voice rose an octave and she fought to
rein it in.

“
They were trying hard to fool us. Without the info from
Sicarius, I doubt we’d ever have found them,” he said.

“
Get to the good stuff,” Gabi said, her tone thick with
warning.

“
Right.” Murphy glanced to his left, his eyes flicking from
left to right as he read something. “The man with the disfigurement
arrived by ferry in Santander in Northern Spain eight days after
the kidnapping. We haven’t bothered tracking him before that, as
his end point seemed more important.”

Gabi nodded her
agreement.

“
From there he caught a train to Madrid and another to Alicant.
Tickets were all prepaid and booked via an international travel
agent. He had a private booth to himself, I assume to keep from
being notable among the other passengers. Trish tracked a private
flight that was chartered by the same travel agent for two days
after the disfigured man arrived in Alicante. The manifest listed
three passengers. Two were flagged as requiring medical assistance.
The flight landed in Barcelona, where one passenger disembarked.
There’s a record of a medical helicopter making a landing at the
same hangar and leaving with one patient on board less than an hour
after the chartered flight landed. The flight then continued on to
Alicante-Elche airport, where the other two passengers disembarked,
according to records, one in a wheelchair. The travellers names
were recorded as Mary Jones, Paul Smith and Carlos
Garcia.”

“
Probably three of the most common names known to mankind,”
Lance commented. “Sounds like the three you’re after to
me.”

“
And if the Gemini twin is still unresponsive it would make
sense that they send him to another hospital rather than try to
look after him themselves,” Gabi mused. “He would be the one they
dropped off in Barcelona, then Caspian and Mariska would carry on
alone.”

“
So we’ve narrowed down the city they’re in. Exactly how big is
Alicante?” Kyle asked.

“
It’s a pretty big city, but we have even better news.”
Murphy’s grin rivalled the Cheshire cat’s.

“
The final two passengers had a wheelchair-enabled hire van
waiting for them. We pulled the surveillance footage, got the
registration, and found out the van was equipped with GPS tracking.
We’ve narrowed down the search area to a couple of blocks in the
old part of the city.”

********************

Caspian bit
back a growl and resisted the terrible urge to simply break the
Magus’s arms and legs. That would give her something else to worry
about instead of fighting them, fighting the powerful cramps inside
her trying to expel the babies. He twisted his face to avoid the
glob of spit that flew towards his face as he held her arms pinned
above her head. Again he wondered if he shouldn’t send the doctor
away just long enough to force more of his blood down her throat;
then he could control her again. But he was getting worried about
what the blood might do to the babies. No, it was better to
restrain her physically, he could do it. For the babies.

Molok didn’t
hold back his low growl as the Magus tried to kick him off of her
right leg. They’d been able to tie one leg down, but she was
fighting too hard to restrain the other. The doctor glanced at the
cretin warily; between the crazy Magus and the looming monster,
Caspian was having to work hard to keep the doctor from fleeing the
terrible scene. Another contraction stiffened the woman’s body and
she screamed around the gag.