“Oh, John! You came.” Tears streamed over the woman’s face.
John pressed her head to his chest and stroked over her hair. “Always, my love. I’ll always come back for you.”
Cain rose. He was happy for John, but now it was time to find Faye. He turned to Baltimore who was now tied to the metal bed frame.
“Where’s Abel?”
Baltimore spat. “I don’t know.”
Cain slashed his claws across Baltimore’s face, leaving deep cuts. Blood seeped from them, filling the hut with the scent of vampire blood. “Try again. Where is he taking Faye?”
“I don’t know.”
“He’s lying,” Nicolette interrupted.
Cain spun his head to her. “What do you know?”
“He got a phone call a short while ago. I was already in the form of a rat, so he didn’t think I could hear him.”
Cain’s heart rate accelerated. “What did he say?”
“I could only hear his side of the conversation. Abel must be somewhere in New Orleans.”
“Where?”
Nicolette shook her head, regret in her eyes. “I don’t know.” She motioned to Baltimore. “He asked “which one?”, but that’s all I heard.”
Cain felt his heart clench with fear for his mate. He snatched Baltimore by the throat. “Where is he keeping her?”
“Go to hell!”
“You first!”
Baltimore let out an evil laugh.
“Talk or I’m going to kill you!”
“You’ll kill me anyway, even if I talk.”
Cain stared at his adversary, but he knew Abel’s most loyal follower knew the drill: once he’d divulged what he knew, either John or Cain would kill him.
“Fine, have it your way.” He turned to Gabriel. “Use whatever methods you see fit to make him talk. Eddie will stay with you. The rest of us, let’s go.”
Cain looked around the room and spotted what he was looking for. He snatched Baltimore’s cell phone from the table. Then he pulled his own phone out of his pocket and dialed Thomas’s number. Scanguards’ resident IT genius answered immediately.
“Thomas, have you been able to trace Abel’s phone via satellite?”
“Not yet. He hasn’t used it in the last hour.”
“I’ll make sure he does. Hold on.” He put down his phone and started typing a text message on Baltimore’s cell phone. “Let’s see if you bite, little brother.”
44
Faye slowly felt her consciousness returning. A bitter taste was still in her mouth and made her gag the moment she took her first conscious breath. With it, stale air filled her lungs and dust lined the inside of her nose.
Her eyes shot open and she reared up, but something jerked her back. Simultaneously, pain shot through her wrists. To her horror she realized that she lay on a large slab of stone, her wrists and ankles chained to it with silver, the only metal a vampire couldn’t break. The contact with the toxic material made her skin burn. Blisters had already started forming around her wrists, though the skin on her ankles thankfully was protected by her jeans.
She looked around, turning her head as much as she could in her position, and perused her surroundings. It was dark, but her vampire vision had no problem figuring out where she was: in a crypt, chained to a ledger stone, a large flat stone placed above a grave.
Trying to calm herself, she fought to be rational. Abel was nowhere in sight, which most likely meant he’d left her here to rot. But she knew that Cain would be looking for her. She had to help him find her.
She collected her thoughts and sent a mental message to him. Cain! Cain, help me.
Almost instantly she felt warmth gather in her mind and a voice reply to her.
Faye, my love! You’re alive!
She sighed a breath of relief. Cain had heard her.
I’m locked up.
Where are you?
In a crypt.
Do you know where?
She shook her head. Abel knocked me out. I don’t know where he brought me to.
Can you read any of the names on the gravestones?
I’m chained to one. She looked around once more, focusing her eyes. Oh, shit!
What?
Her heart thundered and her palms felt clammy all of a sudden. There are mirrors all around me. She hadn’t instantly noticed them, because she wasn’t reflected in any of them, and no light was shining onto them.
Mirrors, what the hell?
She twisted on the slab. Everywhere, she confirmed.
Can you find any names at all? We have to know which cemetery you’re at. There are too many in New Orleans.
Faye twisted her body, contorting it, trying to bend to the side so she could peak at the ledger stone beneath her. Her wrists burned from the silver, making her hiss in pain. But she didn’t allow it to deter her from her mission. She had to find out where she was.