Her Warrior for Eternity (18 page)

Jas and Pippa were the first to arrive, having been in town for a dinner. Other warriors followed soon thereafter and took charge of the situation, which both frustrated and pleased Jeremy. He wanted to do something proactive himself, but he felt grateful that his fellows cared enough for her to do their best to find her.

They looked at the footage on every CCTV camera in the vicinity, most of it obtained illegally. None of it was useful though, showing only a dark car they could get an approximate model for, but no licence plate number.

“How the fuck did they find her here?”

Pippa shrugged. “If the woman is her friend, Cora may have contacted her herself.”

Jeremy shook his head, his anger rising. “No, she only contacted one person.” Toby. He dug out his mobile again and bellowed into it the moment the bloke answered. “Did you tell anyone where to find Cora?”

He could practically feel the shifter’s confusion. “No. Has something happened?”

“She’s been taken by our enemy. So are you absolutely clear you didn’t tell anyone about the meeting?”

“Yes. No. I ran into her old roommate who was worried about her. But I didn’t tell her where she was, only that I was about to see her.” He paused, and when he spoke again he sounded sick. “Do you think I was followed?”

“That’s the only explanation that prevents me from ripping your head off.”

“Fair enough. What can I do to help?”

“Do you have a name and address for that friend?”

“Lisa Hayes. I’ll text you the address the moment I’ve dug it up.”

Jeremy hung up and rushed in to the car that Jas had already running. “Where are you headed?” He didn’t really care, as long as he was doing something.

“London. The moment Toby gets us the address we’ll check Lisa’s flat.”

“Brilliant.”

The back seat was too small for Nick, Zach and him, but Pippa was sitting in the front seat and none of them dared suggest they switch. Jas’s
hunger
wasn’t acting up anymore, but after what had happened, they knew he needed to keep her as close as possible. Her presence was self-evident. She might be a vampire, but she was a DI for the Metropolitan Police first. Lisa was human, and if something had happened to her the police would be needed.

Lisa shared a flat with three other women in Lewisham. At that time of the night, they were all home and asleep. The emergence on their doorstep of four large men and a tiny woman who identified herself as a detective shocked them badly. It took a moment before they were able to say anything coherent.

It turned out that the women weren’t very close with Lisa, on top of which they worked different schedules. The other three had day jobs whereas Lisa worked nights at the club. None of them had met her ‘vampire’ fiancé and they didn’t know his name. The only thing they knew was that she had met him at the Nightingale Club.

“Didn’t we have someone inside the club?” Jeremy demanded furiously when they were back in the car. “And men outside it?”

Zach nodded. “The contact inside reported that there had been renegade activity in the club. But however they got in and out, our guys never managed to trace them.”

“Or maybe they didn’t try hard enough. Perhaps we should give it a try.”

“Or perhaps we should have a proper chat with our prisoners.”

“We still have them?” Jeremy hadn’t paid any attention to the aftermath of the fight.

“One of them self-destructed, but we still have the other two. I say we unleash Dad on them.” The vicious smile on Zach’s face matched Jeremy’s. Alexander would get the truth out of the men.

Zach called his father while the rest of them debated what to do next. “I think we should pay the club a visit and ask Lisa’s co-workers about the man.” Late though the night was, it would be early for the club.

A couple of phone calls later, Zach had arranged the inside man to let them into the club through the back door. They were met by a man in his mid-thirties, about Jeremy’s height, lean and fit. He looked Spanish, and like he knew how to defend himself in a fight; ex-military, special ops, to be precise.

Jeremy’s second impression was that he wasn’t human. He wasn’t even real. Not in a sense natural born humans were. “You’re a conscience.”

The man nodded. “I’m Héctor. My host, Mateo, is upstairs.”

Sentients were unique among the two-natureds in that their second nature was separate from the host and present alongside them. Consciences, so named by the Church when they commissioned sentients’ services against all evil creatures, were beings of pure Might. They looked like humans, were solid like humans, and could think and act independently. The similarity to humans was only surface-deep though. You couldn’t even kill them unless you killed the host first.

The Sentient War had been devastating, and sentients weren’t exactly loved among the other two-natureds. To have one in their service was odd, to say the least.

“I didn’t know Gabe knew any sentients,” Jeremy marked in a low tone to Zach as they followed Héctor.

“I’m not entirely sure he’s a sentient.”

They came face to face with Mateo and Jeremy knew what Zach meant. The other bloke looked like his conscience, the similarity intentional, as consciences could change their appearances at will. The same air of special ops expert clung to him too, and the black tee and trousers that were the staff uniform made him look rather menacing. But that wasn’t what set him apart.

“He’s a bloody tracker.”

Zach nodded, but didn’t answer. Trackers were sentients specially bred to track and kill vampires. What in the world was Gabe doing colluding with one?

Mateo smiled. “Relax, vampires. I’m Mateo Hérnandez, and yes, I’m a tracker. But I’m not here to kill you. In fact, since my own people won’t have anything to do with me, I prefer to think we’re on the same side.” When sentients were banished to the other side of the Atlantic after the Sentient War, they hadn’t allowed trackers to follow them to the exile, judging them to be freaks of nature with their longer lives and natural fighting abilities. Judgemental to the core, were sentients.

“The enemy of my enemy?”

“Something like that. So how can I help?” Zach explained the situation to him, and he nodded. “He’s been here at least twice a week, but I’ll be damned if I know how he comes and goes. One moment he’s there and the next he’s gone. It has to be magic of some sort, but it doesn’t leave any trace.”

“Or the mass of humans milling about mix the trace.” But that didn’t explain why they couldn’t find him outside.

Mateo showed them to the booth the renegade usually occupied. The sense of wrongness was strong there, but the trace disappeared soon outside it.

“It’s as if he vanishes into thin air.” They all looked up at the same time, but the low ceiling didn’t have a trap door or any other means of escape.

“Have you actually witnessed him leave through the front door?” Pippa asked. Jeremy was glad they had her around. She was a seasoned cop; she knew exactly what to ask.

Mateo shook his head. “We’ve both tried to track him, Héctor and I, but he has disappeared every time.”

“At the same place?”

“You’re saying there could be a secret entrance around that place? That’s possible.” He led them downstairs through the staff entrance and out again in the foyer.

It was a smallish, black on black space with a cloakroom at one end and a cashier’s stand by the door. Three humans worked there, a woman in the cloakroom, a male cashier, and another man providing security.

They didn’t have time to play it nice. Jeremy simply
charmed
the humans before anyone had a chance to protest, while Jas went to secure the front entrance and Nick the one towards the club proper. Pippa shot him annoyed glance. “That’s illegal, you know.”

“I won’t tell if you won’t.”

They spread out to study every inch of the foyer behind the drapes on the walls that hid water pipes and provided atmosphere. They stomped on the floor to find secret trapdoors. Anything was possible for someone who could fool people’s eyes – even a tracker’s.

“Found it.”

Corynn came to in darkness. It was dark for human senses and dark for her vampire senses. It was soundless and curiously odourless too, a sensory cocoon. She had no sense of her body or direction, didn’t know if she was standing up or lying down. Her heart was beating frantically, pushing out of her chest. She was in a panic, but she couldn’t fathom why.

Because I made you to
.

Hearing her Rider was oddly comforting, and her panic began to subside. She wasn’t alone.

You’re never alone again. Didn’t we cover this already?

Well, excuse me, but it’s been such a short time that I haven’t exactly gotten used to it yet. So why did you make me panic?

Cause I needed you to wake up. I can do a lot, but I can’t take you over when you’re unconscious.

Good to know. Where are we?

I haven’t got the foggiest. But I do know you were stupid enough to be fooled by a renegade.

The memory rushed back, and with it the nausea the renegade’s foulness had caused. She held her breath, fighting it back, but in the end it simply went away.

Did you do that?

Yes. Don’t get overly excited. It’s in my best interest that you don’t go puking around.

Aww, you care.

Piss off.

The bickering with her Rider was curiously refreshing. It cleared her head too. Not necessarily a good thing as it made her realise the hopelessness of her situation.

Jeremy said the renegades capture women with
promise,
who then end up dead.

Well, your
promise
has been
fulfilled
already so you should have nothing to worry about.

That’s what he said too, yet here I am.
Had he lied about that too?

You can’t exactly blame him for this. You’re the idiot who followed a stranger to a dark car park.

She wasn’t a stranger.
It miffed her that her Rider would side with Jeremy. Didn’t they just agree they were in this together?

She might as well have been. You didn’t even know she was into vampires, did you?

Her Rider had her there.
What should I call you?

What? What kind of stupid question is that?

I can’t just go yelling ‘hey you’ if I want your attention, can I?

You always have my attention. But fine, you can call me Chad.

No way am I calling you that. It’s a prick’s name. How about Betty?

Only if I can call you Al.

It took her a moment to get the reference and then she almost laughed aloud.
Funny. I didn’t know you had a sense of humour.

There’s a lot you don’t know about me. Would Fitz do?

Does it have to be a man’s name?

Yes. That’s the identity I’ve settled with.

You can choose?

Yes.

Ok, then how about Ben?

That’s a little boy’s name. I will be Adam.

Adam it is, then.

Their conversation was cut short when the lights came on in the room, and she blinked her eyes in the sudden glare. With eyesight returned other sensory input too. She was tied down on a sturdy metal-framed bed she wouldn’t be able to break easily. She couldn’t move at all, the binds that held her magical. The mattress was thin, and the strings of the bed poked her uncomfortably. The room was small, with bare concrete walls and no window. It smelled of the fear of many women.

Shit
.

You can say that again
.

A key rattled in the lock and the door opened. A man entered. “Hello, Cora.”

Fear unlike anything she had experienced washed over her.

Chapter Twenty

Héctor stood by the cloakroom, pointing at the empty wall. “It’s through here.”

“There’s nothing there.” Jeremy went to take a closer look, but the wall looked whole. There was no door.

“Exactly. There’s absolutely nothing. Including no Might.”

Jeremy ran his hand over the area. Héctor was right. There was emptiness the size and shape of a door there. “Shouldn’t the void feel more unpleasant, like usually with renegades?”

“Who cares, let’s just see where it leads.” Zach began to search for a lock or a handle to open the door.

“Here, let me unbind the magic first.” Mateo concentrated and then moved his hands as if literally unbinding something. Jeremy felt a slight change in Might as it moved in to fill the void, and suddenly the door was there.

“Wow. I didn’t know sentients could do that.”

Mateo sneered. “Sentients can’t.” A fair reminder how dangerous the trackers could be.

Héctor went in first on the assumption that he would be able to sense any traps, and that he wouldn’t die even if he failed to notice them in time. Jeremy was a close second. He wouldn’t wait at the back when his mate was in danger.

A steep spiral staircase led down right from the door, so narrow that Zach and Nick were having trouble fitting in properly. If they were attacked, they would have to defend themselves one at a time. Only a couple of dim bulbs illuminated the place, but the vampires didn’t need more than that, and Jeremy assumed that Mateo was able to see well enough too. At least the bloke didn’t hesitate getting down the steps.

The sense of foulness was strong, but the void had filled already. Even so, the small space felt unpleasant. Jeremy lifted his shields and was able to breathe more easily.

The steps led deeper underground than the cellars of the building. At the base, a straight corridor led away from the building. It was narrow and so low that Zach and Nick had to bend their heads, and Jeremy felt his head brush the ceiling from time to time too. Jeremy counted his steps and estimated that they were soon underneath the next building. A little farther away, the corridor ended at a door.