by Paige Tyler
Harley would have been in there, too, but Jake wanted her to stay with Maya and the boy. Considering how the little blond girl was the only person who could put a vampire on his arse with a single touch, Sawyer thought keeping her safe was a good idea. Besides, the farther away Harley stayed from the asshole, the better.
Jake and Caleb had just sat down when Sawyer heard a slight change in the vampire’s blood flow. A moment later, the steel cables around the creature’s chest creaked and the thing’s eyes snapped open, flat black and full of rage as it struggled against the restraints.
Sawyer was more than ready to let the creature flail for a while, figuring it would tire the thing out—assuming vampires got tired—but Caleb wasn’t as patient.
“You might want to ask yourself if trying to get loose is really in your best interest,” the omega werewolf said casually from his chair as he leaned over and dug around in the bag he’d brought with him. Coming up with a bloody big machete, he calmly placed it on the table in front of the vampire. “Because if I think you’re getting anywhere close to being a problem, I’m going to separate your head from your shoulders.”
The vampire struggled against the cables again, hissing and showing off a mouthful of teeth as it glared at Caleb. “I’m going to enjoy sinking my fangs into your flesh and hearing your screams as I rip out your throat.”
Sawyer tensed at the heavily accented words, waiting for Caleb to lose control and lop off the vampire’s head. After seeing the way the omega behaved earlier in the tunnels, it wouldn’t be surprising. But when Sawyer glanced at Jake, the other alpha didn’t seem too worried.
But instead of going all berserker again, Caleb merely leaned over and pulled something else out of the bag, dropping it on the table with a thud. The vampire was naturally pale to start with, but it got even pastier as it warily eyed the large pair of locking pliers beside the machete.
“I’m guessing here, but something tells me you’d find it difficult to rip anyone’s throat out without your fangs,” Caleb said.
That was pretty much the end of the struggling and hissing.
“Now that we have that out of the way, there are a few questions we’d like to ask you,” Sawyer said.
The vampire’s lips curled in a sneer. “Why should I tell you anything? You’re going to kill me when we’re done.”
“Not necessarily.” Jake leaned back in his chair, resting his ankle on the opposite knee. “If you tell us what we need to know, there are other alternatives.”
Sawyer wondered if it would be that easy. But as the vampire’s mouth tightened in scorn, he didn’t think it would be. He looked at Caleb. “Did you find that thing we talked about earlier?”
Caleb reached into the bag once more, taking out a large syringe, needle still covered with a long orange cap. “The medics were a little concerned about why I wanted this and made me promise I wouldn’t do anything illegal with it.”
Sawyer chuckled. Taking the syringe from Caleb, he pulled the cap off the syringe and slipped the needle into the underside of his forearm and pulled back on the plunger, slowly filling the barrel with his blood. He kept going until he’d nearly filled the 10cc syringe, watching out of the corner of his eye as the vampire looked at him nervously…suspiciously.
“What’s that for?” it demanded.
“This?” Sawyer held up the syringe, gently pushing the plunger until a tiny bead of blood bubbled from the tip of the needle, red and glistening. “I guess you could call it an experiment of sorts. I heard this crazy story about how werewolf blood is like acid to a vampire. That sounded a little far-fetched to me, but I thought since you’re here, we’d find out one way or another.”
If vampires could sweat, this one would have been as it stared at the blood on the needle tip, obviously doing its best not to let its fear show.
Sawyer hoped the vampire talked, because the truth was, he wasn’t a fan of torture. Of course, all he had to think about was Maya and that young boy being left to starve in those locked cells or the dead tourists found in the Seine in Paris with their blood drained, and his hesitation faded drastically.
Knowing he had to show the vampire he meant business, he leaned across the table and pushed harder on the plunger until a few drops of blood dribbled out and fell on the back of the thing’s hand where it was strapped to the arm of the chair. When the droplets hit the vampire’s skin, hissing and bubbling exactly like acid, Sawyer realized the American werewolf hadn’t been exaggerating.
The vampire screamed, teeth extending to fill its mouth beyond the point of reason, arms and legs yanking on the steel cables. Out the corner of his eye, Sawyer saw Caleb’s hand inch toward the machete just in case, but the cables held. Within seconds, the thing’s skin stopped bubbling and hissing, the blood doing as much damage as that tiny amount could do. Gasping for air, the vampire eyed the damage—three dime-sized burns that sunk at least a quarter inch into the creature’s flesh. Since vampires didn’t have to breathe regularly, Sawyer wasn’t sure why it was suddenly short of breath. Maybe it was muscle memory or something like that when breathing used to be normal and necessary.
“I guess that answers that question.” Sawyer sat back, still holding on to the syringe. “Now, back to business. Let’s start with something simple. What’s your name?”
The vampire hesitated, glancing back and forth between the syringe and his damaged hand. “Kajus Rebane.”
“See how easy that was?” Jake commented. “How long have you been kidnapping and trafficking supernaturals?”
Kajus flicked a glance at the needle still poised in Sawyer’s hand, then looked at Jake. “Not long. Maybe six months. My nest in Los Angeles was destroyed a while ago and I had to flee. I wandered around for a while before the man running the operation found me. He offered me money and safety. I couldn’t turn them down. I had nowhere else to go.”
Sawyer exchanged looks with Jake and Caleb, sure that neither of them had missed the similarities between the way the vampire and Adriana had been approached. No doubt, the traffickers wanted Adriana to do the same kind of work as Kajus—kidnapping supernaturals.
“If you’ve been collecting supernaturals for that long, you must have quite a collection by now,” Sawyer observed.
“Twenty or so,” the vampire admitted.
Jake looked skeptical. “That’s all?”
Kajus stared down at the skin on his arm as it rapidly continued to heal. “That may not sound like much for six months’ worth of work, but it’s hard to find some of these things. Capturing them can be even harder. Then we still have to make arrangement to transport them. It can be very time-consuming.”
“Must be a real bitch having to work so hard,” Caleb said, his tone so flat you had to work to pick up the sarcasm.
The vampire glowered at Caleb but didn’t respond.
“I have to wonder,” Sawyer said, wanting to keep the vampire talking. “How do you decide which supernaturals get a job offer and which ones get sent straight to the auction?”
For a creature who was basically dead, it was surprisingly easy to read the shock on the vampire’s face at the realization of how much the three of them already knew. Kajus was clearly reassessing whatever lies he’d been planning to tell now that he knew he could get caught in one.
“Someone else made that call,” Kajus said slowly. “I don’t know how the boss made the decision, but in most cases, we knew before we reached the target whether it was a bag and drag or a recruitment effort.”
Sawyer was tempted to ask how Kajus and his crew identified the supernaturals in the first place, but something else the vampire said caught his attention.
“Your boss,” Sawyer murmured, seeing Jake and Caleb perk up immediately. “What’s his name?”
The vampire shook his head, mouth tight, obviously not wanting to answer that. Was Kajus afraid of the guy he worked for?
<
br /> Kajus opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get the words out, Caleb was up and moving so fast he was practically a blur. Plucking the syringe out of Sawyer’s hand, he buried it in the vampire’s carotid artery before Sawyer even realized what he was doing. Thumb resting lightly on the end of the plunger. Caleb regarded the creature with absolutely no expression on his face.
The vampire froze.
“I know you don’t want to answer those questions because you feel a sense of loyalty to the organization that took you in and the man who hired you,” Caleb said. “Trust me, I completely understand that more than you’ll ever know.” He wiggled the syringe a little, making the vampire wince. “Which is why I’ve taken the necessary steps to help resolve the ethical dilemma you find yourself in. Now, you don’t have to feel bad about answering our questions because you know you had no option. If I push this plunger, the results will be extremely unpleasant.”
Sawyer wondered if Caleb would push the plunger and dump the entire syringe’s worth of blood straight into the creature’s neck. If the disinterested expression on Jake’s face was any indication, then the answer to that was yes.
He was getting the feeling Caleb had a screw loose somewhere.
“I don’t know his real name,” Kajus said a few moments later, swallowing hard as Caleb jiggled the needle in his neck again. “No one ever told me, and I never asked. Everyone calls him Boc.”
Sawyer remembered hearing the term years ago when he’d been in Odessa. It loosely translated to boss in Ukrainian. Kind of literal, but he supposed it made sense. At least it was something to start with. If nothing else, they could dig into known traffickers with a Ukrainian background.
“He has a lot of people working for him, both humans and supernaturals,” Kajus added. “I get the feeling trafficking is a side business for him, but I have no idea what else he’s involved in.”
“Where’s he based?” Jake asked.
The vampire tried to shake his head, but then thought better of it. “I don’t know. He shows up to talk to us whenever he wants, then leaves again.”
“Is he a supernatural?” Sawyer said.
“Not that I can tell,” Kajus said.
“Is anyone else ever with him?” Caleb asked. “Like a lieutenant?”
“There’s a woman,” Kajus said. “Dark hair, dark eyes. Pretty, French. I think her name is Brielle. I don’t know her last name, but she’s always with him when she’s not out with the tracking teams. She doesn’t talk much, but somehow she always seems to know where to look for the freaks we’re after.”
Sawyer got the feeling Kajus had been hired for his muscle because he obviously wasn’t very observant. Sawyer wouldn’t be surprised if the vampire didn’t know the full names of any of the people he worked with. He probably considered them takeaway meals he wasn’t allowed to eat.
“You knew exactly when we were going to be down in those tunnels below the Central Market, didn’t you?” Sawyer asked.
When Kajus hesitated, Caleb moved the needle back and forth, grinning at the creature.
“Yes,” Kajus said. “We knew when you’d be there, what your entry points would be, and your route through the tunnels. The kids were bait, and our job was to split you up and take out as many of you as we could.”
“How did you get this information?” Jake asked.
“I don’t know where Boc got it. He just called and told us where to be and what to do.”
Caleb shoved the syringe deeper. “You don’t know much of anything, do you?”
“I know where the auction is!” Kajus shouted, as if he knew that Caleb was getting tired of his lack of useful information. “I can tell you if you let me go.”
Sawyer glanced at Jake. There was absolutely no way in bloody hell they could let the vampire walk out of there. Every person the creature attacked and drained from this point forward would be on them. There was no way Sawyer could live with that and he doubted the other werewolves could either.
“We aren’t letting you go,” Jake said. “But if you tell us something worthwhile, we’ll make sure you go someplace where you’ll be allowed to live and provided with the blood you need.”
Sawyer frowned. What kind of place was Jake talking about? Sure, the Americans obviously had a head start on this supernatural stuff, but were they so far along they had a place that not only held vampires but provided them with blood? That was kind of creepy.
Kajus hesitated. “The auction is being held in the Meteora in Greece. Boc has arranged for access to one of those old cliff-top monasteries. They film a lot of movies there, so he told them that’s what he was doing, figuring no one would be suspicious when they see a lot of people coming and going.”
Sawyer could already envision the kind of place Kajus was talking about. He’d seen pictures of the monasteries on those mountains before. The thought of trying to sneak into a place that remote and difficult to access made his gut tighten. “When is the auction?”
“In three days,” Kajus said. “Collectors from all over the world will be there.”
“Like who?” Sawyer prompted.
“I don’t know,” the vampire said. “I’m not important enough to have access to that stuff. That’s all I know. I swear!”
Sawyer threw a look at Jake, then Caleb. Both of the other werewolves nodded, probably thinking the same thing he was. The vampire honestly didn’t have any more information to give them. Caleb yanked the needle out of the vamp’s throat without another word.
Kajus was starting to relax when Harley walked in, the little girl, Maya, holding fiercely on to her hand as they approached the table and the restrained creature sitting there.
The thing’s black eyes went wide and he strained against his bonds. “You never said anything about knocking me out! Keep that freak away from me!”
Harley led Maya around the table to the creature’s side. At an encouraging nod from Harley, the girl reached out and touched the vampire’s hand. There was that barely felt thud through the air, followed by the pulse of silver light, then Kajus was out cold, sagging against his restraints. Thankfully, Maya didn’t pass out this time, but she still looked exhausted. Harley bent down to pick her up and snuggle her close. Something in Sawyer’s chest twinged at the sight. Harley was a natural when it came to nurturing children. She’d be a great mother someday.
“Now what?” Harley asked as Maya sleepily rested her head on her shoulder.
“First we get the vampire packaged up and headed back to the States,” Jake said, pointing at Kajus. “Then we head to Greece.”
Sawyer stood. “Without either of our support teams.”
Harley looked shocked, but Jake interrupted before she could say anything. “We have a leak somewhere in either STAT or MI6. That’s how we walked into that ambush last night.”
“And since it wasn’t anyone in that maze with us, it has to be someone on the support teams,” Sawyer added. “It will make our jobs a lot more difficult, but we’re going to have to do the rest of this mission on our own. At least until we figure out who the leak is.”
Harley sighed, but didn’t look comfortable with the idea. “Okay. McKay has transportation home for the kids, so I need to get them ready.”
Sawyer watched her leave before trading glances with both of the other werewolves. “I hate to even think about what I’m going to say, but I have to call my branch chief and somehow explain why my MI6 team is going off the radar.”
Weatherford wasn’t going to like it when he found out that MI6 might have someone dirty in their organization…or that STAT did.
Chapter 9
Greece
Harley sat in the darkened villa on the northeast edge of Kalambaka, eyeing Sawyer covertly, wondering how a guy could possibly look so unbelievably handsome. The scratches across his face he’d gotten in the scuffle with the vampire had c
ompletely healed, and she swore he was even better looking now than he’d been when they’d left the hotel to start their shift.
Reluctantly dragging her gaze away from his perfect face, she turned her attention to the big plate-glass window and the row of monitors lined up in front of it. The view outside the window was the front of the mountain on which the Monastery of the Holy Trinity sat, while the monitors displayed different video feeds from the various cameras they’d spent the day setting up around the perimeter of the place. Even at night, lit only by a series of work lights, the cliff-top collection of red sandstone buildings was breathtaking. Looking at something that had been around since before Columbus had taken a wrong turn and stumbled over the New World made Harley want to stare at it for hours on end. Or run up to explore for a while.
Then again, since the place was more than a mile away and towered hundreds of feet above the already-mountainous ground in addition to being currently occupied by an army of workers and security guards, maybe that might not be such a good idea. Which was a definite pity because the monastery looked like a fascinating place to visit. So instead, she’d sit here with Sawyer and watch the monitors to see if anything interesting happened. If they got lucky, maybe they’d catch sight of the bad guys delivering the kidnapped supernaturals for the upcoming auction.
She and Sawyer had flown into Athens yesterday along with the rest of their teammates, doing so in four small groups and staggering their arrival over a period of several hours. They’d all taken rental cars from different companies for the drive to the Meteora area and spread out over three different hotels scattered through Kalambaka and the smaller village of Kastraki, all in the hope of avoiding notice. Without being too obvious about it, Harley had made sure she was on the same flight and staying in the same hotel as Sawyer. The villa they’d selected as their surveillance outpost and operations center was one of the closest available homes to the Holy Trinity Monastery, positioned on an isolated back road with little traffic, so there’d be no one to see them come and go.