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.
Faye! Please!
Tears shot to her eyes, but she swallowed them and shifted farther to the side, exposing a portion of the slab. She focused her eyes.
M, she thought. A name starting with M.
She sucked in a breath, twisting further. MON. She exhaled sharply. MONT. That’s all I can see.
Then she relaxed back onto the slab and her eyes wandered up the wall to the ceiling. Her heart stopped.
“Oh, God, no!”
You have to hurry, Cain! You have to find me! There’s a hole in the wall and another in the ceiling. When the sun comes up, it will shine right onto me.
And the mirrors would make absolutely sure that any ray entering the crypt would hit her, no matter at what angle it entered. The sun wouldn’t have to be at its peak to do damage.
Oh, God!
“Well, hello, look who’s awake.” Abel’s menacing voice came from behind her.
Faye twisted her head and saw him emerge from behind one of the mirrors. She made a mental note that the exit had to lie behind it.
The laugh that rolled over his lips chilled her to the bone and made her shiver. And the way he was dressed made him look like the devil. He was clad in Kevlar gear from top to bottom, his hands covered in dark leather gloves, his feet in heavy boots. In one hand he carried a motorcycle helmet with a polarized shield.
“Looks like the witch’s brew is more potent when swallowed.”
“Abel.”
“Yes, Faye. It’s me, but then you knew that all along, didn’t you? You never trusted me.”
He was right. Deep down she’d never been able to trust him, though until Cain’s return he’d never done anything to warrant her hesitation to open up to him.