Blood Dark (31 page)

C
aitlin crossed
the foyer with a polite nod towards the guard outside the door to the conference room.

Sliding her card through the reader, she made a partial exit to subtly place the magnetic tape Eden had given her over the door lock. Backing up again, she let the door slam as she double-backed on herself and headed over to the guard. Pushing through the conference room door, she dropped her papers at the threshold, the guard instantly reaching down to help her.

‘Sorry. Long night,’ she said.

He offered a hint of a smile as he helped gather the papers together, his back to the foyer as she had hoped.

Leila promptly exited the toilets, the heels Caitlin had given her wrapped in her hands as she hurried across to the door and slipped straight through.

‘I was going to let Coles know I’m done with McKay,’ Caitlin remarked. ‘Can you do it for me?’

‘Is she still in there?’

‘She is. She was somewhat tearful. I might need her again later. I’ll leave you to it.’

Caitlin headed back across the foyer, glanced across her shoulder to see the guard had headed inside. She discreetly ripped the tape off as she went and letting the door slam behind her.

The rush of adrenaline washed over her as she checked her watch.

‘This has to work like clockwork,’ Caitlin said, as Leila slipped into the heels Caitlin had given her, Phia having contributed to getting the size right.

Caitlin handed her the pile of folders to add to her look of authenticity, and rested the stopwatch on top of the folders.

Leila smoothed down the pencil skirt they’d pulled together as well as the blouse. Caitlin fixed the fake tag Eden seemingly had an abundance of in his apartment. Close examination would cause a problem, but it would serve its purpose from a distance. She also handed Leila an inactive card to slide through the already open doors to maintain the illusion – because there was only one route out of the conference area, and it was the most closely monitored area in the entire HQ.

‘I’ll put tape on each door,’ Caitlin remarked. ‘But make sure you rip it off each time. And follow the map if you lose me. Try and keep about 30 seconds behind so it’s not obvious we’re both taking the same route.’

Leila nodded, glancing down at the map on top of a pile of folders in the crook of her arm.

‘I’ll have to leave you at level three so as not to be implicated. If anything goes wrong, I’m the only plan B. Look out for the guy in the full CEO uniform: black leathers, helmet. His name’s Eden. He’ll have a vampire with him, a female, slim, mocha skin, long black curls. Follow him from there using the same system.’

Eden had to have a vampire with him to justify his presence in the detainment area – someone who could have broken the Lowtown-Blackthorn curfew laws.

‘Once you’re inside the detainment area, ask to see Alisha,’ she said. ‘Declare yourself as Agent Meghan Yale – luckily you’re both redheads, similar builds and height. We’re counting on Hodges having not met her yet, but if he suspects, leave Eden to deal with it. He’ll ask you to sign a clipboard. It’s normal protocol. If he asks if you want lock-down, say no – you just have a couple of simple queries. The guard will key you in. Whatever you do, make sure you curb Alisha’s reaction. Eden will join you as soon as possible. He’ll trick Caleb into a lock-down. If it doesn’t work, he’ll restrain him. The code to his door is 7737. Do what you have to.’ Caitlin slipped the knife in amongst the paperwork. She clutched Leila’s cold and trembling hand. ‘I know this is going to be hard, Leila, but you have no choice. None of us do. We have maybe a maximum of ten minutes before the alarm is raised back here. We have to have got you through the main thoroughfare and to the detainment cells by then. Are we good to go?’

Leila nodded, her hazel eyes wide.

Caitlin tried to keep her pace steady as she followed the route she and Eden had planned, not checking over her shoulder to ensure Leila was following but remaining vigilant to any possible signs of problems.

The closer she got to level two, the faster her pulse raced, the harder her heart pounded. She subtly checked her watch. Four minutes had passed. With the two minutes it had taken to spurt instructions at Leila that left only another four minutes to clear the main thoroughfare.

Door after door, she swiped and taped locks, those who passed through after her not even stopping to notice that the green light was inactive.

Passing through the busy foyer on level two, she took a left through the next set of doors and up the stairs.

‘Level three,’ she said into her earpiece.

‘Glad to hear it,’ Eden answered.

‘Make sure you let me know as soon as you’re on level three,’ he’d said. ‘Walk at sixty paces a minute and we should time it right.’

Caitlin made her way through the first set of stairs on level three and then the second. She took a right across the foyer, sweeping past Eden and Erica on her way through to the corridor that led to the canteen.

‘Smoothly done, Robin,’ she heard Eden say into her earpiece and she smiled to herself.

‘Who made you Batman?’ she quipped back.

She heard him chuckle.

But they’d agreed minimum contact in the unlikely event the frequency was picked up.

She checked her watch again.

She took the back route to the stairwell that didn’t need all the locking system doors, via all the minor cameras Eden had already disconnected.

The silence was painful as she listened through her earpiece on her way to their meeting point, the emergence of voices finally a welcome relief as she overheard Eden smooth-talking Hodges, his laughter resonating down the earpiece.

Caitlin sat on the top step. No one used the back block whilst it awaited refurbishments. The outer door had been triple padlocked but that hadn’t prevented Eden preparing it as an exit. It was partially hidden by the undergrowth; the camera hadn’t been replaced on the new loop pending that section’s demolition. Less than fifty feet beyond was a curl in the chainlink fence – an electric fence that Eden had managed to disengage. At some point someone would notice during routine maintenance, but it was far from under regular scrutiny. Only those who knew the building inside out knew it was there. Those who made a point of knowing the building inside out like Eden seemingly did. Even better, it was a clear run straight into the back alleys of Lowtown.

‘Agent Meghan Yale, here to see Alisha McKay,’ she heard a faint female voice proclaim in the distance.

Caitlin pressed the earpiece deeper into her ear, her heart pounding.

She strained to listen to the muffled voices.

Caitlin heard Eden’s laughter, more muffled exchanges from Hodges.

‘Can you give me a sec?’ she heard Hodges say.

‘Sure,’ Eden replied.

She heard Hodges footsteps in the distance.

‘So far, so good,’ she heard Eden whisper.

‘Do not tempt fate,’ Caitlin warned him.

She chewed her thumbnail as she heard Hodges rejoin Eden. She folded arms clenched on her knees she shook her head, smiled even at Eden’s banter as the plan to distract seemed to be working.

She checked her watch again as the minutes passed.

They had allowed for less than ten minutes from the point Eden distracted Hodges until they all got out. It was no time at all for what Leila had to do but it was all the time they could afford before they increased the chances of someone turning up there.

‘Shit,’ she heard Eden hiss.

Caitlin’s heart skipped a beat. Caitlin shot sharply to her feet. ‘What?’ she demanded.

There was a thunk.

Hopefully it was Hodges.

But it was six minutes earlier than they had planned.

And from Eden’s curse, something had already gone wrong.

‘Eden?’ she said. ‘Eden what’s going on?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Bear with me.’

There was footfall. Fast footfall.

‘Bear with you?’ Caitlin remarked, her hand plastered to her forehead.

‘Fuck,’ she heard him hiss again. ‘We’re out of here, Parish.’

‘Eden, what the hell is happening?’

‘Caleb’s cell is empty.
MST
is written on the board.’

MST: Maximum Security Transfer.

Maximum Security was right at the back of the Division Headquarters. Only those thought an extreme threat were held there. It meant no one went in there unnoticed. It was on total lock-down of codes, cards and thumbprints.

And it meant a drastic change of plan. Her mind already raced ahead.

Despite anticipating the doors opening minutes later, Caitlin still flinched.

Alisha flew through the door first, Leila close behind her, Eden behind them followed by Erica.

Caitlin looked from one sister to the other, then at Eden. ‘What the hell has happened?’

‘I don’t know,’ Eden said.

‘But I saw him a little over an hour ago,’ Caitlin declared, frantically trying to think what could have happened in the interim. She’d cleared the sheets off her desk. But if someone had wanted to check out her paper trail on her computer …

‘Shit,’ she hissed to herself.

‘What?’ Eden demanded.

‘You’ve got to get Leila and Alisha out of here now.’

‘But I need to get to Caleb,’ Leila said, her eyes widening again. ‘I
have
to get to Caleb.’

‘Leila, I cannot get you through maximum security, ‘Caitlin declared. ‘There’s no way. I’ll stay behind. I’ll try and find out what’s happened.’

‘If I go back without you, Kane will kill me,’ Eden said. ‘And I’m not talking figuratively. I was under express instructions.’

‘And they’ll already know I’ve been in the building and have spoken to Caleb and Leila. If I disappear now, I may as well never come back. You’ve got to get them out of here, Eden. Tell Kane and Jask that Caleb said to go to Reynolds for the supplies. He said they’d know who that was. Tell them the password is Titan.’

He nodded. He cocked his head towards the doorway. ‘Let’s move,’ he said to Leila and Alisha.

‘I can’t,’ Leila said, grabbing Caitlin’s wrist. ‘I
have
to see him. He has to know I came back like I said I would. I cannot tell you how important it is. He has to believe that I haven’t let him down; that I was true to my word.’

‘Why is it so important?’

‘Because otherwise I’m another treacherous serryn in a long line, and you have no idea of the good it will undo, the damage it will do. He will have even more excuse to go after Phia…’

‘Leila, he’s still inside. He won’t get anywhere near her.’

But the look in her eyes told Caitlin too much.

‘You weren’t going to kill him, were you?’ Caitlin said.

‘He needs to know I came back. He needs to know I’ve found a way like I promised I would.’

Caitlin’s heart pounded a little harder. ‘To close the dimension?’

‘I don’t need Caleb for that.’

Caitlin’s gaze locked back on Eden’s. ‘Get them out of here
now
,’ she said firmly, as she handed him her earpiece. ‘I’ll track you down later.’

S
hielded from the darkness
, they waited by their bikes.

Stood beside Kane, Jask was silent, his hand gripping Phia’s, their fingers interlaced to the point that her knuckles were white. She still hadn’t taken her eyes from across the street either. Her head was resting against Jask’s shoulder, Jask releasing the hand she was gripping to lay it across her shoulder to gently caress her hair.

It was still odd seeing that side of Jask. He’d never been short of compassion, but it had been a long time since he’d seen Jask show that level of affection for a female – and he never thought he’d see the day it was for one outside of his pack. Whatever Jask felt for Phia, it was obvious in his touch, in the way he looked at her, that it was real. That it was as real as the burning sensation in Kane’s chest at Caitlin’s absence.

And at that point he envied him. Having a mate made Jask stronger, both in himself, to his pack and to the outside world. Kane having a mate made him weaker, made him vulnerable, and helplessly waiting for Caitlin’s return only reinforced it.

The tension in his chest was becoming painful.

Jessie clearly felt the same, her gaze fixed ahead, her arms tightly folded.

A split second later, Phia pinged from Jask like she’d been released from a spring.

Kane snapped his gaze across his shoulder.

They were running towards them: the one girl’s russet hair blowing in the breeze, the blonde next to her, Eden and Erica close behind.

Phia nearly fell over her own feet as she pelted forward. He was surprised he didn’t hear the thunk from the impact as the three sisters collided, as each attempted to pull the others in closer than was physically possible unless they wanted to meld completely.

Jessie fled across the street behind them before throwing herself up into Eden’s arms, her legs wrapped around his waist as he spun her, his head buried in her neck.

Strolling towards them, Kane looked past the huddle, past Jessie and Eden, past Erica, his eyes flitting between them and the alley.

Emptiness echoed back.

Eden placed Jessie on the floor, his gaze meeting Kane’s.

A gaze that said it all.

‘Where is she?’ Kane asked as he drew level, his throat tight. ‘Where’s Caitlin?’

‘She’s still in there.’

Kane gripped Eden’s T-shirt instantly at the collar. ‘You had a job to do, now where the fuck is she?’ he asked more quietly.

As Eden windmilled his arms away, Kane instantly felt Jask’s arm across his chest, his shoulders, holding him back.

‘Easy, Kane,’ Jask said calmly.

‘There was a problem,’ Eden explained, his gaze impressively steady. ‘Caleb wasn’t there. He’s been moved to maximum security. But there’s something you need to hear.’

C
aitlin headed down the corridor
, through the door into the stairwell before ascending up to the VCU offices.

She knew she needed to take deep breaths. She knew she needed to come across as unflustered as she could. She also knew she needed to come up with some excuse to find out, as quickly as possible, why the transfer had happened.

She resolved to head straight to Morgan and suggest the next round of interviews.

She padded along the carpet towards Morgan’s office. Unusually, the blinds were down, the door shut.

She almost double-backed, but she knew she needed answers as soon as possible.

Caitlin tapped once before stepping inside.

Her gaze instantly fell on an ice-blue gaze, the female’s cropped fair hair almost white in the light.

Caitlin felt her insides coil – because they may never have met, but she knew exactly who the vampire was.

‘Agent Parish,’ Morgan said, in full-official mode as he stood from the central table. ‘Let me introduce you to Feinith, our diplomatic representative from the Higher Order.’ He turned his attention back on Feinith. ‘As you know, Caitlin has been heading up the Dehain case.’

Feinith’s appraisal was slow, curious. ‘Absolutely.’ Her stony gaze locked on Caitlin’s. ‘I’m more than aware of Agent Parish’s work.’

‘Take a seat,’ Morgan said to Caitlin. ‘You may as well be a part of this.’