Luther's Return (Scanguards Vampires Book 10)

Somebody grunted. “Who the fuck is that? That’s not Kimberly Fairfax! What am I paying you good money for?”


“That’s him,” Isabelle said, her voice shaking. “That’s the man who took me after killing Mendoza.”

Luther’s heart turned to ice. “Turn it off, Thomas.” He stared at the people in the room. “I know him. It’s one of the guards from the prison. It’s Norris.”

No wonder he’d been able to use Forrester. Norris knew everything about him. It all made sense now.

“He would have known about Forrester’s obsession with Katie, but I don’t think Forrester was the one who wrote the letters. Norris was. He set it all up. Forrester had movie posters with Katie in his cell. Maybe Norris saw her there for the first time and developed his own obsession.” Luther ran a shaky hand through his hair. “Norris went on leave the night I was released. He must have hired Mendoza to snatch Katie for him, and then when he realized that Mendoza got Isabelle instead, he changed his plan and grabbed Forrester.”

“But why?” Samson asked.

“He knew he needed to do an exchange. And he needed a fall guy for that. So he got Forrester, tied him up and let us believe he was the kidnapper.” Luther pointed at the monitor. “I saw something blink silver in the light when I was in the storehouse where Forrester supposedly blew himself up. There were remnants of a speaker or a radio. My guess is that Norris piped all the sounds in remotely via a radio, the gunshots you heard. He must have been watching via a camera. He made us believe that Forrester spoke to us and shot at us. That’s why there was no gun. Forrester was a sitting duck. Norris waited for us to get close enough and then blew him up. And so Forrester couldn’t warn us, he singed his mouth and throat with UV rays.”

Luther had done the same to Bauer in the prison, so he knew it worked.

“Shit!” Samson cursed. “But how did he know that Katie wouldn’t be there and we’d be sending a vampire disguised as her?”

“He was counting on it. That’s why he gave us so much time to tell us when the exchange would take place: so we would come up with the idea to send in a double.” He shot a look at Blake. “Who’s with Katie?”

“Wesley,” Blake replied. Then he motioned to Eddie. “Send reinforcements to her house immediately. And warn them. Now!”

“I’m going there myself,” Luther said and charged toward the door, when he almost ran into Wesley. “What are you doing here?” He looked past him, but he was alone. “Where’s Katie?”

Wesley’s eyebrows snapped together. “At home, why? I left when we got word that the mission was a success and Forrester was dead.”

“Oh fuck!”

“She’s not answering her phone,” Eddie said from the other end of the room.

Thomas dialed on another phone. “I’m trying her cell.”

Luther’s blood froze in his veins. For a few seconds there was no sound in the room. Only a faint ringing sound coming through Thomas’s cell phone. Then it went to voicemail. A look of regret colored Thomas’s eyes as he shook his head.

Luther felt a cold shudder race down his spine. “Oh God no, he’s got her. Norris took Katie.”





44


For a few seconds, Luther was in shock. He’d failed to protect Katie. And now she was in the hands of a madman.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Wesley cursed.

Gasps and curses flew through the room. Isabelle started to cry.

“Ok, everybody listen up,” Blake said loudly. “We’ve gotta find her.” He looked at the clock on the wall. “We have less than one and a half hours until sunrise. We need to find out where he’s taking her before the sun comes up or we risk losing them.” Blake started to issue orders. “Wes, scry for her. Now!”

“I’ve still got some hair from her in my office,” he mumbled to himself and ran down the hallway.

“Thomas, get us everything you have on this Norris.”

Thomas nodded. “Already on it. My team just hacked into the prison authority’s computer system. We should have all they have about him in a few moments.” He motioned to Eddie and the two started typing away on their computers.

“I’ve already sent two guys to Katie’s house,” Amaury confirmed. “They’ll call us in case she’s still there.”

Luther knew it was a long shot, but Scanguards was thorough and couldn’t just dismiss the possibility that Katie was asleep and had switched off the ringer on her phone. In his heart though, he knew that Norris had snatched her while all of Scanguards had been occupied on Alcatraz. He would make good on his threats now: to take Katie away.

All of a sudden remembering something, Luther said out loud, “He’s sailing into the sunset with her. That’s it! The marinas!”