Chapter Twenty-seven
Sean Whelan banged on the door at Romatech Industries, then shouted at the nearby surveillance camera. "Open up, damn you!" These damned Vamps kept the place locked up tight at night. It was infuriating that he had to beg entrance in order to see his own daughter and grandchildren.
"Open up!" They had to know he was here. The guard at the front gate would have alerted them.
The door opened and he burst into the foyer to find Shanna and that damned bodyguard, Connor Buchanan.
"Dad, what's wrong?" Shanna asked. "Is Mom okay?"
He gritted his teeth. "Do you know where Caitlyn is?" He spotted Phineas McKinney rushing into the foyer. "Where the hell is my daughter?"
Phineas gave him an exasperated look. "Relax, dude, she's okay."
"Then you know where she is?" Sean demanded.
"Yer daughter is on assignment," Connor replied. "Angus saw her last night, and she was fine."
"The hell she is! I just got a call from the State Department. A hill tribe contacted the American consulate in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and reported she was missing. They heard gunfire - "
"What?" Shanna interrupted.
"You heard me," Sean snapped. "The tribe said there was a gunfight, and Caitlyn was taken. The consulate asked the local police to investigate, and they found a bunch of dead bodies in the road."
Shanna gasped. Connor pulled a cell phone from his sporran.
"They also found an abandoned car and two backpacks," Sean continued. "One had Caitlyn's passport inside, and the other had a Brazilian passport for Carlos Panterra."
Phineas nodded. "They're on assignment together."
"You sent my daughter into the jungle with a damned shape shifter?" Sean shouted.
"We'll contact Angus as soon as possible," Phineas began. "He won't be awake just now."
"I have his voice mail." Connor talked into his cell phone. "Angus, it looks like Caitlyn and Carlos have been abducted. We'll e-mail you the details."
"You'd better find her!" Sean yelled. "You can tell Angus that if something happens to her, I'll hold you all responsible. I'll hunt you down - "
"Dad, please!" Shanna hissed. "We're just as upset about this as you are."
Sean fisted his hands, attempting to regain control. "Can you track her whereabouts? Don't the MacKay employees have some kind of homing beacon implanted in their arms?"
"We did that after Robby was kidnapped," Phineas said. "But only for the Vamps. We didn't think the shifters or mortals would ever be targeted."
"Well, you were wrong, weren't you?" Sean growled.
Phineas motioned for Sean to follow him. "Come to the office so we can get all the information you have. I'll broadcast it to all MacKay employees. It'll be our top priority."
Sean scoffed. "A lot of good that'll do. It's daytime in Thailand, so your Vamps won't be any help at all." He glanced over his shoulder. Shanna and Connor were following them down the hall. "This is your fault, Shanna. You just had to drag her into this foul world of yours."
Her face turned pale.
"Enough, Whelan." Connor glared at him. "Ye were going to do the same, offering her a job on yer bloody Stake-Out team."
Phineas opened the door to the MacKay security office, and Sean strode inside. He paced about as Shanna took a seat and Connor stood by the door, glaring at him.
Phineas sat behind the desk. "I was just reading the report Angus filed. He left Caitlyn and Carlos with the Akha tribe."
"I want to read that report," Sean demanded.
Phineas glanced at Connor, who frowned.
"Verra well," Connor said. "Let him see it. The information is most likely related to her abduction."
"What information?" Shanna asked.
"Evidence of a powerful Chinese vampire who appears to have mortals assisting him," Connor explained.
"They call him Master Han," Phineas added.
Sean snorted. "I should have known a vampire was involved in this. He could teleport Cait anywhere on the planet. We'll never find her."
"We have employees all over the world," Connor said quietly. "We will find her."
"Why should I believe you?" Sean sneered at him. "You've been looking for Casimir for years, and you keep failing."
Connor's eyes narrowed.
"We've been kicking ass," Phineas insisted. "We've killed off a bunch of his minions."
Sean shrugged. "They'll keep coming as long as their leader's alive, and you can't even find him."
Connor's jaw clenched. "We've located Casimir twice."
"And he always escapes." Sean enjoyed seeing the red flush of rage on Connor's face. "If anything happens to my daughter, I'll raze this place to the ground. I'll destroy you all."
Connor zoomed over to him in a blur of vampire speed and seized him by the shirt collar. His eyes blazed with anger. "Mind yer manners, Whelan. Ye need us."
Sean wrenched himself free. That damned Connor. Once he started killing the Vamps, he'd make sure Connor was second on the list, right after Shanna's damned husband.
Carlos blinked his eyes open. The place was dark, but his eyes adjusted quickly. The floor beneath him vibrated slightly, and he could hear the hum of engines.
"There you are," Caitlyn whispered. "Welcome back."
He planted a hand on the floor to push himself into a sitting position, and felt something tug at his wrist. He was in handcuffs with a foot of chain between his hands.
He sat up and felt another tug at his neck. "What the hell?" There was a collar around his neck, and a heavy chain extended from it to a metal bar. "We're in a cage?"
"Yes." Caitlyn sat beside him, leaning back against the bars. There were no handcuffs or chains on her, and she had a blanket draped around her shoulders. "They kept you drugged for hours. They're scared to death of you." The corner of her mouth tilted up. "I can hardly blame them. You can really kick ass."
He grasped the thick chain in his fist and tugged. With his added strength, he might be able to break it. "Where are we?"
"On a plane. In a cargo hold." She wrapped the blanket tighter around her. "We've been waiting for you to wake up."
"We?" He glanced around and spotted Rajiv, the were-tiger.
The young man was dressed in baggy pants. His long black hair hung over one shoulder in a braid, and there was a silver collar around his neck. His hands were also cuffed. He said something in his language.
"He's glad you're all right," Caitlyn translated.
"I didn't know he'd been captured," Carlos said.
"Well, you have a good excuse." She gave him a wry look. "You were knocked out and dying at the time."
"Better me than you." He thought back to their hike through the jungle. "I thought I heard a tiger."
She nodded. "He followed us, then tried to help us. Pat was delighted to capture a second cat shifter since you were dying at the time."
He arched a brow. "Do I detect a little anger?"
"I'm a bit peeved because you keep dying all the time. You don't have an unlimited amount of lives, you know."
Neither did she. Carlos's gaze drifted to the bite mark on her neck. It was true. He'd bitten her. His mind was so fuzzy with the aftereffects of tranquilizers that he'd hoped he had only imagined biting her.
"It'll be all right," she whispered.
He hung his head, closing his eyes.
"I was talking to Rajiv while you were sleeping," she changed the subject. "He's Raghu's younger brother. Only twenty years old. He hasn't fallen in love with any of the girls in his tribe, and his brother will be head of the tribe for life, so Rajiv decided to leave in search of adventure."
Carlos glanced at the young man who was watching them with his golden eyes. "How can he take tiger form during the day?"
"Oh, good question." Caitlyn asked Rajiv in his language, then translated the response. "He says he's on his second life. He was bitten by a cobra when he was eighteen. When he revived, he was able to shift whenever he wanted."
Carlos nodded. "If he wants adventure, he certainly found it."
Caitlyn smiled. "He says he was somehow drawn to me, that he knew I would help him."
"Like Coco and Raquel." Carlos's gaze drifted once again to the bite on her neck. She was the most amazing woman in the world, and she was going to die because of him.
"Do you want to know what happened while you were sleeping?" she asked.
"Yes." He glanced around the cargo hold. "How did we get here?"
"I woke up when Pat and his buddies were dragging us into a large room. Rajiv was already there. And three vampires, so it must have been after dark. The vampires spoke Thai to Pat but Chinese to each other. They didn't realize I can understand Chinese."
"So what were they saying?" Carlos asked.
"They were worried about the silver collars on you and Rajiv, worried that they wouldn't be able to teleport you. Pat gave you and Rajiv a sedative, then he removed the silver collars. And then the teleporting began. It took a while since the three vampires had to make multiple trips to take us and Pat and his buddies."
"Where did they take us?" Carlos asked.
"To a small airport. I think it was on an island 'cause I could see palm trees and sand, and I could hear waves breaking. The vampires talked about being afraid to teleport any farther east."
"Right." Carlos nodded. "They don't want to accidentally teleport into sunlight and get fried."
"So I figure the island was east of Thailand, somewhere in the Pacific. And I assume we're still traveling east. They offered us blankets, but Rajiv refused his and growled at them."
"Good man." Carlos gave Rajiv a thumbs-up.
She pointed to another caged area in the cargo hold, barely visible with the dim running lights. "See those coffins over there? A while back the vampires came down here and climbed inside them."
"We must be headed into sunlight." Carlos tugged on his chain. "If I can get into their cage, I could kill them."
"With what?" Caitlyn asked. "We have no weapons. They took our shoes and belts. My feet are frozen." She rubbed her bare feet together. "And these bars are really strong. Rajiv already tested them."
Carlos curled a fist around a bar and shook it. It didn't budge.
"We might as well wait it out," she said. "I don't think any of us know how to fly a plane."
"Good point. How long have we been in the air?"
"We're not sure. We don't have watches, but it seems like a long time."
"Flying east for hours," he murmured. "It's actually a good thing if this trip takes a long time. It'll give MacKay more time to figure out we're missing and track us down."
Caitlyn nodded. "My sister has a strong psychic link to me. I'm trying to send her images of us in a cage on an airplane."
"You're amazing." His gaze lingered on the soft golden color of her hair, the sweet line of her jaw, and the pink perfection of her lips. So beautiful.
"Don't look at me like that," she whispered. "Like you're trying to memorize every detail before I'm gone."
He swallowed hard. "I'll never forgive myself if - "
"Don't say it." She pressed two cold fingers to his mouth. "I'm going to make it."
He took her cold hand in his. "Your chances are not good."
"I'm going to fight," she insisted. "I'm not going to leave you. You know how stubborn I can be."
He smiled sadly. "So you'll survive just to prove me wrong?"
"If I have to, yes. Just because I'm a lousy warrior doesn't mean I'm not strong."
"You're the strongest woman I know."
"Thank you." Her eyes glimmered with emotion. "So what will happen exactly? Will I sprout whiskers in a few days? Or have an insatiable desire for tuna?"
His chest tightened. He knew she had to be scared, but she was putting on a brave front. "The change will remain dormant inside you until it's triggered by the full moon. That's why the first time is so dramatic and painful. The abruptness of the transformation is more than some people can bear."
"So I have until the next full moon?"
"Yes. About two weeks from now."
She nodded, then leaned back against the bars. "Two weeks."
He rubbed her hand to warm up her fingers. Whenever, if ever, they got out of this mess alive, he wanted to make their marriage legal. Tears came to his eyes when he realized how short their marriage would likely last. "Catalina, will you marry me?"
She squeezed his hand. "I thought you'd never ask."