97

“Hello,” I answered my phone groggily, still half asleep.

“Ryder, I need your help,” he said and I sat up straight in bed.

“What’s wrong, Wentworth?” I asked him.

“How soon can you be in Chicago?” he asked me and I looked at my watch.

“I can be there by eight thirty,” I said to him.

“I’ll be waiting,” he said and ended the call.

It was just past six am and I got up and headed into the bathroom for a quick shower. I got dressed casually but I strapped my weapons on with the hidden knives beneath a long sleeved shirt and I took my gun as well.

The house was quiet as I left through the front door twenty minutes later and stepped on the gas as soon as I reached the highway heading towards Chicago and that warehouse that had me both thrilled and gave me nightmares.

I bought coffee at a drive through before heading to the warehouse and I had already talked to Link. He had called me the moment he realized that I wasn’t at the house. Megan had taken the day off and I assumed that she was still sleeping so I sent her a text saying that I was in Chicago.

I saw the familiar face of Omar as I parked the truck and walked across the street to the dodgy looking warehouse and he smiled when he saw me.

“Never thought I’d see the day when you turned up back here,” Omar said with a smile as we hugged.

“Wentworth called me for a meeting,” I said not wanting to tell him that Wentworth sounded half hysterical over the phone earlier that morning.

“He’s in his office. Are you coming back?” Omar asked me.

“I can’t even if I wanted to, I’ve got my own lair now and that keeps me busy as fuck,” I said as he chuckled.

“Yeah the rumours about you have been pretty much all over the place,” he confided.

“What rumours?” I asked him.

“Killing vampires and dragonkin all over the show,” he said.

“Okay it was one dragon Sire and not that many vampires,” I said as he grinned at me.

“So you didn’t take out a whole coven by yourself?” he asked me.

“No, only eight of them, my father’s old team killed the other four,” I said as he laughed and shook his head.

I made my way upstairs as I looked through the new recruits busy training and lifted my hand as a few familiar faces shouted greetings to me. I wasn’t exactly sure why Wentworth had called me because I was pretty sure that Basil hadn’t taken Joe yet although I hadn’t seen him on the training floor. Shit. Maybe he took him last night after he left my house. Either way I’d know soon enough as I knocked on Wentworth’s door twice and opened it.

“Thank you for coming Ryder, take a seat,” Wentworth said from behind his desk.

“Shit, Wentworth, what’s going on? You look like the dead,” I asked him as he rubbed a hand over his face.

“You’re making quite a name for yourself out there, not all of it good,” he said as he watched me.

“Meaning?”

“I sent out a three man team five days ago, a mixed rogue group kidnapping human children that’s being sold to vampires as food bags. We’ve had over a hundred children go missing from all over, that’s just here in the States,” he said.

“Shit, that’s insane,” I said to him as he nodded.

“They sent Phillips back in a box to me, head severed, limbs severed, body mutilated. I haven’t been able to make contact with either Marks or Brooks,” he said.

“They’re dead and you know it, Phillips was a message to stay the fuck out of their business,” I said to him.

“I know,” he said looking somewhat defeated.

“So why am I here?” I asked him.

“I need you to lead a team and take that group out, rescue any children that are still alive and bring back my two operatives’ bodies,” he said.

“You don’t ask a lot, do you?” I said as his expression remained stoic.

“You’re the best and you know it, I haven’t had any trainees even come close to what you can do,” he said.

“Your timing sucks, Wentworth,” I said.

“I know that too, I know you have a lair to run and I know you’re busy, but these are kids we’re talking about,” he said.

“What do you know about them?” I asked and he smiled as he slid a file across the table.

I opened the file and looked at the information that he had gathered so far. It always surprised me how he was able to gather so much on people that tried to remain anonymous. The group consisted of a rogue lair of dragons, ten of them, and a pack of wolves, also ten of them.

“I don’t see how they’re all working together,” I said as I read through the file.

“They’re not actively working together, they have different bases of operations, each one keeping to themselves and selling the children to the vampire covens, you know they prefer the young ones,” he said.

“If I agree to do this, this will be the last time we talk about it. I’ll be taking in my own team, people I know and trust, I won’t be sharing details with you, you’ll just get the news that a group has been eliminated and you know me Wentworth. I won’t stop until I have all the fuckers responsible,” I said to him.

“You think this unit can’t be trusted?” he asked me.

“I’m remembering an assignment where I got my ass handed to me and my best friend died, it was an ambush and the only people who knew about that was this unit,” I said to him.

“Are you saying someone in my unit deliberately set you two up?” he asked me. I could hear the anger rising in his voice.

“Those are my terms Wentworth, you asked me for help not the other way around. I have shit to do so either you agree or I leave right now,” I said.

“Fine, but if there’s a traitor in my unit I want to know,” he said to me angrily.

“That’s your own shit to sort out, I’ll be taking this file with me and if I get the inkling that any of this is a setup I’ll be coming back for you, so keep this conversation between us because you do have a traitor in your unit and I don’t believe it’s you,” I said to him and stood up with the file in my hand.

“If this was anybody else I’d be kicking his ass out of my office right about now,” he said as he stood up as well and Abeloth roared with laughter.

“You’ll know when I get busy,” I said to him.

I left his office without saying anything else and my eyes scanned the training floor again. No Joe. I wondered how Basil was faring with his questioning. I spoke to a few guys for a while and then headed outside to my truck. I drove around the block and parked the truck again as I started sending out text messages to my contacts.

“Hello,” I answered the phone.

“You’re an asshole you know that right,” he said to me and I laughed.

“I take it he’s not talking,” I said.

“No he’s not, fuck,” Basil said.

“Where are you?” I asked him.

“I’m sending you our location now,” he said and ended the phone call.

I was still laughing because I knew Basil hated making that phone call. I checked the location as it came through and realized that I was actually just a few miles away from him. He had some balls keeping Joe in Chicago so close to the unit.

I drove to Basil’s location and arrived at the construction site forty minutes later. It was quiet all around me but I could smell Basil and a few other vampires. I knew they were watching me but right at that moment I couldn’t see anyone.

“Basil’s expecting you,” Nico said as I entered the ground floor of the structure.

I followed Nico through the building and found Basil sitting on a chair facing Joe. His face was bloody and relief flooded through his eyes when he saw me. It didn’t last long though as Basil stood up and we shook hands.

“I told you he wouldn’t talk,” I said to Basil who grimaced.

“Fucking bastard reeks of guilt,” Basil said as he glared at Joe.

“Hello Joe, how are you feeling?” I asked him as he looked me in the eye.

“I can’t believe you’re a part of this,” Joe said his voice sounding hoarse.

“I’m a part of anything that will get me answers on Felix’s death,” I said to him.

“You really think I was involved with this?” he yelled at me.

“Yes,” Abeloth and I said at the same time, my eyes flashing between green and yellow.

“Nico, get me cable ties, a cordless drill, six inch steel rods, a pair of pliers and a bottle of Scotch,” I said.

“What the hell are you going to do?” Basil asked me as Nico left in a blur.

“I’m just going to have a friendly conversation with Joe,” I said with a smile as I took my jacket off and hung it over the back of a chair. Joe’s eyes had widened slightly but now he looked at me with contempt.

Nico returned an hour later and I took the bag from him. I opened the bottle of scotch and I took a big swallow from it. I checked the drill and the rods and I looked at Joe with a neutral expression on my face. He knew what was coming, he was the one that taught us how to torture people.

I taped his mouth shut after stuffing a rag into it and placed the drill on his left kneecap and started drilling. Nico and Basil turned their heads away as Joe started screaming through the rag. I kept silent as I turned to his right kneecap and started drilling through it. Joe’s eyes were wide as he kept on screaming and sweat poured down his forehead.

After another hour I reckoned Joe was ready to talk. I had drilled through his wrists and ankles as well and I ripped the tape off his mouth as he spat the rag out, his breath haggard and I put the drill against his head, just above his ear. I had inserted each of the six inch rods in the holes I had drilled to inflict more pain and keep him from healing.

“I want a name,” I said as I looked at him.

“Carlson McIntyre Hall,” he breathed the name out and my head snapped towards his. “Felix was just collateral damage, you were supposed to die that night, to pay for the sins of your father,” he continued.

“Thank you Joe,” I said to him and pressed the power button on the drill. I watched as the drill entered his skull and Joe’s screams died down as the drill entered his brain. His eyes rolled backwards and then his head sagged forward in death.