Death Comes Up Short, page 7
“Then, if anyone makes a run past Robert and me,” she said, “take your shot.”
“Roger that,” he said with a resigned sigh. “The children should stay with me, too.”
Abbie said, “Agreed.”
“No!” Jimi said. “I have my sword, and I will use it.”
Abbie had forgotten about that little extra protection Vivian had gifted him.
“If he goes in, so do I,” Nica said. “I won’t let him go, Abbie. Ever.”
“Ever?” Jimi asked, sounding doubtful.
“No,” Abbie said in a firm voice. “Both of you will stay with Seamus.”
To her surprise, the kids’ inevitable arguments didn’t come. Jimi took Seamus’s hand while Nica hung onto Jimi.
Satisfied, Abbie nodded to Robert before she headed toward the door. The room beyond that opening was dimly lit.
Looking in, she spotted two men arguing beside an open trapdoor at the far end of the room. From this side of the door, she couldn’t see the cages, but guessed one of them must contain the girl.
She entered through the doorway, and something buzzed her. She had forgotten about the magic deadening iron.
Ahead, the men swung in her direction.
Abbie froze. The iron had broken Ruth’s magical spell. She was visible. Also sensing her shield’s absence, Abbie hurried into the room and said, “Shields back up, Arthur.”
Her shield sprang up.
One man jumped into the trapdoor beside him. Abbie raced toward the remaining man, shooting out her cord. She caught him before he, too, could vanish down the hatch. The fiend she held wiggled to break free even as her cord squeezed him tighter.
“Look out!” a girl’s voice shouted behind Abbie.
“Got him,” Robert said, even before Abbie swung around. He held up a third fellow near the ceiling. He must have been out of her line of sight. His feet now swung in mid-air. The prisoner screamed, deafening them with his terrified cries.
“Silence,” Robert growled and his captive gulped and shut his mouth.
Jimi ran into the room then, with Nica still holding his hand.
Seamus was right behind them. “Sorry, Abbie,” he said, looking around furtively. “The boy pulled away as soon as the screaming started.”
Nica then ran toward a cage, pulling a reluctant Jimi with her. The lad seemed more interested in the trapdoor.
“I can’t open this door,” Nica called out, rattling the cage.
“Both of you stay with Seamus,” Abbie called back to the kids. “I’ll deal with that child in a minute.”
Her prisoner couldn’t possibly be human. Maybe he was a shifter because his body was freakily changing its weight where the cord confined him.
He shrank his top half as he tried to slip through the noose. He’d be free in a second if she wasn’t vigilant.
She ordered Hafgufa to restrain her prisoner’s spell-casting, and that finally stopped his squirming to escape.
Behind her, Jimi commanded, “Open!”
A lock clicked. A glance back showed the door of the cage that held the little girl swing out.
Nica leaned down to speak to the child wearing a frayed green polka-dot dress. “Don’t worry. Abbie will be here to help you in a minute.”
Jimi crouched beside his sister and laid his free hand on the floor and frowned with concentration.
Abbie suspected her one-track-minded boy was after the one who had escaped, possibly asking the hall where he went. Good. She wanted to know that, too. She glanced around, wondering what to do with her tiresome, shifting prisoner.
“Come back here,” Seamus shouted.
Abbie swung back to check if the little girl had run off, but it was her kids racing to the door, Jimi leading the way again. Still clinging to his hand, Nica met Abbie’s gaze with worry, while Seamus ran after the kids.
“Jimi, stay here,” Abbie called out in panic, but the stubborn boy raced out the door, dragging his sister along.
With Hafgufa restraining her prisoner, she was stuck here. If she released him, he’d flee the way his accomplice had through that trapdoor.
She shoved her captive into an empty cage, hoping a spell was on these kennels to keep talented little prisoners in place. Shutting and locking the door, she removed the key.
Robert did the same, sending his captive into a cage.
The little girl was creeping out of her prison and Abbie quickly locked the door. “Stay put. I’ll be right back to help you. All right?”
She nodded and retreated into the corner of her cage.
Abbie’s heart went out to this poor child, who looked terrified. She was no more than Nica’s age, though she looked a lot thinner. Yet, she had no time to comfort her right now.
“Seamus, where are my kids headed?” she asked him, using her cord.
“Out front,” came his instant response. “Man, can they move!”
Robert, having overheard that, vanished.
Good. He could cut the kids off faster than her or Seamus.
She speed-dialed Judith as she ran out of the hidden room, informing her about the two men they’d captured and the little girl they’d found. Then added that she and Seamus were chasing after Jimi and Nica, who might be after the third man who had fled down a hole in the hidden room. Abbie hung up before Judith could reply.
She was out of breath from sheer terror by the time she reached the entryway and ran out the front door into the quiet night air.
On the roadway, a dark hatchback backed up onto the street from beside the hall and screeched away, with Seamus racing after it.
Up the street, an unmarked car started up and Abbie prayed the vehicle belonged to police officers assigned to watch this place.
Her horrified glance returned to the fleeing vehicle’s back window, where both her kids’ heads showed for a moment before they ducked out of sight.
She was running after the car, wanting to send her cord after it, but soon realized it was out of reach. Then Robert appeared in the back seat. Oh, thank God! He glanced into the boot and then at her through the rear window.
His ghostly appearance gave her an idea. Abbie tapped Ruth once in her pocket, and said, “Over Nica and Jimi.”
The mirror affirmed, “Done,” before the car turned a corner and Abbie lost sight of her kids.
“Arthur, shields back up over the kids,” she ordered her ring. The iron door would have stripped their shields, too, when the kids ran in and out of the kennel area.
“Already done,” came the ring’s answer.
“Thank you,” she murmured, but her devastation at losing the children didn’t lessen.
The unmarked car following the fleeting vehicle now flashed its lights. It was a police vehicle. Good. Though if the escaping car headed to the Spell Gate market, the police would be as helpless as Abbie had been the last time she chased a car to that shopping center.
Abbie used her cord to contact the kids and Robert, but neither answered.
“There is a magical barrier around the vehicle I cannot penetrate,” Hafgufa said.
Abbie digested that devastating news. The fiend must have a spell around that hatchback.
The only saving grace in this terrible situation was that Abbie’s kids had Robert with them. He wouldn’t leave them.
Except, the source of his strength was St. Michael’s, and, though he adored Nica and Jimi as much as she did,
Robert was tied to Abbie. Could he sustain himself inside that vehicle if the Spell Gate market snapped up the car the kids were in? Or would the gate’s guardian spit him out, leaving her children with no protector?
Abbie shuddered in horror at her kids being drawn into that strange and dangerous market without her or Robert to guide and guard them.
Her chest squeezed tight, and she bent over, trying to draw in a breath. She felt as if she’d been stabbed through her heart. This must be how Jimi felt after they took River.
I’ll get them back.
Then Abbie did what she’d advised her kids to do last night. She pictured them all sitting around the kitchen table enjoying breakfast tomorrow, laughing at one of Jimi’s jokes.
Slowly, the tightness around her chest loosened, and she dragged in a lungful of air.
When Abbie straightened, Seamus was beside her, looking as devastated. This episode must have brought back the memory of losing his son. And then his wife.
“What the blue blazes do we do now?” he asked in a broken voice.
“We can’t leave that child alone downstairs.”
“Give me your keys. While you take care of her, I’ll follow the one who took your kids.”
“The police are already on his trail,” Abbie reminded him, though it sorely tempted her to do as he asked.
Turning her back on her kids tore her apart. It was the hardest thing she’d ever had to force herself to do, but she returned inside the hall. “Chasing after the car would waste time, especially since you’d have to backtrack two streets.”
“How many kids have to be taken before anyone does anything?” he shouted in frustration, following her.
“We need to try another tactic.”
“Such as?” He kept pace with her agitated steps.
Now the air was filling her lungs, her brain ticked through her options a little faster and settled on one. The sooner she got those two men to talk, the sooner she could reunite with her kids.
Abbie’s thoughts remained focused on Jimi as she tore through the auditorium.
What could he have been thinking about, to run away like that? How many times had she told him never to talk to strangers, certainly never to get into a stranger’s car? Especially toward a man who had taken his friend. The moment she asked that, she knew the answer.
She should have guessed her boy would act this way. It was why he’d talked his sister into hiding in Abbie’s car tonight. He was determined to rescue his friend and had guessed Abbie planned to do something tonight. Following this fleeing fellow was his way to get to River.
Jimi was naturally confident. Vivian’s gift, however, could have given that natural self-assurance a gigantic boost.
Understanding Jimi’s reasoning didn’t come close to quelling her terror for her kids’ safety. What Jimi didn’t realize was that he was still a little boy. Also, his enemies could strip away his magic as easily as that iron doorway had shredded their invisibility spell.
“Maybe I should contact Kiros,” she absently mumbled.
“Who’s that?” Seamus asked, drawing Abbie’s attention back to him.
Her Grimm instincts still had no qualms about Seamus, and Hafgufa seemed to trust him, so she said, “He’s an immortal. I believe he and his siblings act as companions to the various beings they live among. To guide them.”
“Like guardian angels?” Seamus asked.
Abbie glanced at him in surprise. Since learning she was a Grimm, she’d encountered many supes, and even a couple of goddesses and a fae queen. But no angels. “Do you believe guardian angels are real?”
“My wife is real,” Seamus said, as he kept up with her speed. “So, why not angels?”
Why not, indeed. Believing in angels shouldn’t feel any different from believing in supernatural creatures. Yet, it did.
“I don’t know about angels,” Abbie admitted. “Never met one. Fae, yes.” They sped down the stairs. “Underwater creatures have helped me, and a demon once chased after me. So, I know those are real. Those two species also have a companion, immortal beings, created to guide them. Kiros is the humans’ companion.”
“Vivian’s never mentioned companions,” Seamus said, sounding as skeptical as Abbie was about angels.
Christianity was her mother’s purview, one Abbie only half believed. Margaret Grimshaw had diligently taken her children to church every Sunday. Abbie’s father had, however, encouraged his daughter to have a questioning mind. To deeply doubt what he’d labeled as “supernatural folderol.”
Growing up, though she’d pretended to speak to ghosts and the angel at St. Michael’s, she wasn’t sure she’d believed they were real. The angel had never responded to her.
After Abbie spoke to Robert and then learned she was a Grimm, she was all in on believing in otherworldly events and supernatural beings. So, could angels be real, too? Beings whose sole purpose was to care for humans?
Her heart fluttered at the sudden touch of comfort the thought of angels brought. Silently, she prayed, if my guardian angel is out there, I hope you’re looking out for Robert, Jimi, Nica, River, Yousef, Vivian, and all the lost children.
“Kiros helped me with a case last year,” she said, shouldering her way into the furnace room and pelting toward the hidden room. “Not sure how much help he’ll be now, as we have a disagreement we’re working through and it’s proving difficult to surmount.”
For me.
She hurried through the door to the hidden room, feeling that magic-zapping buzz again. Seamus was right behind her.
They stopped short upon entering the kennel room, her chest heaving for air, and stared in dumbfounded silence.
The room was empty. There was no cowering little girl in sight to comfort. No prisoners locked in cages to question.
The trapdoor on the floor was also missing. Not a mark hinted at where it had been.
“Cor blimey!” Seamus swore. “I should have stayed.”
“They were magical,” Abbie said in a hard voice, trying to absorb yet another painful roadblock to finding her kids. She’d hoped to get a lead from her prisoners about her kids’ whereabouts. “What could you have done?”
“I could have slowed them,” he snapped, turning his anger on her, “with my acerbic wit.”
“Or they might have killed you,” Abbie retorted. “How would that have helped rescue your wife and son or retrieve my kids and my friends?”
Even as Abbie instinctively struck back, she understood his rage, for it mirrored hers. They were both terrified. He was as desperate to find his son and wife as she was to find those she cared for. Tearing into each other didn’t help either of them, though. Her thoughts scoured her mind for a solution.
“I wonder if Kiros could talk the market into refusing to take my kids in?” she mused.
“The immortal?” Seamus asked.
Abbie nodded. “Kiros is the one who could engineer such an extraordinary feat.”
Chapter Seven
Abbie had avoided contacting Kiros since last summer. Even after he generously enlisted his oceanic sibling’s help to retrieve a sunken ship as a favor to Abbie. She still refused to release her enmity against his diabolical underworld sibling.
Now her children were in danger, her calculations on that matter shifted. She pulled out her mobile.
Of all the Standard Bearers, Talin was the only one who had shown any compassion for Kiros. She suspected that they even went out for a cuppa now and then. While Kiros might ignore her, he would heed Talin’s plea for help.
Talin didn’t answer his phone, so Abbie used her cord.
“Yes?” he asked, sounding rushed.
At Seamus’s startled glance, she guessed her cord was sharing this conversation with him. Just as well. He was a part of their case now.
“Please contact Kiros about the Spell Gate market,” she said aloud. “There might be a supe-child-napping scheme being carried out from there. If so, I’d like his help to prevent the market from taking my kids. Or help me enter it.”
“Will do,” Talin said. “Judith told me a police unit was in pursuit of the car with Jimi and Nica in it. Remain calm.”
“Right,” she replied in a dead voice.
“I’ve broken through to the hacker,” Talin continued. “We’re on our way there now. Will report back what we find.”
Ending her contact with Talin, Abbie headed to where the trapdoor had been, scanning the floor for its location.
She called on Hafgufa. “I need you to crack open this hall’s defenses.” Abbie laid her hand on the floor as she’d seen Jimi do earlier. “Find me that hidden trapdoor.”
The cord slid out of her finger and Seamus, who’d trailed behind her, gasped. Hafgufa slid across the floor, hither and thither, trying to sense where the opening lay. Then it paused and after a moment, turned liquid and sank into the concrete, slipping into the cracks’ nooks and crannies.
The hall shook again as it had when Jimi yelled at it. The floor rose and Abbie jumped back as the trapdoor appeared and flipped open.
“Found you,” Abbie said in triumph.
About to retract her cord, she instead sent it into the darkness of the hole. “Hafgufa, is anyone down there?”
“This tunnel is empty.”
Abbie sighed at that bad news. But maybe she could follow where the escapees had gone. She retracted her cord and used her mobile’s flashlight function to check down the hole.
Looked like a seven-foot drop. Hafgufa could levitate her up again if she needed out.
“Shall we?” she asked Seamus.
With a frazzled look, he ran his hand through his thick dark hair, and then he nodded.
Good enough. She sat on the edge, ready to leap down, when her mobile buzzed.
A text from Talin said the police unit that followed the fleeing car with Abbie’s kids had ended the chase at the Sevenoaks Shopping Centre. They saw it park from a distance, but when they reached the spot, the car was nowhere in sight.
Abbie’s stomach plummeted. The Spell Gate market had snatched up Vivian and Yousef while they sat in their car in that shopping center. Chances were high that’s what had happened to her kids, too.
With a shaky hand, she showed Seamus the text, more determined than ever to get into that market to recover all of their loved ones.
Arthur then notified her that his shields on the children had been severed. Ruth also gave her the same bad news. That meant the only protection her kids had was Robert, assuming he was still with them. Since he hadn’t returned to her side, she hugged that thought to keep her sane and glanced again at her mobile.
Monday. Twenty past nine. The market would vanish from Kent in a little under three hours. All she wanted right now was to breach the Spell Gate market’s barriers and find her kids and friends. She’d worry about how to get out again afterwards.
