Sharkbait Down Under

Luna Adrienne’s POV

I hadn’t stopped working since Linda gave me that call.

I made three calls as soon as I got off the phone with her. I called Leo in Australia, letting him know his niece and her friends were in trouble. I called Alpha Steven in Oregon, letting him know three of his Betas and two of his Warriors were victims. Finally, I informed Alpha Ivan Volkov, Leo’s younger brother, at his home in Stillwater. Vicki was his biological daughter, and he was very protective of her.

While I was talking, one of the Omegas had purchased plane tickets, while another packed my bag. Just twenty minutes after finding out, five of us were heading out. All told, I had over three dozen warriors, trackers, Betas, and Alphas from three Packs on their way to Mexico.

While driving to the airport, I made my next call. I didn’t trust the man, but Vicki did, and his support was making the Australian Pack independent of the North American Council. After explaining this was an emergency, his secretary put me through to him. “Adrienne, what is going on?”

“It’s bad news, Master Pontalba,” I told him. “I was just contacted by Vicki’s producer. A gang of kidnappers in Cancun has taken Vicki, Amy, Noelani, Makani, and their two bodyguards.”

“Damn.” He yelled for some people to come in. “Are they like us?”

“I don’t think so; it sounded like locals,” I said. Mermaids didn’t have our sense of smell, but it was enough to sense a fellow supernatural if they were close.

“That’s a start. How can I help?”

“We’re sending people down there as quickly as we can, but I was hoping you have contacts in the area. I can’t use the authorities, but I need someone who can respond faster than we can. We are six hours out.”

“Master Hernando Vespucci is over Mexico City. I’m sure he has associates in Cancun.”

I just bet he did. What better place for vampires to ply their trade than a beach resort area full of drunk tourists? It was a lot like how Cyprian stayed hidden in New Orleans. “I have trackers on them, but I don’t know how long they will work before the kidnappers remove or disable them. Time is of the essence.”

“Pass that information along to Master Vespucci directly. I will call him and have him contact you.”

“Thank you, Master Cyprian.” I needed that callback, so I waited for it instead of calling others, sending text messages to those friends outside the Packs. We were passing the refinery in Rosemount when my phone rang with an overseas number. “Hello, this is Adrienne Volkov,” I said.

“Mrs. Volkov, my name is Hernando. A mutual friend asked if I could be of assistance to you.”

“Please! Bandits in Cancun captured my niece and her friends,” I said. I gave him the information I had, including the website and codes to follow the trackers. “They still show active, but who knows for how long.” I’d been watching on my laptop, and they were still together and still driving away from Cancun.

“Why not give this information to the local police?”

“The local police may be in on it. Four officers were ‘protecting’ the girls. If it’s not straight ransom, my first suspect is my own Council. I can’t drag humans into that mess.”

“I see.” He issued a few orders with the phone covered. “I will send my people to help. Is this the best way to reach you?”

“It is.” I gave him my flight number and arrival time and that I was traveling with four others. “Thank you, Mr. Vespucci. We will be in your debt for this.”

“Yes, you will be. I’ll be in touch.”

Masters Emily and Cyprian were more friendly than Hernando, who was typical of the vampires I’d met. Leo called just before we arrived at the airport; he, Nicholas, and Joseph were in travel hell. They had to fly from Melbourne to Sydney, catch the long flight to Los Angeles, then make the connection to Cancun. It was going to be two days before they would arrive.

The good news is that there were regular flights to the Mexican beach resorts from Minneapolis in December; the bad news was that they were packed full of drunken vacationers. Although the flight time was just over four hours, with security at each end and the wait for the departure, it was almost eight hours total. My secretary snagged the last first-class seat for me, and I stowed my carry-on bag above it, putting my purse under the seat. The rest of my group were not as lucky; they were seated near the restrooms in the back. Alpha Steven and three of his men would arrive in another hour. Alpha Ivan and the rest of our teams would continue to show up over the next day or so.

I got a text message from Hernando Vespucci when we landed. “Found the missing things but not the girls. I’ve sent a driver to bring you. Still looking.”

“Shit,” I whispered to myself, forcing back the anger. We’d missed our chance. “I got an update from the Coven,” I sent to my people. “Sally, you’re going with me on a shuttle to the hotel with our luggage. We’ll get our rooms and start setting up a command post.” If the girls were gone, this was more of an investigation than a rescue mission; I needed to coordinate the response, not get out there in the field. I had Colleen Underwood with me, and as a Deputy Sheriff, I placed her in charge of the two trackers that would be going with her. “The vamps are sending a car for us to take you to their last known location. They are helping us out, so be on your best behavior. Also, NO ONE is alone, ever. If they can take Sharkbait, they might be after us too.”

Esmerelda was waiting for us, holding a sign with my name. She was a petite vampire with a dancers body and raven-colored hair to her waist. She looked to be about twenty but was probably closer to a hundred years old. “Is that everyone?”

“These three will be going with you. Sally and I will be setting up at the hotel until the rest of our group arrives,” I said. “Please pass on my thanks to your Master for his help, and I hope to hear from him soon.”

I went to work as soon as we got to the hotel. Check-in went quickly, and I gave the concierge a list I’d prepared with what I needed. As a resort that hosted convention visitors, they had everything I needed. A steady stream of orders went out to employees, and I had it all within an hour. I rented a conference room on the hotel’s second floor with keycard access for the five cards I’d requested. Even hotel maids would not be able to enter without being let in. I had them stock it with office supplies, plus it had a half-dozen large monitors I could connect to the computers we were bringing in.

I was just setting up when I got a text from Alpha Steven; they were pulling in to the hotel. I gave him the conference room I was in, along with my warning to stay escorted. “Thank you for coming,” I told him as I opened the door to his group.

“We’ll get them back,” he said after the door closed. “What do you know?”

“I was waiting for you to go get Linda,” I said. He left his investigator in the room with Sally while the other three escorted us to the elevator. Linda looked like hell when she opened the door, and I pulled her into my arms and gave her a big hug. “Grab your computer and come with us,” I said. “It’s time to find our girls.”

“Damn right, it is,” Linda said as she picked up her laptop. “Thank you for getting down here so fast. I’ve not been able to do much on my own.”

“You stayed free and got word to us, Linda.” We got back in the elevator, getting off at the second floor and going into the conference room. I had a map of the Yucatan Peninsula on one of the monitors, and when everyone sat down, I started. “We’ll get to Linda’s story shortly.” I pointed at a large wall monitor displaying a satellite image of the Yucatan Peninsula. “We are here, and the property where they got kidnapped is over here. I have a team traveling to this area with the vampires; Master Hernando Vespucci said it is where he found the tracking devices. Ensuring the girls remain in this area where we can find them has to be our highest priority. We need to cover the airports, not just here, but in Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmel, and Cozumel.” The first a little north, while the other two resort areas were to the south of us and closer to the kidnapping site than Cancun. Cozumel and Isla Mujeres were both islands, but there were ferry services to the mainland.

“The police will be watching the airports,” Alpha Steven said. “It’s all over the news.”

“It’s more likely they leave in a private aircraft from one of the smaller airports, disguised as cargo, perhaps. I want to make sure we have a wolf there, preferably a tracker, to search for their scents.”

Roger, the Three Sisters investigator, agreed. “We should also keep at least two people at the main airport for the same reasons. It will be suspicious if the same people are there all the time. We can rotate people through, especially as more people arrive. We keep one inside the security area and one outside, at a minimum.”

“We’ll have a dozen more people here in the next two hours,” I said. “Should we keep the warriors here, ready to move out if we get a lead?”

“No, we need a mix of skills in at least three teams,” Roger replied. “We can fit six people in a car. One driver, one tracker, and four warriors.” He got up and pointed at three locations on the map, spaced evenly. “From these locations plus here in Cancun, we can respond within an hour to anywhere over a wide area. Once those teams are in place, we can expand out as we need.”

It was a good plan, and it made sense.

We just needed a clue as to where they might be.