Chapter 126
While Kahlan and Rossi were discussing what their next step was going to be, Cam ran up to them. He'd been up on the surface working on his laptop as he and Garcia had started to work their magic on the huge list of names Brian had given them.
Rossi frowned. "What lit the fire under your ass?"
Cam took a deep breath. "Penny got the hit on the APB, that Riley guy's van has been found."
A smile grew on Rossi's face, but Kahlan's eyes narrowed as she stared at her good friend. "And that's not a good thing?"
He sighed. "Not really. It was abandoned, and the locals are keeping the scene clean. Penny wanted to know if we wanted to go to it or if she should tell the team to stop there on their way home."
"Where is it?" Rossi asked. He hadn't heard from the team, so he wasn't sure where they were with the case.
Cam winced. "At a little place outside of Durham, North Carolina."
"So, they took him south," Rossi mused as he nodded. He'd figured they had taken Hotch out of Virginia, and he was happy with knowing which direction they needed to focus on.
"But what kind of place?" Kahlan asked him.
He swallowed. "At some po-dunk ass airport."
Kahlan's jaw dropped. "An airport?!"
Cam licked his lips. "Yeah, and the locals searched the place, and no one was around. I'm sorry."
Kahlan sighed as she ran her fingers over her forehead.
Rossi gave her a gentle squeeze and looked at Cameron. "Is the team done?"
"They'll be wrapped up first thing in the morning." He put a hand on Kahlan's shoulder. "If you and the others want to head out, I can stay here and see that all of these guys are taken care of."
She took a deep breath and then blew it out.
"Willie can stay and help him," Sebastian said as he walked through the door. He apparently heard their conversation.
She licked her lips and then looked at the computer specialist. "Tell Pen to have the team go, if they're willing. They can do their profiling thing and maybe get us a lead. We need to see this stuff through. These beings deserve that much."
Cam nodded and ran back towards the elevator because being below ground stopped all cell coverage.
Rossi gave her a small smile. "Which is exactly what Aaron would do."
She shook her head as she huffed. "If they put him on a fucking plane, he could be anywhere!"
Rossi nodded. "I know, Kiddo, but we'll find him."
"Maybe there is someone on Brian's contact list who is around that area. Would you be willing to go check them out if there is?" Sebastian asked.
She looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "Of course, I would! I'd do anything to find him! Fuck, I'd sell my damn soul to the devil if he'd tell me where Aaron is!"
Sebastian darted to her and covered her mouth with a firm hand. "Shush, child! Don't you dare say that out loud!" he told her and the desperation in his tone made Rossi take a step back as his brows shot to his hairline.
Kahlan shoved the vampire's hand away and then looked at him with wide eyes. "Wait? You mean that's a real thing?"
Sebastian winced. "Yes, but, Kahlan…" he uttered and then cringed because he could tell her mind was racing. He looked to Rossi. "David!"
Rossi shook his head and then moved to Kahlan and put his hands on her upper arms and locked eyes with her. "Kahlan Lavonne Hotchner, you are not thinking about…" he started, and as his eyes were searching hers, hers filled with unshed tears. He cringed. "Promise me, Kiddo, that you would never do such a thing!"
"But if it would lead us to him…" she uttered as her bottom lip quivered.
He shook his head. "That's your soul you're talking about, young lady!"
She licked her lips. "But…"
Knowing she would gladly sacrifice herself for her husband, he was frightened to his core that she would actually try something that extreme, but he also knew that telling her not to do it wouldn't get him anywhere. His whole frame softened, and then he pulled her to his chest and wrapped strong arms around her. "But you promised to spend eternity with Aaron, Kiddo, and you won't be able to do that if you have to give up your soul." He pushed her away enough to look her in the eyes. "And Hotchners don't break promises."
She sniffed and then shrugged. "Are you sure that losing my soul would matter?" She looked at the vampire expecting his input.
Rossi shook his head though and made her look at him again. "And what do you think that would do to Aaron? You do that, we find him, and then he finds out what you did… That would kill him, Kiddo, and you know it!"
"Even if you could make the deal to where the devil couldn't have your soul until you die, Kahlan," Sebastian put in, "it wouldn't help because you would technically die during the changing process. A deal with the devil is a no-win situation."
Her eyes flashed to the vampire and then back to the man she loved like a father, and then she wilted. "Alright."
He huffed and stared her down with his best impression of the Hotch stare, and she sighed. "I promise I won't try to sell my soul to the devil to find Aaron."
His eyes searched hers as his mind raced to try and find any loopholes in her promise, and after not finding any, he nodded as he smiled and then pulled her back in for another hug. "We'll find him," he assured her.
She nodded against his chest, and then Sebastian's head snapped towards the door. She pulled away from the profiler. "What?" she asked knowing the vampire had heard something she couldn't.
He smiled. "I just heard glass breaking. That vampire has finally thawed out enough to start moving. Charles's suggestion of putting that glassware on him was a rather nice trick," he told her and then stepped towards the door.
When both humans moved to follow him, he turned back and held up a hand. "I cannot allow you to go with me. That man was probably starving before he was frozen, and that hunger has grown as he laid there. Let us see to him first, please."
Kahlan nodded as she took a step back. "Yeah. Sorry, I didn't think about that. Be careful, though, please. Whoever that man is, he's not worth one of you three getting hurt."
Sebastian smiled. "You needn't worry, my dear. Even if he's older than Christian, he couldn't take all three of us."
"Alright," she told him, and he left to go see about the dark-haired man who had given the harvester such a hard time.
XXXXX
"On ye feet, ye filthy gits!" Red yelled as he ran his knife along the bars of the cage.
Hotch made it a point not to move too quickly trying to keep up the charade of just waking up, and he even moaned as he moved his shoulders.
Red's eyes fixed on him and he giggled. "Not to worry, git, I 'ave some'in planned that'll loosen ye right up," he told him as he unlocked the door.
Hotch mentally huffed as he got standing, and he shared a look with Copper. He could tell the faun didn't like that news any more than he did.
As Red went in and unlocked Hotch's chain from the ceiling, the two skeleton guards came down the passageway. Red grabbed Hotch's arm and shoved him towards the door. "Ye can wait out there!" he hollered and then grabbed the reptilian being.
He only took a few of the cell's occupants out and then relocked the door. While Hotch had no idea what they were going to do to the ones who had been taken out of the large cage, he was somewhat happy that the others were apparently going to get a break. His eyes caught Maxin's, and the older dwarf gave him a slight nod wishing him luck.
Copper had also been left in the cell, and he moved to the bars. "Where are you taking them?" he asked the leprechaun.
Red's eyes glowed crimson as he got close to the bars, and Copper backed up a step as Red smiled. "Some work needs to be done, but a rawny git like ye isn't going to cut it, but if ye really want to venture out, I'm sure I can find ye something to do or something to do ye!"
Copper's ear's wilted as he shook his head. "No, that's quite alright. I'll stay."
Red giggled. "That's what I thought!" He turned to the prisoners and pointed at the lizardman. "Take 'im and the bloodsucker to the lower tunnels," he ordered the four-armed skeleton and then looked at the other one. "And these two can go to the mill," he continued as he gestured to the goatman and Tucker.
Hotch looked at the lycan and his eyes shifted to the goatman in silent warning. Tucker understood and nodded as he took a deep breath.
The skeleton in charge of Hotch used two of his hands for each of his charges and then started them away from the cell as the other pointed his axe towards another passage which got them moving.
As Hotch walked along, his eyes took in everything. By the sounds assaulting his ears, he figured they were getting close to the pits, and he winced as he imagined all the horrible things that must be happening. After his jaunt into the labyrinth and seeing the monsters within it, he couldn't stop himself from imagining every horrible creature he'd ever seen or read about.
After a few turns, though, the path took on a downward slant, the temperature kept getting higher, and the sounds of activity faded. He frowned. Exactly how deep does this place go?
After walking for about ten more minutes and going through so many turns that Hotch was completely lost, they finally came upon a rockslide blocking their path. He glanced at the skeleton wondering if that was why they had been brought down there. He could see them making their prisoners do hard labor like that, but he flinched when the rock pile moved. Ok, maybe it doesn't need to be cleared.
Two huge creatures stood up. They were made from the same rock that the passageway was carved from, and the only way Hotch even knew they were indeed creatures was because they both had glowing, orange eyes.
"Finally," one of them said.
Hotch mentally winced because the deep bass of the thing's tone actually vibrated through his chest as if he was standing next to a powerful speaker.
The skeleton shoved both of its charges towards the rock creatures. "I'll be back for you if you're still alive," it told them and turned to go back down the passage.
Hotch swallowed and looked at the lizardman, but he looked as lost as Hotch felt.
"You," the other creature said as he pointed at the reptilian being. "You get in there," he told him as he pointed at a smaller passageway that led to the right, "and you," he continued as he pointed at Hotch, "get in there," he finished as he pointed to a passage on the left.
Hotch licked his lips as he stepped toward where the thing wanted him. "And why am I going in there?" he asked as he ducked down and glanced into the tunnel. He had no idea how far it went because it was pitch black.
"To clean out the gunyuns," the rock creature closest to him said as if it should have been obvious.
"Gunyuns?" Hotch asked as his eyes narrowed.
The other rock creature huffed. "They sent us these from the primary cage, remember, Tok," it said as it moved and picked up a cage and held it out towards Hotch.
The cage was made from rough wire, was about two-foot square, and full of little growling creatures. Hotch used rubbing his hand across his face as an excuse to hide the smile that popped out on his face even though he tried hard to keep it back. The little, furious sounding creatures had tiny bodies, two tiny legs, two tiny arms, and a big bulbous head that looked just like an onion. They also had two tiny, yellow, glowing eyes.
"These are gunyuns, and you two will get them out of the holes," the rock creature instructed.
Hotch swallowed and nodded as he took a step towards the tunnel, but the rock monster put a strong hand on Hotch's chest. Hotch looked down at the massive hand and froze because the hand was large enough to crush his head.
"Don't let their size fool you, puny man. They are rancorous!" it roared.
Hotch nodded. "Alright. Do I just catch them?"
The other rock creature rumbled as it shook and Hotch figured it was laughing, but he couldn't be sure. It grabbed an empty cage, jammed it into Hotch's chest, and then laughed some more. "You can try, puny man."
Hotch swallowed back the retort he so badly wanted to give as he took the cage and started for the tunnel.
They handed the lizardman another cage, and he started for his tunnel as the rock monsters laughed some more. "Or you could just eat them, if you're into that sort of thing," one of them hollered as Hotch ducked down and started into the dark.
Hotch took a deep breath, and after hitting his head on the low ceiling, he got down on his hands and knees and dragged the cage beside him. And exactly how am I supposed to find them in the dark? He sighed. I'm pretty sure they don't care if you can see or not, Hotchner. He shook his head and continued crawling.
He could feel the tunnel getting more and more narrow, and he wondered why Red had said that Copper was to small to take part in the work. He huffed. He'd fit in here better than I would.
Figuring that making him uncomfortable was part of the plan, he crept forward some more.
"And watch it, gunyuns are strong, especially for puny things like you two," came bouncing off the walls as one of the rock things yelled out.
Hotch huffed again. "They're shorter than the gnomes; how strong can they be?" he wondered to himself as he let his free hand glide along the ground in front of him as he tried to find his way.
When his hand brushed against something that was most definitely not rock, he froze.
Abruptly, both of his hands shot out in front of him because something had grabbed the chain that hooked his shackles together. Ok, they're pretty damn strong. He was able to catch himself before his nose hit the ground, thankfully, and he pulled his hands back as he sat up and leaned back.
A little grunt in front of him had his eyes searching, but whatever had ahold of the chain pulled again.
He winced and was suddenly afraid that something else beside the cute, little, onion creatures was in the tunnel. That'll be my luck!
Using all his back and leg muscles, he pulled his hands back, again. That time he heard whatever it was sliding on the loose soil of the tunnel, but he still wasn't sure what had ahold of the chain. And now I really wish I had a light!
He pulled some more, and then he heard a tiny growl as two yellow eyes appeared in the darkness before him.
His eyes grew. It's just one of them?! He shook his head and pulled some more. "Let go!" he demanded of the miniscule being.
The thing smiled, and the same yellow light that was coming from its eyes emitted from its mouth.
How can such a cute creature have such an evil smile? He took a deep breath and got his legs under him and pulled back with even more strength.
The little thing growled some more as it pulled against Hotch, but once it realized that Hotch was in fact stronger, it turned the tables and launched itself at the vampire with a mighty roar. The light coming from within the creature lit up all the tiny, pointed teeth lining both its upper and lower jaws, and they were aimed right at Hotch's face.
