Chapter 30.

H is laptop was in his knapsack in Melissa's office, where he must have dropped it when he'd been clobbered. Once he'd powered up the computer and connected to the Internet, he surfed to a Web site that had a host of webcam locations. Thinking out loud, Sebastian said, "It's been about half an hour. Given typical traffic, there's a few places he could be by now."

With Ryder looking over his shoulder, Sebastian checked three of the webcams, but there were so many Jeep Cherokees it was impossible to ascertain if one of them was Sloan's. "d.a.m.n. That model is way too popular."

Ryder's cell phone rang. After a look at the caller ID, he said, "It's Diana." Answering, he asked her, "Anything?"

Sebastian waited expectantly, hoping to hear some good news, but it was not meant to be.

"No tracking with the EZ-Pa.s.s. Sloan must have taken it off the windshield," Ryder repeated.

"So we have no clue where he's gone. But I know where we can get more information."

"No way," Ryder said to Sebastian. He explained to Diana about Sebastian's suspicions about the safe houses.

Ryder was silent while Diana spoke to him. Sebastian heard the low murmur of her voice on the cell phone. Finally, Ryder faced him. "She doesn't have that info in her file so she's going to call her friend. The one who got her the rest of the NSA info on Sloan. In the meantime, she and Daly are on their way to Sloan's brownstone and, if need be, to Westchester."

Sebastian nodded. A bad mistake. The room whirled and he had to grip the cushions of the sofa for stability. Taking deep breaths, he managed to control the nausea that followed. When he opened his eyes, it took a moment to focus again. "If her friend can't get the info-"

"We'll worry about that when it happens. In the meantime-"

"You need to get your van so we can head to Westchester."

Ryder nodded. "Diana thinks he's near the scene of the crash."

"I remember her mentioning once that most killings happen close to where the killer lives. Sloan might not live there, but he's got to have a place nearby. He knew the area. Where to have the car go off the road for the most damage." After he spoke, he brought up a screen with cameras that were located along the Saw Mill and other Westchester parkways. Again, the Jeep Cherokees were plentiful and the pictures were too grainy to see beyond the windshields of the vehicles.

"Anything?"

"Nothing." Sebastian looked up to see concern in Ryder's gaze. Ryder shot a quick glance at the windows. The sun was way too strong for him, Sebastian realized. With a quick peek at his watch, he confirmed it was just past noon.

"You can't go out to get the van."

Ryder cursed beneath his breath. "Can you get downstairs?"

Sebastian wasn't really sure of what he could do in his current condition. Just getting dressed in the scrubs Ryder had scrounged from a supply room had taxed his strength. But Melissa needed him. He would deal with his injuries.

"I can do whatever you need," he confirmed.

Ryder nodded and rose from the sofa. "I'm going to get the van."

"Are you sure?"

"I will do whatever I need to so Melissa is safe. Have your cell on. I'll call you when I'm downstairs or when Diana has news."

"I'll be ready," Sebastian said, but was certain that doing so might take all of his resolve.

Pacing himself, Sebastian managed to get his cellular modem set up on his laptop and pack the computer so he could meet Ryder, who'd called about ten minutes earlier to say he was on his way.

As he rose from the sofa, the ground beneath his feet wavered unsteadily, as if he were on the deck of a pitching ship. It was just his legs being wobbly from the blow to his head. If Ryder could head out into the noonday sun, Sebastian could somehow make it to the elevator and down to the lobby, even if he had to crawl.

He managed to get out the door and halfway to the nurses' station before a wave of dizziness a.s.sailed him. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall for support. Sweat bathed his body and nausea rose up again, stronger than before.

"Easy," he heard and a cool hand pa.s.sed over his forehead.

Opening his eyes, he realized Sara was slipping beneath his arm to offer support. "We need to get you back to the E.R. They've been wondering where you went."

"Can't," he said, his tone determined. "Need to get to Melissa."

"You can barely stand," Sara countered, but even as she did, she was busy walking him toward the elevator.

"Need a favor. Two actually." He asked her to help him down to the lobby, and to get some blood bags. He wasn't an expert, but Sebastian suspected Ryder would be weak after his exposure to the sun and might need to feed to recover.

Sara gave him a confused look. "Blood?"

"Please don't ask. If you're Melissa's friend-"

"I am," she confirmed. Once the elevator arrived, she helped him in, but then stepped away. "I'll meet you in the lobby."

Sebastian nodded and forced a smile. "Gracias."

"She's like a sister, sabes. I couldn't do any less."

The door closed on Sara, and Sebastian gripped the wall as the elevator began its descent to the ground floor. Luckily the movement was smooth, allowing him to maintain his faulty equilibrium.

When he reached the lobby, he slung his knapsack over his shoulder and gingerly made his way to the doors. Long minutes pa.s.sed with no sign of the van. Traffic was heavy on York, which didn't bode well for how it might be on the more well-travelled streets.

If traffic was like this all the way uptown...

He wouldn't think about the fact that every minute they lost was a minute Melissa came closer to harm.

He was so intent on looking for Ryder's van that he failed to notice Sara until she laid a hand on his arm. "I could only get two,"

she said, handing him her knapsack.

"That's great, Sara. It'll help." He took the bags from her.

Sara shook her head. "I won't ask how, but make sure she's safe, Sebastian."

He battled his natural inclination to nod and stiffly replied, "I will, Sara." There came a short honk, followed by another longer, more irritated one. Ryder, Sebastian realized. His van sat at the curb, but the windows were so tinted that it was impossible for Sebastian to see the vampire in the driver's seat.

"Let me help you out." Sara once again slipped under his arm, providing support as they went through the doors and out onto the sidewalk. At the curb, she steadied Sebastian as he climbed into the van.

Once he was seated, she was about to close the door when she looked at Ryder. "Are you sure you can drive? You don't look too good."

Sebastian glanced over at Ryder. Sara's comment was an understatement. Ryder was paler than usual and sweating profusely.

"Ryder?"

"I'll be fine. Let's get going."

"Are you sure?" Sara asked again. "I can drive."

Sebastian rea.s.sured her. "He'll be fine once he gets some fresh air."

Although she appeared unconvinced, Sara nodded and closed the door. Sebastian examined Ryder more carefully, worried about his condition despite his a.s.surances to Sara. "Will feeding help?"

Ryder leaned against his headrest. "Probably, but I didn't get a chance to get-"

"I did." Sebastian reached into the knapsack Sara had given him and pulled out the two blood bags. "Can you drive and feed?"

As Ryder saw the blood, he transformed instantaneously and hastily grabbed one of the bags from Sebastian's hand.

Sebastian was grateful for the heavy tint on the windows, which would keep pa.s.sersby from seeing the spectacle. Ryder sank his long fangs into the bag and greedily sucked down the blood. In less than a minute, the bag was empty. Ryder held his hand out for the second bag. After Sebastian provided it, Ryder drained the bag just as quickly.

Tossing the empty bags onto the floor of the backseat, Ryder leaned against the headrest and took deep bracing breaths. Blood stained the edges of his lips and his fangs were tinged with it, but as Ryder's breathing grew longer and steadier, the fangs slowly receded. When they were totally gone, Ryder licked his lips and turned to look at Sebastian.

Ryder's eyes still gleamed with an unnatural light and his look was a little too intense, making Sebastian worry that Ryder was sizing him up as a snack. "Thanks and sorry. It's been harder and harder to control myself lately," Ryder said.

"Well, try. I'm not dessert."

"I know," he answered, but there was an animal-like rumble to his voice that unnerved Sebastian.

Luckily, Sebastian's cell phone rang, breaking the tension of the moment.

"Sebastian? Where are you?" Diana asked. There was roadway noise in the background, making it difficult for him to hear.

"We're getting ready to head to Westchester," he answered, trying to hide his unease at everything that was happening.

It didn't fool his sister, who asked, "Are you okay?"

Taking a look at Ryder, who had yet to return completely to his human form, made him hesitate. At his prolonged silence, Diana questioned again, "Sebastian, are you okay?"

"Ryder went out into the sun." This time there was a long pause on the other end of the line. Sebastian heard her worried sigh before she asked, "Is he all right?"

"He had to feed. I-"

"He didn't feed off you, did he? You're all right, aren't you?" Her earlier concern for Ryder quickly changed to anger on Sebastian's behalf.

"He didn't, and as for me, I've got a whopper of a headache."

This time when she spoke, there was relief in her voice. "I was so worried about you."

"My concern right now is Melissa. Do you have anything yet?" he asked while checking out the roadways in the webcams he had accessed in the hope they'd spot a Jeep matching the description of Sloan's vehicle.

"Nada. Peter and I are still going through Sloan's papers to see if we can locate another address before we give up and drive to Westchester to scope things out. So far, we've got nothing and my contact came up dry."

"I've got my laptop with me."

Diana clearly knew where he was going with his statement. She also knew they didn't have time to delay if they had any hope of reaching Melissa before Sloan harmed her. Sebastian could almost hear her gritting her teeth and quite frankly, he had a sick feeling in his own gut about what he had just proposed. This laptop wasn't really prepared for serious hacking.

A moment later, she said, "Call me when you've got something."

He checked the modem on his laptop, trying to configure it for optimum performance. Not the best of transmission speeds, but he couldn't hope for better in a moving vehicle. They had no choice but to continue to move if they were going to make up the time Sloan had on them.

Concentrating on the screen was tough between the motion and the occasional bouts of double vision that a.s.sailed him. The double vision in turn triggered nausea so strong that Ryder had to pull over to the side of the road so Sebastian could vomit.

He was in rough shape, but couldn't let that stop him. He a.s.signed a spoofed IP address to his laptop and connected through a remote server, hoping it would be enough of a distraction, knowing it might not be if he took too long on the NSA network.

Racking his brains, he finally remembered the one user name and pa.s.sword, said a little prayer that it hadn't changed and was on the system within minutes.

Bringing up the database program, he cursed beneath his breath at how long it was taking to load thanks to the lower transmission speeds over the cell modem. If he lost the service...

He was sweating, counting the minutes until the log-in screen came on. Quickly he typed in the pa.s.sword and accessed Sloan's file. His memory was hazy as to where he had seen the addresses. He linked through all the different screens in Sloan's file until something at the bottom of one screen triggered a memory.

Sebastian couldn't wait to confirm if his recollection was right. He'd already been on way longer than he had been the last time.

Highlighting the text on the screen, he copied it onto his drive and, with a few keystrokes, saved the text.

Then he broke the connection with the NSA server and quickly disconnected from the modem access. His hands were shaking badly as it occurred to him what he'd just done and how insecure it had been. He'd had few of the protections Len had provided.

None of the ones he himself could have set up from home, given the time.

Time being something he didn't have. That Melissa didn't have. "Well," Ryder said, apparently realizing that Sebastian was no longer typing.

"Give me a second." He was suffering through another round of double vision and closed his eyes to avoid the nausea that was sure to follow. It took several minutes, but he was finally able to retrieve the text he had saved and scroll through it.

Sure enough, at the bottom of the entry was a list of multiple locations, two of which were in Westchester. "Bingo. Now to see where these puppies are," he said out loud.

Before reconnecting with the cell modem, he changed his IP address yet again. If the NSA was tracking him at that moment, he didn't want to use the same one as before. Once he had the new IP address in place, he got back online and plotted the locations on a map.

Holding the laptop up so that Ryder could see it as he drove, he asked, "Which one is closer to the crash site?"

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h." Ryder quickly motioned to one spot on the screen. "It's barely a mile away."

Nodding, which he instantly regretted from the pain it created in his head, Sebastian unjacked the cell modem from his phone and called Diana.

"We think we've got him."

Chapter 31.