Page 90 of Whispered Warnings: Part Two

“Is there a training academy over here?” I ask curiously.

Van shakes his head, “No, the one we have is the one that trains every agent. They come from all over the world to train.”

My eyes widen, “Wow, I had no idea.”

“It’s pretty cool,” Van replies.

River gets the conversation back on track when he says, “Hopefully, this is a one off and not the start of something. Maybe they were testing how quickly we would respond and thanks to Neith’s connections we found out about it a lot sooner than we would have otherwise.”

“Yeah,” Van replies. He then changes the subject as he adds, “The weather is looking really shitty out there, so we need to wrap up as warm as possible. I’ve had a look on the maps, and we might have been able to get up to the little stone cabin that Libby mentioned in one of our trucks, but we’re definitely not going to make it up there in the van, so we’re going to have to head up the last bit on foot.”

I glance outside at the dark grey skies, the wind whipping through the trees and the rain that is beginning to fall, and I’m suddenly wishing that I had stayed in bed.

“Oh, this is going to be miserable,” I mutter.

“Yep,” Reed agrees, looking out of the window and grimacing.

“I think that’s probably why House decided to make us breakfast,” Raiden says with a familiarity that he didn’t have yesterday, and it makes me wonder whether he actually got some sleep last night or whether he spent it talking to House and asking lots of questions.

I nod in agreement, “Yeah, probably.”

We all finish breakfast reasonably quickly and then reluctantly grab all the warm weather gear that we’re going to need, and I grab Betty. This is one of those times that I can actually take her with me. Asael must have forged a friendship with Betty because he doesn’t decide to stab me, and his magic doesn’t stir either when I pick Betty up and not him. Which, I’m grateful for because it would be difficult to carry them both with me and still be vigilant in the unlikely case that there’s a hybrid hiding out in a little stone cabin on the edge of the Irish moors.

I drive again since I know the roads and the ones that we will be traveling to get to the stone hut are small little lanes. I sort of know where I’m going up to a point and then I’m relying entirely on Evander’s navigation skills in order to make sure that we don’t get lost. It takes about an hour of the weather worsening and the windshield wipers going mad trying to keep up with the onslaught of rain before Van says that we can’t go any further and that we’re going to have to go the rest of the way on foot.

“Are you sure that we are in the right place?” Ransom asks as he looks out of the window with a grimace.

“There’s absolutely nothing out there apart from grass and rocks, really big rocks,” Raiden adds.

“Ooo, sheep!” River exclaims, looking out of the window and pointing like he’s never seen one before.

I chuckle. River’s enthusiasm always makes me smile.

Evander sighs, “Yeah, unfortunately, this is the place that we need to go. At least it means if he is at this stone cabin, he’s going to be less likely to see us approaching.”

“True,” Griff mutters.

“Alright, come on you lot. Let’s get this over with,” I say, as I zip up my jacket, pull up my hood, and grab Betty, getting out of the van.

I immediately regret it. The rain is immediately trying to find a way into my jacket and the wind is sharp, instantly freezing my face. Why don’t they make nose warmers? They should totally make nose warmers for situations like this, I would buy one.

Wait.

Scarfs, you can pull them up over your nose so it’s not cold, and probably doesn’t look as odd as wearing something that only covers your nose, but what if only your nose is cold? I ponder it for a moment, yeah, I would still wear a nose warmer.

“Why are you nodding?” Raiden asks curiously as we start walking, all following Van’s lead.

“Nose warmers,” I reply. “I would definitely wear one.”

Raiden sort of just stares at me for a moment, and I realize just how crazy that probably sounded, considering he can’t hear what is going on in my head. Thank fuck he can’t hear what’s going on in my head.

“Well, okay then,” he replies with a smile.

There isn’t really any more chance to talk after that as we battle the elements in our attempt to find the stone hut. I do scowl at Van regularly as he makes the water droplets flow around him instead of soaking him through, show off.

Finally, it comes into view. It’s tiny, most likely only one room. It still has a roof, and I’m surprised that the two windows that it has seem to be still intact. There is no cover here; we can’t approach it particularly stealthily, and it’s clear that there is only one entrance and, therefore, only one exit. The windows are tiny, I would barely be able to fit through them, so a shifter, vamp hybrid definitely won’t be able to.

It’s either going to work in our favor because it means that we are going to be able to trap the hybrid if he’s in there, or another way to look at it is that we’re going to be in a confined space with a very dangerous hybrid. I think that it’s pretty unlikely that there is anyone in here. None of the hybrids last very long, and we have no idea what the timeline for his kidnap and then subsequent release was, but it is safe to say that he has most likely reached the end of what is normal or as close to normal as it gets for these hybrids.

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