“Stop that man!” Jasper roared, running forward. Zander could only follow as they saw more and more agents turn on their brothers to protect Axel’s people.
32
Sawyer
It took Sawyer two minutes to make the last portion of their journey to Axel’s Villa as the world began to explode into drama around her. Vincent was sublimated next to her, in her, around her. It was like that first time they truly trained together. They hadn’t done this since, but it felt good now, not uncomfortable. She could practically judge how he was going to move before he did and vice versa. They were one entity, directing and pushing each other to their goal.
They went into the first window they could find and reformed, jumping the two people they found there as water flew out of the walls. She knew Zander had planned on doing a lot of damage, and Quinn’s earthquake hadn’t helped, but she hadn’t expected all of this. Then again, with so many Magi in a fight, everything was fair game. The building probably wouldn’t be standing by the end of it.
Sawyer spared no time in knocking the guard unconscious without ever giving him a chance to fight back. Looking over, she saw Vincent had done the same.
“Good job,” she told him, nodding in appreciation. “We need to deal with Felix first. Axel is going to keep him very close, thinking I’ll focus and kill him but leave Felix again.”
“Of course. We’ve gone over this.” Vincent straightened up, leaving the guard crumpled and sleeping on the floor. She followed him out of the room, silent and ready. There was so much magic in the air, she had the nagging suspicion that while she couldn’t feel Axel exactly, he couldn’t feel her either.
Maybe there was a chance she never needed Naseem. She would have to send him a gift basket or something full of contraband as an apology.
They found three more guards and Sawyer used a hand gesture to tell Vincent to hide. He stepped behind an open door, pressed against the wall. She cloaked and continued to sneak closer. She hit the first one right to the temple, not hard enough to kill, but enough to drop him without any resistance. She had to judge the strength of that perfectly. She hoped she had, not wanting to disappoint Charlie if she failed.
The next two looked around wildly, trying to pinpoint her. She kneed one in the balls when he turned towards her without realizing, sending him to the floor in agony. The third she grabbed by the shirt and slammed into the wall.
Vincent was by her side right after that and they kept moving like it never happened. Simple enough. They were both Magi who were born for this sort of infiltration work. She hoped Vincent’s petrification came in handy during this as well.
Deeper into the large Villa they went. They could hear utter destruction outside and the earth shook dangerously, proving Quinn was up to something, and probably upset.
“Vincent?” Worry ran through her.
“I don’t know. Let’s hope he’s maintaining control,” her lover answered. “I’m worried about him too. Elijah is the best for him, though.”
“I know,” she murmured, nodding. Elijah would know how to keep their wolf from going too far. Keeping Quinn from crossing that line, since he was so powerful, was so important.
They had to move quickly. The IMPO teams were there now, making a ruckus and being a major distraction to allow Vincent and Sawyer to sneak in. Sawyer continued to keep her mind focused on finding Axel’s magical signature. The calm, coolness of it. She had grown cold in response. So long ago, he would make her a little chilled, but when everything went to hell, she realized being cold was so much easier than being hot. It was easier to shut down.
But not tonight. Tonight, she didn’t want to be cold and controlled. She wanted to feel everything.
So she held nothing back, letting her magic leak and leave her, filling the halls. It wasn’t as chilled as normal. She was going after a man who had made it chilled. Maybe one day, it would be warm like the sun.
“Sawyer?” Vincent frowned at her, obviously curious about what her magic was doing. She needed to come up with an excuse to and found one.
“Your magic has always been very subtle. Maybe I can mask it with my own. He’ll only think it’s me.”
Vincent nodded. The reasoning she offered was accepted. Honestly, she was glad she figured that out as quickly as she had - and it was solid. If she kept Axel focused on her, Vincent would be an unknown, able to sneak around her and detain him.
Finally, she found Axel and another Magi, realizing it must have been Felix. They were moving quickly around a room, almost frantic and scattered. She paused in front of the door she felt them behind and held up a hand for Vincent to stop. He followed the order without question.
She pushed the door open, sparing not even a second to slow and blinked forward, elbowing Felix in the jaw and sending him flying back into a chair. Within another second, earth tried to grab her leg, breaking up from the floor beneath her. She blinked away from it and turned to find Axel on the other side of the room, his eyes wide, then turning angry. She blinked for him and tried to slam a fist into his face as she felt the subtle magic of Vincent come into the room as well.
Her fist met a shield, crunching hard against the unbreakable force. She bit back a yelp of pain and tried again as Axel swung an untrained fist for her as well.
Now she had training, though, and threw up her left arm to stop the hit. She didn’t know how to get through his shield, and until she did, handcuffs would be ineffective, unable to touch skin.
“So you’ve come for me!” he taunted, shoving her back while she tried to judge how to deal with him. “I would say I’m surprised, but I’m not.”
“You set this up,” she reminded him. “You made this easy.”
“I did.” He smiled as more of his guards came into the room. She counted five, but there was a chance more were on the way. “And I knew you were bringing in the IMPO, but good try. You think most of them would help you? I own Rome.”
She kept his focus as Vincent slowly moved behind him in sublimated form. Then the smoke stopped and began to slowly come apart.
“SAWYER!” Vincent’s roar of pain screamed and echoed in her head.
“No!” she gasped. “Axel, stop, you’ll kill him. He’s your brother.” She had to stop that. Maybe trying to reason with him. She didn’t think it would work, but it was the first thing that came to mind.
“Maybe he shouldn’t have been fucking you, then,” Axel snapped, a vicious, angry look on his face. It was heartless and bloodthirsty.
And she wouldn’t tolerate another Castello dying to this man. They were all doing good except for him.
She roared, ignoring the guards coming for her, and jumped for Axel. She connected hard enough to slam him into the wall and she felt it. The shield cracked.
Every ounce of rage she felt in every nightmare consumed her as she beat into his shield at his chest, cracking it further and further, while Vincent reformed, gasping for his life. She knew the feeling.
A guard, maybe two, grabbed her and threw, sending her to the floor. She jumped up quickly and felt the shield slam around her and the guards that were turned to her. She blocked punches and threw her own. She dodged swords, pulling her daggers to match steel with steel. She fought hard. Suddenly, Vincent was at her back, kicking one away from her.
“He’s shielded us in here with them! We need to take them out, then break the shield if we want to follow him and Felix!”
Sawyer growled, this time burying a dagger into the side of a man. They were out to kill her and she needed to keep alive in the pit of death Axel had made. This was pure fighting now. She tried to keep the injuries to a minimum, but in the end, it was her or them.
She wanted it to be her. Her and the guys. She wanted a fucking tomorrow.
Axel knew just how to fuck with her, that was for sure.
Finally, the last one dropped and she leaned on Vincent, looking down at them.
“None of them are dead. I can feel IMPO agents, and maybe some of the team,
coming our way. We need to break this shield and run after him. Kaar is keeping over him, watching where he’s going.”
“He won’t have gotten too far, I think.” She had a feeling this was about to be a hunt in the dark of the olive trees. They just needed to get the fuck out of the shielded bubble they were in.
33
Jasper
Fury raged in Jasper as he took down the first traitor he saw. The one who stabbed another and was going for the kill. He pulled his gun and fired quickly into the man’s abdomen, with no sympathy.
Without missing a beat, he jumped up and kicked down at the man’s head with his fake foot, knowing the impact would either knock him out or kill him.
Jasper had wanted to do this nicely, but he didn’t have it in him to spare traitors. Not today. Not when his teams’ freedom from this shitshow of an organization and world was nearly in their grasp. He wasn’t going to let these people stop them from having a tomorrow.
It solidified his need to fix this. To make these people see justice before they could kill their allies, the other men and women who relied on them. One day, he was going to lead the damned charge against people like them.
“Who else? What other fucking agents want to get dirty?” he demanded, looking around at the chaos. First it was Jon, who betrayed them to Axel hoping he could get the glory of catching the criminal. Then it was the WMC, sending the team to the Amazon. Then an agent who Jasper only wanted to forget. That one who was helping Suarez. The one who caused the accident that nearly killed Elijah and stabbed Vincent.
“I got you, boy,” someone growled. Jasper spun to see an angry, grinning man come for him.
“Why?” he asked, narrowing his eyes on the other man.
“He pays better.”
Such a callous, awful answer. There wasn’t even a higher motive. Just money. Just an opportunity.
Jasper charged him, calling up the wind to help him knock the other man to the ground, who quickly shielded to protect himself from the impact. Somewhere in the background, another vehicle went up in flames.
They fell together, rolling in the dirt and punches were thrown. Jasper was able to get the upper hand and threw a punch down on the opposing agent. He was kneed and thrown off. Suddenly there was more than one opponent. A boot connected against his ribs and sent him down before he could completely regain his feet. Another boot slammed against his head and he pulled it. He called the wind again, whipping it up like a tornado and pulled it over him, shoving them back, hopefully sending them flying.
He stood up slowly and sent the tornado at the first, the one who admitted that money was the reason. He sent it crashing into the man and it threw the traitor nearly twenty yards from him. Next, Jasper pulled on his magic and created an illusion, one that would only affect certain people. He marked those he could see for everyone else, making their black uniforms look red.
And he grinned at the shock they had when they were caught sabotaging their allies.
He was stopped by a hit to the back, someone tackling him down. He struggled, looking for his sidearm and finding it gone. So was his sword. With his fake leg, he kicked at his attacker, causing a scream as bone broke underneath his steel reinforced and magically enhanced leg.
Then there was a rumble in the earth that continued to grow. A howl broke through the sounds of everything else.
“No.” he gasped, hoping it didn’t mean what it possibly could. Quinn had run off since Scout got hurt.
The earth cracked open in places, swallowing entire groups of people and pulling them under, including the one Jasper was trying to get away from.
And a howl continued through it.
“No!” Jasper screamed, scrambling to stand up and run for the rest of his team. He could barely see through the smoke billowing off the wreckage. He saw people struggling to not get swallowed by the earth. He stopped to pull an ally out, patting the man on the shoulder once before continuing his hunt for his team.
He found Elijah first, still and pale as he also must have realized what possibly happened. Behind the cowboy was an agent, blade drawn and raised.
Jasper didn’t have time for that. He sent another blast of wind at the man, causing him to fly back into an SUV ten feet away. Something then forced Jasper to the ground, probably another another Magi with air manipulation. He didn’t even care, only forcing himself up and ignoring the assault. He needed to get to Elijah, who was trying to get up himself, knocked down from the side of Jasper’s attack.
“Elijah! Where is he?” Jasper called. The cowboy turned, looking relieved to see him, but the paleness didn’t leave.
“I don’t know! I have no idea if that was about Scout. I think that’s Shade’s howl, since Quinn can’t use his other abilities in wolf form.”
“If we find Zander, we might be able to help him!” Jasper couldn’t believe one of the wolves was gone. Not yet. There had to be a chance. Quinn would break without one of his boys. The team couldn’t tolerate that sort of loss.
Jasper didn’t know anything was coming until a massive black blur flew by and slammed into a screaming man behind him. He turned, almost in slow motion to find Sombra snarling and tearing into a man, looking feral and uncontrollable. She even snarled up at Jasper when he held a hand out.
“Where’s Quinn?” Elijah asked the feline.
Sombra tilted her head and turned, taking off.
Jasper cursed. They needed Zander. “ZANDER!” he screamed out.
“HERE!”
Jasper tried to locate the sound and finally found a peek of flaming red hair in the smoke. He took off for the healer and grabbed him once he was close, pulling him away from an agent with minor injuries.
“Stop healing him, we need you!”
“Who?”
“I think it’s Scout.”
He watched something dawn on Zander’s face, putting the pieces together. “Fuck. Let’s go.”
Together, they both hauled ass, Jasper leading the way, locked onto Elijah’s Source, hoping to follow the hot trail of magic the cowboy left.
They found Quinn holding Scout close, fifty yards from the rest of the fight. Elijah staggered as he stopped, shocked still by the sight.
Jasper didn’t stop though, unable to. He and Zander passed the heart-broken and worried cowboy and went straight for the feral Magi, who snarled viciously at them.
“We’re here to help,” Jasper said calmly. “Quinn, let us help.”
“I can heal him,” Zander promised. “Please, Quinn, let me heal him.”
“He’s going to lose the leg,” Quinn finally said, his voice rough and broken. “And he’s so hurt. Some cunt tried to crush him. She tried to kill him. She laughed.”
“Where is she?” Elijah asked, his voice full of retribution and pain.
“Dead. I stopped her magic to save him, but he’s so hurt. He’s so hurt. It’s bad. It’s so bad. I...I felt all of it.” Quinn’s eyes looked lost and confused. Jasper had a feeling he was swimming in pain. “He…he shut the bond down.”
“What?” Jasper didn’t know what that meant. The animals could do that?
“Let me heal him, Quinn,” Zander murmured, kneeling next to the man and his brother, a wolf who had been with him for so long. Jasper looked back to Elijah, who raised a ring of fire around them. Jasper built it up, sending sweeping gusts of oxygen to it. No one would interrupt them fixing a family member. He knew Sawyer and Vincent would understand if they were late. He just hoped they would be able to control themselves until the team caught up.
Jasper reached out and ran a hand over Quinn’s head, letting his fingers go through his hair. “Talk to me. Talk to me while Zander works.” He needed to comfort his friend, and the best way to do that was distract him. Especially since Zander pulled out a long knife that Elijah was working to heat up, causing it to turn a little orange.
“I can’t lose him,” Quinn mumbled. “He’s alive. I can feel that, but he won’t give me anything else. I didn’t know he c
ould do this. I didn’t know. I would have let them stay home. To keep them safe, if I thought they would get hurt. I can’t put them in danger like this. I can’t-”
“Sh…” Jasper wrapped his arm over the feral Magi’s shoulder as Scout yelped, cried, and whined, trying to move away thanks to the swift and hard blow Zander gave him.
In one swift, awful moment, Jasper suddenly wasn’t the only family member with a missing limb. Scout was going to be a tripod if he lived through this.
Once it was done, Elijah was there, carefully cauterizing the wound as Zander began to pour magic into the small wolf.
34
Elijah
Elijah’s heart broke in an instant when he saw Quinn over Scout’s body, not realizing the wolf was alive. It broke again when Zander did the deed and removed the shattered and ruined leg before it could cause the wolf more problems.
His heart broke a third time as he heard Scout whimper and cry out as he helped Zander do what he could. Elijah figured if he could stop the bleeding with some heat and close the wound that way, Zander could repair internal damage. It was a gambit, a long shot, but he couldn’t let his favorite man lose his wolf. No one on the team would ever forgive themselves if they lost Scout. None of them.
He didn’t even stop his work when Sombra suddenly appeared next to him, smelling like smoke. He wondered if she jumped through the fire. He also wondered why she was with them and not her Magi. Sawyer had truly left her feline to fight battles and help them, a silent protector.
When he was done and it was all up to Zander, he sat back, letting the big cat press up against him. He rubbed her back, leaning into her as well, knowing she would send this back to Sawyer. That was a comfort unto itself. He hoped her hunt was going well. He hoped they were done and had Axel in custody for what would come.
Finally, Zander leaned back, revealing his face to them again. Elijah didn’t like how washed out he was, the dark circles already forming under his eyes. Zander’s magic wasn’t deep. He couldn’t do so much of it, which was why he pushed so far past it all the time. He would need a month to rest.
A Night of Redemption (The Redemption Saga Book 5) Page 32