“Sawyer,” he mumbled. He was too close, much too close. “I missed you and-”
“Leave it, Zander. I’m not doing this right now.” She didn’t look up at him. He was practically talking into her hair, so looking up would put their faces inches apart. “I just want to get clean, not talk about teenage hormones.”
“Alright, but we will.” He stepped away and went back to his room. She heard the click of a lock and sighed heavily.
“No, we won’t,” she whispered to herself.
She got everything ready as hot water filled the tub. She sank in and moaned happily. It wasn’t her tub with the jets, but damn, it felt good. A few candles that smelled nice and she would be in heaven.
She kept thinking about Zander, what he had looked like, and felt the itch that needed to be scratched. Oh, no. That was not okay. Elijah was one thing. She didn’t know him, and even that had ended up with her getting arrested.
Well, not arrested, but she was still a criminal stuck in a house full of IMPO agents.
She tried to think of anything or anyone else, but as she soaked in the tub, she only came to one realization.
They were all hot as fuck. She at least had fantastic eye candy for the remaining short existence she was going to have until Axel found her. She might even have a good time before it happened, as stupid of an idea as that was.
She did the only thing she could—she laughed until she cried.
She was so fucked.
She dipped her thick hair into the water and sighed as she surfaced. Twenty-four hours ago, she had been getting ready for another standard Friday Fight Night. She should have known LA and what happened wouldn’t just disappear, but she hadn’t been expecting this.
When she was done, she rose and grabbed a towel that she had waiting. She wrapped her hair first, deciding that it was too late in the evening to give it a blow dry. She dried the rest of herself and put on her clean clothes.
By the time she was back in her new room, it was nearly midnight. A howl rang out, and she looked out her window to see the woods beyond the house. When a second wolf joined, she raised an eyebrow. At the sound of a third, she realized that magic was involved in this. Wolves didn’t live in this part of the country, only coyotes, but those were definitely wolves out there.
The midnight serenade continued as she set her laptop up. She didn’t use the Wi-Fi for the house, instead she plugged in a USB with a program that allowed her to use the internet without being charged. She didn’t have a Facebook or anything like that, but she did have some things she needed to check out.
She typed in the address to the Dark Web site that she normally got her jobs from. She had avoided looking at it for a couple of weeks, but now it was time to see what was waiting for her out in the world, since she was no longer sheltered in New York.
She clicked through the chats, keeping an eye out for any names she knew. Then she stumbled on it. Talyn had been active in the last… twenty-four hours. Talyn was one of Axel’s closest… friends? She snorted softly at the thought. Axel didn’t really consider any of them friends, but the top, most trusted members did get special privileges and freedoms that Axel didn’t allow others.
She didn’t find anything interesting about his activity or posts. She ended up finding three other Ghosts from Axel’s inner circle as well, but none of them had much to their activity either. She closed her laptop and leaned back.
She grabbed the box of photos and immediately put it back down. She didn’t need to go through those tonight; there was no reason to see those memories.
She gave up on trying to be even remotely productive and moved to her bed. She didn’t know when she fell asleep, but eventually, the darkness claimed her. Like normal, it wasn’t peaceful.
She woke to something else in her bed. She could feel the weight of it, but she couldn’t identify the what… or who. She opened her eyes slowly and focused on what she could hear. Even breathing. A who, then. Which one of these assholes decided it was okay for them to get in her bed? How had she not woken up and noticed?
She rose slowly and went still when she saw her bedmate. Oh fuck. The dark gray wolf was obscenely large, and behind it was a smaller, lighter gray one. The smaller one lifted its head and watched her while the darker one just bared its teeth.
The intelligence in those eyes told her something important.
“Shade! Scout!” Quinn’s harsh voice yelled. Both wolves were up in a beat and ran for her door, leaving her in shock. She woke up to wolves in her bed. How did they get into the room?!
She started shaking a little as she got out of her bed. What. The. Fuck. She walked slowly to close her door, and took a long, shaky breath as she found clothes to wear. It was Sunday, so unless they had plans, she would be staying in sweats and a tank. She frowned. No, not sweats. It was too hot for that. She found some gym shorts and pulled those on instead, making sure to wear a bra this time before leaving the room.
She made her way downstairs, keeping a wary eye on the halls in case the wolves were back. The intelligence in the wolves’ eyes made it obvious they were bonded to a Magi, but she didn’t know the magic signature of the guys around her well enough to identify which one it was. Her first guess was Quinn since he had called them.
The guys were all sitting in the dining room, and sure enough, both wolves flanked Quinn with their own bowls on the floor.
“Good morning,” she said cautiously, her eyes on the huge wolves. “They were in my room when I woke up…” Quinn looked up to her and his ice-blue eyes narrowed.
“They sleep wherever they want,” he told her coarsely. “But I’ll make sure they know you didn’t appreciate it.”
“I just wasn’t expecting it,” she mumbled, sitting down in an empty chair. The guys all looked at her, and she looked around at all of them. Elijah’s brown hair was a tousled mess. Zander’s was even worse. Jasper and Vincent were the only two who looked put together in any way. Quinn looked the exact same as he had the day before, and she hadn’t seen him at dinner the night before. He was also still shirtless. So yeah, there was that. “No one told me there were wolves here.”
“They are Quinn’s bonded animals,” Vincent told her, holding a newspaper and looking at her over the top. “I have a raven, named Kaar. Oh, Quinn, remember how we were trying to guess her bonded animal?”
“Yeah,” Quinn mumbled, and Sawyer was beginning to wonder if his voice was just permanently that hoarse and harsh.
“She doesn’t have one.” Vincent put his magazine down. “Think there’s anything to that?”
“Odd,” Quinn whispered, continuing his sharp stare at her. She frowned at him, wondering what the fuck was going on between him and Vincent.
Animal bonding was such a Common ability. You also had no choice in the bond and the type of animal was completely random. An animal would see you and say, ‘that’s my Magi’. After that, there was nothing that could be done. The moment the animal made the decision, the Magi would feel the bond complete itself. Sometimes, exceptionally strong Magi would have more than one animal make the bond, which made her even more wary of Quinn with his two wolves. Strong predators were rarer as bonded animals. Most Magi had a bird, domesticated pet, or something small and common.
The real magic came in what Magi and their animals could do together. A Magi could feel the emotional currents of the animal or, when the Magi focused, he or she could look through the animal’s eyes. The animal’s life span lengthened to that of the Magi, and it would pass away when the Magi did. A bonded animal could get killed, though, and the Magi would be fine. If the bonded animal died, then a Magi could get chosen by another animal, though it might never happen.
She never got a second chance.
“I can imagine a few reasons.” He huffed, keeping her pinned with his stare.
She didn’t appreciate how much his eyes seemed to look into her, and she saw the moment he made his judgment of her. He didn’t elaborate on what he’d said. Vincent se
emed to accept it, and she just kept frowning.
“Speaking of powers,” Elijah yawned. “We need to tell you ours since we’ll be hanging around together and training you. You should know what you’ve got around in case you need anything. I’ll start. I’ve got four Common ranked abilities; enchanting, fire manipulation, animation, and telekinesis.”
“Cool.” She nodded slowly. “So, you can enchant an item and animate it? I bet you’re fun at parties.” Animating was exactly what it sounded like. Dancing brooms from that Disney flick? It was that.
“I am fun at parties but not because of my magic, darlin’.” He winked as he said it, making her roll her eyes. “Vin?”
“Hm.” Vincent took a drink of coffee, and Sawyer took the chance to fix herself a plate from the assortment on the table. “2 Common abilities, telekinesis and my animal bond. 2 Rare, petrification and sublimation.”
She stopped what she was doing, buttering a piece of toast, and met Vincent’s eyes. They both had sublimation and a second Rare ability. Her cloaking could stop him from petrifying her if push came to shove but he was the one she would need to be wary of when she tried to escape—after she convinced them to give her magic back to her.
The heavy mental weight of the bracelet became more apparent at the thought, reminding her of the missing, full connection to her Source. Damn inhibitors. It felt like an entire piece of her was missing, just out of reach, her fingers barely able to graze it, but not truly grasp it.
“I know Jasper’s and Zander’s,” she told them as Vincent started to point to Zander, who was blinking, half-awake for the conversation. “I was there for their Readings.”
“Good to know.” Vincent nodded and looked to Quinn, who glowered. He didn’t seem to like the idea of telling her what his magic was. “Quinn.”
Quinn bared his teeth at Vincent, and Sawyer felt a shiver of fear at the presence of the feral man. He behaved more like the wolves around him then the other people in the room.
“Earth manipulation, my animal bonds, naturalism, shape-shifting, and tracking.” Quinn gave her a grin, but there was nothing happy about it. It was threatening. She swallowed and realized her throat was suddenly very dry. She took a sip of water and hoped that Quinn wouldn’t be looking at her when she turned back.
“Tracking,” she muttered after two large gulps of water. Damn, he had a full set. Five abilities. No Magi ever had more than that, as far as anyone knew, except the Legends, who were a breed of their own.
“Tracking,” Vincent affirmed. He knew exactly where her mind had gone. They probably all knew what she was thinking.
Tracking was the Rare ranked ability. That made Quinn the worst person in the room in her opinion. He beat out Vincent by leaps and bounds. If he got his hands on any of her personal items, something that she touched regularly or held onto because of sentimental value, then he could literally find her anywhere on the planet. That was bad news for her, since it would be easy for him to get his hands on something sentimental to her.
It would be so easy for Quinn to make sure she never got free of them, magic or not. That meant she only had one plan left, and who knew how long that would take to pull off. She had to convince them that she didn’t need their protection.
“You see, Sawyer.” Vincent gave her a small smile, “I didn’t just build a team for capturing Axel. I built a team with very few weaknesses at all. All four elements, tracking, stealth, spying through our animal bonds. Jasper’s dream walking. Zander’s healing and shielding. Elijah’s enchanting.” He pointed to her bracelet. She looked down at it and then to Elijah, who shrugged.
“Yeah, I made it,” he told her, giving her a sympathetic smile. “I also enchanted the handcuffs, so they would work on you and only you. That way you couldn’t sleight of hand them onto one of us.”
“Well,” she tried to sound neutral, “fantastic.”
“You could just stop thinking about escaping,” Vincent offered, taking another sip of his coffee. “I mean, I know it’s a criminal’s natural instinct to run, but we’re doing you the favor here.”
“A favor would be letting me have my magic to protect myself,” she pointed out to him with a smile.
“We’ll think about it.” He went back to reading his newspaper after that. She looked to her old friends and Jasper gave her a nod. Zander only shrugged.
“So helpful, guys,” she muttered to them.
“Yeah.” Zander grinned at her. “Aren’t we just the best? Personally, I like the idea of you being stuck here for an indefinite amount of time. Jasper and I can now figure out why you dropped us out of your life.”
“Fuck you,” she told him plainly and started eating her breakfast. She didn’t drop them. Shit happened, and it hadn’t been a good idea to find them. They would never forgive her for any of it. “So, what’s the routine around here like?”
“We figured every day you’ll be with someone on the team, so we can get an accurate judge of your skills without your magic. We know what you can do with it, but we want to make sure you can hold your own without it. Weapons, firearms, and more hand-to-hand training.” Vincent told her without looking up from his reading.
Firearms? Disgust curled in her stomach for a moment. She detested them. If she wanted to kill someone, she would do it in their space, not from across the room like a coward. She opened her mouth to say something about Vincent forcing her to train in firearms, but Zander cut her off.
“Real martial arts, none of that nonsense, bar fighting you do,” Zander joked, and she raised an eyebrow at him, realizing he probably thought she was going to complain about more hand-to-hand training.
“I kick the shit out of wannabe MMA fighters all the time, Zander. Who here do you think is so good that I can’t win?”
“Me,” he told her, still smiling. She noticed that the idea of a fight brought him to life just like it did for her. His green eyes were blazing with the possibility of a little violence, and she could get down with that. There was something seriously wrong with them.
“Bring it,” she taunted, grinning and motioning for him to come closer with a finger. “Want to know why I’m going to win?”
“Why, little girl?” Zander leaned closer to her like she had wanted.
“Because I don’t need fancy-ass moves to put bodies on the floor.” She flicked his nose and he jerked back. “And I’m not afraid to fight a little dirty when it’s needed.”
Elijah was chuckling, and Jasper had a smile hidden behind his book. She kept her taunting grin, ready for anything Zander might have up his sleeve, but the fun was cut off.
“No fighting at the table,” Vincent commented, looking between them. Sawyer leaned back in her seat, distancing herself from the redhead.
“Yes, sir, Boss man,” she said with more sarcasm then she probably should have used. Vincent paid her no mind, but Elijah snorted milk through his nose.
“Is this going to be every morning with you?” he finally asked, wiping his face clean.
“Probably,” Zander chuckled.
She looked over at Jasper, still hiding behind his book and saw his shoulders shaking a little. He was holding back his laughter as well as he could.
“What are normal days like here?” She looked to Elijah and tried to ignore the quiet Quinn next to him.
“On weekends, we take time to ourselves.” Elijah ate a piece of bacon as he spoke. “During the week though, we all work out every morning together, starting with a five-a.m. run followed by two hours in the gym together. After that, we’ll separate to work on our own projects. We always meet for breakfast, but after that you can do whatever you want for meals.”
“Anything you want to do?” Jasper finally closed his book and put it on the table, watching her.
“I think I’m going to wander the property and see what you’ve got here.” She shrugged and began to push away from the table. “Also, Vincent, I’m not touching a gun, so you can free that time up for something else.”
; He frowned at her as she picked up her plate. She met his eyes and began to walk out of the dining room. They could drag her here, they could remove her ability to escape, but they would never make her budge on the guns. She wouldn’t use one, even in training.
She rinsed her plate as a chair scraped against the floor and footsteps came up to her.
“Why not?” Vincent asked, putting a hand on the counter next to the sink. He kept his chest to her. She took a moment to admire that chest. He was a good-looking man, even if he did reek of the same control-freak nature as Axel.
“Because I don’t fucking like them,” she snapped. Because she’d been shot before.
“That’s too bad for you,” Vincent snapped back. She bared her teeth. “Make this fucking easy on both of us and suffer through it.”
“No,” she told him with finality. With a curse, he slammed a fist on the counter top in frustration. Something about the gesture startled the hell out her, making her jump nearly out of her skin.
It was something Axel would do.
She closed her eyes and tried to fight the flashback creeping up on her. She tried to remember where she was and who she was with.
“Sawyer…” Vincent sounded concerned, and his voice was different from Axel’s. Deeper. It brought her back from a moment. “Sawyer, are you okay?”
“Just… go the fuck away,” she mumbled. “Even better, I’ll go.”
She turned and left, her blood cold. Adrenaline pumped through her system, and she took a deep breath as she pushed out onto the back porch and into the yard.
PTSD was a wicked thing, she knew that. With so much going on, she should have realized it would be easy for things to set her off—especially Vincent. He had reminded her so much of Axel in that moment.
She had been having a fairly decent morning. She rubbed her face for a moment, standing in the sun, hoping the heat would sink to her core.
“Sawyer?” Jasper’s voice reached out to her. She turned and sighed to see him standing on the back porch. She curled her toes in the grass and wondered when she had decided being barefoot was a bad thing. She used to love being barefoot in the grass as a kid, and somewhere along the way, she had stopped searching for the beautiful feeling of it.
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