She wasn’t able to get to him, though. They had shields around them, and she growled, solidifying. Talyn and Axel both gave her quick glances, and Talyn tossed her a gloating smile. She would need to find a way for someone to take the shield down.
“You,” Felix hissed. She turned to him, and gave him a bored look.
“Me,” she told him blandly. Felix wasn’t much of a threat. He could cloak and create small illusions. She was never sure why, out of all the powerful people Axel surrounded himself with, Felix was included. “What of it?”
“This is all your fault,” he murmured, looking a bit sad. Sawyer considered going after him but thought against it. He seemed… out of the fight. Lost. “Axel was going to be the ruler of this world until he got you. You couldn’t just fall into line though, could you?”
“I’m not the one who started all of this.” She gestured around the hangar. She could barely speak with any strength. The fighting was going to bring the building down if things kept up. It wasn’t her scene. She liked the quiet, dark fights more than chaotic battles. “Axel didn’t need to come after me again.”
“You know, he was never able to get over you,” Felix sighed. “Learning you weren’t dead after it hurt him so much to have to kill you…”
“Pushed him over the edge?” Sawyer glared at him. “I’ve noticed, and that fucking says something.”
“Yeah,” Felix mumbled, and then he disappeared. She knew he’d cloaked and did the same so that he couldn’t stab her while she was trying to find a way in Talyn’s shields. Felix was a bit of a coward, and she figured he was running for it.
She turned back to Axel and Talyn. Toni was fighting with Vincent and losing to him, while the other team members where taking on Axel and his buddy. Axel was losing and, by the look on his face, he knew it.
She blinked over to Quinn, dropped the cloak, and stumbled behind the wall of earth he had raised in defense before a fireball took her head off. It was just some errant shot, probably from Talyn. She was almost positive it wasn’t actually aimed at her. Almost.
“You need to crush their shields hard enough that I can get through,” she gasped, holding her ribs. Fuck they hurt.
“Are you sure?” Quinn glanced at her.
“Crush Talyn’s,” she groaned. “I’ll kill him, and then you only need to deal with Axel. Vincent can handle Toni.”
“Knock him out,” Quinn whispered. “We could use a Vampyr in custody. We don’t know enough about them.”
“Fine,” she hissed. Of all the fucking things he could be worried about. “I’ll not mortally wound his ass. Promise.”
“Get ready,” Quinn yelled, and she watched sweat break out on his forehead. This was the strongest Magi in North America, but she had no idea-
The ground rumbled like a fucking earthquake hit. She stumbled as beams fell from the ceiling and crashed down on the shields that had been raised over most of the combatants.
She knew the moment Talyn was vulnerable. A Vampyr didn’t have the same type of Source as a regular Magi. They had to use their Source to steal portions of another Magi’s. They could also steal directly from someone’s life force, making them immortal if they chose to be. They were the only type of Magi who had to steal their abilities from others, though. This limited how much magic they could use. They could burn out the portion of Source they had stolen and be useless until they could steal from someone else. They were born with the… problem, the poor bastards.
Talyn didn’t have the magic left to create another shield, and Sawyer wanted to laugh when Axel didn’t shield him.
“Axel!” Talyn looked terrified, and Sawyer blinked forward, connecting her fist to his jaw. He staggered back a couple of feet and gave her a fearful look. The Ghosts didn’t like her; they never had. With good reason. She had always been strong enough to kill most of them in one-on-one fights. Only Axel had outdone her in sheer magical power. Missy had always beaten her in hand-to-hand, until tonight.
“Talyn,” she crooned, ice in the word. She resisted the urge to cough more. She could barely breathe, but that wasn’t going to stop her from doing this.
“Shadow,” he hissed. She saw a lick of fire appear in his hand. Such a waste of power. He could have grabbed any of the fire from around the hangar bay, but instead he wasted power creating it. Dumb fuck. Talyn was never that good at using others’ powers. Wasteful.
“He’s not going to save you,” Sawyer scoffed. “He’s not going to be able to save himself.”
“You getting your magic definitely tipped the fight out of our favor, but-”
“No buts.” Sawyer used her left hand and wagged a finger at him. “I’m not losing to you all a second time.”
She threw her knife to the ground, letting in embed itself into the concrete. She grinned and blinked forward, giving Talyn no chance to dodge the three punches she delivered to his abdomen. She pushed the hand with fire in it away, breaking it backwards at the elbow and causing Talyn to scream as she kneed his gut. Then she backed away and delivered a strong kick to his knee, breaking it as well. She loved taking their legs out. She was beginning to notice a pattern with her behavior, but she did it for a reason.
People couldn’t fight when they couldn’t stand.
Talyn dropped to the floor in agony, and she spun, delivering a roundhouse kick to the side of his head. He was silenced, crumpling on the floor. She half hoped the kick had killed him.
She stopped and swayed for a moment as she saw Vincent incapacitate Toni. Finally. Took him long enough. She snorted. Amateurs, all of them.
Her mind drifted for a moment. He was pretty glorious, darker than Axel, as he had sublimated in and out of the fight. She found that impressive, even if he should have been done with Toni much faster. They were all glorious, these misfit guys and their secrets. She wasn’t mad at them in that moment. Fuck it. She kept secrets, so they were allowed to, as well. Her kids in New York were safe and would remain so. Axel wasn’t getting out this time. The Ghosts who could escape were just going to hide. She looked around a little.
Only Felix. Only Felix was going to get away. Poor sod.
She began walking, though it was more of a stagger, over to Vincent when a sharp pain erupted in her stomach. She saw his eyes go wide and his face pale.
“Vincent?” she mumbled, confused at Vincent’s expression. She turned to Axel, whose final shield broke at that moment, and he began to laugh.
“I won’t lose to you,” Axel snarled with a grin as the team over-powered him, sending him into the ground. “Not to you.”
She looked down.
Her own dagger was hilt-deep in her stomach. Blood gushed out of the wound, and she didn’t bother worrying anymore. Her guys were alive, and he lost. That was all that mattered. She yanked it out and dropped it to the floor.
25
ZANDER
The fight was chaos. Zander whipped water to put out the fires that weren’t under Elijah’s control. He kept throwing shields over all of them except Quinn, who was farther from the group than Zander could manage. That didn’t worry him. Quinn was more than capable of handling himself. If Zander didn’t know better, he would say that Quinn was holding back so he didn’t accidentally kill all of them.
Then he saw her. He’d never thought ‘born to kill’ was an apt description for anyone or anything, but there she was.
She shoved a knife in Colt’s back, not a single bit of emotion on her face. He could feel her magic slice across the room in cold, deadly rage as Colt’s body dropped. Then she was gone again, a black smoke creeping into the background of the fight. He was stunned for a moment too long, and the shield around Elijah and him shattered.
“Zander!” Elijah yelled at him. “Get your fucking head in the game!”
He threw up another shield right before a tornado of fire ran them over. They needed to end one of those fuckers. He had no idea that there were two Magi with the Mythic control over all four elements. True elementals like them wer
e normally born once in a century. They had known about Axel, but the other guy was an unknown.
The fight continued until Quinn nearly brought the building down on them with a surge of magic that Zander couldn’t comprehend. That mother fucker was holding back. Dick head.
He heard Jasper scream.
“Hold on!” Zander screamed, running for him. He dove for Jasper as Quinn threw up a rock wall between him and Axel. Zander didn’t have time to send a thank you as he immediately began looking over Jasper.
Fuck.
“Jasper,” Zander snapped urgently. “Jasper, your leg.”
“Oh, fuck,” Jasper groaned, looking down.
“I…” Zander held on to what was left of Jasper’s bad leg. A piece of the ceiling had shattered the shield Zander had been holding over Jasper and landed on his leg, breaking it and completely crushing everything from the knee down.
“Fuck,” Jasper moaned, falling back. Zander caught him and knew his friend was going into shock.
“Jasper, look at me,” Zander growled hoarsely. “Look at me!”
“The fuck do you want?” Jasper growled, glaring at him.
“For you to stay calm.” Zander hoped Jasper would listen. Zander didn’t have the power to save Jasper’s foot or leg. It wasn’t something any healer could fix, no matter how powerful they were. “We’ll make it through this.”
“Sawyer got the other guy out of the game!” Elijah roared. “We got this! Axel is going down!”
“See?” Zander wanted Jasper to listen, to ignore the injury for just a moment longer.
They had called for a fuck-ton of backup on their way over. Where the fuck were they?
“Go finish it,” Jasper groaned, falling back again. Zander let him this time. The injury wasn’t fatal, but Zander just couldn’t save it. Jasper wasn’t going to end the day with both of his legs. “I can still…”
Jasper passed out. Well, Zander used his magic to knock him out completely, so he wouldn’t freak out later. They just needed to over-power Axel, and then everything would be over.
He rejoined the fight and began sending torrents of water into Axel’s shield. It was cracking, and Axel was growing desperate, trying to fight them all off at once.
Once the shield was close to breaking, he watched Axel swing a hand out and grin at something.
He stopped, confused for a moment by what Axel was doing. He turned to Sawyer and Vincent, standing on the other side of the hangar bay. He watched in horror as Sawyer pulled the dagger out her own gut and dropped it to the floor.
He couldn’t breathe as she collapsed. He couldn’t hear anything as his vision tunneled in on the woman he’d loved for over a decade.
“SAWYER!” Zander roared, running for her. She was down. She couldn’t be down. Not after everything. Not after all of this.
Axel had, in a last-ditch effort to take one of them out, used his telekinesis to send the knife Sawyer’s way. She hadn’t been paying attention, distracted and a little out of it from her injuries. Zander had known she was already injured. She’d been swaying on her feet since they’d shown up. He hadn’t had the chance to help her at all.
“Sawyer,” he gasped, sliding to a stop by her body. He rolled her over and touched the last bit of magic he had to try and save her.
Five broken ribs. Two had punctured her lung. She’d been slowly drowning for the entire fight. But the knife wound…
He placed a hand over it and forced his magic into her body. He forced her abdominal aortic artery to repair. It was a fatal wound. He knew that, but he was going to try anyway. He had to try. He sent a jump to her heart and forced it to beat once after the artery was repaired.
“Zander,” Vincent whispered desperately. “She’s gone, Zander.”
“I can heal her!” he roared.
“You are out of magic, Zander!” Vincent tried to pull him away, and Zander shoved Vincent back. None of the other team members tried to stop him.
Axel was laughing.
Zander pulled magic from the last place he had—his own life force. It was a dangerous and stupid thing do, but Zander didn’t care.
He had to save her.
He kept forcing her heart to beat with magic until dark spots danced in his vision. He was killing himself. His organs would start to shut down if he didn’t stop soon.
He passed out as soon as her heart beat once on its own. It was all he needed. He just needed to know her heart was still beating.
26
ELIJAH
“Stop laughing,” Elijah snarled, knocking Axel unconscious. Vincent was checking Sawyer’s pulse, and Quinn was getting Jasper, who was out cold.
“They are alive,” Vincent called over. “I’m not sure for how long. She’s not bleeding out anymore so I’m not even sure what I can do at this point.”
“Where the fuck is our back up?” Elijah growled. He couldn’t help Vincent with them. Someone had to stick with Axel, or he could fucking disappear. Elijah was less worried about that now that Axel not only had an inhibitor on him, but was also unconscious.
“I don’t know. They will probably show up any second, considering we don’t fucking need them anymore,” Vincent snapped.
“Sure enough,” Quinn growled, laying Jasper down next to Zander and Sawyer. Elijah saw Jasper’s leg and wanted to puke. “The brothers think they are a minute away.”
“A full fucking minute?” Elijah groaned. “We have three down and three criminals in custody. We fucking needed them five minutes ago!”
“Elijah,” Vincent pleaded, “stay calm. We can’t… we can’t lose focus now.”
“Fuck!” Elijah ran a hand through his hair and kicked Axel when the mother fucker dared to groan in pain on the floor. “You shut the fuck up.”
“Sawyer told me something important that we’re going to need to deal with,” Vincent whispered quietly, watching Elijah. Elijah was shocked by Vincent’s lack of reaction to Axel getting kicked while he was down.
“What’s that?”
“She’s Shadow.” Vincent’s voice betrayed nothing about his own feelings.
Elijah felt a shiver of something run through. No.
“Shadow is dead,” Elijah whispered, unwilling to believe.
“She very well could be if we don’t get her to a hospital,” Vincent pressed. “She told me. Did you see what she did here, today? I don’t think she was lying and…”
“Axel’s obsession with her,” Elijah gasped. “His slip into… recklessness. His drive to see her dead. All of this. Damn it, Vincent! I told you in LA this was all because of a woman! And it’s the same woman.”
“She’s an assassin,” Quinn sounded thoughtful. “It all makes so much sense.”
“What does?” Vincent frowned at him. He wasn’t going to talk to Elijah about the other topic. He’d blatantly disregarded Elijah on it, and now that was coming back to haunt him. “And she was an assassin. She hasn’t been active since she… died…”
“The feeling of her magic. Cold, deadly. Dark,” Quinn’s growly voice was soft. “I never thought it suited her, Sawyer the thief, but it makes sense with Shadow the assassin.”
“Huh.” Vincent looked thoughtful at that. “I… hadn’t noticed…”
“Can we… worry about this later?” Elijah heard sirens. “We have a woman who looks like death, and right now, that’s all that matters. We need these fuckers secured, and once all of them are in a hospital, we can debate on what to do about Sawyer’s… past.”
“You’re right,” Vincent sighed, “but we need to tell them before he does.” Vincent nodded towards Axel, and Elijah agreed, nodding silently.
“Jasper’s injury is my fault.” Quinn knelt next to the young man’s unconscious form. Elijah felt for Quinn, he really did. “A beam fell, and he couldn’t get out of the way in time because of his bad leg.”
“Well,” Elijah gave a dark chuckle. “He won’t need to worry about the bad knee anymore. There won’t be anything attached to it.”
“Wow, Elijah,” Vincent snapped. “Funny.”
“He would get a laugh out it,” Elijah reminded Vincent. “You know he will, once he’s awake.”
“Special Agent Castello?” A voice called out, causing Vincent to turn.
“Here! Bring healers!” He yelled back.
Elijah watched people flood into the building. Healers, non-Magi medics, and IMPO agents from Atlanta. None as high ranking as himself, but at least they were IMPO. James was at the back of the pack, coming straight for them as agents secured all the unconscious Ghosts.
Healers rushed to Jasper, Zander, and Sawyer and began working. Elijah kept his eye on them, hoping they didn’t lose Sawyer. He trusted Zander, but he was no healer and had no way of knowing how much healing he’d done on her. It was fucking stupid for Zander to use his life force like that.
But Elijah would never say that to him. He would have done it in a heartbeat, if he could have. Assassin or not, he didn’t want her dying on him. She was Sawyer, the fierce, passionate woman who showed her middle finger to the world and told it to bite her. And she put so many others before herself. She was so layered that he hoped to never stop discovering who she really was.
She couldn’t die.
“All three are stable,” one healer announced. “Did your healer…”
“He used his life force to heal her,” Elijah pointed at Sawyer at the female healer nodded.
“He saved her life. He just needs to rest and will be fine in no time. He nearly killed himself, though.” She stood up and looked up at Elijah. “Tell him not to do something so reckless next time. He might not be so lucky.”
“Will do,” Elijah told her, knowing he was lying to her.
“You got him,” James exclaimed to Vincent. “You fucking got him.”
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 27