He wouldn’t wrench her from whatever happiness she had in her dreams. Not now. Not when he felt she hadn’t known real happiness in so long.
Because Sawyer wasn’t a killer when he’d left, and Jasper wasn’t sure he wanted to know how Axel turned her into one.
32
ZANDER
Zander and Vincent walked the halls quietly. Day three. Sawyer wasn’t awake and neither of them could stand being cooped up in her room any longer.
“This sucks,” Zander growled.
“Yes, it does,” Vincent sighed. “We could always go to the Atlanta headquarters and see how James is fairing with the WMC. He hasn’t called me yet.”
“Let’s go,” Zander snarled, turning on his heel to head for the elevator. Vincent stumbled as he tried to keep Zander’s pace.
“Calm down,” Vincent hissed. “You aren’t helping anyone being angry and agitated.”
“Says the guy who won’t stop beating himself up over Jon,” Zander snapped and immediately felt guilty as he saw Vincent’s eyes go hard. “Shit, Vin, I’m sorry.”
“Get in the fucking elevator,” Vin growled as the door opened.
They made the entire trip in silence after that. Zander ran a hand through his hair, realizing he needed a haircut. It was falling over his eyes and ears in an annoying way.
Such a stupid thing for him to notice. Everything seemed so changed since the last time he even thought about his unruly red hair. Since his last normal thing, like a haircut. He half wondered if their house was still the same. It all seemed like so long ago and in a different reality.
“I thought catching him would fix everything,” Vincent muttered bitterly. Zander raised an eyebrow.
“You knew better,” Zander said softly. “You might not want to admit it, but you knew better.”
“After we talk to James…” Vincent trailed off and then continued after a moment. “After we talk to James, will you accompany me to see him?”
“Of course, my brother,” Zander gave him a pat on the shoulder. Vincent was pulling them into a parking spot, and once he parked the Range Rover, Zander jumped out.
He was stir-crazy. He felt like shit and looked like hell, but he still wanted to do something. Anything.
He bounced around a little as he and Vincent walked into the building. They waved to the receptionist and passed her without signing in. They weren’t visitors who needed to check in with anyone. As Special Agents, they pretty much had free run wherever they were, except New York’s Main Headquarters.
“Where is he?” Vincent muttered thoughtfully.
“Conference room?” Zander shrugged.
“We’ll try that.” Vincent turned them down a hallway that Zander never used. Well, Zander avoided this building like the plague. All the lower ranking agents tended to look at him like he was supposed to be in a cell, which was funny since he had never done something seriously criminal.
It was kind of Zander’s fault. He was the one with inch-wide gauges and ink all over him. They didn’t even know about the piercings underneath his clothing. They didn’t need to know about those. Those wouldn’t help his case.
Vincent knocked twice, then stepped into the conference room. Zander followed him, and they saw James glaring at some papers before he looked up at them.
“We were tired of the stuffy hospital,” Vincent told him quickly. “We wanted to see what you were up too.”
“It’s not going well,” James informed them, angry at something. “If it weren’t for her original deal with them, they wouldn’t let her out of the hospital alive. They are trying to spin in that she was knowingly leading the IMPO agents to their deaths.”
Zander froze and felt his temper curl up like a pit of snakes in the bottom of his stomach.
“Fuck them,” Zander snarled, causing James to startle. “You fix this, James.”
“I’m not sure I can, son,” James sighed. “This is a mess. This has always been a mess.”
“Clean it up.” Zander stepped closer, ignoring Vincent, who tried to hold him. “That’s your fucking job.”
“Actually, it’s not my job,” James snapped. “My job is to act as a go between for you and the people you answer to. This team just has a lot of fucking messes that you need some help cleaning up. Since I let Vincent make this team and convinced the WMC to allow him to do so, I am more than willing to help, but it’s not my job.”
“If you fail to convince them?” Vincent asked softly.
“She won’t leave that hospital alive,” James mumbled, looking back down at the papers on the table.
“Yes, she will,” Zander growled.
“How?” James narrowed his eyes on him. “How would that happen?”
“If they don’t agree to the plan, Sawyer is going to disappear,” Zander told him softly. Vincent looked at him and nodded. He knew Vincent would be on his side. “If they go after her, our team will help her hide, and no one will ever see her again. We’ll go rogue if we have too.”
“I can’t tell them that,” James muttered, paling. “You can’t throw that at their feet. There’s a real possibility they will call your bluff, Zander.”
“It’s not a bluff,” Zander said, smiling. “You think we can’t do it? With Vincent’s intelligence? With Quinn’s raw power? With the entire team working together for that goal? I fucking dare them to see how far I’ll go to keep her alive.”
“Tell them,” Vincent whispered. “Let them know this isn’t a game. We’re going to have her on our team, and that’s the end of it. If we don’t get her, they lose all of us.”
“Get out of here,” James sighed. “I’ll call them back now. I hope you boys know what you’re doing.”
Zander knew exactly what he was doing. He didn’t almost kill himself to keep her alive just for those high and mighty fucks to steal her away.
Vincent pulled him from the room and down the hallway.
“Zander, you just signed us up to go to war with the World Magi Council,” Vincent hissed. “What the fuck?”
“You could have disagreed with me.” Zander pushed him. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I agree with you, but the rest of the team might not,” Vincent shoved him back.
Zander scoffed. They would all be just fine with what he’d done. Even Jasper. Especially Jasper, their little golden boy. If he was willing to work past her being Shadow, then he would help keep her alive if the WMC didn’t honor their half of the agreement.
“Let’s go see your brother,” Zander said after a long moment of silence.
“Let’s,” Vincent said acidly. The poison dripping from that word sliced through Zander.
They found the elevator down to the dark cells where prisoners were kept until they could be moved. For three days, Zander knew that no one had talked to Axel. No contact whatsoever. Zander knew that also meant Axel hadn’t even had something to eat. It was cruel thing, but it was their world. A Magi criminal had no rights, except the ones afforded to them by their captors—and Axel’s captors afforded him none. Zander didn’t feel guilty about that.
His cell was the last one and only his name, written on a notecard, gave away his location.
Zander met Vincent’s eyes. Was he ready for this? Was he ready to meet his brother for one final conversation? Zander knew this was the last time Vincent would ever speak to Axel.
This was goodbye, and that’s why Vincent wanted someone with him.
“Open it,” Vincent whispered. “Stand at the back of the room.”
“Roger that,” Zander whispered back, punching the code needed into the small keypad next to the door. It beeped, and a red light flashed, alerting everyone in Prisoner Holding that a cell was being momentarily opened. It also alerted someone to wait at the door to let them out.
Vincent slid in first and Zander followed him closely. The door closed soundlessly behind them. They were now locked in with Axel.
Zander looked at the prim and proper Italian sitting silently o
n the tiny cot he had been issued. Tension made the air vibrate, and Zander was thankful for the collar on Axel—the inhibitor prisoners were given. The only way to remove it was to have the key… or get beheaded, a standard method for Magi execution.
“Vinny.” Axel sounded like he was happy to see his younger brother, but Zander saw something dangerous in his eyes.
“Antonio,” Vincent said, straightening his spine, “I’ve come to say goodbye.”
“Ah, yes,” Axel sighed, waving a hand dismissively. “Of course you have. You always were just a bit sentimental.”
“At least he had the balls to do it,” Zander mumbled.
“Excuse me?” Axel snapped, and Zander nearly laughed. Vincent said it the exact same way.
“You tried to kill him without even showing up.” Zander shrugged. “Vincent at least has the balls to come to his shitty brother and say goodbye.”
“You’ll let him talk to me like that?” Axel was insulted, that much was obvious.
“He’s more of a brother to me than you are.” Vincent crossed his arms as he laid out that truth for Axel. It warmed Zander’s heart a little. “Moreover, he’s right. You tried to blow me and my team into the stars without even a tiny warning it was going to happen.”
“Missy always did have a penchant for explosions,” Axel chuckled. “If it helps, it really hurt to finally have to make that decision. I just couldn’t leave Sawyer in your care. She had to die, you see.”
“Oh… should we tell him?” Zander raised an eyebrow at Vincent, who gave a small smile. Should they rip Axel’s only perceived-victory away from him?
“She’s not dead,” Vincent said to his brother with that same, small smile. “She’s resting at the hospital. Zander, here, was able to put her back together. And I know who she is.”
“Always a surprise,” Axel growled. “You always have some surprise up your sleeve. Joining the IMPO, building this team, keeping Sawyer among the living. Fine. I’ll rest easy knowing she’ll spend the rest of her miserable life haunted by me and, most likely, in the cell next to mine until we’re both executed. I can live with that.” Axel turned his head to Zander and that made Zander uncomfortable. “Tell me. What did she have to do in those three or four short weeks to gain such… devotion from you to save her life? She’s not exactly the most likable person. I would know, I used to fuck her on a regular basis.”
“I grew up with her,” Zander growled before Vincent could gesture for him to not say anything.
“Oh?” Axel looked pleased by that. “You are one of those little boys who ran off to the IMAS? Really? And the Magi community shrinks. Were you the quiet one?” Axel looked thoughtful for a moment. “No, you must be the one she lost her virginity to. You’ll be happy to hear that I’ve trained her for the bed fairly well. If you convince her to get between the sheets with you, she’ll blow your fucking mind, I promise. You should do it before I tell everyone who she is though. She probably won’t live very long after that.”
Zander snarled and went for Axel’s neck after that. No one talked about Sawyer like that. No one. Vincent grabbed him around the waist and threw him back. Zander went to charge again when he saw Vincent connect a right hook on Axel’s left eye.
“You little twerp,” Axel hissed, regaining his composure from the hit.
“Shut the fuck up about her, Antonio.” Vincent shoved his brother to his back.
“Stop fucking calling me that.” Axel sat up again, glaring at Vin. Zander was still trying to calm down from Axel’s blatant disrespect for Sawyer.
“Why? It’s the name our father gave you,” Vincent said mildly.
“Our father was a fucking failure, we both know that. Why should I use the name a man like him gave me?”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, Antonio, it’s ‘Once a Castello, always a Castello’. You might be known as the infamous Axel, but to me, you will always be shy Antonio, the boy who couldn’t live up to our father’s expectations.”
Zander had always found it a little amusing in a fucked-up way, the story of Antonio and Vincent, the heirs to the Castello empire. Axel became one of the greatest criminals known in their time when he’d started out as a kid who couldn’t prove himself. Only a year older than Vincent, his abilities had come in two years after Vincent’s. Vincent had excelled in the Castello family, the rising star of the family who turned against the lifestyle at the last moment.
“Go to Hell,” Axel snarled.
“I’m already there,” Vincent whispered. “I’ve been there since the day you convinced me to kill him for you. Good bye, Antonio.”
“You’ll come crawling back,” Axel hissed malevolently. “I’m the only family you have left.”
“You’re my brother but… you’re not my family.” Vincent sighed. “You haven’t been for years. Come on, Zander.”
“Vincent!” Axel stood up with a shout. Someone on the other side of the door opened it for them, and Zander let Vincent leave first. Zander slammed the door shut as Axel began to stomp over. “VINCENT!”
They walked away, letting Axel’s screams become distant.
“Did you find what you were looking for in there?” Zander asked softly.
“No,” Vincent sighed.
“What were you looking for?” Zander frowned in confusion.
“I don’t know.” Vincent’s answer was strangled. “I don’t know.”
33
JASPER
“Do it,” Vincent commanded sharply. “She’s had four days. We need her up.”
Jasper winced and looked to the motionless form. He hadn’t told them, but he knew what was wrong with her. She was just lost in her own subconscious, probably living out something that was better than reality.
And now they were all looking at him to force her out of it. They had to wrench her away from that beautiful happiness of whatever dream she was in because things were getting time-sensitive. The WMC was demanding that she finally reveal everything she knew, and that meant the team needed to know everything. They couldn’t get that information if she was asleep.
Zander and Vincent had let the rest of them know what Zander had done to James, the position the reckless redhead had put them in. Jasper had agreed immediately. He didn’t need to think about it. Elijah had, after only a second of thought. Quinn’s terms hadn’t changed. Jasper didn’t know why he was obsessed with the little-boy whose face couldn’t be seen and the black runt cat, but it was obvious to all of them that he was.
“Jasper,” Zander pleaded, “please.”
“Fine,” Jasper sighed. “It might take time, so be prepared to watch us sleep for a little while.”
He leaned back in the uncomfortable hospital chair and closed his eyes. Dream-walking required an unnatural sleep, one brought on by his own magic. He was slightly lucid, but in his own mind, and he reached out towards Sawyer’s, letting her dream suck him in.
The first thing he noticed was the dark. He was in a spotlight, but the rest of the world was pitch black; so dark that nothing escaped it. He stared off into the darkness and wondered how in the hell this was supposed to be a happy dream. He looked down and noticed he was whole. Well, that was nice of her. He was there in her image of him, and she still thought of him as a whole man. As far as she knew, he was.
“Jasper?” Sawyer’s broken voice flooded through him, and he turned to her. Her eyes were wide, and he gave her a genuine smile. Here, she had no scars. None at all. There was no evidence on her body that she had fought the battles he knew haunted her.
“Sawyer,” he started but she began shaking her head, backing away from him. “Sawyer?”
“Not you too,” she sobbed, covering her mouth. “No… I was so sure you and Zander survived. So sure that all of you did.”
Oh, shit. Jasper’s eyes went wide. She thought she was dead. Oh, fuck.
“Sawyer!” A child’s voice pierced the dark. That’s when Jasper realized that he was spotlighted but… Sawyer wasn’t. She was shadow
ed and dark. He watched her eyes light up just a little as she caught a jumping child, who was spotlighted like himself.
“Henry!” She laughed, swinging him around.
“Have you found me a kitten, yet?” He giggled, tugging on her hair.
“No, not yet, but maybe my friend Jasper will help?” She raised an eyebrow at him, and Jasper felt his heart fall out at the sight of the little boy. Henry.
Henry looked like Vincent. Henry looked like Axel. The Castello stamp was prominent on the child’s features. Those dark curls, the olive skin, and the olive-green eyes.
Was he… hers?
Jasper had to end this. No wonder she had locked herself in her mind. She had no idea she could wake up. She was in her mind, living a fantasy with this little boy. And if she thought she was dead… that meant Henry was probably dead, both in her dreams and outside of them.
He shook his head, trying to clear that thought. He focused on the boy and did something that he knew would break her, but it had to be done.
He forced Henry to stop existing. The child faded away, and Jasper changed their location to the hospital room where they were both sleeping.
“What?” Sawyer gasped. “Henry? Where did he go? Where are we? Jasper, what happened?”
“Sawyer, look around you,” Jasper whispered. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her slowly around the mental landscape he’d created. “This is a dream Sawyer, not the afterlife.”
“No,” Sawyer snapped. “I died! Bring back Henry! Bring him back!” She tried to shake him off.
“Sawyer, I’m dream-walking. I am not dead,” Jasper hissed as he saw the tears form in her eyes, “and neither are you.” He forced her to look at herself lying in the hospital bed. He’d spent long enough in the room to memorize every facet of it. Every little piece to an exact detail. He forced her to look at him in the chair, sleeping, trying to reach her.
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