Being Axel’s assassin? Axel’s victim in a horrible game of blackmail, extortion, and abuse?
Vincent didn’t know how he felt about her anymore. Admiration? Terror? Ashamed of his family for what his brother did to her? Himself? He just didn’t know.
He did know he fucking hated his brother.
3
Sawyer
She closed Vincent’s door and let out a groan. They were going to kill her faster than it ever would have happened with Axel. She hadn’t missed anything about that interaction. Not a single thing. Not the way he enjoyed her dragging him around. Not the bulge in his pants, not the heat in his eyes at the end. Not the slight green tinge to his skin after she reminded him that she knew most Italian culture because of Axel.
None of it.
She looked over at Elijah coming out of Zander’s room. Zander was throwing a hissy fit over being tossed onto his bed without care. Quinn was leaving Jasper’s room with a frown. Jasper was actually being well-behaved about the entire thing, just agreeing to wait until he had a new leg before trying this again.
“How was Vincent?” Elijah asked with a smile. “Jasper and Zander were very upset you took him and not them.”
“Very Vincent,” Sawyer mumbled, ignoring that Jasper and Zander were being whiny. She’d picked Vincent thinking he’d be easier to handle. She’d been wrong. “Very drunk. He always like that when he’s drinking?”
“Uh, yeah.” Elijah snorted, still smiling. “You going to bed?”
She nodded silently and looked back at Vincent’s door.
“He was sick on the way home. Someone will need to watch him. I just left him sitting there.”
“I’ll put Shade with him,” Quinn mumbled, moving around her and opening Vincent’s door. Ten seconds later, Shade raced up the stairs and straight into Vincent’s room.
“Damn it! Shade, get off me! Quinn! Unnecessary!” Vincent snarled as Quinn closed the door. Sawyer raised an eyebrow then shook her head, deciding she didn’t want to know. She really didn’t. Elijah was snickering like a mad man.
“I’m going to bed,” she sighed.
“Can we come?” Elijah purred, and Sawyer bared her teeth at him. She passed him quickly to get to her stairs.
“Can I sleep with you?” Quinn asked. Sawyer frowned. She turned around and looked at the two guys. Quinn hadn’t directed the question at her, it seemed. He was looking at Elijah, who yawned and nodded.
“Of course.” Elijah chuckled, throwing an arm over Quinn’s shoulder. “You know I’ll never say no.”
She furrowed her brow and decided to put that out of her mind too. The night was steadily getting weirder as it continued.
The movies had been fine. Elijah and Quinn had joked around, and she’d felt nearly normal, other than needing to fill Quinn in on things that didn’t make sense. Like what a VCR was. He had no idea. He was old enough to know, but he didn’t. Elijah had told her that they tried to explain it before and Quinn was just fishing for a better answer that wasn’t Jasper’s technical jargon. Apparently, Quinn fished for information and answers that made the most sense to him.
Then Vincent.
Now this.
“Nope,” she whispered to herself. “Nope. Just let them be weird, Sawyer. You have your own shit to handle.”
She made it to her room without any more of this house’s brand of strange. The night seemed nearly normal. The guys were all being strange, she was confused, and Elijah was still very much a pervert.
Normal.
She was unsure how this becoming her ‘normal’ made her feel. She liked her old normal. Kids in the gym, Charlie yelling at her.
That made her curse. Charlie. Liam. Her students. Shit. Since she woke up, too much new crap was going on, and she hadn’t checked in with them. They probably had no idea what was going on.
She would call them soon. They were probably passed out at that very moment. Liam was just starting a new semester, as well. She couldn’t call them this late.
She rolled into bed pulled off her tank and hissed. She touched the scar running two inches down the center of her abdomen. It wasn’t thin, either. Another piece of history, marked and laid on her body, that she would never be rid of. It still had some bruising, and tenderness to it. Zander had done literally all he could before he nearly killed himself. That’s what she’d been told.
Then she slept for four days.
In Sawyer’s mind, those were the best four days of her life.
Or afterlife.
Whatever.
She finished stripping and lay on her blankets, groaning. She was still sore from everything that had happened, still feeling the aftermath of the fight. She could ignore it and power through most of the time, but lying alone in bed, she gave herself the right to groan and whine about it.
“They didn’t even give me painkillers.” Sawyer groaned, a bit pissed off by that. “And I need them. Not just for the pain but to be high enough to deal with these people.”
Sawyer rolled out of bed early the next morning, cranky. A nightmare had ridden her hard all the way through the night, and every time she closed her eyes again, it was there. She rolled over and saw the box that she and Elijah had forgotten to take out. Her gear was still in the room.
She got out of bed and left her room, ignoring it. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with it, yet. It was early, and she could remind Elijah about it later.
She walked toward the back door. It was still dark outside, and she took a deep breath of the humid, hot night of summer in Georgia. Some people thought it was suffocating, but she found herself feeling at home in it. She still missed New York, but there wasn’t any smog out here; no cars honking constantly, no people to interrupt her thoughts.
There was only herself and the night sky, the thick humidity, and the soft sounds of the woods.
She pulled out her pack of smokes and lit one as she soaked in the darkness.
She felt at home in this.
“Sawyer?”
She sighed and turned around to see Quinn frowning at her.
“Good morning, Quinn,” she greeted him, a little disappointed that her quiet, early morning was shattered. She wasn’t disappointed by Quinn’s shirtless state. The amount of eye candy she still had at her disposal was outrageous. This house was her own gorgeous hell.
“Why are you awake?” he asked, walking closer. She saw Shade and Scout on his heels and looked over him a little more closely. He was in his standard basketball shorts that he wore during workouts.
“Couldn’t get back to sleep,” she answered him honestly. “Nightmare.”
“I’m going for a run with the boys,” Quinn told her, looking her over as well. “Stay out of trouble.”
“Of course,” she sighed. No more words were exchanged. She watched Quinn shift into a massive tan and grey wolf, bigger than even Shade, and making Scout look like a puppy. Then he was off, leading his two real wolves out into the woods.
She kept smoking as the sun began to creep up. Quinn and his wolves never did come back. She figured they must have decided to stay out in Quinn’s wild garden.
“We get gorgeous sunrises out here,” Elijah’s thick country accent called out. Sawyer didn’t turn to him, just took another drag on her smoke. Another interruption to her quiet morning. “We normally don’t get to enjoy them because of our workout schedule, but it’s nice to sit back and just watch one every so often.”
“Yeah.” Sawyer mumbled. She wasn’t enjoying the sunrise. It was just a thing that happened. Another day to end another night of nightmares.
“Want to help me cook up some breakfast for the hungover ones? They’ll be dragging themselves out of bed sooner than you think.” Elijah didn’t get any closer to her, and for that, she was a little thankful. She was feeling a bit weird and didn’t want people in her space.
She turned around to see him on the porch and nodded slowly.
“Yeah, I can do that.” She sighed. She stood and walked b
ack up on the porch, found Vincent’s ashtray, and put her cigarette out. “How early do you think they’ll be up?”
“Vincent will be up any minute, cranky and pissed off at himself.” Elijah chuckled, holding the back door open for her. “Zander will be another hour, at least. Jasper… I’m not sure. I’ve never seen him get so drunk. He’s normally the one dragging us all home.”
“Yeah, Jasper got drunk once in high school and never again.” Sawyer chuckled with him. “Cheap moonshine.”
“I’ve heard a lot about this cheap moonshine.” Elijah laughed. “Please, tell me more.”
She did. Stories of her and Zander able to scrounge up the twenty dollars needed to get a bottle. Jasper on lookout so they could get drunk. Zander never brought his girlfriends around for those nights. It was always just the three of them.
Small town Georgia life. She started getting drunk with the guys on her fifteenth birthday. It ended when they left.
They were nearly done making breakfast when Vincent walked in. Sawyer smiled at him patiently, and he mumbled a curse before walking back out of the kitchen, looking green.
“Those eggs smell bad,” he groaned, covering his mouth as he left.
“They smell like eggs,” Elijah called after him. “Maybe you’re still sick!”
“Did he throw up at all last night?” Sawyer asked, watching Vincent’s retreating form.
“Twice,” the cowboy informed her with a grin. “Shade is, thankfully, smart enough to know to grab a trash can or bag for someone.”
“He’s a bonded animal,” Sawyer said with a shrug. “Of course he’s smart enough.”
“You say that, but a bonded animal is dependent on the knowledge of its Magi,” Vincent groaned, walking back in. Sawyer didn’t like how pale he looked. He had also gotten back quickly. She guessed he must have sublimated to move faster. “Those two were nearly feral when we met Quinn. Their progress is part of his progress.”
“You feel okay?” Elijah looked over Vincent with concern, who shrugged.
“Another hangover from hell,” Vincent mumbled, moving toward the dining room.
Sawyer didn’t say anything. She hadn’t known that about bonded animals, but then she didn’t have her own very long to learn. She never had time with Midnight, never truly got to explore the bond.
A sudden ache hit her chest, and she rubbed it with her right hand. Elijah gave her a concerned look, and she shook her head.
“It’s nothing,” she said, going back to the sausage she was cooking. “Why did they go out and get drunk last night?”
“You can’t guess?” Elijah sighed. He gave her a long look, and she swallowed.
Her.
They went out drinking because she was in their house.
“Now that it’s out of their system, they should be alright.” Elijah chuckled. “Just watch. It’ll be like nothing changed.”
“Back to our regularly scheduled programming,” Sawyer mumbled to herself. “Sawyer’s Fucked Up Life returns to its daily time slot on Daytime.”
“What?” Elijah snorted, looking at her like she was mad.
“Running joke with myself.” She shot him a grin. “Nothing, really.”
They got the food out onto the dining table and sat down. Sawyer started eating, ignoring the noise coming from Vincent’s stomach. Elijah laughed as Jasper and Zander stumbled into the room with Quinn behind them.
“We always meet for breakfast on weekdays,” Quinn growled, herding them towards chairs. “It’s the rules.”
Sawyer snorted.
“We’re here, fuck. Quinn, please,” Zander groaned, sinking into his seat.
“I forgot it was Thursday, yesterday,” Jasper mumbled. “Friday is still a work day.”
“Quinn, we’re taking time off, you didn’t need to drag them down here,” Elijah told Quinn next to him.
Sawyer just watched. This interaction, like all previous ones, would tell her more about these people if she didn’t interrupt.
“But we have a new team member. Vincent says a good example needs to be set early,” Quinn whispered back, frowning.
Vincent dropped his newspaper with a sigh and looked over at her. “Make it to breakfast every day, even on our time off. Don’t lose the schedule we’ve already set or it’ll be harder to get back to it once our small vacation is over.” Vincent then turned to Quinn. “Let me worry about that, Quinn. You have other things to do that we’ll be getting to, now. We postponed school while she was here as a protectee, but it’s time to get back on it.”
The growl that came from Quinn toward Vincent made Sawyer shrink. Just a millimeter, but a noticeable millimeter. He turned toward her, and she swallowed and straightened her spine. His magic lashed out, a wolf ready to bite anything that tested it.
The table was silent until Quinn stopped growling and spoke.
“I hate doing that shit,” he snarled Vincent’s way. Sawyer was honestly impressed everyone was still sitting at the table. Her first instinct was to get up and run or just duck for cover.
It was easy to forget, but Quinn was the son of a Druid… and considered the most powerful Magi in North America. Sawyer needed to always remember that the feral, strange man was also quite capable of killing everyone in the state. He could probably level cities, if his show at the airport had been anything.
“You need proof of a formal education, Quinn. In fact, if she’s willing, you might not be doing it alone. We can do your classes together,” Elijah whispered, and Quinn growled at him. Elijah gave Vincent a look.
“Sawyer,” Vincent groaned. “You don’t have a high school diploma or a GED.”
“Nope,” Sawyer confirmed, confused.
“You need one. So does Quinn. We’ve been working on getting his for a few years now. You’ll start doing classes with us to get you up to speed on a general education. You can take your test for the GED as soon as you feel ready.” Vincent said it quickly and with a finality that told Sawyer arguing was pointless.
She looked over to Quinn and thought about it. Everything he did was wolf-like. He had no formal education. His mother was a Druid.
He was defensive. He was backed into a corner.
He was embarrassed.
That was the tiny piece of anger in his eyes. She wondered for a moment if he even knew what he was feeling. It didn’t matter, since she knew how to deal with it.
“Yeah,” Sawyer whispered. “Yeah, Quinn, I didn’t finish school. I’ll do it with you.”
Something shifted in the Magi. She watched him go from angry and defensive to confused. He looked over to her again, this time sizing her up. They had established some sort of… something over the three weeks she’d already been here, but she knew she still had a long way to go with the wolf.
And Sawyer was just starting to figure out that he was more like his wolves than any of the humans at the table. She’d figured he was a bit wild, but looking back, all his responses to situations were… animal. What was once a joke to her, a way to deal with the situation she was in, was now becoming a way of looking at how to deal with Quinn.
“Good, that’s settled. We do science and math with Jasper’s help. I’m in charge of literature and history.” Vincent gave a nod and went back to his breakfast. She narrowed her eyes on him. He was feeling better already, buttering some toast. He had more color in his cheeks and his complexion looked, overall, better than before.
Hard to be hungover when a very powerful, very angry Magi was snarling at you, which from Quinn, seemed like a threat against your life.
“So, is this an IMPO thing or…?” Sawyer looked over to Elijah, then Jasper.
“They like their agents to have at least a bachelor’s degree, but a few of us slipped by with just high school diplomas. When they found out Quinn didn’t even have that, they got a bit pissy. So we need to get him—and now you—high school diplomas at least.” Jasper shrugged, still looking ill from his drinking the night before. “Vincent has a BA. Elijah as well. I
have the most education in the group, something I work on in my free time.”
“Zander?” Sawyer looked over to him, and he glared at her.
“You think I went to college?” He raised an eyebrow at her, and she sighed.
Of course he didn’t.
“Zander has an Associate degree for general education,” Jasper told her, with a weak smile. “He just needs to choose a major and do a couple more years for a BA of some sort.”
That left her and Quinn as the two least educated people in the room. Kind of. Quinn probably knew more about the world around them than any of them. And her own knowledge base was morally compromised. She knew a lot about how to kill or hurt people. Funnel money around the world illegally. Break in and out of places.
Useful knowledge… for a criminal, but nothing that would get her a cute piece of paper.
“Anything else I’ll be doing on this ‘time off’?” Sawyer used air quotes around ‘time off’ because it didn’t seem like it would be much of a vacation.
“We’re going to test your skills. You have your magic, time to see just how much you can do with it.” Elijah grinned at her.
“Kill you,” she told him blandly. She wouldn’t actually kill Elijah, but she needed to make the point. “You were a great sparring partner without my powers, but that’s not something you want to do now.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m not stupid.” Elijah laughed. “You’ll be sparring with Vincent now, since he can also sublimate. It might give him a fighting chance against you. We’re just going to run you through a couple exercises, just a baseline.”
“That’s it?” She frowned at him, leaning back in her seat.
“You’ll be learning most of being an agent on the job.” Zander chuckled. “And you don’t have the legal power to do most of the complicated shit, like arrests.”
“You mean I can’t get women drunk, seduce them, and put handcuffs on them?” Sawyer gave the most fake disappointed sigh she could muster. “I was looking forward to that.”
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