She was hot and cold. Her body burned as he drove her further, but the water was cold, delivering a different sort of sensation. She didn’t know whose dark hair was whose. It all just fell around her, blocking her vision of the world.
He pulled away again, grabbed both of her hips and yanked her back to him as he thrust more. That change left her reeling as he went deeper than before.
It was never-ending, and she couldn’t resist the orgasm slamming into her. Her arms were shaking as her core muscles rippled. Quinn snarled behind her, continuing the hard pace. She went down to her elbows, unable to hold her body up any longer.
Her knees slipped next, leaving her on her stomach, but that didn’t change anything either. Quinn was still in her, having just moved as she slipped down.
“We’re not done,” he growled down at her. It wasn’t threatening, but a sensual growl that made her concerned whether she’d be able to walk after this.
“Oh fuck,” she moaned, her forehead on the stone. She couldn’t stop him from pulling her back up. He kept an arm wrapped around her torso and held her to continue.
His hand slid down her stomach as he thrust. She screamed out in pleasure as his finger found her clit and rubbed hard. It was like she’d been struck by lightning. Overly sensitive, she jerked at the touch. He didn’t let her move away.
The second orgasm came harder. His name flew out of her mouth like a prayer and a plea. He pulled his finger from her clit and his hand went up and wrapped around the base of her neck. It wasn’t tight. His thumb, as her orgasm continued to roll through her, pushed her jaw to turn her head. He leaned back over her and kissed her, burying himself one final time. The growl he gave as they kissed punctuated the orgasm she knew he was having.
They were panting like animals afterwards. He finally pulled out of her and she collapsed, sinking down onto the rock.
“Oh gods,” she panted out like a fool.
“I take it I performed well?” he asked, some humor in his question.
“Arrogance doesn’t become you,” she moaned. At his soft laughter, she smiled. “I would almost say you’re becoming cocksure on me.”
“I get that play on words,” he told her, smiling. She sighed happily. He had such a beautiful smile.
“Are you sure you’re okay with…this? Us. Them.” She tried to find the words. “We have to go find them.”
“We’re going to leave tomorrow. Yes. I’m fine. I couldn’t…I couldn’t be with you alone. Without them…Sawyer, I’m positive I would have killed you a long time ago. Before you, I didn’t think there was a female on this earth I could trust, that I could like.” Quinn laid next to her and pulled her close. “You changed…everything for me. You confronted my insecurities with courage, helped me overcome them, and you make me feel less wrong. The world makes me feel like a freak, but you just make me feel like a man who is just different. Someone who just needs to find his place.”
“Where is your place?” she asked him softly.
“With the team…and you. They are our place. We’ll find them. They are strong. Trust them and we will get back to them.” Quinn placed his lips to her forehead. “Then we’ll go home.”
“Home sounds good.” Home sounded so far away.
“It’s the only one I’ve ever known. A real home, anyway.”
“I’m glad we share it,” she whispered into his chest.
“I am too. I am also…relieved that I shared this with you. It feels like my chest is lighter. I had never told…anyone what happened. My son. I never…”
“Thank you for choosing to share with me.” Her heart broke for him again. “I know the pain.”
“It’s why I chose to share with you. You understand the loss. The anger. The hurt.” She felt his chest rise with a deep breath. “We should get out of the water.”
“We should,” she agreed, nodding. He got up first and helped her up with a hand.
Together, they made their way to their clothing, finding towels placed out for them. Sawyer raised an eyebrow.
“Tez came to check on us.”
“How do they have towels though?” Sawyer knew one of them had snuck up and placed them, but this village was completely devoid of anything from the civilized world.
“Probably Yasmin. This might be her home village, but if she interacts this much with other humans, then she might have contacts with others and have certain items she grew up with brought in.” Quinn shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”
“It’s still weird.” She frowned at him, hoping he would agree.
“I knew a Druid with a cellphone once. She never let me see and I didn’t understand. I saw Vincent with one and Jasper explained what it was years later.”
She rolled her eyes in light exasperation. He not only didn’t agree with her, he introduced a weirder situation. But it gave her an idea.
“Maybe they have a satellite phone,” Sawyer gasped. “We can call for help.”
“Good plan,” Quinn agreed. Once they were dressed, he offered his arm tentatively and she took it. They walked back to the village side by side, like they had walked before. A unit, comforting and friendly. He held her closer than before, though. It was the only change.
Once they arrived in the village, Yasmin stood waiting for them, smiling.
“Mates are a beautiful thing,” she told Sawyer. She nodded slowly, feeling Quinn tense. “Come. Food is ready. We’ll eat and talk about your situation now that you both have worked out whatever was between you.” Her eyes fell on Quinn. “Less angry now, I hope? Healing? Tez won’t let me let you leave until you show any progress.”
Quinn only growled back at her. Sawyer swatted his stomach gently. He looked over to her and frowned.
“Be nice,” she told him. “She’s helping us, remember?”
He took a deep breath and nodded. She wasn’t going to get in on whatever was happening between them, but she wasn’t going to let him treat Yasmin badly. Yasmin was unfortunate enough to be in similar company of the women who’d hurt him. She didn’t want to see Quinn continue the habit of judging someone not on their actions, but how they were born.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I will never forget the kindness you’ve shown my mate and I here.”
“Then we will talk.” Yasmin continued to smile and led them to a large hut. Sawyer had passed it before. It seemed like a community building of sorts.
Once inside, Sawyer decided to start asking questions. “I was wondering if you may have a satellite phone or-”
“We have no technology here because we can’t make it. I’m sorry.” Yasmin raised her hands. She sat down slowly on a mat.
“You have towels.” Sawyer was confused. She needed to know what she was working with. “You don’t make those.”
“I receive things from hunters who know me passing through. They bring me pieces of the outside world, new textiles and the sort, and I give them some information about their hunt. It’s a common occurrence. I know they aren’t poachers and they know I won’t come after them if they are in my territory.” Yasmin sighed. “They offered me a cellphone once. Sadly, there’s no use for it out here and my people here find technology uncomfortable. They don’t want it.”
“Where’s the closest technologically capable village?” Quinn asked, leading Sawyer to sit with him across from Yasmin.
“Days away.”
“Quinn, we can’t just go find another village,” Sawyer spoke out. “We have to go back to the camp.”
“Why?” he asked.
“We need to make sure they aren’t dead out there,” Sawyer reminded him, closing her eyes. Their faces flashed in her mind. Part of her heart was secure, sitting right next to her, but the other pieces were out there.
“You’re right. I was thinking we would find them, then lead them back. Don’t worry.”
“Quinn is a wolf. He’s pack-oriented. If your pack is back where you fought Camila, then he will be unable to resist the urge to account for them,” Yasmin
added. “I didn’t expect it from a feline though.”
“I’m not a jaguar,” Sawyer scoffed. “I’m a lot of things - a cat ain’t one of them.”
“Druids tend to equate someone’s animal bond as a judge of their personality,” Quinn explained. “I think a feline suits you…remember?”
“Okay, moving on,” Sawyer said in a decided tone. “How many days back to the camp?” A small growl and Sawyer turned to see her jaguar walk in with Shade and Scout. Images flashed in her mind. Sawyer walking. Two dawns, one night. Fell. Dragged until another night. “Two days.”
“Three,” Yasmin corrected. “I went out when I felt Sombra coming back into my territory. She was dragging you. Another day to get here.”
“And we slept for the day of travel here.”
“And another day here, yes,” Yasmin confirmed. “There’s one problem.”
“I don’t like problems,” Sawyer mumbled.
“Camila is waiting on the border. She wants your heads.”
Sawyer felt like ice water had been thrown over her. “The way back to our teammates, to make sure they lived or died…is through the Druid we were sent here to kill.” She considered that, grinding her teeth in some mix of frustration, dread, and general annoyance. She’d been hoping she stabbed the bitch hard enough to kill her.
“She’s injured, if that helps. Apparently, someone got a couple good hits on her,” Yasmin commented lightly.
“Damn right I did,” Sawyer growled.
“What?” Quinn blinked several times, turning to look at her.
“You think I snuck you out from under her nose. Fuck no. I stabbed her,” she told him, glaring. “I’m pissed off she’s not dead, though.”
“Well, a Druid’s knowledge of local plants and resources makes us capable of handling wounds. Healing salves and the like. Might not be perfect, like having a healer on hand, but we survive. Some Druids I’ve met have sold these things to their local villages or given them out in return for working together.”
“Why can’t Camila be nice like that?” Sawyer asked incredulously.
“Camila is a self-important little girl who feels too deeply and refuses to understand the balance of the world we live in,” Yasmin answered. “She took over that area, demanding the villages fall in line but receive no benefits for working together. When poachers started going into her territory, added with the villages that refused to work with her…”
“She lashed out and decided to purge the area of ‘invaders,’” Quinn finished. “Let me guess, one of her animal bonds died to poachers.”
“Yes,” Yasmin confirmed softly. “Instead of remembering and accepting what we taught her-”
“We?” Sawyer perked up at that.
“Tez’s mother and I trained her when she arrived, running away from her home to find a place where she and her magic would feel at peace. Like all Druids do, remember?”
Sawyer did, nodding.
“You want us to kill her.” Quinn groaned. “Haven’t we done enough?”
“If you want to get where you want to go, you’ll need to.”
Sawyer just listened to them argue now. Quinn wanted to find any way around Camila, while Yasmin told him there was no way. The moment they stepped foot in her territory, she was going to hunt them down.
Sawyer pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around her knees, considering. Thinking.
What would Vincent want? Jasper? Zander? Elijah? What would any of them want from this situation? What skills could she draw upon to not only live through getting back to them, but also deal with problems she hadn’t yet wanted to consider?
Leaving the jungle wasn’t just going home. The WMC and the Councilwoman D’Angelo were still a problem. The mission could still succeed. Vincent had offered trying to find diplomatic solutions.
Sawyer tuned out of the argument completely as Tez joined and moved into the language she didn’t understand. Her eyes fell on Sombra. The jaguar only sent her a willingness to do anything. She would follow Sawyer anywhere and do whatever was needed of her.
“I can kill her, but I need help,” Sawyer said, cutting them both off. Those were the skills she had. She could kill. She could finish the job she started, one she thought she had already succeeded at.
“Sawyer-” Quinn switched back to English, desperate-sounding.
“I can, Quinn. I can sublimate, get inside her defenses. I did before, but it was pitch black and I barely had any back up, from only Sombra. With proper back up and help, I can take her down.” When he tried to cut her off, she waved him down and kept going. “You should have never tried to fight her alone.”
“You were safer. You and the team were safer together, but someone had to try.” He looked furious with her.
“Did you forget you have an assassin?” She raised her arms, questioning him, motioning to herself.
“Assassin?” Yasmin gasped, looking at her.
“They once called me Shadow,” Sawyer told her, smiling. Yasmin’s eyes went to the size of dinner plates. Sawyer was glad to finally have that out. Shadow and Sombra. Yasmin’s eyes flicked between the two of them, understanding her name might not have been the most appropriate, but it was the most fitting.
“We help,” Tez said in broken English.
Sawyer grinned as Quinn cursed.
“Sawyer…”
“Quinn.” She crossed her arms. “And thank you, Tez.” That made Quinn growl. “Speaking of you and Yasmin. We had another goal out here, not just killing Camila for what she did. Our team leader had offered the WMC the chance to search for diplomatic options to keep Druids and those around them happy.”
“Meaning a Druid from the Amazon would need to go meet the WMC,” Yasmin guessed. “Because the problem lies here, because our problems are different from the problems of other Druids around the world.”
“Yes.” Sawyer shrugged. “The Druid of the Florida Everglades doesn’t kill people.” The Everglades also didn’t have rampant poaching, deforestation, and corrupt human governments ignoring the pleas for those things to stop. She didn’t say that out loud.
“I can’t do that,” Yasmin sighed. “There’s a reason a Druid has never walked into the halls of the WMC. I might recognize them as the government of my people, of all Magi, but I can’t go to New York.”
“Someone needs to. It shouldn’t be long. I feel like they might be very accommodating.”
“I can’t.”
“Yasmin, please,” Sawyer begged. She didn’t need to do this. This was extra, but she felt like she’d be failing Vincent if she didn’t convince Yasmin to go.
Yasmin looked considering, shaking her head with her eyes closed. Tez whispered something, but Sawyer didn’t understand.
“I’ll think on it. We’ll help with Camila and then give you an answer,” Yasmin promised. Sawyer nodded. That worked for her. “Sleep tonight. We’ll leave in the morning.”
Quinn cursed and growled at Sawyer again.
She snarled back, baring her teeth. “We’re going to fight our way out of this jungle, Quinn. Deal with it.”
“I’m allowed to be mad at you for wanting to get yourself hurt.”
“Don’t start treating me like a princess now,” Sawyer ordered. “You haven’t before. I’ll remind you…I saved you this time.”
She left the hut to go back to her own. Quinn and all their animals followed. When she made it, she rolled her eyes at the new, bigger cot inside. Yasmin was sneaky. Her weapons were clean and laid out on the cot as well. Nothing was unaccounted for, except the dagger she had handed Varya. She hoped that dagger had kept the blonde alive.
“I’m sorry. You’re correct,” Quinn said as he walked in. He mumbled the next part. “I’ve been saying that a lot recently.”
“It’s dangerous, and I’m worried too - but it’s really our only option. If they died in that camp, I need to…I need to see. If that means finishing this god-forsaken mission and killing Camila to do it, then so be it.”
“It’s natural not to want to see someone you care about get hurt,” she murmured, kissing his forehead. “I’m not angry with you. A little annoyed.”
“No, I’ve seen you angry. I know you aren’t that. We will eat dinner tonight and rest well. Then we go hunting.”
“Then we go hunting,” she agreed.
30
Sawyer
The next dawn, Sawyer was ready already. She’d woken up before most in the village, Quinn by her side. They had prepared quietly. Yasmin showed up and gave them some sort of bread to eat.
“Are you going to go to the WMC and New York with us?” Sawyer asked immediately, taking the bread.
“I haven’t decided,” the Druid answered quietly. “I will once we see who does and doesn’t survive this. I’m sorry. It’s a…hard decision to make. I’m scared to leave my children, scared of leaving my bonds, scared of going back to a world I haven’t been in for…decades. Since I was a girl.”
“I understand.” Sawyer sighed, nodding. The answer would come soon.
Very little was said as they left. Yasmin and Tez led, back down the path that Sawyer guessed they had been brought in on. It was a fast pace. Tez and Yasmin knew the area well and Quinn was accustomed to the outdoors, able to keep up. Sawyer was the slow one, but she cheated. She phased through obstacles and blinked when she fell behind.
“Wasteful,” Quinn teased her.
“You all move faster than me and I’ll be fine. My Source is deep enough to handle it and we’ll be resting at least one more time before we run into her.”
“Those points are all valid,” he agreed. She liked the small smile on his face. She was glad to see he wasn’t getting dark on her, withdrawn as they left to fight this bitch one more time for all the marbles. He’d pulled away a little while they had hiked into this hot, humid hell. She enjoyed that he was smiling on their path out. Then he asked a question she hadn’t wanted to answer yet. “Are you ready to kill again?”
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 95