But Zander and Jasper? Zander was down for anything, but pulling Jasper into those sorts of things…Jasper wasn’t known for being the adventurous one of the team, that was certain.
They were slightly uncomfortable. He could see it a few steps into the room. Jasper shuffled around, working, not looking at Zander. Sawyer was looking down, turning her mask over in her hands, thoughtful. Zander seemed to look guilty.
He would need to talk to all three of them if this was going to linger, if they didn’t work through what they had done together. Elijah wasn’t sure if he should make light of it or ignore it for the time being. It was Quinn who made the decision, actually.
“It’s good, to do things that strengthen the bonds between a pack,” he mentioned lightly. “Are you feeling better?” he asked Sawyer specifically.
“How do you feel about it?” she asked back.
“They aren’t leaving the pack. If you had talked to me, I would have told you the truth of the matter.”
“You didn’t know yet,” she reminded him. Elijah resisted a chuckle. He knew what Quinn was about to say.
“You could have come to me, instead of being angry with them.”
“And what would you have said?”
“They won’t leave the pack, since I wouldn’t let them. They know that too, which is probably why they didn’t tell me earlier.”
She began to chuckle. Zander did as well. Jasper groaned, holding his face as he sat down on the edge of one of the beds.
“He’s right,” Zander mumbled. “We knew he would just shrug and dare us to try to truly leave. Quinn is possessive like that.”
“Oh, I know.” Sawyer was smiling now.
“How are you, Jasper?” Elijah asked softly.
“I’ll talk about it later. I just need to stay focused on this right now.” Jasper smiled wearily up to him, both tired and apprehensive. Elijah nodded. “Where’s Vincent?”
“On the phone with the other team running tonight. They’re in Spain, and we’re going at the same time.”
“Good to know they’re in position. The timeline of this is the worst.”
“Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone,” Sawyer announced, ignoring the work conversation. “Are we ready to kick off the new year?”
“Oh shit, that is right now.” Zander huffed. “We’ll finish the raid and have a drink together. Happy New Year, everyone!”
“Woo!” Elijah played excited. Just another new year and the IMPO. He wasn’t sure he was really looking forward to it.
“They’re ready,” Vincent said immediately as he walked in. “Put the holiday talk away, we’re working. Once this is over…” He trailed off, shaking his head. Elijah knew he didn’t even want to consider the after. Vin would need to eventually, but he wasn’t ready for it.
“Let’s move, then. Are you going to wear that again?” Elijah pointed at her mask, meeting her dark eyes.
“Of course.”
“Why?” Zander asked. “Why? It’s hot and it’s cool as shit, but why?”
“Because I want them to be scared,” she murmured, running a thumb over one of the cheeks. “I need them to be scared.”
“You think the mask makes you scary?” Quinn was frowning.
“They’re scared of Shadow, the assassin. Sawyer, my face…I was just Axel’s whore. I’m not a threat - but I am with this mask on.” She looked up at them again. “Plus, it makes me disappear in the dark easier. It’s just a good mask.”
“Sure,” Elijah muttered. He wasn’t sure how to feel about the mask. There was a line he couldn’t see, but for some reason he felt like that mask was crossing it. It stank of enchantments he found disgusting. The mask had…hooks he could sense. It drained a Magi of their power every second it was worn. It bled them out. She must know and not care or had taken it into account.
The Magi didn’t believe in dark magic. The Source and its abilities, whatever a Magi got were all equal. But the enchantments on that mask were one of the closest things he would have considered as dark magic. Like the healer in Texas, twisting his ability to kill with a touch instead of heal.
And he watched her push the mask to her face and it went from solid to inky and covered her face. She changed. The moment it was on, he knew the difference between Sawyer and the enigmatic concept of Shadow. Her alternate personality. A shield between her heart and what she was doing.
She wasn’t stepping over whatever line he couldn’t see. She was running over it with disregard. She was being everything Axel made her, and Elijah physically felt the pain of it in his chest. This was the sort of thing Axel drove his team to do. He drove them to their worst, not their best.
And the nagging sensation in the back of his mind refused to abate.
18
Sawyer
Sawyer waited next to the SUV as the team talked about what the plan was one more time before they split up.
“IMAS is coming in with us here. They report directly to any of us and every decision must come to me.” Vincent’s tone didn’t allow any argument. “Unlike California, we’re treating this more like the Amazon. They will see us coming and be prepared for a fight. We’re talking arms dealers, paramilitary, and the rest of their ilk. Mercenaries, not thugs. They will put up a fight, even if Sawyer secures Leonard. We need to be prepared to take people down.”
“Of course we will be. Quinn’s coming in with the team this time, right?” Jasper asked, looking over the map on the SUV hood.
“Yes. The wolves and Sombra will stay with him as well. Unless…Sawyer, you sure you don’t want her with you?”
She looked up from the blade that she had been flipping around in her hand. “I’m sure. She knows what to do. She’ll be a good assist to you all. If I need her, she knows how to get to me. This is close to her home range. Just a different type of jungle. I just can’t take her in with me. She won’t be able to follow me well enough.”
A sense of pride came from her cat though. She didn’t agree, but she accepted her Magi’s decision again. She would protect the males unless Sawyer needed her. The pride in the cat came from the fact that Sawyer trusted her absolutely to keep the males alive. Sawyer would trust no one else to the task, especially not a bunch of fucking IMAS soldiers.
“Okay.” Vincent nodded once and went back to it. “Sawyer, if you want to get in there before us, you need to take off.”
“I know,” she murmured. “I wanted you alone for a moment.” There was something bugging her just a little. She had thought about it earlier in the day, but had waited for a good moment. She wasn’t willing to wait until after this raid, though. She had a strange feeling. She didn’t like the jungle. Then again, none of them did, not really, not after the last time they were in one.
“Okay. I’ll come talk to you. Guys, review your parts.” Vincent walked to her, and they ducked further behind the SUV. Not too far from the team, but far enough where they could talk privately. “What’s wrong?”
“Where is he?” she asked softly.
“If I knew, I would tell you,” Vincent answered, frowning. “You know I would.”
“That’s not what I mean. Five months ago - hell, six or seven - he wanted my head and was willing to do anything to get it. Where is he?”
She watched Vincent realize what she meant. Axel hadn’t come after her or the team yet, even though they had defeated him once before. She hadn’t realized how strange it was, not fully, until after the first raid. It felt like they were the only ones fighting the war. Where was Axel?
“He doesn’t do revenge, for one. It’s not his MO.” Vincent sighed. “Not like he did with you…”
“Exactly. This is me we’re talking about. So where is he?” She felt like she was asking for trouble, but the question was beginning to eat at her. Why hadn’t he come after her? It would have made this so much easier.
“Axel doesn’t make the same mistakes twice, Sawyer. He’s not going to come back after you like that. Not this time. For one, when he tried l
ast time, you were just running from him, hiding. You were willing to exist in the same world as him and he didn’t find that acceptable. Then he came after you and in the process, the team…then he lost.” Vincent ran a hand through his curls. “I’ve thought about it too. I knew he wouldn’t play that game again. Not the vendetta. Sawyer, what’s more dangerous? An Axel that wants you to die, consequences be damned, or one that will do anything to win, including ignore you?”
She let her jaw drop. Ignore her? “He wouldn’t ignore me.”
“He ignored me for years and it won him the game. He stayed ten steps ahead, and he was winning and I was falling behind until he got sloppy. That tactic wins him this. We’ll run ourselves into the ground and if we never catch up, he wins. He won’t be stupid again.” Vincent took a deep breath. “You know that.”
“I just figured when he realized we were on the case and actually working on it, he would take the challenge. He would react and come after us.”
“He doesn’t even know where we are. Think about it, Sawyer. He was out for roughly a month before we even found out and he never tried to kill you. He played other people to try. Hell, his connection to what happened in New York is vague at best. He’s playing this very smart and very privately. He’s not going to be in the same room with us until he has to be, and then it’s going to be his last ditch effort.”
“And we’re hoping this drives him to it.” Yeah, she remembered that was the idea behind all of this. But she wanted to hunt him. She wanted Axel. She wanted to envision his face and know he was the target, not his pawns. She had, somewhere deep, hoped he came after her again like he once had. “So we’re playing against a…”
“A ghost,” Vincent finished, nodding. “He’s not going to show himself or his hand. I know my brother, Sawyer, and so do you. Did you really think he would come out fighting like he had in Atlanta when that lost him the war for a moment?”
“No,” she agreed softly. “No, I think I knew, but…”
“But sometimes it’s good for someone else to say it. What did you tell me? One step at a time?”
“Yeah,” she chuckled darkly.
“Well, that’s chess too. One move at a time, and all the while, you try to predict the next move and the one after that.”
“And then suddenly you know the different ways the game can go and you can be ten steps ahead.”
“We’re flying blind, in a sense, since he’s gone to ground and is leading from who knows where, but so is he. He has no idea what we have in our pocket either.”
“Missy. Yeah. I’ll head out now. Thanks for talking to me.” She touched his shoulder and he grabbed her wrist, pulling her closer before she could walk away.
“Be safe,” he whispered. “And keep those comms on.”
“I will.” She kissed him in return, the mask making it feel strange. She walked away before he could hold her longer. She waved at the guys as she passed them. She had to make up ground. IMAS was already rolling up - she could hear them in the distance - and she needed to disappear into the dark jungle.
It was easy to slide into the darkness, focusing on the direction she needed to go. Deep out there was a compound where thousands of weapons were being stockpiled and sold to different groups, fueling wars all over the continent. Africa was never the most stable place, and it only gave Axel a breeding ground of funds to use. This would cut him off at the knees in another area.
Another step forward to her goal of taking him down forever, wherever he was.
She could hear the trickling of the rain, feel the humidity, and, even in the night, the heat. It was so reminiscent of her time in the jungles of South America. Fuck, if she never saw another damned jungle, it would be too soon. Sure, the Congo and the Amazon were very different places, but to Sawyer, a jungle was still a jungle, and they all sucked.
Unless she had Quinn with her. For a moment, she let her mind wander to the idea of waterfalls and a small village where she and the feral Magi found something neither of them expected. A connection fulfilled, hearts full of love. Like she had found it with her entire team. Her family.
Even the thought of them reminded her why she was doing all of this. Not the WMC, not even her own redemption, that pardon just out of reach. For them. Always for them. The world wasn’t safe for anyone with Axel Castello able to walk around.
Maybe this time she would make the world safe. That’s what she wanted. To go home and never fear for their lives like she had always feared before.
The compound came into view as she continued to push through the vegetation. She pulled her magic over her, watching the world become shades of grey as the cloak made her invisible. She continued closer, careful with every step not to make too much noise. She wanted to sound like any other creature in the jungle, not some human stomping around. That would be IMAS and the team. They would get noticed long before they reached the compound, and they knew it.
No, she was going to get in completely silent again, while no one knew what was happening.
She slipped through two guards and dared to sublimate in the dark to get through the chain link fence. Reforming, she cloaked so fast she knew no one would see her. She moved swiftly towards a secondary building, one she knew would be empty. It was the home of the power generator and back up. It would give her a spot to breathe before entering the main building. She snuck inside, saw no one was there and took a deep breath, dropping her cloak for the second so it didn’t drain her magic further. Part one complete.
“Vin, I’m in,” she whispered, knowing the tiny mic would pick it up. “Going dark.”
She knew he wouldn’t respond, but she also knew the entire team would be thankful to hear at least that.
There would be no vents for AC in the building like there had been in California. She had to infiltrate the slow way. A window on the first floor would work. She just needed to pick one that didn’t have too many guards around it or anyone inside.
She pulled the cloak back over herself. Leonard was using paramilitary, mostly non-Magi like Alfie. Hell, Leonard used even fewer Magi, from her guess. She could feel maybe five through the property as she snuck around. It worked in her favor, since that meant none of them would feel her moving through them unless she physically touched them. Leonard probably did it so he had less competition in his play to stay on top of the group. Every Magi would be weaker than him.
She crept over the grounds towards the main building and looked inside a window. There were two guards in the room so she moved on. She didn’t care what they were doing, she wasn’t going to test trying to do a silent takedown unless it was the only option. She stopped at the next window. Three guards. Still no good.
She didn’t like this. Every window that wasn’t acceptable meant she had to stay cloaked for that minute or more longer. With that and the mask, her magic was slowly bleeding out. She had to keep moving.
It took five windows to find one she could work with. Only one guard, watching television with an antenna and getting frustrated. She sublimated, sliding in through the crack, and crept up behind the non-Magi as he turned off the television, probably tired of it. Reforming without a cloak on her, she wrapped an arm around his neck, forcing him into a sleeper hold before he even knew what was going on. They were both staring at the television as he struggled, pale and afraid. Not that she blamed him. From the reflection of the TV, she could tell she looked like Death itself. An emotionless obsidian face that held no pity as he went unconscious, and that refused to budge from her task.
He finally went under, not making nearly as much noise as he could have. She had purposefully spooked him in hopes of getting the shocked silence instead of a fight. She had gotten what she wanted.
Sawyer lowered him to the ground, propping him up. She didn’t bother to handcuff him or anything. If he was found, he was just napping on the job like an idiot. Someone would be mad at him for this, but still never know she was there.
Countless times. She knew everything becaus
e she had done this countless times. Hunting was her specialty and she was off the leash. It made her feel alive, like it always did. It made her feel powerful, the ability to creep through these men with no one the wiser. No one had any idea she was there, about to turn their lives into hell.
She slipped out of the small room, cloaking again as she did, and into the empty hallway. Leonard’s office was on the top floor. Easy enough to get to. She moved towards the stairs, careful not to touch any of the non-Magi roaming around. She blinked to the top of the first set of stairs. Then the next, and the one after that. She couldn’t risk creaky stairs in the jungle-beaten building.
She could feel him clearly now, and even hear him. He was talking to someone, but she didn’t know who. He must be on the phone.
Right outside his door, she heard something she hadn’t expected.
“I’ve heightened security, but it seems it didn’t work. She’s here. You don’t mind being on hold, do you, Axel? I’ll take care of this.”
Shock raced through her, freezing her for a moment. It took half a second too long for her to shake it and get moving.
She pushed his door open, letting her magic cloak drop. She caught Leonard smiling as he put the phone down. She blinked towards him and ended up by herself behind his desk. Turning quickly, she saw him standing in the doorway. She was still in shock, thinking about the man on the other end of the line, the name on hold on Leonard’s cellphone. She should have gone after him faster, should have thought about his powers.
“Well, looks like we had similar ideas.” The next instant, his fist connected to her jaw. She just hadn’t been ready for it.
She hated fighting other people who could fucking blink. She hadn’t expected him to feel her when she got close. Quickly, as he grabbed her, she tried to remember all his powers. Blinking, telekinesis, telepathy. She tried to blink across the office again to shake him but he had contact now and his fist hit her ribs. She tried to hit him back but he stopped her hands with his telekinesis, pushing back on them to slow her attacks down just enough.
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 150