She sublimated to break his hold, and in a second she realized that she had fucked up. Blinking, telepathy, telekinesis, and air manipulation.
She knew that trick. Naseem was just as strong a master of air manipulation.
“Bad move, Shadow!” Leonard laughed as he pushed magic into her. She tried to reform. She had fucked this up royally.
Her mind screamed in pain as Leonard began to do the one thing she always avoided so carefully. He was pulling her apart by the atom.
NO! STOP! HELP! ANYONE! PLEASE!
Her own screams just echoed back to her in the void of her mind.
Stupid. She had been thrown while she was being overconfident.
Idiotic. She had distracted herself with thoughts of the guys instead of running down everything she knew of this guy, preparing herself for every possibility.
And now she was very possibly going to die without anyone ever knowing. She was going to take Sombra with her.
She couldn’t die. In the seconds of pain that Leonard had already put her through, a torture that felt like her very soul was being ripped apart, she remembered she absolutely couldn’t die.
She could work through the pain. She knew she could.
Pain was nothing.
A mental deep breath. It meant nothing.
She had to literally pull herself back together while he was trying to tear her apart.
She pulled all of her magic to her, every tiny piece, hoping she could pull all of her smoke back to herself. She needed it. She needed all of it.
She kept ignoring the pain. The debilitating, unreal pain.
Unreal. She focused on that word. She was just smoke. The pain wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. She wasn’t a body. She had no nerves or flesh. No way to break her bones, not in this form.
She held onto that belief and it happened. She pushed the pain down.
She reformed.
Leonard didn’t miss a beat, slamming her cheek with a fist the moment she was able to open her eyes and truly see again. It shoved her back into a close wall.
But now she was pissed off. She grabbed his fist on the next swing and threw her head forward, slamming his nose with her forehead. He stumbled back and looked up at her, wiping blood off his face.
“Well, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Shadow.” It was sarcastic and biting. He wore a dangerous smile, ready for the challenge she was about to give him.
“Likewise.” She blinked forward, throwing another swing.
It was on now.
19
Quinn
Quinn watched Sawyer leave, ignoring the men talking around him. He felt her as far as he could. Since it wasn’t his territory, he couldn’t know her exact place as well as he could have at home, back in Georgia. That land had been so flooded with his magic, he had been able to pinpoint her to the inch, as he proved to her time and time again.
Not out here.
It worried him more than the California raid. This one was so much like the Amazon and that had him even more pissed off about their entire mission than anything had yet. Here they were, in a place so much like that place, signing up to get hurt again.
And why?
To stop a madman that kept hurting his pack. He was so tired of it. He wanted blood. He wanted to shred the rival apart and howl in victory as his pack reigned supreme. He wanted to kill and be vicious.
It took everything he had to contain it. Since that day with Vincent and the children, he was containing it, barely. But that pain from Vincent had marked him. It had marked him deep enough that he felt the near-constant threat of Axel around every corner. The only thing he had going for him was that others needed him calm. He could be calm. He could hunt when it was time, and it was finally time again to go hunting.
It brought out something feral in him, like a piece of a man he barely knew anymore. A man he used to be, if he could have even been considered a man at the time. The Druid in the Amazon hadn’t angered him like this, but Axel brought out everything he once was, took him back to times where Quinn had to be vicious to survive.
And unfortunately for Axel, there were no Druids involved in this, which made Quinn the most powerful Magi in the entire situation.
That made him feel good.
“Quinn, we’re going to start moving,” Elijah told him as the cowboy patted his shoulder. “How far is she?”
“Past my range,” he answered. “She’s disappeared into the night.”
“Of course she has.” Elijah sighed. “She’ll check in with us, don’t worry.”
“I wasn’t worried.” Sawyer didn’t worry him. No, he had pure confidence in her skills. She was a natural predator. He knew it wasn’t all her time with Axel either. It was the way she carried herself. The stories he heard of her youth even told the same tale. Her time with Axel had only sharpened and honed her skills to a deadly precision.
But she was so obviously always a predator. He wasn’t worried about her.
His thoughts were interrupted by an argument unfolding near him. He and Elijah both pivoted as the commanding officer of the IMAS Spec Ops team tried to talk over Vincent. They had been granted an elite team for this particular mission, which was better than the low-ranking grunts from the Amazon.
But not much better. They were still soldiers, and the team had a bad history with them.
“Well, Special Agent Castello, I’m saying-”
“You’ll follow orders or we’ll go without you.” Vincent’s voice cracked like a whip. “I won’t take any damned insubordination from a bunch of soldiers in the jungle. Not again.”
There was a heavy silence after that. Quinn glanced at Jasper, who was shifting on his feet uncomfortably. Then Zander, who had paled slightly. Elijah’s chest began to rise and fall faster and harder than before. All small signs that the Amazon, from only a few short months ago, had left marks on them they would never escape. He knew the other men were talking to people, doctors, the same type they wanted Sawyer to talk to. For the team, it was natural. Something happened and they worked on making sure it didn’t become a permanent issue.
“Yes sir,” the soldier finally mumbled, defeated.
Quinn grinned dangerously. “Good, because I’m not in the mood.”
“Quinn.” Elijah’s tone was a warning to back off, but Quinn wasn’t joking and he wasn’t backing down. There was too much going on for them to deal with these soldiers. If they tried any of the tricks the last men did, he would just bury them. His magic was already whipping around, proving who the most powerful person in the group was. Elijah wanted him to calm down.
“Let’s move,” Vincent called, breaking the entire affair up. “Team, I would like all of you close with me.”
“I’m sending the animals out. Will you send Kaar out to scout?” Quinn asked him. Vincent only nodded, his eyes becoming unfocused as he drew closer. Pushing on his bond with the wolves, Quinn sent the orders. Look, but don’t engage. Observe and be ready to launch into an attack when needed. Through the wolves, he knew Sombra got the orders, the black jaguar jumping up and melting into the night without anyone saying a word to her.
The journey would be long. As the group began to move, Quinn counted every step. They were a decent distance from the compound they were raiding tonight, which was for the best. They couldn’t meet up too close or they could have been ambushed. But the long walk in the cloak of night was hard. Well, for everyone except Quinn. He didn’t mind it too much. He heard Elijah curse once. He heard another person stumble - probably Jasper, since the terrain was unfamiliar. He heard whispers from Zander about venomous snakes and how he hoped they didn’t run into any.
Surprisingly, the soldiers were silent and focused, their weapons drawn as they crept forward, branching out from the team on either side, hidden in the bushes and trees nearby.
“Do they ever talk?” Elijah asked, looking between the team in the dark.
“Every member of IMAS Spec Ops has telepathy. They’re having conversati
ons in their heads,” Jasper reminded everyone. Quinn nodded slowly. “It’s what makes them so efficient.”
“Not a bad idea,” Vincent murmured. “They don’t announce that, do they?”
“No,” Jasper confirmed.
“We’d rather if some agent didn’t blast our secrets either,” one of the soldiers commented. Quinn bristled at the superiority of the comment. Some agent? Jasper was a fantastic Magi and his packmate, not just some agent.
“Well, it’s good for me to know. I have telepathy. So does our healer, Zander. If you need anything, you can get in touch with one of us. You should have made sure to tell me when we started.” Vincent’s words were harsh and unforgiving. Glad that someone was sticking up for the team, Quinn kept moving forward, but not before using some earth to trip up the soldier who made the comment.
It was several minutes later when Zander made the anxious comment that was weighing on everyone’s mind. “We’re taking so long to get there. Is Sawyer okay?”
“I can’t say anything to her,” Vincent reminded him. “I can’t distract her. She’ll get in touch when she has a safe moment.”
“What if she’s hurt or…” Zander’s anxiety began to climb.
“I would know. Sombra would know as well. The wolves are keeping me updated on any big changes in her behavior.”
“That’s right.” Zander sounded appeased by that. “After the last…”
“Yeah, we’re all thinking about the Amazon right now,” Elijah muttered. “This is just too damned similar.”
The slow walk continued for five minutes when they finally got what Zander had been asking for.
“Vin, I’m in. Going dark.”
Quinn stopped walking as her voice came from the tiny little earpiece. Everyone on the team had. She was going dark and was in the compound. She had them by fifteen minutes, maybe more. She wasn’t being slowed down by the group.
“Glad we got that news,” Vincent said with a sigh. “Keep moving, everyone, and let’s pick up the speed. We have someone in there with no backup yet.”
And they started to walk faster, nearly breaking out in a jog. The soldiers picked up the new urgency quickly. And it only took ten minutes for them to reach the compound instead of fifteen.
Too bad. The moment Quinn saw the fence, gunfire lit up the night - and it wasn’t from his side. Three guard towers were holding soldiers and there were more behind cover, waiting on them.
“Everyone get down!” a soldier roared. Quinn ducked as he threw a wall of earth in front of the team as they scrambled to get cover and return fire.
“How did they see us this far out?” Vincent yelled. “In the middle of the fucking night of all times!”
“We might have missed some security out in the woods! Cameras or something!” Jasper answered. “We need to get inside!”
Gunfire was chipping his earth wall, but no other Magi dared to try and bring it down. Quinn used it to push forward and raised it higher to stop anyone from seeing over it.
“Everyone, stay with me!” he called back, motioning for the team to follow him. The soldiers weren’t his problem.
Vincent was at his back the fastest, sublimating to close the distance. Elijah, Zander, and Jasper were close behind him.
“What’s the plan?” Vincent asked quickly.
“I’m bringing it down,” he snarled and shoved against his earth wall with a force of magic that had Vincent stumbling back. Quinn hadn’t held back. It caused the earth beneath them to rumble harder than any earthquake.
And the earth wall came down, collapsing onto the fence and several enemies, many of whom screamed as it fell to crush them. It took down one of the guard towers that had been hiding others.
Without pause, and leaving his team in shock, Quinn opened the earth beneath another tower and watched it fall so deep that it disappeared. Then he closed it, killing anyone stupid enough not to run.
“We need some alive, Quinn,” Vincent screamed. The IMAS team was now flooding into the compound as well.
“FIND SAWYER!” he roared back. If the soldiers had been waiting on the team, that meant they could have found her already. She was somewhere in this and he was having too much difficulty parsing between all the magical signatures around him. He was enraged that he couldn’t pinpoint her exact location, only knowing she was alive and somewhere nearby.
But where?
“Sombra!” he called out. “Find her!”
Yes, her jaguar would find her.
While the feline ran in to do that, his wolves jumped into the fray, taking down a paramilitary thug between them. Quinn crushed a man raising his weapon to shoot his boys and then flung a massive rock at another running out of a smaller building. The rock slammed into something electrical and sparks flew.
And the compound’s flood lights died.
Quinn grinned viciously. Now they were all fighting in the dark - and he, for one, was completely okay with that.
He focused harder on finding her. Inside the big building, along with another Magi that seemed just as strong as her. He snarled. He wanted to tear down the building to stop her enemy, but he knew it would only injure her as well. He was better in large spaces, not enclosed hallways. But she was good in the dark. He hoped she was taking advantage of it.
“Quinn, contain this!” Vincent ordered, firing on another man.
With a single nod, Quinn did just that. He summoned more of his strength and threw up earth walls following the line of the metal fence, throwing it out of the ground and replacing it with something he controlled. Now he would know if anyone tried to run from his team.
“Good! Now, capture as many as you can!” Vincent glared at him.
Quinn bared his teeth, realizing Vincent wouldn’t allow him to slaughter the entire enemy pack - and if he did, it would be unforgivable. He began pulling the soldiers down into the earth, where he would leave them until the team had time to restrain each one. It was bothersome, annoying work, but he knew he couldn’t just kill anyone who stood between him, his pack, and Sawyer.
He wanted to, though.
Once he was done with this, he was going to get to her. Maybe seeing her alive would make him feel less bloodthirsty.
20
Sawyer
Her elbow connected with his jaw, flinging him back. He was able to connect a punch to her ribs as he staggered. She ducked as he swung another for her head, sending two quick jabs into his gut.
He grabbed onto her shirt and blinked, taking her on a journey. She wasn’t able to anticipate being swung into a wall. She looked up, blinking them over the desk and slamming him down next. She held him down for a second to slam a fist into his face, as he kneed upwards and caught her in the crotch.
That brought a groan from her. That shit was painful no matter what someone had between their legs.
The door swung open as he shoved her off and jumped up. She moved in time for the knife not to land between her eyes, instead grazing her ear. Gunfire made the world explode in sound. She figured he used his telepathy to tell his men she was there.
She took cover behind his desk as bullets rained into the room. She closed her eyes for a second to find him, and noticed he was making distance. He was running, that shit. She could hear more gunfire outside. The guys must have shown up with backup.
A snarl and a scream. She felt Sombra brush the bond between them.
“Damned cat,” Sawyer hissed. “I wanted you to stay out of the middle of this shit.”
The next time a gun went off, it wasn’t in her direction. That made Sawyer jump up and over the desk and rush the first guy she could get her hands on. She knocked him out efficiently as Sombra appeared and jumped on the next one. She blinked past her cat and tackled the next one, who was trying to raise his gun again to shoot her jaguar.
It took seconds and Sawyer was left standing among bodies, both dead and unconscious. Sombra licked her own jaws, and Sawyer saw the thick blood dripping down from her fur on to the floor.<
br />
“Good girl,” she murmured. “Now we need to catch him. Ready to help?”
Sombra’s answering growl was impressive, and the cat took off in a full run. Sawyer ran after her, blinking to close the distance as Sombra jumped out of a window. She followed out the window, running after the jaguar. Sombra was following his scent while Sawyer kept her mind focused on the Magi’s Source, not letting him out of her sixth sense.
They ran out of the compound right as the floodlights died and the world became dark. Not even a tiny bit of light from the moon or stars could get through the dense vegetation.
Sawyer immediately felt more at ease. Sombra paced away. They were both solitary predators, but they had practiced hunting together. Games in the woods with Quinn and the wolves. Sombra caught the scents of two other unknowns with their target and was going to head them off while Sawyer came from behind.
Perfect.
They moved fast, ducking and dodging every single obstacle. Sawyer didn’t know the Congo as well as she knew home, but she was now practiced enough to manage. It wasn’t long until she could hear Leonard and his two loudly running ahead of her. Their boots crunched the earth and vegetation.
“We need to get to the helicopter,” Leonard ordered. “I’m not dying tonight, do you hear me?”
Sawyer grinned. No, he wasn’t. She wasn’t going to kill him unless she had no choice. She wanted all of them in cells around the world, thinking about every mistake they’d ever made. Every piece of arrogance they ever showed, thinking they could hide behind Axel, thinking they could kiss his feet and hope for power. She didn’t want any of them dead. If she had to live with every decision she ever made, then they did too.
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 151