He shed a few slow tears and placed his hand upon hers.
“I was afraid for you,” he whispered. “Afraid that perhaps coming back to you would put you in danger.”
“I’ve always been in danger,” she answered. “That never stopped you before.”
He smiled at her. “It will never stop me again.”
I didn’t want to interrupt their reunion, but this was not a situation where we had time to waste. I took a step forward.
“Wait,” Luna whispered, grabbing ahold of my shirt.
I turned to look at her.
“Just wait.”
Evelyn dropped Walter’s face and moved away from him, toward me and Luna.
“Who are your lovely friends?”
“Morgan,” I said, being sure not to let “Clem” or “Aidan” slip out.
Luna bowed her head. “Mona,” she said.
I hadn’t realized she had chosen a name yet. Mona—it suited her.
“Let’s not drag this out,” I said. “We’re here for a reason.”
Evelyn nodded. “Of course you are,” she said sweetly. “What can I help you with?”
“We need The Silver Wing,” I said.
She jolted her head toward Walter, and he nodded, moving to stand beside her.
“We have a problem,” he said. “See…Clem—eh Morgan here has gotten involved with The Sevren in a way that is irreversible as it usually is. We need to finally put a stop to them.”
“How?” she asked. “The Silver Wing has been inactive for years.”
“I know,” he answered, raising his hand. “That’s why we need your help.”
“You want me to gather the members?”
Walter nodded. “Yes.”
Evelyn narrowed her eyes and locked her gaze onto mine then Luna’s. We said nothing.
“This is going to start a battle, am I right?”
“Yes,” I said.
She sighed. “I’m more than willing to help regroup The Silver Wing, but this means a lot of proper planning.”
“We don’t have time for that!” I retorted. “Just get them together and get them to North Bend.”
“Mr. Morgan—”
“Just Morgan.”
“Morgan,” she corrected. “It isn’t that easy.”
“Why?” I snapped. “Why can’t you just get them all to North Bend?”
“It will be chaotic.”
“I don’t care!” I said. “Really. We just need to intrude on a Sevren gathering.”
“Are you crazy?” Luna cried. “Was this your plan from the start?”
I ignored her. “Draw out our weapons and fight them,” I said. “To the death.”
Luna’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, James, I knew you were crazy, but this is going way too far!”
“Can’t you people just stick to one name?” I yelled, ignoring the rest of what she had said. “It’s Morgan. Get used to it.”
“Fine,” she snapped. “Morgan—you’re an idiot!”
“Mona—you’re irritating! If you don’t want to help us, fine. Don’t. But I refuse to stop fighting for Jane…and Walter too. Just look at him, Luna!” I pointed toward Walter without averting my gaze. “Don’t you see what he can have? What we all can have if we win?”
“And if we don’t win?”
“Then what do we lose?”
She sighed and looked at Walter. She took a deep breath, making eye contact with me again. Slowly, she nodded her head. “Okay,” she whispered. Her voice grew louder. “But I still think you’re completely crazy!”
I smiled. “I’ve heard it before.”
“Evey?” Walter started. “Can you get the members together?”
She nodded. “We need Ian. We need him to play undercover one more time.”
“You want him to call a Sevren meeting, yes?”
“Have him do whatever it takes to get all of them there at the same time.”
Walter nodded obediently.
“Take a flight back to North Bend tonight. I will meet you there in a day’s time from when you arrive.”
“And we will fight then?” I asked.
Evey nodded. “And win.”
I had to address my concerns. It wouldn’t make sense to get through everything just to have it fall apart because of things I didn’t mention.
“What about the others?”
“What do you mean?” Walter questioned.
“I mean…the others,” I repeated. “Like Dorian. The ones who work behind the scenes as you put it.”
He nodded. “Look…Morgan, when The Sevren are killed, at least a significant number, the rest will flee. If there is no order, then there is nothing to hold them together. The others will flounder and disappear. It won’t matter once the leaders are gone and all of the ones who are radical followers. The others take their orders from the upper ranked members. They are the ones who need to be stopped. Once they are, The Sevren will no longer exist.”
I nodded. “So…no need to worry?”
He shook his head. “No. No need to worry.”
“Okay,” Luna announced. “Let’s get ourselves prepared.”
Back in North Bend, there wasn’t much we could do except think positively. Luna stayed locked in her room for hours, clunking and knocking around.
“What’s going on in there?” Walter asked, chuckling as usual.
“Luna’s fighting an invisible assailant,” I teased.
Walter smiled. “It couldn’t hurt to practice.”
I shook my head. “No. I want to let myself defend as the attacks come. Things never work out as they do in your head. Using my imagination will cause me to imagine things differently and prepare myself for things that won’t happen that way.”
He nodded. “I understand. Get Luna to help you.”
I laughed. “I want to be unscathed before I fight.”
“Good point.” He laughed back.
“I’ll talk to her about some practice moves.”
“Let me know if you need some more assistance.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Her fist crashed into my cheek, and I stumbled backward with a groan.
“God damn, Luna!” I yelled. “Didn’t I ask you to not hit me?”
She laughed. “Sorry. You didn’t block the attack. That was on you.”
I growled. “You are angering sometimes.”
She smiled. “Again?”
“I don’t surrender,” I said, falling back into my fighting stance.
Walter strutted into the room without knocking.
“You look very concentrated there, Clem,” he said, moving my attention to him.
“Morgan.”
“Right,” he muttered. “Still getting used to it.”
“What do you need?”
“Evelyn is here,” he said. “She called Ian, and he’s on his way. He needs some words with us.”
“Ian doesn’t trust me an ounce,” I said.
Walter nodded. “I know. But he trusts me and Evey. It’s all right.”
I nodded. “Fine.”
I continued taking Luna’s blows to my face and stomach until I was able to figure her out a little better and ended up pinning her down a few times.
“Careful,” she said as I straddled her, wrenching the fake dagger from her hand.
“I’m not actually going to hurt you,” I said.
“Oh, but I want you to.”
I instantly got off her. “Good God.”
She started laughing as though it were the funniest thing she’d ever heard. “Hey, I’m sorry,” she teased. “I’m not being serious. Well…not entirely anyway.”
“It really isn’t funny,” I complained.
“If you saw your face, you might have thought it was.”
I just shook my head. So typical of her.
Walter knocked on the door then. Perfect timing.
“Come on,” he said. “We are having a meeting. We need
to discuss how this is going to work.”
I sat beside Luna on the couch, and Walter, Evelyn, and Ian stood in front of us. We all looked at each other, not sure where to begin.
“How will this go down?” I asked.
Ian looked at me and shook his head. “I’m not sure. That’s why I thought it would be best to discuss it together.”
Walter chimed in. “How many are there?”
“A lot,” he answered. “Over twice our number.”
He sighed loudly.
“We need guns,” Ian announced.
“What?” Luna instantly stood to her feet, her blue eyes wide and furious.
“You heard me,” Ian snapped. “We are outnumbered, Luna.”
“I don’t care!” she shouted. “There are enough of us to defeat them.”
“No!” Ian answered. “There aren’t. There are twenty of us at the most. The Sevren has called together at least fifty. We—need—guns.”
“Then you can count me out!” she yelled. “I will not be part of your sickness!”
I wanted to respond, wanted to say something that would calm the tension, but nothing came to mind. I was interested in their debate, unsure of where I stood. I agreed with Luna, but Ian was right. We couldn’t win with our strength alone, could we? But guns? I never believed in guns—even before The Sevren, before I was James West. I hated them. I tried to say something, but Luna and Ian were still shouting at each other.
“Hey,” I called.
Neither of them heard me.
“HEY!”
Luna turned.
“What, Jame—Morgan?”
“Just relax,” I said. “I hate guns just as much as you do. There has to be something we can do, some type of compromise.”
“There is no compromise,” she growled. “I refuse to touch a gun unless I have no other choice.”
“Ian…is there anything else we can do?”
He shook his head. “I really don’t think so.”
“Nothing?”
He shook his head again. “No other choice.”
Luna just shook her head. “You have talked me into too much already. Guns are not our way.”
“Luna, we have no other choice.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I won’t be a part of it.”
I sighed and stood to my feet. “You have to help us. We can’t do this without you.”
She shook her head. “No. I won’t give in to you this time.”
She stormed off to her room, and I heard the click of the lock. Great. She wasn’t budging.
Walter sighed. “What do we do now?”
“We don’t have a choice,” Ian said. “We have to fight without her.”
I flopped back on the couch.
“Maybe I can talk to her,” Evey said softly.
I shook my head. “She’s stubborn.”
She smiled. “So am I.”
Walter chuckled. “That’s the damn truth if there is one.”
“Be nice,” she teased.
“I’m always nice,” he answered back, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.
She smiled and headed toward Luna’s door. I ignored her pleads for Luna to let her in and turned my attention back to Walter and Ian.
“When will this happen?” I asked.
“Soon,” Ian answered.
Walter let out a sharp sound, expressing his nervousness.
“We are all in this together,” Ian continued. “We all need to stay loyal to each other.” He shifted his eyes to me.
That was it for me. “What do you have against me, Ian?” I demanded.
“I have something against The Sevren,” he retorted.
“As do I,” I said, standing up again. “Why the hell do you think I’m here? Why do you think I have spent all this time protecting Jane?”
“This isn’t the right time to argue this,” he said.
“No,” I answered. “I think it’s the perfect time.”
“Morgan,” Walter whispered, “please. Not now.”
I huffed and sat back down. “Just so you know…I am doing this for Jane…and I don’t like you.”
Ian nodded. “That’s fine.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The battle came swiftly, sooner than any of us had anticipated. I stood frozen stiff with Walter and Ian at my side. Evelyn stood behind us. She seemed fragile to us, and Walter felt a need to protect her. Fortunately, I knew she was stronger than we were willing to credit her for.
I felt my insides slightly trembling and that familiar burn and yanking on my nerves and a wrenching feeling on the muscles in my chest. Danger was approaching. That was obvious, and I didn’t need my annoying radar to be screaming at me right now. I needed to stay focused.
The Sevren were cloaked and hooded in black and dark blue. They didn’t even appear human. It was strange not to see Abraham in front of the crowd like I normally would have, and I almost shivered at the memory of killing him. They didn’t even seem to notice us yet. My body began to shake, knowing at any moment they would turn around and see us. My knife was already bared, and a gun hid in the waistband of my pants. I shuddered at the thought of using it. Ian had only his muffled pistol raised. I hated him for it.
Going on training alone, I inhaled, telling myself to stay calm. I saw a Sevren member turn around. I remembered him. Dillon—one of Abraham’s favorites. He was holding a silver goblet in his hand. My mind began screeching in disgust. I remembered when I had held that same goblet in my hands. I cringed at the memory. I felt Walter touch my shoulder, and I realized I was gnashing my teeth together, practically growling at Dillon like a beast. I inhaled again, trying to regain my control, trying to ignore the blood-filled goblet. The Sevren stood silent, all of them staring at us. It felt like hours before the maddening stillness was finally broken. Dillon laughed.
“Hand him over,” he said, his voice almost sounding feminine in my mind. “No need for a fight. Just hand him over, and we will pretend we never saw you.”
“We brought nobody for you,” Walter said.
Dillon glared at him. “He’s the only one we want,” he said with obvious stress in his voice.
“I’m sure he is,” Walter answered. “We didn’t bring him for you.”
Dillon growled, but his words were stolen when the sound of footsteps approached. I tried with every ounce of strength I had to contain the smile spreading its way across my face. They were here. Women and men alike flooded the clearing, surrounding The Sevren with knives and guns bared strong.
“What the hell is going on?” Dillon spat, dropping the goblet, splashing blood onto his cloak.
“Do you need to ask?” I taunted.
“You!” he snarled, stepping closer to me, pointing a bloody finger at my chest. “This is all you.”
I smiled. “You give me too much credit. But thanks—I’ll accept it.”
A growl erupted from him, and he pulled out a bone knife still dripping with blood. The others followed, and before I knew it, I was surrounded by a blur of movement. Screams of anger and battle cries filled my ears. It was surreal. I kept myself focused on my knife and Dillon’s knife—nothing else.
My anger was boiling, and I instinctively thrust my knife toward him. He simply moved aside, slashing the blade across my torso. That was a mistake on my part. I got ahold of my anger and regulated my breathing. There was no pain yet, but I was certain it was a deep cut—at least four centimeters in length, right between my lower ribs.
He advanced again, coming toward my chest. Relying again on my training, I twisted my wrist and deflected his blade the crucial inch that may very well have saved my life. I swiveled around to his other side and in a series of quick movements, grabbed him by the waist and shoved him face-first into a tree. He groaned and toppled over unconscious. I couldn’t take any chances and plunged my blade deep into his chest. I moved away from him, and my eyes flickered to Evelyn moving like a machine, dropping enemies flat in seconds. She was shocking
ly competent with a blade.
I brought my attention back to the enemy, watching them struggle with the heavy, loose-fitting cloaks obstructing their maneuvers. I caught sight of Walter on the ground, struggling ineffectively to fight off an enemy who was looming over his body. I hurled myself toward them, grabbing the monster by his hair, wrenching his head back and driving my blade across his throat. He crumpled in a heap over Walter’s body. I rolled the Sevren member off him, and Walter instantly stood to his feet without help even when I offered him my hand. He nodded at me in thanks and turned away, instantly falling back into his fighting stance, now completely covered in Sevren blood. It even clung to his hair, but he wasn’t fazed by it. His mind was focused.
A sharp pain suddenly pierced my back, and I found myself on my knees, groaning in agony. A man quickly approached me, knocking my enemy away and offering me his hand. He was clearly a loyal member of The Silver Wing, judging by the feather tattoo on his bare, upper chest. I took his hand and stumbled to my feet. The shallow stab wound in my back screamed at me. I could feel my heartbeat in my ears.
“I’m all right,” I tried to say. I reached out to him again…or I tried to. He caught me as I fell into his chest.
“I’ll get you out of here!” he said.
“No!” I protested. “No, I’m all right.”
“Are you—?”
I raised my hand. “I’m fine. Go.”
He nodded and returned to the battle.
I pushed aside the pain and continued fighting with all the strength I had left. Everything was still a blur. The muffled gunfire and cries were all like something from a nightmare. Another came at me with two knives in hand. My arms were straining to hold off his attacks. My wounds began to throb as I moved, and I could feel the wetness of blood running down the lengths of my limbs. I rammed by knee into his stomach and backed away, drawing out the gun. I shut my eyes and squeezed the trigger. I heard a cry of rage as I shot, but it wasn’t from my enemy. It was a female voice. My eyes darted open to see Luna straddling my enemy, pulling her blade from his chest. My eyes grew wide.
“I couldn’t let you damage your honor,” she said.
Summers' Shadow (Hunters Trilogy Book 2) Page 23