“Silence!” He roared, and she slammed back to the floor and slid several feet.
She pushed herself up, glaring at the Ghosts near her. Toni and Felix were both sitting on several boxes stoically. They watched her as she stood up and swayed. She rubbed her forehead as she turned back to Axel.
“Why don’t you just kill me?” She asked softly. “You have me. I have no magic. I’m completely helpless. Why am I not dead yet?”
“Because I want you to die screaming for mercy.” Axel’s glare would have scared her a long time ago. Back when she thought she loved him and that he loved her. When she was just his thief, looking for a good time. Young and stupid.
She had very little fear left in her, though. Acceptance was the place at which she had arrived. Today she was going to die, and she needed to be ready to meet whatever god or punishment was waiting for her. Maybe there wouldn’t be an afterlife. Just a cold dark abyss, a place where she would feel at home.
Fuck that. She was going to make this a pain in Axel’s ass.
“Let’s go,” she taunted, spreading her arms wide. She was flung across the room into a stack of boxes. It didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would, and she stood back up. Missy was waiting for her, and Sawyer grunted at the punch Missy landed to her ribs. Bones cracked.
“That’s for my face,” Missy snarled, grabbing Sawyer and tossing her back into the middle of the… Sawyer didn’t know where she was. She regained her feet for the third time and looked around.
What stood out was the small jet and giant doors at one end of the building. They were in an airplane hangar. Not helpful, Sawyer thought, but it was something. She couldn’t fly a plane, so the idea of escaping that way was dead before it even got started.
“Are you just going to toy with me, Axel?” She turned back to him. “Is this how it ends? Not with a bang, but with a whisper? You toss me around a little until I’m too broken to stand, and then you drive my own knife in me?”
“This is how it ends.” She didn’t like his flat voice. “To think I ever loved such a disloyal little bitch like you. You knew what would happen if I caught you with the IMPO, again.”
“Ha. Like you have the capability of love,” she snorted. “You sure as fuck never loved me. I was your property—a tool that you could manipulate to do your bidding.”
He cursed and tossed her again. She nearly landed on Felix, who kicked her while she was still in the air, so she landed away from him. That actually hurt.
“You murdered your son and then your brother. You think you have the ability love?” she hissed to Axel in Italian as she stood up again. “The fucking arrogance of that astounds me.”
She couldn’t breathe, but she kept her glare on him. He released his hold after fifteen agonizing seconds, and she was thankful she didn’t fall to her knees. Axel was never going to get her on her knees again.
“Come here,” he growled. She raised her chin. She straightened her spine and met his eye. Her body screamed in rebellion at her actions, but she didn’t care.
“No.” She narrowed her eyes on him. “I want a duel by the Second Law of the Old Ways.”
Axel’s eyes went wide for only a second, then he smiled viciously. Felix and Toni were both chuckling. Missy was laughing from behind Sawyer. Sawyer heard other Ghosts laughing around the hangar, but she wasn’t embarrassed. She knew Axel would give her what she wanted. If she was going to die, she was going to take one of them down with her. The Second Law of the Old Ways meant that magic couldn’t be used, so Sawyer had a fighting chance against anyone she was pitted against. It wasn’t binding, but she knew that Axel had a perverse sense of humor. He would force his little posse to follow the rules for the entertainment factor, alone.
“Fine.” Axel threw her blade, and Sawyer saw it bury itself into the concrete two feet in front of her. “Missy, handle her. Leave her alive, though. I want to kill her. Who’s ready for some entertainment?”
Sawyer jumped for the dagger as Missy jumped for her. Sawyer heard cheers come from different corners of the hangar bay, but she couldn’t worry about them just yet. Missy first. Of course, he chose Missy. She didn’t need magic to fuck someone up.
Sawyer got her hand on the blade and spun as Missy threw a punch. Sawyer barely ducked in time to avoid it and slashed upwards, leaving a thin red line across Missy’s thigh.
“You bitch,” Missy hissed.
“Let’s go,” Sawyer snarled, dodging Missy’s grab. She could not let Missy get her arms around her. She was strong enough to pop Sawyer like a balloon, and Sawyer didn’t want to die like that.
Sawyer and Missy circled in the center of the room. Missy had always been a difficult opponent for Sawyer. She was just fast enough to react to Sawyer’s blinking, and she was strong enough that it only took one or two hits for Sawyer to be out of the fight. She’d already cracked several of Sawyer’s ribs, and Sawyer knew she couldn’t get hit a second time.
Missy darted forward, and Sawyer shot to the right, going low, and sending her blade towards Missy’s ribs. She didn’t get it buried in the way she wanted, scraping Missy’s ribcage as Missy spun to knee Sawyer away.
Sawyer took the knee, unable to escape it. It hit the same cracked section of her own ribs and sent her flying.
“You’ll pay for that.” Missy stomped over to her, and Sawyer pushed herself up, knowing that one of her ribs was about to puncture a lung. Sawyer coughed and spit at Missy’s feet.
“People keep telling me that,” Sawyer growled. She didn’t like the blood she had just spit out, but there was nothing she could do about it, either. She was going to kill Missy. It would be one less Ghost for some future IMPO agent to deal with. It was would be Sawyer’s last good deed, even if it killed her.
And it would.
Missy charged, and Sawyer didn’t back down. She let Missy wrap her arms around her and knee Sawyer again in the same spot. Sawyer couldn’t stop the scream of pain, but she had what she wanted.
She slammed the knife into Missy’s gut. There wasn’t a healer in the hangar bay. None of the Ghosts would be saving Missy’s life today.
She staggered back, pulling the blade out as Missy began to stumble around, holding her gut.
Sawyer didn’t waste another second. She grabbed Missy’s hair, wrenched her head back, and shoved the dagger into her heart while she looked the Doppler in the eye.
“I’ll see you in the next life,” Sawyer snarled.
She wasn’t playing nice anymore. Missy was the eighth person she’d killed, and Sawyer let herself fall into that dark place at the sight of Missy’s blood pouring out onto the white suit she wore. She yanked the dagger back out and met Axel’s shocked stare.
“How’s that, Axel?” She hissed. “Thanks for that. I’ve been hoping to get my hands on her for years.”
“You…” Axel watched Missy’s body fall to Sawyer’s feet.
“Yeah,” she hissed. Her lung was punctured, but she wasn’t done. Cold wrapped around her heart. He had made her a monster; not through training, but through pain. She could live through the pain, it only made her stronger. And she wasn’t ready to die, yet. Not yet. Shadow wanted to kill as many people as possible before they ended her. “Anyone else?”
“Toni,” Axel snapped. “Kill her.”
“Yes, sir,” Toni snarled, stalking over to her. She gave Axel a disgusted look. He wouldn’t fight her, even without her magic; the fucking coward.
She prepared herself, spreading her legs shoulder-width apart. She braced and brought her hands up, the dagger in her right hand, ready to go into the chest of another victim.
“SAWYER!”
She turned towards her name. Vincent was running in, the team behind him. Elijah, Jasper, Zander. No Quinn, but wolves. The wolves darted ahead, and Shade jumped on Karen before she could even react. Scout went for her neck, and Sawyer watched the wolves tear the Magi apart while a third wolf ran for her.
They were alive. They looked like shit, but Sawye
r didn’t hold it against them. In that moment, they might as well have been fucking angels. They were alive, and she suddenly had a chance to see the next sunrise. The next sunset. Charlie and Liam.
“Kill them,” Axel roared.
Sawyer didn’t have much time to move as Toni clapped his hands, causing a sonic boom. It knocked things over and nearly sent her flying. She held her ribs and could barely take a breath as she ran for the guys. Goddamn sound manipulation. Her ear drums burst, and the world began to ring.
The third wolf, a gray and tan monster leapt for her. She went to dodge, but didn’t have the speed. She found herself in Quinn’s arms, and a wall of earth stopped a wave of fire from cascading over them.
Jasper was limping as he used his control over the air to whip the fire back around. Zander threw shields over them as he also burst water pipes under the floor and put other fires out.
In mere seconds, Sawyer realized she was in the middle of a warzone. The hangar was getting destroyed. Elijah was practically in flames, throwing out balls of fire and stopping others from hitting them.
“Sawyer,” Vincent gasped, reaching her and Quinn. “You need to run. We’re here but you have to get out. Save yourself.”
“No.” She jerked back and winced in pain.
“Yes,” Vincent whispered. “Sawyer, Axel’s never going to stop. If you go now, we might defeat him, and you’ll have freedom. If we don’t, you’ll have a head start.”
“I can help,” She growled.
“You’re just a thief with a good right hook,” Vincent growled. “I’m not letting-”
“No, Vincent,” she cut him off. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him close, their chests colliding with each other. “I’m not just some thief. I’m not a pawn. I’m Shadow. That’s why he wants me dead. I am the mess he’s failed to clean up, the killer he created that broke free. I know he’ll chase me to the ends of the earth. Give me this. Let me help you take him down.”
She watched his eyes fall to the dagger in her right hand and then his olive-green eyes came up to her face. She’d thrown her cards on the table, now it was time to see Vincent’s move. She watched confusion and knowledge dance in those eyes. She was his brother’s monster.
“Shadow is dead,” he whispered. She watched him figure it out. The game they had played. No one knew Axel better than them. When she had died, there were people all over the planet who were able to rest easy, happy someone like her, with her abilities, was gone. Vincent was clinging to a reality built on the lie.
“She’s going to be if you don’t give her the ability to fight back,” she growled. He grabbed her left wrist and released the enchantment that wouldn’t let her remove the inhibitor. He slid it off her wrist, and Sawyer gasped at the rush of getting reconnected to her magic.
“Prove it,” he commanded grimly. She grinned viciously and saw him go a little pale. “But leave Axel to me.”
“Don’t worry, I’m going for Colt and Talyn,” she snarled. “Talyn is a Vampyr. He’s borrowing Axel’s powers right now, so he’s a major threat. Colt is an air manipulator, so Jasper’s got three people against him. Those two need to go, if you want a real chance at taking down Axel.”
“God damn,” Vincent gasped. “You really…”
“Later,” she growled. She might actually have a later, now.
She blinked into the fight and grinned at Axel. He saw her and for the first time since she’d known him, she saw fear in his eyes. She didn’t go for him though. She found Colt fighting directly with Jasper and blinked closer, bracing herself for the small tornados those two had started making as they fought for dominance over their element.
“Colt,” she called softly. She watched him pale and turn towards her, but only for a moment. She blinked behind him. He tried to blow her back, but he didn’t have the concentration for it while he was also fighting Jasper. She shoved her knife into his back and let him fall when she yanked it back out. She met Jasper’s eye, then shifted into her smoke form and drifted into a dark section of the warehouse.
She had an excess of magic after not being able to use it for so long. Chaos was her enemy. It was also her best ally in this situation. It gave her plenty of cover to sneak up on Talyn, who was helping Axel, but it forced her to drain her power more quickly to avoid becoming collateral damage.
She wasn’t able to get to him, though. They had shields around them, and she growled, solidifying. Talyn and Axel both gave her quick glances, and Talyn tossed her a gloating smile. She would need to find a way for someone to take the shield down.
“You,” Felix hissed. She turned to him, and gave him a bored look.
“Me,” she told him blandly. Felix wasn’t much of a threat. He could cloak and create small illusions. She was never sure why, out of all the powerful people Axel surrounded himself with, Felix was included. “What of it?”
“This is all your fault,” he murmured, looking a bit sad. Sawyer considered going after him but thought against it. He seemed… out of the fight. Lost. “Axel was going to be the ruler of this world until he got you. You couldn’t just fall into line though, could you?”
“I’m not the one who started all of this,” she gestured around the hangar. She could barely speak with any strength. The fighting was going to bring the building down if things kept up. It wasn’t her scene. She liked the quiet, dark fights more than chaotic battles. “Axel didn’t need to come after me again.”
“You know, he was never able to get over you,” Felix sighed. “Learning you weren’t dead after it hurt him so much to have to kill you…”
“Pushed him over the edge?” Sawyer glared at him. “I’ve noticed, and that fucking says something.”
“Yeah,” Felix mumbled, and then he disappeared. She knew he’d cloaked and did the same so that he couldn’t stab her while she was trying to find a way in Talyn’s shields. Felix was a bit of a coward, and she figured he was running for it.
She turned back to Axel and Talyn. Toni was fighting with Vincent and losing to him, while the other team members where taking on Axel and his buddy. Axel was losing and, by the look on his face, he knew it.
She blinked over to Quinn, dropped the cloak, and stumbled behind the wall of earth he had raised in defense before a fireball took her head off. It had just some errant shot, probably from Talyn. She was almost positive it wasn’t actually aimed at her. Almost.
“You need to crush their shields hard enough that I can get through,” she gasped, holding her ribs. Fuck they hurt.
“Are you sure?” Quinn glanced at her.
“Crush Talyn’s,” she groaned. “I’ll kill him, and then you only need to deal with Axel. Vincent can handle Toni.”
“Knock him out,” Quinn whispered. “We could use a Vampyr in custody. We don’t know enough about them.”
“Fine,” she hissed. Of all the fucking things he could be worried about. “I’ll not mortally wound his ass. Promise.”
“Get ready,” Quinn yelled, and she watched sweat break out on his forehead. This was the strongest Magi in North America, but she had no idea-
The ground rumbled like a fucking earthquake hit. She stumbled as beams fell from the ceiling and crashed down on the shields that had been raised over most of the combatants.
She knew the moment Talyn was vulnerable. A Vampyr didn’t have the same type of Source as a regular Magi. They had to use their Source to steal portions of another Magi’s. They could also steal directly from someone’s life force, making them immortal if they chose to be. They were the only type of Magi who had to steal their abilities from others, though. This limited how much magic they could use. They could burn out the portion Source they had stolen and be useless until they could steal from someone else. They were born with the… problem, the poor bastards.
Talyn didn’t have the magic left to create another shield, and Sawyer wanted to laugh when Axel didn’t shield him.
“Axel!” Talyn looked terrified, and Sawyer blinked forward, connecting
her fist to his jaw. He staggered back a couple of feet and gave her a fearful look. The Ghosts didn’t like her, they never had. With good reason. She had always been strong enough to kill most of them in one-on-one fights. Only Axel had outdone her in sheer magical power. Missy had always beaten her in hand-to-hand, until tonight.
“Talyn,” she crooned, ice in the word. She resisted the urge to cough more. She could barely breathe, but that wasn’t going to stop her from doing this.
“Shadow,” he hissed. She saw a lick of fire appear in his hand. Such a waste of power. He could have grabbed any of the fire from around the hangar bay, but instead he wasted power creating it. Dumb fuck. Talyn was never that good at using others’ powers. Wasteful.
“He’s not going to save you,” Sawyer scoffed. “He’s not going to be able to save himself.”
“You getting your magic definitely tipped the fight out of our favor, but-”
“No buts,” Sawyer used her left hand and wagged a finger at him. “I’m not losing to you all a second time.”
She threw her knife to the ground, letting in embed itself into the concrete. She grinned and blinked forward, giving Talyn no chance to dodge the three punches she delivered to his abdomen. She pushed the hand with fire in it away, breaking it backwards at the elbow and causing Talyn to scream as she kneed his gut. Then she backed away and delivered a strong kick to his knee, breaking it as well. She loved taking their legs out. She was beginning to notice a pattern with her behavior, but she did it for a reason.
People couldn’t fight when they couldn’t stand.
Talyn dropped to the floor in agony, and she spun, delivering a roundhouse kick to the side of his head. He was silenced, crumpling on the floor. She half hoped the kick had killed him.
She stopped and swayed for a moment as she saw Vincent incapacitate Toni. Finally. Took him long enough. She snorted. Amateurs, all of them.
Her mind drifted for a moment. He was pretty glorious, darker than Axel, as he had sublimated in and out of the fight. She found that impressive, even if he should have been done with Toni much faster. They were all glorious, these misfit guys and their secrets. She wasn’t mad at them in that moment. Fuck it. She kept secrets, so they were allowed to, as well. Her kids in New York were safe and would remain so. Axel wasn’t getting out this time. The Ghosts who could escape were just going to hide. She looked around a little.
A Life Of Shadows (The Redemption Saga Book 1) Page 26