A Life Of Shadows

by Kristen Banet

  “I can’t do it myself,” she hissed. He took it and slid it over her left hand. It resized itself to fit her snugly, and she knew she wouldn’t be pulling it off. Damn thing was probably enchanted to make sure she couldn’t remove it. She saw the way he eyed the mostly missing ring finger before he released her wrist. It had been removed at the second knuckle, leaving her a bit of a moving stub that couldn’t hold anything. “Don’t ask.”

  “I wasn’t going to,” he murmured. Once the bracelet was on, he pulled keys from his pocket and started unlocking the handcuffs. “Don’t attack us or these go back on.”

  “Fine,” she told him, watching the handcuffs unlock. Finally, she would get her magic back at least. She was so excited she could taste it.

  But when Elijah was pocketing the handcuffs, Sawyer realized that she didn’t have her magic back. The stupid fucking bracelet. It had multiple enchantments on it. It sized to her perfectly, so she couldn’t slip it off, and it was an inhibitor. She raised her wrist to eye level and looked it over. It was just a silver bracelet, nothing special. There were no designs etched in the metal or anything. Enchanting was just another of long list of Magi abilities, and it was Common, though only the more powerful Magi with the ability could make an inhibitor. Whoever made this was very powerful, if they could layer on different enchantments. She sensed three total and wondered what the third was.

  “Figure it out yet?” Elijah was watching her closely, a grin spread over his face. “You really think we’re going to let you have your magic, especially since we’ve seen your Registrar entry?”

  “What?” She looked up at him and felt the air leave her lungs. They had seen her Registrar entry?

  “Sublimation, blinking, cloaking, phasing, and animal bonding,” Vincent rattled off all her abilities. Her fifth ability was a secret to everyone, except her and the Reader who made her Registrar entry. Readers were Magi with the Rare ability to learn the abilities of other Magi through touch. They recorded the name of a person and all that person’s abilities in the Registrar, something the WMC had created nearly a thousand years before. They also gave the person an idea of how strong their Source was. The Registrar was only viewed under times of emergency, and the WMC had to grant someone access to view another person’s entry. “Speaking of that last one, where is your animal?”

  “I don’t have one,” she snorted, gesturing to the rest of the apartment. They wouldn’t find an animal, she knew that. “You’ve been watching me for weeks, that should have been fairly obvious.”

  “You haven’t gotten an animal to bond with you at twenty-four years old?” Vincent frowned. “We figured you hid it, to keep it safe.”

  “Nope,” she stepped away from them and moved towards her kitchen. She wasn’t telling them about her animal bond. No fucking way. She didn’t even tell Charlie that, since he didn’t even know it was her fifth ability. It was one of the few things even her old roommate didn’t know.

  “Where are you going?” Zander stood up quickly to try and stop her. She turned and gave a heavy sigh.

  “I’m getting a bite to eat so we can continue arguing about whether I’m allowed to say goodbye to my class.” She pointed into the kitchen. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

  She went and opened the fridge, listening to the guys talk while she was out of the room. She noticed they didn’t give a damn if she heard them.

  “Well,” Vincent sounded a bit short of patience, “your old friend is… difficult.”

  “Yeah, she’s always been that way.” Zander sounded amused. “Right, Jasper?”

  “She punched one of the people who ran the orphanage for telling her she couldn’t hang out with us after dark,” Jasper responded blandly.

  “Probably because they thought you were fucking,” Elijah laughed. “Were you?’

  “No,” Zander mumbled.

  Ha! They didn’t know she and Zander had done that. Looked like she wasn’t the only one with secrets in the room. It gave her some leverage over Zander, at least. Of course, it had only happened about a week before Zander and Jasper had left. It wasn’t like they had been in a relationship or anything. They had been best friends and very drunk that night, celebrating his and Jasper’s future in the IMAS and the exciting adventures they would have once she aged out of the orphanage. Life had stepped in and changed those plans.

  She paused for a moment as she pulled out a salad she had prepared earlier in the week. Did Jasper know? Surely, Zander would have told him after all these years. Those two had never let secrets sit between them.

  “Look, we need to get out of New York as fast as possible,” Vincent was saying as she slowly grabbed her dressing and a drink. “We can’t sit around waiting for her to talk to some kids.”

  “If we took a vote, Vincent,” Elijah chuckled, “you would lose. I also don’t want her to try and kick my testicles across the room for the entire duration of this.”

  “Yeah.” Sawyer felt a flare of Zander’s passionate temper in the word. “I mean, if she’s going to come willingly afterward and be a bit easier on us, why not?”

  “I concur,” Jasper sighed. “She will make your life hell, if you force her to leave before she’s ready, Vincent.”

  “You know what,” Vincent snapped, “why didn’t you give me a run down on her before we had handcuffs on her?”

  “We didn’t know how similar she was to who we used to know.” Jasper was trying to be diplomatic, and Sawyer hopped up on the counter. She opened her drink, drizzled dressing on to her salad, and began eating. She could sit here all night and listen to this. It was telling her more than anything else they had said.

  “Fuck,” one of them mumbled. It was low enough that Sawyer couldn’t identify which. “Quinn is going to hate her.”

  She took another of her salad and tried to hold back a smile. This Quinn person could hate her as much as they fucking wanted.

  “Too late to worry about that. We gave him a heads up before we left.” Vincent was nearly groaning. She raised an eyebrow. Who was Quinn to elicit a warning that she was being caught? “I need to call James and let him know we have her in custody. Keep an eye on her, she’s too quiet in there.”

  “Hey, tell James we’re going to do that thing she wants. Saying goodbye to her students, or class, or whatever.” Elijah sounded easy going, and Vincent only gave him a growling okay. Jasper walked into the kitchen and met her eyes.

  “You trying to hide from us?” He was quiet, but she saw that he was a little hurt. Jasper always was the sweet one out of their little gang of delinquents.

  “No.” She shook her head. She really hadn’t been. “Just decided to eat in here while you all had a very important conversation.”

  “Of course,” he whispered. When he walked closer, she frowned. He was limping.

  “I knew your knee was fucked up, but what gave you the limp?” She pointed with her fork. She had never been very tactful, and Jasper winced in embarrassment, which hadn’t been her intention.

  “The knee injury caused a problem with the hip while we were in the IMAS. Nothing can really be done, unless someone figures out how to fix the knee.” He leaned onto the counter next to her, and she watched him carefully, finally giving him her full attention.

  He hadn’t changed much. He was more filled-out than he had been at eighteen, but that was something she had expected. He was still a golden blonde with blue eyes that reminded her of a storm on the coast, churning with emotions he didn’t talk about and refused to confront. He sported a decent tan, making him look like a cover model. He’d always been pretty, beautiful. There wasn’t much about Jasper that was rugged or rough. He was definitely more man then he’d been the last time she saw him, though.

  Sawyer swallowed. Wow, what the fuck is wrong with me? Of all the places her mind could go, that one needed a big red stop sign. Thinking like that got her in with Axel. Now it had gotten her caught. She didn’t want to know where else it was going to send her. And of all the times she cou
ld be thinking about it. She had too much to drink, that was surely the reason.

  “You know, you’re handling this better than I expected,” Jasper whispered, grabbing her drink. “Anything in this I should know about?” He held up the water bottle, and she shook her head. He took a couple swallows and put it back where she had set it.

  “Grab a few more from the fridge,” she sighed, “and, Jasper, I’m a criminal. I knew someone would track my ass down one day. I just wasn’t expecting it to be so soon. I’m a bit peeved, but things could be worse.”

  “You make it sound like you are resigned to that fate,” he was keeping it light, friendly with her. “You’re just some over-paid thief. It’s not like you’ve killed anyone.”

  Well. That was the confirmation she needed. They had no idea who she was. It helped that her identity as Shadow had a very public death, and no one dared to question it since Axel had already killed several IMPO agents in the event.

  “If the IMPO didn’t arrest me, someone I stole from would have killed me, eventually,” she shrugged.

  “What about the people here in New York? The ones you…” Jasper put several waters on the counter next to her. “You aren’t worried about them?”

  “Fuck, no,” she snorted. “Should I be?”

  “No,” Jasper sighed softly. “Probably not. You know… we saw one of those… meet ups a little while ago.”

  “Which one? I’ve had a few since coming back from LA.” She took a couple swallows of a fresh water, instead of using one Jasper put his mouth on.

  “Make that two, then,” he told her. “We saw the one where you jumped the guy in a back alley. We also had eyes at the fight tonight and saw the aftermath of the guy you must have caught in the locker room.”

  “Ah,” she nodded. “Yeah. I do that…”

  “You’ve always hated injustice in the world,” he reminded her. “You fought with bullies growing up, you stood up for littler kids in the orphanage. It’s just who you are.”

  “Except now I put them in the hospital.” She took another sip of her water. “You all aren’t going to lock me away for that, are you? Because I’m willing to go down for the thefts, but not for that. Someone has to take care of these people, show them that their shit isn’t tolerated in the twenty-first century.”

  “We’re not sending you to prison, Sawyer.” Jasper shook his head. “Not for any of it. Catching Axel and keeping you alive is more important. You’re the first person we’ve seen escape him like that. Normally, we only find the body.”

  “No one ever gets away,” she whispered, looking away from him.

  “Exactly.” He pointed at her. “But you are sitting here, living and breathing, after a run-in with him. We’re going to keep it that way. You are the one-in-a-million.”

  “Fine, and I’m not fighting going into protective custody,” she put her salad down as she spoke, “but I’m not just going to disappear into the night when people here count on me.”

  “That’s fine, and we’ll even set something up, so you can stay in contact with them if you want to,” Jasper nodded. “You know, I’m disappointed in you becoming a criminal, but, Sawyer?”

  “What?” She already knew he was disappointed. That much had been obvious. There was no way her golden boy wouldn’t be. Not hers, she realized. She couldn’t call him that, not after so long.

  “I’m proud of what you do for this area.” He swatted her arm and turned to leave. He stopped at the door and snapped his fingers before turning back to her. “Eventually, you’ll need to tell us how you ended up here.”

  She snorted. Nope. That wasn’t going to happen. Considering that story was saturated in Axel, and she needed to pretend that she wasn’t Shadow, she wasn’t going to tell them fucking anything.

  “Sure, whatever,” she nearly laughed. “Look, I’m going to get a nap in before people start showing up to the gym. Can I trust you all not to whisk me away to a plane in my sleep?”

  “Yeah, you can trust us on that. Vincent’s been overruled on this.” Jasper gave her a gentle smile. “He might be our team leader and boss, but he’s expected to listen to the majority on some things.”

  Well, that was an important piece of information. The cold and calculating Italian, Vincent, was the leader, but he wasn’t allowed to be a dictator. Good, she could play that to get this over with more quickly. She would play along for a month or so, maybe even a couple, and then she would find a way to sneak out the back door, claiming she had nothing to tell them.

  “Alright then. Goodnight, Jasper.” She slid off the counter top and walked past him into the dining room. Elijah and Zander were playing a silent game of cards while Vincent must have stepped out to make a phone call. “Can I get my car and motorcycle sent to wherever we’re going?”

  “Not a good idea,” Elijah told her without looking up. “Someone might recognize it and connect it to you. We don’t want them having any idea where we’re hiding you.”

  “Of course,” she groaned. “I’m going to catch a couple hours. “

  “Want me to come finish what we started?” Elijah did look up at her this time, grinning. He was still wearing his cowboy hat, and she couldn’t resist the urge to walk over and flip it off his big head. She didn’t need to, however, since Zander looked up from his cards, glaring at the cowboy. The next moment, a thump was heard, and Elijah was grimacing in pain. “No reason to kick me, asshole. Shit, everyone is so violent tonight, and now my poor hat has touched the floor. It didn’t deserve that.”

  She didn’t say anything, turning towards her bedroom. Sleep. She might get a couple of hours, and there was no reason to stress over the IMPO agents all over her apartment. What was done was done. Now, she just needed to figure out how to keep her secrets while forced into their care.

  At least it wasn’t Axel in her apartment? That was some sort of fucked-up silver lining.

  12

  JASPER

  Jasper watched her move into her bedroom and couldn’t ignore how their lanky Sawyer had grown up into a stunning and confident woman. He swallowed the lump in his throat and turned to Zander, noticing that he was also watching her walk out. Shit, so was Elijah.

  “She’s barely changed,” he said, sitting down at the table. “Still the same Sawyer.”

  “She’s darker,” Zander whispered, voicing something that was obvious to him and Jasper. “You can see it in her eyes. Life hasn’t been easy, even if the money she’s sitting on says something else.”

  “Y’all are a weird bunch, you orphans,” Elijah chuckled. “You had her, and you left for the IMAS? Lost your fucking minds.”

  “You joined the IMPO at eighteen.” Jasper frowned at him, but Elijah just shrugged.

  “I wasn’t leaving behind a gorgeous woman like that.” He grinned. “There was nothing at home for me.”

  “Other than her, there was nothing for us,” Zander growled. “You know that. It’s not like you’ve never seen pictures of her. Elijah, we’ve been on this team together for six years.”

  “She was supposed to stick close to the orphanage until she aged out, then come to us,” Jasper was dealt into the hand and sighed. They played in silence for nearly ten minutes, only tapping the table to send messages, until Vincent walked back in.

  “James is fine with us spending one more day here in New York. He’s also got the backup team waiting in Atlanta, so they can get eyes on her when we land. They’ve been told not to engage to avoid spooking her.”

  “Shit, we need to deal with Jon?” Elijah sighed, and Jasper brought his eyebrows together. “He’s a fucking prick.”

  “He’s Old Guard, and yeah, he’s an asshole,” Vincent nodded, “but he’s the leader of the only other team we can count on if shit goes sideways on the East Coast.”

  Old Guard was a term used for those who were agents before the IMPO did a massive restructuring, nearly two decades ago. They lived by a different code, one that Jasper and the guys didn’t. The IMPO’s leaders had decide
d they wanted to entice more people to join, since there weren’t many Magi who wanted to lose what freedom they had to work for their government. So, new rules were brought in while several, including those on physical standards, were thrown out.

  It led to people like Zander joining, with his ears gauged out an inch wide and tattoos covering his body while always getting more. It led to Elijah joining, an openly bisexual Texan who didn’t believe in pretending to be anything he wasn’t. Then Jasper considered himself, the permanently injured one. They were a team of misfits, and all of them would have been found unfit for a number of reasons before the rule changes.

  Jon Aguirre hated their team, but both of teams were based in Georgia, making it convenient to get help from each other.

  “If he gives you shit, let me know. I’ll talk to him as best I can,” Vincent told them. “I wish I could do more, but he hates me, too, so it’s not like he’ll listen. James isn’t their handler either, so they have no reason to pay him any mind.”

  “Just as long as he keeps his pet names for us to himself,” Zander growled. “IRA, Brokeback, Cripple, and all of that fucking shit. We would be fine if he kept his fucking mouth shut.”

  “He calls me Vinny,” Vincent sighed. Jasper winced. That was fucking cold. “His names for Quinn don’t need to be repeated under any circumstance.”

  “Yeah,” Elijah sighed. “So, we let her say good bye, then we hop on the jet, get her past Jon and his team. Then what?”

  “James wants us to train her,” Vincent held up his phone. “Once things with Axel have settled down, he wants us to recruit her into the IMPO. She’s got the talent, the sense of justice, and it would keep her out of trouble. She wouldn’t be the first criminal brought to our side, and he’s made it clear that while we have her, we still need to work. So, she’ll be getting on the job training with us, as well.”

  “Maybe we should ask her if being an IMPO agent is a job she wants,” Jasper whispered, worried they were going to chase her off if they pushed her to join the very thing she had tried to hide from.