They were going to split up into teams. The first four strengths were going to go in to clear the way and try to drop as many members of the Mortuorum as they could as went. Then, the second wave would go in and extract the girl.
It sounded simple. However, it was anything but. Each wave were going to have teams that would target specific areas of the building, leaving no corner unsearched and no stone unturned. They weren’t given an exact position where Aisline was being held, but they were told she was situated somewhere at the rear of the building, which meant that they would also have to have more than a couple of teams of warriors securing the outside of the building. This was going to be a massive operation, even by their standards.
Within minutes, Warrior Kelton had divided up the men into teams, naming Dixon as his second in command for the operation. Usually, he would have had Merion in that position but he had not yet returned from the Council’s headquarters.
They had a lot of man power here. They’d called in all the Master Warriors they could get their hands on, plus all other warriors of any rank from the surrounding areas. No students would be going out into the field, of course. Seeing as that was what had caused this problems, the trainees were to remain under the security of the academy. The recently graduated warriors would also be among the ranks going in for the rescue and pulling their weight in this one. They needed all hands on deck. It was a hell of a way to introduce them to the way of the warrior, throwing them in the deep end like that, but it couldn’t be helped. They needed every available pair of hands that they could get hold of.
Running a quick weapons check as the other warriors did the same, Kelton strapped his belt on and loaded himself up. Kayleigh passed him his dagger, the ones with the sign of the Sons on the hilt. The look in his eye was determined, deadly, but it softened slightly as he gazed at her. He knew that she hated him going out to fight, but he was a Warrior. He wasn’t made to sit behind a desk twenty four/seven. Training the others was a privilege, but out fighting for his race was his destiny. She knew that and lived with it as best as she could.
“Be careful.” She whispered, trying hard to keep the tremor of emotion out of her voice.
“Always am.” He replied.
They didn’t kiss, they didn’t embrace. Going out to fight the enemy required him to stay in the right frame of mind. He had to be focused. If he let that focus slip for just one second, then he was putting himself and his men in danger. They looked at each other. The depth of their stare saying everything they couldn’t verbally or physically express. Kelton turned and signalled for the others to fall in behind him.
As they reached the doors of the sparring room, Kelton stopped short when the doorway in front of him was blocked.
Jackson.
He was stood there, a wall of muscle, with his feet firmly planted and controlled hostility in his expression. Jackson was dressed in full combat gear, the loops and sheaths on his belt looking forlornly bare.
“Jackson. Move aside.”
“No.”
If he had thought about it, this response wouldn’t have surprised him, but as it was, it shocked him to have a trainee disobey a direct order, especially when he was heading out on such a delicate operation. In particular when it was a student he thought so highly of, as he did Jackson.
“Jackson, now.”
“No. Warrior Kelton, I’m coming with you.” Jackson said.
A quiet fell over the rest of the men. A lot of them had come across Jackson since he had started at the school and were more than impressed with his fighting skills. He was a trainee who showed much promise as a warrior. In such a short space of time, they had never seen such improvement in a single student, or the level of dedication and determination that he showed. Everything about him was centred on training and absorbing every bit of information and experience he could from the other warriors.
Kelton wondered for a moment why the kid stood so determined in front of him, and then it dawned on him. He’d thought before that there might have been something going on between Jackson and Aisline, but he hadn’t seen anything for sure. This was confirmation, though. At least on the boys’ part.
“You can’t be going out there in this frame of mind, son.” Kelton said, softly, but there was an underlying authority in his voice. He could understand where the kid was coming from. He knew for a fact that if anything ever happened to Kayleigh, nothing could stop him from going to her. But, this was different. He himself was fully trained and had been fighting the Mortuorum for countless decades. They had a whole army of warriors who were going to her rescue. They were trained, qualified, experienced. They had this covered.
“I have to go. I am going. With or without you. I‘ll go it alone if I have to.” Jackson’s deep voice was steady and sure. He’d already made up his mind and there was nothing Kelton or any of the others could say or do to stop him. If they didn’t allow him to go with them, he’d find a way to go out there alone. He was going one way or another. Jackson knew where they were heading, he’d listened in enough to get the information he needed. Sure, he’d rather go out there with the rest of them as a team, but he’d go it alone if he had to. This was the one thing he had feared that would happen, and now that the fear was a reality, he was going to do everything in his power to get her back.
Kayleigh had elbowed her way through the men to see what the holdup was.
“Kelton, he may be an asset.” Her voice at his side whispered.
Seeing Jackson standing there, it was like a jigsaw piece slotting into place. He was supposed to go out with them. Having him there would help them. It would help Aisline even more when they found her to have him there. Kayleigh knew that Kelton was in warrior mode and that more or less nothing would stop him from being on his way, which was why she used his warrior name to address him. It was a way to make him consider that this could be the right thing to do from a warrior’s point of view.
She and Aisline had never spoken about her feelings for Jackson, but it was evident to anyone who spent time with them. They were crazy about one another and neither of them would admit it. They were both too intent on their training to let anything get in the way. Having Jackson there when she was found would help Aisline no end.
Kayleigh refused to believe that they wouldn’t find her.
Sparing a look over at her, he quickly returned his attention to Jackson. “Grab your weapons. Stay close to me but keep out of the way.” And moved on his way down the corridor.
Yeah, that makes sense, Jackson thought to himself. He wasn’t planning on getting in the way, but he also wasn’t planning on staying out of the action, either. They had to move on this and move quickly and Jackson was going to play his part in that.
He pushed against the bodies going in the opposite direction, heading after Kayleigh who was beckoning for him to follow her.
“Hurry, Jackson. Here.” she said as she leant down into the locker at the back of the room, extracting an intricately engrave dagger and sheath. Passing it to him, he took a breath to admire the beauty of the weapon before putting it safely away, in the sheath on the right hand side of his body.
She quickly loaded him up with a few more weapons and stood back to assess. She’d spent enough time at the academy to know what the warriors needed, and that was definitely more than just one dagger.
“Ready?”
Jackson only nodded and without a moment’s hesitation, he turned and jogged quickly after the rest of the warriors.
Kayleigh watched as he went. He was focused, he was capable. She just hoped that he got what he set out for. If anyone could bring her home, Jackson or Kelton would be the ones to do it.
In them, she trusted.
Chapter Twenty-Nine.
Kayleigh rushed towards the front reception. She was hoping beyond hope that the warriors would have enough time to get out of here before Aisline’s parents turned up. Jainey had come rushing to find her to tell her they had word that their driver was on the way
to the academy and they had no way of knowing how far away they were. This was just what they didn’t need right now. Sure, they were her parents and anyone in their right minds would be concerned for her safety, but they were the last people that Kayleigh wished to deal with right now. They’d abandoned her. The Sons were her family now.
Kelton meeting up with Andre Kellerman in the car park? Not such a good idea right now. Kelton would probably floor him without a second thought. He was focused on the task ahead and having a snobby little jerk like Aisline’s father holding him up…. Well, it wouldn’t be pretty.
Just as she skidded to a very un-lady-like halt at the front desk, she saw all of the warriors piling through a door that would lead them to the sheltered underground garage. Which was extremely fortunate as the security monitors showed the Kellerman car pulling up outside the front of the building.
Mr Kellerman didn’t even wait for his driver to slow down or stop and park up before he came flying out of the back door of the car. She’d expected him to remain in the car, allowing the driver to open his door in a dignified manner. This surprised her.
Running up to the main doors, he repeatedly jabbed at the buzzer, carrying on with the incessant noise even as Kayleigh came into full view to unlock the door. The look on his face was pure annoyance.
“Where is she?” he demanded the moment she released the door locks and pulled the door open for him to enter.
With an internal sigh, Kayleigh knew this was going to be hard work. Obviously, any parent of a missing child was sure to be beside themselves, but Mr Kellerman was a whole different matter. This man thought more of social standing than he did of the love for his daughter.
It was almost as if this latest drama was sure to blemish his reputation even further, for he didn’t exactly radiate any fatherly concerns. It was infuriating. Kayleigh and the other warriors showed more concern for her wellbeing than the man in front of her did. They had love for her and wanted her to return safely. He simply wanted to avoid any further issues with his family’s reputation.
“I’m waiting. What have you done with my daughter? I’ll have the lot of you strung up for this! My lawyer is on his way here as we speak.”
Great, just what they needed. A lawyer was sure to be able to help Aisline out in her time of need. Who did this man think he was? It was the warriors who were going to get her out of this, not some jumped up lawyer in a stiff suit. Sure, Leigh knew that she had gone missing while in their care, but they were also the ones who were going to get her back.
“Mr Kellerman, please-”
He cut her off straight away, “Don’t you dare tell me to be reasonable. This is my daughter we are talking about. And your academy’s incompetence.”
Kayleigh felt a fresh flare of anger run through her body, igniting her mind in rage. “Your daughter? Your daughter?” she said, incredulously, “The daughter that you abandoned? The daughter that you threw out of her home? I hoped to see a bit of remorse from you when you walked in here. I wanted to see understanding. You have a wonderful daughter, but your goddamn social standing and reputation within the community meant that you were too blind to see it. She is going to make an awesome and formidable warrior and will be an asset to the whole team. You should be proud of her, not denying her.”
That sting shut him up for a mere second and she saw the brief glimpse of emotion in his eyes before he shut off from her again. He truly wasn’t thinking about Aisline. He was thinking only about himself. Asshole.
Kayleigh sighed loudly. She’d already had had more than enough of this pompous little man. She couldn’t even be bothered to keep up a professional appearance for the sake of the academy. After all, he couldn’t hold her actions against the academy - she had no official ties here. Even her mentorship with Aisline was in an unofficial capacity. He had gotten under her skin and she wanted to rake his eyes out with her nails, and had to hold her hands in tight fists at her side to make sure that she didn’t carry it out.
“I was actually going to say please come in. But, in all honestly, I am not too sure if your being here is going to be very helpful if you are going to continue talking to me in that tone. Threats of lawyers will not help your daughter. That is the warrior’s duty. And you need to back up out of my face and let us get on with the job.”
Kayleigh held fast to the open door, blocking him access to the school. She may have been female, but she still towered over the little man and had the power of her rage behind her. He was no match for her. Raw fury ran through her veins, the likes of which scared her, because of her natural nature. It was times like this when she doubted herself.
“The warriors? They were the ones who lost her in the first place! My lawyer will hear about this!” he sneered and jabbed a finger in her direction, not appreciating being spoken to like that by a woman. In his world, women should know their place, and that was always behind the man in charge. Who did she think she was? Did she not know who she was talking to? She had clearly been raised in a modern family that did not know of the ways of the old. Disrespectful whipper-snapper, he thought to himself.
“No problem. I’ll tell him all about it myself when he gets here. You did say that he was already on his way, did you not?” Kayleigh threw him a sickly sweet smile, “Now, get out of here and let us get on with our job.” And slammed the glass door in his face.
Honestly, the last thing she needed right now was to deal with some arrogant, pompous prick who didn’t know when to shut up and listen to others. She knew that she would later regret speaking to him like that, but right now, she didn’t give a damn. His mere presence here was driving her nuts and she needed him to get out so she could think straight.
Slamming the door in his face, the man looked shocked. Surely no one had ever treated him like that before. And, Kayleigh couldn’t give a shit. She had more on her plate than worrying about his hurt feelings.
Walking away without a backwards glance, she instructed the warrior who was manning the security desk not to allow the ‘gentleman’ with whom she had just been conversing any access to the academy under any circumstance until he was instructed otherwise.
She needed to get back to Kelton’s office. She needed to be doing something active. She needed to check on Denver and the other students in Aisline’s class who had already heard about her abduction. There was so much to do that she didn’t know where to start. She needed to keep moving. For if she stopped, she was liable to break down under the pressure.
Firstly, she had to call up Jainey to see if she had any more news, and then she’d set up the radio communications in Kelton’s office so she could listen in and possibly gleam some information from.
And then?
Then, she’d just pray and wait.
Chapter Thirty.
The pain was unbearable. She’d never felt anything like it before in her life.
At first, Aisline had thought they were just going to hold her, for a ransom or whatever, but the peaceful side of them didn’t last long and their true monstrous colours had shone through.
The lump on the side of her head throbbed with such an intensity that she that she thought her head was going to explode. The cuts on her arms and legs were from the struggle with the Mortuorum who had jumped her, stinging like battery acid.
She couldn’t believe that she was in this situation. The nauseating ache in her head was making it hard for her to think. She was trying her hardest to remember everything in her training, but the world was a white hot haze of throbbing pain. She couldn’t see any way out.
They’d beaten her, laughing at their good fortune of abducting what they thought was one of the greatest assets that the Sons of Satrina had. She’d hated the beating, but her loyalty for the warriors made her detest their words even more.
They were a brutal bunch. No humanity, no conscience. At first, she’d remained defiant, refusing to scream out at the pain they were inflicting. Biting down on her lip and scrunching her eyes tightly shut, she didn�
�t want them to see the weakness in her. But, what she’d endured was more than anyone could bear.
She’d blacked out for a time, that pain consuming her in its entirety. But, she’d never uttered a single sound. Her body and mind had fought for peace and finally shut down on her, which she was grateful for.
They’d taunted her, threatened her, and degraded her. Running their hands over the hills and crevices of her body, before repeatedly whipping her. Her back was a criss-cross designs of raised bloody welts, the leather of her warrior uniform in tatters. They’d relishing every pain bitten moment of it.
She’d hoped to appeal to them, that at least one of them would have something in her to ease up on the beating. After all, she knew that Kayleigh was Mortuorum and that she would never allow this to happen. But, each of the monsters in from of her were enjoying her pain, enjoying inflicted a new kind of damage unto her. They were truly the monsters that she’d had nightmares about when she was a child.
There wasn’t a single part of her that didn’t scream out. Not a single bit of flesh that wasn’t raw, bruised and beaten.
Right now, she was sat tied to a chair with thick rope wrapped tightly around her ankles, wrists and neck. There was no way that she was moving from here. She couldn’t move at all as the rope bite painfully into her broken skin.
All she could hope was that the warriors were coming to find her. Not that they would know where to start.
She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to die at their hands. She didn’t want to give them the satisfaction. But, she wasn’t quite sure how much more she could endure. Her body was broken, her mind was faltering.
But she still had her spirit.
She still had hope.
After all, she was a Warrior with the Sons of Satrina. She could handle this.
She hoped.
Chapter Thirty-One.
At the reception area of the school, the Sons paused for a moment to listen to run through orders.
The Sons of Satrina: A Sons of Satrina Novel Page 25