by Morgan Wylie
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“We’re almost there,” Simmon whispered behind him unnecessarily as Mather and most the team could hear him. Perhaps he did it for Poppy’s sake, though he wasn’t sure why.
Internally, he wrestled with what he was doing. It was out of character for him since being held captive and reconditioned to work for the Alliance. He really owed them everything—they gave him life again, and he wouldn’t forget that. But there was something nagging at his mind and his heart since he had seen Rylen that night on the roof. Old forgotten childhood memories began to surface, memories he didn’t even consciously remember until they were pushed to the forefront of his mind, forcing him to acknowledge them… to remember him. Rylen was always getting into trouble with their father and he caused them to move all the time—whenever Rylen’s magic surfaced in public or when he did something purposefully to get noticed.
Simmon always flew under the radar; he did everything his father asked of him because he didn’t want to be at the receiving end of his father’s punishments. Rylen would even take the blame for Simmon if something was indeed his fault. However, Simmon didn’t have magic, so there really wasn’t much to worry about there, but his parents watched him vigilantly until he was old enough that they deemed him past the age of receiving. Then he was allowed to get into trouble like all the other boys his age—except the one friend he wanted by his side, Rylen, wasn’t there anymore. He was believed to be dead, to have died in the fire that erupted in the church that had been condemning his brother to death. So no real loss according to the board of the town. Rylen had been held prisoner there for nothing more than saving a little girl’s life. Unfortunately, someone—Arturo—saw him use his magic and allowed the vendetta of rage to consume him even to the point of taking the life of a young boy. Except Rylen hadn’t died in that fire. Simmon had snuck in and unlocked his door, allowing him to escape before he lit the match that ignited the old church, the temple of worship for those holier than anyone they deemed beneath them. Simmon never regretted the look on the stuffy old, pious, religious members of the board that had condemned his big brother. Perhaps it was that moment that defined him now. Perhaps that one moment in his life when he felt like he had done what he was meant to do was what spurred him on now to do what he deemed right: to release a young girl from a prison made by her own father who would condemn her to her death—a death that cycled over and over again if she were not to find her counterpart—instead of letting her find her freedom. This was the right path even if just for the moment—it was his moment. Simmon hadn’t realized he had stopped walking until Poppy spoke into the darkness of not only the night but of his mind.
“Is this it, Simmon?” Her voice was innocent and hopeful, and it pierced into the center where his heart should be. He swallowed down the bile of his past deeds and suffocated the voice screaming at him to turn them in, to kill them where they stood, to at least run and leave them in the path of destruction, but instead, he shook his head and turned toward the bunker where Alana was being held.
“This way,” his voice cracked, parched with the dryness of his boldness consuming him to go against his master.
“Thank you, Simmon,” Poppy, almost silent, spoke into him like a ribbon of silk, soothing his cracked soul as it wound its way, seeking the place where his heart would have been if he hadn’t been turned into a monster… into the being— less than a man—he was today. He decided in that moment that even if he was found out, even if his master had him terminated if Alana got away and back to Rylen, it would all be worth it. His suffering could end. Rylen had offered him a place in his life, in his Lair with his people. The offer stung within Simmon’s chest. Could he escape? No, there was nowhere he could run where Master Arturo wouldn't find him. Simmon was an integral part of the Alliance—at least that’s what Arturo told him. He had a place there, and he knew his position. The only way it could be duplicated was if someone else took his place, and he wouldn’t do that to anyone else. No, he needed to stay where he was. There was a reason for it all, right? At least that’s what he told himself as he watched those on the outside move and respond with freedom. They didn’t know what they truly had. Neither had he until it was all taken away. But he was grateful, or so he was told. It was because of Arturo that his magic was as strong as it was—that he even had it at all. Otherwise, he would’ve been six feet under centuries ago. At times, he wished he was.
“Careful,” he heard Mather whisper to Poppy as if Simmon wouldn’t be able to hear them. Of course, they didn’t know all about him. He had his own secrets—things that shouldn’t be, ways that were unnatural to him.
“Be grateful, Mather. He’s helping us,” Poppy replied to him just as quietly. Something about Poppy sticking up for him, instead of incriminating him, made him want to smile. He wouldn’t, of course. He didn’t owe them anything, but still, this was the right thing to do.
Simmon gripped his head with one hand and paused. The headache that had begun to puncture his brain when he decided to help them had grown at an alarming rate, but it wasn’t anything new to Simmon.
“We must hurry. My time is running out,” he said and scurried through a tight section of bushes and tree coverage. Simmon abruptly stopped just on the border of a large clearing. “This is as far as I can go with you.”
“What?” Mather asked. “There is nothing there!” His anger grew and his eyes glowed the bright and eerie green that they did when his wolf was brought to the forefront. “Did you bring us into a trap?” His men drew their arms, and Jet crouched back and snarled, exposing menacingly-large sharp teeth.
Simmon smirked, unafraid of Mather’s intimidation tactics. “I did as I said I would. She is there. Look beyond your abilities. Use those gifted among you.” Simmon nodded toward Poppy, whose face was scrunched up in concentration as she stared into the clearing ahead of them.
“Thank you, Simmon,” Poppy added genuinely. “Go before you are found out.”
Mather’s stare toward her was incredulous. She had just taken over their team and dismissed their one lead and potential prisoner whom they should hold onto in case it was a trap. “Poppy,” Mather growled her name, not for the first time that night. He turned to say something to Simmon, only to find that he had disappeared.
“He’s gone?” Mather asked, raking his hands through his hair in frustration.
“We don’t need him anymore,” Poppy explained, turning narrowed eyes on him. “I can figure this out.”
“Figure what out?” Mather inquired. “There is nothing out there but a field.” His arm swept toward the clearing in front of them, surrounded by trees on all sides. It was in the middle of nowhere. No one in their right mind would come out here… but, perhaps, that was the point.
“Have some faith in me, Mather.” She ignored the looks from the rest of the team. Only the tiger came up beside her in a show of support. His wet nose bumped her arm, telling her to do her thing. She pulled out her large tablet-type device out of her pocket. She placed the smaller phone with the GPS app she had been using on top of it and hit a few keys. Her phone began to spin slowly, the effect of her magic working in tandem with the technology.
Mather walked up beside her and whispered, “I do have faith in you. More than you know. Please continue.” Poppy bit her bottom lip and nodded her head, never taking her eyes from her devices, afraid of missing something. That was as much of an apology as she would get at the moment, but she’d take it.
“Okay, this is intense, and I haven’t seen this before, so everyone hold their hats,” Poppy said, almost giddy. “It’s not going to last long, so when I say go, look for any entrance you can find.”
Except for the tiger, they all looked at her with a confused expression. Jet stared straight ahead as if he would miss something incredibly important while wasting his time looking at her when her instructions were perfectly clear.
“Ok, team, you heard her,” Mather backed her up and stared forward but didn’t mi
ss the look she gave him out of the corner of her eye where her heart shown bright. He stood taller and focused on the mission in front of him although he had no idea what was about to happen.
“Here goes nothing,” Poppy whispered, knowing most of them could hear her. “Ready? Now!”
The clearing before them transformed from a dark field lit only by the light of the moon and stars to a bunker-type building that looked pieced together by large blocks of cement combined with the natural ebs and flows of the land. There were very few windows and nothing so obvious as a front door with a sign on it that said “enter here,” though that would have been helpful.
“I can’t hold it much longer. Find a way in,” Poppy ordered, her voice strained with the energy it was taking for her to hold the image.
“How did you—” Bastion started to ask with awe tinting his voice but stopped at the sharp look from Mather telling him not to interrupt.
With her voice stretched as thin as it could go, straining with the use of energy it took for her magic to work within their systems, she answered best she could, “I know some of their codes and algorithms and was able to guide my technology and magic to infiltrate their wards.” She heaved in a breath and squinted. “Ok, that’s all I can do and still walk out of here. I hope you found an entrance.”
Poppy shut down her magic. The phone stopped spinning, and her shoulders slumped in exhaustion as she fought to regain her breath. Mather placed his hand on her shoulder to lend support… and because he just couldn’t help it, his wolf was so close to the surface. He needed to touch her to know if she was truly all right. Once satisfied, he removed his hand and took a step to the side. They needed to regroup and make sure everyone saw the same entrance.
“Did anyone see a way in?” Poppy asked, still slightly out of breath though regaining her strength as each second ticked by. Their time was precious, and they couldn’t waste it waiting for her. Alana needed them.
“There seemed to be an entrance to the left side of the building, though I couldn’t see it, but two guards came out of nowhere from that side and I didn’t see them before,” Bastion commented as he continued to stare through the clearing, as if it would return if he bored a hole through their wards with his vision alone.
“I saw the same,” Mather indulged, “however, I also saw a ladder extending into the ground below at the right end. Perhaps a basement entrance? That’s where I would put a prisoner.” At Poppy’s look of question, Mather shrugged his shoulders without a care. “What? It’s true.”
“It makes sense,” the other team member, Jackson, piped in as if it was strange that Poppy would even question him since they had their own prison in the basement of the Lair.
The tiger made a mewling sound at her other side. It wasn’t subtle like a kitten’s mewling, more like a big cat grumbling trying to make his opinion known. He shook his head slightly to the right. “That’s what I think, too,” Mather replied in thought.
“You understood what he said?” Poppy asked with wonder in her eyes at the mystery of it all.
“I guessed. He tilted his head to the right so I assumed he was siding with me,” Mather said matter-of-factly with a wink just for Poppy.
“You can’t be serious?”
Bastion and Jackson hid their snickers under their hands or disguised them as coughing as quietly as they could so not to give their position away. Mather shrugged. “We’ve worked together a long time; you start to figure these things out. Since I’m a shifter, I know how they usually think.”
“Interesting,” was Poppy’s only reply. She knew when someone was pulling a rug over her head, and she didn’t care for it. It wasn’t the time nor the place.
“Actually, Rylen gave us all spells that anyone can do that allows us to communicate with one another when in shifted form,” Mather explained sheepishly, knowing he was busted.
“That makes more sense,” Poppy replied with a small smile.
Mather was interrupted by the vibrating of his phone in his pocket. Pulling it out, he frowned, reading the display, then he suddenly smirked. He turned to his team. “That was Enock. He is on premises, on orders from Lucius. He is apparently on the opposite side of us and saw Poppy’s ‘neat display of magic’ as he called it,” he smiled, looking at Poppy, pride shining in his eyes. “He has a small team with him. Let’s hope few others saw the building suddenly appear, or we could be made. So far, I don’t see any panicked guards running about.”
“Do you hear anything yet?” Poppy addressed Mather, remembering he had trouble before as if buffered from their sounds by magic.
“Now that you mention it, yes. It’s still faint, but I can hear conversations. No one sounds ready to rush the trees yet.”
“That’s good then,” Poppy said with relief. “Should we meet with Enock or continue on from here?”
Mather thought for a moment, then texted something in return on his phone. “Let’s circle around to the right to be in position for that basement entrance. Enock and his team will meet us there so we can all get on the same page.”
“Good idea,” Poppy started. “Fall out, men.” She took off walking in the direction they indicated, but she didn’t get far before she heard the snickers. Remembering she couldn’t see in the dark, she slowed, waiting for Mather to take his place at the front. She turned just in time to see Bastion slap Mather on his back good-naturedly. They obviously weren’t used to a woman giving directions on the team. Well, that will soon change, Poppy thought. They were just as capable as the rest of them, sometimes more so. They needed to be a team, and she was a part of this one… at least for now.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Anxious?” Mather asked with a smile as he stepped up beside her.
“Yeah, I guess,” Poppy sighed. Her nerves were all jumbled up inside her about the mission, about having him so close, about so many things that she didn’t have much control over. But this, doing what she could for the team, she did have control over, so she would do all that she could to help Alana. “Sorry, didn’t mean to take over your team.” She smiled shyly at him, prepared for any rebuff he was about to give her.
“All good. Keeps me on my toes, apparently.” Mather chuckled at something the guys must have said to him, but he wasn’t going to elaborate on it. “The guys like you. You have spirit and a fearlessness that they admire, Poppy.”
She did laugh then, even if it was under her breath. If it could have been out loud, it would have been a full belly laugh. “I don’t feel that way. Trust me, fearless is not the feeling I have right now.”
“Perhaps not, but you’re still moving forward despite it. That’s what counts,” Mather said approvingly.
She snuck a peek at his face, tracing the lines and planes of his face with her imaginary finger that would end tangled within his beard before she pulled him to her and kissed him senseless. That’s what he needed, she thought, less sense when it came to them. He thought too much. She cleared her throat and turned back to the path they were quietly trudging through the trees. They made sure to stay far enough away from the compound that they wouldn’t be seen or heard even if the Alliance had shifters on staff—which seemed unlikely since they seemed to hate all magic users—but one could never be too careful.
“Enock’s just up ahead to the right,” Mather indicated. Though she could see no one there, she assumed Mather could place him by scent. Poppy wondered not for the first time what that would be like to be able to smell everyone and everything near you. She crinkled her nose, knowing there were definite times she would not want anyone to be able to smell her or things near her. Poppy couldn’t imagine the reality of having that sense magnified—hearing, she could imagine a bit more, but smell just seemed… wrong. She itched just thinking about some of the normal smells she tried to cover up, not to mention the subtle ones she wasn’t aware of or the ones when her body betrayed her… like earlier when she knew her thoughts took her to arousal, a strong scent she knew he could decipher. Her che
eks heated just thinking about it. How embarrassing. What he must have to do to control all his reactions all the time; he was never allowed “down time” from being a shifter. It was just who he was so, of course, he had found a way to deal with it. Poppy’s heart hurt for a moment, hoping it hadn’t been too difficult for him growing into his wolf—or that it still wasn’t difficult for him. She thought of all the things she would now do to make sure her scent was pleasing at all times… because oh my god!!
Lost in her thoughts, she stumbled on a stick and fell forward—into a large, hard chest.
“Careful there, flower, I could have squished you if you dusted the forest floor,” Enock chuckled as he helped right her to a standing position.
Poppy looked up with surprise and threw her arms around Enock, squeezing him. “Thank you for not letting me fall. It’s good to see you,” she whispered in a friendly tone. More secure with the additional backup, she tried to see who else was on Enock’s team.
“Well, good to see you, too. I should make entrances like this more often if that’s the greeting I receive.” Enock rolled his eyes at the slight rumble he heard coming from Mather’s chest and punched him in the shoulder.
“We don’t have a lot of time, E. Where’s your team?” Mather asked, looking beyond Enock.
“Right here, this is it.” Enock sighed. Something in his tone bothered Mather, but as Enock stepped to the side he revealed a small slip of a girl, practically a pixie if nature had allowed her to be one.
“Hi,” the pixie stepped forward, waving with a sheepish smile.
“Who are you?” Mather asked, part confused and part rude.