by Honor James
“Shit,” someone breathed out at the table.
“She was in hospital for just over a year, various surgeries, physiotherapy and multiple graftings being required to get her back to this stage.” Quincy adjusted the image to one he’d captured where light actually showed the damage to her face. “She was released into the care of one Nathaniel Silverwing.” He pulled up the video feed from the hospital to show him signing her out and then walking Parker out of the hospital and to his limousine. “From there she and Nathaniel dropped off the radar, completely.”
Turning Quincy looked at everyone but studiously avoided Talon’s gaze. This had to be hard on the Dragon King. It was his son, a son he’d never even know about until recently, that they were talking about. “Until fourteen months ago,” he said softly. “That was when the first incidents occurred but, not being aware of just what was happening until we had more information, we didn’t know and couldn’t track. Since we figured out who was behind this and why, I’ve had all the hackers digging back for any image, clue, purchase, or, well, anything we could find. That entry into the States that we thought was his first wasn’t. It was just the first under his given name and passport.”
Moving back to the screen Quincy slid his fingers over the surface to bring up other videos and corresponding files. “Nathaniel has been in and out of the United States a total of forty-nine times over the last ten years. The first visits were with his adoptive parents but he’d always ditch them in the airport and go through customs at a different point so he could use one of his other identities before meeting back up with them. As I said, only the last time did he use his true name.” He pushed a few more items around.
“I found this from some vacation video shot nine years ago but only recently uploaded, it’s grainy and took the computers hours to get good enough for facial recognition but here we go.” Quincy hit play and then zoomed past the couple actually being videotaped to the scene up the beach. “This is Parker, her friend I am still working to ID, and”—he went in closer on a group—“our intruders on the scene.” Falling silent he let them watch as the male went to confront the group, got shaken about, turned into a Fox and raced off. Next came the part even Quincy couldn’t watch so he turned his back as the Dragon grabbed Parker and then lit her up on fire. The screams from other beachgoers were loud as she dropped to the sand trying to put out the flames that did nothing but melt the sand into glass under the intense heat.
Every single person at the table looked green. The non-Dragons looked ready to vomit though. Turning off the video Quincy moved back to the table and slid the packets to each of them. “Inside you will find the information for the location, satellite scans as of two hours ago, building plans, and what little I could provide of the interior layout and men.” He’d taken snapshots from the hijacked computers of faces and the rooms. “I’ve marked her most likely position given time, the sun, and a few other factors.”
Talon stood then. “Study the packets and be ready to move in half an hour. Gentlemen, this is a hard strike, I only want two people alive from inside that building,” he told them, “Parker Michaels and Nathaniel Silverwing. Everyone else you have orders to terminate with extreme prejudice. Wheels up in forty,” he said before heading to the door with Quincy on his heels. They needed to meet the backup team as they came in and go through it all again.
* * * *
Three hours later, in position surrounding the compound holding Parker Michaels…
They were all just waiting for the go, every man itching to get in there and hurt those that had been hurting those chosen by Gaia to be mates. Rayne looked to his partner on the op, Slade. Normally Rayne as all Dragons had a natural mistrust of magic users but Slade was pretty easy going. About three hundred or so years old, still looked like he’d get IDed in a bar, the Sorcerer was very well versed in his craft. They were the ones that would be going straight for Parker Michaels and getting her out.
Rayne knew what every partnership was tasked to do. They all had discussed it at length to ensure everyone knew where everyone else would be and when. It was the only way to ensure that if a Dragon needed to let loose, one of his teammates wasn’t in the fire.
“Everyone read,” Quincy’s voice came through the comms, hands moving up to touch the earpiece automatically. “Satellite infrared feed shows that Parker is alone, there’s a large group in what we’re calling the common area with a few on sentry duty.” A small pause of open air through the comms before Quincy was back on to say, “You are good to go, I repeat, mission is a go.”
Rayne and Slade moved at once, in near perfect sync as they headed right for the front door. Rayne was acting as battering ram and Slade was protecting them both with a cloak to keep them off the cameras until the breach was made. “Three,” Rayne whispered, “two, one!” He snarled, hunching his shoulder and tearing through the door. Rolling, he came up with weapons in hand as Slade slipped past to race up a hall. After a quick scan Rayne raced after him.
Through halls, around blind corners, straight through intersections they ran. Slade was throwing up shields each time they had to expose themselves. Their portion of the mission was straight speed. They couldn’t be stopped for any reason at all. Which was a concern given that whoever had built the compound had obviously been drunk and had a puzzle fetish.
Holding up a fist at another intersection he knew Rayne came to a dead stop at his back. Looking cautiously around the corner Slade saw an issue. The sentries had been called in as soon as they’d hit the door and were now between them and the girl. Drawing back he waved Rayne up the hall a little before he told him the situation in a low near-subvocal tone. “I will see if I can draw them away, a little illusion to get their attention,” he explained. “It’s not my best attribute by any means but if we can thin the numbers then we have a shot of getting through to her.”
Slade watched as Rayne thought a long moment and nodded. “But can you add a little fireworks to make them think they’re being shot at? It’s always more effective to draw a Dragon away because we all know that shooting at a Dragon just pisses the beast right the fuck off and makes them lose whatever cool they might have had.”
“That I can do,” Slade said softly and then moved back to the corner with Rayne across the hall to watch for anyone that he couldn’t see coming. Shaking his hands out, Slade closed his eyes to center himself and began the illusion of several large warriors. He had one run past the intersection the sentries could see and then another who turned his head and shouted a warning over his shoulder. Two more came up and put themselves at the corners taking potshots at the Dragons as more illusions ran past. Getting the sharp “ping” off of metal and creating small explosions of concrete was easy. Doing it while keeping his illusions looking solid was brutal.
“Six are running after them, get those illusions gone,” Rayne told him as he watched a lone sentry stand in the shadows, weapon up and eyes glowing. He was using heat vision to watch up the hall where the illusions had gone. Not quick enough obviously to realize they were giving off heat unless…“Did you give them heat?” he asked Slade as the man continued to concentrate on disappearing his illusions.
“Of course,” Slade murmured with a frown and then turned. “Dragons need something tangible to chase and would have known instantly if they were nothing but an empty illusion of light and nothing more.”
“Seriously impressed right now,” Rayne told him with a grin. “We have one left. Can you shield me up the hall so I can get right to him and snap his neck?”
Slade shot him a look and said, “Of course.” Rayne watched Slade relax as he took a slow breath. “Go,” he murmured quietly as he focused on keeping Rayne absolutely invisible to all spectrums of light and keeping the air around him constant to mask his natural temperature. Once he heard the very distinctive “crack” he dropped the shielding and moved quickly up to the door. Running his hands over it he felt for any magic or alarms or, worse yet, explosives. “It’s clean,” h
e told the Dragon watching his back. Laying a hand to the locking mechanism he worked it slowly. Thankfully it was mechanical and not electronic or he’d have been screwed.
Once the door was open Rayne swept in checking for anyone else in there before turning to look at the scarred female. “Parker Michaels?” he asked her as he moved closer to shine a light in her face for visual confirmation. At her nod he tapped the comms. “Retrieval team has the package and we are making our way to the extraction point.”
Touching Parker’s arm lightly Slade waited for her to turn her head. “Ms. Michaels, if you will come this way, we will get you out of here.” Guiding her hand to his shoulder he looked at her. “We’ll be moving fast so keep the cane up from the ground and be ready to use it as a weapon as needed.”
Chapter Three
Lifting her head from the pillow Parker nodded. “Please tell me that you are here to kill me.” She wasn’t strong enough to be another person’s pawn. She just simply couldn’t do it. “I gave you all that you needed to convict me, so I’m ready to accept punishment.” Because it would mean that she would no longer be held under Nathaniel’s thumb and she could no longer harm another with what she could do, and she could do one hell of a lot.
“No, ma’am, we’re here to get you out,” Slade told her, passing her the cane as he tugged her to her feet. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but we really need to move,” he murmured softly.
“Company is heading our way,” Rayne said, his finger to his comms. Slade couldn’t wear an active comms since his magic would fry it out, so Rayne was the only one getting intel fed through the earpiece. “Twelve are coming at us,” he added.
“I need you to hang on to my shoulder as we move. You will be between me and Rayne here,” Slade told her. “I’m Slade von Trustian and the growly-sounding one is Rayne Crimsonwing.”
Parker nodded. “I can fry the cameras if you want me to. Just get me close to them and they will all fizzle. That’s why they haven’t been able to put cameras and microphones in my room,” she admitted to him. “I’m Parker” She knew that they already knew that but she couldn’t help herself from saying it again.
“Also if you point me toward whomever is coming our way, well I can make them forget us and they will walk right past us.” Just another lovely “gift” she had since being burnt nearly alive. “As much as I would rather many of them have their heads removed from their shoulders, my way is far more peaceful, so take us out however you need. No one will see us.”
“Don’t even worry about it,” Slade told her. “They haven’t once seen my large friend or I during our journey in. We’ll be leaving the exact same way,” he added, and at Rayne’s nod he built the shield up once more. Heading for the door he snuck a look and then got them moving the direction that Rayne told him to go.
Once they were under that bubble she saw it. Parker couldn’t help herself, but she stopped dead in her tracks and felt a panic attack coming. No, no this couldn’t be right. They were supposed to be there to kill her, not this. She was shaking. She couldn’t help herself. “No. No, this isn’t possible,” she whispered again. “Not possible at all.” She looked and the golden rope that moved from her surrounded both men that were on each side of her. Tears were spilling down her cheeks and she shook her head, taking in the outline of the men with that flash of knowledge and light as she looked at them. Both men were massive. One of them seemed to be nearly seven feet tall and the other was just as large, if only off by a couple of inches.
“Move quickly now,” Rayne said, his eyes on the back trail. Hand to her back he pushed her forward lightly knowing that Slade would keep her moving. Touching the comms he listened as they began their retreat from the building one hall at a time. Slade had to stop from time to time to allow others to pass, the shield they were under flexing and contracting as needed. The Sorcerer was quite talented and the fact he was staying calm was a bonus. The female on the other hand seemed just short of full hysterics.
Outside, Slade moved and took her hand in his, his other arm around her waist. “When I tell you to pick up your feet, be ready for a drop. We’re going over really rough terrain from this point out,” he warned her and they started across the field for the fence and their vehicle.
She was ready to die, Gods damn fate! She was supposed to be able to die. She was supposed to be able to get out of this life finally! No more was she supposed be able allowed to hurt anyone. Never again was she supposed to be able to give anyone pain. Sobs didn’t even come close to what she was doing. Somewhere someone was laughing their asses off at her. Finally, finally she was going to be able to be free from this hell she had lived for far too long and now, Gods dammit, now she was not so lucky.
Wiping at her tears, she moved when the large man told her to, stepping when told and lifting her feet when told. This wasn’t fair, it just wasn’t! She was tied to two men, their only chance at being able to have a bond-mate, and that was just too unfair. Another sob tore from her and she snorted as she did so.
Throwing a look to Rayne as the woman sobbed in odd little bursts he saw a look mirroring what he was feeling, confusion. Slade had to figure she was just so relieved after nearly eight years her emotions were off the chart.
“Stop,” Rayne told them, his eyes flaring to the gold color of his Dragon.
Halting Parker, Slade moved them back under cover when Rayne indicated they should and watched as the large Dragon shifted into shadows, practically vanishing from sight. Now there was a trick he’d love to learn, that blending with nature to still be and yet not.
“God this can’t freaking be happening,” she whispered and turned to look out over the grounds. It was so very clear. She watched as so many men flared into the spectrum of vision that only she could see, the ties that escaped so many of them and seemed to be like ropes leading back to their bond-mates. “So many of them are bonded,” she whispered and turned her face from place to place, person to person, doing all that she could so as not to look at the men that were hers. She could clearly see both of them, the flaming outline of both men whose bonds seemed to lead back to her.
“Shh,” Slade murmured with a frown at her words. Rubbing his hand up and down her waist lightly, he watched Rayne as the Dragon looked around and then waved them forward. “Come on, time to go,” he said softly to her as he got her moving quickly just lifting her over anything and everything in the path since the level of urgency seemed to be cranked up more.
“Right, time to go.” Where could she go though? There was nowhere on this planet that she could escape to and Nathaniel couldn’t find her. He had tried once to give her a tracker but she burnt those out easily so instead he had a Mage place a curse on her so that he would always find her. “You have to kill me though,” she whispered. “It’s the only way. He will always come for me, forever. He will not let me go.”
“He can try,” Rayne told her as he opened the door for Slade to help her into the vehicle. “But he’s tried to take us out once before and he missed, which just pisses us off.”
“Down boy,” Slade murmured quietly as he handed her the seat belt. “We’ll worry about everything later but right now, we need to get you out of here and ensure we’re not a distraction for when they kill that one.”
She snorted. “Gonna take a lot to kill him. He’s learned how to harness the magic of the Mage that he kills. Trust me, he’s a monster. He’s a monster who killed his own bond-mates to harness their power,” she whispered with a slight sob.
Sharing a look with Slade, Rayne shook his head. “That is just so many ways wrong,” he grumbled as they got into the SUV. Slade was at the wheel and he was riding shotgun, literally. “But we’ve got our own group that will kick his stuck-up ass.”
“Yeah well, I certainly hope that you have some really powerful people on your side because he’s powerful.” That word just didn’t accurately describe the amount of power that Nate had amassed over his years. “He’s totally tapped into the Dark Magic of the world,
of Blood Magic. He’s going to be impossible to kill.”
“We’ve got the King of all Mage, Sorcerers, and Illusionists on our side,” Slade told her. Shooting Rayne a look he shrugged. “That and the King of the Dragons and Jaguars as well as the Fae Queen, plus several contingents of Royal Guards to pull from. That’s why we handed that little pissant his ass the last time he tried coming at us.”
“Well I hope that you are right.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “I really and truly hope that you are right and you will be able to get this guy.” Lifting a hand she began to rub her temples, her scars pulling tightly as she did so. “Otherwise you really are going to have to kill me.”
“Highly unlikely,” Rayne said to her as he watched while they sped along the roads. “We don’t kill people without reason or cause, Ms. Michaels. Especially when they’ve done nothing to earn that death sentence, of their own free will.”
“I’m the reason so many people’s bond-mates were killed,” she whispered. “You have to kill me or he will find me and he will demand that I do it again for him. I can’t and won’t do it again. I sent that message so that you could kill me and instead you are saving me. I don’t understand.” Oh she knew what these two men were to her but there was no way that they knew, none.
“We don’t kill people just because they were forced to do something,” Rayne told her as he turned in his seat. “No matter what, Ms. Michaels, I can promise you one thing, Nathaniel Silverwing won’t be using your ability any time again.”
