“Sadly,” Axel sighed and stepped closer to her, “I’m here to finish something. Four long years, Shadow… Did you really think you could hide?”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” Sawyer began stepping away, moving towards the door. She knew what he wanted, but damn, she didn’t want to die tonight.
“You were supposed to die four years ago,” he growled with a grin. “I told you the only way you were leaving my employment was in a coffin, but it seems killing you is more difficult than I thought.”
“Well,” Sawyer shrugged, inching even closer to the door, “maybe you should take that up with the ass who should have checked to make sure I was dead.”
“I already have,” Axel chuckled. “Now, now, love… Don’t play hard to get. I’ve got the room shielded, so you won’t be leaving. We’re going to have a long chat before I end your miserable existence.”
The air left her lungs, and she began to suffocate. She watched him give a deadly smile, completely calm.
“Anything you want to say?” Axel asked with a chuckle as he stepped close to her. He thought he was being funny. Arrogant piece of shit.
She narrowed her eyes on him, and decided to give up on trying to breathe—now or in the future. She focused on his face and, once he was close enough, slammed her forehead into his.
The shield dropped, and air rushed into her lungs. Most Magi couldn’t keep their magic going if they were suddenly hurt. Some could, but Axel so rarely had the tables turned on him that he was inept at it.
“Fuck you,” Sawyer growled at him as she ran for the door, phasing through a wall into a different room at the last moment because fire engulfed the door she had planned to use. Seconds, it only took seconds to evade Axel’s hands and make it into the next room. She looked around to see where she was and hissed as the wall behind her shook. Just as she was leaving the room, the only wall between her and Axel exploded outward. A chunk of drywall slammed into her back, and she didn’t spare a moment to look back.
“Sawyer!” He roared. “We didn’t need to do this.”
She made a sharp turn down another hallway, only to see a woman at the end grinning at her. Sawyer cursed at the sight of the woman’s scar, stretching from her left ear, down her jaw, and down the side of her neck. Missy. And she was holding a damn AR, aimed for Sawyer’s head. Sawyer phased into an office to keep running as the gun went off. She didn’t bother trying to get back into a hallway, going straight through walls.
“Fuck me,” she hissed, stopping when she could feel several other Magi near her. They were reaching out with their Sources to feel hers. This was very quickly becoming the second-ugliest night of Sawyer’s life.
The door to the office she was in blew open, and Sawyer found herself looking at Talyn, who shot her a glare.
“I always did hate you,” he snarled.
“Steal Colt’s abilities today?” She grinned defiantly. “Those won’t stop me.”
She dropped through the floor as Talyn tried to grab her. She didn’t wait for her feet to hit the floor below before blinking to the closest door. She phased through it and kept running.
She ducked when part of the ceiling above her collapsed and Missy dropped down with Axel. Sawyer continued to run.
“You are all useless!” Axel roared, and Sawyer was flung by a gust of wind into a wall. She didn’t respond fast enough, and the drywall cracked and broke from the impact. Her mask flew off, but Sawyer had no idea where it ended up.
“I’m so fucking tired of this,” Sawyer sighed, trying to pull herself out of the wall. Everything hurt. Her vision spun, making her unable to focus on the shapes moving closer. She got to her feet and staggered into the unbroken wall across the hall.
“Ready to extend your short life by talking to me?” Axel strolled over, looking furious. She chuckled and shook her head.
“There’s nothing to say.” She laughed, waving a hand around wildly at him and the other criminals behind him. They were all there, all the people she once worked with, all the people who had hated her and the relationship she had with their boss. Missy, Colt, Talyn, Karen, Toni, and Felix. The best of the best at being the absolute worst. “Why isn’t Toni dead, though? He’s the one who dumped me in the ocean without checking to see if I had a pulse.”
“Shut up, bitch,” Toni growled, but then he collapsed to his knees, holding his neck. His face slowly turned purple from the lack of air. Sawyer swallowed as Axel slowly choked him to death without laying a hand on him.
“Be quiet,” Axel told them casually, and Sawyer saw Toni gasp, sucking in air as Axel finally released his control.
The entire scene reminded Sawyer of the first time she met these assholes. Talyn had said something, she couldn’t remember what, but Axel had nearly killed him for it. Axel was possessive over his property; and in the eyes of his organization, she had been his property, not to be toyed with or insulted.
“Now,” Axel smiled at her, “let’s talk. I want to know where you’ve been hiding, who you’ve spoken to, and what you’ve been doing. I don’t like having messes, and you are definitely a mess.”
“Why the fuck would I tell you any of that?” She snorted, straightening, but she still needed the wall for support. She realized that Axel didn’t have them shielded this time. He thought she was done for, too tired to keep running, too injured to put up a real fight. Arrogance was always Axel’s downfall, and Sawyer was thankful for that tonight.
“So I make your death painless.” Axel stepped up closer to her, and she rolled her eyes.
“You don’t do anything painlessly, so you’ll have to find a better reason,” she reminded him, spitting on the floor at his feet. He had screwed up, and she was getting the hell out of there. “Also, fuck you.”
“Don’t ever fucking-” He went to slap her but missed. She phased through the floor again, his hand passing over her head. This time, she let the drop take her two floors down. She didn’t know much about the lower floors and she landed on a metal desk, the impact jarring her leg and buckling her knee.
She didn’t waste time on the pain, as loud noises could still be heard above her. She pushed into the hallway and blinked toward the end of it. As Axel and his followers came into the hallway, she phased through the window she had found and jumped.
Free falling from a plane was a cool experience. With a parachute. Skydiving was an exhilarating pastime. Free falling from an office building onto a busy street without a parachute wasn’t nearly as enjoyable. Base jumping was stupid and reckless, something only the foolhardy thought was a good idea.
She let herself fall for half the height of the building before reaching into the last of her magic to change shape. She wasn’t a shape-shifter, per se. That was only because the ability to shape-shift was limited to changing into animals, and she didn’t become an animal.
Doing this was going to send her into Source burnout, but she didn’t have a choice. The ground was coming to meet her quickly, and she wasn’t particularly interested on becoming a part of the street.
One moment, she was a solid human shape. The next, she was ethereal, airy, and light. Sublimation, an incredibly Rare ability, and her favorite. As a cloud of black smoke, she could float on the wind, making it so the concrete and asphalt below her weren’t scary anymore. She couldn’t do it inside with Axel because of his elemental control. He would have trapped her and torn her to shreds, since she was now part of the air itself.
She had enough energy for about two minutes in this form, since she had to force her movement against the air currents to get far enough away, but it would be enough. Axel was stuck in the building, probably unwilling to make even more of a scene than he already had, and even he couldn’t stop the natural wind currents from carrying her away.
Eight blocks from the building, she lowered herself into an empty alley. She’d done this mission without a go-bag or any of her weapons, preferring to go light over hauling a bunch of crap around, so she only had the
phone and wallet she kept on her. Now she just needed to find a taxi and to get the fuck out of the city. Fuck her employer. She sure as fuck wasn’t calling him ever again.
She pulled off the face guard, stuffing it into her pocket. She couldn’t take the long sleeve shirt off. She was pretty banged up, and people would see that if she was only wearing the tank top she had on underneath.
She had to stay calm and keep her head. She couldn’t draw attention to herself now. If she freaked out, people would ask questions and she would be noticed. She had to stick to her emergency escape plan and just focus on living through the night.
She walked out onto the street, pulled some Marlboro Menthols from her pocket, and lit one as she kept moving. She rarely smoked. She knew how bad it was for her; but damn, on some nights, a good cigarette was the only thing between her and a total meltdown.
Sirens could be heard in the distance, and she took a moment to appreciate that Axel wouldn’t come looking for her tonight. He needed to get out, too, or he and his little band of merry murderers would be having a standoff with the non-Magi police. It was enough of a break that she felt some tension leave her.
She strolled quickly down the desolate street. Most people were intent on ignoring the ruckus nearby. Groups of people hung out on their steps, and one group of guys eyed her.
“Hey baby, you know that shit is bad for you, right?” A man called out as a friend of his whistled. She stopped and rolled her eyes at him.
“Probably as bad as you are in bed.” She flipped him off with a smile, the cigarette hanging from the side of her mouth. She started walking again as one of the guys sputtered and his friends taunted him.
“Now wait a minute, gorgeous,” another called out as she moved farther away. She didn’t have the time nor the energy to stop and deal with them. She needed more distance between her and Axel, so the catcallers would need to find other prey. Fuck, normally she would stop and teach them a lesson, but her Source was depleted, and she hurt to her bones.
“Another night, boys,” she called back, taking a drag off the cigarette. Her hands shook from exhaustion as she flicked the ash off the end. She stopped on a corner and sighed as she took another long drag. She waved down a cab once she was done and had stomped out the cherry, pocketing the butt so she didn’t litter.
“Where are you headed?” the guy said in Arabic, and she held back a groan before responding as she slid into the car.
“This address,” she mumbled back, also in Arabic, handing him a card with only an address on it. She continued in English. “As fast as you can.”
“Okay,” he nodded and handed the card back to her once he had punched it into his GPS. She repocketed it and watched LA fly by them. Cops were everywhere, and Sawyer mentally cursed everything that had happened. Now she needed to get the fuck out of Los Angeles before the cops started putting together what had happened. She kept her fingers crossed in the hope that they were more worried about Axel than her.
“We’re here,” he said in heavily-accented English. “Your fare is-”
“Here. You never saw me.” She pulled out her wallet, grabbed three hundred, and tossed it in his passenger’s seat. He nodded. The moment she closed the door, he was spinning wheels to leave.
She took a deep breath and walked into the decrepit apartments where she had the cab leave her. She staggered up the steps, trying to ignore the pain stabbing through her knee. When she bumped into the wall, she winced because of her injured shoulder.
She got to the fourth floor and pounded on the door until she heard locks being turned. The woman who opened it looked at Sawyer wide-eyed as she pushed into the apartment. Sawyer didn’t have time for civilians.
“Travis!” Sawyer called out, looking around the trashed living room. “This is fucking disgusting,” she mumbled to herself as she heard Travis stumble around in a back room. “Travis, I don’t have all fucking night.”
“I’m coming!” She watched him spill out into the living room, pulling on sweatpants. Another woman was behind him, wrapping herself in a robe. “You weren’t supposed to be here for another two days.”
Sawyer looked him over. Ragged, brown hair and bloodshot, muddy eyes. Too thin. Sawyer knew a drug addict when she saw one, and Travis, once a rising Magi star, was definitely an addict.
“I’ll double my payment if you get me out of LA in the next hour.” Sawyer looked to the couch, needing to sit down and get off her bad knee, but the couch looked like she would get some unknown disease from it. No, thank you.
“Fuck.” Travis glared at her. “And if I say no?”
“I hire someone else, permanently,” Sawyer snapped. “And we both know I fucking fund your dumb ass.”
“Fine.” Travis nodded, looking away from her.
Finding a Magi who could make portals was hard, but Sawyer had connections. She didn’t need Travis as much as he needed her. It was a bargaining chip she didn’t like using, since Travis wasn’t a bad guy. He had made some shit decisions that had ruined his life, though. Sawyer was the only person who was willing to give him a decent paycheck for the work he did. Others would just come in and threaten him or rough him up until he agreed.
“Thank you,” Sawyer whispered kindly, inclining her head to him. He nodded back and waved for her to follow him. She ignored the two women watching them as she was led into the back room. “Come with me to New York? I know I promised you a few more days to enjoy the city, but we both need to get out of here tonight.”
“That bad?” Travis frowned at her. “I like Los Angeles, though.”
“People tried to kill me tonight, Travis,” she whispered to him, closing the door for the back room. It was the cleanest room she’d ever seen, but Travis took his magic seriously. Magi who could make portals were Rare and well paid, but also highly regulated, much like pilots for non-Magi aircraft. He took the utmost care that his portals were perfect, even when he was as high as a kite. “I’ve got that apartment for you, and we can get you cleaned up. I don’t want to leave you here in case they find out about this and you.”
“Who tried to kill you? You’re just some thief with a lot of money,” Travis hissed. He looked paler than before. “In the three years that I’ve worked for you, nothing like this has happened.”
“Doesn’t matter who.” Sawyer shook her head. Travis, while a nice guy, wasn’t the most trustworthy person when it came to secrets, especially when he wasn’t on a sober streak. On top of that, he had no idea about her ties to Axel and the Ghosts, and she didn’t want him to. “We’ve got to get out of here. Get the portal up and aim for home. Charlie is going to want to see both of us.”
“I hate that guy,” Travis mumbled. “I’ll put us in that empty warehouse. You know the one.”
“The warehouse works,” Sawyer sighed. “I’ll tell the girls to get the hell out of here.”
“Thanks,” Travis waved at her absentmindedly, already focused on his task.
Sawyer walked back out into the main room and found the women giggling on the couch with a pile of white powder on the table in front of them. A simple inspection told her that they weren’t Magi. Of course, Travis would get a brunette and blonde to have fun with. Both had the largest fake tits Sawyer had ever seen, but that wasn’t something she was going to fault them for. She did fault them for not putting on a single shred of clothing while she was there. That was just rude.
“You girls have to go,” Sawyer announced. “Travis and I are leaving, and you are too.”
“What?” The brunette frowned, and Sawyer wanted to roll her eyes at the glazed, confused look in those brown eyes.
“You heard me.” Sawyer grabbed the clear baggy the blonde was holding and the credit card on the table. “You’re leaving. Now. Go get some clothes on.”
“Are you stealing our coke?” The blonde hissed, and Sawyer shook her head.
“I’m putting it away. Plus, I know for a fact Travis bought it,” Sawyer sighed and slowly pushed the powder back into the
bag. “Go get dressed. You can have the cocaine when you leave.”
The girls shuffled away quickly, and Sawyer took a moment to refocus. Her shoulder ached. Her knee pulsed. Her emotions… well, she just needed to keep those under control for a little longer. Stay calm, she chanted internally. She and Travis were running out of time. Axel would never follow them back to New York, but they had to get there first.
She waited near the door, gingerly holding the bag for them. She didn’t enjoy just giving these women the drugs, but she didn’t want to put their lives in danger by sticking around for the argument like she normally would have. She would rather them be high as kites anywhere else than in this apartment if Axel found it.
“Here,” Sawyer groaned, shoving the bag into the blonde’s hand when she tried to pass. “Call a cab and go anywhere else.”
“Alright.” The blonde shrugged with a nonchalant air. Sawyer felt a pang of jealousy, which was a strange moment for her. She didn’t like being jealous of drug addicts, but Sawyer wished she could be so secure of her place in the world. She wished she felt nonchalant and easy about how her night was going.
Sawyer locked the doors and limped back into the room where Travis was nearly done. Portals took a lot of magic and time, depending on the distance crossed. If she had asked him to just go across the state, then he would have been done in a minute; but from one end of the country to the other… that took time, skill, and raw power. Travis had two of those, but Sawyer couldn’t trust that they had time.
“How close?” She asked him quietly, staying away from the swirling vortex of blue magic that Travis seemed to be shaping. Touching an unfinished portal? Terrible way to die.
“Another minute,” Travis grunted. She saw sweat bead on his forehead. He would be in burnout when this was over, that much was certain.
Sawyer lit another cigarette as she waited. Once Travis was done, the swirling blue magic became what looked like a blackhole. It was standard for a portal, but it freaked Sawyer out to look into what seemed like the abyss.
“Let’s go.” Travis reached out a hand to her, and she grabbed it. She took a long drag on her smoke as he led her into the dark.
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 2
