The Redemption Saga Box Set

by Kristen Banet

  “Cute,” Sawyer huffed, rolling her eyes. “Maybe you should get on your knees to start begging.”

  “I don’t do anything on my knees but-”

  “Stop it, you two,” Vincent cut in, sounding patient and expectant. Sawyer winced and looked over to him. She shrugged at his bemused expression. He almost cracked a real smile.

  This was interesting. He was giving Zander’s hand a jealous glare just a few days ago. She looked over to Zander and Jasper, whispering about something in the corner. Neither of them seemed to care, either, and they had been all up in arms.

  Maybe Elijah just wasn’t a threat to… whatever these guys all seemed to think she had with them. Thoughts for another time, Sawyer decided. It was the middle of the night, and they had work to do tomorrow.

  “I’m going to bed,” she said quickly. “Unless we want to talk in more circles. We just don’t have enough information right now to come to any definitive answers, in my opinion.”

  “You’re right.” Vincent nodded at her. “You should all get some sleep. Tomorrow we break into the sheriff’s house.”

  Sawyer looked at Quinn, who just nodded to her. She stepped through the wall into her room and immediately dropped into bed.

  Quinn came in later, and, just like every other time, he laid on her bed and seemed to just wait.

  “Get some sleep, Quinn,” she ordered, her back to him. “No reason to stay up all night for me.”

  “I’ll sleep when my boys are rested and stay up for me,” Quinn responded quietly. She rolled over and looked at him, propping herself up on an elbow. Enough moonlight came through her window to illuminate him and the room well enough for her eyes to adjust.

  “Thank you for this,” she said, watching him carefully. He turned to her and she saw his nostrils flare. He leaned down towards her, and she held her breath as he got close enough for their noses to barely touch.

  “You have given me a gift, and I return it,” he growled. “You teach me, so I am not weak, therefore I shall protect you so that you are not. Pack mates, team mates. This is our duty to each other. To protect, teach, and cover each other’s weaknesses.”

  “Friends,” Sawyer added. “This is something friends do for each other.”

  “Are we friends?” he asked, and she saw confusion flash through his icy eyes. It reminded her that Quinn had originally not wanted her around.

  “I like to think we are,” she whispered.

  “Thank you,” Quinn mumbled to her. “I was… unkind to you when you arrived, on purpose. And yet, you decided to give me the gift of patience and courage, even when I felt this…” She heard and saw the confusion at the end.

  “Describe it,” Sawyer demanded. She wasn’t tired, the adrenaline from the mission still coursing through her veins, and she felt like Quinn needed to talk, now.

  “It hurt, it was embarrassing. It makes me feel like I’m being attacked,” Quinn told her, looking pained. “And I’ve felt it before but I… don’t know the word for it. And I don’t want to tell Elijah or the guys. They don’t seem to… know what it is. It makes me feel weak.”

  “I promise you, they know what it is.” Sawyer sighed. “And it’s called shame. You were ashamed of being less than the other guys. But you aren’t, Quinn. You aren’t less than anyone here. You’re different and that’s okay. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

  “You continue to gift me with things, even ones I don’t understand,” Quinn mumbled. “Go to sleep, before I’m forever in your debt, friend.”

  “There’s no debt between friends, Quinn.” Sawyer chuckled, rolling back over. “Feel free to speak with me at any time. I’m always willing to listen.”

  “Good night, Sawyer, my friend,” Quinn whispered in her ear, just as her eyes became too heavy to stay open.

  The nightmare came fast and landed on her swiftly.

  She was killing someone. His name wasn’t something her memories could give her. He was dying already, her dagger deep in his chest. Blood poured out.

  A rush of dread bubbled up in her as she looked upon the blood pouring out of the wound. The body dropped. She hated this. She hated all of this. She only did it to protect him. She had to do it for him.

  And she became lucid.

  “Sawyer,” Jasper called out. “Let go of the hilt.”

  She did, the dagger she held dropping to the floor and disappearing. She looked to him, her heart twisting in pain and shame. He knew what she had been doing in this nightmare abyss her subconscious tortured her with.

  “Which one was this?” he asked, taking her hand and pulling her towards him. He wiped the blood off her hand.

  “This was kill number three,” she answered him.

  Something shifted again, and Sawyer felt another Source, another Magi in this dark domain of her nightmares.

  “Do you feel that?” Jasper asked softly. “I’m not the only one here…”

  She searched the darkness of her subconscious and found it. She roared at the black, shapeless form in the dark.

  “Wake up!” Jasper snapped. Then he was gone. Then the shape was gone.

  She was flying out her bed, Quinn beside her, the wolves growling.

  She grabbed a dagger before phasing through her door. Jasper was there on the outside, as well. Something must have woken the entire team up, the wolves or Jasper, because they were all out there, searching for the Source of another Magi.

  They searched the night. All of them, not bothering to get dressed, not bothering to worry about it.

  “Where are you?” Sawyer roared into the dark when they found nothing an hour later. Quinn pulled her towards the motel as she heard the wolves howl back in response to her question.

  “There’s a chance…” Jasper panted next to her at their doors, leaning on the wall. “That he’s dream walking from farther out.”

  “How?” Elijah snarled. “What would give this ass the ability to have such distance?”

  “Astral projection,” Vincent answered, leaning against his door. “But shit… when have we run into someone with that power before? We haven’t, I’m positive.”

  “It’s Rare,” Jasper groaned. “So, our killer so far: Healing. Dream walking. Astral projection.”

  “If this Magi weren’t fucked in the head, they could have been rich with a combination like that,” Zander growled. “Heal the body, mind, and visit others from vast distances, depending on how powerful he is.”

  “Fuck, he could still have two other powers we don’t know about,” Elijah snarled. “We’re so on the back foot, and we don’t even know what this asshole wants!”

  “We have one lead, a sheriff who is Magi and unregistered, with plenty of secrets,” Vincent reminded them. “And we’ll follow that until there is nothing else. And maybe, just fucking maybe, we’ll either stumble on the killer, he’ll screw up, or he’ll come for us physically and we take him down.”

  “We have another option, a really bad one if we’re desperate,” Sawyer said quietly. “Just let me sleep through the night.”

  “Tell me that the supremely rational Sawyer isn’t thinking of playing self-sacrificing bait.” Vincent chuckled darkly. “I expected more.”

  “Fuck no, I’m not thinking about it. I’m not a goddamn idiot. Being bait is like asking to get killed, and, no offense, I don’t want this guy in my fucking head, with or without my permission.” Sawyer laughed. “I’m just reminding us that it’s an option. If there’s absolutely no other options, there’s that one.”

  “Let’s stop thinking of it as an option,” Zander growled.

  “I agree,” Quinn snarled.

  Sawyer raised her eyebrows at them then turned back to Vincent.

  “My God, you would think I ran off into the night to find the killer myself,” Sawyer mumbled to him.

  “You did try that once,” Jasper reminded her as Vincent nodded slowly. She sighed. She had. She’d been upset. She wouldn’t do it again, she promised herself.

  “My apo
logies then,” Sawyer said with a gesture, throwing her arms open. “You know, maybe you should have a serial killer popping into your nightmares just to watch, like it’s a fucking spectator sport or a snuff film.” She watched Jasper wince at that and immediately felt guilty. “Yeah… This sucks.”

  “Get back inside,” Vincent told them. “Let’s… try for some peace tonight, at least.”

  Sawyer loved the idea of peace but wasn’t sure she would find any. She went back inside, Quinn on her heels. She sat on her bed and said nothing as Quinn threw something.

  “I failed you,” he snarled. She just shook her head.

  “Every Magi has weaknesses,” Sawyer told him. “You can’t guard me in my sleep. So, I just won’t sleep. It’s okay. I’m used to losing sleep. This is nothing new.”

  Well, it was something new. She had never had her dreams haunted and watched by an outsider. Normally, the only thing that haunted her in her dreams was her. And Axel.

  “Friends protect each other,” Quinn growled, sitting down next to her. “How do I protect you from what I can’t see? I can’t save you from him, then what good am I as a friend?”

  “You can’t save everyone, Quinn,” Sawyer whispered. “Believe me.”

  She’d failed more times than anyone could count. She knew well the bitter hard feeling of failure. The dark wave of sadness of loss. The guilt of knowing that if she had done anything different then it would be different.

  They were silent, and Sawyer was lost in her own thoughts. Quinn laid back on his side of her bed. Scout laid his head in her lap. Shade was even taking up too much space on the bed.

  She tried. She fought. She bent the knee. She killed. She cried. She begged for mercy. She failed. She failed to save either of them.

  And nothing would bring them back.

  Oh, she understood Quinn’s pain and frustration. She understood the guilt.

  “You can’t save everyone,” she whispered again, this time to herself.

  She didn’t find peace that night. She just sat there as the dawn broke and began preparing for another break-in when she heard the other guys beginning to move around.

  She could save future victims.

  She clung to that belief.

  19

  Vincent

  Vincent never went back to sleep. Uncomfortable and anxious about the mission, he walked out of the small, dim motel room as Elijah made a call to James—the third call in as many days, maybe more.

  He watched the dawn and considered the last time he really stopped to appreciate it. Only a few days ago, he’d been hungover and unable to return to sleep after Sawyer had left his room. He’d chain smoked on the back porch, listened to the wolves howl, and just watched the sun reclaim the world.

  What a night that had been, Vincent thought. She’d convinced him to bare his heart, tell her all about his brother at a time when she hadn’t known Axel. And then she’d gifted him with Henry. Something had fallen into place for Vincent, listening to her talk about his nephew. Vincent had been tearing himself up for not being there for Henry or her. For not being strong enough to stop it long before it had started.

  She had set him at ease in some ways. A piece of his heart that had been ripped open felt bandaged and bruised. Aching, but no longer a bleeding, gaping wound that affected everything he did.

  What hadn’t set him at ease was what had happened after he had some of the best sex of his life with the woman who’d given him such a gift. He wanted to forget the look of rage on her face and the fear in her eyes when she tried to attack him, thinking he was Axel. He would give anything, his body, mind, and soul, to make sure it never happened again.

  He would work with Jasper and Zander towards that end, and apparently, Elijah. He wanted more of her. He’d known it from the moment they had said it shouldn’t happen again. And he needed the team, friends and allies, to help him, even if they did so for their own reasons. They could help her. Together, maybe, they could chase away her nightmares enough for him to be in her life and bed. Vincent didn’t hope for her heart, even though that was his deepest wish. A piece of that broken, vulnerable thing she not-so-secretly carried around.

  He stayed lost in his thoughts about the romantic situation he found himself in for a long time. Lost in thought about how they were going to make this work, he lit a cigarette. He should have been thinking about the case, but it was distant from his mind. He didn’t know what he could do about their situation with the case, yet.

  Vincent was still smoking that cigarette when Sawyer walked out of her room, looking exhausted and yet dangerous in her black uniform. Those damn leather pants. God, he was mad as hell and sinfully turned on at the sight of those. Sawyer took one look at him, stole his cigarette and took a long drag. He didn’t let it get to him, since he enjoyed the idea of something of his in her mouth.

  He was losing his mind, slowly but surely.

  “Forget your own pack?” he asked as she handed it back to him.

  “Yeah, and I’ve been dying for one.” She sighed. He took that as the sign to pull another out for her. He lit it and handed it over. He watched those lips hold it and smoke leave her nose.

  “You’re welcome,” he said as she just stared into the dawn.

  There was more silence as her eyes left the rising sun and looked at him. He waited. There was a game to be played here, and he couldn’t resist it.

  “Thanks,” she finally said to him. He knew the thanks was going to come eventually. He was glad he waited. He won that round. “How long until we head out?”

  “A couple of hours,” he told her, nodding to the rising sun. “Still a bit early. How are you feeling?”

  “Tired,” Sawyer groaned, leaning against a pillar. “Exhausted. And I want to get this done.”

  “Well, we have time to kill, instead.” Vincent thought about that as he said it. He and Sawyer weren’t ones to have this sort of chance very often. “We could... chat.”

  “About what, Vincent?” Sawyer chuckled, looking at him with a small smile. He didn’t like the dark circles under her eyes, but he was happy to see the smile there.

  “I’m sure you can find something to disagree with me about.” Vincent laughed back. He realized his cigarette was out and slid the butt in his pocket to trash later. Then he lit another one, as an excuse to stay outside to talk to her.

  “I’m sure,” Sawyer teased. “We seem to disagree on nearly everything.” They fell silent for a moment and he waited. He would let her choose the topic. “We can talk about Quinn for a moment.”

  “You’ve been wonderful with him,” Vincent told her. He was stunned and astounded by her ballsy act to try and get Quinn on track. He could also admit to a bit of jealousy that she was succeeding where he had failed. That irked him, but he didn’t let it bother him. He would rather be excited over Quinn’s progress than jealous that she had made it happen.

  “You laid a lot of good ground work but… why didn’t you ever try giving him something he might enjoy instead of the stuffy required stuff?” Sawyer frowned at him, and Vincent let out a heavy sigh.

  “We did, early on, hoping it would spur him to be interested,” Vincent informed her. “But back then, he was aggressive and impatient. He hated that this was a skill everyone seemed to have except him. So it became more about getting him through what was required and less about making sure he felt comfortable. We just needed to finish it and be done with it. We started focusing on the required things.”

  “Makes sense,” Sawyer mumbled, nodding slowly. “It’s not that you all did bad, by the way. You’ve only been teaching him for… four years?”

  “Roughly,” Vincent confirmed.

  “Four years, from zero reading and writing skills to a middle school level, while working for the IMPO. That’s not bad progress, Vincent. I just swooped in and made sure he knew he could enjoy it. It was something I could offer him.”

  “Thank you,” Vincent told her softly, watching her get that smile back. The tir
ed smile that let him know she was happy she did something good. “It’s made everything easier, and he’s progressing faster now. Do you know what he’s been working on, though?”

  “He’s working on trying to write down things he knows about the natural world that maybe we don’t.” Sawyer chuckled. “With his magic and his upbringing, those writings could bring new knowledge to the world. And it’s something he can set his mind to, a goal. Something he can achieve that means something to him that isn’t a piece of paper.”

  He’d never thought about it that way. He was charmed by her and mystified at her wisdom on the matter. She brought something to the team that none of them had been able to offer. A real-world experience that was unmatched by anyone else their age and dwarfed anything on the team. Her experiences since she was just the lanky orphan teen with Zander and Jasper had made her a uniquely fearsome and intelligent woman. Too bad he felt like she didn’t realize it sometimes. Her arrogance only went so far, and sadly, she sold herself short in some ways or tried to play modest about the better parts of herself. It baffled him. She was either the most arrogant thing he’d ever met, or she sold her achievements short, as if they weren’t that big of a deal.

  “I’m not sure what else to say, except, thank you,” Vincent told her quietly. “What else would you like to chat about?”

  “You choose the topic this time,” Sawyer laughed quietly towards the sun. Vincent only gave it a moment’s thought.

  “I was thinking that you can test for your GED when this is over,” Vincent mentioned, looking her over. “I think you can do well enough to get the damn thing and move on from it.”

  “I know I can.” Sawyer laughed. “Yeah, let’s get that nonsense out of the way. Then I can go back to mornings kicking Zander’s stupid ass around the gym and making sure he knows his place.”

  “Oh,” Vincent groaned playfully. “Don’t put it that way. He just wants for things to be like they were between you.” He needed to throw Zander a bone before the poor fool ruined them all.