The Redemption Saga Box Set

by Kristen Banet

  “Jasper, get out of your head, we’re nearly there,” Elijah scolded him.

  “Roger that,” Jasper growled, glaring at the cowboy. He trusted his team, he needed to. They were the law, the enforcers and protectors for Magi everywhere.

  They had just tortured a man. Not just letting Sawyer kick the shit out of him, but let the wolves do serious damage, let Zander heal him slightly, then re-break the weak spots. He’d known that was what Zander had been doing.

  Jasper looked through the front window, leaning to see between the front seats. The Explorer was slowing down, and Jasper saw the gate.

  “I got this,” Elijah growled, making the interior of the Explorer heat up to near uncomfortable levels.

  “No, you don’t,” Vincent said as Jasper watched the gate get eaten into the earth and disappear. Quinn had handled it from the other Explorer.

  Jasper was knocked back into his seat as Vincent slammed back on the gas and sped down the old dirt drive.

  It was another two agonizing minutes until they saw the old, decrepit farmhouse. Jasper closed his eyes and focused. They had to save this boy if he was here. They had to stop Cory, if he was here. This had to end, and he could come to terms with what they had needed to do later.

  Vincent stopped them nearly fifty yards away, Zander pulling up next to them. They all jumped out, and Jasper looked at Sawyer, who was glaring at the cabin. They were too far away to really tell if there were any Magi inside.

  “Me and you,” he told her. “If we can get in and judge the situation, we can either handle it or call the team in.”

  “Good idea,” Vincent agreed, walking around the front of the Explorer. “We’ll wait right up by the door. If we all just barge in, we can spook him.”

  “That’s right,” Jasper sighed. “Sawyer?” He was concerned that she hadn’t even acknowledged him yet.

  “Let’s go,” Sawyer whispered and began walking away. Jasper looked over at her. She was carrying her daggers. He walked behind her and put a hand over her shoulder. He didn’t react this time when she cloaked them about ten yards from the farmhouse and the world went black and grey, colorless and bleak, even in the harsh light of the Texas afternoon.

  Such a bright day to go hunting a serial killer.

  As they got closer, he glanced back at the team. They were arming up, just in case.

  “Sawyer?”

  “We’ve done this before,” Sawyer whispered back and began to go through the wall, Jasper keeping a hand on her and making sure to phase at the right moment, so he didn’t lose the cloaking or another limb.

  Once inside, Sawyer pulled him to her. He was thankful for the enchantments that Elijah had put on the leg. He’d finally explained that the prosthetic would react and act like a normal leg, instead of a dead weight. Jasper didn’t really understand it, but something about an enchantment that would react to signals from the nerves.

  He was thankful for it, though. Sawyer had pulled him hard enough to nearly knock him off balance, since he had no idea what obstacles were there. They were slightly behind a large set of boxes and crates, so she dropped the cloak, as well, letting color return to their worlds.

  He glared at her and she pointed. He followed.

  An older teen, or young man, Jasper decided, looking distraught, pale, sweaty, and nervous as he paced around. A young boy, sitting on the floor, looking scared and worried.

  Cory has his father’s brown hair that went in every direction as he ran a hand through it. He was lean and tall, looking half starved.

  “Gabriel,” Cory mumbled. “I need you to listen okay? You can help me.”

  “Help you with what, Cory? Why are we here? What happened?” Gabriel answered, starting to stand up.

  “Don’t move!” Cory roared. Jasper nearly jumped at the sudden escalation. Gabriel just got teary eyed, looking terrified and sat back down. “Nothing happened. I took you away from that awful, sinful family and now you can help me. Together, we can do this.”

  “Do what?” Gabriel asked, confusion and fear warring on his pale, young features, his blonde hair falling away from his eyes as he looked up to Cory. Jasper’s heart was racing. Gabriel wasn’t in danger yet. Cory had him here for another reason.

  “Help me do God’s work, of course!” Cory snapped. “Like we talked about in church. You said you wanted to be a good Christian, and I’m going to give you the chance. Together, we can earn our places in Heaven, and the Lord will accept us, even though we’re demon-touched and tainted.”

  “I don’t understand,” Gabriel cried out.

  Jasper did. Cory thought he found a fellow, a friend, a protégé.

  Good God.

  Sawyer moved even closer, and Jasper could nearly feel her shaking. They were both assessing the situation silently, trying to find out the best way to intervene.

  They never had the chance to figure it out.

  Cory backed-handed Gabriel as the younger boy kept trying to understand.

  “You need to understand. I thought I told you, already!” Cory roared.

  Jasper started to run forward and bumped Sawyer. She cursed, and Jasper saw a black knife fly through the room and slice Cory’s arm. He’d knocked her aim off.

  Cory screamed and held the wound, looking wildly to where the dagger had come from.

  Jasper and Sawyer were outed. There was no turning back now.

  “Get Gabriel,” Jasper roared, running for Cory who had turned to run the other direction. He was headed for the back door, and Jasper hauled after him. He was slower than he’d once been, still unused to the new prosthetic, but he was going to catch this guy.

  Sawyer blinked between Cory and the back door. Jasper skidded to a halt as Cory barreled into Sawyer and was promptly over-powered. She sent an elbow to the young man’s head, dropping Cory to the floor. Jasper got a momentary glance at her face.

  It was cold and furious. Anger consumed her. He’d seen this before. She thought her face was emotionless, and maybe it was to others, but Jasper saw the pure fury in her eyes—that dangerous anger that made people fear her. Only someone who knew true rage could summon that sort of emotion in their eyes. And that rage? That rage was deadly.

  It was terrifying and oddly beautiful, to see a woman so dangerous. He knew Zander was entranced by it, and Jasper took a moment to admit that he kind of was too. Sawyer was a woman who felt deeply, in all ways. That was admirable, even if he normally saw the grief, guilt, and rage.

  “We have the boy,” Vincent called out. Jasper turned and saw Gabriel crying as Zander knelt in front of him and checked for injuries. Jasper turned back to Cory and pulled out his handcuffs.

  “Thank God he decided to run instead of taking Gabriel hostage,” Jasper said, snapping one wrist into a cuff, then another, both behind Cory’s back. Once those were on, he just left the young man on the floor, chest down. He wouldn’t be going anywhere. The team didn’t use normal handcuffs under any circumstances.

  “Yeah,” Sawyer mumbled, staring down at the serial killer. He searched her face and noticed the anger had faded. Something else had taken its place. Regret? Guilt? Confusion? He didn’t really understand it. “He’s young, isn’t he?”

  “Nineteen,” Jasper sighed, also looking down at Cory. “Too young to be a serial killer.”

  “I… I was an assassin at nineteen,” Sawyer whispered.

  Jasper snapped his gaze back up to her face. She looked up and he saw grief in her eyes.

  “What are you thinking?” Jasper asked quietly. Elijah walked up to them and hauled Cory off the floor and looked between them without saying anything.

  “Nothing,” Sawyer mumbled. “Let’s just get out of here.” She began to walk away from him and toward the rest of the team with Elijah.

  “Alright.” Jasper said, wondering where her head was. He needed to know, needed to understand. He wasn’t good with feelings, but he wanted her to know she could share hers with him. He would listen. He would always be willing to listen. �
�Wait, Sawyer.”

  She turned and walked back to him, not meeting his eyes.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “He’s just like me,” Sawyer groaned, waving a hand to Cory. “All he wanted was to be… good in the eyes of those he respects and loves. That’s all he wanted.”

  “Sawyer,” Jasper gasped. “You and him... you are not the same.”

  “Aren’t we?” Sawyer growled, looking at him with so much pain in her eyes. “Aren’t we?” she asked again, weaker this time.

  “No,” Jasper said, reaching out to her. She evaded his grasp.

  “We’ve both done terrible things to try and prove ourselves, try and do something right and good in the world. We’re both labeled as monsters.” Sawyer glared down at her hands. “You didn’t knock my aim off. I couldn’t kill him. I couldn’t do it.”

  “Sawyer, he killed innocent people. You’ve never done that. You are more like this team then you are like him,” Jasper said with a conviction he now felt. They had just tortured Stevenson to save a boy, and Jasper knew, in this moment, that he could live with that. Just like he knew that Sawyer wasn’t evil, or a monster. She was just like them. Just like him. He had no right to judge her anymore. He’d never had a right. “And you’ve saved innocent people. He doesn’t do that. He’s looking for something that doesn’t exist because his father spent his entire life bastardizing his very feelings and identity. Look at this case, Sawyer. You used all those skills that I bash you for having as skills we could use. That made this team stronger, that helped us find a killer. You belong with us, and you are nothing like Cory. Sawyer, you are good. You aren’t, and have never been, a monster.”

  He hoped his words meant something. There was a long stretch of silence as he realized they were the only two people left in the farmhouse. Sawyer only looked at his face like he’d given her a gift and was left speechless.

  He opened his mouth to say more but didn’t get a chance as Sawyer’s hands took hold of his shirt and pulled him into a kiss that silenced all thought. He stood, shocked, but only for a second before grabbing her hips and yanking her closer to deepen the kiss. Her tongue dove into his mouth this time, and she claimed him. He loved every second of it and, at the worst possible moment in his life, he got hard as her body pressed up against his.

  He chalked it up to the adrenaline of catching a serial killer and saving a young boy’s life. That must be why he could get a boner at this moment.

  A cough made her pull away, leaving Jasper bereft and wanting more. Jasper turned to the offending noise and saw Zander there, smiling.

  “Well, look at this!” Zander laughed. Sawyer groaned, and Jasper saw her roll her eyes. “Do I get one?”

  “No,” Sawyer bit out as she turned on her heel and left the farmhouse. Zander continued to laugh as he smacked Jasper in the gut.

  “We’ll talk to her at home, eh?” Zander chuckled. “Let’s get out of here. We need to haul Cory back to Stevenson’s place while Sawyer, Vincent and Elijah take Gabriel to Dallas. We’re stuck on waiting duty for Dallas to send a few more guys to pick them up.”

  “Sure,” Jasper mumbled a bit petulantly. Of course, he got to kiss Sawyer again and immediately lose her to the job again. “Fantastic.”

  “How was it?”

  “Amazing.” Jasper sighed.

  24

  Elijah

  Elijah gave Gabriel over to the Dallas officers at the main office in Dallas-Fort Worth, and sighed happily, watching Gabriel find Cara and the others. They knew each other from church. They would have friends where they were going. Elijah silently wished them all well. They hadn’t told Gabriel what had happened to his family, yet, knowing the boy didn’t deserve to hear that crammed into an Explorer with a bunch of big scary people protecting him. Now he would have Cara holding his hand, like she was already his big sister, too.

  Poor kid, Elijah thought to himself.

  This case was riddled in tragedy, and he held onto a small bit of hope for those four kids, anyway. If people like their team could keep going forward, then those kids could do it, too. He had faith in them.

  “You okay?” Vincent asked him, standing next to him. Sawyer smoked a cigarette about five feet away, in the shade.

  “Yeah,” Elijah said with a nod, “I’m alright. Glad this is over for the most part. For us, at least.”

  “Once they have Stevenson in custody, Dallas is going to help the non-Magi permanently shut down God’s Will.” Vincent said. Elijah saw Sawyer nod. She must not have known what was going on. “And they will get the kids into homes or the orphanage, once they get the help they need. That’s good.”

  “Yeah,” Sawyer agreed softly, taking a drag of her smoke. “That is good.”

  “Are you feeling okay?” Vincent asked her, turning completely.

  “Yup.” Sawyer’s eyes darted around, as if to see if there was a reason she wouldn’t be. Elijah thought it looked shifty as hell, and it was kind of adorable.

  “Want to talk about any of this?” Vincent asked, crossing his arms. Elijah wanted to laugh at the game that was starting up. A question followed by a short or evasive answer. Every time. “You know, maybe you should talk to Cory. Ask him why he jumped into your dreams, taunted you like that. I won’t, no one will, unless you want us to.”

  “I don’t really want you to,” Sawyer informed them, taking a drag of her smoke. “I don’t really want to know. I have my theories, but… I would rather have no answer on this than one that might give me more nightmare fuel than I already have. Plus… I don’t know. Am I the only person who felt… this was easy?” Sawyer frowned at them.

  “It was and it wasn’t,” Elijah conceded, thinking about it. “It was tense… but serial killers? Once we find them, they aren’t that good at hiding again.”

  “They normally prove evasive, but they aren’t fighters. We outnumber them, they are normally deranged and distracted with other ideas and thoughts. Unless we’re chasing an intelligent sociopath. Those are a pain, but Cory wasn’t one of those. Neither was Stevenson. Both need help, definitely. Cory will spend most of his lifetime in prison getting help but… I wasn’t expecting a boy to put up much of a fight. At least he didn’t kill Gabriel.”

  “It just…” Sawyer shook her head at them. “I expected something… more.”

  “Another Axel?” Elijah coaxed it out of her. He wanted to know where she was thinking this was going to go.

  “Yeah?” Sawyer made a confused and slightly frustrated face. “I guess?”

  “Not everything is going to be like that. Axel was a one-off. An anomaly. Not every case is going to have fights like that.” Vincent contributed, helping Elijah set her straight about this. Elijah knew what she was thinking. This seemed tame in the end, compared to her introduction to their line of work. “Also, you were able to take Cory down without killing the poor boy.”

  “He… didn’t deserve to die,” Sawyer admitted to them. Elijah knew that. The entire team believed that Cory didn’t deserve to die with a knife buried in his chest, confused and just trying to earn love he never could get. He was proud of her for making that decision, too. That boy needed help. He would never walk free, but he still deserved some sort of life and some chance to heal. Maybe one day he could use his healing magic for its real purpose.

  “No, he didn’t,” Vincent agreed softly as Elijah just gave a nod.

  They let silence fall over the conversation. Elijah flicked glances between Vincent and Sawyer, wondering if they were going to talk about the new situation between them now. Elijah chuckled. Vincent and Elijah knew about that hot-ass kiss she and Jasper shared, and she’d been quiet since Elijah badgered her about it. Zander couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

  “So, you and Jasper?” Elijah finally spoke up, grinning. “Want to talk about that?”

  “Not really,” Sawyer huffed out. She looked at him then to Vincent. “I kissed Jasper. You got anything to say about that?”

  “No,” Vincent chuckled fin
ally, looking away from her. Elijah started laughing.

  “I’m obviously out of the loop on something and I’m starting to dislike it,” Sawyer mumbled, flicking her cigarette.

  Elijah just continued to laugh harder as Vincent tried to tell her there was nothing, a blatant lie to keep the peace for a moment. That would come back to bite Vincent. She had no idea. None. It was too wonderful. It was absolutely hilarious. They needed her focused on the case, so none of them had told her what they had decided.

  Elijah sobered as he remembered that he still needed to talk to Quinn about it. He had a sneaking suspicion that Quinn would be fine, preoccupied with his own stuff, but it was still important to let him know. Quinn could be unpredictable if he decided something was his and everything else was a threat. To maintain the peace, he was going to need to get Quinn to understand that Sawyer couldn’t be his.

  Now, with a moment to breathe and a bit of hope in his chest, he looked at her and realized how much he really wanted her. He wanted more teasing and playfulness. He wanted to mess with her over her arguments with Zander, and her stolen kisses with Jasper. He wanted to lay out on the sun rock and do what he’d imagined that day. Take her in the sun with Quinn there.

  But, Elijah had something more somber he wanted to handle before he started having those daydreams again. Just because the case was closing didn’t mean Elijah was finished in Texas. Revelations during the case had given him something else he needed to do.

  As they all quieted down, he nudged Vincent.

  “What?” Vincent turned back to him.

  “I want to borrow the Explorer. Make a drive down to see my parents,” Elijah told him.

  “No,” Vincent said with a shortness that surprised Elijah.

  “But-” Elijah frowned, confused.

  “We’ll wait on Quinn, Jasper, and Zander. You aren’t going down to see them alone. You should have us, your team and brothers, supporting you,” Vincent continued, not letting Elijah cut in. Elijah nodded, thankful that Vincent was looking out for him when Elijah almost didn’t look out for himself. Vincent must have noticed because he chuckled. “See, I do care about your emotional needs. Now that I have the mental energy to do so.”