“You saying we’re flying a little blind?” the colonel asked, walking through the ranks to him.
“We’ve been flying blind since we landed in Brasilia, Colonel,” Quinn growled. “I warned you this would be dangerous.”
“You did,” he agreed. “Are we going to keep moving?”
“I think we can do another couple of miles today.” Quinn looked away from the group. “If we find a place to stop before then, we will.”
Sawyer groaned and kept walking, Zander and Jasper flanking her.
“I don’t like how long this has been taking,” Jasper commented after another twenty minutes. “I don’t like that we’re just stomping out in the jungle with only Quinn’s direction to a fight we might not win.”
“We’ll win,” Zander promised. “We’ll fucking win. I hate being around all these soldiers though. They are idiots. Damn Cavalry.”
“Cavalry?” Sawyer hadn’t yet learned all the nuances of the IMAS.
“You’ll notice many of them have animal bonds. Cavalry, like people who used to ride on horses. For the IMAS, it’s having an animal bond. A specialized group, sure, but nothing too special. If you have an animal that could have strategic value, you can apply to Cavalry. You’ll probably get accepted, since the IMAS is at an all time low for their numbers. They haven’t done a good job at recruiting in the last decade or so,” Jasper explained in his rambling, never-ending way.
Sawyer could hear younger guys in the back having a good time as they walked and rolled her eyes. “Do they take nothing seriously?” she asked, looking back for a moment and seeing a soldier grin at her.
“No,” Jasper replied curtly. “They don’t. They’re young, and they have no idea what kind of power is waiting for us out here. The IMAS instills this belief that their soldiers are unstoppable. The younger guys live like that, really do believe it. Nothing scares them the way it should.”
“Then they start dying,” Zander mumbled angrily. “The survivors learn pretty quickly if they want to continue surviving.”
“Zander,” Jasper chastised him.
Sawyer raised her eyebrows. She didn’t know much about her guys’ times in the IMAS. It sounded like there was a story there.
“Yeah, yeah,” Zander scoffed. He stomped ahead of them and she watched him fall in next to Vincent and Elijah.
“What’s up?” she asked in a hushed tone, hoping Zander couldn’t hear her.
“Zander and I were lucky enough to get in the same unit when we joined, but we got split up when another unit needed a healer. It was temporary. They had a thing in Saudi Arabia. People died. Zander couldn’t heal them all, and he fought with their command about the decisions made that led to it. He was busted back a rank for it. He came back angrier. He hated the IMAS after that. Vincent found us three months later and Zander thrived in the IMPO and I thought it was better. I didn’t realize how angry he was going to be on a mission with the IMAS.”
“A hot-tempered, reckless man hates reckless decisions?” Sawyer crossed her arms and gave Jasper a look. She didn’t believe him.
“Zander will do something that gets himself killed or gives him a chance to heal someone else. He’s not out to get other people killed. He draws a line,” he reminded her. “A lot like you.”
“I’m not reckless.”
“No, you think something through then you do something dangerous,” he teased softly. “Not reckless, just confident in the idea that you have it all figured out.”
She chuckled quietly, nodding.
When Jasper stumbled and cursed, she was laughing harder. “Are you okay?” she asked through the laughter, grabbing his arm.
“I’m fine…” Jasper sounded concerned and Sawyer felt her humor fall away.
“What? You stumbled, it was funny.” She frowned as Jasper stopped. He looked down to his prosthetic and she watched him rotate the ankle, bend his knee. It was all working just fine. “Jasper?”
“It…pulled back and caused my step to go wrong,” he told her. “I’m not sure what happened.”
“That’s weird,” she agreed. “We’ll have Elijah and Zander check the enchantments on it. Is this the first time?”
“Yeah,” Jasper confirmed, nodding. “I’ve never had it do something like that before. I’ve had it for over a month and it’s worked completely fine.”
“You adjusted quickly, but this might just be a kink Elijah needs to work out. It’s being put through its paces right now. We haven’t stressed it this much.” She tried to sound reassuring, but there was no way to do that. This was a very bad time for his prosthetic and the magic in it to go wrong.
“I’ll have him look at it when we stop,” Jasper said, walking away from her and catching up to Zander with the rest of the team.
She sighed and followed. This entire mission was hell.
Sawyer listened to Jasper explain what happened to Elijah as they walked, but she couldn’t pay attention. The heat was bothering her. Texas had been dry. This was humid, even more so than the southeast United States. She was practically dripping with sweat, which only added to her general displeasure with the soft rain that was constantly coming down on them. She looked down and watched her boots trudge through mud and decaying plant life.
This all sucked.
“Sawyer?”
She looked up and nearly walked into Vincent.
“Sorry,” she murmured, grabbing his arm to steady herself. “I wasn’t watching.”
“We’re stopping,” he told her. “Quinn is going to clear an area for us to stop. With Jasper’s leg acting up, he doesn’t want to accidentally stumble on the Druid if Jasper isn’t ready.”
“All right.”
They could all feel Quinn’s magic radiate off him. Sawyer watched the leaves disappear, fresh earth moving up to take it and leave barren land for them to stop and camp on.
“I’m so glad we have him,” Sawyer said plainly, making Vincent chuckle.
“Me too,” he agreed. “He has been making this a little easier on us.”
“Thank the gods for that.” Sawyer walked past him and went to Zander, who was already finding a spot for their tent.
It took time, but the entire hunting party did get set up for the night.
“Jasper, there’s nothing wrong with it,” Elijah declared, still looking over the prosthetic. He held it out to Jasper when he was done, shrugging. “The enchantments are still holding just fine. There’s nothing that should cause what you described.”
“Are you sure?” Jasper sounded worried, and Sawyer looped her arm through his to offer some reassurance.
“Trust Elijah,” she whispered to him. “He knows his shit.”
“I know,” he mumbled, grabbing the leg back and dropping it into his lap.
“I’m positive,” Elijah agreed with her. “I don’t know what’s going on but it’s not my magic or Zander’s.”
“With that, Sawyer and Jasper, you two can do a patrol with me,” Quinn announced. “If the incident doesn’t repeat itself, then everything should be okay.”
Sawyer looked over to Quinn. She really enjoyed this fearless, decisive leader version of him. He was commanding and ever-present. He left no place for argument, and he had shrugged off the uncomfortable nature he’d carried for as long as she’d known him. Every day it became more apparent as he stepped up and took charge of them all. Even the soldiers were asking him for help now, including the officers.
“Can do.” Sawyer jumped up from her small fold-out chair and helped Jasper up once he put his leg back on. He stood up close to her and she felt the need to kiss him, reassure him that it was all going to be okay. She didn’t, though, stepping back before the need became reality.
She hadn’t touched any of them intimately since the mission started. Just like in New York, to everyone else they were just teammates. They didn’t know if the soldiers were keeping tabs on them, looking for something to report back to their superiors. She hoped that politics didn’t follow them in
to the jungle, but she didn’t trust them. She didn’t know the soldiers, and they hadn’t endeared themselves to her yet or any of the team.
Jasper noticed the step and nodded minutely. She knew he agreed with her. They would get through this, shove it up the ass of Councilwoman D’Angelo, and then spend some blissful time together at home where no one could bother them.
“Go get the patrol done so we can have dinner,” Zander spoke up.
No one could bother them except each other, Sawyer reminded herself, looking over to Zander with a glare. He just grinned at her, leaning back in his seat and kicking his legs out. She flipped him off and began to follow Quinn away from the camp, Jasper close behind.
They went in silence. Sawyer didn’t know what to talk about. They were in the jungle, they were on a mission, they were hoping Jasper’s leg wasn’t fucked up, and none of them wanted to die, which could be any day.
Quinn forced Jasper to walk ahead of him and she realized that the feral Magi was watching his leg carefully. She didn’t see anything wrong with it and she had missed what happened the first time, only seeing him stumble. She hadn’t been paying attention to his leg.
“How long are we going to do this?” Jasper asked, nearly thirty minutes later.
“Until I’m positive you will be okay,” Quinn answered. “I won’t let you get hurt.”
“People are going to get hurt, Quinn,” Sawyer reminded him gently.
“Not my pack,” he snapped back at her. She jerked back from him, eyes going wide. “You, and Jasper, and the others. Our pack. None of you will get hurt. The soldiers can get themselves killed, but I won’t allow my pack to get hurt. I’m going to make sure that Jasper is okay with continuing the journey, then we’re going to rest. This could come on us at any time, so you all must be ready and able.”
“Jesus,” Jasper mumbled, also watching Quinn intently. “We’ll keep walking. No problem.”
Sawyer’s pulse was racing, and she didn’t know why. Something about the ferocity of Quinn’s small speech had scared her a little, but also inspired her. He was always so intense, and that turned into dedication to those he cared about.
Our pack. He put her in it.
“Our pack will not get hurt,” she agreed, looping her arm through Quinn’s. She got Jasper with her other arm and walked with them for another twenty minutes.
“Let’s head back,” Jasper groaned. “Nothing has happened with it.”
“Okay,” Quinn said. He pried himself loose of Sawyer and led them back to the camp. They hadn’t gone far, having looped around the camp a few times.
“He’s so different out here,” Jasper commented as they followed behind him.
“He is,” Sawyer said, with a wistfulness that she hadn’t expected or been thinking would happen. “I like it.”
Jasper didn’t say anything to her comment.
Before they made it to camp, Sawyer felt something brush against her mind again and stopped, her eyes searching for the cause. “Did you feel that?”
“Feel what?” Jasper frowned at her, his head tilting minutely. “What did you feel?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered, staring off into the dark jungle. Night was falling upon them quickly.
Between that and the unusual feeling, she was wildly uncomfortable. This had been happening a few times every day since the first time, the morning Jasper’s leg had gone missing. She didn’t like it. She didn’t trust it. It was too similar to a feeling she remembered that she hated. She wanted it to stop but didn’t know how to make it stop.
“We should get some rest,” he said, pulling her along. She nodded and let him move them into the camp.
Quinn was farther ahead of them in the camp when Jasper finally stumbled, cursing as he went all the way down.
“Fuck,” she hissed out, kneeling next to him. “You okay?
She ignored the soldiers around them laughing hysterically at the fall. She kept focused on Jasper as he pushed himself upright, still cursing silently to himself. “There’s something fucking wrong with this leg, I swear. This is not fucking normal.”
“We’ll tell Elijah. We’ll figure it out,” Sawyer promised him, helping him stand again. “Come on, let’s get you sitting down.”
“I wish I knew what the fuck was going on,” he snarled out, jerking away from her. “I hate this. I thought everything would be fine with this prosthetic, but it’s becoming more of a pain in the ass than my fucking real leg had been.”
“Stop,” she commanded fiercely, continuing to ignore the laughing soldiers around them. Jasper had gone down hard in front of over a dozen of them. “Don’t start getting fatalistic with me. It’s only happened twice. We’re in a shitty place, in a shitty situation. These things take time to work out. We were jumping the gun thinking this was going to be easy going forever.”
“I’m sorry,” Jasper quickly said, shaking his head. “I’m just in a bad mood.”
“It’s fucking hot. Everyone is in a bad mood.” Sawyer pulled him along, back to the team where they could talk more quietly. Away from the nosy, laughing soldiers all kicking back around their own fires.
“Elijah, it fucked up again in camp,” Sawyer said immediately once they got back to the team. Jasper collapsed in his chair and pulled it off, throwing it at their cowboy.
Elijah caught it, glaring back. “There’s nothing fucking wrong with it,” he snapped. Sawyer knew he would. Everyone was getting snappy and short tempered. “Don’t fucking get pissy with me. Maybe you fucking tripped.”
“There’s something fucking wrong and it needs to get fixed,” Jasper growled back. “I can’t be of any use if it’s fucking knocking me down all the time.”
Sawyer shook her head. She couldn’t get into this. Everything about this was a pain in the ass. Jasper’s leg, the heat, the rain, the soldiers. She almost wished the damn Druid would show up and hash this out with them sooner rather than later because she was losing her damn patience.
She sat next to Vincent and leaned on him.
“I know it’s slow going, but we’ll get through this,” he whispered.
“Quinn promised none of us would get hurt,” she told him.
“Do you believe him?”
“I want to,” she admitted quietly. She and Vincent watched the fire, while Elijah and Zander redid all of the enchantments on Jasper’s prosthetic. Sawyer didn’t like that their healer was burning his magic to do it, or Elijah. She didn’t even understand how they were doing it, but she really didn’t want Zander low when the fight broke out and the work of redoing the enchantments seemed intensive.
The rain slowed and stopped after an hour and Sawyer closed her eyes, blissfully happy to not be getting pummeled by rain anymore. Vincent pointed her to his and Elijah’s tent for sleep that night and she went without complaint.
The next morning, Sawyer was up last. Vincent had let her sleep until the last possible moment, something she was thankful for. One good thing had happened in the rainforest. There was so much going on that she wasn’t having dreams or nightmares. She was sleeping so deeply that nothing was coming to her, haunting her. Exhaustion took her past that point.
“No missing leg today? Nothing?” She grinned, feeling a little lighter.
Elijah handed her a granola bar. “Nothing crazy this morning,” he answered. “Except that’s the last one of those.”
“Fuck,” Sawyer groaned, opening it and taking a slow, sad bite. She was going to miss these bars so much. She moaned at the taste. It was mostly honey-flavored and she loved it. Just a little bit of sugar sweet to give her some pleasure without making it too terribly unhealthy.
“We’re moving out once all the tents come down,” he explained to her quickly.
“Okay, Cowboy.” She gave him a thumbs-up and shoved the rest of the bar into her mouth. She moved to Vincent, who was already pulling the tent down.
They were moving only thirty minutes later, once everyone did their business and shoved food in their
faces.
Sawyer wasn’t looking forward to another day of slow trekking. They really weren’t making that much distance each day due to the size of their party. To Sawyer, it felt like a crawl, a slow crawl to their deaths.
“This fucking blows,” Zander groaned an hour in.
“Yeah it does,” Jasper agreed, stomping.
“How’s the leg today?” she asked, pointing down to it.
“No issues yet,” he answered, shrugging.
As they walked, she fell back and just watched. She wanted to see it if it happened again.
It took three hours, but her diligence paid off. He was taking a step with his real leg and the prosthetic seemed to get pulled out from behind, causing him to stumble hard into Zander.
As Zander and Jasper cursed over it, Sawyer just narrowed her eyes, still watching the prosthetic. Soldiers were laughing, having a good time over the clumsy cripple of an IMPO Special Agent.
That hadn’t been natural, though, and that bothered her. Jasper hadn’t been caught on a root or anything of the sort. His prosthetic just got pulled back and out from underneath him. Having seen it, she had a sneaking suspicion. She eyed the soldiers chuckling and recognized a few from the time his leg had been taken as a joke.
Telekinesis or magnetic manipulation were two options. Telekinesis could be anyone. It was a common ability that popped up in one out of every two Magi. Magnetic manipulation was rarer. She could cross that one off the list first. It gave her some sort of starting point.
Soldiers continued to chuckle long after Jasper’s stumble, as if they had some private joke. She stopped walking, letting them pass by her until she saw the one she wanted. “Doc.” She waved Sergeant Rodriguez down, who gave her a confused look. “I have a couple questions.”
“Sure,” he moved closer to her and they fell into step next to each other, following the crowd. Sawyer could still barely see her team, but that was going to work. She had questions.
“Do you know who here has what abilities?”
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 87
