“You’re sorry. I know. Come smoke. You’ve probably already figured out my feelings, and I’ve probably figured out yours.”
She walked beside him and reached to run her hands through his dark curls. He looked over to her and she didn’t like how exhausted his dark olive-green eyes were.
“He hurt Jasper,” she whispered.
“I know. I don’t blame you. I just didn’t want you carrying around a kill you did in temper.”
“They would have taken me away from you guys if I had gone through with it. I’d be in a cell the moment we got home.”
“Yes. That too.” Vincent nodded slowly.
They smoked in silence after that. He surprised her by sneaking in a kiss, a long one, before they went back to camp. It had been desperate and tired, needy and wanting.
For both of them.
She wanted to go home with them. She was tired of the jungle.
21
Quinn
It was close to midnight when Quinn decided to leave his patrol. It was another peaceful night, another peaceful day - discounting the fight in camp.
He didn’t have the focus to deal with that. He knew the team would manage it. He’d broken up the fight because no one else could, but he wasn’t going to get more involved. He couldn’t. Vincent’s point about Sawyer killing the soldiers was valid. Past that, Quinn needed them all, needed as many Magi as he could get for this.
He needed to sleep, he knew, as he rubbed his face, hoping to stop the exhaustion. His body was physically tired, which made his magic harder to use and control. He still had plenty of energy, but he needed to be able to focus, or he would hurt teammates if a fight broke out.
“Quinn, right?” a soldier on patrol asked. Quinn looked over at the pair. They were required to stay together, only leaving camp for patrols in pairs or more. They knew why, since he had told them. One of them would probably die, but the other could get word back to camp.
“Yes.” He didn’t know why it was a question. He frowned at the soldier, Lance Corporal Peters.
“Just wanted to say hi. You seem lonely,” he explained, smiling. “You’re always out here. Why don’t you hang out with your team and take a break? Get some sleep?”
“Leave him alone,” the other whispered. “He probably doesn’t want us bothering him.”
“You’re fine,” Quinn interrupted the second one. “I’m not…” He growled, looking for the words. He was fine having a conversation with some of the lower soldiers, those that didn’t whisper about him. Some were good males and these two were ones he included in that. “I’m fine talking for a moment. I’m actually headed back to camp right now to get some rest before we begin travelling again.”
“Good, you work too hard,” Peters told him, grinning. “This mission fucking blows, ya know? No reason for you to run yourself ragged. We have watch.”
“Thank you,” Quinn murmured honestly. In another life, Peters, a young dark-skinned man probably Sawyer’s age, would be someone Quinn liked. “Be safe. If anything happens, you know what to do.”
“Of course.” Peters nodded. “We got this.”
“I trust you.” Quinn couldn’t resist giving the young man a smile. Something about him was good.
He left them to their watch and went to his shared tent with Vincent and Elijah. Elijah wasn’t in there, but Sawyer was, curled in a ball on the opposite side of Vincent, leaving a space for him in the middle. He saw Shade laying near her head and Scout by her feet.
Protecting her, like he’d told them to. She had to live through this. She was priority, then the team, then himself. The soldiers, Quinn would try to save, but he couldn’t protect everyone. His pack came first, starting with the female that had to survive.
He felt momentarily bad for Peters. He’d been kind. Most didn’t approach Quinn like that. He felt guilty that the soldier was his lowest priority. Him and his brothers, the others. None of them mattered like her. None of them, not even himself.
He slid between her and Vincent and closed his eyes. Shade sent him images and feelings from the time when they had been separated. Just her, sleeping after being healed by Zander. Just his team being short-tempered and annoyed with each other. He couldn’t blame them. This was not their environment or their home.
This place was calling to him, though, and he couldn’t bring himself to get angry with it. He felt an undying need to just walk away from the camp and never come back. Leave them to the mission and go find a place where none of the Druids had claimed and live away from it all. Away from the metal cities, overcrowded streets, and dirty air. The people who acted in ways that he didn’t understand.
He was tired, but he also loved it. So far from everything. So deep in nature that if he wanted, he could leave, and no one would find him.
The earth beneath them was clean. The life around them was untouched.
Pure. It was all so pure.
Sawyer stirred next him, and he held his breath as she rolled onto her back. He saw her hair fall over her face, beautiful even with the sweat causing it to stick to her forehead.
Would she stay with him if he wanted? She could survive in these wilds. She was strong enough.
No, he knew she hated this sort of area. She hated ‘playing in the dirt,’ as she called it. She would want to go home. To her metal cities and crowded streets.
Quinn wondered if that was why she wasn’t ready.
He reached out and touched the assassin’s face. So strong and resilient. She’d changed so much about them and she continued to change them, to change him. She opened her mouth and he listened, for she always had some wisdom he didn’t know or understand. Elijah had probably told him some of these things before, or Vincent, Zander, or Jasper, but something, when she spoke, made him listen and made him think.
He shifted closer to her. He enjoyed sleeping next to her. He’d discovered it in Texas, but hadn’t done it since. Closer, he gently touched her cheek and stopped as her eyes flew open.
“Quinn,” she whispered airily.
He listened to her breathing speed up, shallow. He could practically feel her pulse jump. He’d scared her. Anger at himself flooded her. He knew better. He knew he was too powerful for her to want, to be comfortable with. He was strong enough to do worse things than Axel ever had, even if he’d never do it to her. He didn’t blame her instincts for being scared of him. Survival was for those smart enough to recognize threats and avoid them. Sawyer was a survivor.
“I’m sorry. Go back to sleep. I’ll move.”
“You’re fine,” she said quickly. “What were you doing?”
“Nothing.” He rolled over and put his back to her, staring at a sleeping Vincent instead. He tensed when a hand touched his back softly.
“Good night, Quinn,” she whispered.
“Good night.”
He didn’t sleep, just waited for her to go back to her dreams. He hoped they were good ones.
His own eyelids were beginning to drop when he felt it. A small pulse of power.
“Everyone, get up,” he snarled, hitting Vincent’s shoulder and making him jump up. Sawyer was up immediately after, on her own. He left the tent the moment he knew both were conscious. He yanked open the other tent. “Up now!”
Another pulse of power.
Elijah and Zander were up fast. Jasper grabbed his prosthetic and began to put it on. Quinn didn’t have time.
A scream tore through the night.
He ran through the camp. “Everyone up!” he roared out. Soldiers jumped into action. “She’s here!”
Another scream.
Quinn ran for the source, soldiers behind him.
He saw Peters first, pale and trapped in vines. He was still screaming.
“Peters,” a soldier gasped. “Where’s the other-”
Quinn knew Peters couldn’t be saved. He looked down to the man’s legs and resisted the urge to vomit.
Ants were crawling up, biting over and over.
Eating him alive.
/> Quinn did the one thing he could. He used the earth to pull the man into his grave and crushed him with the ants that were feasting.
“What the fuck?” a soldier groaned. “That’s it?”
“No, that was the warning,” Quinn whispered.
Screaming broke out in the camp. Expletives and yelling.
More terrified screams.
Gunfire started, lighting up the world with flashes.
“Watch out for the snakes!” someone screamed in camp.
Quinn cursed. “Go, help them. I’m going to hunt her down.” When the soldiers didn’t move, he snarled, nearly shifting as his jaw elongated and his canines grew. “GO!”
As they ran back for camp, he looked back out into the darkness. Where was she?
Shade and Scout ran out past him and he saw a dark shadow creeping towards camp. He nearly reached out to grab it, to stop it on whatever mission it was on. Shade immediately told him that it wasn’t a threat and Quinn dropped it.
The wolves searched for the scent while he felt for her magic, running deeper into the woods. She had to be close. He had to trust the soldiers and his team to stay alive. It was too dark and too sudden for him to get any of them to help. More of them would die being away from the main group.
“Rogue Wolf. You knew better than to come to my home. Did you think you would be welcome here?”
Quinn stopped running and turned to the sultry voice. “You know my name - what’s yours?” he asked softly, looking at the young Druid in the moonlight.
“I was called Camila, before I came here,” she answered in Spanish.
He swallowed as she walked closer. He pulled up earth walls slowly, stopping vines from creeping to him, deterring snakes from using those vines as cover. “Stop this,” he ordered, continuing to use English since she obviously understood it. “There’s no reason for more people to die.”
“You’re here to kill me,” she reminded him.
“Because you kill innocent people. You know the law. You murdered them, innocent non-Magi people.”
“None of them are innocent!” she screamed, her sultry voice becoming shrill. Quinn stepped back. “They destroy the land! They kill my family!”
Quinn didn’t have time for the madness. He raised the earth over her feet, hoping to just pull her down quick and crush her, only to get surprised by a large animal barreling into him. Claws tore down his chest. He tried to shove away the jaws trying to take his throat. Vines wrapped around his legs and his torso.
“You’ll die here. But first, I’m going to kill all the humans you brought here.” Camila sneered. “You killed that Druid while she wasn’t paying attention. I’m not so stupid. My baby will hold you while I clear this infestation you brought here.” She began to laugh and stopped. “Tell your wolves I’m sorry they were foolish enough to bond to you.”
Quinn heard another growl and then another, the rainforest alive with the sound of violence. He felt the pain lance through him and Shade and Scout began fighting off their own attackers.
22
Sawyer
Sawyer waited for any sign of activity after Quinn told them to get up. He’d run off into the woods, a few soldiers following him, but Vincent had stopped her or anyone else from following.
“We can’t go out into the dark. We’ll be helpless. He can hold his own,” he reminded her.
“I know,” she whispered, uneasy with the screaming she heard out there.
“It could just be a snake bite, an accident,” Elijah offered. “But until he knows, we need to stick together.”
“I know,” she snapped harder. She understood the reasoning, but she hated it.
The screaming stopped.
“What the hell are we awake for? What is going on?” The captain stormed over to them, followed by others.
Sawyer raised an eyebrow. Where was Colonel Fischer?
“Screaming. Quinn wanted us all up. He and a few of your men went out to see what happened,” Vincent explained quickly.
“Where’s Fischer?” Sawyer asked, too curious about his absence.
“Probably getting dressed,” the captain answered, shaking his head. “I don’t like your fucking wild man ordering us all to be awake for some guy out there spraining a goddamned ankle.”
“We don’t know-”
The next scream came from in the camp.
Sawyer spun to the soldiers, getting ready. They were all looking up and none were screaming. Her eyes slowly drifted the same direction.
A soldier was being strangled by vines above them.
“Oh shit,” she whispered.
“Get him down!” the captain roared out.
Sawyer sublimated and flew up. Once at the level of the soldier, she reformed and grabbed the vine, but she didn’t have time to pull a dagger as other vines began to grab her.
“Fuck!” She sublimated again, falling back to the ground in her smoke form. When she looked back up, the soldier was dead. He wasn’t screaming anymore.
Terror pulsed through her. She couldn’t fight the fucking trees.
All hell broke loose.
Sawyer watched another soldier get entangled in the underbrush and pulled down. She lost sight of him. Another was jumped by an animal, a large jaguar.
Then the snakes came, silent, all over the ground, moving into the camp.
People started shooting.
Sawyer was frozen.
“Watch out for the snakes!” someone screamed in camp.
“Fischer is already dead!”
“RUN!”
Sawyer unsheathed her kukri, snapping out of the horror for a moment, and began to slash down at snakes coming towards her in any way she could. She sublimated and moved quickly to her guys, Elijah holding a ring of fire around them until she got inside.
Then Zander slammed a shield over them.
“Walk and I’ll hold!” he screamed to them.
They began to move, watching the world around them fall apart. Elijah kept fireballs on his hands while, she, Vincent, and Jasper just kept their eyes open for anything that could break Zander’s shield.
Sawyer didn’t like that they were missing someone. Where was Quinn? Why wasn’t he with them? Was he fighting the Druid somewhere else alone?
Dread filled her.
Was he already dead?
Other soldiers began to see what they were doing. Shields began to appear.
“Keep moving,” Vincent ordered.
As they moved, Sawyer saw Anya, the bear, fight off a pair of jaguars, Varya trying to help. The bear was already bleeding, dark patches of blood forming all over it. She could see the pain on Varya’s face.
Sawyer knew she couldn’t let it happen. Not to someone else. No one deserved to lose that bond.
“Let me out,” she commanded. Zander didn’t give her a space to leave, shaking his head. “NOW!”
“Do it,” Vincent joined in. Then he looked at her. “Stay alive.”
“Of course.”
She ran out of the space Zander made and felt the force of him closing it behind her. She blinked closer and drove the kukri into a jaguar on the bear’s back. Varya gasped, weaponless.
“Here,” Sawyer told her, pulling one of her twelve-inch daggers from its sheath. Varya didn’t take it. “You need something!”
Varya took the hilt quickly and slashed at a snake coming near, as Sawyer went for the other jaguar jumping towards them. Their impact knocked the air out of Sawyer, but she couldn’t let the jaguar tear out her throat. She buried the kukri in its gut after it took her to the ground and kicked it off. She turned to Varya and Anya, waving them on.
“Go to my team. They will let you in!” Sawyer pointed off to the guys, who were making steady moves towards them.
“And you?”
“I have to find someone,” Sawyer answered honestly.
Quinn wasn’t in camp with them. He’d gone off on his own.
A brush on her mind, calling her deeper into the darkness.
She looked at her team, all of them watching her. She trusted them to stay alive together. Then she turned and followed whatever was calling her, running into the darkness, having no idea what she would find.
She hoped it would be her last friend.
23
Zander
Zander watched Sawyer run into the dark. Why? He wasn’t the only person wondering.
“Vincent, what the hell?” Jasper screamed.
“She’s going after Quinn,” he answered harshly. “It’s not in her nature to huddle down and wait and protect herself. Let the bear and the Russian in.”
“Fine,” Zander pulled back a section of his shield and pushed it out wider. He closed it the moment he knew Petrov and her bear would fit.
He ignored the screams of others. They all did. There was nothing they could do except hope the Druid died soon.
Zander was scared. He didn’t know how long he could hold the shield as they moved away from the war zone that the camp had become. Still, soldiers were being dragged away by vines. Others just ran, back in the direction they had originally come.
“Are we going to help?” Elijah asked, angry.
“I don’t know if we can,” Vincent answered.
“I think Elijah can burn the forest down,” Jasper cut in. “I can push it out. It’ll be destructive, but it’ll give us something.”
“Shit.” Vincent nodded. “Elijah, it’s pretty wet here.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Elijah replied, chuckling darkly.
Zander pulled the shield down. That’s all he needed to hear.
“What?” Varya gasped, holding a dagger. Zander looked down at it for a second. It was one of Sawyer’s. It irked him a little.
“Zander, pull the water to us, so it’ll be easier for me to burn this place to the ground,” Elijah said, the fireballs on his hands growing to consume his arms.
He did as he was asked, but it was a lot of water - in the very earth, in the decay of the undergrowth. While he worked, Elijah threw out a fiery circle around them. It evaporated the water Zander drew forth and Jasper used his control over the air to keep them free of smoke and able to breathe.
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 90
