The Redemption Saga Box Set

by Kristen Banet

  “Roger that!” Zander called back, hauling ahead of most of them. The first thing he did was reach out with his magic and begin bursting pipes inside the Villa, probably scaring everyone inside. He pulled the water to him, hard, making holes in the walls. He rarely did magic on that level, knowing he needed reserves to heal, but tonight seemed like a good time to go to his fullest. Quinn ran next to him, the earth beginning to rumble. A wall Zander had already wrecked crumbled away, opening the side of the building completely for the team and revealing several shocked members of the Ghosts.

  There was no secrecy now in this mission. That was the idea. They wouldn’t know they were being hit hard until it was too late for them to prepare for the force of the strike.

  “Sawyer, let’s go!” Vincent commanded. Zander glanced back at them to see both sublimate and fly through the vegetation of the vineyard towards the house. He knew they would find and corner Axel before the rest of the team.

  “Vincent, don’t do anything stupid,” he sent telepathically to their leader.

  “It’ll be okay,” Vincent replied.

  Zander let it drop, turning his attention back to the criminals running out to meet the team. He and Quinn would hit them first, which was fine. Zander reached out and tried to shove water at one to knock her down, but she grinned as fire erupted next to her. He would have felt bad, but he knew Elijah would take care of it.

  And it didn’t take long. Zander saw the exact moment when the woman lost control over the fire and Elijah gained it. With a booming, superior laugh, the cowboy behind him took the flames up higher and forced the Ghosts closer to the team and further from their backup.

  “IMPO is here!” Jasper yelled out. Zander glanced over, and sure enough, there was a massive line-up of SUVs, all shielded, rolling up to the front door. The gates on the front drive were blasted apart and suddenly, the enemy realized they were going to be overrun.

  Quinn raised the earth and captured the Magi in front of the team. Zander patted his shoulder as they slowed down. “Good job!” he praised.

  The feral Magi only nodded.

  They moved around the captured Magi, Zander checked them for any serious injuries. He didn’t want any of them dying while they were handling the rest. Quinn had done amazing work. He’d engulfed them with dirt, packed tightly up to their shoulders. He’d then used dirt, slowly, to cover their eyes, to stop them from focusing on where to aim their magic. They were perfectly detained.

  But then Quinn staggered.

  He dropped, his eyes wide, his hands shaking as if the most intense pain he’d ever experienced took him over.

  “Buddy?” Elijah stopped concerned, grabbing Quinn by his shoulders, going down to his level. “Quinn, what’s wrong?”

  “Scout,” he gasped out. “He’s under attack. I have to- I have-“

  “Go!” Elijah ordered. “Go save your wolf!”

  Quinn nodded but seemed incapable of moving. Zander swallowed, reaching out to touch Quinn. The bond forced pain from animal to Magi. He might be able to understand what happened to Scout if he could read Quinn. He’d never done it before, but now was the time to try.

  “Damn it, Zander, throw a shield over us!” Jasper roared, ducking a fireball.

  Zander cursed and did as he was asked, then grabbed Quinn hard, yanking him up. He felt for the pain, mental, but there had to be a source to it, there had to be. Mental pain where?

  Legs. Which leg? A snap. Intense, bleeding.

  “Quinn,” he snarled. “His leg is broken. Something might have hit him. Go protect your boy and get him out of combat.” He shoved Quinn, hoping it would jolt him out of feeling his wolf’s problems. Zander didn’t have an animal bond, but he’d heard how debilitating that pain could be. It was like it was happening directly to the Magi.

  His shove was exactly what the Magi needed, and he shifted into a wolf and took off, howling. A black streak of a cat met him and followed, running hard.

  Zander hadn’t realized that Sawyer had left Sombra outside for support. Then again, Sombra did pretty much whatever she wanted on a normal day.

  Then he felt his shield beginning to crack under the onslaught of three Ghosts. He turned back to them, seeing earth and fire getting tossed against the shield. He pulled from the busted pipes in the house and drenched the fire user, letting Elijah snap his fingers and send fire towards the two using earth.

  “Let’s meet the IMPO team,” Elijah ordered. “With them, we can easily put everyone down and meet back up with Sawyer and Vincent. They’ll hold Axel down until it’s safe to deal with him.”

  “Roger that!” Zander pushed forward, reaching into his pockets for a set of brass knuckles. He wasn’t a blade user like Elijah or Jasper. These would work for him, since it seemed like they were about to fight it out with the three Ghosts in front of them.

  He approached a fire user, grinning. The Magi pulled his sword as Zander raised his fists to protect his face.

  He let the other Magi attack first and dodged right of the blade, throwing a strong punch at the man’s jaw, hearing a definitive crack. Then a shield appeared around the other Magi so Zander made his own. The next time the short sword swung, it tried to bury itself into his abdomen, only to bounce off his shield. Zander delivered two more quick punches then a solid kick with his steel-toed boot.

  It didn’t break the Magi’s shield, but it did send him to the ground. While he was there, Zander kicked his sword away and jumped on top of him, slamming a fist into the shield wrapped around the Magi until it cracked and shattered. He had to be sure. Then he pulled a set of handcuffs, one of three he carried for the night, and snapped them on the Magi’s wrist. Before he could stop Zander, the Magi was rolled over and both of his hands were held in place by the enchanted cuffs.

  Zander didn’t need to worry about this one anymore, so he got up and dove for more action, tackling the female Magi Jasper was fighting against.

  Between him, Jasper, and Elijah, they secured all three, cuffed and inhibited, with no magic at their disposal and no way to fight back.

  Without saying anything, they kept moving to the IMPO unit, where it seemed there was utter mayhem. No one was stopping them as they rolled up and saw one thing they weren’t expecting.

  One of the SUVs exploded.

  Right after that? Zander witnessed an IMPO agent turn and stab another and leave him bleeding on the dirt drive.

  They had dirty agents on the mission.

  “Stop that man!” Jasper roared, running forward. Zander could only follow as they saw more and more agents turn on their brothers to protect Axel’s people.

  32

  Sawyer

  It took Sawyer two minutes to make the last portion of their journey to Axel’s Villa as the world began to explode into drama around her. Vincent was sublimated next to her, in her, around her. It was like that first time they truly trained together. They hadn’t done this since, but it felt good now, not uncomfortable. She could practically judge how he was going to move before he did and vice versa. They were one entity, directing and pushing each other to their goal.

  They went into the first window they could find and reformed, jumping the two people they found there as water flew out of the walls. She knew Zander had planned on doing a lot of damage, and Quinn’s earthquake hadn’t helped, but she hadn’t expected all of this. Then again, with so many Magi in a fight, everything was fair game. The building probably wouldn’t be standing by the end of it.

  Sawyer spared no time in knocking the guard unconscious without ever giving him a chance to fight back. Looking over, she saw Vincent had done the same.

  “Good job,” she told him, nodding in appreciation. “We need to deal with Felix first. Axel is going to keep him very close, thinking I’ll focus and kill him but leave Felix again.”

  “Of course. We’ve gone over this.” Vincent straightened up, leaving the guard crumpled and sleeping on the floor. She followed him out of the room, silent and ready. There was so much
magic in the air, she had the nagging suspicion that while she couldn’t feel Axel exactly, he couldn’t feel her either.

  Maybe there was a chance she never needed Naseem. She would have to send him a gift basket or something full of contraband as an apology.

  They found three more guards and Sawyer used a hand gesture to tell Vincent to hide. He stepped behind an open door, pressed against the wall. She cloaked and continued to sneak closer. She hit the first one right to the temple, not hard enough to kill, but enough to drop him without any resistance. She had to judge the strength of that perfectly. She hoped she had, not wanting to disappoint Charlie if she failed.

  The next two looked around wildly, trying to pinpoint her. She kneed one in the balls when he turned towards her without realizing, sending him to the floor in agony. The third she grabbed by the shirt and slammed into the wall.

  Vincent was by her side right after that and they kept moving like it never happened. Simple enough. They were both Magi who were born for this sort of infiltration work. She hoped Vincent’s petrification came in handy during this as well.

  Deeper into the large Villa they went. They could hear utter destruction outside and the earth shook dangerously, proving Quinn was up to something, and probably upset.

  “Vincent?” Worry ran through her.

  “I don’t know. Let’s hope he’s maintaining control,” her lover answered. “I’m worried about him too. Elijah is the best for him, though.”

  “I know,” she murmured, nodding. Elijah would know how to keep their wolf from going too far. Keeping Quinn from crossing that line, since he was so powerful, was so important.

  They had to move quickly. The IMPO teams were there now, making a ruckus and being a major distraction to allow Vincent and Sawyer to sneak in. Sawyer continued to keep her mind focused on finding Axel’s magical signature. The calm, coolness of it. She had grown cold in response. So long ago, he would make her a little chilled, but when everything went to hell, she realized being cold was so much easier than being hot. It was easier to shut down.

  But not tonight. Tonight, she didn’t want to be cold and controlled. She wanted to feel everything.

  So she held nothing back, letting her magic leak and leave her, filling the halls. It wasn’t as chilled as normal. She was going after a man who had made it chilled. Maybe one day, it would be warm like the sun.

  “Sawyer?” Vincent frowned at her, obviously curious about what her magic was doing. She needed to come up with an excuse to and found one.

  “Your magic has always been very subtle. Maybe I can mask it with my own. He’ll only think it’s me.”

  Vincent nodded. The reasoning she offered was accepted. Honestly, she was glad she figured that out as quickly as she had - and it was solid. If she kept Axel focused on her, Vincent would be an unknown, able to sneak around her and detain him.

  Finally, she found Axel and another Magi, realizing it must have been Felix. They were moving quickly around a room, almost frantic and scattered. She paused in front of the door she felt them behind and held up a hand for Vincent to stop. He followed the order without question.

  She pushed the door open, sparing not even a second to slow and blinked forward, elbowing Felix in the jaw and sending him flying back into a chair. Within another second, earth tried to grab her leg, breaking up from the floor beneath her. She blinked away from it and turned to find Axel on the other side of the room, his eyes wide, then turning angry. She blinked for him and tried to slam a fist into his face as she felt the subtle magic of Vincent come into the room as well.

  Her fist met a shield, crunching hard against the unbreakable force. She bit back a yelp of pain and tried again as Axel swung an untrained fist for her as well.

  Now she had training, though, and threw up her left arm to stop the hit. She didn’t know how to get through his shield, and until she did, handcuffs would be ineffective, unable to touch skin.

  “So you’ve come for me!” he taunted, shoving her back while she tried to judge how to deal with him. “I would say I’m surprised, but I’m not.”

  “You set this up,” she reminded him. “You made this easy.”

  “I did.” He smiled as more of his guards came into the room. She counted five, but there was a chance more were on the way. “And I knew you were bringing in the IMPO, but good try. You think most of them would help you? I own Rome.”

  She kept his focus as Vincent slowly moved behind him in sublimated form. Then the smoke stopped and began to slowly come apart.

  “SAWYER!” Vincent’s roar of pain screamed and echoed in her head.

  “No!” she gasped. “Axel, stop, you’ll kill him. He’s your brother.” She had to stop that. Maybe trying to reason with him. She didn’t think it would work, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

  “Maybe he shouldn’t have been fucking you, then,” Axel snapped, a vicious, angry look on his face. It was heartless and bloodthirsty.

  And she wouldn’t tolerate another Castello dying to this man. They were all doing good except for him.

  She roared, ignoring the guards coming for her, and jumped for Axel. She connected hard enough to slam him into the wall and she felt it. The shield cracked.

  Every ounce of rage she felt in every nightmare consumed her as she beat into his shield at his chest, cracking it further and further, while Vincent reformed, gasping for his life. She knew the feeling.

  A guard, maybe two, grabbed her and threw, sending her to the floor. She jumped up quickly and felt the shield slam around her and the guards that were turned to her. She blocked punches and threw her own. She dodged swords, pulling her daggers to match steel with steel. She fought hard. Suddenly, Vincent was at her back, kicking one away from her.

  “He’s shielded us in here with them! We need to take them out, then break the shield if we want to follow him and Felix!”

  Sawyer growled, this time burying a dagger into the side of a man. They were out to kill her and she needed to keep alive in the pit of death Axel had made. This was pure fighting now. She tried to keep the injuries to a minimum, but in the end, it was her or them.

  She wanted it to be her. Her and the guys. She wanted a fucking tomorrow.

  Axel knew just how to fuck with her, that was for sure.

  Finally, the last one dropped and she leaned on Vincent, looking down at them.

  “None of them are dead. I can feel IMPO agents, and maybe some of the team, coming our way. We need to break this shield and run after him. Kaar is keeping over him, watching where he’s going.”

  “He won’t have gotten too far, I think.” She had a feeling this was about to be a hunt in the dark of the olive trees. They just needed to get the fuck out of the shielded bubble they were in.

  33

  Jasper

  Fury raged in Jasper as he took down the first traitor he saw. The one who stabbed another and was going for the kill. He pulled his gun and fired quickly into the man’s abdomen, with no sympathy.

  Without missing a beat, he jumped up and kicked down at the man’s head with his fake foot, knowing the impact would either knock him out or kill him.

  Jasper had wanted to do this nicely, but he didn’t have it in him to spare traitors. Not today. Not when his teams’ freedom from this shitshow of an organization and world was nearly in their grasp. He wasn’t going to let these people stop them from having a tomorrow.

  It solidified his need to fix this. To make these people see justice before they could kill their allies, the other men and women who relied on them. One day, he was going to lead the damned charge against people like them.

  “Who else? What other fucking agents want to get dirty?” he demanded, looking around at the chaos. First it was Jon, who betrayed them to Axel hoping he could get the glory of catching the criminal. Then it was the WMC, sending the team to the Amazon. Then an agent who Jasper only wanted to forget. That one who was helping Suarez. The one who caused the accident that nearly killed Elijah and sta
bbed Vincent.

  “I got you, boy,” someone growled. Jasper spun to see an angry, grinning man come for him.

  “Why?” he asked, narrowing his eyes on the other man.

  “He pays better.”

  Such a callous, awful answer. There wasn’t even a higher motive. Just money. Just an opportunity.

  Jasper charged him, calling up the wind to help him knock the other man to the ground, who quickly shielded to protect himself from the impact. Somewhere in the background, another vehicle went up in flames.

  They fell together, rolling in the dirt and punches were thrown. Jasper was able to get the upper hand and threw a punch down on the opposing agent. He was kneed and thrown off. Suddenly there was more than one opponent. A boot connected against his ribs and sent him down before he could completely regain his feet. Another boot slammed against his head and he pulled it. He called the wind again, whipping it up like a tornado and pulled it over him, shoving them back, hopefully sending them flying.

  He stood up slowly and sent the tornado at the first, the one who admitted that money was the reason. He sent it crashing into the man and it threw the traitor nearly twenty yards from him. Next, Jasper pulled on his magic and created an illusion, one that would only affect certain people. He marked those he could see for everyone else, making their black uniforms look red.

  And he grinned at the shock they had when they were caught sabotaging their allies.

  He was stopped by a hit to the back, someone tackling him down. He struggled, looking for his sidearm and finding it gone. So was his sword. With his fake leg, he kicked at his attacker, causing a scream as bone broke underneath his steel reinforced and magically enhanced leg.

  Then there was a rumble in the earth that continued to grow. A howl broke through the sounds of everything else.