“Well, good. Now that you are free and have time on your hands, we need to start fortifying the compound. It would appear that our enemies want to attack us during our meeting. I don't know how, but they found out when we're having it and who's going to be there. There's someone on the inside.”
Tevin agreed that it made sense and asked him if he had any idea who it was.
Cole flew off the handle, saying that if he knew, he would be sending him to kill them. His voice got loud, and his face got red. It wasn't the first time that his boss had lost his cool with him, and it most likely would not be the last. Cole was under a lot of pressure, and because of that, he could be hard to deal with at times. But Tevin had been introduced to a whole new side of him. The Cole in front of him was a new man.
“What I need from you, Tevin, is I need you to find out who is working with these people and to get rid of them. I also trust only you to do the fortification. The meeting is going to happen in a couple of days, and I really want everyone there to feel safe. We have to get this under wraps or they will not think that we can handle our own house.”
Tevin told him that it wouldn't be a problem. He didn't know if it would be or not, but he was hopeful that they would be able to figure it out.
“Why do you think they're doing this?” It really was an innocent question, but Cole didn’t take it well.
“Because of that damn girl you had! They wanted her back and were going to do anything in their power to get her. I don't know what was so damn special about her, but they'll never get her back now.”
Cole laughed, and Tevin did his best to repeat the motion. How strange it was to laugh over the death of a woman that he loved. How strange it was to love a woman. So much had changed since meeting Molly. She had changed everything without really even trying.
The two men talked for a little while longer before Tevin was able to leave. He pretended like he was hot on the trail and going to take care of it all. In truth, he had no idea what the holy hell he was going to do. It had all gotten way too complicated, and now that he knew Cole's plan, he was going to have to go find the attacking party and warn them. For Molly's sake.
Tevin made it back to where he had left Molly. For a brief moment, he’d worried that she would not be there, but she was there waiting for him with a smile on her face. He was concerned with everything going on but seeing her like that seem to settle him. It made his decisions a little bit easier.
“Are you going to tell me what happened? You have this crazy look in your eyes.”
He agreed that he would and then asked her if she knew where Jamie was.
There was a tiny hint of suspicion when Molly wanted to know why he wanted to know that.
“I want to know because I need to find them and warn them about what they are about to do. Cole is not going to take it lying down. He has a trap in play for them, and I'm afraid that they're not going to survive. If you care about her at all and don’t want her to die, then you need to tell me how I am supposed to get a hold of them.”
She got a stricken look on her face. “What is going to happen?”
“They are going to reinforce the hell out of the place, Molly. As soon as they go to attack, they're going to be surrounded and slaughtered. I have heard that the players are to leave no one alive. They are not planning on fighting them, Molly; they are going to take them all out and end it all.
“Oh.”
Molly was silent, and Tevin wished that he wouldn't have been so forthcoming with the information. She was usually so sturdy, taking situations that most would lose themselves to and being fine. He underestimated how much it would affect her. Of course, it would affect her.
“I think I can get ahold of them. It might take a little bit of time for me to do a scrying spell. I need a few things.”
Tevin promised to get her anything that she needed. The only way he was going to be able to save anybody was to get the information to them before the meeting. The meeting was only a few days away, and that didn’t give them much time. He also had to keep up appearances with Cole long enough for him to not be suspected. Considering how paranoid his boss was acting right then, that meant that he was going to have to show results. It was a lot that had to be done and so little time to do it.
“Do what you have to do, Molly. If we're ever going to be free, we are going to have to help take the Syndicate down. I now realize they have been a thorn in my side for a very long time. If we can get rid of them, then maybe all of us will finally have some peace.”
“It sounds like a plan to me. This sooner we get rid of the Syndicate, the better. I don't think I will ever be able to not look behind me until they are gone. I don’t want that for our children.”
Chapter Nineteen
The day had finally come for them to take the fight to the Syndicate. Jamie knew that so much was riding on those next few moments, and she was afraid of what was going to become of them.
Dylan looked at her. “Tell me why you look so worried? I keep telling you that you don't have to go. I don't want you to go, Jamie. You don’t have to be there and see all of it again. I have no idea what is going to happen, and you’ve already seen enough.”
She gave him a look and told him that he didn't get to make that decision for her. She did, and it was crystal clear to Jamie what had happened. She had to be there to finish the job. Then, she may be able to finally put it all behind her.
There was a group of about two hundred of them that were silently making their way towards the compound. The Syndicate certainly knew how to hide themselves. It would have been impossible for them to have found them without Chelsea’s guidance. No one had known for sure if dealing with the Waverly Witches would turn out to be good or not, and Jamie was happy that it had.
Chelsea had made promises that had seemed too good to be true. Not only had she promised to give them the location of where they could find the Syndicate, but she had also promised to help destroy them for good. She had mentioned something about wanting revenge, but Jamie had no idea what that revenge was actually for. In truth, she didn't really care. If that revenge somehow got Molly back, that was all she was going to worry about. If they could find an end to it all, she knew that it would all be worth it.
Jamie looked around at all of the people on her side. It really was a sight to see, so many working together for a common goal.
Dylan touched her hand and squeezed it lightly, assuring her that they would make it through. Jamie needed to believe it. Everything that was going on, finishing the Syndicate and finally getting the chance to redeem herself, was all that there was left to do before she could close the chapter on it.
Jamie had almost talked herself into a state of peace with everything. She was trying her best to convince herself of the same. That's all it took: just a little self-talk and the reassurance of her husband next to her. With all of those people behind them, how could it go bad?
She heard him grumble in the crowd around her, and only when she saw the shadow of wings in the sky, did she know why. Suddenly, Jamie wondered if those two hundred souls that were there to help her would perish. The dragon went low, and she waited for the fire to burst out of his mouth. Even though it didn't happen immediately, she couldn't see anything else happening. Jamie was just convinced that it was the end, and she waited for it to come. She almost wasn't mad about it. The one thing Jamie knew for certain was she was just so damn tired. Tired of everything.
Jamie was pushed back by the men, and they all went to attack the dragon that was obviously with the Syndicate. Jamie wanted to see what was going on for herself, but she knew that the safest bet was to listen to what Dylan wanted. He was always so in tune with what she needed.
Just like everyone else, she was on edge, waiting to find out what they were going to have to do next. She was hopeful that Chelsea was as badass as everybody said she was. That's what they needed at the moment.
Jamie couldn’t help but remember one very important thing. Chelsea
was afraid of the dragons too. With good reason.
A dragon, she exclaimed. Why did it have to a dragon?
Tevin saw the people marching towards the compound, and he got a little nervous because they were a lot closer than he thought they would be when he met up with them. They were already within a mile of the compound. The Syndicate would know that they were there soon enough, and then it would be too late for him to properly warn them like he wanted to. He started to move faster, hoping that he would somehow be able to get through to them. Tevin did not want anyone else to get hurt. He was along the same lines as Molly. Just because the Syndicate was their enemy didn’t mean that he was going to be their friend. He didn't know them and had no desire to make any more enemies or friends. He had enough of both.
Tevin stopped when he wasn't too far from the gathered people, and he did his best to look as docile as possible. He did not want anyone to get hurt. He just wanted to warn them. That was it.
The band of people did not seem to understand what he was trying to do, though. Instead of being able to warn them about what was going to happen, he was hit hard with some kind of magical beam. His body was thrown backward and if he had been in his human form, he probably would have died. It was only his dragon that saved him.
Getting away from the next magical beam that came towards him, he put some distance between him and the crowd with a witch in it somewhere. As much as he wanted things to go well and to be able to help them, he wasn't going to risk his life for it. It was one of the only things he had left. Tevin had made a promise to Molly, and he intended to keep it.
He was remiss that he was not able to at least get some kind of warning to them. He had promised Molly that he would make sure nothing happened to them. It was starting to look like it was a promise that he shouldn’t have made. He wasn't going to be able to keep them safe if they wouldn't even listen to him. How could he warn them if they were trying to blow him out of the sky?
He was going to have to just be a little bit more personal with his approach. It wasn't like he didn't know how to get into the compound and how to get away from all of that extra security. He was the one that set it up after all.
So, instead of fighting together, he was going to hold back and wait for them to start attacking. Then he was going to have to wait for them to get attacked before Tevin could help.
“What do you think that dragon was doing here?”
Dylan kind of shook his head and said nothing seemed to be making much sense lately. The large red dragon could have easily attacked before Chelsea got her spell off. It was like he didn't want to.
For some reason, Jamie had a feeling that the dragon was trying to help her. There was no proof of it, and they knew that there was a dragon that was working for the Syndicate. All facts led to the conclusion that it was one of theirs, so why didn’t it breathe fire on the large crowd of people approaching? Or attack even after he was hit by a magic beam.
“I don't know. Maybe he was going to attack but was then was shocked by how many people were involved. I can't believe that we got this many people together. Did you think it was possible?”
“I think that you underestimated how many people have been affected by the Syndicate. You're certainly not the only one.”
Jamie really wanted to believe that. She wanted to believe that everything that happened wasn’t all her fault. At the moment, she felt so guilty about it that it was eating her up inside, and she wasn't making the best decisions. She knew why, though. It was because of how it all came to be. Her working with William had set it all in motion. That was never going to change, and ending it was the only way that it wouldn’t be there anymore. She could finally move on.
Chapter Twenty
Tevin watched it all from the air. He saw the hundred-plus people walking through the woods, all determined to make their way to the compound. They thought that they had enough people, but he knew better. He knew they didn't have a chance in hell.
The people were going to meet four hundred plus that were there waiting for them. They weren't going to stand a chance, and even though he had known that it would be against them, he had hoped that he would be able to warn them enough to keep them out of harm's way. Now some of them were going to be lost no matter what he did, and he hoped that Molly would understand that he did the best he could.
Tevin had to stay out of sight because of the witch in their midst. He didn't know exactly who she was, but the pain she had caused him with one little magical beam told him all he needed to know. She was a strong witch, and he was going to have to keep his distance. If a witch had made her mind up that she wanted to pick a side, Tevin knew better than to fight her.
Tevin was nervous about everything. If they didn't succeed, Tevin and Molly would be on the run for the rest of their lives. None of that sounded good to him. They had to succeed.
The first fight started outside of the compound. There were probably ten security guards there to keep everything in line. There were more outside than there had been before. He didn't want them to get suspicious and wonder why there weren't as many security guards. They would think that the rise of a few people was going to be all the security they had. Tevin knew that they were, of course, going to be very wrong in that assumption.
The group was obviously battle-worn because they had no problem dispatching of the first set of security guards. The witch took out several of them by herself. She looked young, but her magic felt old. It was potent enough to make him stay back just a little bit longer.
When they breached the compound, the problem started. He could hear screaming, and while more were trying to rush through, he recognized that a few of the leaders were hanging back. They were trying to dictate who went where and he swooped down towards them. It was the one that he had tried to talk to before.
The man walked towards him to attack, and he stopped him with his mind.
“Stop sending your people in. There are hundreds of them in there.”
“What? Why are you trying to help us? You’re here with them.”
“I just don't want you all to die. I promised Molly that I would help you.”
“Molly? You have Molly?”
He agreed. “She is not here right now, but she is safe.”
The man looked over to a woman not too far away and told her to come over.
“Jamie come here; the dragon knows where Molly is. He says he has her.”
The woman rushed over and told him under no uncertain terms that he needed to release her right away. Tevin took the chance to switch into his human form because it was impossible to talk over her through telepathy. He needed to have an actual conversation, and Jamie was making it hard.
“What have you done to her? Molly doesn't deserve this. What is going to stop us from killing you right now?”
“Well, if you're going to kill me, I guess nothing is going to stop you, but it would probably be a bad decision. I have been with the Syndicate for years and I am the one that set up this trap. If you want me to help you, then you need to get your guys back. This is not the way you’re going to win.”
Dylan asked him if he thought he was stupid.
“Do you really think we're just going to back off now? We finally have them, and we have the numbers.”
“If you're smart, you would. Back off; let me burn it, and they will start running out. That is the easiest way. No one can withstand fire, no matter what kind of magical being they are.”
“Except you.”
Tevin smiled at the woman and agreed. “Except me.”
After a moment, she just kind of nodded her head and agreed with Tevin’s idea. He transformed back into his true form and started toward the compound. There was a horn blown, and people started to stream out of the compound. They all knew from that point that it was a trap. The ones who had made it into the compound didn’t last very long or lived because they hadn't gotten to the frontlines yet. They were being slaughtered like fish in a barrel. Dylan and Jamie
probably didn't want to trust Tevin, but they were running out of options, and he must have seemed like the best one.
Jamie and the rest started to back off from the building. Tevin knew that they had a plan to get Molly back. He didn't know exactly what it was but knew that his way would be better. Not only did he know what to look for and where everyone was, but dragons were always more powerful. Fire was always a great deterrent.
As he rose higher in the sky and got closer to his target, he had a moment of reflection and wondered if he could go through with it. The Syndicate had become his dysfunctional family, and Cole, the leader, was amongst the people hiding out in the bunker underneath. That's where they were having the meeting that year, and he was going to have to decide after the building was gone if he was going to say anything about it. He could potentially save all their lives, but in doing so, he could end his own. They would never stop chasing after him if they knew what he had done. Since there weren't too many dragons around, especially those that look like him, it would be pretty easy for them to find out who had wronged them.
To kill them, though, to end the lives of the people he had spent the last few years with, that was a bit more than he could handle. The very idea of it was a hard thing to swallow. The hundreds he was about to kill were just people that were hired to take care of this one thing. They were all innocent, or as innocent as any hired gun could be.
He knew that he had made his choice. He did not pick his family that he had found in the Syndicate. He picked the woman he had known less than a week. That's who he needed far more than Cole. Molly gave him something he just couldn't get anywhere else.
Alpha Shifter Bride Service: (A Paranormal Romance Series) Page 52
