A Heart of Shame

by Kristen Banet

  “Good,” Vincent sighed.

  They parked at the mall, and Quinn climbed out, Scout following him. He and Vincent waited as Cara woke up Sammy and got her out of the Explorer. Vincent was already on the phone with the Dallas office, quickly explaining their situation.

  Zander and Jasper walked up, Quinn letting Shade follow Bucky towards his sisters. He knew Shade was feeling protective over the younger brother. He did similar with Scout, even though they were littermates. He was the bigger wolf, and it was expected that he take care of the smaller one and stay in charge.

  “Sissy, I have a big doggie!” Bucky laughed. “He’s fluffy.”

  “He is.” Cara laughed softly. “What’s his name?”

  Quinn felt Zander elbow him and point, distracting him from Bucky’s answer.

  “He calls your wolves, puppies and doggies,” Zander snickered with a grin. “You going to do anything about that?”

  “He’s a child,” Quinn huffed. “No, he can call them whatever he wants.”

  Six years ago, he would have considered doing something, but his time in the civilized world had changed his stance on many things. He, as a child, would have never made the mistake, but he wouldn’t begrudge this child for making it. Bucky probably didn’t think a wolf was with him, just a dog that looked like one.

  “We have a problem,” Jasper whispered, jerking his head towards their leader. “Look at Vincent.”

  Quinn turned back to their leader, who was looking pale as someone from Dallas spoke to him on the phone.

  “Vin?” Zander called out.

  “We need to take them to the Dallas headquarters right now,” Vincent growled, removing the phone from his ear.

  “Why?” Cara asked, looking up from her brother. “I thought we would get to stay with you longer.”

  Quinn met Vincent’s gaze. It was something he didn’t want to say in front of the children. Quinn turned to the kids and opened the Explorer door again.

  “Let us talk for a moment? I’ll find out what’s going on.” He didn’t want to let these children continue into the great unknown of their future yet. He wanted to protect them a little longer. He wanted to read to Sammy again and listen to what Bucky said about his… puppies. Quinn needed to know what Vincent had to say, though.

  He loaded them in together and closed the door on them. When he made it back to Vincent, he was off the phone.

  “Bodies,” Vincent snarled. “Our killer went out last night, after screwing with us.”

  “Where?” Jasper snapped.

  “A… a family in Acampo, three Magi. Two adults and one… a four-year-old girl,” Vincent choked out. “They were just found about twenty minutes ago by the neighbor. She was smart enough to call the Dallas IMPO office, knowing about the recent Magi deaths, and not Stevenson. Known Magi, on that list found in Stevenson’s office. There’s one older child in school, a ten-year-old. The guys here in Dallas who got the call told the school to not release the student, under any circumstances, to anyone until an IMPO agent picks him up. They are sending one of their guys. We’re being told to investigate the bodies and the message left at the house.”

  “What was the message?” Jasper asked.

  “God’s Will.” Vincent whispered. “He’s with the Anti-Magi group… or playing it off as them. This has now escalated.”

  Quinn felt ill. Zander was shaking in rage and disgust. Jasper didn’t seem like he was breathing.

  “This is a purge,” Jasper groaned. “This killer is trying to purge the area of Magi.”

  “Yes,” Vincent confirmed. “And the people of Albany are helping. Stevenson is fucking helping him. He falls into the same fucking trap as Stevenson. Hates his own kind.”

  “I’ll get the children to the office,” Jasper offered. “Zander will be needed to investigate the bodies. I want you two with him for safety.”

  “Okay,” Vincent agreed, nodding.

  Quinn slowly sat down on the asphalt parking lot. He rubbed his face. They had dealt with dead children before. It was always rough.

  “No wonder his magic is fucking broken and sick,” Zander mumbled, bending over.

  “Yes,” Vincent sighed. “Let’s get moving.”

  Quinn stood back up. This was probably one of the sickest cases he’d ever been a part of. But then, Quinn never could understand how Magi, or even humans, could twist themselves like this.

  The wilds were cleaner—brutal but cleaner.

  22

  Sawyer

  Sawyer twisted her hands as Elijah sank onto the couch in the living room. She was sitting on the kitchen counter, just watching and waiting. It had been an hour since they had gotten Vincent’s call. An hour they had spent in silence, needing to come to terms with what they had been told.

  “I can’t fucking believe this,” Elijah groaned, finally breaking the silence. “A family.”

  “Yeah,” Sawyer breathed. “It’s pretty fucked up. We’re stuck here without a ride to help.”

  “We couldn’t exactly go with them if we wanted to,” Elijah reminded her. “There wasn’t enough space. Either way, we need to deal with the sheriff. Vincent made it clear that no one has informed the sheriff or any of the local law enforcement about the family in Acampo, yet. And he has answers. I swear to fucking every god anyone has ever prayed to that this mother fucker has answers.”

  “So, I not only get to beat the shit out of him for his kids, but also torture him for information? That’s a bit fucked up for the IMPO.” Sawyer scoffed. It really was. She’s signed up for a lot, but pure torture wasn’t her thing. She knew it was done by the WMC on captured criminals. She knew, somewhere out there, Axel was probably being waterboarded without the use of his magic.

  It made her a little sick to think about.

  “Stevenson won’t need to be tortured.” Elijah sighed. “He’s too weak a man to need it. He’ll break once you’re done giving him what he deserves. “

  “What have we found here, Elijah?” Sawyer huffed. “What is this fucking mess?”

  “History,” Elijah offered. “We’ve stumbled into a case that’s going to make history. It sucks, and it’s awful. It shouldn’t be what you deal with this early, as your first case, but we’re here. Anti-Magi organization, crooked, unregistered Magi sheriff, serial killer…I don’t know anymore, Sawyer.”

  “A purge,” Sawyer exhaled the words. “A fucking purge.”

  “I’ve never heard of it happening before, not in the last few decades, anyways. Nearly a century, really.”

  “Right after World War I,” Sawyer added, thinking about it. When Magi first revealed themselves to the world at large, against the direct orders of the secretive WMC. Magi had taken up arms in the war for their own respective countries and exposed themselves. For nearly a decade after that, Magi all over the world moved around and fought for their right to exist. Purges. Families’ homes burned down. Weaker Magi tied to fucking stakes and burned.

  There were reasons they lived by the laws they did. No joining a country’s military or police forces. Loyal to the WMC and only to the WMC. Loyal to other Magi, first and foremost, because even if you love your country, it might not love you back.

  “Yeah, so something like this? This is outrageous,” Elijah continued, pulling Sawyer out of her mental rundown of history. “And we’re on the back foot. Serial killer is escalating, and we’re trapped in something much deeper than just his killing spree.”

  “Why do you think he’s been bothering me?” Sawyer asked, looking up to the hazel eyes now watching her.

  “I… don’t know.” Elijah sighed. “I wonder if he was going to try and kill us, but instead… got distracted by your nightmares?”

  Sawyer nearly gagged. She didn’t like that theory at all, but there really was no other theory to run with.

  “I mean,” Sawyer groaned, “I would rather him fucking dance around my nightmares than kill us…”

  “Yup,” Elijah agreed.

  They went back
to waiting in silence as the minutes kicked by. Sawyer’s mind drifted off. She was so ready to take this fucker down and prove she could help the team. Prove to herself that this was something she could do.

  That she could earn it.

  She held that close to herself. She could earn this. She might not need to prove it to the guys, but she needed to prove it to herself. Like she had earned the friendship of Charlie and the respect of Liam and her students.

  Sawyer had the need to earn something. She could be arrogant in her own abilities, she could be confident in her strength, but she didn’t like handouts. She would fucking earn it.

  She would do what Elijah was telling her to, and, instead of feeling guilty for her past, she would use it. She would show the fucking WMC and herself that this assassin could use every bit of her knowledge and do good. Like she’d been trying to do for years already. Maybe this would give her the real, bone deep satisfaction of knowing she could bring someone to real justice. Because that was the difference. She never could truly save her students, only protect them. She had never put anyone behind bars.

  Now, she could. Stevenson would go to prison for a long time for what he’d done to his children. Now she could get the ending for one of these pieces of shit she’d wanted for so many others.

  “Sawyer?” Elijah called out from his spot in the living room. “What’cha thinking about over there?”

  “Why?” she asked, meeting his eyes.

  “Your face changed,” Elijah commented with a shrug.

  “Spend a lot of time looking at my face?” She chuckled, giving him a raised eyebrow.

  He didn’t answer, and that made Sawyer suspicious, but she didn’t get the chance to say anything as an ear-screeching caw rang out and made them both jump. Elijah looked confused and Sawyer patted her chest as her heart adjusted. It was a bit of a spook, that noise.

  “That was Kaar,” Elijah mumbled but Sawyer wondered if he was saying it to her or just to himself. She slid off the counter and walked closer as Elijah looked out the front window. “And now I see why…”

  “What’s going on?”

  “We’ll start hearing them in a minute,” Elijah whispered. “The sheriff is back, and he’s brought a few friends. One other truck.”

  “Sounds like we’re going to have a party,” Sawyer chuckled. “I wonder if, in the last hour and half, they heard about the family in Acampo.”

  “And the sheriff can’t go to the scene since the boys already claimed it,” Elijah added, nodding.

  She could hear the trucks now, coming down the long dirt driveway to the house. She cracked her knuckles. It was time.

  Elijah sat back down on the couch and Sawyer propped herself back up on the counter.

  “Patience,” she called out as quietly as she could to Elijah. “This is all about patience.”

  “Of course,” he agreed, seemingly moving around to get comfortable.

  “TIM!” Stevenson’s voice rang out. “I know you’re upset but-”

  “UPSET?!” Another man roared. “You have no idea! He left a message on the wall and is trying to pin this shit on us!”

  “He’s just doing what we’ve led him to do,” Stevenson growled. Sawyer heard footsteps as she and Elijah nearly held their breaths. “We wanted this. We started it. Once I knew what he could do, we talked at length about finally cleaning this area up.”

  “Yeah, but now we have…” The second voice trailed off. “Your door, Sheriff.”

  Sawyer didn’t hear the sheriff’s response because it was too quiet.

  She was practically vibrating, ready to use her abilities and hurt this monster of a human being. She was ready to teach him the only lesson that mattered anymore. Karma was a fucking bitch, and Sawyer was its willing tool for men like him.

  She saw his head poke through the door and sublimated just as he swung his firearm into the doorway and took two shots. She sank to the floor, the bullets passing through her without causing any injuries.

  Sawyer heard a yell, and she wondered if Elijah was hit. When she reformed closer, trails of black smoking coming off her, she saw that the sheriff had dropped his gun… which was melting into the floor.

  “Good job, Elijah!” Sawyer said cheerfully, grinning at the sheriff. She heard a truck start back up and tear off. “You think he’ll go find… help?”

  “No.” Elijah laughed, grabbing Stevenson before he could scramble out of the door. Sawyer took a look at the old man’s hands. They were red and would probably blister, if she could guess how hot Elijah had made the gun by its melting corpse on the floor. “I think he’ll realize how totally fucked all of them are.”

  “What the fuck do you want? I’ve done nothing wrong!” Stevenson roared, trying to pull away and looking desperate. Sawyer stayed at the entrance to the kitchen, smiling as Elijah threw the sheriff closer. He made a thud as he hit the floor and tried to stand without putting his hands on anything for balance. “Where are my children? What have you done to them?”

  Sawyer felt the violent beat of anger flood her again. He had no right to his children anymore.

  “Gone,” Sawyer growled, squatting down to his level. “And you will never see them again. They will be raised by Magi caretakers with other Magi children. And you will never touch them again.”

  “They are my fucking children! You don’t have the right-”

  “We have every right, old man,” Elijah snarled. “I don’t know how you made it unregistered for so long, but that doesn’t exclude you from being under the purview of the WMC or the IMPO. We fucking own you. We rule.”

  “I will never answer to a bunch of fucking devil-worshipping freaks!” Stevenson roared, finally standing up. Sawyer raised herself up along with him. “This is fucking America!”

  “I tried the same thing, buddy,” Sawyer chuckled darkly, “but those aren’t the rules.”

  She kicked his legs out from underneath him and watched him fall back to the floor. She listened to him scream. She looked to Elijah, who seemed unperturbed. Yeah, she thought, I chose the right one to stay.

  They waited for the screaming to quiet down. Sawyer looked at the damage her kick had caused. She’s broken his right shin. She didn’t feel too bad about it.

  “Go get me a towel,” Sawyer ordered Elijah with a smile now that Stevenson wouldn’t be going anywhere.

  “Why?” Elijah asked, frowning at her. “And why didn’t you get one while we sat here for nearly two hours?”

  “Just go get one,” Sawyer commanded again, this time with less humor. She hadn’t gotten one earlier because she wanted to see the fear race through Stevenson’s eyes as he tried to figure out what she was going to do to him.

  Sawyer didn’t torture people.

  But she wasn’t above dragging out what she felt they deserved.

  After Elijah wandered into the back of the house, she knelt and whispered.

  “Every blow you landed on your children, I’m about to return. Now’s your chance to tell me why you did it.”

  “Magi brats,” Stevenson whimpered. “I have to raise them right. Awful, shameful to have fucking Magi children.”

  “You are a Magi,” Sawyer growled as Elijah walked back in. “Of course, your fucking children would be. So, you beat them for it?”

  “Teaching them to resist temptation where I couldn’t,” Stevenson growled, giving her a glare. Obviously, a broken leg hadn’t sent the message she wanted.

  “There’s no temptation to resist,” Sawyer hissed, wrapping a hand around the man’s throat and yanking him forward. That brought out another scream as it jostled the broken leg. “You know, there’s a lot of things in the world to be ashamed of. Beating your children should be one of those. I’m a retired assassin, sheriff, so I know a lot about things to be ashamed of.”

  “Wha-” He groaned at her. She stood up and looked at his broken leg. Then she grabbed his hair and kneed him in the face, sending his head into the wall and breaking his nose.

  “Bu
t what I don’t understand is how you think you can beat a child over how they were fucking born,” Sawyer said plainly as Stevenson moaned in pain. “I’ve done a lot of fucked up shit, sheriff, but never,” she paused and leaned down, “never have I been ashamed over how I was fucking born. And you have no right to try to beat your children for how they were. You want to hate yourself? Go ahead. A lot of people do, but you don’t get to spread that fucking hate around. Not on my fucking watch.”

  She didn’t wait for him to respond. She sent a kick to his ribs and felt them crack with the force.

  “Now, we know you’re fucking helping a goddamn serial killer, so I recommend you tell us what the fuck we need to know.”

  Sawyer couldn’t understand his response. She dropped the towel onto Stevenson and yanked his head back again.

  “Say that again?” she snarled, glaring at him.

  Sawyer didn’t torture.

  Much.

  She didn’t really have much sympathy for this guy right now.

  “Cory!” Stevenson gurgled out, blood covering the lower half of his face from the broken nose.

  “Your son?” Sawyer gaped, letting go of him. She turned to Elijah, who looked shocked as hell. “His oldest son?”

  “Explain, old man,” Elijah forced out, stomping closer. “Explain!” he roared down at him. Sawyer backed off from him. Elijah angry was a rare beast, and it was a fearsome one.

  “Cory… Gave Cory a copy of my list,” Stevenson coughed. “Been finding out who all the Magi are in this area for years. They don’t notice me. I think he lost his because my copy is gone now.”

  “Yeah, I stole it,” Sawyer snarled. “Move along.”

  “Wants to… prove he belongs with God’s Will. I let him,” the old man whimpered. “He’s doing good work. He killed his mother on accident when she tried to run away with my children. I helped him hide the body and told everyone she ran away. They all knew she was trying to. He just wanted to stop her from leaving with his siblings, stop her from leading them astray from the flock. He wanted to stop them from being exposed to sin. We decided to give him a purpose, a goal, knowing what he could do.”