Quinn crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. Humans. Deceiving, lying humans. He couldn’t keep up with all of it, but he didn’t need to. Vincent knew the human condition like Quinn knew the mind of his wolves. He could plan around it and adjust his ideas as people reacted and gave him information.
“So, you get us to the meeting,” Vincent growled, clapping his hands slowly. Quinn had never seen him this angry. He was a little concerned. “And you underestimated my brother and his intelligence. You didn’t realize that he’s always several steps ahead of you. We sat in our pointless little meeting, and he had one of his flunkies set up the bombs. He’d already proven that he would kill dozens to get what he wanted, and he wanted Sawyer. He already had the deaths of one IMPO team under his belt. What was two more?”
“If you know everything, why-” Jon was beet-red with fury, and Quinn was a little disgusted by the spittle flying out of his mouth.
“You got half your team killed! Innocent and good men!” Vincent roared. “You did this! I have a team member missing a fucking leg! You think I’m arrogant? I understand him. You didn’t. You have no idea the kind of monster you were playing this game with, you piece of shit. And if those two don’t make it, that’s on your head, too. And you can live with that guilt in prison.”
“I am not going to prison,” Jon snarled. Quinn grabbed Vincent to protect him as Jon pulled the gun from his holster and fired.
Into his own temple.
Quinn was shaking a little. Vincent’s eyes were wide in shock.
“Oh fuck,” Vincent mumbled, staggering back into Quinn and away from the blown-out head of Jon Aguirre as the body fell to the floor. Agents rushed into the room, magic and weapons ready only to stumble at the sight of Jon’s body.
“He killed himself.” Quinn was still a bit in shock.
“Why?” An agent lowered his gun and looked horrified.
“Because I figured out he betrayed us to Axel,” Vincent tried to regain his composure, but Quinn could still hear the quiver in his voice. “Tell Ken and James. I’m…”
“Go,” the agent mumbled. “You two go back to your team mates. We’ll… figure this out. Stay close.”
“Thank you,” Vincent mumbled. Quinn followed him out, and, once they were down the hall, he grabbed Vincent and pulled him into a hug.
He held on as Vincent, for the first time in years, broke down.
“I just…” Vincent cried softly. “I just wanted to beat Axel. None of this was supposed to happen.”
“I know,” Quinn whispered. “I know.”
“I wanted Jon to respect us, and look at what that led him to do,” Vincent’s voice was hoarse and emotional. “I wanted people to look at me and stop seeing him. And I drove Jon to killing himself… God, I’m exactly like him.”
“You didn’t do that,” Quinn rubbed Vincent’s back. He needed Elijah there. He wasn’t sure he could even comprehend what he’d just witnessed. Suicide was such a human concept, and Quinn had never encountered even the idea of it before. He didn’t know there could be such a strong emotion that would lead to such an awful end.
He pulled Vincent along, all the way back to Jasper’s room, where agents were guarding the door.
“Jon killed himself,” Quinn whispered. “You don’t need to stand guard. Tell the hospital to get off lockdown.”
“Roger that, Special Agent Judge,” the low-ranking agent nodded and ran off to attend to something else.
Quinn told Elijah, Jasper, and Zander the same thing when he got Vincent sitting down. Vincent looked distraught, lost. Quinn didn’t think it would last long, but he didn’t know how to snap Vincent out of it.
“I think we should take the rest of the day just to relax,” Elijah mumbled. “Fuck.”
“Yeah,” Jasper sighed.
30
SAWYER
“Henry!” Sawyer laughed and cuddled the boy to her. “I’m not sure what I can do!”
“But, Sawyer!” Henry laughed, trying to escape her. “You promised!”
“I know, but I’m not sure what to do about that, now.” She’d promised him that he could have his own cat, like her Midnight, a long time ago.
“Please?” Henry pouted up to her, and she put her forehead to his.
“I’ll see what I can do,” she whispered, a smile plastered to her face. She ruffled his dark curls and kissed his forehead.
If this was her heaven, then there had to be cat somewhere for Henry. She stood up and lifted him as well.
“I can walk!” Henry laughed, and she lowered him back to the ground. He grabbed her hand and grinned up at her. “There!”
“Good, I don’t want to lose you.” Sawyer blew him a kiss.
“You’ll never lose me,” Henry laughed. “You’re stuck with me, Sawyer!”
She hoped so.
31
JASPER
“I’m not getting in the fucking wheelchair, Elijah. Find me some fucking crutches,” Jasper growled, eyeing the chair with disgust. He was never getting in one of those things again.
“It’s just until I make you a prosthetic. There’s no reason for you to be stuck with crutches. They fucking hurt,” Elijah groaned at the side of Jasper’s bed. “If you want to go see Sawyer, you will get in the wheelchair.”
“You will go get me crutches, or I will fucking crawl there,” Jasper hissed. “Try me.”
“Fine,” Elijah threw his hands up and looked to Zander. “Will you fucking make him listen?”
“He’s not getting in the wheelchair,” Zander sighed. “Nothing will ever get him in one of those.”
“Why the fuck not?” Elijah growled.
“Uh.” Zander looked at Jasper, who glared at him and then back to the chair.
“I was stuck in one for six months when I first arrived at the orphanage,” Jasper spat bitterly. “Torture for an eight-year-old.”
“He’d just lost his family in the car accident.” Zander whispered quickly to Elijah. Jasper could still hear him, and he wished he couldn’t. “His leg was all mangled up, and, because his parents were non-Magi, they had sent him to a normal hospital. A healer volunteering there found him a couple days later, realized he was a Magi, and healed him as best she could. She got in touch with the WMC about a new Magi orphan but… the damage had been done. He was stuck in a wheelchair until he finished physical therapy and healing from the surgeries they had done on him.”
“I’ll get crutches,” Elijah mumbled. “Why didn’t I know this?”
“I don’t like to talk about it,” Jasper muttered darkly. He didn’t. Zander and Sawyer were the only people who knew the full extent of it. He’d lost his parents and two older sisters, and then he was trapped in a hell of not being able to walk. He was teased and bullied his entire life, thanks to what happened.
“Where’s Vincent?” Quinn asked softly. Jasper groaned. They hadn’t seen him all day. After what happened with Jon the day before, he’d been off.
“I don’t know,” Zander grumbled. “No one does. James might, but I haven’t tried him yet. He’s busy with the WMC about Sawyer.”
“We need to find him,” Jasper sighed. He felt a little guilty now. Here he was, bitching about a wheelchair while their friend was dealing with a crisis. Jasper had gotten flashes of Vincent’s dream the night before, but hadn’t been willing to walk in and confront their leader. He’d been too scared of causing even more damage to Vincent’s psyche.
Vincent was afraid of becoming his brother. They all knew it, had all seen the moments of self-doubt Vincent sometimes had when he got too far into the mental trench of trying to outdo and catch Axel, or any other criminal.
“Let’s get Jasper up to Sawyer’s room,” Elijah growled, walking back in with crutches, “then I’ll go after him.”
It took nearly fifteen minutes for Jasper and Elijah to get the crutches sized correctly, and it took another five minutes for Jasper to start moving with them around the room naturally.
“Thi
s fucking sucks,” Jasper mumbled, “but I’m not limping. So, there’s a bright side.”
“Bright side,” Zander chuckled, nodding. “Yeah, keep looking on the bright side.”
“I can make a dick joke about now only having two legs,” Elijah chuckled. “Does that count?”
“God damn it,” Jasper groaned with a small smile. Count on Elijah to bring dicks into it.
“You can still nail a chick from behind, since you have your thigh and knee,” Elijah pointed out, grinning.
“Please,” Jasper laughed, feeling his face heat up. “Please stop.”
“Let’s go,” Zander chuckled, grinning at them.
They made the long walk to Sawyer’s room, and Jasper sighed sadly at what he saw inside the room.
“Found Vincent,” he whispered, looking through the small window at the door.
None of them opened the door yet, all taking peeks at the man lost in his nightmare.
Vincent was just staring at her, his eyes red and swollen. He sat in a chair at the end of her bed and just watched the unmoving Sawyer.
“Come on, guys,” Elijah murmured, opening the door.
Jasper went in first as Elijah held the door for him. He muttered a quick “Thanks,” as he violated the deep thoughts of their leader.
“You’re moving around.” Vincent coughed, wiping his eyes. “Good.”
“Yeah,” Jasper said cautiously. “You okay?”
“I will be,” Vincent sighed. “Just…”
“Why are you in here creeping on her?” Elijah said lightly.
“Because I think she’s the only person who knows my brother as well as, if not better, than I do,” Vincent said, taking a deep breath. “And she’s in a coma, and I want her to wake.”
“Pushy,” Elijah sighed. “Stop that. She’ll wake up when she wants to.”
Jasper eyed Sawyer’s sleeping form. He frowned and crutched closer. She was dreaming, something that made her happy as hell.
“What’s up, Jasper?” Zander raised an eyebrow at him, and Jasper shrugged.
“I don’t know,” Jasper said thoughtfully. “If she’s not awake in a couple more days…”
“Why not try whatever your thinking now?” Vincent asked, standing up. Jasper looked over his shoulder to Vin.
“Because she’s dreaming… and she’s happy,” Jasper replied hoarsely. “Happier than she’s ever been while asleep.” He didn’t want to take that away from her. He wanted to curl up next to her and absorb some of that beautiful golden warm radiating from her dreams. He closed his eyes and focused on it for just a moment. “Just… a couple of days and if she’s not up by then, I have an idea.”
“You do know about her nightmares,” Quinn growled softly.
“I’ve known about them, yes,” Jasper sighed. “Blood and pain. Despair. Heartbreak. If she’s dreaming something happy, I’m going to let her keep doing it for as long as I can. I can’t… I can’t ruin this for her. Not after everything else.”
“Fine,” Vincent sounded choked. “Fine. Two more days. If she’s not awake on her own in two more days, you will do what you can to wake her up.”
“I’ll try.” Jasper inclined his head to Vin and crutched towards an empty chair. He sank into it and rubbed his… leg. His knee hurt a little, and that actually annoyed the shit out of him. His knee had no right to hurt anymore. There was nothing attached to it, and it didn’t have to do any work.
He looked at her, trying to ignore the mild ache. He eyed those lips of hers and remembered the kiss in town. The stupid, foolish thing he’d done. And his mind went to the same thing it did every time he thought about her since Vincent told him her… secret.
Axel had scarred that beautiful lip. Axel had scarred her toned and hard body. He’d filled her dreams with nightmares.
Axel had once kissed those lips and had that body in his hands.
Fury curled in his stomach. Not at her. Never at her, but at the entire situation. At him.
Axel had taken his fierce best friend, just walking into womanhood when he and Zander had left, and turned her into a cold, hard creature capable of unspeakable things. A woman who killed a man with no emotion in her eyes. A woman whose body bore the scars of a long fight against whatever the world had thrown at her.
He wouldn’t wrench her from whatever happiness she had in her dreams. Not now. Not when he felt she hadn’t known real happiness in so long.
Because Sawyer wasn’t a killer when he’d left, and Jasper wasn’t sure he wanted to know how Axel turned her into one.
32
ZANDER
Zander and Vincent walked the halls quietly. Day three. Sawyer wasn’t awake and neither of them could stand being cooped up in her room any longer.
“This sucks,” Zander growled.
“Yes, it does,” Vincent sighed. “We could always go to the Atlanta headquarters and see how James is fairing with the WMC. He hasn’t called me yet.”
“Let’s go,” Zander snarled, turning on his heel to head for the elevator. Vincent stumbled as he tried to keep Zander’s pace.
“Calm down,” Vincent hissed. “You aren’t helping anyone being angry and agitated.”
“Says the guy who won’t stop beating himself up over Jon,” Zander snapped and immediately felt guilty as he saw Vincent’s eyes go hard. “Shit, Vin, I’m sorry.”
“Get in the fucking elevator,” Vin growled as the door opened.
They made the entire trip in silence after that. Zander ran a hand through his hair, realizing he needed a haircut. It was falling over his eyes and ears in an annoying way.
Such a stupid thing for him to notice. Everything seemed so changed since the last time he even thought about his unruly red hair. Since his last normal thing, like a haircut. He half wondered if their house was still the same. It all seemed like so long ago and in a different reality.
“I thought catching him would fix everything,” Vincent muttered bitterly. Zander raised an eyebrow.
“You knew better,” Zander said softly. “You might not want to admit it, but you knew better.”
“After we talk to James…” Vincent trailed off and then continued after a moment. “After we talk to James, will you accompany me to see him?”
“Of course, my brother,” Zander gave him a pat on the shoulder. Vincent was pulling them into a parking spot, and once he parked the Range Rover, Zander jumped out.
He was stir-crazy. He felt like shit and looked like hell, but he still wanted to do something. Anything.
He bounced around a little as he and Vincent walked into the building. They waved to the receptionist and passed her without signing in. They weren’t visitors who needed to check in with anyone. As Special Agents, they pretty much had free run wherever they were, except New York’s Main Headquarters.
“Where is he?” Vincent muttered thoughtfully.
“Conference room?” Zander shrugged.
“We’ll try that.” Vincent turned them down a hallway that Zander never used. Well, Zander avoided this building like the plague. All the lower ranking agents tended to look at him like he was supposed to be in a cell, which was funny since he had never done something seriously criminal.
It was kind of Zander’s fault. He was the one with inch-wide gauges and ink all over him. They didn’t even know about the piercings underneath his clothing. They didn’t need to know about those. Those wouldn’t help his case.
Vincent knocked twice, then stepped into the conference room. Zander followed him, and they saw James glaring at some papers before he looked up at them.
“We were tired of the stuffy hospital,” Vincent told him quickly. “We wanted to see what you were up too.”
“It’s not going well,” James informed them, angry at something. “If it weren’t for her original deal with them, they wouldn’t let her out of the hospital alive. They are trying to spin in that she was knowingly leading the IMPO agents to their deaths.”
Zander froze and felt his temper c
url up like a pit of snakes in the bottom of his stomach.
“Fuck them,” Zander snarled, causing James to startle. “You fix this, James.”
“I’m not sure I can, son,” James sighed. “This is a mess. This has always been a mess.”
“Clean it up,” Zander stepped closer, ignoring Vincent, who tried to hold him. “That’s your fucking job.”
“Actually, it’s not my job,” James snapped. “My job is to act as a go between for you and the people you answer to. This team just has a lot of fucking messes that you need some help cleaning up. Since I let Vincent make this team and convinced the WMC to allow him to do so, I am more than willing to help, but it’s not my job.”
“If you fail to convince them?” Vincent asked softly.
“She won’t leave that hospital alive,” James mumbled, looking back down at the papers on the table.
“Yes, she will,” Zander growled.
“How?” James narrowed his eyes on him. “How would that happen?”
“If they don’t agree to the plan, Sawyer is going to disappear,” Zander told him softly. Vincent looked at him and nodded. He knew Vincent would be on his side. “If they go after her, our team will help her hide, and no one will ever see her again. We’ll go rogue if we have too.”
“I can’t tell them that,” James muttered, paling. “You can’t throw that at their feet. There’s a real possibility they will call your bluff, Zander.”
“It’s not a bluff,” Zander said, smiling. “You think we can’t do it? With Vincent’s intelligence? With Quinn’s raw power? With the entire team working together for that goal? I fucking dare them to see how far I’ll go to keep her alive.”
“Tell them,” Vincent whispered. “Let them know this isn’t a game. We’re going to have her on our team, and that’s the end of it. If we don’t get her, they lose all of us.”
A Life Of Shadows Page 29
