His love.
She lost her ability to stand, her knees slamming into the asphalt as whoever had her couldn’t hold her up.
She loved him so much.
It broke her heart into a thousand pieces, watching him being treated by the strangers.
Everything went dark after that.
24
Vincent
Vincent couldn’t move, his eyes wide on the television screen in James’s living room.
They had been woken up with a call saying there was a pursuit of the Triad. That one had been detained, but two of his team went after those running.
Elijah and Sawyer had been in the chase.
All he saw now was wreckage. Twisted, smoking metal scattered all over the road.
“Vincent?” someone whispered.
He didn’t move.
Something whimpered at his feet.
Sawyer and Elijah had been in that mass of metal and debris.
His chest felt like it was caving in. The last thing he and Sawyer talked about was an argument, concerning Axel of all people.
And then she nearly died.
“They were taken to a hospital, but we still haven’t learned which one,” the voice continued. “I do know both their hearts were still beating.”
“Two IMPO agents were injured in the accident,” the news anchor was saying. “We do have their identities confirmed, but the IMPO and the WMC have requested that we leave off an update on them until there is more concrete information about their health.”
“The accident was caught on video by a non-Magi who happened to be walking home on the street as the chase passed. It seems a shield was erected right in front of the SUV. No amount of training could have stopped this.” The other anchor sounded sympathetic. “There was no chance they were going to stop themselves or have time to prepare for an accident.”
“The IMPO might want the identities unconfirmed by us, but there’s no holding back that video now,” the first one said, tired. “Everyone in New York, please be careful and keep the agents in your hearts and prayers.”
Vincent still couldn’t move, and again, there was more whimpering at his feet.
“The video. I have it. It’s rough,” another voice choked out. “Oh god. They caught her…fuck.”
“What is it?” the first voice asked.
“She was screaming over Elijah’s body. ‘I love you’ and ‘don’t leave me.’ Things like that.” The voice faltered over the words several times. “Oh, Sawyer…”
Vincent couldn’t blame her. It’s all he’d wanted to say to both of them since he turned on the television to see live footage of the accident site. He could hear the video playing from somewhere. Her screams echoed in the condo. The gut-wrenching pain. The proclamations of love.
The desperation.
He glanced down at Sombra, who was lying as close to the floor as she could. He didn’t know what to do or say for the cat. If anyone knew how Sawyer was, it was the jaguar.
“I have Quinn and Zander. They had IMAS secure the only captured one in the safe house and are trying to find out which hospital it is, too.”
“Vincent?” the second voice asked. A hand touched his shoulder. He turned slowly to see stormy, emotional blue eyes looking at him. They were red with unshed tears. “They’re alive right now. We need to find out what hospital they’re at and go see them.”
He couldn’t say anything, and another whimper punctuated the silence of his mind. It was like the jaguar was making every sound for both of them.
“I just got a text. Apparently Sawyer had to be drugged to let EMTs handle Elijah. She fought them. They were both transported to New York Presbyterian Hospital.” James stepped in front of him, blocking his view of the television. “Vincent, go put on clothes. You too, Jasper.”
The television was turned off and Vincent felt like a zombie walking back into the guest bedroom for his bag. He didn’t know what he ended up putting on.
Elijah and Sawyer.
His oldest friend.
His only real love.
He hadn’t been this scared for a life since the Amazon and then, he’d trusted Sawyer to do what she needed to do. He had been there and known she was going to fight and come back.
This time it felt like his heart had been ripped from his chest.
It happened too fast.
It happened way too fast.
He didn’t know how Jasper was holding it together.
A hand ran over his back, comforting. “They’re alive.”
“For now,” he whispered hoarsely.
“No. They’re alive. Period.” Jasper snapped it at him. Vincent looked up and saw the belief there in those stormy blue eyes. Jasper wasn’t going to believe otherwise. Not until he was holding a corpse.
“Okay.” Vincent wasn’t in the mood to argue.
It felt too fast, Jasper pulling him from the room and all the way out of the building into the parking garage. James was already waiting, his car running. Vincent was nearly tossed into the backseat, Sombra climbing in next to him and the wolves following. It was like they refused to be left behind. Not for this. Not for more of their humans being hurt.
The drive to the hospital seemed like nearly a dream, the large cat nearly climbing into his lap.
Another hospital to visit his team members.
He was tired of this.
He was tired of knowing that if one more thing had gone wrong, he wouldn’t have them. He didn’t have much of a family. They were all that mattered to him.
He wished he said something more often. He always felt uncomfortable with the guys, rarely telling them how much they meant to him, as the men he chose to go on such a journey to catch Axel with him. He found it hard to open up with them like he could with Sawyer.
He needed to change that.
They had caught Axel, but the journey was still going. They were brothers. He needed to tell them that more often.
When the car parked, he didn’t need Jasper to pull him out. The first people he saw were Zander and Quinn, both looking exhausted and worried. The wolves took off for their Magi. Sombra stayed glued to his side as Kaar swooped down, landing on his shoulder as gently as the bird could.
People looked at them as they walked in, a dreadful silence still weighing on them. He could ask the guys about the one they captured later. Everything else could wait.
He had to see them.
“BOYS!” A booming voice broke him out of his fear in a single snap, like a whip cracking. Vincent spun, making Kaar caw in frustration at the speed. Walking down a hallway was fucking Charlie. “I just saw Sawyer. She’s just been put under. A bit beaten up, bruised. She obviously didn’t sublimate fast enough to avoid getting thrown around a little in the vehicle, but she’ll be fine. Maybe a minor concussion, but that’s the worst of it.”
“And Elijah?” Quinn asked softly.
Vincent wondered how Charlie got there faster than them, but he also knew that Charlie knew everyone in every hospital in the city. None of them would have denied him the information he needed to find Sawyer, patient confidentiality be damned. He was the closest thing she had to a father.
“A bit worse,” Charlie said, sighing. He shifted uncomfortably. “He had a punctured lung and bleeding in his brain. Broken ribs, a broken tibia. Dislocated shoulder. He…should make it. The bleeding in the brain is…complicated to deal with. I’m about to go in there and do some healing on him myself, but I knew you were going to be here and wanted to stop in. The doctors and healers with him have him stable for a little while longer before we need to do a trade.”
Vincent’s stomach dropped. He swayed, and two strong, but different hands grabbed him - Charlie’s on one side and Quinn’s on the other.
“Why don’t we find a place to sit down?” Jasper asked softly.
“Go on. I’m going to see Elijah and offer my hand.” Charlie turned, beginning to walk away.
“Let me help!” Zander demanded, walking off after Charlie. “I’
m not a doctor but I can heal, and-”
“Let’s go.”
Vincent watched their reckless redhead walk away with the older African American. God, Zander would kill himself to make sure Elijah came back. Something about it was comforting. Zander would do anything. He wouldn’t give up.
“They’ll let us go into Sawyer’s room,” James murmured, leading them away from the main desk of the hospital.
Vincent didn’t pay attention to anything. He was loaded onto an elevator and ushered off. He was led into a room and saw her. Kaar flew to sit on machines and watched her as closely as he did.
Bruising, light from healing, was on her face. He could see the new scar on her forehead, cutting into her hairline where she must have gotten the concussion. He stumbled and sat on the bed next to her thighs, leaning down slowly, his head touching her chest.
Alive.
She was alive, and would remain so.
God, he was so in love with her. Every part of him ached to just hold her and know she was okay. The only thing that held him back was not knowing where Elijah was. The damn cowboy deserved to hold her too. After hearing how she screamed for him, Vincent knew that her love for him ran deeper than she probably realized.
“How long until she wakes up?” Jasper asked someone.
“It could be a couple of hours, but her magic burns off the sedative quickly, it seems. Doctor Malcom told us not to dose her again, let her wake up when she wants to.”
“Thank you. You can go now.”
“We’ll have Mr. Grant brought here once he’s out of ICU.”
“Thank you,” Jasper said softer.
Vincent didn’t move as the other Magi sat on the other side of the bed. He didn’t move as Sombra climbed halfway up, and lay over Sawyer’s legs. He didn’t move as Quinn and the wolves nestled into the corner of the room, huddled together like they were fighting off a bitter cold winter.
He didn’t move for hours. He listened to the updates on Elijah as they were brought, but he refused to move from her, perception be damned.
“Vincent?” a hoarse feminine voice made him open his eyes and lift his head off her stomach.
“Hey, love,” he whispered.
Her dark eyes were there, slightly unfocused. “Tell me,” she demanded weakly.
“He’s stable and will be here soon. He’ll live. He’ll be fine.” He knew she needed to hear it. Those awful screams on that video meant she had thought he was dead, and he couldn’t let her keep thinking that.
“Good,” she mumbled and he saw them, the tears. He reached out and wiped one that escaped away. “Good.”
“Say it,” he whispered. “Say it.”
“I love him so much,” she sobbed. “I can’t…”
“I know,” he continued to whisper, wrapping his arms around her.
“I love him like you. And Zander and everyone and god, he nearly died. I thought he was dead and it…”
He held her as the rambling continued. Never had he seen her so vulnerable. Never had something shaken her so hard. And she was shaken. Her shoulders moved with the violent wracking of her sobs.
He knew. He understood.
It had been so sudden. In just an instant, she could have lost him - not to a fight they knew they had, but to a dirty trick, something that couldn’t be fought, something that couldn’t be conquered.
It took a few moments, but the crying stopped and a sniff happened. She pulled back, wincing.
“You have some bruising that will need to heal on its own, but you’re fine otherwise. And there might be a concussion you have to worry about.”
“Good.” She sighed, looking around him. “Hey, girl.”
Sombra took that as a sign to belly-crawl up the small hospital bed, and Vincent watched Magi and jaguar embrace, the jaguar’s head over Sawyer’s shoulder as her arms wrapped around the slick black body.
“I’m fine, girl. I’m fine.” She kept holding the feline as her eyes moved around the room. “Jasper? Quinn? Where’s Zander?”
“He’s been helping with Elijah and was offered a place to get a quick nap in private,” Jasper explained, moving closer. Quinn was right behind him.
“Am I allowed to get up?” she asked. He would have said yes, but she didn’t wait for him to say anything, pulling the IVs out. She was out of the bed before he even knew what was happening. She always did this to him: just up and moving the moment her emotions were taken care of and neatly put away again.
“Sawyer, you need to-” Poor Jasper tried.
“What time is it?” She looked around the room and found the clock that hung over her bed. “Fuck, already six am? You guys have to go to headquarters. We caught one of the guys. The-”
“Others are handling it,” Vincent cut in, watching her. He didn’t want to be so callous as to go and get back to work. He wanted to be there for them. He needed to be there with them.
“No.” She stared at him and he realized something unmovable was in the word. “No, Vincent. You and Jasper will find those assholes. You will find who hired them. You will get handcuffs on them.”
“Sawyer-”
“You have until nightfall, Vincent.”
The room couldn’t be this cold if Elijah was going to stay in it.
“Or what, love?” he asked softly.
“I’m going to go after whoever I need to until I find out who it is.”
God have mercy on him and whoever else heard that. Jasper’s eyes were wide. Quinn sat up a little straighter.
Sombra growled, almost in agreement with her Magi. They wanted blood, and they were good at getting it. Deadly predators were possessive over their territory.
And Sawyer’s territory? The team. Him, Elijah, the rest of the guys.
He had until nightfall. He hoped he had enough to at least convince her to slow down.
“Why nightfall?” Quinn asked, standing up.
“Because I want the day to make sure I’m not hurting too bad and…Elijah. I need to see him.”
“Let Jasper and I see him before you throw us out,” Vincent beseeched her. He wouldn’t leave just because she ordered him to, but he felt the need to get her permission to stay anyway. She was angry and he knew that much of what she was saying was driven by that. But she wasn’t cruel, so he reminded her of that. “You’re not the only person in the room who needs to see him.”
Something flashed in her eyes, something warmer. The room’s chill left.
No, she wasn’t cruel. He knew she would remember that Elijah was important to him and Jasper, too.
“I’m sorry. I’m…so fucking angry,” she whispered, looking down. “Stay for a little while, please. I didn’t mean you need to leave right now. Well, I did, but you’re right. God. I’m sorry.”
“Sit down,” Jasper ordered gently. “Please. With what happened last night, I’m positive we can take a moment to breathe.”
“It’s all my fault,” she mumbled.
Vincent’s heart clenched. “No. The plan was solid. You caught one of them. The other two were forced to run. You couldn’t account for the way the accident happened. Based on reports, none of the Triad ever showed the ability to shield.”
“There was a third person in that Explorer,” she explained. “The driver wasn’t one of them. Naseem and Kalama were in the back seat.”
“Good to know. That means they’ve brought someone in to help them, who probably isn’t as well trained as them. They needed help, which means this is too big for even them.”
“I was the target last night. They knew I had set the trap.” She looked down at her hands, and he wondered what she was seeing there. He wondered where she had gone in her own head. He wanted to be there with her. “They played me. If it weren’t for the accident - you’re right, I would have come out the winner in a nearly fair fight.” She curled her hands into fists.
They sat in silence for a long time. He decided to just sit next to her and wrap an arm around her waist. Later, after all of this, the
y were going to have to worry about other things, like her proclaiming her love for one of the team to the world. But for now, he was happy to feel her lean on him.
“Boys,” James called in. “Ah, Sawyer. Elijah is coming in right now. He’s already awake, but a bit out of it.”
Vincent jumped up at the exact same time she did and they nearly got tangled up in each other, stumbling for a second.
“He shouldn’t be awake,” Charlie grumbled as he walked in. “Hey, kiddo.”
“Charlie,” she sighed out, walking over to him.
“I helped heal your boy. He’ll be fine. A bit beat up, but a couple of weeks and he’ll be all right. He got to the hospital in time. Took a whole hell of a lot of magic to pull it off, but we did.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, holding him. “You’re burnt out.”
Vincent just smiled, glad to see those two together.
“Me and your other boy, Zander. He’s asleep, but once we let him in the damn room, he wouldn’t stop. He’s got skill. He’s good. Someone should convince him to get his license to do it professionally. Send him to school.”
No one could stop from laughing at that suggestion. Zander was not a school type of guy.
Then Elijah was rolled in.
Vincent made it to him first and grabbed his massive hand. They smiled at each other.
“Hey. I got into my first accident. Sorry about the rental.”
“Are you fucking serious?” he asked, trying to not laugh as Elijah tried to joke with him.
“No. Where is she?” Elijah’s eyes shifted and found their target. “You get over here. Right now, little lady.”
“Is he doped up?” she asked Charlie quietly.
“Yes. He shouldn’t be awake, so we doped him with painkillers instead of knocking him back out.”
She was nodding at that as she walked to the cowboy’s other side. “Can I help you?”
“Yeah. You can repeat what you said. I thought I was dying, so you can say it again. Please.”
A bright smile bloomed over her face and Vincent felt like he had never seen such happiness. There were tears in her eyes as she sat on the edge of his bed and leaned close to him.
An Echo of Darkness (The Redemption Saga Book 4) Page 26
