Chapter Thirty-Nine
Oakley
Ifelt awful.
For the way I acted while on a fucking mission, especially after claiming to my dad how capable I was and how much I deserved to be here.
For leaving Isidore there.
Fuck, she looked so old.
I hadn’t seen her in over two years. She was fifteen now, and so damn brave.
She’d put herself in harm’s way to help one of the prisoners. She’d helped them.
My brave, sweet sort-of little sister.
I rubbed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves.
I knew we’d had people watching every single exit since we’d left. I knew she was still in the building.
But what if they’d hurt her more than they already had?
And what about her brother? Was he there? I hadn’t seen him.
What if he was injured… or worse?
No. Stop.
I couldn’t think like that.
We were here, and we were going to save them.
And I was going to take them back to Sedoba with me and keep them safe forever.
Arms wrapped around me from behind, a kiss pressed behind my ear. “Hey, babydoll.”
I grabbed onto Roman’s arms, holding tightly. If I didn’t have him, I would’ve fallen apart hours ago. “Hey.”
“It’s gonna be okay. We’ll save them, and we’ll free all of those people. It’s gonna be alright, love.”
I nodded, closed my eyes, and breathed. Then I turned around, wrapped my arms around Rome’s neck, and buried my face against his throat. He didn’t hesitate to tighten his hold on me as he kissed the side of my head and whispered more sweet nothings into my ear.
It calmed me.
Sort of.
It calmed me enough that I knew I’d be able to execute our plan when we left in a few minutes.
As if on cue, Ailin’s voice called out, “Is everyone ready to leave? We’re out in two.”
I took another deep breath, inhaling Rome’s scent and letting it calm me. After a long breath, I looked up. “I’m ready.”
He smiled at me and kissed my forehead. “I know you are.”
That made me take a sharp breath. His faith in me was… wonderful. And unexpected. And probably undeserved after yesterday morning.
Since this operation was going to be a lot bigger than expected, we’d had to wait over twenty-four hours to go in because we needed more people. It was going to take a lot of people to take down all those soldiers in the basement, and that wasn’t counting the grand master himself.
Plus, we had to wait for him to arrive at the building. According to the schedule the asshole had kept while the other team was on recon, it should be in about an hour.
“Ready, babydoll?”
I nodded. “Let’s go.”
We headed down the stairs, but I paused on the bottom step when I caught the scent of something familiar—or should I say, someone familiar?
Quickly, I walked the rest of the way into the kitchen and paused again. Holy shit, what the hell were they doing here?
“Dad? Tan?”
Both of them turned toward me with smiles.
“What the hell? I thought you had that dinner thing?”
Dad shrugged. “We changed it to a lunch thing and flew here as fast as we could. We’re only here for one night because we have to meet with the dignitaries again tomorrow afternoon, but we wanted to help.”
“But… but why would you risk angering them by changing things around? You’ve had this thing planned for months.”
Dad walked over to me and pulled me into a tight embrace. “Because you needed me. So here I am—here we are.”
I gave him a squeeze, a thousand emotions rushing through my body and getting caught in my chest. Warmth, affection, love. So much love for both of my dads.
Dad let go, and Tan grabbed me next, not even giving me a moment to breathe between tight hugs.
“You let us know if you need anything at all, kiddo.”
My heart warmed and melted at the same time. What had I ever done to deserve these two amazing people—amazing dads? After a few seconds, I said, “I’m glad you’re here, Daddo.”
He froze for only a brief moment, then kissed the side of my head. “Me too.”
Tan released me, looking down at the ground, but I still saw his watery eyes.
Dad draped an arm over Tan—over Daddo—and offered me a grateful smile. I shrugged because it was about time I acknowledged that Tan was my dad too.
Turning to Roman, I said, “I’m ready. Is everyone in the car?”
“Yep. Just waiting on you guys. But no rush. We can wait a few minutes.”
I shook my head and looked at my dads. “Are you guys ready? I kinda want to get this over with.”
They both nodded, and we all trooped out to the car.
Everyone was pretty quiet on the short drive, but the tension in the air was so thick, I could’ve cut it with a knife. Everyone was anxious about this raid, and I knew everyone was worried about our family and friends getting hurt and about keeping those hostages safe.
We met at the base of operations where someone had set up a bunch of monitors to watch all the cameras Hiro had set up yesterday.
There were a shit-ton of them. I was honestly impressed.
He had one in each of the top-floor offices, several in all of the hallways on every floor, several in all of the stairwells, and a few in the basement.
I wasn’t even sure how he’d managed that, but I hadn’t exactly been paying attention to him while I was freaking out yesterday.
All in all, once we were in the building, whoever was on overwatch would be able to direct us and warn us of incoming combatants, no matter where we were in the building.
We went over the plan one more time, making sure everyone—including the twenty king’s guard Dad and Daddo had brought with them—knew exactly what to do.
Roman, Dad, Tan—I mean, Daddo—Bas, Hiro, and I were assigned to hunt down the grand master while pretty much everyone else was supposed to go down to the basement, secure the hostages, and take down the soldiers.
It was probably a good decision to have me in a different place after what’d happened, but on the other hand, I really wanted to make sure Isidore was safe.
We all took our places and waited for the countdown from overwatch—Ryo Greynore, a gargoyle that worked for my dad.
He came over the comms, saying, “Hold your places, everyone. Brinik Norfiel is on the move with his second in command, Calarel Kelhorn. Let’s see where he ends up before we go in.”
Roman said, “Roger that. Keep us updated, and don’t let him leave the building.”
“Got it, boss.”
The next few minutes were… anxiety-inducing and frustrating. Brinik Norfiel rode the elevator down to the main floor. For a few minutes, I thought we were going to have to go in early or possibly catch the bastard on the way to his car, but then Ryo spoke again.
“Brinik Norfiel and Calarel Kelhorn are at the basement door. I think they’re going down.” We all waited another thirty seconds. “They went down to the basement. I repeat, Brinik Norfiel and Calarel Kelhorn went down to the basement. All targets are in the basement.”
“Got it, Ryo,” Roman said before looking at me. “Looks like we’re all going down together. Are you gonna be okay sticking to Brinik Norfiel and Calarel Kelhorn down there?”
I gave him a nod. “Yes. I’ve got this.”
He grinned at me. “I know you do.” Then he spoke into his mic. “The plan stays the same. Alpha Team is on Brinik Norfiel, secondary mission is Calarel Kelhorn. Got it?”
Basil’s voice said, “We got it.”
Rome continued, “Bravo Team, you’re to stay on the captives. Shield them, keep them safe from the fighting, work on breaking them out of those cages.”
Ailin said, “Roger.”
“Charlie, you work on getting the servants to a safe place and covered in shields.”
Jed said, “We will.” Most of the vampires were on that team since they moved fast and could potentially grab the servants and dodge any flying spells or bullets while they got to a safe area. There were two witches on that team as well who were responsible for getting shields up.
I’d spoken to them all several times about how important it was to keep them safe, and Jed had assured me that they would find Isidore and protect her.
I was counting on them.
Roman said, “Delta, you’re responsible for apprehending or using lethal force against any and all soldiers and cult members. We cannot let anyone get away.”
Thayer said, “Don’t worry, Roman, we’ve got this.”
“Hell yeah, we do. Echo, you make sure none of them get away.” Echo Team was staying outside, watching all the exits, just in case we had any runners. We weren’t letting anyone get away with all this horror.
“Will do,” a voice I didn’t recognize said, likely one of my dad’s guards. Rome definitely knew him.
Roman grunted and took a breath. “Ryo, we’re ready on your count.”
Our overwatch guy said, “Be ready in ten, nine, eight…”
I held my breath, trying not to move and bounce on my toes in anticipation.
“…three, two, one, go, go, go!”
As one, everyone moved in on the building.
We were all wearing black with light armor, helmets, and had guns raised, looking like any kind of tactical unit in a movie. Except, along with guns, several people had spells glowing at their fingertips, ready to let loose on these evil sonsofbitches.
Many of the witches had small bags strapped to their backs or waists, and a lot of them were carrying extra clothes for the shifters in case they ripped their clothes during a shift.
We were going to be fighting indoors, which meant Rome, Dad, and I couldn’t shift because we were too big, but Tan had insisted on bringing clothes for all of us.
When Hiro had seen how big his bag was, he’d taken some of the clothes and stuffed them in his own, which I thought was rather nice of the gruff hunter.
After Roman counted down, our snipers took out all of the guards on the outside of the building.
Now it was up to us to stay quiet and take out anyone we saw that might raise an alarm.
My team entered through the same side door we’d used yesterday, and we quickly made our way to the basement stairway.