Chapter Eleven
Neith
The rest of the SID teams aren’t given all of the reasons why it’s the three of us who are going after the kidnapped supernaturals, but it’s pretty obvious to me.
River needs to be on the team because the majority of them are wolves or shifters, and River is the biggest badass Alpha I have ever known, and he should be able to use his alpha voice on them if they start panicking too much.
I’m going because I’m a woman, and in these situations, the women who have been captured are more likely to trust and believe me than they are to believe any of the men.
This is also my thing. I used to do this kind of thing a lot when I was working with HID, although it was for human trafficking rings and not supernatural ones.
The premise is the same.
I have never failed to get the captured free and to safety, and I don’t intend to fail now. I only hope it doesn’t involve me visiting the Darkness Friend. I don’t think the guys would take that very well.
Plus, I haven’t been there since my magic was awoken, so fuck knows what would happen if I went there now. Something tells me that it won’t be the same as it was. Maybe I’ll finally figure out what the Darkness Friend actually is.
The Voices mutter excitedly, but of course don’t answer my thought.
Obviously.
I mean, that would be just too helpful.
In the past, I’ve freaked out because they’ve been able to hear my thoughts and respond to them, but then again, I was hearing voices in my head, so I figured that was the least of my problems. When I started to pay attention to which thoughts they were responding to, I realized that they couldn’t hear all of them, or at least they pretended they couldn’t, and that was good enough for me.
What the hell was my original thought process?
Oh yeah, that’s it, the reason why it’s the three of us who are going after the imprisoned. I did River and me, so Ransom is the one left.
There is a lot more to Ransom than I originally thought, and that’s saying something because I didn’t think he was exactly an open book in the first place.
It intrigues me in the best kind of way.
Ransom is coming because he’s an incredibly skilled mage, and I’m starting to realize that he likes to be where the most violence is.
I think ‘like’ may be the wrong word entirely. He fucking loves it, craves it, and something tells me that he needs it.
I’m going to make sure that I watch him closely when we go to the sales tomorrow.
Just out of pure curiosity, plus the way that the guys reacted when we were back at their house, and Ransom was covered in gore and guts, was interesting too.
To be honest, it all just makes my brain spin with questions.
I could ask him, but he didn’t seem like he was ready to tell me, and that’s okay.
I’ll see what I can piece together by myself first.
I love a good mystery.
Getting the prisoners out is most likely going to be the most violent, or at least one of the most violent situations.
If The Owner knows what he’s doing, then he will put his strongest people on the prisoners, and because the prisoners are his livelihood, they are going to be heavily guarded.
He has been running this business for decades, possibly longer.
For all I know, he could have been running the sales in Trieneliea or any of the other realms. Maybe someone got close to bringing him in, and he left the realm before they could capture him and shut the sales down.
Then he laid low for a while and then set up all over again once the dust had settled.
He’s a supernatural, they all live for a really long time.
He could have been doing this for fifty or sixty years easily.
Hell, maybe for a hundred years, depending on the kind of supernatural he is.
He's one of the worst kinds of beings. One that I hope we will finally put in prison or in the ground. I’m not fussed, to be honest.
Either will work well for me.
Of course, I also want the names of all of the fuckers who have bought off of him. As far as I’m concerned, they are just as bad as The Owner.
Unfortunately, that’s not going to be dealt with quickly. It’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of skilled SID agents to go through all of the files and records.
That’s if he kept records.
If he didn’t, then that makes things a lot more fucking complicated.
Not impossible, but a lot more fucking complicated.
Fortunately, magic can do things that humans can’t.
Which means that whereas HID would have no idea how to find the information that they need in order to go after those who purchased from the sales, SID has things up their magical sleeves that mean that they actually have a chance of finding them.
Magic is fucking awesome.
Information is as well, and I know nothing about The Owner, which is a huge problem as far as I’m concerned, and it’s something that I intend to rectify tonight. Ty sent over some files for us to go over, and Griff made copies. Everyone, apart from Doc and I, have made a pretty big dent in it.
So we’ve got to play catch-up.
As soon as we’re done here, that’s what I intend to do. After I’ve checked on the kelpies. I have no idea if they’re here, but considering there was something at their lake that stole time from me, I’m now worried that it attacked or took them first.
Our kelpies are special. If someone remembers us from the Choosing, they will remember the kelpies. If they aren’t aware of the lore behind the kelpies and why they came to our aid, then they might think that they’ve just been trained and that anyone would be able to call on their aid.
Kelpies are formidable and strong as fuck. They are the perfect partner in a dangerous situation and are highly sought after.
Plus, they sell for a lot on the Obsidian Market, dead, not alive, because no one can get near them alive. Not usually anyway, obviously we’re the exception.
I’m worried.
So my plan is to finish up here with the wolf sales plan, find the kelpies, do the research on The Owner, and get some sleep before we head out early tomorrow morning to set everything up before the sales appear there.
Busy, busy, busy. Just how I like it.
It’s been too quiet anyway.
Well, it hasn’t, but still.
“Dimitri says that it would be a good idea to have the power balance in the teams fairly even. Not to have a team of just shifters, for example, because it could leave them vulnerable to attacks, or to whatever The Owner is using in order to gain control over the shifters in the first place. I know we know that it’s the same thing that’s controlling him, but he could have something else up his sleeve that we’re not aware of.
Having balanced teams would fix that,” River says casually, his feet resting up on the table.
We all just stare at him in shocked silence.
Finally, Van speaks, “River, are you communicating with Dimitri right now?”
River grins, “Yep.”
When he doesn’t say anything else, Reed asks, “Why?”
“Because it felt right, and he makes a very good point,” River replies.
I expect the guys to freak out, or tell River to kick Dimitri out, but instead they just share a look and carry on talking, but this time including Dimitri, through River.
I have to admit that Dimitri does help a lot. He has always been amazing at this sort of thing, but it is a slightly surreal moment for me.
When he finally does go, I can’t help but ask, “What was that about? Is it wise to include Dimitri in things like this?”
“Honestly, if you had asked me if he could listen in, I would have said absolutely fucking not, but it didn’t feel like he shouldn’t be here, and I was listening to my magic and my instincts, and they said that he needed to listen,” Van says.
“Plus, he gave us some insights and angles that we hadn’t considered,” Doc says.
“I would be willing to bet that it’s for one of those reasons that it was important he listened in,” Griff says.
River shrugs, “I just like him, and I don’t like that he’s in isolation. He’s pretty awesome when you get talking to him.”
“I think we’re all agreed on that, although I can’t really explain why I don’t like that he’s in isolation,” Ransom says with a frown.
“Because it’s what would happen to us if anyone found out how strong we really are and we got accused of something and were imprisoned in one of the supernatural prisons,” Reed says bluntly.
The silence after Reed’s statement is heavy. He’s right, and we all know it. I also know that although that reason may be true, that’s not the reason I hate that he’s in there, my reason is based entirely on feelings and knowing how much he fucking hates being confined.
I nod. “Okay, I just wanted to make sure that you all knew what you were doing.”
“Are you okay with us talking to him?” Coen asks, watching me with concern.
I chuckle, “I’m not going to tell you not to talk to him, that would be controlling and completely unnecessary.
It’s a little weird for me, but after the initial shock of realizing that River was talking to him and all of you were okay with it, I guess it makes sense.
I’ve always thought that you guys would get on with Dimitri, the real Dimitri, not the one who has been controlled. ”
Van smiles, “It’s not like we’re going to talk to him all the time, or let him know sensitive information,” he gives River a pointed look since that’s technically what he did this time, and River nods.
“I won’t do it again unless the circumstances are the same, something told me that he had to be involved with the conversation,” River explains.
Van stares at him for a moment, deciding whether to push the issue or not, before he sighs and nods, “Fine, but next time let us know that he’s listening in.”
“Done,” River states. “For what it’s worth, I really don’t know why it was important. My instincts are just riding me hard.”
“It might be because you’re an extremely strong alpha and he’s a shifter,” Raiden suggests thoughtfully.