Chapter Seventeen
Neith
Plus, I think Doc is secretly pleased that he doesn’t have to transport us after he tried to go back to the house and ended up feeling really unwell.
“Love?” Coen asks with a worried note in his voice when I don’t answer his question right away.
I nod, “I’m good, I promise. I’ll tell you about it later.”
“Nothing I need to worry about?” He asks.
I shake my head, “Nope. Let’s get this fucker first, and then I’ll tell you all about my newest bout of crazy.”
He chuckles and squeezes me once more, “You got it, Love.”
That’s something I adore about Coen: he doesn’t push me or pressure me into telling him something, ever.
If I tell him I’m safe, then that’s good enough for him.
I could have told him only that and not said that I would fill him in later, and he would have dropped it until I was ready to talk about it. If I were ever ready to talk about it.
He’s pretty fucking awesome like that.
We both pile into one of the SUVs.
Van is at the wheel of one of them, and Reed is at the wheel of the one that I’m in.
“So, was it just these two and the van in the garage?” Coen asks as we start to pull down the long and winding driveway.
Ransom grins, “Nope, there are a few more things in there, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise.”
Coen grins, “I’m good with that. If we’re not too exhausted when we get back, then we can play.”
“I’m hoping it's going to go reasonably smoothly,” Reed says. “Or at least as smoothly as these things tend to go.”
As predicted, as soon as we’re on the road and traveling away from House, Ethel, and the mysterious Zephyr, Van calls Reed, and we all go through the plan and our roles again.
There’s not a chance to tell them about my dream, and the item of clothing in my dresser, or, I suppose, the floor now.
Either way, it definitely shouldn’t be there, and to be honest, I’m okay with that.
I need to focus on the here and now, and the awake world.
I need to shut the sales down, save these wolves and other supernaturals that have been kidnapped, and make sure that The Owner can never go after Rana.
“Question,” I interrupt Van’s third time going through the plan on this car ride. To be honest, by this point, I could probably recite it in my sleep.
“Yes, Nene?” Van asks.
“If The Owner is proving difficult to take in, which is likely considering his skillset,” I start.
I did my research last night. He’s stronger than he should be.
He’s a mage like Ransom, although not nearly as powerful, but all of the information that we have on him suggests that he shouldn’t be as powerful as he is.
My best guess is that he’s using the potions and spells he gets from Casimir and probably the Obsidian Market as well to make it appear as if he has more magic than he does.
I continue explaining, “Can we kill him, if it’s looking like he’s going to escape and we get the opportunity to? ”
“Yes,” Van replies immediately. “We aren’t taking any chances with him escaping, especially because of what we know about how he feels about Rana, we can’t risk him going after her.”
“She’s probably already gone into hiding,” I reply. “That’s what I would have done. I’m really hoping she has more patience than me though, and that she will at least wait for my update tonight.”
“She trusts you,” River says. “I think she’ll wait.”
“I really hope you’re right,” I reply, and then sit up straighter in my seat. “We’re here.”
Here is a large clearing in the woods that’s a few miles away from where the sales are going to turn up. We’re leaving the vehicles here and meeting up with the rest of the teams, who thankfully seem to already be here. We’ll then walk into the target area and set up from there.
There’s going to be a lot of waiting around today, but we can’t risk setting up closer to the time of the sales and getting seen.
The others all get out of the car, but I pause when Reed doesn’t immediately get out, leaning forward between the seats. I kiss him on the cheek and ask, “Is everything okay?”
He smiles, turning to meet my gaze and kissing me softly, “I’m good, I just really hate having to lock my magic down. I always did, but now it’s free more often than it ever has been before, and because of that, it’s even harder to put it back into its cage.”
“I can understand that,” I reply with a frown. “Are you sure you can’t have it out all of the time?”
“That sounded dirty,” he chuckles, making me grin and then adding more seriously, as he gestures out of the window, “I’m sure, look at them.”
I glance out of the window of the car, slightly confused, and then I realize what he’s talking about. Everyone is giving the car an extremely wide berth. Some agents even have their heads bowed low, and some are frozen. Everyone, apart from the guys, is giving the car fearful looks.
I feel Reed pull his power in, and the difference is immediate. Everyone’s posture returns to normal, and those who were frozen carry on doing what they were doing, although everyone still looks at the car with fear.
“I’m sorry,” I say to him. “It sucks. I wish I could make it better for you.”
“It does, but I am used to it. At least I no longer have to do it around the guys, I really hated that and so did they,” Reed replies. “Come on, Van’s already filling them in, and I think Coen’s getting uncomfortable, and by that I mean I think he’s about to throat punch someone.”
My eyes move to Coen.
“Shit!” I exclaim as I jump out of the car and rush over to him, catching his fist just before it connects with the cocky shit that said something to piss him off.
His dragon eyes meet mine.
Coen is always calm, or at least manages to make it appear that way, and usually, nothing bothers him unless it’s to do with something in particular. I turn around, moving so I’m as close to Coen as I can get, and he breathes deeply.
Apparently, his temper is a lot more volatile than it used to be. Which makes sense, he’s been through some seriously messed-up shit, and with everything going on and how well he’s handling it all, I keep forgetting.
I’m shit.
I need to check in with him properly later and make sure that he’s okay and is genuinely handling it as well as he appears to be. Apart from the more volatile temper.
Refocusing on the now wide-eyed fucker standing in front of me, I say, “If you have something to say about me, why don’t you be a grown-up and say it to my face rather than risk having your nose broken by saying it to Coen?”
“I was going to do more than break his nose,” Coen mutters, his dragon evident in the growl of his voice.
The guy's eyes widen even more. They’ve gotten too used to Coen not being able to shift, and being under the control of that cunt.
Of course, as far as they’re all concerned, Coen was on Kylen’s team and now suddenly Kylen’s team is disbanded and/or dead, and Coen is on our team.
As I understand it from what the guys have said, Coen was horrible to them when he was under the control of Kylen, so I can understand why people are going to be confused.
This is our first job after the Choosing, and we all seem to have forgotten that most, if not all, of the agents are going to have forgotten about the Choosing, and therefore be very confused about the change in teams.
“I don’t have anything to say to you, bitch,” he spits at me. Fire in his gaze now that he’s looking at me and not Coen.
Apparently, I’m not as scary.
Coen growls, and within seconds, his shift has taken him over, and he’s towering above me. His huge head is centimeters above mine as he guards me, and I reach a hand up, stroking the side of his face and also trying to keep him from eating the guy.
It’s really not a big deal, I’ve been called a lot worse, but Coen clearly doesn’t take kindly to it.
The guy is frozen to the spot, looking up in fear at the very pissed off dragon who is only just hanging onto his temper because I’m touching him.
The fact that Coen was able to shift and remain in the same place behind me, without knocking me over or anything, is a testament to how powerful he really is.
And how pissed off he is.
“Coen, you need to calm down,” I say into his mind, remembering our connection at the last moment.
“He called you a bitch and other things that I don’t want to repeat,” he growls back, referring to whatever the idiot said to piss him off in the first place.
“I know, but it really doesn’t matter. He doesn’t remember the Choosing, he doesn’t know that you’re on our team now, or anything else that happened,” I try to reason with him. “Plus, I’ve been called worse.”
That was the wrong thing to say.
“Whoa, what’s going on?” Van asks as he and Reed step between the idiot and me. The motion immediately calms Coen.
I’m assuming that Reed went to find Van since he is usually the best person to diffuse these situations.
Before I can explain the situation, and that it's just a little bit of a misunderstanding, or maybe an overreaction because the dickhead definitely called me a bitch, said dickhead starts to speak.
“This stupid, incompetent bitch, is trying to cause problems and shouldn’t be on this job, she’s not qualified,” he growls.
Van’s expression darkens with anger, and now I’m worried that he’s going to clock the idiot, and how the hell am I going to keep my hand on Coen to keep him calm, and somehow get to Van to stop him from punching the moron as well.
Reed doesn’t look like he’s faring that much better, and if looks could kill, then the guy would be a smoldering pile of ash by now.
Do I really want to stop them from punching the moron?
Yes, I probably do.
I don’t, but professionally speaking, or er thinking. I do want to stop them from punching the idiot.
Kind of.
“Peter!” Ty barks, with all of the authority of a general, and I remember that’s what he was for decades before the gates closed.