Chapter 124 Nico #2
“Fantastic. I know things have gotten rather intense today. Abi, as sweet a girl as she is, has almost tread on my last nerve with questions. Every hour she’s back at my door, demanding to know more. It really is tiresome.”
I winced in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Don. If it’s too much with her there, we can work out something else.”
Donatello huffed a dismissive laugh. “Nico, you shame me. I’m not so fragile as to break at the incessant questions of a young lady. No, she’s fine. Now, let’s get to the point of this little call. You want info on Viola’s location, do you not?”
That caught me off guard. Whenever I dealt with Donatello, I always had the faint but nagging feeling that he had everything figured out before any of us had even managed to start thinking.
“Well… yes, actually. How did you— ”
“No time, dear Nico. I’ll go ahead and get into what my and my associates’ teams have worked on.
“First, we’ve had the world’s pre-eminent cybersecurity experts trying to trace Viola’s location. You’ve seen the little ‘interviews’ she’s been doing on different media outlets? Always from some unknown location that no one can recognize?”
Gritting my teeth, I nodded to myself. “Yeah. I’ve seen them.”
“Dressed for the cameras in guerilla uniform, no less. If the bitch is one thing, she’s committed to the show.
Well, these videos are coming from somewhere, but her team is doing a fantastic job preventing a trace.
She’s using dozens of shadow servers and mimicked IP addresses.
The last interview traced back to the International Space Station of all places.
I’m one hundred percent certain that’s not where she is. ” Donatello chuckled to himself.
“Damn. So, there’s still nothing? No trace at all?”
“Not actionable, no. There are rumors of someone with lots of money buying weapons on the outskirts of Saudi Arabia, but that could be any rich, wannabe terrorist or drug kingpin. My people are also running down leads on a rumor of a mysterious woman running some sort of cult-like compound near Guanshan in Taiwan, but I don’t hold out hope for that one.
“Our teams are on it. I’ll make sure you’re the first to know if we find anything. I promise you, Nico. Also, I think congratulations are in order, are they not?”
His question tugged me out of the depressive spiral I had been about to go in. Coming back to reality, I managed to speak. “What? Oh, shit, yeah. Yes, I guess so. How’d you find out?”
“Abi. She was at my door five minutes after getting off the phone with Maddy. She says lovely Miss Sutton is a bit of an emotional mess over it, though. Fear of the unknown, perhaps?”
I grunted noncommittally. “She’s terrified Viola will find out and use it against her. It pisses me off because this should be a really happy time, but this situation has ruined it.”
“My friend, never let the evils of the world drain away your joy. I promise you this, in the times of the greatest darkness, a sliver of light can change everything. Babies were born in the ghettos of the Holocaust. They were born during the Great Shifter Purge of the twelve-hundreds. Children have entered the world during every great tragedy. That is what God does—he grants us moments of blessed happiness to get us through the bleakest of days. Never forget that, and when your child is born, hold them tight, raise them high, and remember what you fight for.”
Tears sprang to my eyes. I wiped them away and laughed. “You know, Donatello, if you hadn’t become a billionaire, you could have been a poet.”
“Ugh, perish the thought. I like poetry, but… Lamborghinis are really fun.”
After talking some more, we hung up. I’d hoped the call would ease my worries, but it didn’t.
Viola still being a ghost in the wind, irritated me more than I’d thought possible.
I was becoming antsy. I loved my pack lands, but it was becoming claustrophobic.
Being unable to go out and do what needed to be done made me feel helpless.
I was trying not to feel sorry for myself when it hit me. A small change, but noticeable. Almost like a surge or push on the pack lands. I was more in tune with the land since my experience, and this did not seem natural.
Thundering footsteps rushed down the stairs, and Sinthy burst into the living room, her eyes wide with panic.
“The wards! Someone is trying to tamper with them.”
I was on my feet in an instant. “What? Are you sure?”
She nodded and scrunched her face in concentration. After a few moments, she shivered. “It’s wrong. All wrong.”
“What’s wrong, Sinthy? Is it Viola? Is she here?” Dread flooded through me. If she was here in broad daylight, she must have been very confident she’d win.
Sinthy shook her head vehemently. I couldn’t tell if it was an answer or not. It almost looked like she was trying to throw something out of her head.
“The magic feels wrong. That’s what I mean.”
I had my phone, my fingers flying over the screen as I texted my guys. “Sinthy, can you pinpoint the location? Do you know where they’re trying to get in?”
“I do. Yeah.”
“Let’s go.”
I grabbed her by the hand and sprinted for the door.
Before we’d even made it twenty feet from the house, Luis and Felipe came loping toward us in wolf form, running at full speed to catch up.
Sebastian was running from the opposite end of the pack lands, also sprinting to reach us.
Not wanting to stop and explain, I continued running with Sinthy, letting her lead.
She was so fast, and it shocked me. She started leaving me behind, and I had to shift in order to keep up. She was full of surprises.
The closer we got, the more I sensed it, almost like someone was pounding on my chest. Whoever was trying to get in was beating on the wards, almost like a door. That shouldn’t have been possible. Anyone touching it should have been damn-near electrocuted.
Sinthy led us deep into the woods, toward the very edges of my lands and the wards, until we came to an opening in the trees.
I froze and shifted back. The wards were shimmering, almost rippling from where someone was touching them.
A dark hooded figure stood at the wards, running their hands over the barrier. The wards didn’t touch them.
Then a crack, like a thunderbolt, exploded around us.
I slammed my palms to my ears. It sounded like a grenade going off.
Luis crumpled to his knees—his hands clutched at his ears.
In the distance, the hooded figure took a step back and froze when they caught sight of us.
We growled, deep and threatening, at the intruder.
“God,” Sinthy whispered, fear and awe laced in her voice. “This can’t be.”
“What can’t be?” I snarled.
“The wards. They’re broken. Gone.”
My eyes nearly bugged out of my head. “What?”
Ignoring me, Sinthy was still shaking her head and talking to herself. “They shouldn’t be able even to crack them, much less break them down.”
She turned menacing eyes toward the intruder.
Moving almost too fast to see, Sinthy raised a hand and uttered words I didn’t understand under her breath.
The intruder jerked as if hit and raised both of their own hands back at her.
I watched in confusion as a strange pulsing energy flowed between them.
At times it looked like water, at others a colorful wind.
The intruder and Sinthy both grunted with exertion, each flicking with that strange energy.
Was this what it looked like when witches fought? Because that’s what this intruder must have been. Nothing else could have taken Sinthy’s wards down. But the fact that they’d done it at all showed how dangerous this person was.
“Please… don’t hurt me.” The figure grunted, gasping in exhaustion and struggle. The voice of a man, but slight and wavering—young.
“Who are you?” Sinthy growled, her voice as deep and angry as any shifter’s. Her hair floated about her face, raised by the energy emanating from her. I’d never seen her so enraged. She was fucking terrifying.
The intruder was now on their knees. Whatever power they had wasn’t enough to survive a full onslaught from Sinthy.
One of his hands lowered, the other barely staying up to hold off her full power.
Bark peeled off trees, moss ripped away, and stones flew backward.
If he dropped his guard, Sinthy’s power would strip him to the bone.
“Please,” the man pleaded in a broken, terrified tone.
Following my instincts, I put a hand on Sinthy’s shoulder. “Enough.”
“What?” She turned her fiery rage-filled eyes on me.
I looked back at her, calm and steady. “You’ve beaten him. That’s enough.”
Hesitantly, Sinthy lowered her hand and dropped the multitude of spells she’d been sending toward the man.
The new arrival sagged to the forest floor.
Sinthy shrugged my hand away from her shoulder and stomped toward the man.
With a flick of her wrist, his hood flew backward, revealing the face of a young man.
Barely more than a teenager. Twenty-one at the oldest. He looked at Sinthy with fear and shock. I hurried to catch up with Sinthy.
“Explain!” she screamed. Her face inches from the boy’s. “Explain it.”
With wide, fearful eyes, the boy wordlessly shook his head like he didn’t understand.
Still consumed with rage, Sinthy kicked a clod of dirt at the boy, and mud spattered across his face.
“Why does your magic feel like my mother’s? How did you do it? Fucking tell me.” On the last word, the air began to pulse with energy. Her anger was palpable.
In the distance, I noticed another disturbance. My ears pricked up, and I scented the air. More people.
“Luis! Radio the perimeter guards. We have more intruders incoming. I need bodies here. Now.”
The boy was holding a hand up almost in supplication toward Sinthy. Tears brimmed his eyes as he continued to shake his head. “I didn’t ask for it. This isn’t my fault.”
Sinthy screamed an inarticulate sound of rage, sorrow, and pain. She lunged, yanking the boy toward her by his robe.
“I will turn you to dust. I’ll make your mind live a million years in a simulated hell. I will boil you with the blood of your own body. I will. Unless you tell me how you have my mother’s magic inside you.”