Chapter 132 Nico
NICO
What I would remember later was how fast everything happened. Even looking back on it, I still couldn’t comprehend how it all went down so quickly. Part of it was like a dream, the rest like a nightmare.
We’d all gathered back in the building where we were staying. Donatello’s staff had brought out some salads and grilled chicken for dinner. We ate as we planned our next move. I couldn’t even remember where the conversation had been going. Those memories were lost in the chaos that followed.
My burner phone rang, and after swallowing my food, I answered it.
My father’s voice rushed over the speaker before I could say a word. “Nico? Turn on the news right now. Hurry.”
“Dad? What’s going— ”
“No time,” he said. “Turn it on now.”
The line went dead. Dread filled me. I was going to throw out every TV we had when I got home. All they ever seemed to do was bring bad news.
I looked at Donatello. “Where’s the nearest television? My father says we need to watch the news immediately.”
Donatello looked perturbed by that news but pulled out his cell phone and pushed a few buttons. A portion of the wall above the fireplace slid aside with an electric hum and revealed a large TV. By tapping the screen of his phone, he turned the television on.
We didn’t have to wait long to see what my father wanted us to see. Donatello scanned through channels, and it looked like it was on every network. He finally stopped on a channel that hadn’t finished the full report.
“Today, another message from Viola Monroe, who has been branded an international terrorist, war criminal, cult leader, and a murderer by the UN. She’s put out a press release. We’ll read the letter here.”
The anchor raised a paper and began to read. “To the humans and rightful inheritors of this world, I tell you now that our goals remain in sight, but starting today, all attempts to capture Maddison Sutton should cease and desist.”
I turned and looked at Maddy in confusion. Her face mirrored my expression.
The anchor stopped reading abruptly and put the paper down as he glanced off camera. His expression was one of bewilderment and panic. A voice off-screen mumbled something to him that I couldn’t hear. Finally, he addressed the camera again.
“We now have a live video message. It’s just come through. I want to caution viewers that the team at Channel Eight News has not vetted this video. We cannot guarantee what will be shown, and as such, must say that viewer discretion is advised.”
An instant later, Viola’s face filled the screen. Even seeing her on the screen sent me into a rage. I had to calm my wolf down because all he wanted to do was sling something at the television to destroy the screen and wipe her face away.
“Good day, everyone,” Viola said into the camera.
“As you may have read in my press release, I am here to tell all of you that the capture of Maddison Sutton has been called off.
This monster, this vile and disturbed creature, is not to be captured.
I want that explicitly stated in this message.
She is abhorrent and disgusting. She has even, in the last four hours, kidnapped my own dearly beloved son.
She and her cohorts have stolen him from me in an attempt to get me to end this war against shifters.
A war that I know will create a safer, cleaner world for humans.
Kidnapping an innocent young man shows me, and hopefully all of you, exactly how ruthless and heartless shifters can be.
“This is what my family and I have been trying to show humanity for centuries. Shifters are not to be trusted. They are mistakes, evolutionary dead ends, beasts that have no place in a civilized society. All of my so-called crimes have been in the pursuit of the end of their stain on this planet.” Viola leaned forward with a pleading look on her face.
“Anyone would do what I’ve done. What are the lives of a few shifters and humans in comparison to the billions of humans that suffer from the very presence of these things?
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
A wise man once said that, and I believe it is true.
“So, back to my original statement. I am calling off the hunt for Maddy Sutton. She is not to be taken, kidnapped, or otherwise brought in.” Viola leaned closer to the camera, the screen filling with her face.
Disgust, rage, and madness were evident on every line of her face.
“Maddy Sutton is to be brought to me dead.” Viola became unhinged as she finished.
“I want her blood to soak into the dirt. I want to see her eviscerated body dropped at my feet. I will double the current reward for anyone who brings me her fucking head.”
She held up a hand, lifting a single finger. “To show her, her filthy mate, and all others who think they can defy me that I am serious. I present you with the following video.”
Her face vanished, replaced by a shot of a familiar location. My pack lands. My own house, in the distance.
“Nico?” Maddy asked, her voice trembling with fear and worry.
“What the fuck, man. What is she gonna do?” Luis asked as he stepped closer to the TV.
I had no words. I couldn’t answer their questions. All I could do was stare at the screen. The video seemed to be taken from some kind of drone. Viola’s voice spoke over the video.
“Everything these creatures know and love will be destroyed.”
“No way,” Sinthy said. “The wards are too strong even with me gone. She’s bluffing.”
Almost as though Viola could hear what Sinthy said, a strange flash and crackle of static appeared on the screen. The flash was so bright that it washed out the video in a blaze of light.
Sinthy gasped and hit her knees. That finally pulled my eyes away from the screen.
The witch was on the ground, clutching at her chest. She looked both shocked, confused, and terrified.
It sent an icy finger tracing along my spine.
I spun back around to check the TV. Part of me was prepared to see a massive smoking crater in the ground with a mushroom cloud ascending into the sky above the charred and dead bodies of my family and friends and what used to be my home.
Thankfully, everything still seemed whole.
“Get Maxwell,” Sinthy barked. “Now.”
Not waiting for a second command, Luis and Felipe sprinted out the door toward the stairs.
“Sinthy, what the fuck is happening?” I asked. I’d intended my voice to sound commanding. Instead, it came out in a whine. Panic and fear mixed into my throat as I spoke.
Sinthy was still holding a hand to her chest. “I’m not sure.
Whatever she did attacked my wards directly.
I’m no longer powering them, but they’re still connected to me.
It was like I’d been kicked in the chest. I have no clue what could possibly do that.
No weapon of man could hurt those wards.
Especially with it pulling energy from your pack lands.
” She shook her head helplessly. “I don’t know, Nico. ”
On the screen, another strange blast hit the pack lands. Sinthy gasped again and put her hands on the floor, steadying herself even more than she already was. I didn’t think it was possible, but she looked even more scared.
A moment later, Felipe and Luis came in, dragging Maxwell between them.
The boy looked terrified, and he should have.
All sympathy I had for him had vanished.
All I could think about was the attack going on back home.
Right then, I was more than ready to stoop to Viola’s level to protect my home and loved ones.
I’d skin the kid alive if it meant saving everyone.
I stepped forward and grabbed him by the shirt collar, yanking him close, his body flopping around like a doll.
“What the fuck is your mother doing?” I screamed into his face as I pointed at the TV.
A perplexed expression replaced the confusion on his face. “What? What are you talking about?”
Sinthy stood and pulled him from my grasp. She pressed her face against his, her nose almost touching his.
“Viola. She’s attacking my wards, and it’s fucking working. What in God’s name is she doing? Was this your plan? Have you cast a spell on me that I didn’t notice? What is it? Tell me right goddamned now, or I swear to God, I’ll turn your body inside out. Literally.”
Maxwell turned from Sinthy and looked at the television, wincing. He did know something. It spurred on my fury.
“Talk. Right now, or I’ll let her do exactly what she wants to do to you.”
“Wait, wait,” Maxwell said. “I didn’t know she was going to do anything.
All I know is that she was using me to try and create magical weapons.
Things that could be used against other witches and warlocks.
I think she knew you guys had a witch protecting your pack lands.
I swear, I didn’t know she was anywhere near close to having a working prototype. You have to believe me.”
“What the hell is it?” Sinthy asked, shaking him violently again.
He shook his head like he was trying to clear it.
“Uh, it’s a cruise missile. She got several on the black market, removed the standard explosive payload, and she and her scientists used me to try and create magical warheads.
Things that could break through wards, spells, force fields—basically any kind of magical protection. ”
Sinthy groaned again and clutched her hand to her stomach. She looked at me, and I saw the terror in her eyes.
“She hit it again. Nico… it’s bad. These weapons are strong. If it wasn’t for how strong your lands are and the initial spells I wove, the wards would have already come down. They could fall at any moment.”