Chapter 22 – Charlie
CHAPTER 22
CHARLIE
O nce we had a location from the hackers’ code, the rest was relatively simple. I tracked other similar codes all the way to the hunter compound. They made a rookie mistake to have the same person do all the online security, but unfortunately, the mistakes ended there.
I fought off the hacker trying to boot me out of their systems, their skills rivaling mine, but I knew better than to underestimate them after what they did to Adam when he tried to get me information on the hunters.
As I hacked into the compound systems, I pulled up live camera feeds onto the many screens in front of me. They flickered as the hacker tried to pause the feeds to stop me from seeing anything, but in the digital battlefield I was determined to win and I dropped bombs on them, distracting them with viruses and pop-ups.
Fuck you, hunter bastard, you think I’m going to let you just kill my family? No.
“This is quite exhilarating, Charlie,” Dralie told me. “Like a hunt. I cannot understand the squiggles flashing in front of us, but I can feel your fight. Remember, we are drakorian. We don’t lose to humans.”
As far as pep talks went, it was actually quite helpful.
“How are we getting on?” Arabella asked, approaching me from behind.
Isaac shushed her and then, in a reverent tone that did wonders for my ego, whispered, “we are watching a master at work.”
“I think you should head there. I’ll let you know when it’s time to charge in, but Baelen should go first since he’s got the ring. Once he’s cleared the place, you can follow. You’ve all got earpieces, and I’ll guide you from here when I’ve found more.”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Isaac saluted.
Arabella smacked him. “Stop being so dramatic.”
“Babe, he came in here like three hours ago and achieved what we’ve been trying to do for a week. That’s something else.”
“I’m going with them?” Baelen asked. He hadn’t moved from my side since he returned from the shadow realm. I wasn’t blind to the tension between him, Savida and Daithi, when they returned, but I didn’t have the time to ask about it. I just assumed that Daithi was being his usual arsehole self.
“You have the ring, and you can get Clawdia and Zaide while the others concentrate on everyone else.”
He nodded, and I quickly explained how to use the earpieces before the task team called their goodbyes. And Baelen left with them.
With Baelen gone, Savida approached me hesitantly. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
“You could set up platters of food, water, and rest areas for all the witches that are about to descend upon this place. I won’t have time to help them.”
“Of course. An excellent idea.” He scurried off to Daithi, and they began discussing how best to go about their task.
I paid them no mind as my fingers flew over the keyboard, digging deeper into the hunter files that I now had access to. I was grateful other witches hadn’t taken to technology like I had because otherwise, they might have found a way to magically shield this information. As it was, I only needed to fight highly technical-beautiful, if I was honest about it-code and firewalls.
I downloaded as much information as I could, but my hunter enemy must have been onto me because he had stripped my rights and blocked me again with yet more code. Is he writing this from scratch right now? It was impressive. And while it pissed me off that all my hard work to battle into their files disappeared right in front of my eyes, I couldn’t concentrate on that right now.
I didn’t know how long it had been when I heard Baelen’s voice in my ear. “I’m here, Charlie. I’ve found her.”
“And?” I asked. I hadn’t looked back at the cameras, but I could hear Clawdia sobbing in the background, but I didn’t know if it was happy or sad tears.
“She killed Mary,” was not what I expected him to say.
“Fuck, is she okay?” I ran a hand through my hair. This is going to destroy her. She’s not a killer.
“She’s not responding.” I listened to him whispering to her, whispering assurances, and I scanned the camera’s looking for a sight of them in the laundry room but struck gold when I spotted a feed from outside a metal door. Thank you, findy powers.
“You need to get her to snap out of it, because I think I’ve found Zaide’s cell.”
Once Clawdia was sort of stable, I directed Baelen to the door. I expected sounds of elation but got, “He’s not here.”
Shit. Where has he gone? “Wait a minute. I’ll rewind the camera and see what I can find.”
I did just that and watched the feed in reverse to find an image of him being hauled, unconscious out of the room, battered and bruised worse than I’d ever seen him, with a horrific break in his leg - was that bone? - and got dragged to … I pulled up feed in the corridor and reversed it to the time I stopped the last feed to watch them take Zaide through a door into … the courtyard?
I pulled up cameras in the courtyard to see a stage and people gathering there, all in uniform, chatting and waiting for something. Strange. When I noticed a familiar man, I stopped. Fafnir was walking through the courtyard like he owned the place. He jogged up the stairs to the stage to speak to an older man there. But I couldn’t see a golden giant.
Did they just take a shortcut through the courtyard to get to another place?
But then I saw Fafnir peek his head into a large wooden crate on the stage, which I hadn’t paid attention to. I watched him smile like the cat that got the cream, and I just knew Zaide was in the crate.
“He’s in the courtyard. In a crate. Looks like an event of some kind, so stay invisible until you see an opportunity to save him.” I told Baelen.
“There’s a meeting about to happen,” Baelen informed me. “Clawdia has promised to save the sacrificial supernatural, so we are all going to the courtyard. We might need a distraction to escape unscathed.”
“After I’ve found the council, I’ll watch the courtyard like a hawk.”
Arabella’s voice cut through the comms. “Charlie, do you copy? It’s been ages. Do you have an update from Baelen on the situation? Or a location for the witches and the council?”
I’ll just stick a broom up my arse and sweep up while I’m at it, shall I?
I flicked through every single camera until I came across one of a huge celled area with lots of people locked inside. The witches and the council. I noted the location and quickly sent it through to the task team with the compound schematics map for guidance.
“I’ve just sent you over the location and the map. There are too many hunters in the corridors at the moment for you to get a clear run. They are heading to the courtyard for a meeting, so we’ll wait until then.”
“Baelen, are you in the courtyard?” I asked.
“Yes.”
When the corridors emptied and the courtyard filled up, I began systematically locking the doors around the courtyard. “I’m locking you in with the hunters. Don’t make any stupid moves.”
“Why?” His replies were clipped whispers, probably because sound couldn’t be invisible, but I had to admit I was enjoying bossing him around.
“Just until the team has rescued everyone.” I didn’t give him a chance to reply. I turned to the other sequence and said, “Team, do you copy?”
“Copy, Charlie,” came the reply from Arabella.
I always wanted to do that. I was living my James Bond fantasy right now.
“Okay team, I’ve sent everyone a map. I’ve got the hunters locked in the compound's courtyard and they haven’t realized yet. They are having a big important meeting. The witches are on guard duty. If you can defuse the wards, then I’ll be able to let you in through a door if the witches don’t have a key on them.”
“When are we doing this?” she asked.
I made an exasperated face that no one saw. “Now. I mean, if you're not busy, of course. “
She didn’t rise to my sarcasm and simply said, “Moving in.”
I turned the camera back to the courtyard and settled in to watch. The hacker occasionally tried to sneak past me and back into the systems, but I quickly shooed him away. This is my show. Fuck off. When the pure villain monologue started from the older hunter, I didn’t bother trying to read his lips, instead I continued my raid on the hunter files. But my hacker friend was being too quiet.
What is he up to now?
I checked in on him and saw all the activity had stopped on his end. He wasn’t at his desk, which meant he was trying to get to the compound himself to warn them, or he was calling someone.
Thrilled about the additional challenge, I sent a text to the team informing them that someone might show up from the outside and to have someone watch for it and then got to the real fun. I cut all communication channels in the building. Downed the user Wi-Fi, downed the cell service, downed the building essentially until the only influence over it was me.
Try to tell on me now, fucker.
After an identity crisis and a new voice in my mind, it wasn’t surprising that it took taking over a whole building and starting a digital war with another hacker for me to feel like myself again, but I loved the thrill, my adrenaline was high and I knew, I knew, we were moments away from getting everyone home safely.
That was until Fafnir announced something with a flurried hand motion to the sky, and I watched the jaws of the hunters hit the ground.
“What the fuck is happening?” I asked Baelen. There weren’t cameras in the sky.
“Dragon,” came Baelen’s whispered and horrified reply.
Shit. I contacted Arabella. “Stop whatever you are doing. Stop and hit the ground. Don’t engage the witches. A dragon is flying in and might spot you.” I checked the cameras and I couldn’t see the team, but the witches were still on guard. Some of them waved to the dragon as it flew overhead.
“We see him. We didn’t make a move because we heard the roar after we told you we were moving in. Fafnir’s entering,” Arabella replied dryly.
“It’s not Fafnir. Fafnir is currently making a speech.” I said, in shock because as a dragon landed at his side, the weight of it shaking the platform, I was staring at two separate beings. Two dragons? Other than me?
Dralie hissed. “Monster. Abomination.”
“Then who is it?” Arabella asked, distracting me from the disgust of my dragon.
“That’s what I want to find out, too.” I absentmindedly told her, “He’s landed. You’re safe to go take down the witches and wards. Get in and get out.”
My mind was on the puzzle in front of me as I stared at the dragon and Fafnir tried to calm the crowd. Who is the dragon? One of the witches? Has he actually turned one of them into a dragon? Is that why they are so devoted?
I turned back to the cameras at the front of the compound and I scanned the members of the defected family, but I couldn’t tell from the backs of them who they were. However, I got the joy of seeing them fall flat on their faces when balls of gas rolled out toward them and the task team moved in. The team split in two, the shifter group, tying them up and hauling them over their shoulders to cart back to the cars.
“Wait, Arabella,” I called before the other half of the task team could enter the compound, “Roll call. Who are the members of the defected witches knocked out right now?”
“You think it might be a witch turned dragon?” She asked and then named the witches. I ticked them off in my mind and no one was missing other than Mary.
But Mary was dead. Wasn’t she?
I tuned back into the courtyard to see Fafnir saying something about another hunter. “Dralie, how is this possible? It looks just like him in dragon form.”
“It is. He is … wrong.” Dralie tried to explain, but Arabella cut him off.
“We are in the cells. We are getting them out, but Charlie, we won’t have enough cars to get everyone back to the base.”
“Get everyone outside, take the most infirm in the cars, everyone else can portal out with Baelen,” I told her, although now I had to think of a way to make that happen.
I should have been a spy. I was wasting my talents on legal hacking.
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, and tuned into Baelen’s frequency. “Clawdia will need to portal you guys to outside the compound once you’ve got Zaide. Then you’ll need to portal everyone, and some witches that can’t fit in the cars, back here.”
“I understand,” he replied quickly, “but we have a situation.”
His tone made me nervous, and I scanned the screens to see what he meant, but all I could see was Fafnir waxing lyric, spinning tales and trying to calm down the nervous hunters.
What is this? Adopt a dragon drive? It was ludicrous, but so was my life.
“I can’t see you. What’s happening?” I asked.
“If you can see the hunter they are all staring at, you can see us,” Baelen replied.
In the courtyard's corner, two hunters stood like stones just a meter from the wall, like something invisible was behind them, and everyone’s eyes seemed to dart their way. Some confusion, some anger, sadness. Whatever story Fafnir was spinning, it caused so many emotions I could almost see the divide in the crowd.
“We need to do something,” I heard Clawdia’s panicked voice through Baelen’s earpiece, and my heart almost launched through my ear to get to her.
“Our mate?” Dralie asked. It was the first time he’d heard her voice and the power of a damsel in distress seemed to work just as well on him because he exclaimed, “she is upset. We must help her.”
“Working on it, buddy.”
“We need the dragon to die so he doesn’t eat, my friend.” Another voice growled.
“Charlie, if you have a distraction prepared, that would be useful,” Baelen said.
A distraction? From what? Shit, way to put me on the spot.
“Baelen, don’t you have some kind of blood thread power? You can’t make Fafnir explode right now?”
“You think I haven’t tried? The whole stage area seems warded.”
The crowd seemed to close in on the two hunters and on the stage Fafnir smiled, pleased they were turning on one of their own simply because he told them to.
“What about blowing up another random hunter just to cause a distraction?”
“Because that will cause them to turn on our supernatural friend out of fear,” Baelen said. “Michael, tell them he is lying. Tell them the dragon drains everyone of magic and life. Tell them he’s doing it right now.”
I couldn’t quite hear the conversation that ensued, but I saw the crowd gasp and step back. And everyone put their hands to their noses as blood trickled out.
Jesus, Baelen did that to every hunter?
“Baelen?” I asked.
But no one turned to the dragon pointing their pitchforks, instead their eyes narrowed on Michael. I noticed Fafnir cross his arms with a smug smile on his face as he watched the crowd turn on the hunter, accusing him of causing their nose to bleed.
“This isn’t good,” I muttered. “Plan B, Baelen. You need a Plan B.”
He didn’t respond.
Michael and his friend continued to argue with the crowd, but it wasn’t going in their favor. When someone moved to attack them, Michael whipped out a gun, but didn’t fire. It was a warning. He didn’t want to hurt the people he’d known for so long or the community he grew up in.
But with their bloody noses and cruel glares, it didn’t appear they held the same affection for him now his lineage had been revealed.
Fafnir yelled something, and all heads turned to the stage as the dragon roared and charged toward Michael and his friend. Its maw stretched, opened, ready to swallow him whole.
“Arabella, please tell me you’ve got everyone free. I’ve got a rampaging dragon in the courtyard and I need to let people out.”
“Everyone is out. We are waiting for the portal back.”
The crowd panicked, diving out of the way and Michael's finger on the trigger pulled one, two, three, four, five times, hitting the dragon in its wings and chest.
The dragon roared again and small holes pierced its wings, but the shots to the chest seemed to bounce straight off the green scales and back into the crowd. I saw a few people hit the ground while other hunters pulled desperately at the doors and screamed at being locked in, their glares turning to their leaders.
“Jesus Christ. Get the fuck out of the way.” I yelled at Baelen as Michael and his friend dived to avoid the dragon’s huge claws.
The hunter and his friend vanished. Baelen must have turned them invisible, too.
Fafnir didn’t look so smug anymore. He shouted something, but the chaos was too much for him to control. He didn’t stop the dragon. He watched as its giant head turned and tracked the invisible group as they dodged panicked hunters and headed toward the crate.
The hunters standing around the crate on stage suddenly dropped to the ground bleeding from their eyes, ears, and mouth and something shattered next to them—glass?— Suddenly the crate burst open and a disheveled red-headed man sprung out of the box and made a run for it.
Laurence?
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Holy shit, he’s alive. My heart was in my throat as I unlocked the doors for him to escape, not caring that all the other hunters poured through the exit, too.
“Laurence is among the hunters, he’s going to—” I started on the comms to Arabella, but I stopped suddenly when the dragon roared, dived straight over to him, gobbling him up before anyone could do anything to stop him.
“No!” I yelled, my hands slamming the desk as I jumped to my feet. No. Fuck. No. Did I actually just see that? I felt sick. “Guys?” I asked Baelen quietly.
“We are all alive. We are healing Zaide and then we will portal out.”
The dragon licked its bloody teeth, and then its head turned to the crate. “Well, fucking hurry, because I think the dragon is still hungry.”