Atoning (Darkness Rising 3.1)

"Your door is next!" she called. "Get ready!"

I motioned Luke into position.

"Did you hear that?" the man whispered, his voice clear through the door. "They're in here."

He already had his hand on the knob, turning it, as the woman said, "Wait! Isn't that where Luke--?"

He pulled the door open, and Luke charged. The man shot. The woman cursed. She didn't shoot--she knew better. A thump sounded as the man hit the floor, followed by a yelp as Luke grabbed the man's gun and whipped it into our room, on my command. Rae ran from our place behind the door, and Jacinda said, "Rae!" but her daughter was, finally, being careful, and she only snagged the gun with her foot, kicking-dragging it back our way without moving past the barrier of the door.

As Luke fought, overcoming whatever supernatural powers the man had, the woman began murmuring in Greek or Latin.

"Witch!" I said, as she swung through the doorway, spell still on her lips, only to find herself face-to-barrel with Jacinda's gun.

"Finish that spell, and I shoot," Jacinda said. "Raise that gun at either of these two girls, and I shoot. Really, just give me an excuse, bitch, and I shoot."

The witch stopped casting.

Thirteen

A few minutes later, Derek came running, still in wolf form, only to discover we'd secured our two. He Changed back, and before he was finished enough to explain, Maya and Daniel had returned to do it for him. There'd been some hiccups, but they'd taken down the other four. Everyone was bound, gagged and awaiting interrogation.

Before we did that, I retrieved my cell phone and made a call to a number I'd never had occasion to use. On the third ring, someone picked up with, "Chloe? Is everything all right?"

I hesitated. "Did you hear something happened?"

"No," Sean said. "But if it's you calling, it's serious. Is everything okay?"

"It is now," I said. "I was just wondering if you could get here a little sooner."

"What happened?"

I told him.

Sean dispatched a Cabal team immediately. They were coming in from New York, which meant they'd be a couple of hours. We weren't waiting. We selected a likely subject and conducted an interrogation. It wasn't difficult--Jacinda knew a few members of the group well enough to pick which one would fold the fastest, and he did, without us needing to do more than threaten, which was good. Whatever our training, I don't think we could have done more. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

He spilled his story, and then we left him there with the others, trussed up and awaiting transport to the Nast satellite office in NYC. I didn't know what Sean would do with them. As nice a guy as he was, whatever he'd do would not be nice. It couldn't be. It had to impart a lesson--one that told anyone else thinking of messing with us that it was a very, very bad idea.

We collected Moreno after that. He was awake and waiting back at camp. He acted as if we'd just gone for pizza--and taken our sweet time getting back--but I didn't miss his look of relief when we walked into the campsite.

"Of course you did," he said when Maya told him we'd succeeded. "I trained you, didn't I? Now let's get these tents taken down and go home. Oh, and get that beer gone on the way. If Sean sees I bought it for you, he'll give me proper shit."

Jacinda cleared her throat.

"Fine," he said. "You can have one, too."

She gave him a look.

"What?" he said. "They're not going to drink and drive. That would be wrong." He walked to me. "You okay with taking the wheel, kid?"

I nodded. I don't drink. Not because I'm too young, but because, well, I just don't. A valid choice.

"I'll drive," Jacinda said. "And as long as it's only beer..."

"It is," Maya said. "Just beer and just one each. That's the rule."

Moreno leaned over and whispered. "It's their rule. They're very responsible. It's kinda scary."

We packed to go. Sean was already in his jet, heading our way from Los Angeles. His flight would take a few more hours, but we wanted to be back to Badger Lake and settled in before he arrived. I'd just finished helping Maya take down a tent when Derek walked over.