50
Savannah
Jaxson grabbed my arm. “We need to catch Devi.”
We bolted out of the office and followed Devi’s scent. People rushed by in all directions, too busy to ask who we were.
Finally, we reached a pair of large doors, behind which we could hear a din. Without pausing, Jaxson pushed through.
Dozens of people filled the large book-lined chamber. They all went quiet the moment we stepped in. My eyes were drawn to a giant screen with a CCTV feed.
I recognized the place immediately from my vision. Bentham.
Inmates were running about the prison, though many more had barricaded themselves in their cells. The picture flipped to the inside of a control room. There were several dead guards on the floor and inmates shuffling through papers.
A low voice with an Australian accent boomed from across the room. “What the hell are those people doing in our godsdamned operations room in the middle of a riot?”
I turned to see a golden-haired man striding toward us. Lightning practically crackled around him, and all the people in the room stepped back.
The signature of his magic hit me like a blast of wind roaring over the plains. It had the sound of thundering hooves, and the rich scents of hickory and earth. I sensed that he was something powerful, but I didn’t know what.
The painfully handsome man stopped short when Jaxson turned around. “Laurent? What the hell are you doing here, of all places?”
“Ethan. Seems you have a problem in Bentham,” Jaxson said as he stepped up, leaving them just inches apart. The air practically shook between them as their signatures clashed.
They were a study in opposites. While Jaxson was rugged, with rippling muscles and a black beard, Ethan was clean shaven with perfect hair and blazing topaz eyes.
Jaxson was a wolf. The mage felt more like a lion amid his pride.
“I know I have a problem in Bentham, which is why I need you to get your ass out of here,” Ethan growled. His voice was pitched so low, I almost felt it in my bones.
“We can help,” I said, albeit with less confidence than intended.
Ethan looked around the room. “Damn it all! Who let these people in?”
Devi pushed through the crowd. “I’m sorry, Archmage. Laurent told me he had some information, and I asked him to come in.”
She gave me a look that said, Just go with it.
“We know who’s behind this,” Jaxson said. “And we need to go in to stop it.”
Ethan shook his head and pointed at the screen. “I know who’s behind it. The riot is being led by the Crusher, one of the most notorious serial killers in Bentham. He bashed in the heads of three people with his bare hands. His only defense was that he liked the way it felt when their skulls popped, and now he’s done the same thing to two of my guards. So unless you want more people to end up like that, let us do our work.”
“Whoever that is, it’s not the Crusher anymore,” I snapped at the archmage. “He’s been possessed by Victor Dragan.”
He looked at me with a cold expression that made my bones hurt. “Dragan was killed years ago, missy.”
Archmages were not people to whom one spoke harshly. According to my aunt, they were masters of their art and included many of the most powerful people in the city in their ranks.
Pushing down my trepidation, I stepped forward. “Getting killed didn’t stop him—it just made him angrier. He’s a ghost and can jump bodies. I’ve seen him do it twice.”
The archmage studied me for a moment, letting his topaz eyes bore deep into me. “How certain are you of this?”
“One hundred percent.” I pointed to the inmates on the CCTV screen, who had their hands raised and were chanting, though we couldn’t hear the words. “They’re performing a ritual to summon a dark god from werewolf lore. I’ve seen that before, too.”
“What? When?”
“A day and a half ago. We interrupted the ritual with the help of Agent Harlow Blake. Dragan recruited cultists from the local MCs. They were arrested and locked up in Bentham.” I pointed to a biker in a jumpsuit on the screen. “Apparently, Dragan found a way to let them out.”
Ethan followed my gesture and stared furiously at the TV. I could smell his rage and irritation.
“Ethan, this is real. Trust us. We know what to do,” Jaxson said.
He turned. “Devi, since you let them in, take them and debrief them. Get any information we can use.”
Jaxson grabbed Ethan’s arm, and the archmage’s eyes flared. “You need to get us in there,” Jaxson insisted.
He shook his head. “Bentham is an Order issue. We’ll resolve it.”
I stepped up and gave him the look.“Not without our help. No matter what you do, Dragan will just find another host. We have the only means of containing him.”
“And we know Dragan. We know what’s at stake,” Jaxson growled.
Ethan pulled his arm free. “That’s dandy. But the rioters took over and initiated a lockdown. They have control over the entire place, and they’re making sure that no one gets in or out. So as you can see, the situation is, at the moment, a bit fucked.”
“You must have an entry,” I pleaded. “Get us in. We know how to stop him. We’ve done it before.”
Ethan laughed. “Yeah, I’m not letting the irreputable alpha of Dockside through the back door of Bentham. I wouldn’t have a single werewolf locked up there within a week.”
Without a second’s hesitation, Jaxson growled, “I’ll take a blood oath to never reveal its location or use it without your permission. Savannah and I both will. But we need to be part of the team that goes inside.”
Ethan looked incredulous. “You’re kidding. You’re that eager to join a prison riot?”
Jaxson’s rage boiled over, and his savage energy pulsed through the room. Although his claws and fangs erupted, he kept his voice low and hard. “I will do whatever it takes to protect my pack. If Dragan succeeds, their souls will be at stake. This city will be at stake. I would fucking make a deal with a necromancer, if that’s what it took. If that’s not your mindset right now, then you’d better get there, because the fucking apocalypse is coming.”
Everyone in the room grew deathly still, and I could feel their fear rising.
Neither Jaxson nor Ethan moved.
Finally, the archmage smiled warmly. “Well, then, I guess it’s good that I only have to make a deal with a werewolf and not a demon. Tell me, how much do you hate getting wet?”