Page 10

The cold gray walls of the Bureau meeting room cast a somber air around us. The Hellraisers—except for the twins and Sylas, who would come later—sat gathered in front of me. After our training drill this morning, I wanted to give them a good impression.

I summarized what Hindley had told me about the mission, explaining our objective and our goal in looking for the missing survivors in the Sierras. Colin and Holt nodded along politely as I spoke, but Jones and Evans radiated low-level tension, which I would have to address before we left. I detailed everything about the job, skirting around the need to mentor our newer and more inexperienced members.

I practically heard Jones grinding his teeth during the brief. Out of all of them, his stare was the most critical. As a woman who’d spoken my mind throughout my entire life, I was all too familiar with the sensation of a judgmental look, and I wasn’t about to let it get under my skin now.

”We need to be ready to go at oh-four-hundred hours on the airstrip. Hindley is trusting us with this mission. It”s an assignment that requires a great deal of skill, so let”s do our best,” I finished. ”Colin, I”m tasking you with grabbing one of the new scanners Reshi provided us. She was generous enough to loan the Bureau some of her technology.” The other members of the Hellraisers were reluctant to mess with anything that had a hint of magic about it, although Holt bordered on curious. Hindley reported that she’d had word from Cam, Bryce”s nephew on their private squad, that technology was operating strangely in the Leftovers. I wanted to be as prepared as possible.

”Any questions?” I asked them. It was an opportunity for Jones to air his grievances, but he said nothing for the moment. I had the sense that if he wanted to say something, it was going to come later. Alone. He sat, with his arms crossed, in the chair directly across from me. Evans glanced at him, but I could already see on her tired face that it was a fight she wanted no part of. My team was working hard. They needed to rest up before their mission. ”Get some sleep tonight. Thank you for your time and your work today.”

Colin, Evans, and Holt drifted out as Jones remained in his chair. Colin shot me a curious look, like he was asking if I wanted him to stay. I shook my head once. He and Holt moved on, and soon, it was just me and Jones.

”Can I help you with something?” I had to break the silence, since Jones seemed to be more interested in staring than actually talking at the moment.

Jones sniffed and stood up from his chair. He was tall, built like a Spartan warrior. There was no lack of muscles or attitude in his body. He focused all his attention on me like a laser beam, making my skin prick with dreaded anticipation. I didn’t mind confrontation, since it usually cleared the air after the dust settled, but I found I liked it better when I wasn”t a captain. It was easy to handle conflict when I wasn”t in charge of a team and responsible for their performance. Whatever I said to Jones would affect his work as part of the Hellraisers, meaning I had to play my part carefully.

”Nobody wanted to say what I”m going to,” Jones proclaimed loudly. Immediately, I felt my back straighten with the defensiveness of animal instinct. Criticism I was used to, but the dramatics of it annoyed me. Visible disrespect was still a problem. He met my gaze stonily with his piercing gray eyes. ”With all due respect, Captain Taylor, I should be the one leading this mission.”

It was a surprise… and yet, it wasn”t.

Jones had showed disrespect on the last mission. My hand automatically tightened into a fist as tension ran up and down my body. Keep calm, Roxy. Channel the diplomacy skills you”ve been forced to build.

I kept my mouth tight. ”And you”re going to file a complaint against me?” I wanted to ask him if he”d ever stared into the eyes of a dozen creatures and Immortal hunters as they came at him with gem blasts. Of course he hadn”t. He had no idea what was lurking in places like the Immortal Plane. Sure, he was competent and had experience with redbills, but I had helped lead the battle that had ended the freaking apocalypse.I’d started as a young fighter in Lyra’s shadow, but I had earned this. This inter-team stuff was nothing compared to everything I’d been through.

Jones curled his lips with a note of pity. ”No, I don”t plan on ruffling any feathers yet… it would look bad on my record. Everyone can see Hindley fawns over you.” I nearly broke into laughter. Was a cold, emotionally unavailable fa?ade what we were calling “fawning” now? ”But if you fail—and I suspect you will, on a mission of this size—I”ll be standing by to step in and take your place. I won”t hesitate.”

Anger flared in me. He thought he was going to swing in and undermine me? I bit my tongue for a few seconds so I wouldn”t say something foul. This forty-year-old man was completely ignoring rank and openly challenging me. I stared him down, filled with impatience and contempt. I had seen horrors beyond his imagination. He was no knight in shining armor. Funny, I had never liked those stories of someone getting rescued by a warrior when my mother had told them to me, because I’d always imagined myself as the knight who came riding in.

He didn”t need to save me. I would save me.

A memory popped into my head, like a bubble climbing to the surface of a still pond. I remembered, too vividly, my anger at Lyra and Bryce during my time under them. When I was new, they’d acted like they knew all the answers. My heart softened despite myself. The sting of not feeling heard by Lyra was what had fanned the flames of the annoyances I had with her. Slowly, the tight knot of anger unraveled in my chest. I took a deep breath. Here and now, Jones was doing the same thing as I had.

How many times had I felt shafted by Bryce”s preference for Lyra, or his reluctance to hand over power to me? No wonder, I wanted to tell myself now. I hadn’t earned it then, hadn’t demonstrated any leadership qualities by heckling him and Lyra. I was a firecracker of a soldier. I could fight like hell, but that didn”t matter when it came to leadership. When praise came my way, I’d brushed it off because it felt false. If I did the same to Jones, I was sure that he would disregard my words the same way.

Praise won”t work, even if he”s a good soldier, and a stern reprimand would just stoke his anger.

Without trying, my face lapsed into a stony mask of Hindley. I liked her neutrality. It was safe. The distance was a reminder that a captain was dangerous if they were provoked by disrespect.

Jones quirked one eyebrow. If he was impressed or angry, I couldn”t read it on his broad face.

”If I fail, I”ll take responsibility for it, because that”s what leaders do,” I told him evenly. My eyes hardened. ”But I”d advise you to think more about your teammates than my performance. Your expertise was brought on to help. You have skills you can teach the others.” It was true. The old Roxy wouldn”t have danced the elegant line between offering a peaceful olive branch and a stern telling-off, but I certainly managed it now.

”I will never do anything that hurts a member of this team,” Jones pressed, a rising tone of offense in his voice.

”Good,” I countered, truly meaning it. It was in my best interest, and his, if he behaved like a professional. ”I don”t care about your ambitions, as long as you continue doing your job and supporting the Hellraisers as a team. I expect to see your best performance in the field tomorrow. And your worries about me? We”ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” I held back a smart comment about how the bridge wouldn”t even appear to be crossed.Jones pressed his lips tight together, probably mulling over whether he wanted to pick a fight with me. I wasn”t an idiot. I had a reputation around the Bureau as notoriously stubborn and hard-headed, but I was capable. My mother, in her infinite gossiping wisdom, made sure to tell all the new recruits whenever she could get a moment of their time. My Roxy is a bull. Don”t cross her.

Luckily for me, Jones put down his red flag in front of my bullish presence. He’d just sighed and opened his mouth to say something when two familiar heads of blond hair barreled through the open door behind him.

”This sounds like a fight,” Jordan said loudly. The twins lined up beside me. Jessie placed her hands on her hips, glaring down at Jones. I inwardly groaned. No, no, no. I’d almost gotten this under control, and now it was about to escalate again. Sylas hovered in the doorway, bowing his dark head in a sheepish gesture of apology that wasn”t needed, but which I appreciated. He was a great medic and a fantastic asset on this upcoming mission. It’s not his fault the twins are loud and blunt. I taught them that…

I lifted a hand to signal for the twins to stop their valiant charge for my honor. Realistically, it probably wasn”t even for my honor. They loved me, but they also loved to fight. I regretted scheduling their briefing with Sylas immediately after my team’s. They would need more onboarding as newer members of the team, but that process wasn’t going as well as I’d hoped, after their behavior. Our mission on the horizon would be a big test.

”It”s fine. I was just reminding Jones of a few things,” I assured the twins calmly. Sylas didn”t need any reassurance. As a seasoned member of the Bureau, he would be familiar enough with authority spats. My composed voice reminded me spookily of a sassier Lyra, like the tone was detached from my body. ”We were just having a discussion.”

”A discussion?” Jessie snapped with a little scoff. ”We aren”t stupid. You were challenging her authority.” She pointed her finger at Jones, who rolled his eyes.

”Weren”t you doing the same thing today, during our drill?” he pointed out gruffly. He’s technically correct. Jordan”s face fell.

”Well, I mean… sort of,” Jordan muttered. ”But we would never challenge Roxy as the ultimate leader right before a big mission. A training drill is completely different.” As they spoke, it struck me how young they sounded. Jones furrowed his brow in confusion. He was about to rise to the occasion of a giant debate, and none of us needed that.

”Jones, don”t listen to them,” I said. ”You”re dismissed. Rest up before the mission.”

He stared between me and the twins. Could he see all the ways we were alike and different? They were mirror images of myself as a younger soldier. Except twice the trouble. Sylas stayed blissfully quiet as Jones muttered a brief goodbye and stormed out, his expression utterly deflated. It was a conversation we would have to revisit, but there was no helping that. I sighed, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose. A headache was beginning to form in my skull with a dull pulse of pain.

”Calm down,” I told the twins. ”I”m grateful, but I don”t want to disrupt teamwork on our upcoming mission. Please.” I added the last part purposefully. It was a game I had always played with the twins. When we used to fight as kids, the rough Taylor bunch could always use that rarely used word, ”please,” and ask to bow out of a fight without any questions. We watched way too much wrestling as kids.

”But what was that about?” Jessie demanded. ”He was disrespecting you. How is that supposed to be good for the team morale you keep talking about?” Underneath her heated tone was a hint of genuine concern. She saw everything in my face that I wanted to hide.

“And what you two were doing earlier, that was supposed to be respectful, was it?” They deflated slightly, chagrinned but still mutinous. I pointed to the chairs for them to sit. ”I appreciate your care, but it’s my job to handle it, not yours. I can take care of myself, and, as Sylas will tell you, such disputes are common in this line of work. You”ll eventually come across this yourself.”

Jordan peered at Sylas with a skeptical look, and the medic nodded.

”Power is hard to balance in times of crisis,” Sylas said gently. ”It doesn”t even have to be a power imbalance. I”ve seen two medics go at each other with a syringe.”

Jessie smirked. ”Okay, put a pin in that story for our trip to the mission site. I definitely want to hear it.”

A warm feeling of relief spread through my chest. With Jones out of the room and my siblings rooting for me in their own way, I was at ease.

”Let”s discuss the mission,” I told them. ”Hindley has selected the three of you specifically for this job… but I have to warn you that it”s highly dangerous. Two teams were sent out before us and failed. One soldier lost his life.”

”Where?”Jordan asked, eagerness betrayed by the small pensive frown on his face.

”The Sierras,” I said, and showed them the map. ”It”s a big step, to be sent on a mission like this.” This, I directed to the twins, since Sylas already knew he was a capable medic. Hell, he’d served in the Immortal Plane, too.

Jessie and Jordan exchanged excited grins.

”Sorry about earlier,” Jessie said lightly, apparently still smarting from Jones’s words. ”You know, you”re the one who always told us to point out illogical authority.”

I snorted, amused. ”Leave it up to you two to decide what”s my fault, instead of taking responsibility for yourselves.”

”We”ll do our best on this mission,” Jordan promised, and pressed a hand against the map. When he smiled, it went all the way to his ears. ”It”s our first mission as a family, after all.”

They really knew how to work me. My annoyed heart softened completely at the mention of us fighting as a family, even if there was still some anxiety about having them in the field with me. They were going to be great soldiers; they just needed a bit more polishing.

The worries that I’d almost confessed to Hindley felt far away from me, now. With the twins and Sylas in front of me, I felt capable.

”Do I get to kill a monster first?” Jordan blurted. I shook my head, already tired from imagining their upcoming requests during our voyage to the mission site.

Jessie”s eyes glittered with promise. ”We can study the reports and come up with some ideas. Can we have a copy of this?” I nodded and gestured for them to take the stack. I had already made a copy for myself.

”Take it,” I told them. ”And go get some freaking sleep.”

I thanked and dismissed everyone. The twins faded into an energetic conversation about the best way to throw four-legged monsters off balance. Sylas gave me a copy of his list of supplies that he was bringing along for us. The energy in the room was decent, although my head was spinning from the day.

I had concerns… but I would make this team and this mission work.