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Chapter thirty-three
Coarse rope dug into Aidan’s wrists as the transport jostled over a bump in the road. It has to look real , he’d reminded Baelin earlier as his Ascendant had fastened his bindings and slung a sack over his head.
His left knee pressed against Rae’s, and Orion sat opposite them.
Both of them were bound and blinded just as he was.
There had been arguments over who would go in and how, mostly between Baelin and Rae.
The Witch had made her case that Baelin could either take Aidan and Orion out with tranquilisers or she could conceal their power with spells and they could simply feign being unconscious.
Despite everything, he trusted Rae. Baelin hadn’t liked being left behind, but he knew when he took on the role of Ascendant what he was signing up for.
Aidan had turned through Cormac’s thoughts over and over, looking for any suggestion of a loophole in his plan with Weyland, any hint of betrayal.
Weyland had provided a list, and though Rae wasn’t on it, it would be easy enough to convince him she’d been captured alongside her husband and his security detail.
That the Vampire Lord would have to watch as his Odalik became a test subject.
The thought made Aidan want to rip apart his bindings and tear through whoever they found at the facility, but there were going to be more test subjects there, more hybrids like Daire, and they needed to be strategic.
Rae murmured beside him as she worked on her spell.
The three of them in exchange for Cormac’s mate, Scarlett.
Hardly a fair trade, but they needed to be taken in as prisoners for the rest of their plan to work.
The raid relied heavily on having Vampires on the inside, and Aidan had never had any doubts that he’d be one of them.
His reservations rested with his council, the Vampires on the outside, waiting for his command to move in.
If they chose tonight to usurp him, they were all fucked, but he could feel them all a few blocks away, vehicles spread out around them like a web.
Up front, one of Cormac’s males drove, the turned Vampire beside him.
The remaining units had spread out but remained close, and Aidan let his Provident abilities cycle over all of them, watching, checking, and searching for any gaps in their plan.
No hint of rebellion, of dispute, but he knew all too well how quickly plans could change.
“Pity you don’t have a spell to conceal our weapons,” Orion murmured, the comment aimed at Rae. Aidan hated that he agreed. That was precisely why they had to go in first. Why the others were bringing the weapons with them. They all knew what they were walking into and understood the risk.
By now, Aidan had learnt to recognise the feel of the two hybrids who had been tracking Rae, their strange aura like a signature that felt familiar to him after days of observing them closely with his Provident abilities.
He’d felt their presence when Cormac’s men had guided him into the back of the transport a block or so away, monitoring.
Most likely reporting back to their superiors. To Torrin. To Baxter.
“We’re almost there, my lord,” Cormac announced.
Aidan already knew, but he felt Rae tense beside him, her heartbeat quickening along with her murmuring.
Easy, Witch, he told her, letting a little of his abilities wash over her, calming her.
I’m a little busy, Vampire, she snapped, but her heartbeat steadied.
If you can pull magic from other sources the same way you can conceal it, I want you to do it. Understood? To pull from him, if she needed it, like he knew she had before.
Rae didn’t answer.
Farren. He needed to hear she wouldn’t put herself in danger, but the thought almost pulled a harsh laugh from his chest. Rae was a fucking magnet for danger.
Shut up and let me concentrate. We’re almost there and your power still feels like a fucking beacon.
He could feel the effects of her spell like a veil had been dropped over his magic, knew that whatever she’d been doing had been successful.
They’re coming, he told her, and Rae’s murmuring ceased as the vehicle slowed to a stop.
Aidan let his chin slump to his chest, feigning unconsciousness just as the doors flew open.
“Get your fucking hands off me,” Rae seethed, air moving around them as someone yanked her from the vehicle. The sack was removed from her head, and she let Aidan in , let him see exactly what she could: the male that greeted Cormac and the two that pulled her from the vehicle.
The familiar signature of the hybrids stung Aidan’s senses, these three slightly different than the two quickly approaching them in another vehicle.
Five of them, already, and Aidan could feel more nearby.
Many, many more. He relayed everything to his units, but his attention remained on Rae.
No matter how much he wanted to let his Provident powers loose over the hybrids, he couldn’t, not yet.
They needed to get inside the facility, as deep as possible if they were to pull this off.
“What are you doing?” Rae asked as she watched the blond one, a Hoof, open a case. “They’ve already been administered twice their body weight in sedatives.”
The Hoof shrugged. “Can never be too careful.”
Rae tore her arm from the other hybrid’s grip, slamming her weight against the case, the contents smashing at their feet.
“Oops.” The Hoof backhanded her across the face, and Rae’s warning came sharp and fast in Aidan’s thoughts.
Don’t you fucking dare blow this, Vale. She spat at the Hoof’s feet. “That tickled.”
He was the first one of them Aidan would kill.
The other two hybrids arrived, leading Rae, Cormac, and the driver away and into a warehouse, the mountain range looming over it.
The blond Hoof dragged him out of the vehicle, and it took Aidan everything in him not to lash the bastard’s brain there and then.
But he played along, his body slack, Orion’s falling against him as they were moved onto something with wheels, the flimsy thing shaking beneath their weight.
Aidan focused on Rae. On communicating everything to his units.
On the two hybrids wheeling him and Orion into the facility, which, thanks to Rae, he knew to be a factory the humans used for building their larger machinery.
Rods of metal sat floor to ceiling in towering stacks.
Rae’s gaze roamed over everything. For her benefit, as well as his, but every bit of information she gave him he passed back to his team.
He wasn’t interested in Cormac’s thoughts or his driver’s, and he couldn’t get a firm hold on the five hybrids, but that came as no surprise.
Instead, he cast the net of his abilities further, deeper into the facility, feeling out the minds of everyone inside.
Too many of them were afraid. Too many were close to death.
A door swung open and Rae’s gaze snapped to Weyland, taking in his greying hair and the stubble shadowing his face. The whites of his eyes were tinged grey, a telltale sign of xion use. Rae’s attention slid to the tremor in his left hand to confirm it.
“A human, Cormac,” Weyland said, his tone bored as he circled Rae. “She was the best you could do?” Rich, given that he was probably one of the most worthless humans Aidan had ever encountered.
Someone tore the sack off his head, but he kept his eyes closed, continuing to watch everything from Rae’s perspective.
“Not just any human,” Cormac said with something like pride in his tone. “She’s his Odalik.”
The human stared; Aidan was already deep enough into his mind to know he didn’t have the first clue about Vampire traditions. Why would he? Weyland’s desires required only power, not knowledge.
Rae’s sigh filled the silence. “I’m his wife, asshole.”
It was the first time he’d heard her say it, a deep sense of pride stirring in his chest at the words, but he focused on Weyland.
The human had never met Rae, though she’d followed him closely; her Omnia recruits had been tailing him for months.
Aidan sifted through Weyland’s mind for answers as quickly as possible, the human none the wiser.
“And this is Orion,” Cormac continued, “commander of his First Unit, also on your list of names.”
“Excellent,” Weyland drawled, tucking his shaking hand under his other arm. “This night is improving rapidly.”
“Scarlett?” Cormac breathed, panic flaring from him. Aidan calmed the Vampire’s racing heart, but with his attention so divided, it didn’t stop Cormac from taking a step closer to Weyland.
Three hybrids moved between them, but the human held out a hand. “What of her?”
“The exchange,” Cormac pleaded.
A grin stretched across Weyland’s face and he had the audacity to chuckle as he patted Cormac’s shoulder. “Of course, of course. Zeyn, bring me the pretty blonde from last night.”
Shit. No good could come from that statement. Too many emotions for Aidan to name were rising inside of Cormac as the words settled over the Vampire. Don’t, Aidan told him. Just let them bring her to you and get the Hel out of here like we discussed.
Cormac conceded, his chest rising and falling in heavy breaths. One less concern, as Aidan continued to cycle through the others, dipping into more minds at once than he ever had before.
Zeyn pushed open the same door he’d left through moments before, his hand wrapped around Scarlett’s arm, and though Aidan only knew what the Witch looked like from Weyland’s mind, he felt the flare of recognition coursing through Rae.
You know her, he said to Rae. Not a question. A request for more information.
Focus, Vale. Do you feel that? She was looking around the warehouse, searching for something.
I’m a little stretched here, Farren.
Table of Contents
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- Page 45 (Reading here)
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