“There was an APB that went out for two suspicious men who shot a police officer when he stopped them in town. I checked all the cameras in the area, at the time of the shooting and this is what I found.” Celmund brings up an image on one of the screens of two men driving a black four by four. “As you can see the image isn’t very clear, but I think you can still tell who that is on the passenger side.”
“Fuck, is that Bard?” Cassius asks. Bard is one of Merdor’s best men. The only reason he would be heading this way would be for retaliation. Bard had been a great soldier before he turned.
“What the hell are they up to?” Bion asks what we are all wondering.
Damn! Things just got real. I was hoping to finish what Gabriela and I had started in the kitchen but now it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen for a while. “Why would they shoot a police officer? I’m sure they realise that we would hear about it?” I enquire. Something wasn’t making sense.
“I thought about that. The only conclusion I came to is that they trying to draw us out,” Celmund suggests.
“Do you know where they went?” Ceric is looking at Celmund with a concerned look on his face. This was the worst part about knowing that someone was going to retaliate, but not knowing how.
“They left town after the shooting, there were no cameras where I could pick them up. I did try to see if they had a tracker on that car, but from the looks of things that car has been stolen and the tracker disabled.” Celmund reports.
“We’re pretty sure that they are trying to draw us out. The questions are to where? And what is their plan?” Draco calls from the head of the table.
“Does anyone know who the guy next to Bard is?” Brandr has joined the meeting today. Since the night of the attack where we managed to extract his mate from the Keres; he has been locked in his room with her. Apparently from what Bion mentioned she had been roughened up a bit. It also seemed like she had PTSD. Whatever was going on was affecting him big time, his eyes were hard and we can feel the violence radiating from him.
The thought of anyone hurting Gabriela the same way they hurt his woman makes me want to get up and go and make sure she’s safe. The knowledge that her fucking stalker is still breathing and so close is infuriating. Today I’m going to deal with him; make sure he first suffers for all the pain he caused my woman, and then I will finish him.
“He’s human. He was with the marines for a couple of years; nothing extraordinary about him except that he was discharged before his time for attacking an officer.”
Coming back to the present, I hear Celmund’s response to Brandr’s question. Why would the Keres be bringing humans into this? It wasn’t making sense unless …
“What if they are using the humans to cover their tracks? With the Keres we would be able to pick up their energy spikes, but with humans doing their dirty work it’s going to be more difficult to pinpoint them,” I suggest.
“Fuck!” Cassius growls.
“That’s it, that’s what they are up to. The sons of bitches! We should have picked it up before when we found the photographer and when Pamela was working with them.” Draco had been like a bear with a sore tooth for a while after that, knowing that they had been able to penetrate our defences. Photos of all of us were found in a Keres warehouse we raided. When we found the photographer that had taken our photos we found that one of the Jezebels was giving him information about us, and that they were both working with the Keres.
“We need to somehow find a way to find out who the human members are in their club,” Burkhart suggests. Suddenly the alarm goes off around us. I feel tightness around my heart. I don’t wait to see what’s going on, I’m out of my chair and at the door, as I hear Wulf’s anguished roar, calling out Jasmine’s name. I wrench the door completely off its hinges, so I can get to my woman.
My heart is now beating erratically. Fearful, I close my eyes for a second to ground me, opening my senses to guide me to my woman. Then I start rushing out of the compound to go and get her. What the fuck is she doing outside! I can feel Wulf right behind me, we are both running but stop as we hear a shot ring out.
“Motherfuckers!” I scream. I can hear Wulf swearing as well. I know I’m losing control, but all I can think is that my Baby Girl is in danger. I can feel the ground tremble but now there is no way that I can calm myself. Just as we reach the edge of the trees, looking into the open field, my heart nearly stops. I see Gabriela and Jasmine lying on the ground, and our brother Eric from our Cape Town chapter is also on the ground. All I can think about is getting to my woman and protecting her. Just then she turns her head towards me and screams to stop or I’m going to get shot. Does she really think I care? I need to just get to her and get her away from this danger. Just then I am thrown to the ground, but I manage to throw whoever tried to stop me off, and am moving forward again, I need to reach Gabriela. Suddenly Burkhart is standing in front of me and I see Cassius on my left side just before he takes hold of my arm, I’m about to punch him with my right when Ceric takes hold of it.
“Get off me!” How can they be stopping me from getting to my woman? Burkhart has his hands now on my chest holding me back, but even with the three of them holding me, I am still ploughing my way forward. I hear Gabriela say something but with my brothers trying to hold me back, I can’t make out what she is saying and then a shot rings out and a bullet comes flying past us and lodges in the tree a few metres from where we are standing.
“Damn Bjarni! Stop! You are not going to help her if you get killed.” Bion is now also standing in front of me, next to Burkhart; his hand on my shoulder, trying to calm me down. Fuck! I know he’s right but I must get her to safety. “We going to get them out of there Brother, without anyone getting killed. You need to keep a level head.” After a few minutes, I nod to let him know that I have heard.
Slowly they start to let me go, I lean down taking in deep breaths to calm the rage coursing through my body. My eyes are on Gabriela. I hear her call out to Bion about Eric being shot. Bion is trying to guide her on how to help him. I hate that she must go through this. When I get my hands on the guys shooting at her, I’m going to rip them apart.
“What the hell is she doing?” I whisper to myself, as I see her up on her knees leaning over Eric. Then I hear another bang and the dust lifts, right in front of her face.
“Motherfucker!” I scream, trying to make my way towards Gabriela again. I need to get her out of there. My brothers are holding me down again, but I need to do something. I can’t just stand here watching my woman get shot at. “Stay down!” I yell at her, but the damn stubborn woman is still trying to get herself killed. I know she is trying to save Eric, but she needs to think of herself first.
I look around as I start to feel the wind picking up, Celmund and Caelius are air benders. Draco, even though mainly a fire bender, can bend air too. The three of them are rotating their arms anti clock wise in a circular motion. They are building a tornado, they have spotted the shooter and must be sending it his way. Realising that we are doing something to get my Baby Girl to safety, calms me somewhat.
I hear Gabriela screaming to Bion, something about Eric’s breathing being very shallow. Fuck! We need to hurry up. I see the tornado appear near the mountain to the east, one of my brothers must have seen the shot coming from there. It must be Bard shooting as he’s a pretty good sniper. Now we know why they were trying to get us out of the compound.
“The tornado should be obscuring the field, let’s move!” Brandr calls. I’m already running towards the women and Eric before he spoke. Reaching Gabriela, I pick her up from her knees in one move, holding her close against my heart, I can feel myself shaking.
“Bjarni,” my name came out in a sob. I turn and start running back the way I came with my woman held safe in my arms. “He tried to save us,” she whispers, I hear her say. She must be talking about Eric. I can feel her shaking and her tears are already wetting my T-shirt.
“Bion will help him Baby Girl.” I kiss the top of her head, trying to calm myself. I am still shaking with the force of my fear. I never want to be in a situation like this again, where my woman is so close to danger and I am unable to help her.
“Bjarni. How is she?” Draco asks. I see the strain around his eyes from air bending. As it isn’t his main power, it drains more of his energy then if he was fire bending. Looking around, I see that they are ready to go and find who’s been shooting at our women. Wulf has left with Jasmine, I imagine he has taken her back to the compound. I’m sure this type of stress can’t be good for her and the baby.
“I’m fine,” Gabriela answers, before I can say anything.
“We need you to track this fucker down, Brother.” I knew Draco was going to say that. On the one hand I want to go and kill this guy for trying to hurt Gabriela, but on the other, my woman has just gone through something that she shouldn’t have, and I should stay with her to make sure that she is fine.
I feel her hand stroking my cheek, looking away from my brothers to her, I see her eyes trained on me. “Go and find whoever was shooting at us; make sure he pays!” She says.
“Will you be okay?” At her nod, I grunt, I feel guilty for leaving her, but I also know that they need me to catch this guy. I am the tracker among my brothers. In these circumstances I am always the one to find who we are looking for. Caelius is standing next to us, waiting to escort Gabriela back to the compound. Lowering my lips to her trembling ones, I kiss her tenderly.
“I will be back as soon as I can.” I promise. “Let me know if she needs me!” I call to Caelius before they leave.
After Caelius leaves with my woman, I take a deep breath. Leaning down, I place my hands on the ground opening my senses. I feel every movement, every presence. After a few minutes, I find what I’m looking for, a disturbance. Standing up, I start running towards where I feel the disturbance. While I run I connect with the animals in the area, feeling if there is anything I can sense from them.
I can hear my brothers behind me; we are drawing closer to the disturbance. I start slowing down, not wanting to let him know that we are close. I make a movement with my hand to let my brothers know that they need to spread out. I see Draco and Cassius move to my left, Burkhart and Brandr move to my right and Ceric is next to me.
We move stealthily towards where we all hear the movement. Just ahead I see someone moving through the trees. As we are about to attack I feel another disturbance further up; signing to the men to stop, I call to my eagle. Soon I can hear the cry of the eagle above us, and in a few minutes, I have a full picture of Bard, hiding further up the ridge waiting for us to attack the human. Motherfuckers! This is an ambush, he’s trying to take us out. Calling the guys, we move a few metres back. After explaining to them what is happening, we decide that Ceric, Burkhart and Cassius will wait for our signal before attacking the human. The rest of us will climb up the ridge and attack Bard.
Bard must have sensed our presence. When we’re a few meters away he starts shooting, missing Brandr only by a few inches. I hear him swear as he throws himself on the ground, while Bard concentrates on where Brandr is, Draco shoots him right through the heart. Bard instantly disintegrates before our eyes; so much for questioning him, but I’m glad he’s dead. I would have liked to have made it more painful for him for what he had made Gabriela go through.
Making our way down the ridge, we find Cassius holding onto the human that had been sitting as bait, waiting for us. “Who are you?” Draco asks. When the man just glares at him Draco punches him in the stomach. “Let’s try this again or you are going to be in a world of pain. Who are you?”
“Fuck you!” The guy screams. Draco doesn’t even blink he pulls up his gun and shoots him in the thigh. Screaming in pain, the guy tries to bend over in pain, but Cassius doesn’t let him.
“Are you ready to tell us who you are yet?” After two more bullets, one to his upper arm and the other to his shoulder, the guy tells us everything he knows, which isn’t much. The most interesting thing he says that we already knew but he confirms, is that they are looking for our mates. He also confirms that they are getting information about us. How he doesn’t know, but they know most of our movements. Once we finish interrogating him, Burkhart is tasked with disposing of him.
Making our way back to the Compound, we find the brothers waiting for us. After discussing all the information we have acquired and agreeing to comb our compound to try and find out how they are getting information, we agree to go and finish Craig off; as the Keres know about him and will use him if we let him go.
Walking towards the cells Caelius confirms that Gabriela is fine and is in our room sleeping. Bion had given her a light sedative. I want to get this over with as soon as possible, so I can go and be with my Baby Girl. Approaching, I see Craig lying on the bed, on the far side of the cell. When he hears us he sits up, glaring.
“What do you think you’re doing, locking me up? I insist that you let me go right now!” He really is unbelievable.
“What makes you think that you are going anywhere? You threatened my woman and my club!” I see him pale at my statement.
“You can’t keep me here!” he insists.
“Who said anything about keeping you here!” At my words, he rushes towards me swinging his arm. Does he really think he has a chance with me? I hold his fist with one hand before he can connect with my face, and squeeze until I hear the bones in his hand break. He squeals in pain like the rat that he is.
“I command you to let me go! People will be looking for me!” He screams.
“You threatened my club, you harassed and frightened my woman, and you dared to touch what is mine. For that you will die!” I snarl.
Turning him around, I place my arm around his neck and with the other hand I twist, breaking it. As he takes his last breath, I let go of the fury that was still coursing through my body at everything he had made Gabriela go through. My woman can now relax. He will never bother her again. I feel Caelius place his hand on my shoulder, as I let him fall to the floor.
“It’s over Brother. Go take care of your woman. I will dispose of the body.” Nodding in thanks, I leave, making my way to our bedroom and to the most important part of my life.