Panic and adrenaline tried to kick his heart into overdrive, but the sedative was already taking hold. He didn’t have more than a few seconds. He’d been drugged and kidnapped enough times to know that. More than once on his father’s orders, even.
The first time he’d been in kindergarten. He left school and climbed into the usual car waiting for him. The guards were different, but his father routinely moved people around, so it hadn’t worried him until one of them jabbed a needle into him.
Despite how careful he’d been after that, he’d still been taken twice more by his father’s men. The last time, they’d chased him for seven blocks before catching him. That was one of the reasons he preferred his motorcycle. It was faster and more maneuverable, and no help to him now.
He managed to get one foot out of the car before the mage pushed him back inside and slammed the door shut.
The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the man with storm-gray eyes smirking at him.
Chapter 19
“YOU WANTme to shoot a kid?” Lukas looked up from the photos he’d been given. One of an elderly woman who looked one wrong step from shattering a hip, one of a classically beautiful woman in her late twenties, and a third of a young man who didn’t look any older than Ghost.
“Problem?” Ghost asked around her sucker.
He wondered how she didn’t have a mouth full of dentures by now, but he kept that thought to himself. “You’re one of the most notorious mages around. What exactly do you need me for?”
She spun the sucker against her tongue before pulling it out with a dramatic sigh. “Nikolai is not a kid. He is older than me, and more powerful. My powers won’t work on him, but a speeding bullet shot from a block or two away should be enough.” She motioned to one of the tables of the safe house they’d brought Lukas to with her chin. “I’m sure you’ll find one of those to your liking.”
Lukas eyed the large assortment of guns, his eyes immediately catching on a fully outfitted AXSR rifle. His fingers twitched to get a hold of it, but he refrained for the moment. “Just so I’m clear, I shoot this Nikolai for you, and we’re done and I can go back to my pack?”
Ghost popped her sucker back in her mouth with an air of amusement. “I won’t stop you. It’s your funeral.”
He turned towards the table to hide his sneer, digging his tactical gloves out of his pocket before yanking them into place. He was starting to think most of the rumors about the Ghost being rabid were due to how much of a bitch she was.
As soon as he was close enough, he picked up the AXSR and immediately sank into the rhythm of taking it apart, checking it over, and reassembling it. He went through the full process three times before he was satisfied and packed it into the large duffel with some bullets.
His watch said it was still early enough for brunch, but his eyes were gritty from lack of sleep. He didn’t trust Ghost or her team well enough to nap around them, even if they had saved his ass. Especially since neither of the other two had deigned to give him their name.They hadn’t even spoken a word since Lukas got in the SUV, which helped explain how there was so little information about them outside of rumors.
Honestly, it was disturbing as fuck and put him on edge. It wasn’t just that the lack of trust made it clear that he was the expendable one here. The man and woman both kept their sunglasses on inside and didn’t move once they were sitting. Their scent was all wrong too. No hint of emotion or stress, despite the fact they were about to go into a fight. If he couldn’t see for himself that they were breathing, he might have believed they were corpses.
The sooner they got this over with, the better.
“When are we doing this?”
“Soon.” Ghost paced near the wall, one hand attached to her sucker, the other to her phone, typing quickly with her thumb. Whatever she saw on the screen a few moments later put a manic grin on her face, and she spun towards him. “Now. Two minutes!” she called, and there was an immediate response as the other two pushed to their feet and grabbed their weapons, completely in sync.
Creepy as fuck.
Once they were in the car, the man handed over an earpiece.
From the front, Ghost piped up. “We have half an hour before they’re due to arrive. You’ll need to find a spot and set up before then.”
Less than thirty minutes to find a vantage point and set up a shot? Were they insane? He had zero intel, had what he was sure were outdated photos, and a gun he’d never shot before. But saying any of that was sure to get him killed, so he kept silent.
His best bet was to do the job and slip away while they were dealing with the aftermath. He didn’t have his ID or phone, but he always kept at least fifty bucks tucked into a hidden pocket when he could. And since joining Caius’ pack, he was never hurting for money or a meal and rarely touched his stash.
He itched to contact Caius, to let his pack know he was alive, but was sure Adams had made a call by now. But would he have told the truth or let Caius think he was dead? Would Quinn hack into the systems and find where he’d gone?
He flexed his hand against his leg, claws sprouting from his fingertips before he got himself under control.
He couldn’t shift here. No matter how much his instincts were screaming at him that this was all wrong. Only the fact that Adams had told him he’d called in the Ghost and to stay alive kept Lukas from doing anything stupid. Or more stupid than shooting a foreign civilian on US soil. In broad daylight. Something stupid like attacking the most notorious mage in the country, if not the world.
The SUV slowed to a stop and pulled into a parking area.
“They always use that entrance,” Ghost said, pointing across the street to a large tinted-glass building a dozen stories tall. The logo declared it as Magierseele.
His bad feeling intensified further. No way in hell was a sniper rifle taking down anyone associated with this place. “You expect me to believe Magesoul employees aren’t going to have some kind of protection?”
