Leap of Faith (Drekinn Book 9)

  Both her fathers smiled and rolled their eyes, yeah they totally had that down perfectly.

  She looked in the rearview mirror and took a deep breath as she turned into the entrance of the facility. Their timing was perfect, at least she prayed it was. Pulling up to the gate she smiled and rolled down the window and looked at the guard who quite possibly was the smallest security guard alive, and he was human, oh the arrogance of the Prentiss Agency.

  “Hello, Vernon,” Sienna said, reading his name tag. “Theresa Pringel from the EPA, we were notified of elevated toxin levels in the water supply close to here. Since you are one of the facilities marked as having dangerous chemicals we need to take soil samples for evaluation.”

  The guard frowned and looked at her badge and then at her, before shaking his head and saying, “It’s after hours, none of the executives are here right now to give you permission.”

  Sienna shook her head sadly, and she said, “So, for the record, Vernon, and I will need your last name for the record. You are declining the government access to a potentially hazardous area in order to ascertain if we need to call in a clean-up?”

  The little man swallowed and looked at Sienna then he said, “Well, I could make some calls.”

  “Yes, you do that, make those calls, but while I am waiting maybe you should let me in because I could make calls also, and have this facility shut down in the blink of an eye, all because you, Vernon, refused to allow the government access.”

  Once again, he blinked and then he said, “Well…”

  Sienna pulled out her phone and pretended to dial, she used the name of the CEO loudly. “Hello, may I speak to Mr. Tandem.”

  Vernon shook his head and said loudly, “Go ahead, I will make the calls while you do your business.”

  Sienna grinned and nodded. “Thank you, Vernon, I will have Mr. Tandem call you immediately, as soon as I tell him how helpful you have been.”

  The relief on his face was evident as he hit the gate button to open it. She pulled through slowly and then paused and saw Chase roll out of the truck and get to Vernon in seconds before waving at her to move. She nodded and then pulled forward and around the back where she could conceal her car. She saw Hope and her mates instantly, and Axel came to her side with Cameron before she was out of the car.

  Sienna looked up, and her dads were smiling at her. With a deep breath, she nodded to Cameron who said, “We took care of the guards already.”

  They moved to the door, and Hope touched the knob and looked at them counting. When she reached three, she pulled open the door, and they all moved swiftly inside. She should have fucking known when she saw the human, it should have been a freaking red flag. The ease in which they got in.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sienna took a deep breath. Ulfers had been here, a lot of them, but still, there was no sign of them. Hope and Mak stepped out of the security office frowning, and Hope said, “There is nothing, no one in the office, and all of the monitors are down.”

  “Where the hell are they?” Gio said quietly, and then Sienna really looked around. The building was much smaller than the specs they had looked at. The corridors only went down about thirty feet, that was it. Where were the offices? The building only had one floor, it was sprawling, but there was nothing they could see. No offices, nothing.

  “There is another door,” Sienna whispered, and they all looked around.

  “No,” Axel said slowly. “When we were watching the building they all came through that door. So, where the fuck did they go because this place wasn’t even close to being able to hold the traffic we saw? Hell, everyone would have been standing in this room staring at each other.”

  “Elevator does not go down,” Trace said from behind them.

  Sienna shook her head, “They changed the layout, the entrance is here, we just need to find it.”

  “It’s not like we have hours; they have to know we are here by now,” Hope snapped, and Sienna nodded.

  “They do, which is why we need to…” she said, and then everything exploded around them, literally, exploded. The door they entered erupted in flames and Ulfers began to flood into the lobby. The security office blew a hole in the front of the building where Ulfers began to enter in that way as well.

  “Fuck a duck,” Hope snapped, and they did the only thing they could, which was fight.

  Cameron watched as his mate, his amazing mate, whipped out the knives she had and began to throw them. He really wished he had time to watch her, she was fierce, but someone grabbed him from behind. He turned and began to fight.

  Sienna hit an Ulfer with every knife she threw, but it wasn’t enough. There were too many of them and they had been waiting. Hope yelled loudly, pointing to where the door had once been, and she looked. Her fathers were moving fast through the Ulfers, trying to make it to the door. She couldn’t see why but she knew they were pissed about something.

  Someone grabbed her, and she turned and grabbed their arm and flipped them over her back quickly. Shit, there were so many. Axel was with Briar and Lennox, but they were being overwhelmed. Fuck, another Ulfer grabbed her, and she turned and punched him in the throat like her fathers taught her when she was young. What the hell was going on? How had they known?

  Cameron yelled, and she turned, her mate had three of them holding him, one had a syringe and was about to stick him. She felt the anger inside her grow, how in the fuck had they known? She raged. Hope and her mates were fighting, but they too were having issues. Sienna wasn’t going to let them be captured, she wasn’t.

  She stared at the door, she could see someone through the smoke, but he was just standing there waiting, no staring. He was staring at her fathers. What the hell was going on? Sienna moved trying to get closer, her fathers were moving, but it was slow. What the hell were they moving toward, was it the man?

  Hope screamed, and Sienna turned. She was going down, holding her arm but still fighting. Too many, there was too many of them. Sienna had enough, the whole thing was too much. She closed her eyes and felt the rage flow over her, she had to do it, there was no choice, thinking about all the people with her.

  Sienna felt someone grab her, pulling her around. She opened her eyes, and she let loose everything. It was like her emotions were coming out her pores, she reached back and threw up her hands, screaming loudly, “NO!”

  She felt something strange coming from inside her, her fathers turned when they heard it, and Sienna kept screaming. Cameron, Axel, Hope, all of them stopped moving, and she continued to scream. The Ulfers frowned, and they paused. That was when it happened, the man who had been standing in the door watching the whole thing, became clear. Sienna tilted her head, and she frowned as she watched him.

  He grinned at her, fucking grinned. Sienna closed her eyes and tried to place him. She knew him, her mother had told her about him, that was why her fathers were trying to get to him. Impossible, yet she saw it, and then everything inside her broke apart and flew around the room. Her rage seemed to have a path, like missiles her rage hit the Ulfers and they screamed and began to drop, all of them, one by one. She turned, and more flew out of her, hitting their mark, taking the Ulfers to the ground, and they were writhing in pain, screaming, reliving their evil lives, eating away at their soul, the pain overcoming them, making them useless.

  Sienna heard Hope and her mates, she turned again and screamed. The Ulfers who were holding them all dropped. Without thinking, they finished off the men around them, and then everyone was moving. Axel, Briar, Lennox, taking care of the men in front of them. Cameron doing the same but trying to get to her, and she screamed. She felt it, the anger the pain, everything. What she pushed out to the Ulfers was consuming her, she could feel it taking over. It had never happened like this before, and why, because of the man.

  Sienna turned and saw her fathers fighting to get to the man. He was smiling now, staring at her as if he couldn’t look away. She remembered her mother, her Aunt Cami, all of them telling their child
ren of the man who had sacrificed everything for her child. The man who had tried to do the right thing, killing the man who had hurt his child and then dying because of it. Why? Then she saw it, what happened as if it was right in front of her.

  The rest of the Council joined Cami, but now they turned to Oliver.

  He was still on the bottom fighting his way out from under Braden. The older wolf still held onto his throat but Quin could see that he was tiring. With a surge of strength, he pushed Braden to the side and, at the same time, ripped the wolf’s coat around his neck. Braden howled in pain, and Oliver jumped to his feet, with his teeth he grabbed the back of Braden’s neck and shook his head.

  Braden’s neck snapped with a loud crack, and Oliver threw him to the side. Jo and the rest of the Council howled their approval. But before they were done, Oliver collapsed. Jo shifted and ran to her father.

  “Shift,” she said, and Oliver closed his eyes for a minute and then did as she asked.

  The older man laid his head on his daughter’s arm and looked up at her. “He wore the potion. The same one they must have used on Quin,” he gasped out. Jo’s eyes widened in horror, and she turned to call for help.

  They were all standing around her looking helpless. Nothing could cure him, they knew it. Jo knew, and most of all, Oliver knew it. “Oh, my sweet baby girl. You know there is nothing to be done. Let’s spend our last moments talking about something happy. I want you to tell your children all about their Alpha grandfather who loved them so much. I want you to tell them the truth, though. All of it. They need to know why I did what I did tonight. All the children need to know. I want my death to be a lesson to them. I want them to know that mistakes can be made in their lives, but they need to remain strong and fight, together. Trust in each other, like I should have done with the rest of my Council.”

  “Yes, Daddy,” Jo sobbed and put her hand to his cheek. “I promise.”

  “You know, when you were born, your mother took one look at you and said you would be a defiant one. She knew you were strong; she knew you would not give up. And she was right. You are the woman you are today because of the people around you. I would like to think I had a small hand in it, helping you understand the way of the wolf after we found you. But trust in Cami. She is your sister and she is your Alpha. And Tey, he will always guide you and protect you. I wish I could stay,” Oliver whispered and then fell silent for a moment. Jo could tell the poison was taking over. She felt him slipping away from her.

  Her fathers were moving now, running full out at the man who wasn’t moving. He was still standing there. She could hear her friends yelling, her mate telling her to stop, but she couldn’t. She stared at the man, who finally stopped staring at her and moved his eyes to her fathers. She knew he was going to do something, and she couldn’t allow it. The evil that had been destroyed so long ago was here, right in front of them, and Sienna knew what she had to do, there was no choice.

  She took a step forward and then another, the screams of the Ulfers were becoming quieter, mostly because her friends and mates were killing them as they lay on the floor. There was no option, the Ulfers had to die, or they would kill them. She could feel it, see it. Hope was yelling at her, “Sienna, stop!” But she couldn’t, the anger was too great, flowing out of her. He had betrayed them, all of them, and for that, he should die.

  Focusing, she saw the man move, walking toward her fathers, grinning at them evilly. He would hurt them given a chance, she could see it in his eyes, his hatred. How could he be here? She didn’t know and didn’t care. Screaming again, Sienna made the man pause, he turned to her and stopped.

  She held up her hands and pointed to him, and his eyes widened. She knew he could feel it, she knew it. He opened his mouth, and Sienna smiled when he screamed, feeling the pain Sienna had felt when her mother was telling her the story. Her Aunt Jo crying, desperately trying to save her father, it was like it was happening all over again, and she could see it. How? She didn’t know, but she did know.

  Her father reached him, but Sienna had already made him fall, he was on the ground screaming. She watched in satisfaction as her fathers together bent over and grabbed him. They lifted him, shook him, yelling at him loudly, and the man couldn’t do a damn thing. He was consumed with soul wrenching pain, and she didn’t care.

  Her mate finally made it to her and Cameron grabbed her arm and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tightly, as if trying to stop her from breaking apart. Thank the gods, she felt the bond when his touch reached out to her, soothing her. She stopped screaming finally. Gods, her throat hurt, it felt raw from the rage. She pulled back, allowing Cameron to soothe her soul, touch her. He was whispering in her ear, she didn’t hear it, but she felt it.

  Sienna slumped and would have fallen if her mate wasn’t there to hold her up. The others came to her and held Cameron up as well. They circled them while they all watched as Trace and Shane both hit the man over and over. Hope whispered a name, one none of them ever wanted to hear again because he had been pure evil.

  “Braden.”

  Trace turned and yelled, pointing to the building behind them, the one that shouldn’t have been there. When the hell did that appear? They moved, all of them, the building was on fire. Sienna stumbling as Cameron held onto her as she jumped over bodies, the urgency to find Phoenix was there once again, they had to find her. The building wasn’t big, it was only the size of a bedroom, and all it held was an elevator, they could see it.

  She saw her fathers grab the man and hold him while they moved to save whoever was inside. It was like everything was moving in slow motion and all she could do was go with it. They made it into the elevator, and when the doors closed, when Braden was no longer in her sight, and she was gone from his, she felt relief.

  “What the fuck was that?” Hope was yelling, and Sienna turned to her, weak but able to stand by herself. She pulled away from Cameron.

  “I have no fucking clue, no, that has never happened to me before. That man, Braden, he was showing me things I think. I saw Aunt Jo crying over her father, I saw the rest of our parents all there fighting, but then sad as they lost the Alpha of the Old Council,” Sienna said, and Hope’s eyes widened.

  “You saw it?” she asked, and Sienna nodded. “Fuck, they brought him back? How?”

  “Great cloning, the fucking psychos,” Mak snapped. “Our parents are going to freak.”

  “I am freaking,” Sienna said. “It was like he pulled my power out of me, I had no control. All I could do was scream.”

  The elevator opened and they moved, tabling the conversation. Shit, doors, so many fucking doors. They moved together, all of them opening doors and looking at the shifters who were being held. There were a lot, none they recognized at first. They were all restrained, but they didn’t turn them loose yet, they couldn’t. They didn’t know who they were.

  Gio and Axel made it to the end of the hall, and Gio turned and yelled, “Here.”

  The moved to the last door, Gio was already loosening the straps on one of the men being held, Axel working with the other. When they were done, Hope stepped close and closed her eyes. Phoenix wasn’t here, but two of the others were. Brodie and Zak.

  “They took her,” Brodie said hoarsely. “They took our mate.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Are you fucking crazy?” Chase stormed into Sienna’s room a few hours later when she had just finished searching online for the other facilities while the others talked to Brodie and Zak. She had been too pissed off to be there, pissed at herself.

  All had gone well with their planning if they had been there two days before. The other shifters who were being held were in bad shape, and Hope finally had called Quin to ask for help after they decided they weren’t clones. They were test subjects, which was just as bad.

  “What?” Sienna said to the guys who were staring at her looking all pissed off. She had no idea what had gotten their panties in a wad.

  ??
?What the hell are you thinking searching for that shit online? Knowledge like that is for a purpose and one that had better not have involved us,” Cameron snapped.

  Sienna looked at the two men confused. Maybe they had been drinking because for the life of her she had no idea what the hell they were talking about. The last thing she searched had been when she had been making travel plans, that had to be what they were talking about. They needed to focus, Phoenix was what was important.

  “I was thinking we needed to find Phoenix. It’s not like I’m taking a vacation or something. Gods, is that what you think of me? Seriously, that is messed up. I was trying to plan while you were busy, we can’t wait! Jeez, try to plan a little and get yelled at for it,” Sienna yelled back, and both men frowned and stared at her like they had no clue what she was talking about.

  “Trying to plan? Plan what, making a fucking torture chamber here? Did Simon suggest it?” Chase said slowly and with a dangerous tone.

  Sienna put her hands on her hips and cocked them, then smirked, “Torture chamber? What in the heck are you talking about?”

  Cameron frowned and then said, "What the fuck are you talking about? We don’t care about your planning to go to the facilities, we are asking what the fuck you were thinking searching that shit.”

  Sienna yelled back, “I told you, I was planning where we were going, I need a plan. I changed my mind, so the maps on my browser don’t matter, not that it is any of your business.”

  “Maps?” Chase said and then laughed, “Baby, don’t care about maps, we know we are going. We just want to know what was going through your head when you were searching? I mean, what the fuck did we do that pissed you off that bad?”

  Sienna rolled her eyes. “Um, I have no clue what you are referring to. I was searching for the destination. We need to leave soon, or Brodie and Zak are going to take off by themselves. They are pissed, they took Phoenix.”