I nodded in confirmation, swallowing the bile that rose in my throat. With the exception of Peter Symons and Edward, I’d never wanted to kill anyone more than Byron. “Hell yeah I want him,” I confirmed, bending and picking up some coins from the floor and pushing them into the phone.
“Well, he stays out of the fighting. He never gets involved, he has stooges for that. He’ll only show up once it’s safe and you’re secured. He wants to kill you personally and end the prophesy once and for all. But he’ll only come once you’re sedated and not a threat.”
I scowled. “Pussy.”
“Yeah exactly, but that why he’s so hard to find. He sits in his nice safe location, moving around every few weeks, giving orders and letting others do all the dangerous jobs while he gets all the glory. He’ll come once you’ve been secured. If you want him then you’re going to have to come alone, and….” He trailed off and I waited for him to finish.
“And?” I prompted when he didn’t continue.
“And let yourself be captured.”
Chapter 36: Risky, but worth it.
I took a deep breath as I zipped up the duffle bag containing a couple of days’ worth of clothes and food. My plans were made; I knew what I had to do. Billy had given me the address of his farm so I was to go there, get captured, wait for Byron Jefferson, and then kill everyone. It sounded so simple. But before that could happen, I had to look Edward in the eye and pretend like I didn’t want to tear his head off - that was the hard part.
Throwing my bag over my shoulder I headed out of the hotel room, slamming the door behind me.
My rage and frustration was growing with every step that I took towards the labs where they were having yet another planning meeting about where they were going to search next.
Billy had convinced me that I wasn’t to tell Edward that I knew about him. According to him, Edward reported back to the organisation a couple of times a day on the progress of the search, and that if I was to kill him like I desperately wanted to, that the organisation would know something was wrong and that they could move on early. If they did that then Billy said that he wouldn’t get told where they were going. Apparently he was too low down in the organisation to be told things like that. Therefore, my best bet was to do what he was telling me, pretend everything was fine and go to his farm alone. It was slightly risky what with the airborne drugs he told me they had, but the plan was that he would help me once Byron got there.
The phone call had been yesterday, and he’d told me not to come until today - when he’d called me it had been early evening time so he’d convinced me to go for daytime so that Byron would get there quickly. I hated waiting; in fact, the wait had almost driven me insane. I’d spent most of the night pacing my hotel room in wolf form because I couldn’t calm myself down enough to shift back to my human body. Just knowing where she was, but not going to get her made me feel so guilty and angry at myself because it felt like I’d abandoned her of sorts. But in the long run, sticking to this plan would make her safer because I’d get to kill more of them rather than rushing in too quickly and missing the key players.
I made my way back to the labs, not really paying attention to the short walk or the people around me. Nothing registered in my brain apart from Tyler and what I had to do today.
As I stepped back into the lab building a few faces turned in my direction. Michael, the chief of police, was here. He’d been fairly active in the investigation because this stemmed from the organisation, and he always worked with the council when they were involved.
“Where have you been? We’ve been waiting to start,” Michael snapped.
I frowned and shook my head. “Waiting to start your talk? All you guys ever seem to do is fucking talk!” I growled angrily.
Charles looked at me strangely as he put his hand on my shoulder. “Sean, I know you’re frustrated, but don’t start taking it out on the people that are trying to help,” he said softly.
I shrugged his hand off. “Trying to help? From what I’ve seen in the last couple of days they’ve done shit all! There are about thirty farms to check, yet they’d rather sit in that stuffy little room and talk about it. Well I’m done talking!” I ranted.
From the corner of my eye I saw Edward step into the hallway from one of the meeting rooms. My body jerked, my hands shaking as my wolf was trying to force me to shift and tear him into little pieces. I gritted my teeth and tried not to do what I was envisioning in my head. I’d never had to fight my wolf so hard over anything and it was almost impossible not to give in.
Ryce stepped forward, looking at me concerned. “Sean, what’s wrong? You know the police have to plan stuff out for everyone’s safety. They can’t just go bursting in without considering and strategising. I don’t like this any more than you do, I want to be out there looking for her too, but working our way through them slowly is the way to go so that nothing goes wrong,” he countered.
I snorted. “I’m done sitting around here waiting. I’m going to go check them on my own. You guys can just sit around talking until you’re blue in the face but I’m going to find her. I’m fed up with waiting!” I cried, putting as much frustration into my tone as possible. I needed them to all think I was going off on my own. They could continue on with their thing, but I needed to go alone.
Edward cocked his head to the side, watching me curiously and I tried not to kill him with my eyes.
Ryce looked at me like I was crazy. “You can’t go off on your own! Where will you go? That’s stupid!” he shouted. “We need you here to help with the planning and stuff. You’re no good on your own.”
I looked away from him, clenching my jaw. I needed to keep up the act and stick to the plan. “The five locations nearest here have been checked already by a team, so I’ll move a little further out. I can’t wait anymore, we’ll cover more ground if I go to other places while you all take your time and plan,” I spat.
Charles frowned. “What happens if you go to the right place and you’re on your own with no back up? That’s suicide!” he cried.
I laughed humourlessly. “I think I’ll be fine, you should have more faith,” I shot back sarcastically. I turned on my heel, refusing to look at them again. “I’ll keep you guys informed so that you can keep your little strategy meetings up to date.”
Before I got two steps away, Ryce grabbed my arm, pulling me to a stop. “You’re being stupid! You can’t go alone, Sean, stop being such a hero. If you stumble onto the right place by accident and go in all guns blazing, you’ll end up getting her killed!” he cried angrily.
I span around quickly and punched him in the face, making him stumble back, his nose bleeding profusely. “At least I’ll be doing something!” I shouted. “You don’t know what this feels like, knowing they’ve got her and I can do nothing to help her. You don’t know what it feels like to have a part of you taken away, beaten and then shown to you on video!” I ranted, kicking the table that was closest to me, sending it crashing over, the vase on top of it smashing sending glass everywhere. “I can’t sit here anymore. I have my cellphone, if you hear anything then call me. I’ll call you tonight and tell you where I’ve looked,” I stated fiercely.
Ryce looked at me accusingly as he held the sleeve of his sweater to his nose, to catch the blood flow. “Going rogue isn’t going to help anyone,” he growled.
“It’ll help my sanity,” I answered before turning and walking out of the front doors. The cool wind blasted in my face, I looked up at the sky and frowned. Another grey day, typical fucking English weather. “I hate this fucking place,” I grumbled as I pulled the hood up of my sweater. I gripped the strap of my bag tightly as I headed to the rental car that I’d been using all week.
As I drove out of London my nerves were frayed. I felt guilty for hitting Ryce so hard, but it couldn’t be helped - I’d apologise once this was all over and Tyler was safe. I had to let Edward see I was going off alone, he would report that back to the Organisation which was what I wa
nted to happen. Billy had told me that I had people following me too, every time I stepped out alone, I had a car following me. I hadn’t seen anyone but I had to assume it was true; therefore this needed to look as realistic as possible.
The plan that I’d worked out with Billy was that I would go to a couple of places near his farm first, just so it looked like I was lucky and stumbled on his place by accident. That was one of his stipulations, he had his brother to think about so he said that if I wanted his help when the time came, that I had to make it look like he wasn’t involved at all, that me finding them was a complete accident.
His farm was in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, and was about twenty five miles from where we were in London. It’d take about an hour to get there, lucky for me the car had built in navigation otherwise I’d never work my way out of this confusing little city.
I tried to relax as I drove to a farm that was a few miles out from his one. If there really were watching then this would protect Billy’s brother like he wanted. Personally, I wanted to go straight there, but I could see his point and I would definitely need his help.
I made a show of checking the farm, grabbing the poor innocent farmer and shoving him up against the wall just so it looked like I was really trying. I looked around quickly, obviously finding nothing like I knew I wouldn’t - then I headed to the next one. The agreement with Billy was that I would check two farms before I went to his one.
When it was finally time to ‘accidently’ find the right place, my hands were shaking with both apprehension and anger. I wasn’t sure if I could do this - could I really let them get one over on me knowing that Tyler was there somewhere. Another thought that ran through my mind was, what if Billy was tricking me? What if he wasn’t trying to help me after all? What if he called me up and gave me the address, promising to help me, when in actual fact he was doing it on their behalf and they just wanted me on my own?
I guess that was a risk I was going to have to take.
I blew out a big breath and followed the signs for the farm, driving down the short dirt track quickly, pulling up at the courtyard in a cloud of dust. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that I could trust the guy, otherwise this was going to turn into a nightmare.
As I stepped out of the car my ears strained, listening for any sounds of life, but the place looked deserted. Had Billy given me the wrong address? Was she not here after all? My eyes flicked around quickly, taking in my surroundings, the stables, the cow sheds, storage units. When my gaze settled on a red wooden barn, my hands clenched into fists because that was probably the place that they made that video of Tyler.
I shut the car door, not bothering to be quiet - I wanted them to know I was here. That was the plan, put up a small fight but essentially I had to let them capture me. It was the only way I would have a shot at getting Byron Jefferson, the head honcho. I wanted this finished already. To ensure Tyler’s safety I would have to kill as many high ranking members of the organisation as possible so that something like this would never happen again.
With my eyes latched firmly on the farm house, I confidently crossed the dusty courtyard. My over sensitive hearing picked up a shuffle of feet from about fifty yards away to my right. I didn’t turn, just kept on task and carried on walking towards the house, waiting for them to make their move first.
“Now, Eli?” someone whispered. They were too far away for a normal shifter to hear them, but my abilities strengthened my normal senses. Maybe these assholes weren’t aware of that though.
“No. Let him get closer. Once he gets level with the stable,” another guy whispered in response.
Level with the stable. I was almost there actually but I tried to stay relaxed even though I knew what was coming. I could hear several hearts beating inside the stable, maybe they belonged to horses but I highly doubted it. There was an ambush waiting there for me no doubt, just like Billy had told me there would be. I counted the steps, wondering if I should just shift into my wolf and rip everyone apart already, screw the plan - but there would be no point in me just taking out a load of low lever players in their rankings, that wouldn’t help anything in the long run. No, I needed Byron Jefferson for this to have the impact that I wanted.
As I got level with the stable doors, something metal hit the floor just behind me, making a ‘chink’
sound before the sound of an aerosol being let off met my ears. I frowned and looked down at my feet to see some sort of metal canister, hissing out a clear, odourless gas. The inhibitor drug.
Before I had time to react, the stable door burst open and five guys wearing gas masks ran out, crashing into me and sending me sprawling to the floor. I grunted as I hit the hard floor, air rushing out of my lungs in a quick burst. Two of them were pinning me down, one of the grinning, obviously thinking it was that easy. I wouldn’t make it that easy though. I threw them off of me and twisted my torso, grabbing his mask and yanking it off of his face. The gas was still hissing in the canister near my face, I knew it was working on me already. My wolf wasn’t within reach, the pain in my ribs where I’d crashed to the floor, wasn’t getting worse where the damage was healing itself
- which meant that it had already entered my system.
I could feel a tugging on my subconscious but it wasn’t too bad to pull me under - my body was burning it off too quickly, it wasn’t going to make me blackout. The same couldn’t be said for the guy who’s mask I’d pulled off though, he slumped to the floor almost as soon as he drew in a few breaths of it.
“Hold him down!” someone shouted, their voice muffled by a mask, as another two guys replaced the one I’d managed to knock out.
I thrashed, trying to throw them off of me but to be honest I didn’t really stand a chance. Sure, the drug didn’t knock me out like it did the other guy, but it had banished all of my abilities, right now I was just a normal guy with a higher tolerance to the drug than others. I couldn’t fight them off even if I wanted to.
When I’d put up as much fight as I could, landing a few punches to a couple of them, and managing to knock another gas mask off, I finally stilled and looked up at a blond guy who grinned at me wickedly behind the protective plastic of a mask, before raising his foot and stamping on the small of my back so hard that I actually yelped before I could stop myself. Pain radiated down my back and legs.
“Shall we take him to the basement now, Eli?” one of the guys asked nervously.
The blond shook his head in response. “Not yet,” he replied. “Nice to finally meet you, Sean. I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said politely as he smashed his foot into my side.
I’d forgotten what it felt like to actually feel pain - usually it would hurt, then the burning fire would start as it healed, and the pain would be gone - but as they all took turns kicking and punching me, all I could do was grit my teeth and cover my head, trying not to make a sound. By the time they was satisfied, I could barely breathe. I definitely wasn’t used to this kind of pain lasting this long.
The drug was still going around my system so my broken ribs and bruises just weren’t healing at all.
Two of them grabbed my arms, pulling me up from the floor but my legs were pretty weak so they had to support most of my weight. I play acted a little too, hanging my head and groaning as they started dragging me towards the farm house. I slyly took in my surroundings as they shoved me in through a door, through a small messy lounge. I grunted as I was slammed face first into the wall while one of them fumbled with a door handle.
As I was dragged roughly down some wooden stairs, I flicked my eyes around to see where I was. It was some sort of basement hallway; there were a few doors off to the right. I opened my mouth to shout Tyler to see if she could hear me, Billy had told me they were keeping her in his basement, she must be so close! But as I was about to shout her name I was pushed roughly into the first room.
My legs gave way as I stumbled and fell on my face onto the hard concrete floor. The lights flicked on overhead with a low
hum, making me squint at how bright they were.
I twisted my head to the side to see my surroundings, silently praying that they put me in the same room as Tyler, but I knew I wouldn’t be that lucky. The room was empty apart from the two guys that had dragged me in here, and the blond they’d called Eli. In the corner of the room was a big flat screen TV on a stand. I frowned at it, wondering why on earth someone would put that in a room like this. Before I got to ponder on it too much though, the same two guys picked me up by my arms and literally shoved me into a chair that was the only other thing in the room.
I groaned as my broken body hurt from the pressure. I still had more fight left in me, but they didn’t need to know that, I needed to let them think that they’d won and that I was no threat. I couldn’t shift, that much was obvious, I also wasn’t healing so the drug that they’d thrown at me was obviously doing the job they wanted, but I still had more to give. My anger was still simmering below the surface and I wanted to rip everyone apart with my bare hands.
The blond smiled down at me as he pulled off his gas mask and threw it out of the door. The other two followed suit so I knew there was no drug floating around this room otherwise they wouldn’t have risked it.
“Shall I got turn the air on now, Eli?” one of the others asked the blond.
Eli shook his head. “No, dipshit, you wait until we’re out of the room!” he snapped.
The other guy winced and nodded, obviously scared of the blond. “Right yeah, of course.”
My gaze swept the walls, finding an air vent at the top of one of the walls. That was obviously where they would pump the gas through once I was on my own so that I would have a constant supply of the drug in my system. Billy had told me that they wouldn’t want to take any chances with me.