Phantom Love

Chapter 30: Forrest

       "You need to calm yourself, brother." Drazik says as he calmly pets the kitten curled up on his chest, "From what you've told me she's going to love what you have planned." He sighs before his eyes meet mine, knowing what's really wrong, "If you're waiting until you've reached perfection to make a move, you will be standing still for the rest of eternity."

        I raise my brow at him, "That was surprisingly philosophical." 

       His eyes narrow, "Don't change the subject. Now what is the plan for-" 

       Both of our attentions turn down the hallway when we hear Raven making various pleasure filled sounds. It is taking every inch of my control to not stand up and go join them right this instant, and I know the same battle is raging inside of Drazik. We know better though because, by the sounds of it, it's Kieran in there. If he is in there without Leandre then that's a huge step for him and we're going to let them enjoy each other for the first time in peace. I pull myself away from the siren song of feminine moans down the hallway when Drazik comes back into view. 

       "She's going to be tired after the mating is finished." He says, "It takes a lot of her magic and, if I'm assuming correctly, she'll have a secondary mating this evening?"

        I shake my head, "No, not if she's as exhausted as I think she'll be. Once we get there my first order of business is going to be a nap." I rub my eyes tiredly, "I could use one as well. I'm glad I went this route after all, this way she won't have to use magic to shield her appearance." I look to him, "You got our people set up around the perimeter right? And they know who to look out for?" 

       All of us have had a bad taste in our mouths since we left the counsel after our last meeting and it soured even more once Raven filled us in on what she knows about them. We don't trust them, never have, and while we can't trace their whereabouts for around the time the high temple fell, we are all well aware they were not prominent in the magic community until well into their first century of life. Which was well after the fall. If they had anything to do with it directly you would think they would have benefited sooner, thus raising themselves in the hierarchy decades before they did. So currently, we're stuck trying to find out where the mysterious counsel members' origins are and who helped them into their positions.

      We all have heard the stories they've told in the past while boasting, but now that we know the truth about their tainted auras, and even more tainted intentions, we are starting from scratch on what we know of their background. If they're in any way shape or form in league with the people who orchestrated Raven's capture then we will destroy them slowly and without mercy. She hasn't told us everything about what happened in the time before she was Raven, especially since she doesn't remember it all herself, but from what we've heard? Well let's just say the first detail was enough to have us wanting to skin whoever did it alive.

      Me wanting to skin the ones responsible alive, to slowly draw out their deaths, is apparently seen as out of character to everyone except my brothers. While debriefing the heads of our teams, it was I who called for them not to be killed, only lightly maimed, so we may have the privilege of killing them.  It's been a while since we let our savagery out to play to such a large degree. We all try to stay away from conflict as much as possible as it does nothing but give us problems but when we have a justified reason? We don't hold back. All of us run missions, off book of course, that tend to get messier than any of the missions on the books. We can't all simply ignore there's a seething underbelly in both the supernatural and human worlds. We do what we can to right some of the wrongs done by the scum that are key players in that underbelly but we are but one small group.

       I always strive to do the right thing, sometimes even at the cost of friendships and my own personal well being. For a long time I thought I knew what everyone and everything needed for all to be right with the world. It's why I got into Secured International. I was, internally, an angry young man, looking to use that anger to right some of the wrongs in this world before it ate me alive. My mentor, Matias, found me on the streets and realized what I was and what kind of potential I had. He was always aware of my potential for great violence, so are all my brothers as I found all of them on missions I was sent on to use that very same violence.