9781631052415ShadowedSpiritBeck (8 page)

Chapter Seven

They
were dropped off at an old diner right off the highway. There was nothing
remarkable about the place aside from the fact that it was the first time since
mating that he was saying good-bye to his mate for an extended period of time.
Sadie was now out of harm’s way at least. He’d focus on the
job,
end this, then return to enjoying his mate as they planned out a future.

It took
six hours for the others to catch up with them. While waiting, he and Gage
gathered as much
intel
on the building and the labs as
possible. Recon would’ve been great, but they were instructed to sit on the
information until Madden made contact with his supervisor at the CIA. They
needed marching orders. Granger felt like rolling his eyes at the thought of
being controlled by the sub-par human organization.

At
exactly five o’clock, the two TEU vehicles pulled into the diner’s lot. Madden,
Caedon, Donovan and Nicolaus filed in. They were dressed in mission gear and
stood out. Every eye in the diner turned to look at them.
So
much for being inconspicuous.

“What’s
good to eat?”

“It’s a
diner. You know the drill,” Gage answered as the men sat in the booth with
them.

After
they ordered food, Madden got right down to business. “I spoke with my contact
from the CIA. This needs to be an invisible op. There’ll be no evidence that
anything went down in the lab.”

All the
men nodded. They’d done ops like this before. It was no big deal. They would
want to maintain the secrecy of the Valendite Breed existence as well. The US government
had nothing to gain from their exposure. As it stood, they had a personal
arsenal in the Valendite Breeds that would end if discovered.

“We’ll
do surveillance tonight. We’ll move in tomorrow during daytime when most
employees are on site. Tonight, we will, however, eliminate and discard anyone
leaving after hours. We’ll take no chances of a warning.” Caedon laid out
mission packets for everyone to look over.

It was
quiet as they looked through the information. If this was accurate, this group
would be the final remaining link to the terrorist cell. They’d gotten lucky
that this lab was so isolated. The communication so limited, that they didn’t
yet know the rest of the group had been eliminated. Their next meet-up was in
two weeks. TEU had found them just in time before they surely would’ve
disappeared.

A full
night sitting in the car on surveillance sucked. Granger was tired and cranky
and he wanted his mate. The clock ticked closer to go time, and Granger began
checking his weapons. Caedon and Madden were securing a perimeter barrier and
then in teams of two, Donovan with Granger and Gage with Nicolaus, they’d move
in. Not a single person was coming out alive. There was no evidence to lead
them to believe anyone in that facility was an innocent. The lab had one
purpose and it appeared everyone working there was aware of what they were
studying.

Caedon’s
voice came across the links. “Okay. We’re secured. No one is getting out, even
if they’re tipped off. Madden has the back door and I have the front covered.
Heat sensors indicate eight people in the building. There is only one objective
here. Eliminate anyone that breathes.”

“Once
we’ve cleared the bodies, we’ll sweep all
intel
and
evidence,” Madden interjected. “Let’s move in.”

Each
man did exactly as instructed and moved as if completely synchronized. Within
seconds of entering the building, Granger had picked off the first man. He was
usually their high-top sniper; but today he sported his new toy, the MK23, and
it worked like a charm.

Then a
quiet shot from the back of the building rang out. He heard Van’s count behind
him. “That’s two.”

Another
gun blast from Gage’s direction and Granger knew he needed to work fast to
catch up. Gage had one up on him. He kicked open the next door and found two
scientists in white lab coats bent over a microscope. They turned when he
entered, but didn’t move quickly enough. Two shots and they were out. His count
was up by one.

“That’s
five. Three more to go, assholes,” Van gave an update.

Another
shot from the back meant he and Gage were tied again. Then he stepped around
the wall to see a man in the corner, under his desk. Granger fired a shot
straight through the head. No reason to make the fool suffer. It was likely
he’d been bribed into the plan. Humans were easy that way.

“Damn
it. That puts you one up. The last one is mine,” Gage whispered as he came
around the corner. They’d met up in the center of the lab.

“May
the best shooter
win.
” Granger grinned. Was it wrong
he got a high from the kill?

“You
get Mase?”

“No
one meeting his description on our end.”

“That’s
the final man then.”

“That
little shit is mine.” Granger grinned and nodded to Gage. Gage returned the nod
in understanding. This was for his mate. No one would take that away from him.

“Seven
kills inside. No one has come out. There’s one more,” Madden’s voice came
through his earpiece.

“It’s
Mase. Neither of us tagged him yet. We’re looking.”

This
would be more difficult than the others. Mase must’ve been alerted by the gun
shots and hid.

They
came to a metal door, locked. “It’s solid.” Nico tried the handle and felt
around it for access.

“Blow
it. Use the explosive adhesive that pops. Remember, no evidence.” Madden’s
response was short and curt. It was an order not to be ignored. They never
disregarded the CIA’s directives.

Without
wasting any time, Nico set about applying the explosive putty as the others
stood on guard. “We’ll assume he’s in there. Let Gage go first and Granger
follow with the shot. I’ll be there to back you,” Donovan, the senior officer on
the inside, conveyed the plan. “There’s one more man left between us and the
end.”

“Between
us and getting home to our mates,” Granger added with cheers from all the
others sounding in his comm device.

“Ready,”
Nico spoke as he backed away from the door.
The explosive had
been developed to disintegrate the metal.
It was muted by specially
designed putty to minimize the sound, but the blast would still throw off heat
fierce enough to singe. Not even a Valendite Breed wanted to mess with that.
They all ducked back in the side hallway and waited for the blast and smoke to
clear.

They
heard coughing before they could see clearly and knew they had the man they
were looking for. The asshole actually came barreling out of the room. Smiling,
Granger took him out in a single shot, twirling his gun and blowing on the
muzzle as he grinned over at Gage. “I win.”

Gage
saluted him and laughed. “Shit, I’ve got the best damn job.”

Madden
joined them as they looked down at the fallen breed. “I know you two jokesters
so I’m going to let the flippant talk slide. It’s how we cope. I got that, but
shit, we just took out one of our own. Sure, he shit all over our kind, but in
his core, he was one of us.”

Granger
nodded.
“Right.
Guess I hadn’t let myself think about
it. Easier to pretend he’s just another terrorist.”

“I got
you, brother.” Madden tapped them both on their shoulders.

“We’re
clear.” After Caedon gave the word over the comm device, they set about the
task of discarding the bodies into the incinerator not more than a few miles
away. Caedon came in and carried
Mase’s
body into the
van. They’d return his body to his family if they could locate a relative.

“Granger
and Gage, you watch the doors for any disturbance. You two have done enough for
today. We’ll clear out the lab. You just let us know if there are visitors.”

“Before
or after we take them out?”

Madden
ignored his little brother and moved into the lab where he’d oversee the sweep to
clean it of all remaining tests and experiments on the breeds.

Granger
was more than happy to sit up on the hill overlooking the laboratory and watch
for any unlikely visitors. The view through his rifle always brought his
thoughts into focus. Today though, he focused in on his mate. His entire
perspective had changed since mating. Despite feeling as if he made a
difference in his job, he wanted out. Granger wanted to move on.

Today,
he’d been forced to kill one of his own
kind
. Madden
was right. He hadn’t felt it right away since his entire focus was on the
mission, and still a piece of him was glad for the revenge he’d served for his
mate, but he hated what he’d had to do. Granger was ready for a new start and
he had some ideas about what he wanted to do.

He
considered all the possibilities while staying focused on his position as
lookout until Madden came back on the comm device. “It’s clear. We’ve pulled
what we needed and destroyed the rest.
Time to go home, men.”

Granger
left his position, knowing he was doing it for one of the last times, and
headed back to his mate.

* * * *

Sadie spent
her day without Granger planning her Pronouncement. She was going for a grand
event. She’d never had a party where she dressed pretty and had everything
perfect. She’d never really cared before. Now she wanted all the bells and
doves and twinkle lights.

Sadie sat with both her mother and Adelina Santucci to talk through the
ceremony at the vineyard. They had a little time before she was meeting her
sisters for drinks and wanted to use the opportunity to ask about something she
was curious about. She knew the mothers could answer.

“I’m ashamed to admit I put such little stock in the mating ritual, or
any rituals growing up. Now, I’m unsure what happens during the Pronouncement.
I mean, of course, I know the outside appearance of things, but what about the power
exchange to take place during the Pronouncement. Is that true?”

“Nothing to be ashamed of.
It was your
soul sin, Sadie, not you,” her mother consoled her.

But it was Adelina who answered. “It’s said that the mates become fully
bonded when they perform the blood exchange on a full moon. The Goddess can see
down on you most clearly on those nights and with the help of a
Magdalena Circle
, she’s called to our
presence.”

“Wherever more than one of you
gather
in my
name, so shall I be.” Her mother quoted from the book of Magdalena.

“Very little is written about the Pronouncement Ceremony, dear, to
maintain the solemnity of the event so even if you’d been paying attention all
along, you’d know nothing more than this.”

“Did you know that some of your powers will transfer to Granger as well?”

“Which powers?” Sadie was intrigued by this new piece of information.

“Well, that’s the trouble. The power transfer is unique to the couple. There’s
no way of knowing how each couple will be affected,” Chiara, her mother,
answered.

“It is usually the gift most evident inside you,” Adelina added. “Or
sometimes it’s one you never noticed because your soul sin covered it up.”

“It’s all fated by the Goddess,” Chiara confided. There was a peaceful
silence as they each drank from their teacups.

Sadie’s thoughts returned to her mate and their future together. She was
ready for him to return home. They’d already received word that the mission was
successful and complete. Now they just needed to get back safely.

* * * *

Done.
It was done. They’d closed down
the entire cell, both Valendite and human, that was attempting to harm their
race. Once upon a time, he’d thought his life with TEU was too quiet, but after
these past few years, Granger was looking forward to quiet. In fact, he was
planning to leave his fieldwork with TEU and settle into a career that kept him
at home.

Years
before, he’d bought the land adjacent to the Santucci Vineyards. It was fertile
land and exactly the right thing to invest his family inheritance in. Life had
changed now that he’d claimed a mate. It was time to move into the home he’d
built, but never lived in. It was time to retire his bike for a car. It was
time to grow instead of kill.

Lost in
his thoughts, he realized he’d already pulled up to the gate of his property.
Focusing on the tiny hands looped around his abdomen, Granger said a silent
prayer this would please his mate. He
queued
the gate
to open and drove through. Undeveloped grape fields lined the long stretch of
driveway that took them to the large stucco home.

He
stopped at the front steps, turned off his bike, and waited for Sadie to hop
off. She pulled her helmet off and tipped her head up to take in the house.
Maybe he should’ve waited until their Pronouncement to present the house, but
there was no way he would wait out the month in the Santucci’s guest room. He
wanted Sadie in his home.