Chapter 52

(**Sebastion’s POV**)

After sending Irina off with my credit card, a hollow feeling settled in my chest. She looked so lost as she walked back upstairs to wake Zasha from her nap. When she left the house with a bag over her shoulder and her daughter in her arms, my heart broke a little. I know what I am doing is going to be hard for all of us. I wanted to give us all time to settle in as a family together. However, after her reaction the night we saved Zasha, I think the course of action I am set on is a better plan.

She needs this time to heal without my interference. This is going to suck a lot more than I thought it would. I am going to have to keep my emotions on lockdown and the link between us closed. Since we completed the mate bond, that will be easier said than done. Some of our emotions and thoughts are bound to slip through. I want to give her as much privacy during her healing process as I can.

There is a lot of work to catch up on. Throwing myself into work to stay distracted sounds like a great idea. So, with that thought in mind, I head to my office. On the way there my father mind links me, asking me to come to his library for a chat. Does he know what I have asked of Irina already? Considering I haven’t told anyone yet, I highly doubt he knows what is going on in my love life.

What could my father want to talk to me about? Everything with Drakos Enterprises is running smoothly. The issue in Virginia has been fixed. The problems in the plant in Portland have all been worked out now that I have changed the management. That issue was an easy fix and from what I read in the report, the new manager is doing well. Letting my curiosity lead me, I make my way to my father’s library.

When I reach my destination, I see the door is open so I knock on the doorframe.

“Come in, Sebastion,” he calls to me from his chair.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” I ask him as I walk to a chair to sit down.

“I got a call from the council today. They received a call from Alpha Ryan Larkin, from Crystal Dawn, who called to report a death.”

“Why does that need the council’s advice?” A normal death would not be reported to the council.

“They reported it as a murder.”

“Where at and why does this involve me?”

“Bodega Bay and I called you in here because of who else is involved.”

That got my attention. With everything I know about what goes on in that town, murder is a surprising occurrence. How is Alpha Larkin connected to anyone in Bodega Bay?

“Who else is involved?” I ask him as I lean forward in my seat. Please don’t tell me it is Rayne or Parker.

“Rayne Solas, Edmund Solas, and a shifter named Parker. Rayne is apparently Larkin’s niece. Her mother was his sister.”

Well, shit, there goes hoping they are not part of whatever happened.

“Rayne is not a murderer, and neither is Parker. Who committed the crime?”

I could see both of them killing if it was one of their lives on the line. However, if it was out of the blue, there have to be extenuating circumstances to cause either of them to kill someone. I don’t know her father at all, but he doesn’t strike me as a murderer either. What the hell happened down there?

“Alpha Larkin is who committed the crime. He made the call to turn himself in. He also said that the others were there, but not responsible for what happened. Larkin claimed he acted alone.”

Woah.

“Who the hell did he kill in such a way that he would feel the need to call the council?”

Only crimes against ranking members of a pack or killing someone outside of a direct challenge in cold-blood are punishable by the council. It must have been someone who royally pissed him off.

“He killed his Beta.”

Holy shit, that is bad. “He killed his second in command? Why?”

“He told the council that it would be best if he explained everything in person. So, since your mother and I are the closest members to him, we are being sent to investigate.”

“What do you need from me?”

“What can you tell me of their history? The Larkin and Solas family.”

“I don’t know the Larkins or anyone from his pack, so I can’t tell you anything about them. What I can tell you about Rayne and her family is pretty ugly business. It has a lot to do with their old Alpha.”

I tell him all I know about her past, the beatings, how she escaped Wilson, and where she ended up from there. From the look on my father’s face, he knows about the beatings. That doesn’t surprise me since I was partially responsible for getting Wilson exposed for those. Alec called the elders in that night because of his attack on her and how I kicked his ass. That night his abuse went on record.

“Well, from what I gather, there is a lot more to the story than what any of us are aware of. Your mother and I will leave as soon as we finish packing. I just wanted to pick your brain so I have as much information as possible going into this situation.”

I nod my head, “Will you guys be coming back here when you are done or will you be going back to the council?”

“That all depends on what we conclude after we hear what they have to say. Since your mother is enjoying her time here with Jace, we will probably come back.” He stands up from his chair as my mother comes into the room.

She has a scowl on her face as she walks over to him. After she gives him a kiss, she turns to look at me with worry in her eyes. I know she is worried about what I am going to be doing later tonight. Honestly, I am a little worried about it myself. The raid on the house where Treadstone held Zasha went smoothly. Will it all go as planned tonight?

A feeling of foreboding in the pit of my stomach tells me something will go wrong.

“Are you going to tell the council what we are doing tonight?”

They look at each other briefly, then back at me. My father answers my question. “We already have. They have given their blessing and want a full report of everything you find. The more we all know about these Collectors, as they are being called, the better our chances are to fight them. There have been some talks about forming a council will members of each species, but those are just talks, for now.”

With that all said, I leave them to their packing, and head to my office. I will have plenty to occupy my mind until the sun goes down. Booting up my computer is the first step. Once I have that going, I check my emails, then return phone calls from some vendors. Before I know it, two in the afternoon has rolled around. Seeing that it is time to go get Jace, I power down my computer and head over to the pack house.

A pain covered Jace greets me as I enter the attic. His face is smeared with all the colors of the rainbow. The wide grin he gives me as he shows me his painting makes me smile. The painting he shows me makes my heart flop painfully in my chest. It is a family portrait. There is a tree in the center with stick figures standing in front of it.

A tall figure with brown hair has the word “Daddy” scribbled above it in Jace’s childish writing. Next to it is a shorter figure with yellow hair with the word “Mommy” above it. On the other side of mommy is a smaller figure with yellow hair with the words “New Sister” above it. Then on the other side of daddy is a tiny figure with Jace’s name above it.

He hasn’t met Zasha yet, but he is already calling her his sister. The unconditional love of a child gives me hope that everything will work out exactly how it is meant to. Tomorrow I will make time to introduce them to each other. Maybe Jace can help Zasha and Irina heal from the trauma that they have been through. Zasha deserves to be a kid without Treadstone using her for his own gain. Jace could give them hope with his caring heart.

*Later that night*
*Portland*

The calm before the storm is where I am right now. Standing in the shadows of Treadstone Industries Headquarters looking up at the building is daunting. Thirty stories of concrete, steel, and glass that a monster uses to hide his true face from the world. Somewhere in that building he houses his prizes and makes the rich elite pay to see them.

I look around at all the people gathered in the dark with me. Monroe with his two guards stand near the two large cargo vans they brought with them. Gabriel and his brother are using a penlight to go over the building’s floor plans again. Flint and Justin are huddled behind me, talking about last night’s football game.

Beckett stands deeper in the shadows with his crew and five new vampires he recruited to help us. The way the new vamps are blending with the shadows makes me think they have the same abilities as Nic. That is just creepy as hell. One of her is bad enough, but five more makes my skin crawl.

Seventeen of us are prepared to storm the proverbial castle to rescue the captives of war. That is exactly what it is now. War. The Collectors have been taking captives for Goddess knows how long. Now we are fighting back. With what is happening here tonight and the ongoing attack in France, we have quietly declared war on The Collectors.

At the sound of a low whistle, I look up at Beckett as he approaches me.

“Let’s gather everyone around so we can go over the plan for the newbies. Then we should get going. We don’t know what we will find inside and how long it will take. There is no way we want to be in there when the sun comes up.”

Since everyone heard his whistle, they are already walking to us. Beckett goes over the plan once more, then we break up into the teams we assigned. Beckett tells me that the new vampires can do the same thing Nic can, confirming what I thought. Once they call the shadows to hide us from sight, we head to back of the building where deliveries are made.

There is a keypad beside the door next to big bay doors. Gabe pulls an electronic device out of his bag that allows him to scan for the code. Once he finds it, he enters the code, then opens the door for us to enter. From what the blueprints and Irina have told us, Treadstone’s office is on the top floor and can only be accessed by a private elevator. The set-up is very similar to my office building.

Unlike the elevator to my office, this one is fingerprint only.

“How are we going to get in?” I ask Beckett.

“I got this,” Flint says as he steps forward.

He digs a plastic bag out of his pocket with a grimace on his face. Opening it, he pulls out a piece of cloth and unwraps it. The objects in the palm of his hand shocks me. Two severed fingers lay on blood-stained tissue paper. I look up at him with a questioning expression.

“I took a finger from Westley and Issac before we left Redwood. I thought of taking an eye from each of them, but didn’t know if that would even work. You know, just in case we needed one of them to get us in.”

“Flint, you scare me sometimes, but that was good thinking.”

He took one finger from his palm and pressed it to the keypad. Nothing happened, so he repeated the process with the other finger. The light on the pad turned green and the doors to the elevator opened.

“Whose finger worked?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

“Well, this elevator car is not big enough to cram all of us into.” Monroe states from behind us.

“We will go up in teams then.”

So, Flint stays down in the lobby with Nic while we all go up in teams. Once we are all in Vicktor’s office, I go to where Eric told Irina was the hidden door that will lead to the cells. Another fingerprint keypad will open this door, so I have Flint repeat the process he did in the lobby. When the door opens, another elevator car is revealed.

Stepping inside, I see it goes down to the sub-basement. According to the building plans, there is no sub-basement on record. This must be what we are looking for. Unlike the elevator that led us up here, this one is big enough to fit all of us in it. Does he bring his captures through the lobby, up to his office, then down into the bowels of the building?

“There has to be another entrance to his dungeon somewhere down there.”

“Only one way to find out,” Beckett declares.

With that said, we all pile into the elevator. I take a deep breath before pressing the down button. Here we go on our decent into the unknown. The atmosphere in the elevator is tense. No one says a word as we slowly descend into the bowels of hell. When we have gone past the ground floor, the elevator keeps going deeper into the earth. After another ten minutes, we are still going down.

“How far down does he have this shit?” Someone complains, but I can’t tell who it is.

Right after the complaint, the elevator comes to a stop and the doors open with a ding. Overhead lights flicker on to reveal a long ass hallway with seven doors on one widely spaced out. Eight doors on the other spaced out just like the other side. One door a few feet from the elevator is open. Taking the lead, I head to it as everyone else files out of the elevator.

The site before me when I enter the room stops my breath. Fourteen monitors hang on the walls with a control panel along the back wall of the room. Each monitor shows a cell with twelve of the fourteen being occupied. Now all we have to do is open the cells and get them all out of here.

“Here we go, my friends, time to get this show moving.”