CHAPTER 46: Fierce...

Randol
After getting some rest, it's finally time to stare down the devil, so to speak. I'm more than a little worried about Celeste. Not so much that she will get hurt, the worry is more about her being able to control herself. We have all decided to park the car about half a mile from Donnelly's house, then walk in from there. The entire ride there I can sense her power humming. Even after the claiming, I haven't felt it this strongly before. To be honest the only time I have at all was when she was in the room with Clark and she started to lose it. The children have all been returned to their homes according to Mr. Torelli, so that helped calm her some, but unfortunately it doesn't look like it was enough.
We pull into an empty lot people use when visiting the park. I see the moment Celeste puts her game face on. If I wasn't on her good side, that look would terrify me. Still kind of does, actually.
"Celeste, your father has sent us as your soldiers. Please review the plan and then we are at your service." She already has so much respect shown to her from the people around her.
"Thank you, Mr. Yamaguchi, but you aren't my anything. We are a team. Plain and simple. It just so happens I was the first one to blurt out an idea." Mr. Yamaguchi bows his head slightly to her with a small smile. "Now here's what I came up with. Mr. Yamaguchi, I need you to do a short recon while we are walking up. We need to make sure there isn't anyone around the perimeter. Everyone should be inside the residence at this hour, but we better make sure."
"I have great eyesight in dragon form, so I should be able to stay high enough to go undetected."
"If there are any ground troops, Randol, I'll need you and Uncle Anthony to take them out before we bust in."
"We got it, Princess."
"Celeste, did you just say bust in?"
"Why, yes, I did, Uncle Anthony. I am going to bust out the window of Donnelly's room. Mr. Yamaguchi, when you fly over the house check to see if you can catch a glimpse of where he is. I'm also going to need to know if you can carry us all up to that window."
"Of course, I can. Japanese dragons are notorious for their strength."
"Great. When we get to the window, I'm going to bust it out drawing every guard in the house to us immediately. This way no one will sneak up on us. The rest is simple. A little reprogramming, and boom. We're out of there. Well we have to wake up the other guards to reprogram them too, if there were any outside, but no big deal. Any questions?"
"You ready for this? I know you hate this man, but I don't want you to go haywire on me." The look of concern on Mr. Barton's face as he looks at her is evident. He was there for her during her entire life. I know this must be hard for him.
"I'll be fine as long as they don't hurt any of you. No promises at that point."
"All right then, you three take a walk. I'm going to fly over and see what I can see. I'll meet you at the edge of the property." Mr. Yamaguchi turns and shifts almost at the same time before taking to the sky. Very impressive.
"Mr. Barton, Celeste, you ready?" They both nod to me, and we head off in the direction of Donnelly's. It was a quick walk, then we waited for Mr. Yamaguchi at the meeting point. Soon, we see him walking toward us through the trees.
"Mr. Yamaguchi, what did you find?" I can tell by her voice Celeste is eager to get inside.
"There is one guard at the back door, and two at the front door. Other than that, there are no other guards outside the residence. I did notice, though, quite a bit of activity on the first floor. Donnelly is on the second floor, third window on the east side of the house."
"Great work. That means you two need to immobilize the outer guards, then meet us on the west side of the building so that we can get the jump on Donnelly."
"Mr. Barton, you take the back door and I'll take the front. Sound good?"
"You sure you can handle two there, young buck?"
"If I can't handle two of these morons, I don't deserve to lead my pack."
"Touché."
"Mr. Yamaguchi and I will meet you on the west side of the house when you're done." We all take off to our designated spots. Mr. Barton disappears. Literally. Mr. Yamaguchi shifts and Celeste climbs on. I start running toward the front door, shifting mid stride. Luckily, there is no gate. I'm so fast that by the time they see me, I'm right on top of them. They have time to reach for their guns before I tackle them, but not raise them. Every instinct I have says I should just rip their throats out, but I just knocked them unconscious. Shifting back to human form, I move back to the side of the building where Celeste hands me my clothes.
"Mr. Barton, where the hell did you go?" I say it in almost a whisper scream. He chuckles like he knows he impressed me.
"Teleportation spell. Wizard. Remember?"
"And checkmate."
"Let's climb on. When we get up there, I'm going to blow the window out. That should be enough noise to bring the party to us. Mr. Yamaguchi, can you make sure Donnelly doesn't run until we get done."
"He won't move an inch. I assure you."
"Everybody, be careful, I promised Daddy I would bring everyone back in one piece." We all nod and climb onto the back of the serpentlike dragon perched in front of us. We lift off into the air, which baffles me because he has no wings. Dragons and their crazy manipulation of the elements. We glide completely silently to Donnelly's window. I can see him sitting at his desk, back to us.
Celeste looks around at us to get a final okay. Then, she closes her eyes and pulls her open hands back to her rib cage, palms out. The air changes around us, and with great force, Celeste thrusts her hands forward like she's pushing a desk over. The sound the shattering window makes is like an explosion. Glass flies through the office like buckshot and shrapnel. Donnelly ducks under his desk as we all enter his office. Mr. Yamaguchi is on him in seconds of us dismounting. The rest of us spread out in front of the door, waiting for the guards to rush in.
After a minute, around fifteen men wielding guns bust through the door. They all take aim, and Celeste and Mr. Barton both raise their hands. One guard, though. One guard was able to get off a shot before they can rip the guns from their hands. It was almost like it was in slow motion. That one bullet whizzed toward Mr. Barton, and then we saw blood fly.
"Uncle Anthony! No!" Celeste turns her gaze from Mr. Barton back to the guards. Before I can reach them, I see Celeste starts to float. Holy shit! Her eyes are black. Everything in the room starts to vibrate.
"Celeste! Celeste, can you hear me?" She doesn't respond to me. She doesn't even glance at me.
Mr. Barton sits up, holding his arm. "Celeste I'm okay!" Still no response.
Celeste raises her hands in front of her. All the men jerk into the air, just an inch from the ceiling. When she closes her hands into fists, I see all the floating idiots start to choke and grasp at their throats. Shit. I have to do something. She's going to regret it if she kills them.
I step in front of where she is floating about six inches off the ground. For lack of options, I place my hand on her face. Slowly. I breathe a sigh of relief as color starts to return to her eyes and she settles back on the floor. She is still choking the men in the air, though. "Celeste, listen, you don't want to kill them. You will regret it."
"The hell I will, Randol. They shot - "
"He's okay, Celeste, look." I point behind her where Mr. Barton has been able to stand, although his right arm is covered in blood.
"You have to let them go. If we kill them all, we are exactly what they say we are."
She thinks about it for a second before replying, "Fine. Move!" I am secure enough in my masculinity that I can admit that I jumped out of the way like she was a stampeding bull. With a scowl, she jerks her hands down and quickly back up before opening her fists. Following along with her hand motions, the men's bodies jerk down then back up, slamming their heads through the ceiling and then dropping lifelessly to the floor. Celeste then turns and runs to Mr. Barton. "Uncle Anthony, oh my God. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, honey. Let's just get this over with." Celeste nods with tears in her eyes and walks straight to Donnelly's chair and rights it. Mr. Yamaguchi plops him down on it.
"Who are you people and what do you want?" Well, Donnelly looks petrified, which he should.
"Hello, Mr. Donnelly. I believe you know my mother and father. Ricco and Arianna Torelli." Every ounce of color drains from his face.
"Oh my god. They had a child?"
Mr. Barton steps forward. "A very impressive, very angry one." He shoots daggers at Donnelly.
"What do you want from me?"
"Well, Mr. Donnelly, you are a sorry piece of shit. It would make me orgasm - level happy to rip you to pieces and watch you slowly bleed out, but I've been told not to do that." She motions for the three of us to get behind her. "I wouldn't move just because they aren't close to you anymore." She is staring him down like prey on the savanna.
"You have a dragon, a wizard, and a wolf standing in your office, and we pale in comparison to her." I thought I could put it in perspective for him.
"Mr. Donnelly, you have murdered our kind, you have personally insulted my family, you sent an extermination team for our council, and worst of all these, you kidnapped and used children to get shifters to help you with all of it. I am going to reprogram your mind to shut all this down and never start it back up. I don't think it's enough, though. For my own amusement, I'm going to implant some things in there that I know, for the rest of your life, will torment you all the way to the grave. I don't really need to tell you all this, but I wanted to see that look of terror on your face that has been there since I've been talking to you." The most evil smile I have ever seen comes to her beautiful face, turning it slightly dark. I hear soft slight movement behind me.
"Celeste, they're waking up." I place my hand on her shoulder as I say this, hoping to calm her slightly.
"Can someone go get the other three and add them to the pile so I can reprogram them shortly? I will work on Donnelly first." Mr. Yamaguchi nods to her and leaps out the window. She makes sure we are behind her before fixing her eyes on Donnelly's. I see his face produce the same cold trancelike state that Clark's did. She sets about her planned reprogramming. While she does that, I round up all the half - crushed guards on the floor into a group. They are starting to rouse now, but they are still completely out of it. Mr. Yamaguchi shifts as he comes through the window and his passengers fall to the floor. I help drag them over to the rest of the group, and they are also waking up. I listen to Celeste as she is finishing up. She releases Donnelly from her hold, and he starts to cry. I think this is over. Her plan has worked.
"Hey, Princess, what about these guys?"
She sighs. "A woman's work is never done." She makes her way over to the guards. "Uncle Anthony, do you feel well enough that you can veil the four of you from my song?"
"No problem, just give me one minute." Soon, there is a veil over us and I can't hear anything. I know what I'm seeing though. Celeste is using her song to wake them up. She does a quick reprogram on all of them, and then she signals us that we're safe.