Cole and River still had their guns on them, as they’d been fine-tuning the target range at home, but I was weaponless. Except for my magic, that was.
As soon as I could see the contents of the room, I threw out a web of magic that ensnared every occupant as sure as if they’d been dipped in cement. Cole and River trained their guns on the one person we knew was responsible.
“Simon,” I spat with disgust, glaring at the dirty, decaying man standing over the director’s corpse. He sneered back at me, but was trapped in my web just as surely as his men were. One of them was curled in a ball, clutching at his head in pain, which meant he was probably the mage responsible for the barrier.
“Shit,” Cole cursed, moving closer to check the director’s lifeless body, then over to Simon’s frozen form. “What are we going to do with this piece of crap?”
“Kill him, once and for all,” I suggested. “I’m sick of this asshole slipping away like a damn cockroach. I say we kill him properly this time. I’ll need to dispose of these three as well.” I nodded to three of the five men who had been assisting Simon in his mission. It appeared as if they were searching for something... perhaps whatever Pierre had been deleting from his hard drive while he talked to Kit.
The three mages, obvious for the light shimmer of magic around them, were not men I recognized. But given we’d been in charge for all of a hot second, that didn’t surprise me.
Footsteps rang out down the corridor, and both Cole and River swung their guns to the door.
“Woah.” Austin skidded to a halt as he rounded the corner and gave their guns a pointed look. “Ah shit.” He spotted the director at Simon’s feet and rushed over to check his vitals. The bullet hole in the middle of his forehead and the pool of blood beneath him sort of spelled things out though.
“We need to take Simon back to Kit for judgement,” River said quietly, scowling at the walking dead-man. “This is her kill; we can’t take that away from her.”
“Bullshit,” Cole snarled. “I’m not letting this garbage heap anywhere near her.”
“Sorry, mate,” River sighed. “In this case you don’t have a say. Kit will need the closure of seeing him die with her own eyes.”
“We should check the rest of the building for any more of these fuckers,” I suggested, kicking one of the frozen mages in the leg.
Cole nodded and looked to Austin. “We’ll go? That way you can do you’re magic thing if we find anyone.”
“Sure,” Austin agreed. “Not like you couldn’t just dragon blast them, but whatever. Let’s be quick; I don’t want Kit left for too long.”
River made a noise in his throat. “How was she when you left?”
“After seeing her dad get shot in the head by someone she used to trust?” Austin grimaced. “How do you think she was?”
River nodded a few times, and my guts churned. My poor Kitty Kat, she must be a mess. We owed it to her to clean this shit up fast and get back to her. Killing Simon wouldn’t bring Director Pierre back, but it would provide a little closure. If that was the best we could offer her, then so be it.
“Can you keep this lot secure while I grab supplies?” River asked me, and I nodded. Keeping this lot trapped in my web was no strain, but I wouldn’t be able to transport them like this. They needed to be restrained.
While I waited for River to come back, I ignored the stares of my prisoners and carefully stepped around the director’s desk, avoiding his blood. I clicked his mouse a couple of times to bring up the display, but it was on a lock screen requiring a password.
Chewing my lip, I debated taking the hard drive, but remembered he’d said something to Kit about wiping all the files. Besides, without Wesley we had no way of hacking into it anyway.
“Got them!” River announced, returning to the office with a handful of zipties. “Is it safe to touch them?”
Nodding, I waved a hand at the incapacitated men. “Go for it. I’m thinking they must have cast a few more spells on their way in here. Otherwise, where the hell are all the agents?”
“I was thinking the same thing,” he agreed. “The electronic locks on all the doors were open too.”
He handed me some zip ties, and I helped him secure our prisoners, moving their limbs like they were made of clay. “I think we should deal with this lot, then come back to sweep for stray spells,” I suggested.
“Probably best.” River finished securing Simon, then sighed, crouching down to look at the body of Kit’s dad. “This could crush her.”
“It could,” I murmured. “But it won’t. She’s stronger than we give her credit for.”
River said nothing in response, just reached out and closed Jonathan’s eyes so they weren’t staring lifelessly at us.
“Aus and I need to deal with these three,” I said quietly, indicating to the three mages. “They’ve violated the orders we laid out. Even if their coven head didn’t attend our town hall, they’re still in violation. We have to deal justice accordingly.”
“Understood,” River replied in a clipped tone. “Cole and I can take care of things here if it will be a quick thing.”
I checked my watch for the time, then ran through what we needed to do. Austin was better prepared for this shit than I was, and once again I found myself cursing my lack of interest in Yoshi’s teachings.
“Yeah, should only be an hour at most. I think.” I shrugged. “I can bind Simon and the other two tighter so it’ll last until we get back, and we can block the office door.”
“Good. Do that then. We can deal with things here and be back to Kit ASAP.” River gave Simon’s frozen form a look of disgust. “At least we arrived in time to catch this bastard.”
Austin and Cole appeared back in the doorway, and Cole shook his head.
“All clear throughout the admin building,” he informed us.
“We’re assuming this snake’s hired help has spelled this building and the security only. Why would they bother with the residences? And it’s too late for anyone else to be on base.” Austin rubbed at his eyes, then grabbed one of the bound mages by his wrists. “Let’s go and sort these three out, Cal. The sooner the better.”
He was absolutely fucking right. I may not have listened all that much in Yoshi’s lessons all those years ago, but a few things stood out clearly in my mind. The first of which was a mage must never disobey the ruling Mages. Secondly, the punishment for disobedience was ritualistic death.
It was a law we both hoped to relax on, but an indiscretion as serious as this so soon after our meeting? It was a direct challenge to our authority and not one we could afford to let slide. Not with an impending war on the horizon.
Earlier in the week Austin and I had briefly discussed the possibility that some of our people were involved with the shifters, so we knew we had no choice here. We’d gather the necessary witnesses and cut these bastards’ hearts out.
I was just thankful Kitty Kat wouldn’t witness it.
“You’ve got your thinking face on,” Austin commented as we portaled in to the ceremonial chambers below Yoshi’s old tattoo shop. It had been years since I’d stepped foot inside that room, but it was the most appropriate place for what we needed to do.
“You’re not flaking out on me, are you?” my twin needled, hauling one of our captive mages up by the arm and depositing him in the middle of the room with the other two. “You kind of have a pretty important role in this ritual.”
“I know, and I’m not flaking.” I headed over to the ceremonial altar and opened the hidden compartment that contained all the standard tools of our trade. From it, I pulled out a chalice and three lumps of crystal. “I’m just…” I sighed, rubbing my face. “This whole thing, Bridget and then the bracelet taking Kit’s magic, it’s my fault.”
Austin huffed a noise as he filled the chalice with water from the natural spring in the corner, then quickly ran through the ritual to summon our required witnesses—the Mage Council.
“Kinda, yeah,” he responded when the spell was done.