“What’s wrong?” Blackwell asked immediately, making me wince, because of course he would hear the change in my tone of voice.
“Nothing—”
“Was it Amun? Did he fucking do anything?” Saint growled, his voice filled with anger but also excitement, no doubt at the idea of hurting him. Psycho.
Amun shook his head as I smiled. “Nah, just miss you guys.”
“Miss you too, pixie.” Cy’s voice had me blinking away possible emotions as I swallowed, attempting to refocus.
“You guys stay safe,” I demanded quietly before moving on. “Who is staying on the line with me?”
“I am,” Damian voiced. “I seem to be the only one who is capable of more than only grunting out responses right now.”
Good. I was thankful for Damian being the one, frankly. I knew he wouldn’t push anything right now, even if he thought something was off. The nightmare was an overbearing ass most of the time, but he was also pretty good at knowing when the time was to demand an answer, unlike some of my other teammates.
“All of you get focused and keep me updated. I am feeling extra anxious tonight, so the more information the better.”
“You know we will be fine, cherry blossom. We’ve done this a million times,” he responded easily.
“Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled, waving a dismissive hand they couldn’t see.
The following fifteen minutes felt like the longest in my life in some ways, filled only with the occasional commentary from Damian as they made their way towards the base. I knew they were still in their human forms because I could hear them occasionally talking, and I was eager for them to get into range of the base so that I could get a visual on them. It was another reason, for the record, that Damian was a good choice for contact purposes, because even in his terror form, he was able to speak normally.
My eyes flickered up as I found Amun once again rubbing his fingers on my pants, specifically over the knee, frowning at the material. I wanted to ask him why it was so interesting to him but figured that would just get the guys on the line worked up about why he was touching me.
Which would, of course, make me want to give them crap about why it bothered them. So probably not the best idea right now.
“It looks deserted,” Damian commented as I watched the tracker on my screen slow, showing that they had neared the outside perimeter.
“I wish,” I muttered. “Trust me, it’s unfortunately not.”
“Always.” His voice was more serious, making me almost blush at how he seemed to take my comment.
On the other end of the line, I heard something snap, and a slight groan echoed as I assumed they broke into the base. I held my breath, waiting for the sirens to go off, and when they didn’t, I exhaled happily. I began to connect—or attempt to connect—with the camera systems the humans had on base, which also allowed for me to watch for any potential threats coming their way.
When I pulled up one of the feeds on the tablet, my smile grew at how serious they all looked, making their way past the building I was looking through. I knew my father had already blocked any of the video feed being transferred back to humans, instead just looping back what they had already seen for the past hour or so. It would take some time for them to catch on, and by then this would all be over.
My father’s voice came on the line. “Remember to get in and out of there tonight. It’s a massive base, and we don’t need anyone trying to follow you back or stop you from leaving.”
Both were concerns for sure. Not that we couldn’t handle a threat, but it would make things more difficult.
I switched cameras as I watched them near the point of entry along the back of the building, praying that I had secured a good enough entry point. Damian’s eyes glinted as he found the camera I was looking through, offering me a sexy smile as they approached the door. Amun’s hand slid over my back as I let out a small sound, trying to keep the anxiety in my chest to a minimum.
They could do this.
They had done this a thousand times.
My father walked into the room, holding his large laptop and setting it on the table, as I waited with bated breath for Damian’s confirmation on accessing the building. My smile grew as I heard him say, “We’re in.”
“Be careful.”
“See you soon, flower.”
He cut the line as I looked towards my father’s laptop, where he had several views of internal cameras pulled up. I watched the screen with interest as my eyes narrowed in on the small entrance point and adjacent hallway. After what felt like minutes but was barely seconds, my chest flared as dark shadows began to dart past the cameras faster than I could track them.
I tilted my head, the room filling with a tense silence as we waited for shit to hit the fan. Then it did.
Out of nowhere, several guards seemingly dropped to the floor for no reason, blood flowing out onto the tile floors from their cut throats and guts. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I would have missed the familiar darkness that had moved across the screen briefly before disappearing and leaving them to bleed out. The quality of the cameras was shitty, so while I couldn’t tell for sure, I had a feeling it was Razar. Saint tended to like to make them suffer more.
Then the true chaos began to reign as my father switched through the cameras, showing scene after scene of guards on the ground, their screams silent because of our lack of volume. It was clear they were in a lot of pain though. I didn’t feel nearly as bad as I should have, probably.
Amun chuckled slightly under his breath as I leaned closer to him, glad that I wasn’t the only one who found this somewhat amusing. You know, especially since these people desperately wanted to kill everyone I loved. Yeah, like I said… no sympathy.
I sat up straighter as my earpiece crackled on, eager to hear their voices.
“Damian?” I asked, the camera my father was controlling zooming in on a screen where a familiar muscular figure stood. His massive frame seemed to glint in the black and white feed, and my fingers twitched, wishing I could touch him as I waited eagerly for him to respond. Especially since he was standing right in front of the correct cell, according to our intel.
“You are positive this is the correct cell?” he got out gruffly.
“Yes,” I confirmed.
Damian crouched down, a worried noise coming across the line as he seemed to examine the small entrance to the cell with concern. I was now becoming far more stressed by the moment. I knew he wasn’t in danger right now, according to the other cameras, but something was very clearly causing him to get upset.
“Damian, what is going on?” I demanded.
His voice was rough. “It’s a little girl.”
What?
“What?” My father’s voice echoed my thoughts.
“It’s a fucking little girl, she’s goddamn unconscious and bleeding.”
Holy shit.
“Get her out of there, now,” I hissed, fury running under my skin as I tried to keep focused. I could be mad when they got the hell out of there. But shit. Is that what fucking humans were coming to? Nightmares were prisoners, even if they were children? That was a low that even I hadn’t expected.
I watched as he lifted a tiny frame into his arms, my heart hurting as his voice came out pained. “Heading out. Her pulse is still going, but it’s weak. I can tell she has several broken bones… hell, she looks like she has been through the works here, but she is alive. At least right now.”