Chapter 33: Chapter Thirty-Two

I overtook him quickly and with a swift move, beheaded him. I barely spared a glance at his body as it fell to the ground. I stood relaxed looking at the group of weres and dragons before me, “Lay down your weapons. Now,” I said with all of the dominance I could muster in my voice. The rest of the dragons laid down their weapons and the rogues showed submission again but only lowered their weapons. “Rogues, lay down your weapons, and you can be on your way. The only way you hang onto them is if you’re dead.”

They looked at one another and most of them laid down their weapons, and turned back to me as if expecting me to go back on my word. I motioned for them to be on their way, and they took off running through the underbrush. Those that were left looked at me, as the dragons that had no part in this shuffled out of the way, the rogues charged me.

I soon had three rogue weres trying to flank me while one attacked from the front. I quickly killed the one in front of me, but before I could turn my attack on the remaining three I was grabbed from behind. I let the one on the right move in close to attack me before kicking him across the face hard enough to break his neck. I used my momentum from that kick to flip the one behind me over my head, waiting for him to get back on his feet before beheading him too. The one on my left tried to shoot me, but I jammed the slide and quickly beheaded him.

Once the rogues saw that I could take down four of them without breaking a sweat, most of them surrendered. The few that didn’t are killed swiftly, “What about us?” One of the dragons asked.

I smelled the air now that the rogues were gone, all twenty or so of them were storm dragons. ‘"You’ll come back with us. Back home where you belong." The crowd erupted in excitement and apprehension, “I need to talk to Daniel first and figure out how to get all of you back home, but we’ll get everyone back.”

The team took off their face masks and hoods and made their way over to me. As Ian made his way to me, a woman stepped forward, “Ian is that you?”

Ian sniffed the air and his brow furrowed, “Mom?”

“It is you,” she grabbed him and hugged him tight. She pulled away to appraise him, “Look at you all grown up.”

“Josie, did you bring the irons?” I mind linked her as Ian and his mom caught up, “And the oil?”

She nodded and began unloading the things I asked for from her pack. Fox walked over, “So private contractor?”

“Seriously? That’s what you want to talk about right now? I am a government contractor, but I can’t just go around saying ‘hey guess what guys I’m The Ghost and I’m basically an assassin for hire!’ Also you’re welcome because this was a trap set by someone in your government. You’re lucky I’ve been double checking your fucking intel and missions since you started just in case something like this happened. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got a prisoner to get ready for transport.”

I grabbed the oil from Josie and put it into a syringe, “What are you giving him? And what are you going to do about my human teammates? Huh? They saw everything, someone needs to explain it to them or something.”

“What I’m giving him is none of your business. Your teammates, your responsibility. You are the newest to find out about us so explain it to them, but be gentle. If you have any problems just remember Jax and Matthew are on the team too; they should help.”

I gave him a smack on the shoulder and walked over to Joseph. He tried to struggle against the vines but they were bound tightly around him. Just as I was about to stick the syringe in, he made his move. He bent lightning through the vines, and moved to strike me. I was ready for him as his lightning hit me, I let it come in and willed it to pass back out my arm. Except for my heavy breath no one made a sound. “Okay I’ve had enough of you,” I said between breaths as I tried to catch my breath.

“You were weakened in that last blow, niece. I would be careful if I were you,” he said with a sneer on his face.

“Niamh, how’s that thing we’ve been working on?” I asked her in my head.

“I think we could definitely try it, or you could just shift and let me bite his head off,” she suggested.

I smirked, “Daniel deserves his justice more than we do. We take him back to Storm Industries.”

I allowed Niamh to come close to the surface and together we sought out all of the water in Joseph’s body. He started laughing, “You’re losing control of your dragon. The queen losing control.”

I ignored him and continued on with my plan. Soon his laughter stopped and he started groaning. I commanded his right arm to hit his forehead and it did. I smiled and commanded his legs to go down to his knees and his arms to go behind his head. He tried to speak but I didn’t allow it. “Amaya, is this you?” Jace asked out loud instead of through the mind link because I blocked the link.

I just nodded, afraid to break my concentration. I walked up to Joseph, dosed him with the oil, and put the chains on him. “How the fuck did you do that Little Duck?” Jax asked.

I shrugged, “It’s something Niamh and I have been working on with our bending.”

“What is it exactly?” Jace asked.

“Do you remember Avatar the Last Airbender?” They nodded, “I rewatched it like a year ago maybe? Well they have subcategories for benders, metal bending and blood bending being two I’ve put my energy into and it’s worked. I wasn’t sure blood bending would work until just now because, well, I haven’t wanted to try it on an actual person, but this gave me the chance to test it.”

They both looked confused, “Are you fucking kidding me?” Jace finally said, “You can’t tell me you came up with that on your own. Niamh is a fucking trouble maker. She had to be the mastermind on this.”

Jax chuckled as I rolled my eyes, “Whatever. Alanza, are we still good to go to your clan?”

She nodded, “We won’t be able to stay as long with all the extra bodies, but we’re still good to go.”

I pulled out my satellite phone and dialed Daniel’s number, “Amaya. All good?”

“Uuuuh yeah. So about that, the person on this end that set it up, was Joseph. He had a small army waiting on the guys. We caught up to them just in time and you’ll never guess who made up most of his army. Storm dragons.” I heard his sharp intake, “I have Joseph confined and drugged. We’ll be back sooner than we thought with the extra bodies. Do you think you can send over a bigger plane? The one we came over on isn’t big enough for everyone.”

He didn’t speak for a long moment but then he coughed, “Yeah, um, yeah I’ll get one to you as quick as I can.”

His voice was so full of emotion, “It’s going to be a long road for these people Dad, but they’re excited about coming home. Ian’s mom was among them.”

“What about his dad?” He asked quickly.

“I’m not sure. I had to deal with Joseph plus a few of the SEALs are human so I’ve got Fox on damage control considering he knows what it is to have your world view shifted.”

“Gods what a mess. You still want me to get in touch with my contacts to see if I can figure out who set all this up?”

“Please and thank you. Are you okay?” I asked him.

He released a breath, “Yeah I’m fine or I will be once we get everyone home.”

“Right. Well I gotta go. We still have things to sort out here.”

“Be safe.”

“You too,” I hung up and looked around me at the group of dragons. I approached Ian’s mom, “Ms. Black, do you guys have a camp?”

She startled, shaking her head to shake herself out of it, “Um yes, my queen.”

I held up my hand to stop her, “Please call me Amaya.” She nodded and started to bow, “Please don’t bow either. I might be queen, but I don’t like the formality of it.”

She smiled sadly and placed a hand on my cheek, “You are just like your mother. Please call me Mona.”

I returned her sad smile, after a beat I cleared my throat, “So how far away is this camp and are there more of you that didn’t come today?”

She nodded, “It’s about five miles north of here. We have several injured or weakened from lack of food and some kids too.”

My heart sank at the idea of there being kids within Joseph’s grasp, “Okay. We’ll go there first and from there, tomorrow, we’ll go to Alanza’s clan until Daniel can send another plane for us.”