Thea

Rajak’s stupid bald head rolled onto the floor, and I let out a sigh of relief. We’d actually done it. He was dead.

Nikko and two other pack members, whose names I couldn’t remember, were on the ground. They were still breathing and from what I knew about shifters, that meant they would probably live.

Lysc and Daria surprised me the most. They were both heavily wounded and had to sit down in order to dress their wounds.

Actually, Daria didn’t look that wounded. I thought she was faking it so that Rashka would take care of her. If that was her plan, then it was working, because Rashka was the least wounded, and was busy doting on Daria.

Bryce limped over to me while holding her stomach, so I moved to her left so that I could support her wounded leg.

“How’re you feeling, princess?” I asked.

Bryce tried to laugh, but it only came out as a groan. “I’m alive, which is more than I can say for him. What about you, my love?”

I felt my heart flutter and was about to respond when Softie appeared near us. They looked unharmed, but had a surprising amount of blood on their armor.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” they said.

“Where the fuck have you been?” I asked.

“I was looking for something.”

“What was it you were looking for?” Bryce asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” they said. “We should probably leave, because the plane is about to collapse.”

“Next time, start with that.” Lysc helped Nikko off the ground. “Let’s go. Captain, can you open the portal? Quickly, please.”

She was already halfway across the room.

“There’s no need,” Softie explained. “Rajak was the one maintaining the plane, and the portal opened as a failsafe after he died.”

I scooped up Bryce, careful to mind her wounded leg, and she let out a squeal as we chased after Lysc.

There were a few more bodies in the hallway than I remembered, including a few scantily clad men and women armed with dangerous looking daggers. Softie had mentioned Mother having a harem, it seemed like Rajak had one too.

We ran down the hallway and into the courtyard.

“Thea, look at that.” Bryce was pointing up and over my shoulder. The sky was broken, that was really the only way I could describe it. The purple ribbons from before were gone, and the white light in the distance seemed to have shattered into a web of cracks against the inky black background.

It looked beautiful. Albeit, in a terrifying world-ending kind of way.

The portal was open, just as Softie had said, so we leapt through it and exited back into the Syndicate compound.

“What now?” I carefully set Bryce back on her feet. She winced and gripped my shoulder tightly as her left leg contacted the ground.

“We can take Rajak’s shuttle; it should have the controls to lower the shield.” Bryce said. “Sora, can you fly it?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” they replied before walking through the glass door on the far side of the room.

Rajak’s shuttle looked super expensive. He had painted it a light blue color and it had gold filigree that looked like more than just fancy paint.

The interior was small because of the shuttle’s sleek design, but every centimeter was intricately carved wood and the seats were some sort of leather that felt warm to the touch.

There were two sets of benches in the hold and four chairs near the cockpit. Daria and Rashka stayed in the back with the wounded while Lysc joined us upfront.

Softie typed something into the console before pulling back on the controls, lifting the shuttle into the air.

“Where are we going?” Bryce asked.

“Warehouse on the outskirts of the city. We can land there without drawing too much attention,” Lysc said.

~~~~

Softie brought us down into the large warehouse, and we disembarked.

Everybody was exhausted and/or barely alive. Which is why it surprised me when Nikko attacked Bryce, and also why I nearly didn’t intercept him in time.

We were at the base of the ramp, and Sora had just gotten off the shuttle. Most of the injured pack members had been making their way out of the warehouse, but Lysc and Daria had stayed behind to talk to Bryce. Rashka was there too, but she just stayed because of Daria. The girl had it bad, and I was embarrassed for her.

Nikko had charged at Bryce, going straight for her throat. I caught his wrist, maybe a little too hard, and broke it. Then, I punched him in the stomach, but I was holding back.

The guy was obviously going through a lot, and he blamed Bryce for Dezra’s death. I wouldn’t fault him for something that I’d do if I were in his place. Besides, Dezra’s death wasn’t Bryce’s fault. It was mine.

Nikko stumbled, and I swept his legs, causing him to fall backwards. I kneeled on his chest and wrapped a hand around his throat.

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Thankfully, the punch to the stomach had dazed him. Otherwise, he probably could have just ignored my weight and stood up with me on top of him.

“Listen to me.” I was just a few centimeters from his face. “Bryce didn’t kill your mate, Esme did, and she was only there because she was looking for me.”

Nikko growled at me, but he didn’t direct it at Bryce. So, I took that as progress, and continued. “If you want revenge, then fight me, not Bryce. Or fucking hells, wait until we put Esme back in a new body and you can fight her.”

The room went quiet for a moment before Lysc finally spoke up.

“That’s something you can do?” she asked. “Put the demon into a new body?”

“At least in theory,” Bryce said. “I’ve never done it before, but she had a soul stone when she died. Which should allow us to put her soul in a new body, but it might be awhile before we can find something suitable, and even then it’ll probably take some time for her soul to recover.”

“Very well,” Lysc said. “Nikko, when the demon gets a new body, I’ll fight her on behalf of Dezra and Mazi both. Understand?”

I wasn’t sure I liked that idea. Lysc was a scary good fighter, probably weaker than me, but way more skilled. She would probably put up a decent fight against me while I was being empowered by Bryce and I didn’t know what kind of state Esme would be in when we finally got her back.

“Yes, boss.” Nikko said.

“Good. Thea, if that’s an acceptable compromise, could you please get off of Nikko?” Lysc asked.

I stood up, and while I still didn’t like the idea of Esme fighting Lysc, I figured we could always just run away if she wasn’t up for it. Besides, the alternative was killing Nikko right here, and I didn’t want to do that.

“Daria, please take Nikko and the others home. I still need to speak with the captain.” Lysc said.

Nikko got up and followed Daria out of the warehouse along with the other pack members. I moved back over to Bryce’s side.

“Esme is a greater demon and a succubus,” Bryce said. “Are you sure you want to fight her?”

Lysc shrugged. “She killed two of mine, and the pack will demand satisfaction. Besides, the fight won’t necessarily be to the death.”

“Okay, if that’s the case, then I’ll contact you once we have Esme back, and she’s healthy enough to fight,” Bryce lied.

I appreciated her lying for Esme’s sake, but she didn’t need to. Once Esme got her body back and she understood what had happened, she’d want to make it right. Especially if the fight wasn’t to the death.

Honestly, if the fight wasn’t to the death, then she’d probably want to do it just for fun. Esme really liked werewolves.

“Thank you, captain.” Lysc said. “I’ve already transferred the credits to your account, and there’s an extra shuttle stationed outside. We can recover it if you leave it at your hangar.”

Bryce thanked Lysc before shaking her hand.

“One last thing,” Lysc added. “Be careful if you deal with Teolix in the future.”

Bryce laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind. And if we’re being honest, I have a few plans for that giant lizard after what he pulled.”

Lysc smirked, and we parted ways. The shuttle that she'd left us was a pretty standard auto-shuttle, similar to what we'd been using ever since we arrived, and it didn’t take long for it to get us back.

~~~~

“That went better than expected.” Softie spoke up after we all got aboard our ship.

“It definitely could have gone a lot worse,” Bryce said. “Let’s get off-world as soon as we can. Have Samira head up to the top deck, so we can discuss our next steps.”

I felt the ship moving as we made our way up the stairs, and the clouds were already visible by the time we got to the couches.

I grabbed the seat next to Bryce and snuggled up next to her. She started playing with my hair and I nearly fell asleep right there.

“How are you feeling?” Bryce asked.

“I’ll survive.” It wasn’t what she asked, but it was the most honest answer I could manage.

“That’s not what I asked.” Bryce tilted my head up to look me in the eye.

I sighed. “Well, my shoulder hurts and I’m mad at Nikko for attacking you, but I get why he did it. So, I feel bad about being mad at him, and then I’m mad at Esme for nearly killing you, but I did kill her, so I feel extra bad about that. I can't shake the feeling that all of this is probably that idiot demon’s fault, but Malvoch is only doing this because I fucked up, so it’s really all my own fau-.”

Bryce interrupted me with a kiss that she didn’t break for a long moment.

“The entire situation sucks.” She expertly declared. “The pack knew what they were getting into, and because we went with them, they only lost 2 members. Without us, the entire siege wouldn’t have been possible and the pack would’ve been wiped out, eventually.”

Bryce was right, because of course she was, but that didn’t make me feel all that much better.

“One thing for sure,” Bryce continued. “When Esme gets a new body, I’m definitely going to kick her ass.”

I laughed, and that definitely made me feel better. Esme was long overdue for a good ass kicking.

“Ew, gross. Get a room,” Sami said.

“Fuck off, Sami, we’re busy.” I said.

“You were the ones that invited us up here,” Softie said. “I’m grabbing a drink. Anybody else want one?”

“Grab me a beer,” Sami said before sitting down across from us.

“Did Sora explain the situation?” Bryce asked.

“Yeah, and I watched most of it through their feed, at least the parts that your spell didn’t block.” Sami said. “You know they stare at your ass, like all the time.”

Bryce’s face turned red, and I couldn’t help but laugh. There’s no way I could blame Sora for something I did too. Bryce’s ass really was pretty great.

“I stare at everybody’s ass.” Softie handed Sami her beer and took the seat next to her. “Sorry, captain, but you’re not special.”

“Could we maybe talk about something else?” Bryce asked. “Like what you found in Rajak’s manor?”

“Speaking of ass.” Sami muttered into her beer.

Sora smirked as they began their explanation. “I cleared out Rajak’s harem. While doing that, I found two things. First is this.”

Softie held up a silver key before tossing it to Bryce, which she caught out of the air and held up against the light.

“It’s the key to Rajak’s treasury.” Softie explained. “In theory, you can use it to open a portal from anywhere to gain access to it, which should help with any money problems in the future.”

“Do you know how to use it?” Bryce asked.

“No idea.”

“What’s the second thing?” I asked.

“This.” A message appeared in my feed. It was an image of Sami and Softie along with a 250 million credit bounty.

“That’s not good,” I said.

“No, it’s not. I guess Mother really wanted you back,” Bryce said. “At least the bounty specifies for you to be alive.”

“She always preferred to keep her prisoners living for as long as possible,” Sami said with a shudder.

“We should probably deal with that soon,” I said.

“I think the next step is going to be getting Esme a new body,” Bryce said. “If our fight with Rajak taught us anything, it’s that we can kill a djinn. We just need to throw enough powerful people at them. Having Esme around would be a major step in the right direction.”

“Do you have a soulless body hidden away somewhere?” Softie asked.

Bryce shook her head. “No, but I may have a few leads on some research projects that might help us. If we get really desperate, then I know Legion has had some success in that field.”

“Doesn’t Legion contract with EVI corp?” Sora asked. “Don’t forget about your own bounties, captain.”

“Which is why we’ll only use Legion as a last resort.” Bryce said.

“This all sounds like a lot of shit to deal with,” Sami said.

I smiled, because it sounded like a lot of fun to me.