It was dark even though it was spring as we finally left the wretched place; we had killed everyone and saved those who needed to be saved, and now it was time to hit the nearest safe house and reset.
I was not sure how many we had saved, but a lot, so much so that each base in a five-state radius was full; our hospital was overflowing; Samuel’s clinics were full; Jarod’s and Miss Parker’s hospital was full too.
And Colin was mobilizing as many medics as he could.
I was not sure if we ended up anywhere, but right now, it was time to go to the nearest safe house, take a shower, and ask more resetters and then reset ourselves; only after that could we see what was going to happen next.
Our initial pleasure still thrummed, but now our bodies were feeling all of this, and it drained the best bits out of pleasure as we were exhausted.
We needed to do this, and I had pretty decent kit in my cars.
Nowadays, I have four fully packed cars in each safe house, my old cars but working and safe, with a locker system fully upgraded, so if it came to it, we could help each other after resetting if Colin was too busy or there was no room for us.
Colin and Samuel, as well as Will, had given initial statements to the police, the NSA, and the FBI.
FDA and whoever wanted to listen, as these victims were humans; we had saved them, and they too gave a lot of statements about what Krycheck or Sarks did to them and how we had saved them.
So many humans praised us for killing those bastards, knowing they had magic and new ones had been born, so the question remained: had we actually killed anyone or just made them grow new bodies?
So there was a lot to be discussed and studied from a legal point of view as well.
I knew our route, as not so many of us used these safe houses, and despite Wulfe being what he was, this programming stuck in my brain.
So I led the way.
We walked in darkness, not saying much of anything; only occasional grunts, gasps, and deep exhales were heard, or faint cussing erupted sometimes from someone’s mouth.
I was silent; my mind was empty and tired, and I could feel metals in my body, poisons, drugs, wounds, and bullets as my rage was no longer simmering so I could function; there was no use of burning it all out if I would need it in the upcoming days.
I was realistic; with so many victims and our facilities being quite well equipped to help, it was still a tight squeeze.
And Colin had to make hard decisions, and it would most likely mean giving us resetters as well as decent medkits and letting us try to help each other initially until there was room.
Or so was my little conclusion of the situation.
I knew that besides treating victims and finding them places to be, there was a hell of a lot of red tape, so to speak, and different authorities might want statement after statement from Colin and Samuel.
And whoever was to handle the drugs and machine data.
This was not just simply shuffling humans into places but making sure they lived and were treated, even for first aid, and then all of the other stuff that we teleported.
It was one big mess, and there were a lot of good people in my organization too, making sure the right stuff did not end up in the wrong hands.
There was a vast database of autopsy records with pictures; there were drugs, machines, liquid metals, and plans for certain individuals like me, Beauclaire, Jarod, and many of my people that Sark knew worked for me.
So this would be a big mess for months to come, and I did not doubt that I would end up in the middle of this myself as well.
I was, after all, the leader of this whole damn organization as well, one of the most sought-out subjects, and a victim of their tortures as well.
Right now, neither Salvatore nor Mariella came to my mind.
I did not even think about how they would take all of this, whether Damon would try to assert himself or get in the NSA, or how they would react to the whole damn mission.
None of this came to my mind, and I let my mind be in its blank state; I guess my mind was kind of tired as well, and it would take time for it to recover.
For me, physically, the road ahead would not be easy or fast, but it was what it was, and I had once again taken the hit that others could not. Get faster updates on g.com.
Except for my team, my pack had been with me taking the hit; we all had made this decision, and it united us so much more.
We finally reached the safehouse; it was a two-story suburban house near the edge of town in a middle-class area, and I walked like a robot to the door, pressed my finger into the scanner so the number pad came out, and then I entered the unique code for this house.
It was programmed into my mind.
My fingers worked themselves as they pressed the buttons, and finally, a green light flashed, the lock disengaged, and the door creaked open.
I entered first, letting others follow, and when we were all in, I stopped in the living room, which had a few enormous sofas that could be spread out as beds.
I said to everyone, “Now, first, we make suitable sleeping areas. I am not sure how many fit in bed, but these sofas can be spread open as beds. I have a decent amount of bedding here, and some of us will start making beds while we go shower. There are only two showers here but plenty of water, so each of us will choose clothes for themselves, go to the shower, and help make beds. I will call in more resetters, and once we are all ready in bed, we reset ourselves, and then as we wake up, let’s see where we are and what is next.”
I did not think about it anymore, as I had given orders on what we would do next, and we were getting ready for a shower.
I could go in last.
I went into one of the bedrooms; there was a gigantic bed there and lots of room still, as this room was immense, so the enormous bed, which could fit like 6, looked small in it.
I opened an enormous dresser and took out bedding and men’s clothing and a few female sets too.
I reserved a nightgown for myself, nothing more, but I had a gigantic pile of t-shirts, boxers for men, and a few sets of pajamas for females and nightgowns.
I carried them to the living room so whoever went to shower could get fresh clothes for themselves.
I also carried bedding and placed it on the sofa.
I said, “Okay, I am going to go and ask more resetters, and when we get them, then we can rest and start to heal. Here is bedding and such.”
I did not really think much as I walked to one room where there were five resetters; I checked they had not gone off, so they were good to go.
Next, I reached for my comm set, sat on the bed, placed the earpiece on me, activated the mic, and said, “This is Flea Leader, requesting additional resetters. I have five here, and since there are 18 of us, I need 13 resetters. You can get a ping on this transmission. So you can send a drone or whatever for us as fast as possible. Need any additional information?”
It was Colin who answered, and he said, “Use one of them on yourself, one for Wulfe, one for Adam, one for Charles, and one for Mimosa. I will get rest for their own resetters, so distribute those, and in 10 minutes, the drone will be there. We will act two hours after that.”
His voice was strained, and he was worried about me.
I could sense it.
As I walked out of the room, I was surprised to see men dragging those sofas into the bedroom; they had already moved one, and now the next one, and the females were making one big nest for us.
We were a pack.
So much so that they wanted to sleep together; all of us, well, it was fine with me.
Dresden and Constantine came out of the showers, and Tim and Taylor went in.
Several of the pack had already showered, including Mimosa and Shadow.
I gave those resetters that Colin had ordered and said, “The rest of you will get yours soon; Colin makes them suitable for you. Mine might be a bit too much for you; less than ten minutes and those should be here.”
Elena grunted; she had not yet gone to shower, and Katherine was unwashed as well.
We had time; multiple pack members were making our nest. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Making sure it was soft and comfy for us all, and they had found the thickest blankets and put new covers on them, and Dresden or someone had used a spell to fuse a few of them together so we would have one big blanket for us all.
We were operating with such a pack mentality right now; there was no me or you, but there was us, the pack.
This had been one tremendous deal for us all, and as it was now over, well, part of it was anyway, now it would be an even more grueling time, time to heal and time to deal with all this.
I knew that despite my darkness and whatnot, there might be backlash, and everyone would have to face the facts: what they did and how it felt.
Sure, my darkness was one part of it, but they would have those sensations, that pleasure, sounds, smells, and everything else to deal with.
I had no idea how they would even perceive it, as my rage had been part of me almost always, and killing, like this, was nothing new to me.
But for others, it might be a make-or-break moment, and I refused to even think about Wulfe’s situation.
If I had lost him for good, it would have made me feel like there was nothing good left in the world, and I did not notice the expression on Taylor’s face as he snatched that idea from our hive.
We were so closely connected that it was a little blurry to distinguish where one of us ended and the next one began.
As I was last to hit the showers and we had our delivery, meaning each of us had their resetter ready and most of us were already in bed, they had made a place for me in the middle; somehow they wanted me in the middle.
I went into the shower as Katherine walked out, and she looked like a ghost, skeletal, skinny, and tired, but not haunted like before, just utterly worn out and ready to rest.
I undressed and went into the shower, feeling hot water hitting my skin.
There were open wounds as pain hit me, making me take a bit more of my rage out so I could rinse myself.
As long as there was no longer blood oozing, I lifted my hand, a skeletal-like claw.
No more poison nails, but there was tissue or something under my nails.
I took a nailbrush and started to brush my nails, cleaning every bit of tissue out.
It was kind of my ritual; it prepped my mind for a reset, for sleep, and I could feel just how exhausted I was as well.
This time it felt like sleeping for 20 hours would do nothing, but we will see about that.
I had finally gotten myself clean enough, and I got out, dried myself, and put my nightgown on.
I padded to our bedroom and crawled onto the spot that was reserved for me.
And I lay down.
I said, “Hit the resetter into muscle; the thigh is an excellent place, and then it will take effect in five or ten minutes, so you can put empty cartridges onto the table then. ”
Light had been shut down, and everyone was shuffling to get their injection.
Someone cussed as it felt, and I felt too familiar a sting in my thigh as I hit the resetter syringe at home, knowing sleep soon would take me and hopefully I would wake up feeling much better, but I had no idea what was going to happen actually, and it would be one of the biggest surprises of my whole life.
The drug started to work, and my eyes drifted closed.
Magnum pressed closer; Charles was on the other side, and he took me against him, in his arms.
Making my head lean on his chest as sleep claimed us all.
It was over, truly, and healing was about to start happening.