Colton looked shaken, broken, a shell of the man he’d once known. Shay didn’t give a damn. He joined Kelly in the closet and cracked the door a notch.
The screen door slammed. Footsteps sounded. Not the heavy tread he’d expected.
Shocked, Shay watched a woman enter the room and look around, her nostrils flaring, the aristocratic cheekbones sharp blades against her skin.
Moira Rogers, the pampered and privileged wife of Senator Robert Rogers.
“Moira? Where’s your husband?” Colton’s voice was courteous but suspicious.
She gazed around the room. “Colton. Has your son killed Kelly Denning yet?”
“I thought you were more inclined to hair appointments, not politics and assassinations,” Colton said, dropping the veneer of politeness.
“You fool. You have no idea of the real power behind my husband.”
A flicker across his father’s face. Behind him, Shay heard Kelly’s muffled gasp.
“A shame your son is so disobedient. Denning’s death would herald the new era of our people no longer tolerating the Arcane threat. The first wave takes place tonight, in this community. A small pocket, but enough to declare a victory against those roaches.”
Colton hardened his expression.
“No. I’ve had a change of heart. There will be no killing of Arcanes until this entire matter is officially investigated by the council. And if you, or your husband, try to start, I’ll not only have you arrested, goddammit it, I’ll toss you into prison myself.”
Flesh tightened against the woman’s cheekbones. “You would not dare. You lack the power.”
“I am an Elemental Phantom Mage. Try me.”
The senator’s wife raised her hands and began a series of chants Shay remembered well. Chants to call for the powers...
Hellfire! Dark energy snaked out of the sky, burned through the screen door and shot into her hands. She released the tendrils and struck Colton. He sailed backward, hitting the fireplace and sending pottery smashing to the floor.
Enraged, Shay emerged from the closet and fired, but the bullets burst into metallic dust in midair.
A soft, almost gentle laugh as Moira flicked a finger. Agony blasted through him as the burn of dark magick hit.
“You can’t destroy me with bullets,” she said, her tone amused.
The pain faded like a needle prick. Shay narrowed his gaze, moving around Moira, gauging the best way to take her down. Kelly crept out of the closet. “Sam, use this!”
He caught the triskele one-handed. Power hummed in his blood, a gathering force swelling like the sea, thundering through his pores. But before he could release it, Moira hurled more dark energy, sending him flying backward.
What the hell... Stunned, he realized the woman was no ordinary Mage.
From his peripheral vision, Shay saw his father move.
“No one,” Colton grated out, “touches my son. You bitch.”
As she turned, his father wrapped his hands around Moira’s throat and squeezed. The senator’s wife gasped as two thumbs pressed against her windpipe. Snarling, she tried to throw him off, but Colton persisted, even as her power seared his skin.
Talons emerged from her fingertips, and crimson stained the crisp whiteness of his father’s shirt as Moira sank them into Colton’s chest. A red glow suffused them, the power cooking his father from the inside out.
A wheezing gasp as his father’s face paled with agony.
Shay flung back his hand, ready to send more energy bolts into Moira. Hell, he couldn’t do it, not without hurting his father.
“Let her go, Dad. I can’t hurt you.”
Colton’s pain-racked gaze met his. “I’ve been a fool, a pawn in their ideology of hatred. I have to make up for what I’ve done. Don’t let hatred rule like it ruled me, son.” He moaned as the claws sank deeper. “I love you.”
Stricken, Shay regarded his father, his powers shimmering in his palms. “I love you, too, Dad.”
Then the Shaymore patriarch spoke in the firm voice Shay remembered well from his childhood. “Do it.”
Shay released his power as Colton snapped Moira’s neck. Her final scream cut off as the white-hot energy surged into them both, suffusing them in an eerie glow.
Colton dropped to the floor beside the senator’s wife.
Panic surged through Shay. He ran to Colton and cradled him, fingers searching for a pulse. Hazel eyes, much like his own, stared sightlessly at the ceiling.
Shay gently lowered him to the floor. Throat tight with grief, he glanced at Kelly.
“He wanted you to be proud of him, Sam.”
“I am,” he said quietly as he closed his father’s staring eyes. “He finally did the right thing and saw how wrong he’d been.”
If it had only been sooner. All these wasted years. Bitterness had killed his father long ago. But maybe in those last moments, Colton had finally felt a sense of peace.
“Sam, look at her,” Kelly whispered. “She’s changing.”
Blinking, he studied Moira Rogers’s corpse as it slowly shifted into a stranger’s face, a man’s slightly overweight body.
“If that wasn’t Moira Rogers, then who is that? And where’s the real Moira?” she asked.
Shay shook his head. “Someone must have killed her and stolen her powers.”
“But I didn’t see a Death Mask.”
Damn. He needed Curt, but his CO was out. He needed his teammates. He was going to have to go this alone. Shay glanced at his watch. In less than an hour, the committee would assemble and then all hell would break loose in this picturesque farming community. He’d have to take them out by himself. No innocents died on his watch.
Then he heard the sound of heavy vehicles coming up the drive. Shay’s heart sank as he glanced at Kelly. No time for her to escape. But her face lit up.
“Sam! Look!”
He turned to the window. The cavalry had arrived. Two Hummers parked in the drive, and out climbed seven men, dressed in battle gear, submachine guns in hand. The entire Phoenix Force. Even Tiger.
Shock loosened his jaw. The screen door banged as he ran outside.
“What the hell are you guys doing here? You’re AWOL!”
Dakota looked quietly at him. “Yeah. But we couldn’t sit on our asses, knowing you needed us.”
“Besides, you didn’t think you’d hog all the fun, while we stayed at the base, did you?” Renegade asked.
“Especially after you told Dakota where you were headed. We gauged the timing to arrive before you did,” Jammer added.
“Except we’re a little late. Dakota drives like an old lady,” Sully said.
Emotion at the thought of their loyalty tightened his chest. Words failed him. Instead, he slapped Renegade on the back.
Kelly stood on the porch, watching them quietly. “If Arcanes and Elementals were all SEALs, we’d never have a problem. Because we’d finally learn to work together, instead of apart.”
She gave a small smile. “Even if they poured jalapeno juice into our water.”
The men laughed, but Renegade shook his head. “Still owe you for that one, Shay.”
“Collect it tomorrow. Here’s what’s going down. In less than an hour, Senator Rogers arrives. He’s spearheading a committee that plans to slaughter Arcanes, starting in this community.”
Silence filled the air. Dakota’s expression hardened. “What’s your plan?”
Shay narrowed his gaze, looking out at the sweeping meadows, the jagged mountains. “We’re going to arrange our own welcoming committee.”
