Keira Kendrik (5 page)

Jackson and Cade arrived at their door at promptly seven the next morning
.  They had several of their men with them.  All of them had been filled in on the fact they were searching for a missing woman, Jasmine Dupree, who was their princes’ life mate.  They all understood the importance of getting this woman back.

Jackson had chosen well from their men at Champion
.  Christian, who considered himself a gifted lover was six foot, had blond hair that fell to his shoulders and green eyes; Trent, who was six foot two, brown hair and brown eyes; Cord, who was a jokester, stood at six foot, had brown hair and green eyes. Dominik was always serious, he stood at six foot three, had black hair and green eyes. Marco was also six foot with black hair and brown eyes. Then there was Gavin, he was around six foot two inches tall with brown hair and brown eyes like Trent. They were all Otherkin and the best at tracking people down.  They all set out for the warehouse where Gabe had seen the man exit. When they met at the rendezvous point, Jackson began to inform them what he had found.

"T
he license plate belonged to Michael DeMarco, a local thug who was also known as 'Kush'," he said as he looked at the guys. "He is known as 'Kush' because, evidently, our friend likes the cushier side of life and would do anything to get it."

As the men pondered this information, Phoenix said, "Well that does shed a light on things.
This has to be it." He shared a look with his brother.

 
Gabe's intuition told him that building was the one where the women were being held.  He caught Phoenix's gaze with his own, silently confirming with him that they would do whatever it took to free Jasmine immediately.

They pulled down past the building in question and parked one block over
.  Phoenix had the men split up and take different sections of the block.  He and Gabe were going to check out the window areas of the building Gabe had seen this Kush come out of the day before.  They both shifted into seagulls and flew to the first set of windows on the first floor of the four-story building.  They saw nothing but an empty building inside, trash littered everywhere, nothing to show anyone had been inside.  They flew to the second floor, which turned out to be the same as the first.  When they reached the third, everything changed.  With the sharp vision their birds carried, they saw there was a modern security system set up in a building that appeared to be abandoned.  They also saw two men with rather large submachine guns strapped to their shoulders.  They knew this was the building.  They turned to go back to the SUVs so they could speak to their men and make a plan of attack.

Once they had
met at the vehicles, Phoenix said, "We should go back to the townhouse and formulate our plan."

Gabe nodded.
"We are going to need to get some layouts of this building as well."

"I'm on it
," Jackson said, jumping on his laptop.  

When they arrived at the townhouse, Jackson printed the layouts he found and said, "These are the most recent blueprints filed with the county."

Cord stood and took his cell phone out of his pocket. "I'm ordering food."

Trent laughed.
"You would."

"Hey, we have to keep up our strength
," Cord grumbled, he was the muncher in the bunch.  When the food arrived, they began to eat and plan. 

"We'll go in after dark.
Before we leave, I want to try to merge again with Jasmine," Gabe said. Everyone nodded. Darkness gave them cover to change quickly in any given place. 

Phoenix and Gabe
went into the bedroom to try to merge with Jasmine but were unable to at the time. 

Phoenix sighed and ran a hand through his hair
. "She must be awake."

Gabe nodded.
"Don't worry, we're going to get her. She has to be in there."

"I know.
It's just that since inhaling her scent at her apartment, it's becoming difficult to maintain," Phoenix said.

"I know, brother, I'm in the same predicament."
Gabe chuckled. "We have to push it back."

"I am."
Phoenix sighed again then his face took on a look of determination. "Let's go get our mate."

Gabe nodded and pulled out his cell to contact his friend in the FBI.  He
told him of their plan to breach the building at dark.  The FBI agreed to stay around the other side of the building next to the one they were going in until they had freed the hostages and to also back them up if there was trouble.  This FBI man was one of the Otherkin and understood the lengths they would have to go to save the women inside.

****

Just after dark, they were all outside the building, the men spread out at each of the exits and a couple on the roof.  Cade changed into a spider and squeezed through a crack under the main door while Jackson kept lookout as a bird at the window.  Then he changed back to check out the security system wiring.  He came back out and gave Jackson the type and style of the system, which Jackson then used to tap into.  Once he had recorded several minutes of the video cameras, he set it on a loop so that no matter what movement might be caught by the cameras, all the men monitoring would see would be nothing.

Then Jackson signaled all the men in the group to let them know it was safe to go into the building
.  Phoenix and Gabe were up near the third floor and heard the signal.  They immediately changed into spiders and slowly made their way into the building.  They crept up behind the first two men who were out in the hall and quickly went to human behind them, knocking them out in no time.  They stayed in human form as they continued down the hall, confident that their men had taken anyone else out in the building.  Cord and Gavin were on the roof keeping watch for any new arrivals and they would alert them if that happened.

They rounded a corner to find Trent and Dominik coming from around a corner at the opposite end of the hall
.  The men nodded to each other and when they met in the middle, another hall took off in front of them.  They slowly made their way down and heard two men around the corner talking.  They got to the corner and heard a grunt, then Jackson and Cade signaled for them to move.  When they rounded the corner, they saw the two men slumped on the floor out cold.

There were several doors on either side and Jackson signaled using hand signs that the two men had been sitting on their right side, guarding
.  That meant the women were being kept on one side of the hall.  Phoenix and Gabe approached the first door, Gabe twisted the knob, with their Otherkin strength it broke the lock and the door opened.  There were four women, all in their twenties, huddled in the far corner.  The two men approached slowly with their hands out to show they meant no harm.

"Please remain calm
.  We are here to help you," Phoenix said calmly.

"Are any of you injured?" Gabe asked in a soft voice.

One of the women stepped forward and said, "No, none of us are hurt.  Are you really here to help us?" she said hesitantly.

Both men nodded and then turned to Trent an
d Dominik that were standing in the doorway.  "These men will help you out of the building safely.  It's okay to go with them, they work with us," Gabe told them.

The women started to go out, all quiet and in shock
.  Trent and Dominik smiled at them and then Trent led the way to take them out where the staging was for the FBI to pick them up.  Phoenix and Gabe eagerly moved to the next room where Jackson and Cade had gone.  As they went to the doorway, they heard yelling.

"Get back, you bastards
!  You are not taking anyone," a female voice yelled.

They looked in to see a woman standing in front of four other women who cowered behind her
.  She was in a fighting stance and on second look, they saw the enraged woman was none other than Jasmine Dupree.

As they went to approach her, they were shocked when Jackson and Cade turned to them and growled
.  Their life mate must be in the group of women, they surmised.  Jackson and Cade turned back to the woman.

"Ma'am, please be calm
.  We are here to help.  We are going to get all of you out of here," Jackson told her calmly, still holding his hands out.

Phoenix stepped up
.  "Jasmine, do you remember us?"

The woman guarding the others said, "Who's Jasmine?"

Phoenix frowned.  "You?"

"You are Jasmine, right?" Gabe asked confused.

"No, and I'm not gonna be either, so you can just fuck off!" she said.

Jackson turned to Phoenix
.  "She is not your Jasmine, she is ours," he said softly enough for Phoenix and Gabe's Otherkin hearing to pick up but not the women.

Phoenix and Gabe looked shocked and their eyes went to the woman again
.  She was an exact replica of Jasmine. 
Wow, their life mate had a twin, damn, that was surprising
.

"We'll let you handle this one
," Phoenix said as he and Gabe backed out, smirking at Jackson and Cade's issue.

It was all they could do to not laugh outright when they heard Cade mutter, "Yeah, thanks."

Phoenix and Gabe headed to the last door on the right.  Phoenix grabbed the knob and turned it.

*
***

Jasmine stood when she heard someone on the outside of their door
.  She herded the girls into the corner behind her where they would be safe from the men coming through.  When the door opened, she thought she might faint dead away.  The two men from her dream walked into the room with their hands held out as if they meant no harm.  Her head began to spin,
they were real
.

"Easy now
.  We will not harm you," Phoenix said softly.  She knew his name.  He was real.  He had just spoken and was waiting for her to say something.

"Phoenix
?  Gabriel?" she said softly.

They nodded and smiled at her, telling her with their eyes that she was safe
.  A sob escaped her and they opened their arms to her.  She ran into them without a second thought, closing her eyes in relief as she felt them engulf her in their warmth.  She was free from this nightmare.  Her knights had arrived.

She stepped back and smiled at them, wiping at her eyes.  She turned to the girls who were still huddled and frightened.

"It's okay, guys
.  These are my friends.  They are going to get you all home to your families," she told them gently.

Just as the girls all ran to her and hugged her, there was signal of trouble from outside
.  Phoenix went to the doorway while Gabe stayed with Jasmine.  Phoenix consulted with Jackson who had come out into the hall.  They had men coming in through the bottom floor.  Jackson was tracking them with his handheld computer.  They had already gotten the first set of women out of the building and safely away.  Cade was still dealing with the wild twin in the other room.

The men were coming fast so they needed to regroup
.  Phoenix went in and took Jasmine by the arm.  "I need your help in the other room with your sister," he said and they started walking to the next room.

"My sister?" Jasmine said.

Before she could say anything else, he led her into the room next door.  There was a man with broad shoulders standing in the middle of the room trying to calm someone down.  When he heard them in the doorway, he stepped to the side and Jasmine came face to face with herself.  Both women looked at each other in shock.

"Who are you?"
the woman asked Jasmine in a whispered voice.

"Who are YOU?'' Jasmine asked, looking shell
-shocked.

"Uh
-oh," Cade said in between them.

Phoenix stepped up and said, "Okay, I take
it you two don't know each other.”  He saw Jasmine shake her head.  He turned to her twin.  "Please, we are here to help.  Some men have arrived that are not with us.  We need to move you all into the same room for safety.  Please, come with us and you two can work this out in there."

The other woman nodded and motioned for her group to follow her
.  Phoenix and Cade ushered all the women into Jasmine's room.  Cade and Gabe stayed with the women and young girls, while Jackson and Phoenix went out to meet up with the others.  The men from downstairs were almost to the hallway.  Phoenix and Jackson went back to the first room they had cleared and shut the door.  They stood on either side and waited.  Marco and Christian were coming from the fourth floor.

There were six men coming that Jackson had noted on his handheld
.  Marco and Christian slipped into a room across the hall.  The rooms opposite where the women had been kept had been searched and were found to be where the guards slept probably in shifts.  All six men came running around the corner, as none of the guards were visible.  They had all been tied up and placed in another room, still out cold.

All six had guns as they slowly went down the hall
.  Jackson and Phoenix changed into spiders again and crawled on the ceiling over their heads in order to get behind them.  They changed back and took out the two in the back of the six men.  When the four remaining men turned, hearing the two drop to the floor, Jackson and Phoenix were back in spider form waiting.

The four men kept their backs to the walls and they looked terrified
.  They couldn't figure out what was happening but kept trying to get to the women.  They reached the first room and saw it was empty.

One of the men whispered, "Where the fuck did they go?"

"How the hell should I know?  What the fuck happened to Walt and Tommy?" another said, pointing to the downed men.

"Chuck, go see if Harvey is still on roof, we will search down here
," the one who seemed to be in charge said.

One guy took off down the hall, Phoenix knew he would only run into
Cord and Gavin. 

‘
Incoming, three down the corridor,’
Phoenix sent to his men.

Cord sent back
a picture of their grinning faces—they loved a good fight.  The three men left went to the second room and found it empty as well.  Phoenix and Jackson weren't going to let them get to the third room.  A loud thump came from the room Marco and Christian were supposedly in and Phoenix knew it was a ploy.  The three idiots took it and turned to face the door.

They opened the door slowly and then one stuck his head inside
.  He looked back at the other two and shrugged his shoulders.  They all went into the room, Jackson and Phoenix came up behind them.  Marco and Christian were in a fight with the first man and Phoenix and Jackson took the second and third guy.  There was a loud gunshot and then the three men slumped to the floor.

Phoenix looked to Marco,
Christian, and Jackson, all of whom appeared fine.  Jackson looked at Phoenix and got a surprised look on his face.  Phoenix looked down and realized the shot hadn't gone wide as he thought.  It had hit him in the side.

****

Jasmine had reentered the room where she was held captive in shock.  Gabe saw her white face and rushed to her side.

"What's wrong, Jasmine?"
he asked her.  When she didn't answer him, he said, "Are you hurt? Did something happen?”  He placed his arms around her and felt her whole body shake.  He looked over her head as Cade came in with the women from the other room.

"Gabe, she didn't know she had a twin
," Cade explained.

"Oh
, honey, we are so sorry.  We didn't know until we went in that room to save the women in there," Gabe told Jasmine.

She finally pulled back and turned to look at her twin who seemed to be in a similar state
.  "How?  Do you know?" Jasmine asked her.

Her twin shook her head
.  "No, I don't.”  They couldn't stop staring at each other.

"I'm Jasmine
.  What's your name?" Jasmine asked.

"I'm Sophie
.  It's nice to meet you, Jasmine.  I'm gonna take a gamble and say, long time no see.”  She barked out a laugh.

Jasmine, along with everyone else in the room, laughed as well
.  "Yeah, long time.”  She couldn't stop staring at her twin.  "This is too weird."

"Yeah, what are the odds?" Sophie said.

Cade stepped up to them.  "Ladies, I need you all to stay quiet and go into that back corner please.  We have company."

Gabe and Cade went into protective mode and ushered all of the women to the corner
, which is where the young girls were already huddled again.  The women all surrounded the girls, blocking them from view.  Jasmine and Sophie stood in the front, protecting all the females while Gabe and Cade stood by the door protecting them all.

They stayed like that for a while, all of them barely breathing
.  Then they heard a gunshot and then Gabe jerked.  Cade glanced at him, but Gabe shook his head.  A few moments later, both Gabe and Cade relaxed visibly.  The door opened and Jackson came in, walking directly to Gabe.  They spoke quietly for a few moments and then Gabe turned to Jasmine.

"I am going to step out into the hallway for a minute
.  I need for all of you to remain here with these men.  This is Cade and Jackson.  Okay?" Gabe asked her.

Jasmine nodded and he turned to walk out the door
.  She turned to check on the girls, as did Sophie.  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another man step in the doorway and speak to Cade and Jackson.  Something had happened, Jasmine knew it.  She also knew she wasn't going to get answers until the men were ready to give them.  She sighed, if anyone had been hurt then they wouldn't be acting like that, right?  She needed to assure the girls and then she would talk with the men.

****

Phoenix was sitting in a chair and Cord was dressing his wound.  As Otherkin they could recover from all wounds rather quickly, but that didn't mean it didn't sting like hell.  They couldn't get infections or colds like humans and they lived longer lives than humans did.

Gabe walked in.
"You did this on purpose."

Phoenix looked at him
.  "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You got shot so she will fawn all over you
," Gabe accused.

Phoenix laughed
, then grimaced when his side pulled.  "Yeah, getting shot on purpose was exactly what I had in mind when we jumped those guys."

Gabe turned to Marco and asked, "Are all of them trussed up in the other room?"

Marco nodded.  "Christian just took the last one over there."

Jackson walked in. "I am still monitoring the building
, but we need to go.  The FBI won't wait any longer.  We just got a text saying they are on their way."

Phoenix stood, nodding his thanks to Cord for the bandage
.  "Round up.  Let's get out of here."

They led all the women and girls out of the building
.  A lone van pulled up and flashed its lights.  Gabe laughed and shook his head as he walked toward it.  He stood there talking for a few minutes and then he led two men over to the women and girls.

"This is Special Agent Frank Brewster from the FBI, he and his partner are going to help you and get you home
,” Gabe explained to them. "Jasmine, I've arranged for you to come with us.  Sophie, too, if she wants."

Jasmine turned to Sophie
.  "Do you have family waiting for you?  A husband?"

All Otherkin heard Jackson
’s and Cade's swift intake of breath as they all waited to hear Sophie's answer.

"No, there is no one
," Sophie said and hung her head.

Jasmine walked up to her and put her arm around Sophie
.  "Well, now there is."

Sophie looked at her and smiled
.  "For you, too.  Shit, I can't get past this.  I have a twin.  It's so weird."

Jasmine smiled
, too.  "I know, right?"

Phoenix stepped up and said, "Ok
ay, we need to get going.  We don't want to draw any more attention."

Jasmine walked over to the young girls she had been in that horrible room with and hugged each one of them
.  She promised to check in on them and reassure them that they were safe now with the FBI.  Gabe assured her that a female agent was just around the corner and coming to tend to the young girls.  The FBI would also provide a therapist for them in order to help them through the trauma of their ordeal.  After hugging them a final time, Jasmine turned to Phoenix and Gabe.

"I'm ready
," she said shyly.

Both men came to her side and took a hand
.  They guided her and Sophie to two large, black SUVs.  Jackson and Cade stepped up to them.  They opened the back door and Cade got in sliding all the way over.  Then Jackson reached out to help Sophie in and got in beside her.  Phoenix walked around to the driver's seat while Gabe helped Jasmine in to sit between them.  Feeling these strong men sandwich her between them reminded her of her dream and she felt herself getting wet with the thought of doing in real life what they had done in the dream.

Gabe glanced down at her and she saw desire reflected in his gaze as if he could read her mind
.  She heard her own quick intake of breath as he used his eyes to caress her face, neck, and breasts.  Her nipples hardened into pointed peaks that were begging to be touched.  His hand slowly slid over her thigh to rub slow circles, calming her libido a little.

She couldn't understand how she could let two strange men into her life so easily
.  Yes, they had come from her dreams, but still.  She didn't know them at all.  They didn't know her.  Somehow, deep inside, she knew she could trust them.  They had said they were taking her to their ranch.  She sat there stunned, listening to the conversation going on around her.

"Are you okay?" Jackson asked Sophie.

"Yeah, just so happy to be out of there. I don't want to think about what our fate would have been," Sophie said with a shudder.

"Did they hurt you in any way?" Cade asked gently, both Sophie and Jasmine knew what he was asking.
Jasmine felt Phoenix and Gabe glance at her as well.

"No, they never touched me
," Sophie said quietly.

Gabe turned to Jasmine and lifted his brow in question.
She shook her head and then stared out the front windshield.  She still didn't know what to think about having a twin.  She had always felt a part of her was missing but thought that had to do with being abandoned as a baby, not that she had a twin.  This was life altering.  She couldn't help think to herself,
what's next
?