Will POV
I would personally pay for these bastards to show up at this rate. Groaning, I lifted my knees off the grit and tried to rub a bit of feeling into them. Between Willow, school and this, my patience was receding faster than Trace's hairline. The miserable, neglected surroundings of falling fences and houses dumped on postage stamp lots helped none. It was a ridiculously dull, barren landscape with an equally sad petrol station being its focal point. This was the outskirts of New York no film ever included.
I usually loved contributing to the greater good but not tonight as I struggled to stay cognizant. We'd only been here three hours though some of Vick's crew alternated positions and disguises. Currently they were the 'old' woman in a beaten tan coat 'drinking' from a paper bag, the petrol pump assistant and the man searching the bin across the street. Another dozen were in hiding. I yawned and slapped either cheek.
Stay alert Vick ordered intruding my thoughts.
Sorry bro. Trying my best.
Try harder. Anything to report?
I prepared to give him my response for the last three hours when I felt it. There was only one word for it. Danger. Yes, get everyone into position now.
I gave myself another slap. Having tossed and turned the entire previous night I was now at the end of my tank. It was already midnight despite the source's claims the deal would occur just before ten. I bet these 'sources' would be a tad more accurate if they worked under Vick's dictatorship.
Will.
Sorry Vick.
Agent Makslov reports eta two minutes, twenty seconds.
I relayed the message to the two hiding with me and sent it through telepathy to Xav while Victor took care of everyone else. For fear of being blocked out by scramblers, we'd Savants with each group and only those on their own had wires. Fingers crossed, this would not be a decision to regret later.
To the side of the decrepit petrol station, a young stout Indian man got out of a van. I thought that had been cleared as empty on arrival! I had no time to be annoyed Vick failed to mention this before a sleek car pulled in, its engine barely humming above a purr. It stopped alongside the van and a tall pale young woman, along with an African American man, stepped out. She looked like hardened ice, her hair tied in a hard knot of the top of her head while the man was pure muscle. My pulse rose a little just looking at them. All we had to do was wait for the command from Vick to pounce.
The woman walked over to the Indian man and spoke for a few seconds as her comrade went to check the man's vehicle. She loomed over the stout man, grilling him to such an extent he took a rag out of his shirt pocket and mopped his brow. She tossed her head up, as though in disbelief, and glanced at her comrade. He turned around without a word and the two went to the trunk of their car. Why had Victor not given us the go ahead yet? Looked like the duo had the goods on them. We needed to pounce now!
"Does anyone have a wire?" I hissed. Two shakes of the head. I swore under my breath and scanned the opposite side of the lot in the hope of catching Vick's eye. We were all under the strictest orders to obey his command. Our agent dressed as the petrol pump attendant looked my way and scratched under his ear. I shook my head once. Vick had a wire so even if we were un-reachable why could no one catch him?
I tried to link with him as the man popped the trunk. Vick! Vick! I felt my message flatten out. "Savants," I whispered, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. Shit. Click click click. Flashes of the time I had been shot in Italy came back as two guns were lifted and from this point for mere seconds, time seemed to slow. I jerked back to reality as two shots fired out and the Indian man slumped to the ground. Orders out the window, we descended only for the girl to turn her gun on us, flattening the petrol pump attendant. The rest of the group whipped out their guns as I tried to keep her bullets away using telekinesis. In a rush, all our agents surged forward, Vick among them. The woman on the wall added something to her bag and flung it low at the van's tires. The boom blasted through the lot, deafening everyone but the duo remained firm on their feet. Who were they?
"She blocks," Vick roared. "He's one too." Gunshots rang out and our side started going down fast. Bullets blew through cars, doors and smashed through the last window of an abandoned store across the street. "Block for us Will, Xav, Uri!"
A spray of gunfire flew into one of the guys with me and he was flung several feet back on the ground. I used telekinesis to deflect more fire from my group but with my attention divided in so many ways, a succession of sharp blasts tossed me to the side with the velocity of a jumbo jet. My head snapped off the ground, adding to the stars I saw above.
With well-practiced determination, the majority of the people grew closer though it was astounding the rate they were ploughing through our agents. My vision was debatable but through a few pieces of debris and trash lying around I spotted a third, fourth addition to their pack on the station's roof. Fuck. Drawing a dark unsteady line in the dying light, I dragged myself behind an industrial bin.
"Will, Will, you okay? You fine?" one of the younger agents asked, ducking down beside me as fire from above cut through his hair. He flattened down further, the awkward evasion nearly costing him his head.
"Roof," I breathed.
"What, what roof?" he shook me before looking through a gap in the bins. Chewing his lip he gave me a stiff pat. "Right, hold tight Will." He pushed off the ground, kicking gravel over me as he sprinted off. This was just a game of prey and predator but we were not on the right side. I rolled my head to look through the gap. My tired eyes slowly took in a limp arm hanging over the roof edge. They must be gone. It all felt so… removed from the heaviness I was falling under. I… I… must be shot. This felt familiar. Heavier but… My thoughts trailed off. The pain was starting to register. My shoulder and more were burning up, unleashing lance after lance of pure agony.
Gravel crunched underfoot and a set of tyres swerved near my head, a long round of gunfire following after them. "Go after 'em!"
"Get the SUV!"
"Get the van! The man took that one."
"Grab Marks, Barnes, Lee and Jules."
"The bodies on the roof, check 'em."
"Vick where's Will?"
"Not now Xav, have a look for him. I'm going with this group." Car doors slammed, tyres sprayed up dirt as sirens were turned on and the chase begun. Things were okay here for now. I tried to relax but the pain not only lingered but was reaching beyond the point of horrible to excruciating. I put my head up against the bin, sweat dripping down onto my lips as I tried to breathe. Just had to stay lucid so I focused on the sounds of chatter and a distant ambulance. I counted the seconds as best I could until someone found me already when my phone started ringing. My hand grasped my leg, shakily patting it down looking for it but my hands were slippery with hot liquid. My search grew more frantic until the point where my entire body shook from the effort.
"Wow, wow. Calm down, calm down I got it." Crystal said quickly kneeling beside me and managing to slip the phone out of my weak grasp. She answered, gingerly holding the phone in her fingertips. The ambulance had arrived casting her in blue light. A good strong blue like Willow's eyes...
"Oi Will, you listening? Bullets really like that shoulder..." Xav sighs. He carefully props me up against the bin and gets to work. When an agent comes over to Xav, he orders them to keep the paramedics away and to focus on the others and the bodies. Then reconsidering he orders them to get a few things to patch up my shoulder. "I'll do as much as I can now before anyone notices and finish later." He spends another ten minutes on my shoulder and heals up where a bullet grazed by leg before wrapping it up tightly.
"Some phone call Crystal is takin' for ya." Xav remarks as Crystal presses a finger to one ear and frowns as she listens hard with the other. Xav helps me up and slips me a few painkillers. I take them dry and head over to Crystal. Call it intuition but something tells me this call cannot be good news.
"Calm down, it'll be fine. And we will literally be home in two or three hours Tools."
Tulip? I trade a dumbfounded look with Xav who shrugs his shoulders. "Crystal, I can take it," I say, gently tapping her arm. Only now do I see the sheen of tears shining on her cheeks. Wordlessly I take the phone and Xav pulls Crystal into his arms. I tune out his frantic whispers in her ear, the sirens still blaring, the agents on phones and the paramedics talking. My danger senses re-flare as with a sense of foreboding, I put the phone to my ear.
"Tulip, it's Will. Okay? I can talk," I get cut off by renewed sobbing on the other end of the phone. More firmly I start again, ignoring the nausea in the pit of my stomach. "Tulip, what happened?"
"They, they took her," she bawls into the phone. "The, the drug guys, the Savant Ci-Ci- Circle Schema. They took Willow. Will, Will…"
The long grass. The chain link fence. The yellow light coming from dozens of windows, multiplying as a siren's blare continued. The bullet riddled cars, bins, buildings. They ceased to exist as nothing more than space. Every aspect of my body, mind and soul had just gone. I could deny it all I wanted and so could she but we were two hearts linked. And I was flatlining, no longer holding on for the hope of a future but giving up. Because I knew in that instant who had taken her. And these people had no adversity to violence.
Author person arriving for the bit-of-nonsense-at-the-end,
thanks for your reviews. I hope you like the Will and Willow's story. Do you remember when I was looking for the name for a character in chapters 17/18 and decided to use a version of a name suggested by LittleLily99 (which was Lisa btw)?
Well HINT HINT she will be appearing in the next chapter which is back to Willow!
I hoped you liked seeing things from Will's POV though it was mainly action filled :) Please leave a review to share what you though :)