Dave, Liana and Brigid stormed into the boss's headquarters taking out any and all security whether they be men or magical spells. Between the three of them they had gotten past all the traps and men, but of course, they had also done a search beforehand. Dave was good at not being seen, Liana brewed him an invisibility potion just in case, as she didn't want him getting caught. The invisibility potion would only last a couple of hours, but that was enough for Dave to get over the high wall that was all around the property and figure out how they were going to get in. The wall of course had magical protection all over it, but with Dave's knowledge and also his immense power it was easy to quietly disable any alarms temporarily and look for the best place to enter. The man they had captured when they had shown up at Dave's house had given them a lot of information, but they wanted to make sure that it was accurate before they did a full out assault. He couldn't have been lying precisely because Liana had dosed him with truth potion, but still, if he was smart there were ways to get around truth potions at least the normal garden-variety ones, but it took a strong will and also knowing how to do it, as there was a certain method to it.

The man they had captured didn't seem smart enough to get around the truth serum, but still, you never knew.

Brigid had been enthusiastic for the plan when she had learned what they wanted to do. She had always thought that Liana should've confronted the man who had made her life such a misery years ago, but had understood the friends fears and it also would've been unwise to do so alone. Now that her friend had her father however, it was time to confront this man. She was happy to help in anyway she could as she was quite good with a knife or even a sword because her father had made sure of that. She also had her magic to call upon if necessary. She could only do so many spells though before she ran out of strength and would have to rest, which was why her dad had made sure she was also good with other weapons, just in case.

"Who are you?" The man behind the desk yelled as he rose to his feet so fast it was nearly instantaneous. "How did you get in here?"

"What you don't recognize me?" Liana asked with a smirk. "You don't recognize the young girl who watched you murder her mother and who's been on the run never since?"

The man flinched seeing murder on the face of somebody he had hoped to either lure into his employ, well, either that or force.

"I'm here for my pound of flesh. Not only did you terrorize a 12-year-old girl, you murdered her only support. Do you know what I had to do to survive?" Liana asked with rage in her expression and voice. "It doesn't matter," Liana decided, "because even if you did know I'm sure you wouldn't care, because you're a monster who's willing to murder and threaten people to get what he wants."

"Dave if you don't mind could you make sure he doesn't escape."

"I can make you rich," the man said desperately.

"I'm already rich," Liana told him. "Rich in the important things and that's in the people that love me. Not everyone wants to be wealthy like I'm sure you believe. Money doesn't matter to me enough to throw my ethics and morals out the window. To terrorize people who are just trying to live their lives in the best way they know how."

"A goody two shoes," the man spat, even though he was terrified, because this Dave had made sure that he couldn't use his escape hatch. He didn't know who this Dave was just that he was powerful enough to hold him without using any other type of weapon. As much as he struggled he couldn't get free.

"If doing the right thing and not wanting to be under somebody's else's control makes me a goody two shoes then so be it," Liana decided. "Unlike you I have a conscience. I could never betray people the way you seem to take great pleasure in doing or force them to do things against their consciouses."

The dark magic just reeked off Gilbert Templar, which was the name of the man that had been chasing her for a long time. She and Dave had learned that from the man they had a questioned under truth serum.

"If I was less nice I'd enjoy torturing you for the next 18 years which is how long you've been after me. Tell me you stopped looking after you couldn't find me and maybe I'll believe you," Liana said. "You've made my life a misery for nearly 20 years, so tell me why I shouldn't permanently get rid of you."

"We can help each other," Templar begged.

"Please," Liana snorted in contempt. At that Brigid smirked at her friend's tone, even as she guarded the door making sure nobody noticed what was happening. They had taken out an awful lot of Templar's men, but there was no guarantee that they had gotten them all. Some likely weren't in the building and out accomplishing tasks the their boss or master, so they needed to be careful, so that nobody snuck up on them.

"We need to hurry this up," Dave said speaking. "The sooner we get this done sooner will get out here, so we can live our lives in peace, without being in the constant shadow of fear or anxiety of Templar finding you and harming your friends or family."

"What the hell are you? You aren't an ordinary shifter," Templar's eyes narrowed in speculation.

"What I am is none of your business," Dave told him in a dangerous tone. "All I know is, you have terrorized the woman I love for years. You murdered her only support or at least your men did, but I'm sure they were under your orders."

"I actually wanted her brought in alive," Templar sneered. "What happened went against my orders at the time, but when I learned and that she had a daughter, a daughter who likely inherited her mother's immense magical strength..."

"And you think it makes it okay that you murdered my mother and then sent your men to try to get their hands on me. Luckily, for me, mom, had taught me enough to keep myself concealed using minimal magic. You might have thought I inherited my mother's powerful magic but you had no way of knowing for sure, so why you kept chasing me, is beyond me. You kept chasing me for over eight years before I managed to get me a concealment charm, a powerful one."

Templar's eyes widened, as he had often wondered over the years why his seers couldn't find Liana. Getting the concealment charm, which weren't that common explained so many things.

"Why come after me now since you have a concealment charm?" Templar asked. She had nearly been caught several times in the beginning but then she had gotten smarter and while there had been run-ins they hadn't gotten anywhere close to capturing her. After she had gotten her concealment charm about 12 years ago they hadn't been able to find hide nor hair of her, not even his best seers and they had tried for years. Despite not being able to find her he had never given up on locating her and forcing her to do his bidding as he was sure that she'd be extremely powerful, just like her mother.

He never even considered the fact that Liana wasn't about to work for the organization that had killed her mom, not willingly. However, nonetheless, he had been prepared to use one of the slave collars, which were as rare as hen's teeth. He had a few slave collars, a rather fortunate find and he had been prepared to use one of his limited supply if Liana didn't cooperate.

"Because I want to be able to live my life free of fear and anxiety," Liana answered simply, with a dangerous glint in eyes. "I want to be able to have a family, without fear that you'll find out where I am and take one or more of them hostage to get me to cooperate."

"Which if that happened, we have many friends that would help us and we'd come down on you like thunder, so fast and powerful you'd never see us coming," Dave growled his voice so menacing Templar shivered. "We wouldn't just kill you cleanly, and just as Liana suggested a few minutes ago we'd torture you for as long as possible if any harm came to any child of ours."

"No one's going to miss a minor criminal boss and the government will probably breathe a sigh of relief that you are gone and close the file I'm sure they have on you," Dave added. "I'm sure they'll just be glad that that's one less thing they have to worry about."

Templar knew he was dead then. Whatever kind of supernatural Dave was he was very powerful. He wasn't a shifter or at least not one in the traditional sense, as he could sense that. No, he didn't smell like a shifter would, but whatever this Dave was he was very powerful, because as much as the struggled the grip that Dave had on him never slackened nor did the man holding him show any sign of pain or strain. He could breathe and talk, but otherwise, he was trapped and he could see his death staring him in the face. If he had only known that this would happen 20 after his men had killed Liana's mother he never would have gone after her.

He didn't see any way to escape this situation because he knew that Dave, Liana and whoever was standing by the door had already dealt with all his men, likely killing them or maybe just putting them to sleep if the three had been feeling merciful. He should've had bodyguards he knew but he had always been so careful to keep his identity a secret, that he figured he didn't need them.

The only way that they could have snuck up on him and him not hear the commotion would be because of powerful magic. He knew that the young woman he had been chasing since she was a child was determined to have her pound of flesh for all the emotional agony and terror he had caused her. He should've realize that there's no way that Liana would work for him on her own free will since his men had killed her mother.

He should've realized that anybody could be vindictive if they had enough reason, even somebody who had only been a kid at the time. Really though, Liana had more reason to want him dead then a lot of other people. His men had killed her only support against his orders and he suspected that she'd had to live on the street as she wouldn't have trusted anyone, if she was at all intelligent.

The daughter of Yolanda, Liana was just as powerful, just as he had known she would be if she could accomplish all that he led her here, though it was quite possible it'd been her beau Dave. He might be in fear of his life, but he had to recognize the signs of the bond between the two of them. Shifters had bonds with their mate's not always another shifter, so it was quite possible that this Dave was some kind of shifter after all, even if he didn't smell like one. Besides, he couldn't see anybody risking their lives to take out someone as powerful as he was if they weren't in love, Templar though with an inner sneer,

Templar never thought about the fact that some people just like to help get rid of evil for no other reason then it was the right thing to do. No, his philosophy was that somebody like him was so powerful that everybody would do anything to avoid his wrath including doing stuff for him just to protect themselves and their families.

That had mostly proved true, though there had been some resistance. He had been hoping to expand once he had discovered such a powerful witch in Liana's mother, but Yolanda was one of those people that outright refused his offer or to even think about it.

He had been obsessed with capturing her after that no matter what and forcing her to work for him, but she had run.

She had hidden from him for a long time, but eventually, whatever spell had been protecting her had faded and his seers had been able to locate her.

She had only died because of his men's stupidity and they had died themselves as soon as he had learned it.

They had told him about the girl and said that they thought that she was Yolanda's daughter before he had killed them for their failure. He had demanded that they capture her, but she had run off and they had no way to locate her. He had sent some of his other men back to the the house to see if they could find out what her name was, which had been incredibly easy actually, because of the family photo albums and there was a short inscription underneath each one.

Even after he had known her name, he still couldn't find her. He had none of her hair or anything really personal that was part of her body, like a few drops of blood or a nail clipping. He was sure that Yolanda had burned anything that could be used against her or her daughter. It would have been the smart thing to do and Yolanda was no dummy. No magic user worth the name ever left any part of their body behind to be stolen by another, as the consequences could be dire.

He had been forced to use the tried and true method and question people to see if they had seen her close to her last known location, but after she had gotten that concealment charm no one had recognized her as the same person that he was looking for. The charm also concealed her magic or maybe she had just learned to control her magical signature instead of it being the charm's fault, but the magic also made people basically forget they had seen her as soon as she was out of sight. It was quite a nifty piece of magic and must've cost her a lot, as magic that complicated wasn't cheap. Of course, people who knew her well would not look right past her being able to see right through the concealment. Either that or they had really strong magic of their own and knew or guessed that she was using a charm.

Templar briefly wondered how she had a acquired that kind of cash for such a rare find as a concealment charm, but then, came back to reality, when he saw the glowing dagger of light in Liana's hand.

"Can't we talk about this," Templar asked, not begging.

"No why should she? You terrorized Liana for years and I'm sure she's not the only one. Once you're gone we can raise our family in peace," Dave said. "Do it, Lian, do it and he'll be gone and we can live our lives how we like."

Liana nodded looking determined. "This is for my mother, you bastard and for all the people who have no doubt suffered because of you. If you were better boss we never would've been able to get to you without more backup."

"Oh, I could've gotten in here," Dave declared, though he didn't come right out and say how he could have done so. Still, for some reason, Templar believed him.

Both Brigid and Dave watched as Liana finally threw the dagger glowing with light hitting Templar in the chest. Dave stepped away just before the dagger was going to hit and watched as Templar collapsed like a rag doll, with a knife in his heart.

"That does it," Dave declared in satisfaction once he had checked Templar's pulse just to make sure he was dead not that he had any doubt thanks to Liana's perfect aim.

Well, he supposed it was really his dagger, as he was the one that had given it to his mate from his treasure trove as he had numerous weapons stored there. "Let's get out of here before his men wake up from their naps."

The three of them had decided to make enough sleeping potions that they could take care of all of Templar's men as they didn't want to become mass murders. Alright, the men were goons and thugs and no good, but most of them had never done anything against them bad enough to deserve death. Maybe with the death of their boss they would decide that the criminal life wasn't for them and turn into decent citizens as unlikely as that was. Still, this gave them a chance to change their lives and it wasn't any of their faults if the goons squandered it.

"The sleeping potion should actually last at least another hour maybe two, so long as we make as little noise as possible we should be able to get out of here," Brigid said speaking for the first time. "Liana and I made it extra strong, but they'll still wake if there's to much noise."

They stopped talking as they got outside the building where Templar's office had been located and they were soon over the wall again leaving no sign that they had ever been there except for Templar's dead body.

~~~Dave and Liana~~~

"You know, I hate to say this, but that was actually rather anticlimactic," Liana said, as she plopped down on the comfortable love seat in her own living room or what had become her own living room when she had accepted Dave's offer."

"It helped that we did our own scouting first," Dave said.

"It's rather lucky that you can feel magical traps and usually what they do before they can spring," Brigid spoke up.

"And you know an awful lot about disarming such things," Liana added, as she kissed Dave's cheek.

"Centuries of experience," Dave said modestly. "The place was well defended I'll admit, but Templar had very little imagination or originality. I'm surprised he's lasted this long actually, as his traps were rather standard."

"They wouldn't be standard to most people," Brigid pointed out to her father. "Most people aren't as old as you are or seen almost everything in that time. I won't say nobody else could've gotten past those traps, but I doubt they would've done it is easily as you did. Oh, maybe a few treasure hunters that hunt treasure in old magical sites could've done it, but not many people have your knowledge or your skill."

"That's a good point," Dave said smiling appreciating the compliment from his daughter. "He probably ruled mostly by fear. He might not be that powerful, but I doubt the people that worked for him knew that. He probably kept it a deep dark secret. I won't be surprised if he had ways of learning, just about anything as he probably had informants all over. It's a sure thing as far as I'm concerned, because no criminal boss is not going to be looking for information on anybody who works for him, so he can control them better. Threaten their mother or their sister for example or even someone that isn't blood related that you consider part of your family a godchild or just a best friend and you can get somebody that's usually honest and would normally never consider committing a major crime to do anything you want. I've seen it time and time again over the centuries."

"So you think Templar ruled by fear and kept his weak power a rather deep secret," Brigid said.

"I would bet on it actually," Dave said. "You don't reveal to men like that you're weak or at least average magically, as they will be on you like lint. People like that always believe that they can take over from somebody whether they have the skill or not and to show any weakness would be like showing bunch of sharks blood. Just because he was merely average magically didn't mean that he didn't have at least decent fighting skills and if we hadn't surprised him and weren't so powerful as we were we probably wouldn't have had such a easy time. He was caught off guard, which was to our benefit. It helps that I believe Brigid's right and he didn't really believe that a woman could win against him. He likely believes that women are weak and practically useless, some with good magical skills to be sure, but only because they were born with them."

"Yeah I kind noticed that," Liana admitted. "I think we only got in and out so easily because we surprised him and stormed into his office. You also had him captured so quickly that he didn't have a chance to defend himself or to escape, which was likely his plan."

"Which was all part of the plan in the first place," Brigid said.

"I know," Liana admitted. "In any case, I'm still rather surprised that we got out of there in such a short amount of time with no major injuries and the man that has plagued my life for so long is finally gone. I can finally live my life in peace."

"Which is all you've ever wanted," Brigid said and Liana nodded tears in her green eyes.

"He's been like the boogieman to me for nearly 2 decades. Alright, after I got that concealment charm I was relatively safe, but still, I was always afraid that he or some of the men that worked for him would show up one day perhaps kidnap somebody I cared for to get me to cooperate. I was afraid to get close to anybody for a long time though Brigid spoiled that."

"I'm not sorry," Brigid told her with a grin, "and not just because you make dad incredibly happy or because I'm going to get a sibling in just a few months. Nobody should have to live like you did in fear and anxiety living day-to-day always prepared to run and abandon everything, your friends, you're things, your life," She added more seriously.

"I agree with that 100%," Dave said winking at his daughter who grinned at him. "Not only was that man evil he also had a sliminess about him."

"I agree he was slimy, but I wonder why we were able to accomplish our goals so easily. Alright, your knowledge helped, but still, it seemed almost to easy, you know," Liana said worrying her bottom lip.

"I admit it did seem easy, but you have to realize that we had a lot of advantages," Dave said. "I'm very powerful as are you, especially since we became bonded. I can do a lot of things that most cannot like sense even subtle magical traps so long as I'm paying attention. I can usually even tell what kind of trap it is."

"You keeping that shield around yourself and Dave helped a lot," Brigid said. "Do you even feel tired after keeping that shield around you and Dave for so long."

"A little bit, but not as much as I expected," Liana admitted in surprise. "I haven't been doing much magic lately because Dave warned me that the baby would suck up a lot of it so I suppose I had a lot in reserve."

"I was also feeding you with energy," Dave told. "Yes, you got a lot when we bonded, but the baby takes up quite a bit of that. I expected you to be tired, but not exhausted."

Liana looked rather surprised at that she had been so distracted she hadn't noticed Dave feeding her energy, but it was so like him.

"I didn't even notice," Liana admitted sheepishly.

"You were rather distracted," Brigid said.

"Yeah, I was just thinking that," Liana said huffing out a laugh, smiling softly, patting her belly. "Well, at least this little one is safe now. We'll still have to watch out for people who want to take advantage of someone like me, but at least I don't have anyone actively looking for me anymore."

"You're good at controlling your magical signature now and since Templar is dead you don't need to worry so much about other people with the same intentions coming after you," Dave said. "You didn't know how to control your magical signature as well when you were a kid as you were just learning after all and your power also wasn't fully mature as a child. I have no doubt it's increased considerably now that you are an adult, as that's the way it works normally."

"That's true, but I don't think that Templar knew for sure whether or not I was powerful as we discussed earlier. He likely just guessed I might be, because my mother was and because children a lot of times inherit their parents talents, whichever is stronger."

"At least now we know your mother's murder wasn't intentional," Brigid told Liana and she nodded looking rather melancholy.

"It might not have been intentional, but that doesn't mean that he still didn't hurt Liana a great deal," Dave said swiftly.

"While that's true, I know that my mother would rather have died then be forced to work with somebody like Templar," Liana said. "I know I'll always miss her, but at least she's free and she wasn't forced to commit horrible acts. I have to keep that in mind when I start to feel guilty for what we did to a human being, an evil human being to be sure, but still, a living breathing sentient being. I'm also sure he's torn other families apart, since I know what kind of man he is and when I remember that I don't feel guilty at all that I was the one that delivered justice."

"Good, because you shouldn't," Brigid said before Dave could. "Templar was an evil man. Maybe not as evil as some people, but still, he deserved what he got."

"I'm surprised he didn't fight back more than he did," Liana said. "He only shot a few spells at us."

"He wasn't really all that strong magically, Lian and combat spells take a lot of power. Remember, I just said that his power was average at best," Dave said. "We just discussed how he likely kept his magical weakness a secret from those in his employ, as they would've overthrown him or tried to if they had known how weak he was magically. Really, he was more cunning then magically powerful. He had a very ordinary type of gift. I have no doubt he bought most of the magic he used to cower whatever men or women were in his employ, so they wouldn't dare try to attack him. This is something you would've felt for yourself if you hadn't been so concentrated about us getting in and out of there alive with as few injuries as possible."

"That explains a lot," Liana murmured.

"Also, I believe that he thought that women were weak, weak in the sense that they could never win against a man. I doubt he considered them very important, no matter how talented they were in their particular magic, which is why the few women that we saw and put to sleep were probably not treated very well, as it's very likely he had absolutely no respect for them," Brigid said.

"Which would trickle down to his men," Dave said. "I doubt he would enforce discipline and the women could be raped unless they knew how to defend themselves. I have to agree with Brigid here, the few women we saw were likely too talented for Templar to just let them go, but I doubt he or his men treated them as anything but chattel, like talking down to them as if they were children who didn't have any intelligence of their own. That's often the way such men work, because they're not confident in themselves, but hide it, so they are not thought to be weak by other men."

"So we might've freed them then, if they didn't want to work for him in the first place, but were forced to by threats of some kind," Liana said cheering up at that.

"Maybe some of the men to," Dave offered smiling. "His operation might've been small, but that doesn't mean he didn't have a couple of hundred employees who either worked willingly for him or were forced with threats or other forms of persuasion."

"And not all of them were at the compound, as we only came upon a couple of dozen people. I have no doubt that there are going to be people who will only be to glad to be rid of him once they realize that Templar's dead," Brigid offered.

"That makes me feel better, so thanks," Liana said

"You're welcome," Dave said kissing her on the forehead. "Don't ever think that you're not a good person despite your rough life up until recently. Somebody who wasn't as good as you are wouldn't feel guilty for killing such an evil man. They would likely be filled with relief that he was no longer around to interfere in their lives or to threaten their loved ones. That you feel guilty for killing him, even though he more than deserved it just shows what a good person you are."

Liana sighed in content, as she cuddled into Dave's shoulder and Brigid watched this smiling glad to see the man who had raised her and her best friend so happy with each other.

~~~Dave and Liana~~~