Now I was cursing myself.
“That snake of a cousin had you tracked the whole time!” Victoria exclaimed.
The thought made me sick to my stomach. It reminded me of a time when Lucas would’ve done such a thing to me. I knew what it felt like to be on the receiving end of such deceit. I would not wish it on my worst enemy.
I gathered up the flasks and bundled them into Ibrahim’s arms. “Destroy these,” I told him.
“We have to go back! Now!” Victoria urged.
“Darling,” Vivienne said, catching her hands. “We can’t just return blindly.”
I moved to my niece and placed a kiss on her forehead. Her face and limbs were covered in cuts and bruises. The urgency in her eyes was familiar to me. I’d witnessed the same in my own daughter’s before, when she had been separated from Caleb. Something much deeper than friendship had obviously formed between her and the werewolf. “I need to gather my thoughts,” I said, addressing not just Victoria, but the whole group. “For now, go and recuperate. But be ready for my call.”
Vivienne and Xavier escorted Victoria away, while the rest followed, leaving me and Sofia alone at the end of the jetty.
I pulled out my phone from my back pocket and turned my attention to it. Now that we were back in the human realm, it had been buzzing constantly. When I flipped it open, I had twenty-two missed calls from Fowler. Twenty-two.
Grimacing, I dialed Fowler’s number and put the phone on loudspeaker.
“Novak!” Fowler picked up after half a ring. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Trespassing in IBSI headquarters? Interfering with highly sensitive operations?”
I experienced a flood of déjà vu. Wasn’t it only a short while ago that I’d been calling him up in a rage and posing similar questions regarding Thornton and his branch?
“While we’re asking questions,” I replied, my voice steely, “would you care to explain what exactly you and the IBSI are high on?”
Fowler let out a breath. “Novak, we’re letting you go. All of you. Henceforward, TSL is no longer recognized or sanctioned as an official body, and you are ordered to disband immediately. Know that if you unlawfully encroach or interfere again, the IBSI have full authority to decide on the appropriate action.”
In other words, the hunters have full sanction to kill us dirty supernaturals. Well, that wasn’t exactly new. We’d never trusted these hunters anyway.
“This will be the last time I talk to you, Novak… You’re fired.”
With that, he hung up the phone.
“I honestly think those hunters are high on something,” Sofia said, still looking shaken. “The way Thornton and his people moved, and then those guys in the compound… they had agility and speed that just isn’t human. It’s like they’re on some kind of steroids.”
I grunted. Perhaps they had managed to develop something in their labs. It wouldn’t surprise me.
Very little could surprise me anymore.
Although the idea that Fowler thought he could fire us made me shake my head in disbelief.
Whatever we ended up doing next, he was in for a rude awakening…