Bound (Dark Reflections Volume 1)

Chapter 9

Alec Graves
Suarez Compound
Northern Mexico

Once we got the tricky parts of our first briefing out of the way, prepping for the mission went by pretty quickly. Juan filled us in on what we needed to know about the operation and then we were bundled into a helicopter.

Most of the attack force was traveling via the ubiquitous black SUVs that seemed to be the mainstay of transportation for the wolves deployed on the border, but our team had been tasked with plugging the backdoor out of the compound and Brandon apparently felt like our chances of sneaking around from the front without being seen weren't very good.

It meant that we left quite a while after everyone else, which was nice, but it also meant that we were more or less cut off from support. If the rest of the teams ran late for any reason and the cats realized we were hanging out back behind their stronghold then we were going to be in for a very long running fight as we tried to get away without all dying.

The roar of the rotors precluded any kind of casual conversation on the flight out, and the things that I wanted to discuss wouldn't have been appropriate for the pilot to listen in on, so I passed the time while we were in the air alone with my thoughts. It was tempting to stew over Juan's revelations, to try to make plans for the future. I needed to have a very blunt conversation with my mother and possibly Donovan as well, but I knew it would be a mistake to think about that right now.

Instead of focusing on the things that I couldn't address, I instead spent the time calming my beast and preparing myself mentally for combat. Mallory had been wrong about what had triggered me gaining more power, but she'd been right about the difference between what I'd faced back in Sanctuary and the world that I was entering now.

Death had been a possibility anytime I'd faced down a challenger, but if it had happened then it would have been an accident, an oversight that happened despite all of Kaleb's efforts to make sure that I lived long enough to realize my potential. The jaguars we were about to go up against would do everything they could to kill me, and unlike the fight with the vampires, I couldn't even count on the fact that everyone on my own side would be trying to keep me alive.

After what seemed like forever, the pilot came back onto the radio to announce that we were within two minutes of our drop point. Juan responded without hesitation.

"Very good. Slow and come down to within twenty to thirty feet of the ground and we'll dismount."

I could hear the alarm in the pilot's voice as he responded to Juan's order. "Hold on, nobody said anything about that. I'm not accepting any kind of liability when you guys break your legs trying to pretend like you're Navy Seals or something."

"You put a large amount of money on deposit with our boss when you accepted this job. If you don't do exactly as I just told you to, you're going to forfeit the entire sum. We're not going to injure ourselves. Trust me, we've trained for exactly this kind of thing."

The pilot looked at Juan and I could tell that he wasn't going to agree, but Juan chose that moment to send a wave of power at the other man that left him shaking and white. I'd considered adding my own pulse of energy into the mix, but was glad that I didn't after I saw the effect that Juan's demonstration had on the poor man.

"Do exactly as I said, and if you can make it look like you're not hovering over the spot to drop people off, that would be even better. We'll need to drop in two waves."

Juan got a shaky nod in response and then the pilot gestured at a low hill. "Right there. The first set can drop out of the left side of the helicopter and then the other half of you can jump from the right side a second or so later."