In Too Deep

Chapter 22

We were back at the station so we could work out a plan and get more ammunition. We all sat down to rest and everyone looked at me expectantly. I thought carefully for a moment before speaking. I looked to Lucas and narrowed my eyes slightly in thought.

“Stop trying to think of a way to prevent me from helping you.” He said to me. How the hell did he know that was what I was thinking? Perhaps having Alex help him improve his sensing power was a mistake. I sighed.

“How about, I transport myself in to the room that Violet is being held, transport her and her parents out of there and then blow up the house which will kill most of the guards and then we will be able to handle any others that aren’t caught in the blast.” I said to them all.

“I don’t think Violet and her parents will be very happy with you blowing up their house.” Lucas’ dad said to me, raising an eyebrow disapprovingly.

“I think it may be the only way that we will all survive this. And I’ll get them a new house.” I said and Smithy raised his eyebrow but didn’t comment.

“So what kind of explosives do we need?” Smithy asked me, showing he was on board with my plan. But he only said half of the question. The other part he asked me telepathically, ‘Or is there some other way you plan to blow the house up?’

“Well after what has just happened I have a feeling they might put a magic block on the house, which is another reason that we should just blow it up.” I said. The rest of the room noticed that they had clearly missed part of the conversation, but didn’t question it.

“But then how do you plan to transport yourself in and then out of the house?” Lucas challenged. Damn……

“I will just have to see if it works and then if it doesn’t then I will improvise.” I said to everyone.

“Are all of your plans this well thought through?” Lucas asked sarcastically.

“Yeah, pretty much.” I said with a smile and Smithy rolled his eyes at me and shook his head, he knows what I’m like with plans.

“Freya, this is Violet.” I could see the worry in Lucas’ eyes, the smile fell from my face, he really cared for her and my lack of a full proof plan wasn’t helping to ease his worry.

“Lucas, I will get her out. I promise.” I looked straight in to his eyes, so he could see I was being sincere. I wasn’t sure what convinced him, but he nodded. “I’ll break the magic barrier if there is one.” I told him honestly.

Before anyone could question exactly how I planned to do that, I heard footsteps coming down the hallway towards the room we were in and I turned to face the door. It burst open and I was about to attack before I realised who it was. Ryan came bundling through the door.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him, a little sharper than I had intended.

“I heard about a fight, I want in.” He replied simply, ignoring my tone, and not meeting my eyes. My mind wondered back to the last time I saw him, the hurt in his eyes, I wonder if he hates me, I wouldn’t really blame him.

“Do you even know who or what we are fighting, or why?” I questioned Ryan.

“Nope, don’t really care either. I heard there was a fight and that you needed more people, so here I am. Not that you asked for my help, like you said you would.” I winced at his tone. “I also notified a few others to meet us here to help. They will be here in about 15 minutes.” He told me.

“Thank you Ryan, how many others do you know of that will come?” I asked.

“Only about ten, Angel.” Ryan answered me. I rolled my eyes at the nickname but decided to just drop it.

“Well that is a hell of a lot more than we have already.” I said.

“Is this all we have?” Ryan asked as he looked around the room and I nodded.

“Well while we are waiting for them we may as well get something to eat.” Smithy said to everyone. I took Lucas and his parents to the kitchen while Smithy, Robert, Simon and Ron went to the other kitchen, where the fridges only held blood. As a large part of the staff here are vampires, it makes sense to have a blood bank on the premises.

After we had a bite to eat Ryan came to find me and pulled me in to a separate room. I looked at him, waiting for him to begin, I didn’t know what to say. Our previous encounter running through my mind again.

“I just came to apologise. Being like that in front of everyone, that was immature of me. I’m here as a friend, and if that’s all you ever need me to be, then that’s ok. I’d never want to lose you.” Ryan told me.

“Ryan are you sure you can do that?” I asked him, it can’t exactly be an easy thing when someone doesn’t return your feelings.

“I’ll get there.” Ryan said, clearing his throat.

“Ryan-“ I started but I still had no idea what to say.

“It’s ok, let’s save your friend.” He said, I nodded.

“Thank you.” Was all I could think of to say but on the inside I was beating myself up for not knowing how to fix our friendship.

We met back up with the others, and Ryan’s contacts had arrived, so we collected more ammunition and armour.

“So you were serious about blowing the house up?” Lucas asked when he saw me collecting explosives.

“It’s the safest way that I can think of to do this.” I said to him.

“Explosives don’t usually equal safe in my eyes.” Lucas commented.

“Whilst I do not usually approve of attracting attention, I believe this may be our best bet. Even with the extra men it will still be a struggle to get everyone out of this alive.” Smithy said.

“It’s settled then.” I stated and headed out the door.

We left some of the men back at the office to protect Lucas’ parents, everyone agreed that it would be safer to leave them behind. We then transported ourselves to where Violet lives. Thankfully she lives surrounded by woods, with no other houses nearby, otherwise blowing it up would be quite difficult. I looked over the premises; the grand white house was surrounded by a coded gate with cameras pointing in every direction.

“Wow, Violet lives in a gated community? Never knew that.” Lucas said, but when focusing on the cameras, I realised they weren’t operational.

“Well at least the cameras are out, that makes things a lot easier for us.” I said.

“But there are no guards standing outside, wouldn’t it be easier to keep the cameras running so they could see us without us seeing them?” Ron asked. He had a point actually. I thought about what he said, it really didn’t make sense. I concentrated on the area around Violet’s house and realised what they had done.

“There are guards here.” I said quietly to everyone and they all looked at me, except Smithy. He concentrated on the area around the house just like I had a moment before. He looked at me and then back to the house.

“You can sense them even though they are invisible?” He asked and I nodded. “Ok so that makes things more difficult. I can’t sense a block on magic though, can you?” Smithy asked me.

I focussed on the house in front of us, feeling for any other magic throughout the property. I shook my head.

“Not that I can sense, no.” I told Smithy. “Doesn’t that strike you as a bit odd?” I asked him.

“Maybe it’s for the spell cast to make the guards invisible.” Smithy suggested.

“Maybe.” Was all I said. But surely if you know someone’s coming to rescue your hostages you would do everything to stop them? It just seems too easy, and that worries me.

“Can you get a visual of the inside?” Smithy asked me.

I nodded and concentrated on Violet’s mind so I could look through her eyes. The room she was in is luxurious, it had expensive looking furniture lining the wall and was decorated with framed paintings, but the entire scene was ruined by the tension I could feel buzzing through the atmosphere. I realised that Violet was in the middle of a conversation with her parents.

“But they aren’t here.” I heard a male voice say. “I refuse to sit here and wait to be rescued, this is ridiculous, we aren’t in any danger.” He added.

“They are still here, and we are indeed in danger.” A female voice said.

“Oh and how would you know that? If they are here, explain to me exactly where they are Sophia.” The male voice said again. From Violet’s thoughts I found out that the male voice was her father Jimmy and the woman’s voice was her grandmother.

“They are right in this room, listening to our conversation. You would be able to sense that if-” Sophia, her grandmother began but Violet’s father cut her off.

“If what Sophia?” Jimmy asked.

“Do we really need to get in to whose side of the family is the most powerful?” Violet’s mother said, sounding tired of this conversation even though it had only just begun.

“Can you sense them Julia?” Jimmy asked his wife.

“I don’t see why that matters.” She replied, trying to avoid the question.

“So you can sense them then?” Jimmy asked, annoyed.

“Dad can we just drop this please? This isn’t really the time or place to be having this argument again.” Violet said quietly and everyone went silent.

‘Violet, it’s Freya; don’t react in any way to my voice. I’m going to get you out of here but I need your help.’ I spoke directly in to Violet’s mind just as I had with Lucas earlier. I sensed her silent agreement and continued. ‘I need you to look around the room, do so slowly, you are not alone in that room.’

She looked slowly to her left and I sensed four guards standing back to back guarding the door, and two facing in at the window. She looked to her right and there were four more guards standing in the same formation by that door as well. Violet and her family had their backs along one of the walls. ‘Ok Violet thank you, I’ll be back in a moment, just stay calm, I will have you and your family out of there soon, I promise.’

I exited Violet’s mind and turned to the others.

“Very similar guard formations as there were at Lucas’ house. Ten guards will rush to attack me as soon as I enter the room. So here’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to go back in to Violet’s mind and untie the ropes binding her and her family to the chairs, as soon as I come out of her mind I will have to transport in there immediately before the guards realise they are no longer bound.” I said to them.

“How will we blow up the house?” Smithy asked me and I thought for a moment. I looked back at the house, trying to analyse how this operation would go. I looked to Smithy for a moment.

“Smithy, I need you to do something. It should be safe enough.” He raised his eyebrow, not too keen on how I described my plan. I should really be more positive in my explanations.

“What do I need to do?” Smithy asked.

“I need you to plant the explosives around the outside of the house, I will put a charm on you so you will be invisible, not even the guards will be able to detect you, only I will know where you are. I will transport you to each location that the bombs need to be placed.” I said to him and he nodded. “I’m going to just check in with Violet one moment before we do that just to check that everything’s ok.”

I re-entered Violet’s mind, as far as I could tell nothing had changed.

‘Violet, I’m back. Is everything ok? Answer me with your thoughts.’ I said directly in to her mind again.

‘Everything’s fine Freya. Is Lucas ok?’ She asked me in her mind, I could feel how worried she was about him, even with the situation she was in. ’Lucas is fine, he’s with me and I have his parents under protection. But I need to ask you something. Is there anyone else in your house? Family, friends, pets, that sort of thing?’ I just wanted to check before I blew up her house, I can be considerate sometimes.

‘No, it’s just me, my mum, my dad and my grandmother.’ She replied.

‘Ok, I’ll be back soon, be ready to jump in to action at a moment’s notice.’ I said and I sensed her silent agreement.

No longer in Violet’s mind, I turned to Smithy.

“You ready?” I asked him.

“Let’s do this.” He said and I nodded. I made sure he had all the bombs he needed and then I cast the invisibility charm on him. No one else who was with us could see him, but I knew exactly where he was.

I transported him to the first location, the first bomb was to be planted at the left side of the front of the house, I was in Smithy’s mind so I would know when he was finished planting the bomb and could move on to the next one. The first one was no problem, so I transported him to the right side of the house. The first four bombs were planted at each corner of the house, then two around the garage, and the last two around the conservatory.

‘Ok Smithy that should do it.’ I said to him inside his mind.

I was about to transport him back to where we were hidden but I felt him hesitate, he showed me in his mind what was happening. Smithy had his back against the conservatory, and right in front of him were two guards circling the house.

‘Will they sense the magic if you transport me back?’ Smithy asked me telepathically.

‘It’s possible, just hold tight.’ I told him.

In that same moment one of the guards looked directly at Smithy, almost as if he could see him. I held my breath as I felt Smithy tense. The guard’s eyes wondered past Smithy, and they both carried on their walk around the perimeter of the house. I let out the breath I was still holding.

I transported Smithy back to where we were hiding in the woods, removing his invisibility charm so the others with us could see him again.

“That was close.” Smithy said.

“Ok, now it’s time to release the hostages.” I said to everyone.

“Freya, be careful.” Smithy said to me.

“Always am.” I said with a smile and a wink and he rolled his eyes at me.

For the third time, and hopefully the last, I entered Violet’s mind.

‘Violet, I am going to have to enter your family’s minds as well so they don’t react when I untie them.’ I said to her.

‘Ok, well good luck with that.’ She said to me.

I stayed in Violet’s mind at the same time so they could all hear me. I entered Sophia’s mind first.

‘Sophia I am-’ I began but she cut me off.

‘I know who you are.’ She answered.

‘I am going to get you out of here, just stay calm-’ I tried again.

‘I know why you are here, and you are planning on blowing up our house.’ She stated plainly. Why does she keep interrupting me? At first I was surprised that she knew my plan and then the obvious hit me, she’s psychic.

‘Well yes but-’

‘Seriously?’ Violet interrupted me surprised. Perhaps interrupting people is a family trait.

‘It’s the only way I can get you all out alive without anyone else dying. We lost some of our numbers getting Lucas and his family out. I will restore your house back to how it is now, with every detail exact. I just need you to trust me.’ I told them.

I went in to her father Jimmy’s mind next.

‘Jimmy, stay calm, do not react to my voice.’ I said to him.

‘What the hell? Who are you and why are you in my mind?’ He demanded angrily with his thoughts, thankfully he had the sense not to speak out loud.

‘Calm down dad, she is my friend; she is going to help get us out of here.’ Violet said to him.

‘Yes but to do that she is going to blow up our house.’ Sophia added. Not helpful what so ever.

‘What did you just say? What is the meaning of this?’ Jimmy questioned. I am really starting to regret this whole group mind chat.

‘Please stay calm; this is the only way I can get everyone out alive.’ I replied.

‘Who are you?’ Jimmy demanded.

’Please save questions for later. I need to get you out now.’ I said a bit impatiently.

Now just one person left.

‘Julia, do not react to the sound of my voice. Please stay calm and please do not ask any questions. I am just trying to get you and your family out. Do you understand?’ I decided to just say everything all at once before anyone could interrupt me.

‘Yes.’ Was her only reply. I should have started with her; at least she isn’t drilling me for information.

‘Ok, I need you all to listen to me. I am about to untie the ropes around your hands. I need you to stay perfectly still and pretend you are still bound. I will then transport myself in to your house, as soon as I do that; I will need to transport you all out again immediately. Do you understand?’ I asked them.

‘Yes.’ They all replied.

‘Brilliant. Ok, here goes, and remember, please don’t move.’ They stayed silent, I stayed in each of their minds so I could feel the ropes, using telekinesis to untie their hands. I did it slowly so the guards wouldn’t notice.

‘Ready? I need all of you to stand up on the count of three. One, two, three.’ I said in their minds and on three I transported in to the room. The guards reacted instantly just as I predicted. I grabbed hold of all of Violet’s family and transported them in to the forest where the others were still waiting.

“Now Smithy.” I said and he pressed the trigger that set off the bombs. We all watched as Violet’s house exploded, bits of rubble were flying everywhere. A huge cloud of smoke erupted from the house, darkening the sky. I looked around trying to sense if any of the guards managed to escape the explosion. Very unlikely I’ll admit, but still possible.

“Do you see or sense any of the guards?” I asked Smithy and he shook his head. “Neither do I.” I said to him. ”Doesn’t mean there aren’t any though.” Lucas turned to me expectantly. “Everyone retreat further in to the woods, we need to make sure we aren’t going to be followed.” I said and everyone did as I had instructed, retreating far enough that we ended up in a clearing in the woods.

“Won’t the authorities be showing up any minute in response to the explosion?” Jimmy asked me.

“No, I put a charm on the house, the only people who know it exploded is us and the guards, and they should all be dead. That way, when I restore your house, no one will find it suspicious.” I explained and he nodded in understanding.

“No sign of any guards yet.” Ryan informed me. I scanned the forest, all was silent. We waited a moment longer, wanting to make sure before we left.

I moved Violet and her family behind me and stood in front of everyone, Smithy realised what I was doing and stood at my side, Lucas followed suit and stood at my other side.

“Lucas, you can’t even see them.” I pointed out.

“Can I not?” He asked and nodded towards the trees and I saw what he meant. While I had gone with my senses to alert me when they arrived I did not see them marching through the trees.

“The explosion must have disrupted their charm spell.” Smithy pointed out and I nodded. They must’ve been further away from the house, or had some kind of magic protecting them from the blast.

They came in to the clearing and we could now see that there were only twelve of them. Twelve against all of us, we could take them easily. Ryan and two of his men joined us, the rest of our people staying back to protect Violet’s family just in case there were more that we didn’t know about.

We each pulled out our weapons, ready to fight. The guards kept coming towards us at a steady pace. When they were about a yard away from us they charged. Their group split between us giving us two men each to fight.

I sliced off the head of the first guard that reached me before he could even take a swipe at me. I glanced towards the others to check they were managing ok. Lucas had also disabled his first attacker, Ryan helping him finish the guy off. Ryan was a strong fighter, holding his hands either side of a man’s head and by twisting sharply to the side, he broke the neck of the guard attacking him.

Smithy and Ryan’s men were all finishing off their first guard too, Smithy using his speed and strength to his advantage, his attacker barely saw him coming.

I focussed back on the other man coming at me, he lunged his sword towards my stomach, I dodged to the side, grabbed his wrist, and twisted it sharply to one side, breaking it easily. He gasped in pain and dropped his sword. Still holding his wrist I pulled him towards me, punching him in the stomach with my free hand. He barrelled over winded. I took this opportunity to kick his legs out from under him, and I pounced on top of him when he hit the ground.

He tried struggling against me but I pinned him firmly to the ground. I grabbed his head and slammed it against the ground again and again, until I heard a loud crack as his skull broke open, his body went limp.

I looked up and saw that everyone had disposed of their attackers, and were all looking at me with looks of shock on their faces.

“You didn’t have to kill him like that.” Jimmy accused, looking disgusted, no one else knew what to say.

“Let’s get back to the station.” Smithy said and I nodded, I stood and wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans. Between the two of us, Smithy and I transported everyone back to the station. As soon as we got back there everyone started with a tone of questions, and they were all directed at me.

“Ok everyone quiet.” I commanded and everyone fell silent, good choice on their part. “I realise that you all have questions. But it’s been a long day, let everyone eat and rest first. Then I will answer any questions you have.” I said to them.

“But how will we know if you tell us the truth? What if we ask you a question you would rather not answer?” Jimmy asked me but I had already seen this coming.

“I give you my word that I will answer everything with the truth, no matter what you ask.” As I said that last bit my eyes flickered slightly towards Smithy, and he realised what I meant. He could finally find out what I have been hiding all these years.