After leaving Boris in the hallway I stomped to the kitchen. If I was going on this suicide mission I needed protein. Opening the large refrigerator I wrinkled my nose at the smell. I wasn't sure the thing had ever been cleaned. There was left over Chinese takeout that had seen much better days, and a moldy half eaten cheeseburger unwrapped on a paper plate. With my head stuck in the nasty cool opening of the refrigerator I tensed when I felt someone approach from the side. Slowly closing the door and straightening I prayed to the merciful gods that it wasn't Maverick standing behind me. It seemed that I did not have the favor of the gods today because when I turned I met the Fae Male's cool indigo eyes.
Before either of us could speak Jagger and his men spilled into the kitchen. Their conversation stopped as their eyes fell on me and I bit back a sigh. I couldn't lose my temper in front of Maverick. I needed to be the most boring woman he had every laid eyes on. Maverick took a step to the side and turned to track the three men, careful not to give me his back.
"Well well, what do we have here. Delany, I'm sure Maverick was about to politely let you know that the Rookery mission was for capable warriors only."
I was fairly sure Jagger took most of his lines from a book titled Supervillians for Dummies. He also clearly had no idea about Fae culture if he thought that Maverick was about to discourage me from going to the Rookery. The Fae had a very healthy respect for female warriors. Granted, Maverick had no clue what my skill level was, but that kind of seemed to be the whole point of this gods forsaken adventure.
"No. I wasn't," Maverick replied. The Male clearly was a warrior of few words. His voice was still a low rumbling growl like when he had spoken earlier. This close I could smell the distinctly Male scent coming off him, a mixture of that primally aggressive scent all Fae Males gave off and a forest right after rainfall. Jagger looked distinctly uncomfortable at his terse reply and I smothered a smirk.
I wasn't sure what Maverick had been about to do or say, but for once I was grateful for Jagger's interruption. Before he could turn his attention back to me I backed away from the refrigerator and slipped out the door. Since food wasn't going to be an option I decided to find Boris and try to sketch out some semblance of a plan. Just because we would probably all die in there didn't mean we had to enter the Rookery blind. I found Boris back at his usual table in the lobby with a beer in his hand.
"Where did you manage to find that?"
"Would you like one Sotnos?" Boris asked slyly pulling a cool bottle out of the cooler behind his chair. I let out a genuine laugh which seemed to surprise Boris and took the cold glass. After I took a sip I took my phone out of my jacket pocket and pulled up the schematics of the Rookery.
"Alright, so here is the layout of the Rookery. The cave the spiders crawled out of is located in this central courtyard here. The two main buildings are across from one another with the cave in the middle. The road leading up the the Rookery will take us right up to the welcome center, one of the main buildings. Here is the floor plan." I continued speaking outlining what I thought would be a decent plan of attack. A few other mercs had come to our table to strategize with us.
"If we go straight into the welcome center we risk being trapped," Ryker spoke up from beside me.
"I agree, Anansi's Children have the advantage of their long spiked legs in close quarters. Our best bet is to lure them outside into the open where we can gang up on them." Thorn and a few of the other men nodded their approval. "We don't have to worry about these smaller buildings here. The spiders are too big to comfortably fit in them, but they might store their food there. The two larger buildings along with the cave would be the occupied areas of the Rookery."
"Well who do you propose leads them outside?" Jagger had joined the group at some point, but had kept his mouth shut until now.
"Don't worry Jagger not you," Boris replied sarcastically. He liked the cowardly sorcerer about as much as I did. "I will lead the spiders out. They will follow the scent of another predator in their territory."
I'm not sure why they were referred to as the merciful gods, because clearly they were not merciful. It looked like I would be following the bear shifter right into the spider's den, the gods must have a sense of humor where I was concerned. Boris was right. The spiders would follow the scent of a predator in their territory. Now it would be two predators though.
Roughly four beers and an hour later we had something of a workable plan hammered out. Maverick had shown up around my third beer and quietly listened to us plan a few tables away. As the men dispersed happy with what had been discussed I looked up to, again, meet his dark blue eyes. His expression was thoughtful and I quickly looked away. I cursed the fact that these dumbasses wouldn't have thought to coordinate themselves and I had to begin, making myself that much more interesting to the Fae Male sitting across from me.
I waited for him to get up and walk away but he seemed content to slouch in his chair with his arms crossed and stare at me. I tried not to grind my teeth to dust and asked Boris for another beer. He looked at me in concern, having no idea that my metabolism was almost as good as his, but gave me the drink without a word. I raised the cool bottle to my lips and watched Maverick under my dark lashes. He had finally decided I wasn't as interesting as all that attention seemed to warrant and was watching the men around him interact with one another.
The upcoming group mission seemed to give them a sense of camaraderie that they had previously been lacking. Even Boris had finally left me to my dark mood and was talking to some of the other mercs. I caught Jagger dividing his attention between Boris and Ryker and Thorn and growled low in my throat. At the noise Maverick quickly swung his gaze back to me and I pretended not to notice. I watched him follow my line of sight to Jagger out of the corner of my eye with an unreadable look on his face. Finishing the last swallow of my beer I decided I should go find a quiet place to let Keira in on what was happening. I was hoping I wouldn't need her at the Rookery, but with the way things were going I couldn't be sure.
The quietest place I could find ended up being my little used dorm. I shut the thick wooden door behind me and pricked my finger on the end of my dagger. With my bloody finger I traced a rune for silence on the cheap press wood. I sank down into the old dinning room chair by the wall and called Keira. The black smoke from my shoulder took shape and Keira stretched her long legs out, claws extending into the cheap mattress of the bed.
"Try not to shred that. They might make me pay for it." Keira huffed a laugh at that and looked around the room. She growled in annoyance at the small confines and looked at me for an explanation. I sighed and gave her the run down. Keira was none too happy that we were following the rest of the mercs to the Rookery even when I explained the weird bout of loyalty I had felt toward the large bear shifter. "Plus Jagger is an asshole. Someone needs to make sure he doesn't get everyone killed!"
Keira's opinion on the entire thing didn't change. Cats were not typically pack animals, and Keira was no different. She was confident that the only partner I needed was her and vice versa. Usually I agreed with her, but for some reason I couldn't just leave Boris to Jagger and the spiders' mercy.
I never knew how much Keira was aware of when she was sleeping on my shoulder. The tattoo was a spell I had invented, as far as I knew there were none like it, which made sense seeing as there were none like Keira. She clearly wasn't happy about the plan, but she would follow me anywhere. I spoke the incantation, "requiem," and she went back to her resting place. A warm presence on my shoulder blade, watching my back.
Wiping the bloody rune off my door I swung it open and ran right into the last person I wanted to see. Maverick was leaning against the wall across from my room. He had clearly been waiting on me.
"Can I help you with something?" I asked through clenched teeth.
"I followed your scent to this door, but I couldn't hear you inside." It wasn't a question so I didn't answer. I brushed past him, my shoulders tightening when he was at my back. I heard him push off the wall and fall into step beside me. Shoulder to shoulder in the hallway I tried not to notice how his large frame dwarfed mine.
"I guess I will ask again. Can I help you with something?"
"You seemed like you knew what you were doing earlier sketching out a plan for taking on the Rookery."
"You didn't answer my question." He paused to look at me.
"No, I didn't." Then he just walked away. Well alright then Mr. Mysterious Cool Guy. At least he was leaving me alone. I continued back to the lobby. Again. I was fairly sure this was the most time I had ever spent in the Guild.
Some of the guys were coming back from the weapons locker with flame throwers, which I definitely approved of. The giant spiders were susceptible to fire, and the flame throwers could make a huge difference. Maverick had somehow materialized back in here to oversee the commotion. I jumped up and sat on the clerks counter, letting my legs swing. Pulling my dagger out of the sheath on my thigh I used the blade to clean what I genuinely hoped was not dried wyrm guts out from under my finger nails. I swear I had scrubbed them last night in the shower.
Boris came over to lean against the counter beside me. "I don't think I've ever seen these guys work together like this."
"Yeah well it's one thing to get along while you're talking about killing things, lets see if it lasts when they're actually killing things."
Boris chuckled deeply, "Probably not, Sotnos."
"Why do you call me that?"
"You remind me of a girl I knew once long ago," his reply was quiet. I didn't know what to say to that so I went back to picking my nails. Boris was either unaware of or ignoring my discomfort at this statement. "You will wait outside for me while I lure the spiders, yes?"
"We will just have to see how it plays out." There was no way in hell I was waiting outside while Boris went into the spider's nest. Alone. He narrowed his eyes at me but didn't say anything more, instead he watched Maverick as he stood and strode to the center of the room.
I had to admit, the fact that just the Male's presence alone could command a room full of hardened mercs was attractive. The men all quieted and looked to him. I'm sure they were having fun right now, but when lives were on the line the camaraderie these men had developed would crumble in a heartbeat. Then people would start dying.
"Alright, I think we're ready to head out." Short, sweet, to the point, that much I liked about Maverick. As the men started filing out to vehicles I caught up to Ryker and Thorn.
"You two watch your backs out there. I heard Jagger talking shit to Dumbasses one and two about you both earlier."
"I think we will be fine," Ryker replied. Thorn just snorted in amusement. I shrugged my shoulders. I had done my good samaritan act and warned them. Outside I straddled my bike as it roared to life and followed the suicide caravan to the Rookery.