Sacred Betrayal: Immortal Brotherhood (Edge Book 3) Read online

  Edge

  Jamie Magee

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright © 2013 Jamie Magee

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Art by Emma Michaels

  Edited Todd Barselow

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.

  Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book. This purchase allows you one legal copy for your own personal reading enjoyment on your personal computer or device. You do not have the right to resell, distribute, print or transfer this book, in whole or in part, to anyone, in any format, via methods either currently known or yet to be invented, or upload this book to a file sharing program. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Where To Find Jamie Online:

  authorjamiemagee.com

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  Other Books by Jamie Magee

  “Web of Hearts and Souls”

  Insight (Book 1)

  Embody (Book 2)

  Image (Book 3)

  Vital (Book 4)

  Vindicate (Book 5)

  Enflame (Book 6)

  Imperial (Book 7)

  Blakeshire (Book 8)

  Emanate (Book 9)

  Exaltation (Book 10)

  See (Book 1)

  Witness (Book 2)

  Synergy (Book 3)

  Redefined (Book 4)

  Derive (Book 5)

  Rivulet (Book 1)

  Contemporary Novels:

  Impulsion

  Friction

  Deploy

  For each that believes that we are not born to fit in, but to stand out.

  The only greatness for man is immortality.

  James Dean

  Episode Nine

  Chapter One

  Reveca traversing into the Veil would put a crimp in Talon’s mood any day of the week. Her doing that after all the shit he’d been through today—hearing what he heard Jamison say and knowing he was right, that every ride does have an end and his Reveca was approaching hers, did nothing but add to his foul disposition.

  Keeping himself busy, placing that aggression on something he could fight, something he did understand, was his only hope.

  He, Thrash, Shade, Echo, and Thames had ridden out to shut down one of the last clinics the Sons had used recently, one the lawmen were set to raid in a day’s time.

  The staff was let go days before, sent on their way to a long vacation just like Amber was.

  The boys loaded the truck Thames was driving. Normally Thames would be on his bike with them, a solid distraction if one was needed, but as aggressive as the Devil’s Den had become they didn’t have the time to worry about what a mortal driver might see. They knew they could take said driver’s memories away, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t wreck their truck when he saw what he saw and bring unwanted attention their way.

  Thrash had handled most of these moves. But this one not only held the most drugs, its path would lead Talon right where he aimed to be afterward—all by his lonesome. He was going to protect Reveca any way he could even if she wouldn’t care for his methods.

  “Watch it,” Thames shouted, as Echo threw a box in the truck, which nearly hit his bike. Thames, like all the boys, was not only protective of his bike but he needed it to get back; riding bitch with the other guys was not going to happen. They were passing this inventory off to another chapter, one that had almost all paranormal within its Club.

  “Move faster or shift into someone who can,” Echo shot back.

  “Shut up, you fuck. I can still smell your last shift on you.”

  “That’s enough,” Talon said as he put a box on the back of the truck.

  The boys glanced to one another then shook their head. Talon’s mood was cold and lethal. Clearly ‘mom and dad’ were having a tiff, which sucked for everyone.

  “When we get through this shit he’ll be fine,” Thames said, hoping he was right.

  Normally it was Thrash who said that kind of stuff to the others, but he was more than distracted lately. He did his business but beyond that he wasn’t in the mood to soothe them. He was too worried about the kid and his mom.

  Talon’s stare moved across the dark woods around them. He glanced to Thrash who was sitting astride his bike as if he didn’t have a care in the world as he pulled out a cigarette and lit up.

  Yeah they were on the same page, Talon thought to himself.

  “Let’s ride,” Talon said when Thames climbed out of the back of the truck, pulling the door down as he glided to the ground.

  Then there was a click, several clicks actually. “Thanks for loading our shit,” a deep, wicked voice said. A few other menacing chuckles were heard then.

  The five of them were surrounded. There were exactly twelve Devil’s Den asses aiming their guns from an elevated position. Echo was the only Son not armed. He’d left his firearm in his Kut draped across his bike, and he was pissed that he did. He wanted in on this action about to go down.

  The Devil’s Den dicks had a right to feel cocky, getting the drop on the Sons like they had. Talon knew he would if he were a mortal in their shoes.

  Thames and Echo were just behind the truck, Shade and Thrash on their bikes off to the side of it, and Talon was in the center of them all.

  The speaker was aiming his gun dead at Talon’s head. Every one of the Devil’s Den members were redneck, backwoods, racist motherfuckers and this one was no different. He was clearly proud of his two teeth. He kept licking them as he grinned. Either that or he was jacked up on some dirty meth.

  “You must be lost,” Talon said to them.

  “No, I’m not. You asked for this, stepped in our shit. Wouldn’t let the cease fire go. You knew you’d missed the bank and you wanted it back.”

  Thrash was still smoking away nice and slow. Shade looked like he was bored out of his mind. Echo and Thames much the same.

  However, what meets the eye is not always the truth.

  Thames, with vision that could see through any darkness, was scouting each shooter, looking into their minds.

  The way he would glance in a direction then meet one of his boys’ gazes was his way of telling them which would be their target, where to aim.

  Then Thames focused on the weakest mind. Pushing thoughts from a distance was not easy, the thought would surely not hold more than a moment but a moment is all Thames needed for one of them to believe what he placed there.

  “You dumb redneck fuck,” Talon said with a sneer. “You’re being played.”

  The second in command from the Devil’s Den approached with a ghostly look on his face. He stood before Talon, stared at his leader. “You fucked my wife.”

  The leader looked at his man like he was nuts. He held his stern expression, waved his gun for him to move, but it was too late.

  In the blink of an eye, like the predator he was, Talon was at the second in command’s back, had pulled up his gun and fired it into the chest of the leader.

  Gun shots were heard, ten of them. Each of the Sons, except Echo, had fired. The boys had shot two each; Talon f
our, and the four he shot were with the hand and the gun of the man before him. His targets were dead center chest, and each of the men that he had carefully aimed at in the darkness were ones that stood behind the first in command, ones the lawmen knew were associated with him—two even lived with him.

  The man in Talon’s arms started to resist. The shock of what happened had pushed the thought that Thames had shoved into his mind right out. He knew he had not only killed his leader but four of his friends with his own weapon, in the Devil’s Den signature way.

  “Night, night,” Talon said as he pinched a place between his shoulder and neck. The man went down like sack of bones.

  Talon glanced to the darkness then sent the fire that was within him to the bodies the Sons’ bullets had riddled. The fire was scorching, otherworldly. The bodies turned to ash instantly, the woods around them never feeling the heat of the burn. Wind came and sent the ashes on their way. Their souls were a gift for Talon’s woman, her payment for a barter her coven forced her to make.

  The other bodies were left alone. Any detective worth his paycheck would put together that this clinic belonged to the Devil’s Den, not the Sons. It wouldn’t be a stretch to surmise they had trouble in their ranks. The second in command took down the leader and the ones that opposed him, then surely took off with the truck…but not before burning said clinic down.

  Echo and Thames picked up the sleeping man’s body and put him in the cab of the truck. Once Thames drove away, the others kicked their bikes to life and roared after him.

  Talon did as well, but before he pulled away, he stared at the clinic, focused all of his dark emotions, how outright pissed he was at the recent position he was put in, and sent a flame to the building. It wasn’t enough to make it fall to ash like the bodies, but it was enough to cause an explosion—one that was nothing more than a backdrop as the Sons and their inventory rode away.

  For miles it was peaceful, no other vehicles passed them. The speed of it, the thrill of it, it was medicine for all of them.

  All at once five riders soared past, weaved before the truck, yelled and hollered, even flipped Thames off.

  It was enough to make Talon crack a smile.

  They followed the convoy around the next bend, then turned off on a dirt road. Not far down there was another truck, one that looked just like the one they had.

  Talon never dismounted his bike, but he turned it off and watched as what was in one truck was moved to another.

  Scorpio, the leader of this chapter of the Pentacle Sons, came over to Talon and held his hand out to shake and leaned up for a one armed hug.

  Scorpio was an immortal that would make anyone or anything think twice about crossing him. It wasn’t his size, it was his easy smile, the one that told you he knew something you didn’t—in his head he had already figured out ten ways to kill you in under thirty seconds.

  Talon had known him for the better part of four hundred years. Scorpio stood six two with broad shoulders, not as thick as his crew in the chest, but that was his secret weapon, too—he had speed. The speed of a Phoenix as well as the fire.

  His long dark hair reached his shoulders and hid his emerald stare.

  “You brought a passenger,” Scorpio said to Talon.

  “I swear they get dumber with every generation,” Talon replied as he watched the trucks shift inventory. He glanced at Thames who was putting more permanent memories in their new friend’s head. Now that the guy was knocked out and right beside Thames it would be all the easier.

  “It’s those damn video games, man. They think they can just hit reset when they die, go in a different way next time.”

  Talon nodded to the cab of the truck Thames was in. “Thames pushed a thought in that guy’s head from twenty yards away, had him thinking his boss had fucked his woman. Games or not, there’s not a lot going on inside, no loyalty.”

  “You boasting, mate? I think we’re getting a pusher of our own in our chapter. Boyce said maybe this gig wasn’t all that boring after all.”

  Talon laughed. Not every immortal Reveca had turned cared to ride a bike. Some thought it was too visible, and they liked to lurk. They always came on board sooner or later, stayed for a while. They weren’t all lifers but at the very least it gave them a sense of family.

  “He should’ve listened years ago.”

  “Yeah, well, hearing that someone’s trying to fuck with you will get anyone’s attention. You sure you’re good?”

  “Peachy,” Talon said with a wink. “Elementary bullshit, but at least it’s shaken things up a bit. It’s time to switch some players up, that and a fresh new enemy. Christmas morning in my life.”

  Scorpio looked over Talon, not really believing all of that, but enough so to make him think Talon would be just fine.

  “You run into anything you tell us, at least let us watch the fun.”

  Talon shook his head. “You take care of this. Keep the income rolling in. Make sure the meds get where they’re needed. You be a mean son of a bitch to every buyer. He has to prove to you who he sold to before you give him more. We clear?”

  Scorpio nodded, reached his hand out for a goodbye handshake.

  Thames was rolling his bike out of the truck now. He glanced at Talon and nodded, meaning sleeping beauty was all set.

  The other guys said their goodbyes to their buddies, then the ride back began—fast and long, just the way they liked it.

  Closer to home every one of them pulled off into a gas station to fill up.

  They didn’t say anything. To others it surely looked like the night had weighed on them, but they were wide awake, in sync with where they wanted to be, watching the cars move down the street before them.

  Mathis Tubbs walked out of the gas station with a tall cup of steaming coffee.

  Talon nodded for his boys to go on and they did. Talon took his time topping off his bike, then sat astride it and roared it to life. He didn’t go far though. He moved it to the side parking lot where Mathis was parked and had been staring down Talon from.

  Talon turned off his bike and leaned forward so he could be somewhat eye-to-eye with Mathis. He was still above him though.

  “You’re the good cop,” Talon said.

  Mathis laughed. “That my rep?”

  “What my woman calls you. I think the title stalker fits better.”

  The grin on Mathis’s face settled but the glint in his eyes didn’t.

  “Every night I fill up, here you are,” Talon said.

  “What can I say, it’s my coffee break. We must be on the same schedule. Though I have a better excuse than you.”

  “That a fact,” Talon said with a slight lift in his brows.

  “I need coffee everyday. Can’t say that one would need to fill up everyday.”

  A slow grin came to Talon’s lips. “You don’t need coffee. You want it to keep you awake so that you can shift through your mysteries. Filling up, we do that more than once each day.”

  “Covering a lot of miles.”

  Talon smoothed his hand over the bars of his bike. “You don’t own a bike to get from point a to b, you own one to ride, and ride, and ride. That takes fuel.”

  Mathis nodded slowly in agreement.

  “So, let’s get back to the topic of you stalking me, jacking with my woman,” Talon said in the calm lethal tone he was known to use with lawmen.

  “I’m serious, it’s chance I see you. I don’t live far from here. This is my station, ask anyone in there.” He looked over Talon and sighed. “I’m trying to help your woman. No one should go through what she’s dealing with twice.”

  Talon looked out at the road, clenched his jaw. Mathis could only assume he was trying to stifle the emotion he didn’t want to feel.

  “Yeah she said you and her had a date in common.”

  The grief that Talon saw in Mathis’s gaze was something he expected to see, was more or less counting on.

  “You’re a lucky one. Knowing your story, I wouldn’t expe
ct to see you around these parts.”

  That was a truthful statement from Talon.

  When Mathis’s father died the same night Reveca was shot, Reveca took actions beyond just moving behind the walls of the Boneyard to plot her revenge.

  She had Thames push the idea into Mathis’s mother to uproot herself, leave all the friends and family that were supporting her and move her and her boy away. Thames even made her ‘remember’ that her husband had a large stash of cash he had set aside for her to do just that. Thames made her think moving was what her late husband would want. That couldn’t have been too far from the truth. She’d believed it too easily, found the money Reveca had given them and took off. That was Reveca’s way of honoring Jonny T, for acknowledging he was one of the good ones.

  Reveca knew if Jonny’s wife had stuck around she’d be a target for Blackwater and those in his company. They might fear she knew something that she didn’t.

  Reveca saved her life, and her son’s who was now a grown man and back again, digging up the shit his father had. Wanting justice and understanding that the criminal and the law walked side by side. Sometimes so closely that seeing the difference was impossible.

  Talon stared at Mathis before he spoke. He let a simmer of regret come to his eyes for Mathis to try and understand. “You got out, lucky one. Your mom taking you away…if only I had gotten Reveca to stay away.”

  “You didn’t want her back here?”

  Talon slightly shook his head no. “Didn’t sit right with me. Maren being killed feet from the public eye, beside a lawman, another reporting it, one that Maren had trouble with.”

  “You mean one that was trying to prosecute Maren,” Mathis corrected.

  “No. I don’t.” Talon let that sit there for a minute then spoke again. “This Club, it was a mess when we got here. Full of drugs, guns, and prostitution.”

  He had Mathis’s full attention now so he let his stare go and allowed his gaze to drift around the lot, as if it were hard to talk about.

  “Vec couldn’t figure out why the shop was at best building one bike a month, maybe fixing five yet the cash flow was there. It didn’t take us long to figure out it was twisted. We started cleaning house. Easier said than done. Those that were present were a little too comfortable with the law.