At Year's End (The 12 Olympians)
Read At Year's End (The 12 Olympians) Online
Authors: Sandrine Gasq-Dion
At Year’s End
Sandrine Gasq-Dion
Dedication
For Jenjo, who edits my
messes
Brandi Reynolds
Kim Webb Balan
My loyal readers
My Facebook family
Shane Perry, Rob B
.
Tony Dimitri
Peniche for the cover.
© C
opyright 2013
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000
. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Justice leaned against the
tunnel wall, crossed his legs at the ankles and examined his cuticles. His brother Jesse was to his right, also waiting to get into the fight that was raging before them.
It wasn’t
that they weren’t ready.
Rather, their brother
Jaxon was taking care of business single-handedly. He seemed to be taking out some extreme anger on the rogue werewolves they’d come to battle. Jaxon was snarling, growling and — at one point — roaring in sheer rage. Rogue body parts flew in all directions as Jaxon unleashed his fury and anger.
Justice glanced over at his youngest brother
and motioned to Jaxon.
“I don’t think he’s taking the idea of Elijah dating very well.”
“What gave it away?” Jesse moved toward Justice as a rogue leg hit the wall inches from him. Jaxon wasn’t even using a sword; his massive claws and teeth were tearing rogues apart at an unheard of rate.
The man was
majorly pissed.
“Well, he
did
tell him to find someone his own age.” Justice winced as another roar filled the room and a rogue head went flying by them.
“I think he heard you
,” Jesse whispered.
Jaxon whirled around and glared at his brothers.
“Yep. He did.” Justice raised both hands in front of his chest. “Just sayin’.”
“Yeah, um, let us know when you want us to jump in, eh, bro?”
Jesse wished he’d brought a damn deck of cards. As it was, they’d already played ‘I Spy,’ and the game hadn’t lasted long. Jaxon’s anger was squeezing all the air out of the tunnel, and he and Justice were just there for back up.
Not that Jaxon needed any at this point
. His anger was fueling him and when Jaxon got angry, people scattered. Often literally, in lots of little pieces.
After their parents had died, Jaxon was the one
Justice and Jesse had most worried about. His anger issues became worse as time went by, but for some reason he’d been calmer since meeting 16-year-old Elijah Newman a few years ago when they had all volunteered at Camp Pride.
Well,
calmer until Elijah had decided to start dating.
A loud whimper brought Jesse out of his thoughts. Jaxon was holding a rogue off the floor by his neck.
“Where. Is. Petey?” Jaxon brought the rogue right up to his face.
“I don’t know! They don’t tell us grunts that kind of shit!”
Justice coughed lightly as Jaxon’s grip tightened around the rogue’s neck.
“Maybe we should keep that one alive, huh?” Justice motioned to the pile of dead rogues. “We might be able to get something out of him.”
Jaxon snarled in the rogue’s face and threw him across the room.
“Fine. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Justice exhaled as Jaxon left the tunnels. He called up top to Hayden.
“Charges set?” Justice asked.
“Ready to rip,” Hayden answered.
“Okay, we’re on our way up.” Justice sheathed his swords and turned to Jesse. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted from all this fighting.”
Jesse chuckled and grabbed the rogue by his foot, dragging him out of the tunnel.
“Hey!” he whimpered.
“Shut up,” Justice growled. “You’re lucky to be alive.”
“You call this lucky?” he squeaked.
Jesse turned and glared at the rogue, letting his massive canines drop. The rogue’s eyes went wide and he pointed at Jesse.
“It’s true! You’re the white lion one!”
“He could be the white tiger, or the Maltese.” Justice grinned. “You just never know with us.”
“We don’t have time for
‘Meet the Salvatore Brothers’ right now — maybe later when we waterboard you, we can talk.” Jesse resumed walking.
“Wait, what?”
the rogue shouted.
Justice elbowed his brother. “God, I love this job.”
Jaxon sat numbly during debriefing. The only thing on his mind was
five-foot-ten, dark-haired, blue-eyed Elijah.
Jaxon closed his eyes and
envisioned him. Elijah had the most beautiful skin, almost the color of caramel. But it was the eyes that had immediately captured Jaxon’s attention. Those big, blue peepers had looked at him through lowered lashes and he’d been toast. The soft pout of Elijah’s lips haunted plenty of Jaxon’s dreams. He could almost taste that plump, bottom lip.
Jaxon shifted on the chair as his erection grew.
That had been happening a lot more over the last year. He’d kept his emotions and libido in check as much as possible, but the older Elijah got, the more difficult it became.
Then there was
the non-kiss on New Year’s Eve. Jaxon had finally gotten the courage to kiss Elijah and been rebuffed. After years of telling a smitten Elijah that he was too old for him, Jaxon was truly worried the young man had actually moved on.
“Jaxon?”
He raised his head to find the whole team staring at him.
“What?”
“I asked if you were still good watching Elijah.” James Pruitt-Jacobs crossed his arms and shot Jaxon a look.
“Oh, yeah. Of course I am.”
“Good.” James nodded at the other men. “All of you have your charges. Remember, these men must be protected at all times.” James zeroed in on Killian, a shape shifter. “Any luck not pissing Stone off every time you talk to him?”
Killian scowled. “I will protect him in animal form.”
James grinned. “Oh, is that right?”
“Yes. I will shift if he needs immediate protection.”
“Because that won’t freak him out,” Jaxon drawled.
“Says the
giant wolf that sits in the backyard,” Killian shot back.
“Elijah’s not freaked out about the wolf that sits in his yard.”
“Well, then.” James crossed the room and took a seat behind his desk. “Take some time off, Jaxon.”
“Wait, what?” Jaxon stood up. “Why?”
“Because your anger is fueling you, and that’s when you can lose perspective. It only takes a second to get dead. I’ll assign someone else temporarily.”
“But I
— ”
“That’s not a request.” James arched a brow. “Fix the problem,
and then come back.”
“Elijah is not a problem
,” Jaxon snarled.
“You just proved he is
,” Justice said quietly.
“Fine!” Jaxon stormed past all the men and slammed the door behind him. He leaned against the wall and took deep breaths. His fingers curled and he fought the
building anger.
“How about a trip to the firing range?”
Jaxon’s eyes shot open to see the wolverine shifter, Zack Duran, grinning maniacally at him.
“I need to let off some steam
, too.” Zack shrugged his shoulders. “Watching Brock Holloway is going to turn me into a serial killer.”
Jaxon let out a breath and nodded. “Okay, sounds good.”
The Skull Blasters’
operations were based in Seattle, but the training center in Arizona had grown tremendously. When there, they stayed in the Benson area, as it was a short drive to Douglas — and the border. James and the rest of the men had built a state-of-the-art facility for training to fight terrorists, rogues and any other threat that came along.
Periodic trips to the Arizona center were necessary for a variety of reasons, so here they were.
Speeding down I-10 brought back memories for Jaxon — memories he’d rather forget.
The smell of smoke, the
chilling screams...
“Dude, you okay?”
“Yeah.” Jaxon nodded. “Let’s just get there.”
Zack pulled up to the gates of the base
’s firing ranges and showed his ID. They all had the new ones now — featuring a skull, crossbones and a noose. There were words etched in the silver:
Mors Cum Terrore Novo Venit.
Death has come with a new terror.
The team had grown from four men to many, many more. The Skull Blasters were now an elite fighting unit rivaled by none other. Jaxon had taken shooting lessons from the notorious Devin Lyons. The psychotic FBI special agent was now married to Andrei Panchenko, the head of the Russian Mob and ex-husband of Vicious Vince Markov.
They
bumped along the desert in the unit’s Jeep until they came to a flat, wide-open area. Targets spread out for miles. Zack pulled up to one of the railroad ties that marked the beginning of the shooting range.
Jaxon jumped out of the Jeep
and walked to the storage shed off to the right. Zack followed and they entered together. Jaxon found the switch on the wall and a panel moved, showing a number pad. He punched in his own code and the floor opened in front of them.
A narrow staircase led them below ground, and to the arsenal that awaited
them. Jaxon shot a look at Zack, who looked like a kid for whom Christmas had come early. Multiple weapons lined the walls, from RPG launchers to M16s and AK-47s. Jaxon grabbed a few weapons and ammo, and then waited for Zack to make his selection. He seemed to be drooling over the weapons and Jaxon tapped an impatient foot.
Zack looked over his shoulder with a grin.
“This is like…wow!”
“You’re an odd one, aren’t you?” Jaxon laughed.
“My dad trained me. He said someday they’d come looking for me. I didn’t understand what he meant.” Zack bit his lip. “I do now.”
“I’m sorry
,” Jaxon offered.
“Don’t be. I learned how to survive.” Zack finished making his selections,
and then turned with a wide grin. “Let’s go!”
The sound of the explosion rocked the ground beneath them and Jaxon let out a shout of triumph. This was definitely therapeutic. His anger seemed to be melting away as he tore apart targets. Zack was screaming like a banshee as he tore through massive chunks of rock and the old cars that were used for RPG practice.
Jaxon shot his last round and felt a surge of satisfaction as a rogue target blew apart nearly a mile away.
“Yeah! That was awesome!” Zack cackled.
Jaxon grinne
d and leaned up against the Jeep. He reached into a cooler and plucked out two bottles of water. He handed one to Zack and twisted the cap off his own.
“So, a wolverine, huh?” Jaxon took a long drink.
“Yep. Better than a panda I guess,” Zack chuckled.
“I don’t know, man. Have you seen how mean those things
can be?” Jaxon snickered.
Zack sipped his water
and eyed Jaxon. The man was roughly six-foot-two, with blue eyes that seemed to swirl into grey and green as well, and dark hair that was styled in spikes. Tattoos ran the length of his arms, and his faded blue jeans hugged him in all the right places.
“So, Elijah?”
Jaxon nodded.
“He’s pretty damn sexy.” Zack winked. He had to laugh when a low growl
slipped from Jaxon.
“Chill, dude. Just sayin’. So what’s the low down? He doesn’t want you?”
Jaxon pulled at the label on his bottle and sighed.
“He did. I met him at Camp Pride and he came on
really strong. It stayed that way for a while, then all of a sudden, bam! He’s got a boyfriend.”
“You waited too long, huh?”
“He was sixteen! I wanted to wait until he was at least eighteen.”
“How old are you?”
“Almost twenty-five. Not quite.”
“Dude
! That’s it? I thought you were like, way older! Six years isn’t shit. From what I hear, Elijah’s been through the wringer — and that tends to age people. I know some people who are thirty and act like teenagers. Age is a number; it’s the person you need to see.”
Jaxon’s mouth dropped open in surprise. He didn’t think he’d ever heard that many words come out of Zack’s mouth. The guy just didn’t talk.
“What?” Zack winked. “I know when to keep quiet and when to say my piece.”
“What about you? Watching the child of Aphrodite
?” Jaxon smiled and wiggled his eyebrows.
“I’m immune
,” Zack scowled.
“
Suurre you are,” Jaxon laughed.
Zack sighed in frustration and grabbed another round of ammunition.
“Feel like destroying some more shit?” he asked.
“Yeah. I do.”
After another hour, they were back on the freeway and Jaxon closed his eyes as the warm sun of Arizona beat down on him.
God, but he’d missed Arizona.
Zack was humming along to the music
from the radio as they flew down the road. An exit sign came into view and Jaxon turned to Zack.