Page 95 of Dark Princess Ascending
"Are being taken care of by people trained to handle what they have gone through. They are taking them to the sanctuary. To Vanessa. Youknow Vanessa, right? My father's mate. That's what she does."
Of course she did. Pavel was talking to her as if she was the one suffering a trauma.
He led her outside through the front door instead of the one they had come in through. "The best thing you can do now is take care of yourself. Take deep breaths and repeat in your head that you did something good. You not only saved these children but probably also prevented Guardian casualties. Thanks to you, everything went smoothly."
She nodded, letting him lead her back to the van.
"That's our girl," Lyall greeted her with a grin and a high five. "You are this mission's hero."
Funny. Drova didn't feel like a hero right now. All she wanted to do was to go home, get in bed, cover her head with the blanket, and never come out.
56
PETER
The mansion's grand foyer served as Peter's command center while he coordinated the cleanup operation. The children were already gone, whisked away while thralled to sleep so they could be transported to the sanctuary where they would receive professional help.
The Guardians were not equipped to deal with traumatized children, so that seemed like the best solution. The last thing Peter wanted was to add to the damage that had been done to them.
Now came the methodical work of erasing the immortals' presence while securing evidence and prisoners.
"Teams Three and Four, status on prisoner transfer?" he asked, tapping his earpiece.
"Loading the last of theguestsnow," Alfie reported. "All secured and sedated."
"The Doomers are double dosed as per Julian's instructions," Jay added.
They had ended up with many more prisoners than Peter had ever expected to bring to the keep, but he wasn't an interrogator, and he preferred to leave the selection of who to leave alive and who to eliminate to the pros.
None of these sick fucks deserved to live another day and harm another child.
Peter climbed to the second floor, checking the Guardians' progress. In what had clearly been a security office, Theo and Bowen were disconnecting and packing computer equipment. There were countless hours of surveillance recorded on those, evidence of perversion that was no doubt meant to be used for blackmail and extortion.
He wondered how many politicians, Hollywood elites, and other public personalities had visited this house of horrors.
Peter wanted to develop a new side hobby and personally go after each one and tear their throats out with his bare fangs.
He could just imagine the news headlines.
"A reign of terror has the elites scrambling for cover!"
Other headlines came to mind, but he pushed them away. He had a job that needed to be done.
"Everything gets tagged," he reminded the Guardians. "The intel team will need to know which machine came from where."
"Already on it." Theo held up a labeled hard drive. "Looks like they were recording everything."
"Of course. That's why they do it. The big rewards come later with the extortion. They are paid with money and influence."
It was always about money and power, and the ones who paid the price were the most powerless, the innocent, the defenseless. Peter's jaw tightened. "Pack it all. Every backup drive and every cable. Make it easy for the hacker team. Their job will be hard enough just watching these recordings."
Theo nodded. "I'm glad I won't have to do that."
"Yeah, me too." Peter barely suppressed a shudder and continued to the mansion's office, where similar activity was taking place.
The office spoke of big money and no taste, with its leather furniture and pseudo-pornographic obscene artwork. Peter's attention was immediately drawn to the gaudy painting hanging on the wall behind the desk. "Did anyone check that thing for a safe?"
"Not yet," Gordon said. "I'm still busy tagging and packing the computer equipment and the various items from the drawers."