Endure (10 page)

The Visceratti pushed themselves across the earth, trying to keep up, but we were going too fast. I could hear their angry hisses behind us. As the fishtailing became more intense, I knew I was going to have to slow down. It was either that or end up rolling over into the ditch. Then we’d be sitting ducks.

I let off the gas enough to keep the fishtailing to a minimum. The Visceratti were behind us now, and it looked like the other vehicles had managed to get ahead of them. My pulse pounded in my head and with our speed having slowed, the demons made up ground. They were close enough to the last car that I started to worry, but a dark patch in the road up ahead gave me the confidence to bear down on the gas. We had a hundred yards until we were on paved road and then I could drop the Jeep a gear and leave the Visceratti behind for good. This time I would make that hundred yards.

The back end of the Jeep swung side to side, and we didn’t accelerate on the loose road like I wanted. The Visceratti had made it up beside the other vehicles, but they weren’t touching them. They were intent on catching ours and they were doing a good job. We’d travelled half the distance to the pavement and they were already at the rear of the Jeep. A few more yards and they were looking in my window. One demon slammed into my door and as the front end shifted hard to the right, the back end slid to the left.

“Dammit!” I screamed as the world began to spin. We made three full cycles and we’d lost nearly all our forward momentum. I jerked the steering wheel to the side and as I broke out of the spin, we were already headed into the ditch.

My body jerked hard against the seatbelt as it cut into my neck, but the vehicle didn’t stop. We were moving at a snail’s pace. The other vehicles flew past us, their rear lights exploding with red. I didn’t want them to stop and help. There weren’t nearly enough of us to fight off this many pure bloods. I dropped the Jeep into four-wheel drive and let the tires tear into the earth, but it wasn’t fast enough. The tinted back window of the Jeep shattered and the slate-grey arm of a Visceratti came through.

Long, dirty nails swiped at the air and Rayna unbuckled herself, leaning out of reach. Her back was pressed against the back of my seat and her breath came in heavy pants. With the pedal pinned to the floor, I jerked the wheel hard to the left. The Jeep responded immediately and climbed out of the ditch. The tires squealed again and we surged onto paved road.

Visceratti had nearly surrounded the vehicle—with one halfway through the back window. The snake demon’s claws tore into the leather, pulling herself through the window. Black blood ran from her arm and the multiple tears on her body as she dragged herself over the broken glass. Rai fluttered in her cage, white and gold feathers being thrown in the air from her panicked movements.

“Chase,” Rayna said. She had her whip in hand, but there was no room to use it.

“Dagger!” I said, unbuckling my seatbelt and leaning forward.

I felt the blade slip from the sheath on my back and before I settled into my seat, Rayna lunged into the back, bringing the blade down hard. The Visceratti screamed and tried to slither back, her claws cutting through the air. In all the commotion, the claws caught Rayna’s face and slammed her head into the side window. The glass cracked on impact and Rayna responded with a spine-chilling growl.

The dagger rolled across the seat and Rayna’s hand ripped through the air. Her fingers were gone and a massive black paw had taken over her arm from the elbow down. Her claws extended and a massive
thud
smashed against the demon’s face. The angry hiss became silent and the snake body fell limp. She slid back through the window and with Rayna’s kick to the face, her head smashed into the roof on its way out. The body hit the asphalt and rolled across the road. The other demons roared. With the Jeep on pavement, we’d reached a hundred and they gave up their pursuit. They became dull blurs in the distance and after a few moments, they were gone.

Nobody spoke. Wind howled through the broken rear window and the loud thump of my pulse echoed in my ears. Rayna’s arm had shifted back when she settled in, I saw blood dripping from her hairline and two cuts across her cheek.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“Fine, just keep driving.”

Tiki shifted in his seat, his eyes staring straight ahead.

“How about you?” I asked.

He nodded. “I am fine, Chase Williams. You drive like they do in your movies.”

“Thanks?” I said, not sure how to respond.

Tiki nodded, shifting in his seat and wiping his hands on his pants. The phone rang loudly and Rayna fumbled it a few times before scooping it up off the floor.

“Hi…yeah, we’re all okay.” She sat back in her seat, staring at me in the mirror. “I’ll tell him.” She dropped the phone and her head fell back against the headrest.

“What is it?”

“Marcus thinks putting all those souls into you has put you back on Riley and the Brother’s radar, maybe everyone else’s too. The moment we drove out of reach of the cabin’s protection, they knew where you were.”

“Riley had the chance to kill me and he didn’t. He wouldn’t send the Visceratti after me now. Besides, the cabin isn’t as secure as we thought.”

“What do you mean?”

I met her eyes in the rearview mirror and she narrowed her gaze. I didn’t want to have this conversation right now, and rather than try to avoid it, I ignored it, only further aggravating Rayna.

“Whatever,” she said. “Whether or not Riley sent them, they want you dead. You killed their princess, remember?”

She was right. Riley wasn’t the only enemy I’d made, and if all these demons could sense my power now, anyone in close proximity of me was in danger. The conversation with Drake flooded into my mind but before I could consider my options, Tiki broke my train of thought.

“There is another possibility,” Tiki said, turning in his chair. “We still have something Riley wants—
The 11th Dimension
.”

The pain in my stomach twisted and I gripped the wheel. I’d forgotten about the book. If they still needed it, why didn’t Drake say anything?

With one more phone call to Marcus, all the cars sped up. We were left with two possibilities: either the Visceratti were out for revenge and the souls inside me made me a blip on their radar, or we had something Riley wanted, which would count as me interfering with his plans. Either way, everyone close to me was now in danger and until I could bind the souls, I wasn’t ready for another face-off.

Chapter 10

Everybody gathered in front of the condo’s elevator. We all felt a little shaken by the run-in with pure bloods in general, let alone on Earth. I think if Chief and Jax went the rest of their lives without seeing another Visceratti, they’d be just fine with that.

“Is everyone all right?” Marcus asked.

“Rayna’s a little cut up, but otherwise we’re fine,” I replied. Although I still felt a vibrating tension beneath my skin, my heart rate had slowed. The souls inside me were whispering, but the words were distant echoes in my mind.

Marcus touched Rayna’s chin, turning her head from side to side. “Chase, you want to take care of this?”

“It’s just a scratch,” Rayna said, pulling away. “I’m okay.”

Marcus watched her for a moment, as if trying to decide if she was being honest with him. “I don’t know how they found—”

“It’s me,” I said.

Everyone turned and the tension crept into my shoulders.

“How is it you?” Chief asked.

Rayna’s gaze was cold and hard like she knew I hadn’t told her everything. I sighed and took the plunge. “The wards around the cabin didn’t keep us hidden…at least not me. Drake found me when I was out by the lake.”

“What?” Rayna asked. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“It’s not like you were speaking with me!” I snapped, already regretting my tone. The last thing I wanted was to give her something else to be angry about. We needed to stick together, now more than ever. “I’m sorry. So much has happened in the last week, my head is spinning. I can’t even tell which way is up right now.”

“What did he want?” Marcus asked.

“He said we’re connected and that I’m not just a hunter anymore.” I paused, not sure if I should say more, but I had to. These people had risked their lives for me. They were my family, and you didn’t hold things back from family. “He said I should get away from all of you. That doing that is the only way I can be sure you’ll stay safe.”

“I beg your pardon?” Marcus’s brows furrowed.

“I don’t like it at all, but it might be a viable option,” I said. I could feel the heat from Rayna’s gaze, but I didn’t dare look at her. Feeling it was one thing, seeing made it real, seeing it made it effective. “Don’t you think we should stop and consider it?

“No,” everyone said in unison.

“Maybe,” Grams added after the fact. Everyone glared and she shrugged, blowing smoke into the air. “What? For once the kid has a point.”

“What point?” Rayna was nearly snarling.

“The book is a soul piece,” I said. “And they want it. The moment Grams takes down the protection spell, Riley and the Brothers will sense its power and they’ll come after it.”

“Then we leave the spell up,” Jax said.

“We need to take it down in order to move it or read it,” Grams said. “And after what Lillian found inside about the Protector, we have to see if there is anything else that can help.”

“There are other ways,” Marcus said. “We’ll find something…some way to keep Chase with us and the book safe.”

“And what about everyone else? We need to keep
everyone
safe. That’s our job, right, to fight the good fight?” I didn’t want to separate from the group. In fact, the thought terrified me, but I didn’t let fear get in the way of making their safety a priority.

Marcus’s lips parted to respond, but whatever thoughts he had were never spoken.

“And we don’t know how much time I really have. We need to find Vincent and get the scroll. It will help us bind the souls to me, and until that happens, I’m not safe anywhere.”

“I can do it,” Rayna said. “I can call a spirit to keep it hidden like I did with the Claw.”

“That’s risky,” Grams said. “You’re still learning and calling more than one spirit at a time is dangerous.”

“I’ve already done it. When Riley and the Brothers showed up in Vortan, I had no other choice. I can manage it.”

“Calling a defensive spirit and a guardian spirit are two very different things,” Grams said. “Guardians require constant energy, and after what you did to Chase, you might be running low on mojo for a while.”

“I can handle it. Chase is right; we don’t know what kind of timeline we’re on. This is better than the alternative of him disappearing with the book, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t say I was going to do it,” I said. “It’s just a suggestion. Whatever we have to do to keep everyone safe is the best option. If we can all agree Rayna is the answer, so be it. But we’re not losing anybody else.”

“I guess if Rayna thinks she’s up for it, it’s worth a shot,” Marcus said.

“I am.”

“Then let’s stop wasting time.”

There wasn’t enough room for everyone inside the elevator, so I opted for the stairs. I couldn’t bring myself to run. Even after spending more than a week at the cabin, I still felt exhausted.

“Chase, wait up.” Rayna raced up the stairs.

I stopped on the platform, plunging both hands in the linked front pocket of my hoodie.
 
“What’s up?” I asked, trying not to sound as tired as I felt.

“I…” Rayna’s hands fidgeted in front of her before she hooked her thumbs in her back pocket. “I’m sorry about earlier. We’re all running on fumes right now and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you like that. What I said was harsh.”

An awkward strain drifted between us and I stepped toward her to push it away. I didn’t want any distance—physical or not—between us right now.

“You don’t have anything to apologize for. What you said might have been harsh, but it’s what I needed to hear. I’ve discredited Willy this entire time. I always thought he was the one who needed me. Turns out it was the other way around.”

“You both helped one another. Willy helped all of us in some way. I just can’t believe he’s…”

“I know.” The silence crept back around us but the pressure was gone. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay to do this?” I acknowledged the floor above us.

“Of course. And even if I wasn’t, I’d still do it. I won’t let you leave. Not without me. I don’t care what you think is best.” Our eyes met and I smirked, but Rayna didn’t return the gesture. Instead, her hands gripped my sweater and pulled me forward. “I mean it. Promise me you won’t do anything stupid. Promise me you’re not leaving on some half-cocked mission to keep everyone safe. Promise me you’ll stay.”

My words were lost as I stared into her eyes, a thin veil of gloss staring back at me. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to be here with her and everybody else. As long as me being with them didn’t jeopardize their safety, I wasn’t running off anywhere.

“I could never leave you,” I whispered. “Everyone here is a part of this family now…but you’re the only thing my heart has left.”