Endure (41 page)

“Are we in a hurry?” Jax asked.

“Actually, we are. In fact, we’re on about as tight a schedule as we can be. Everything is going down tomorrow and I need to find Rayna.”

“What do you mean
find
her?” Chief asked.

I ran my hands through my hair. With dozens of eyes staring at me for answers, I didn’t even know where to start. I paced back and forth in front of them when Jax’s impatience finally took over.

“We can’t help if we don’t know what the hell is going on.”

“Riley and the Brothers showed up and I sent her away with the others. It wasn’t safe for her.”

“Why was she in any more danger than any of us?” Chief asked.

“Because she’s a part of all this. They need her powers to raise Ithreal.”

“How did we not know this?”

“Apparently there is a lot that we don’t know.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jax asked.

“I—”

“Chase!” Rayna’s voice came from somewhere in the crowd. Everyone turned toward the entrance and Rayna shoved her way through the group. Tiki and Vincent trailed behind her with Marcus draped over their shoulders. She ran forward and jumped toward me, wrapping her limbs around my body. “Thank gods you’re okay.”

I wanted to hug her back but instead I pushed her away. “We need to talk.” I grabbed Rayna’s arm and led her across the room. I wasn’t sure what she was keeping from me, if anything, but she wasn’t supposed to be here. No matter what she had done, I wanted her to be safe. I pulled Rayna into the back room, closing the door on the others. “You have something to tell me.”

“What do you mean?”

“First of all, you’re not supposed to be here. Second, what do you know that I don’t?”

“Whoa, wait. First, I came back to make sure you were all right. Second, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I didn’t know why, but in that moment I knew something wasn’t right. I didn’t want to call her out, but knowing she had kept something from me made anger rise in my throat. “You’re lying.”

“No, I’m—”

“Don’t. Serephina told me you had answers, so cut the bullshit. We were in this together, remember? After all this time, why are you keeping things from me now, or have you been doing it all along?”

“How can you even say that? It’s you and me, Chase, it always has been. We
will
stop this. You
know
you can trust me.”

“I do trust you, but we’ve lost family and we’ve lost friends.” I paced across the room, my hands clammy and shaking. “I need to know what you know. I need to know how to stop him. I can’t risk losing this fight. Not for anything. Not even love.”

Rayna’s eyes opened wide and she gasped. “Love?”

The world around me stilled, and my heart made a massive
thud
inside my chest before it dropped into my stomach. Tension crept up my neck and everything seemed to stop. Had I just said that? Out loud? I knew what I felt and how long I’d felt it, but now wasn’t the time for this discussion.

An eternity filled the gap between us. It took all my force to swallow the pit of saliva that formed at the back of my throat and it felt like a boulder going down. The world came rushing back with supernatural speed and I felt lightheaded.

“I…um…that wasn’t supposed to come out.”

Rayna arched a brow and I shook my head, waving my hands back and forth in front of her.

“That’s not what I meant. I mean it is what I meant, but it wasn’t what I meant to say right now. It was for later…if we didn’t die.”

“Uh-huh.” She didn’t look impressed.

All the frustration I had felt was gone, replaced by scrambling thoughts on how to pull myself out of the hole I seemed to be digging.

“Not that I thought we were going to die, but I didn’t want to distract you…or me…or—” I stopped talking, I wasn’t going to resurrect this massive fumble. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I released it, I looked Rayna in the eye and let it all go. “Rayna, I love you. I’m in love with you. Maybe I always was, but you know me, it takes me longer to pick up on things like this.”

Rayna stared at me but remained quiet. I’d said the words. At some point I remembered being sure she’d say them back, but now that the moment arrived I didn’t trust any of my thoughts. My hands grew clammy and the twisting in my stomach tightened. I felt like tiny beads inside my veins were vibrating back and forth and forcing my insides to shake.

“The thing is, I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t. I wanted to get through this first. I wanted to say it when the moment was right and I knew everything would be okay. I just didn’t want you to think I said it because it might be the end.” I had stopped pacing and I stared down into Rayna’s eyes. “Rayna, I love you.”

Silence immediately followed. It was a million needles sliding through my body all at once. It opened me up and exposed me to a pain I never thought I’d risk having. I stood completely bare in front of her, and each moment she didn’t speak was another lifetime of madness that filled my mind.

“Feeling a little exposed here…” I said.

Rayna shook her head as though she’d just broken free from a trance. She smiled, her green feline eyes shining like a candle inside an emerald. “I’m sorry, this just kind of caught me off guard.”

“You and me both.” The tension that had mounted my body tightened, squeezing the air from my lungs and making me feel woozy. I turned away, letting my eyes fall to the floor.

“Don’t do that,” she said, using her hand to turn me back to her. Her thumb slid over my cheek, then down my chin. “How could you think for a second that I don’t love you too?”

“I don’t know. I’m kind of getting used to thinking worst-case scenarios.”

Hearing her say she loved me should’ve been enough, but for some reason I couldn’t shake the nervousness. She must have sensed the insecurity because the moment I thought it, her hand pulled me down and she pressed her lips against mine. The kiss was slow, and the sweetness on her lips shattered all the pressure inside my body. When she pulled away, I felt breathless. My hand cupped her face and with our foreheads pressed against one another, we stared into each other’s eyes.

“And the heroes of the night have spoken,” Vincent said. I hadn’t heard the door open, but Vincent, Tiki, Jax, and Chief stood inside the room staring at us. “The end of the world is tomorrow and you two are in here making kissy face and sharing I love
yous
? Well, time’s up. Out with it. What does she know that we don’t?”

Rayna and I both looked confused and Vincent looked annoyed. He touched his ears and shook his head.

“Vampire hearing, remember? You didn’t honestly think this little wall could stop me, do you? So out with it. Tell me how we stop all this, because I’m not risking my life or any of my family until you do. And I can’t for the life of me figure out why you’d keep it from us in the first place.”

I turned to Rayna, waiting for a response. I’d just told her I loved her and she had responded, but the moment was gone. I had to focus. The question on the table was how to stop Ithreal. It was more important than anything right now. No matter what I felt, I had to believe that.
 

The frustration of the lost moment and the attack from both me, and then Vincent, pushed Rayna over the edge. She threw her hands in the air and cursed under her breath. “I don’t have the answers, okay! All I have is a fallback plan.”

“Well, what is it?”

“It doesn’t matter!” she yelled, and her angry response caught me off guard. “It doesn’t concern any of you, so it’s not important. It’s something I can do, and none of you can help me with it, so just leave it alone.”

“You can’t be serious,” I said.

Rayna pulled her eyes away and shook her head.

“Tell me, Rayna. If you’ve ever cared for me, I deserve to know.”

Rayna moved to the table that held
The 11th Dimension
and began flipping through the pages. “The book says in order to defeat Ithreal, it has to start where it all began.”

“And…”

“And we thought that was my house, the tree, Drakar, but that wasn’t what it meant. It started with me. My blood broke the veil that protected our dimension from the rest. I’m the beginning.”

“There’s no way for us to be sure of that.”

“Yes, there is.” Rayna looked up at me. “Remember after our…night, when you heard me in the bathroom?”

I nodded, but I didn’t say anything. I already knew the answer.

“Serephina was in there with me.”

My stomach rolled over and my knees felt weak. I opened my mouth to speak, but Rayna cut me off.

“She didn’t have much time so I don’t know everything. I know the Brothers need me to summon pieces of Ithreal’s soul, and help it break through the veil the gods have built. Most of the power they’re using binds Ithreal to the center of his dimension. The veil is practically unprotected. There’s enough there to keep the Underworlders from entering and that’s it.”

“And if that happens, the only way to close the portal is with some of your blood,” I said.

“Not just some of it…”

I didn’t know where it came from but I laughed just then, shaking my head. “No, you’re not sacrificing yourself to finish this. We’ll stop it before it happens.”

“And what if we can’t? What if Drake was right and we can’t kill Ithreal? You have to understand, Chase, what they want me to summon from that dimensional hell is pure power. I say this is a fallback plan, but my blood might be the only option we have.”

Anger rose in my throat, burning like bile and flame. I wanted to scream out at the gods again. I wanted more from Serephina. She said Rayna had the answer, but this couldn’t be it. I refused to believe it. I clenched my fists and fire snapped inside me. I took a deep breath. Getting angry would get me nowhere. I had started this journey hoping to stop Riley. I failed to do that so I’d shifted my goals to finding a way to kill him. Now things had changed again. I needed to prevent Ithreal from rising altogether. Rayna’s life depended on it.

“You shouldn’t have come back,” I said. “If Riley can’t get his hands on you, you can’t do the spell. That means all this is over.”

“What if that’s the only way to stop all this? To let them do the spell, open the portal, and then use myself to close it before Ithreal’s power can escape?”

“It’s not. There has to be another way. What’s the point of me being the Protector if I can’t protect anything? No, Riley can’t force you to do that spell, so that isn’t even an option.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Tiki said, but he didn’t step forward. He seemed hesitant, as though waiting to be scolded.

“What do you mean, Tiki?” I asked.

“You may have forgotten what I told you before we went after Ithreal’s dagger. If given the chance, the Visceratti can compel their victims. They can make them do anything they want.”

The lecture Tiki had given us seemed like it had happened moments ago.

“
Wh
–, what…is it?” Willy asked, stepping back from the squirming serpent.

“It’s a Visceratti,” Tiki said.

“What the hell’s a Visceratti?”

“They are snake women. They can put the most horrible thoughts into your mind, and as you’ve seen, make themselves invisible. They force their prey to turn on one another and when there are only a few left, the entire nest swarms and eviscerates them.”

“Charming,” Vincent stated.

“That’s not the worst of it. If they get inside your head, you become their puppet. They gain full control over you and your magic.”

“They can take full control of your magic,” I whispered.

“Yes, Chase Williams. If they capture Rayna, it does not matter whether or not she wants to help. If it is her magic that raises Ithreal’s essence, they will use it.”

“So let me ask this one more time,” I said. “Why exactly did you guys come back?”

Nobody was given time to respond. The entire building shook and the windows rattled in their frames. Everyone braced themselves against whatever they could find, and chunks of stone fell from the ceiling.

“Rayna, get over here!” I yelled, using the wall for support. After what Tiki had said, she couldn’t be close enough.

Rayna turned to me but stumbled, falling to the ground. The cracks that had formed along the wall began to spread, weaving along the smooth concrete and tearing it apart. Bits of mortar and blocks of cement fell out of the wall, smashing on the ground in clouds of dust.

The floor
spiderwebbed
and dust vibrated along the floor before it shattered. Three holes broke in the ground and bits of rock shot across the room. I turned my back and shielded my face as shards of stone smashed into me. When the rocky assault ended, I ran for Rayna and three Visceratti slithered out of the holes. Everyone attacked at once, claws tearing into the air. The room hadn’t stopped shaking, making it difficult to move, and three more Visceratti slid from the holes.

My elements were charged and I fired them from both hands. Streaks of red flame crackled through the air, burning the closest snake-demon to ash. Half a dozen wolves pooled into the room, lunging toward the Visceratti and tackling them to the ground. There was hardly enough space to move and as I unleashed my element on the next demon, a thick grey tail slammed into my stomach. I hit the wall, and although it slowed me down, it didn’t stop me. The wall broke and a shock of pain ricocheted through me. Rocks and dust blew past me and cold air slashed my skin. When I hit the ground, I rolled end over end across the unpaved parking lot, rocks and gravel digging into me. I rolled to my feet, but I wasn’t alone. A dozen snake-women sat outside the warehouse and they slithered toward me.