rylee adamson 10 - blood of the lost (30 page)

My eyebrows shot up. “By whom?”

A tear trickled down her cheek and that was enough for me. I pushed the door open and ran into the shop. I knew where I was going. The idiot trolls had set things up exactly as they had before. I found the partition in the wall and was running through it, a stream of wolves behind me.

I knew why I was going in, but why the hell were they following me?

A whisper floated to my ear from a familiar voice…Giselle?

Because you gave them a cause to fight for. A reason to believe.

The ladder stuck out of the hole in the ground and I grabbed it, sliding down with my feet and hands on the sides. From there, I followed my nose, stripping as I went. As soon as the last piece of clothing was off, I shifted and galloped forward. A large cavern opened. In it was a slew of trolls, all in war gear.

On the floor, wrapped in nets and chains were at least a hundred half-breed trolls.

Snarling, I leapt at the closet troll, hamstringing him and dropping him to the ground before there was even a warning call let out. Around me the other wolves swarmed, teeth and claws driving the trolls back, tearing throats out. I bit and clawed my way to the half-breeds. Those under the nets struggled to get out.

“Here,” I grabbed a knife off a troll’s body, my long tipped claws wrapping easily around the handle, and then pushed it toward them. Scared, but determined eyes looked back at me. As they cut themselves out, I launched into the skirmish once more. Swords and blades cut near to me, but I felt invincible, untouchable even.

Behind me came a bloodcurdling cry. I spun to see the half-breeds free and fighting the trolls with their bare hands. The wolves slipped in around them supporting them.

Working together, we drove the trolls out, killing as many as we could. Twenty or so of the wolves kept after the trolls, following them deep into the tunnels. I shifted and walked toward the half-breeds. Tara was amongst them, checking on the others, but I knew she wouldn’t recognize me. She’d never seen me as anything but the stuck-between-forms-Alex.

“Tara.”

She turned, her pale pink skin flush with excitement, and her eyes widened. “Do I know you?”

“Alex. I was with Liam and Rylee.”

Her mouth dropped open. “The submissive wolf?”

I grinned at her and spread my hands wide. “The one and only.”

She approached me, moving through her people. They watched her, as did I.

“You saved us. Why? Since when have supernaturals ever stood up for each other?” Her words were bitter and I knew why. The half-breeds had been all but treated as slaves, their children stolen and used in medical experiment, their woman raped by the full-blooded trolls.

“The world needs everyone to stand together, Tara. Rylee and Liam will be facing a horde of demons. We need your help.”

She looked back at her people. “What can we do? There aren’t many of us.”

“You can fight,” Luca said behind me. “You can fight and prove yourselves as you did here in the heat of battle. You are not a half-breed mistake, but a supernatural force to be reckoned with.”

She shook her head, but I wouldn’t give up.

“The demons will have trolls fighting alongside them, the same trolls who’ve been treating you like shit your whole life. They belong to Orion, the demon who is trying to take over the world. Trying to kill Rylee and Liam. Would you let them win?”

“Liam?” Tara slowly straightened and then nodded, her eyes hardening with determination. “I will come with you. I owe him my life.”

Behind her, the other half-breeds nodded one by one. They would come; holy shit, we’d done it! I lifted up a hand and Tara matched my movement, high-fiving me. “Come on, then, we have demons to kill.”

A grin lit her face. “We will show them not to mess with our world.”

That’s what I was hoping for.

But I had one last stop to make before I could go to Rylee. One last couple who I knew would fight for her.

I hoped there was enough time left.

Giving instructions to Luca on how to get to the farmhouse, I left him to organize things.

He grabbed my arm. “Where are you going?”

“One more set of reinforcements. We need every soul we can get at this point.” Even two more people might be the tipping point in our favor.

Bursting out of the tattoo parlor, as I pulled my clothes back on, yet again, I flagged Eve down. She dropped to the pavement, her eyes wide as she took me in. “What happened?”

I looked down at myself, noticing the gore and viscera covering me for the first time. “We routed the trolls and the half-breeds are going to fight with us.”

“That is the best news.”

“But I have to stop at one more place, Eve. They will fight for Rylee, I’m sure of it.” I climbed up onto her back and strapped myself into her harness. She launched into the sky.

“Where?”

“You know that motel on the outskirts of Bismarck?”

She bobbed her head. “You think that they will really fight for her?”

“Yes.”

We fell silent as we skimmed the skies, Marco right behind us.

Something about the time with Eve felt strange and I couldn’t put my finger on it.

The sensation registered as we circled downward toward the motel. It felt like this was the last ride we’d ever have together. My heart clenched and I forced the words out.

“Eve, I want you to know you’re one of my best friends. And it has been the time of my life flying with you.” I touched her back gently as she hopped on the pavement.

“Don’t get morose on me, Alex.” She sniffed. “We have lost enough people. Neither of us is going anywhere. Rylee needs us too much.”

I hoped she was right. I ran to the motel office and burst through the door. John sat with his feet up on the desk, his beat up cowboy hat pulled down low.

“John, Rylee’s in trouble, and she could use all the help she can get.” It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment that they would be of no real use being human.

He pushed his hat up with one finger and raised an eyebrow at me. “What you doing here, Wolf?”

“Rylee’s in trouble and . . . wait, how did you know I was a wolf?” I stared at him as my mouth slowly dropped open. “You knew all along?”

He shrugged and a slow grin slid over his face. “Wolf, I can’t come with you. Ry needs Mary and me here. You’ve got to trust me that we will do more good here than in the middle of that mess of demons.”

I backed up. “Okay.”

“I’ll see you in a bit,” he said, waving at me as he lowered his hat back down.

Running out of the office, I leapt up onto Eve’s back. “So much for that.”

“They won’t come?” The despair in her voice clawed at me.

“He said they were needed here. Then he said he’d see me in a bit.” The whole conversation, as short as it was, was strange.

“Then we need to go,” she said as she launched once more into the sky, heading straight for the farm.

“Yes,” I said softly breathing in the fresh air, filling my lungs with it, “I think you’re right. It’s time to go.”

CHAPTER 37

RYLEE

JONATHAN POINTED. “WHICH path do you want to see first?”

“Does it matter?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Left or right . . . did it matter? I looked at the path under my feet. The one to the left was made of perfectly in-line stones stretching out in front of us. Around each stone the grass was manicured and beautifully bright green. The other was overgrown with tangles of bushes and grass shooting up between the bricks. Most of the bricks were broken, some were completely missing, leaving gaps in the path.

“Let me guess, two states of mind?”

“If that is what you see, then that is what it is. I am just the facilitator here. This is your mind, this is your journey,” he said, a smirk on his face.

The path to the right represented my inability to plan. No matter how hard I tried, I would find myself going by the seat of my pants. I took a step to the left and I was back in the barn.

Doran leaned over me. “Rylee, what did you learn?”

“We’re going to do a play by play, understand?” I pushed to my feet, clutching at my stomach and the wound there.

He nodded. “You’re the one in charge here, Rylee. And you know I like it like that.” He winked at me and I laughed softly.

“Doran, will you never give up?”

“Nah, too much fun.” He slipped an arm around my back and helped me stand. “What do we need to do?”

I directed those left in my care to their positions. “When the sun drops behind the horizon, we’re going to do exactly as I planned. Everyone understand?”

They nodded, murmuring their assent.

The plan was to have the shamans holding the protective circle to let it drop and Ophelia would tear the barn right off us so we had a clear view of what we faced.

The vampires would rush me to the ceremonial slab, the shamans would set up another protective circle around us there, and I would end the game with Orion, complete the ceremony and save the world.

Easy as peach pie in the south.

I watched Berget and Faris for the first signal: the sun had gone down. Berget’s blue eyes were on mine and I saw the flicker there a split second before she nodded.

“Now!”

Ophelia ripped the barn off. Or at least, half of it. The other half fell on top of Jonathan, crushing the kid. Doran scooped me into his arms and ran across the short distance to the burned out shell of my house. The ceremonial slab beckoned me.

I closed my eyes and trusted in the plan. For the first time, I had truly planned this out and it had to work. I looked over Doran’s shoulder. “Where the fuck are the shamans?”

The barn wall collapsed on them, Rylee. I couldn’t stop it.
Ophelia’s words turned into a scream of pain and I squirmed in Doran’s arms. The rapid staccato of her heart pounded through my body. Slash after slash of red-hot fiery death lanced through me from her.

Like Blaz, I felt her slipping away, the pulse of her blood slowing as she fought.

Rylee, I can’t hold them off. Ahh, my babies. My babies are the last.

“Put me down, they’re killing her!”

One last shot, and Ophelia slipped from me, the bond shattering, and with it my will to fight. Not again. I was losing her like I was losing everyone around me.

“You can’t save any of us if you don’t do this!” Doran grabbed my arms, shaking me hard. But his back was turned to the demons and it was the last mistake he would ever make.

A sword sliced through his neck, taking his head off in a single clean swipe. His beautiful green eyes widened and a single tear fell from each as he air-kissed at me one last time.

I fell backward as his hands slipped from me. “Doran, no!” The words escaped me, even though I knew they were of no use. I fell through the air, backward, landing hard on the ceremonial slab, screaming his name. I loved him, he was my friend, and like Faris, he’d stolen a part of my heart somewhere along the way.

My head smashed into the hardened stone with a crack that I felt all the way through my skull. Warmth pooled under my neck and I lay there, looking up at the sky. The screams of my friends and family as they died trying to make sure I was able to do what I had to. But without them at my side, the ceremony would never take place.

I knew that for the truth it was; the purple skinned book of prophecies had made things very clear. I needed someone from each of the seven divisions of the supernatural world to help me with the ceremony or it would never be complete.

Around me, the world exploded in fire and earth, and chunks of ground raining down on my head. I closed my eyes, listening to my own heart slow.

“Rylee!”

Alex’s voice cut through the fog of dying, but still I struggled to open my eyes.

“It’s too late,” I whispered.

“No, don’t say that. You can’t give up, boss.” His arms circled around me and he pulled me up to his chest. “You can’t give up, Rylee. That isn’t you. Don’t do this.”

He whispered into my ears something important, something I didn’t understand at first. “This isn’t the way. Don’t do this. Please.” His voice cracked on the last word and I managed to open my eyes.