Falling Blind: The Sentinel Wars (7 page)

He needed to leave and ensure her future, but he couldn’t do that yet. He had to stay and make sure that Logan didn’t take her blood. “She’s already spilled enough blood tonight. If you need to fuel your efforts, take mine.”

“Thanks to Hope, I have no need of it, but Ronan does. He’s nearby. Pay him what you would have given me.”

“I will,” said Cain, feeling the fluttering weight of his vow settle over him, binding him to his word.

Logan addressed Rory. “This may hurt a bit. Try to hold still while I heal the joint. I’ll do this as fast as I can.”

Logan covered her knee with his pale hand, and it was all Cain could do not to rip the man away from her. This raging possessiveness wasn’t normal for Cain. He didn’t usually impede someone who was only trying to help the way Logan was.

And then Rory let out a small whimper of pain, and Cain’s vision flashed red. He had just wrapped his hand around Logan’s arm when she let out a long breath and sagged in relief.

“Better?” Logan asked her, giving Cain a hard stare.

“Yes. Thanks. How the hell did you do that?”

Cain let go and stalked across the room away from her, his body vibrating with his struggle to regain control of his raging emotions.

“Magic, as I said. How does it feel? Any pain?”

“No. It’s not even stiff.” She jumped off the table and looked up at Logan. “How much do I owe you?”

Hell no. Logan would want blood, and Cain wasn’t going to let that happen. “I’m paying your debt.”

“No, you’re not,” said Rory. “I can pay my own way. How much?”

Logan opened his pretty mouth to answer her, but Cain cut him off. “He gets paid in blood, Rory. He’ll bite your neck and drink your blood. Is that what you want?”

She blanched and took a step back, bumping into the gurney.

Logan shook his head, giving Cain a disappointed frown. “There’s no need to scare her like that. I would have thought better of you.”

And just like that, Cain felt like an ass. Logan was right. She’d already been through too much tonight, and here he was, heaping another dose of fear on her.

“I’m sorry. I should go.” He looked at Rory. “You’ll be safe here. Logan won’t hurt you. He’s going to take you to a place where the demons can’t find you.”

“Uh. No, he’s not,” said Rory. “I’m not going anywhere. I have a job to do. I appreciate you saving my life, and the whole magical healing thing, but I need to get back out there.”

“The demons are still out there,” said Logan. “I obscured your scent trail, but they won’t leave the area until dawn. They’re still looking for you.”

“I’ll find them and kill them,” said Cain. “Stay here tonight. It will be safe to travel to Dabyr in the morning.”

“Wow. You two must have given up your ability to hear in exchange for all those magical powers. I’m. Not. Staying. There’s something I need to do.”

“Let us help you do it, then,” said Logan. “What is it?”

Her full lips pressed together, a clear indication that she intended to remain silent.

“She’s looking for someone,” said Cain.

“Way to keep a secret,” snapped Rory.

“You didn’t say it was a secret. Besides, Logan is good at finding people. I’m sure he’ll be able to help.” Cain gave Logan a hard stare. “But if you touch her blood, you and I are going to have words.”

Rory dug in her purse. “You know, this macho bullshit is cute and all, but a little goes a long way.” She tossed some cash on the gurney and grabbed her shoe and sock.

“You can’t leave with that. Your blood is on your shoe. They’ll smell it.”

She let out a long sigh of irritation. “Those stupid little scorpion fuckers.” She dropped the shoe and began unlacing the one still on her foot. “It’s not bad enough that the big demons try to eat my face, but the little ones have to go and stab me and ruin a perfectly good pair of shoes, too.”

“You were stabbed?” asked Logan, shocked.

“Yeah. They had these barbed tails and one of them got to me before I could squish it.”

“I didn’t sense any poison.”

She frowned at Logan. “That’s good. Neither did I, seeing as how I’m still alive and junk.”

“You don’t understand,” said Cain. “If one of them stabbed you, then you could be poisoned.”

What if it was something Logan couldn’t heal? They’d seen that before. Just the thought of her going through what Torr had endured made Cain’s hands shake.

“I’ll go out immediately and find one of them, in case you need to devise an antidote.”

Logan shook his head. “I’m telling you that there was no trace of poison in her. I would have sensed it.”

“What if you’re wrong? What if it’s something you can’t detect?” asked Cain. “I won’t let her end up like Torr. Or worse.”

“Uh, guys. You’re freaking me out.”

Hope came back into the room with a change of clothes in her arms. “What’s going on?”

“Cain is needlessly upsetting our guest,” said Logan.

Anger swelled in Cain’s gut, and he had to work to keep from bellowing. “Needlessly? Can you say with one hundred percent certainty that she wasn’t poisoned? That it wasn’t something new we haven’t seen before? That there is absolutely no chance that what was done to her tonight—done to one of our own—isn’t going to harm her?”

Logan said nothing.

“That’s what I thought,” rumbled Cain. “I’m not willing to take the chance that you’re wrong. I’m going out there to find one of these things so that you can dissect it and make sure. Understand?”

Hope went to Rory and cupped her shoulders. “Listen to me. You’re going to be fine. There’s nothing to worry about. We’re going to make sure of that.”

“Sure,” said Rory, her voice heavy with sarcasm. “Gigantor there probably freaks out like a little girl all the time. I mean, sure, he faced down a bunch of demons without breaking a sweat, but I bet that’s a first for him. He’s probably a total head case that screams when he sees a mouse.” She pulled in a long breath. “There’s nothing to worry about? Are you fucking kidding me? If Cain says there’s a chance I’m poisoned, I’d really like to know if he’s right.”

“Of course,” said Logan. “Whatever you want.”

“Good. Then it’s settled.” Cain looked at Rory, wishing he could touch her, comfort her. But if he touched her, he’d have to stop touching her again, and he wasn’t sure he could take that kind of pain again tonight. He had a job to do, and for one glorious moment, he felt like his old self again—driven by purpose and the desire to do what was right. It was a gift he would not squander.

“I’ll be quick,” he told Rory. “Stay here.”

Cain picked up her bloody shoe and headed out to go hunting.

*   *   *

Rory didn’t want Cain to leave. That thought hit her upside the head, surprising the hell out of her. At least Hope was here, and the last time Rory had seen her, she’d been sane, unlike the dueling testosterone brothers.

Brilliant flashes of light filled her head. There were people close by, and some of them were awake. Even those who slept were still a problem—sending her random little slits of sight that weren’t her own. The visions were now stronger than they’d ever been, but at least she wasn’t sick. “I don’t feel poisoned.”

“I’m sure you’re fine,” said Logan. “Cain is simply being careful. It’s understandable, given the situation.”

“And what situation is that, exactly? You guys keep giving each other these looks like you don’t want me to know what’s going on. I thought I was the one keeping secrets from the world about demons and monsters, and here I am feeling like I’m the queen of clueless.”

“Logan,” said Hope, “why don’t you go and find Rory something to eat. I’ll help her get cleaned up and make sure the clothes fit.”

Logan nodded. “As you wish, love. I won’t go far.”

The door shut behind him, leaving the women alone. Rory hurried to change, not sure how long he might stay away. “You’re going to tell me what the hell is going on, right?”

“I know what it’s like to be the outsider. I can’t claim to know everything, but I will tell you what I know. If you promise to stop hiding.”

“I’m not hiding.”

“The night we nearly died, you slipped away. You didn’t even say good-bye.”

Guilt hit Rory, twisting her stomach. “I know. I’m sorry. It was just too much to handle. That fuckhead Krag. Being tossed into that den of monsters. Sister Olive.”

Hope’s amber eyes closed for a minute in sorrow. “I understand. Truly. But we only want to help.”

“Cain said I was one of you. What did he mean?”

“Do you have a ring-shaped birthmark?”

Rory paused in the act of sliding on clean jeans. She reached around to make sure there wasn’t a hole in her underwear or something. “On my ass. Does it show through?”

“No. It’s a mark that identifies you as a Theronai.”

“I don’t even know what that is. How can I be one?”

“Did you ever meet your father?”

An image of long, elegant fingers opening a can of soup flashed in Rory’s head. Logan’s fingers. He was making her food.

“No. He was a one-night stand. Mom did a lot of drugs for a lot of years before she OD’d. Nana said she didn’t even know my dad’s name.”

Hope winced at the ugliness, but had the decency to keep her pity to herself. “Chances are he was from another world. Another planet.”

Rory’s hands stilled at her zipper, as that insane idea shoved every other thought, and every flashing vision from her head. “You’re telling me that my dad was an alien?”

Hope took Rory’s hands in hers. “If it helps any, my mom was, too. In fact, I was raised on a different world before I was sent here.”

A different
world
? Rory pulled away, unwilling to believe something so obviously false. “That’s an interesting fairy tale and all, but unless you can come up with a more believable lie, I really need to go.” Away from the people who believed they were aliens.

“Is it really so hard to believe that after what you’ve seen? Demons? Synestryn lords like Krag? Men who can heal with a touch like Logan or kill with the power and ease that Cain can?”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

Um. Just because she couldn’t think of a good reason didn’t mean there wasn’t one. “I don’t know. It just is.”

“Please, Rory. Just listen to me. If you are who we think you are, then you can’t go out there alone. You’re in terrible danger.”

“Of that I’m acutely aware. I’ve run from these things my whole life. I’ll keep running until they catch me.”

“You said you were looking for someone. Who?”

“I don’t know who. Yet.”

Hope shook her head, making her blond hair sway around her shoulders. “I don’t understand.”

“I should just go. I don’t want to drag you into this any farther than you’ve already come. It’s my problem. I’ll deal with it.”

“You’re one of us. Your problems
are
our problems.”

The idea of belonging somewhere, of not being a freak among these people, was as tempting as it was terrifying. “It’s not something I really like to talk about.”

Hope took her hand again, and Rory felt a strand of warmth weave up her arm. “Please.”

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you the truth.”

“Can your secret really be any harder to believe than aliens?”

When she put it that way . . . what harm was there in telling Hope? No one was going to believe a woman who claimed to be an alien, anyway.

Rory dragged in a long breath and gave in to the urge to spill her guts. “I see things. Things I shouldn’t see. I just want them to go away and there’s someone out there who makes it stop.”

Hope frowned, and it made her only more beautiful, which was, frankly, hideously unfair. “What kind of things?”

“Everything. Random bits of mundane existence. Private things. It all shoves its way into my head and I don’t want it there. It’s too much. It hurts.”

“And this person you’re looking for makes it all stop?”

An image of some old dude taking a leak filled her head for an instant before fading away.

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know if it’s just one person I’m looking for. Maybe it’s more than one. All I know is that sometimes, when I move around the city, the visions stop when I get close to them.”

“How do you know it’s a person?”

“If it were a place, then I could stand in one location and the visions wouldn’t come back. I figured that whoever it is who’s helping me must move away. Drive off or something. I can’t ever catch up with them.”

“It could be a magical artifact.”

That was something Rory had never considered. She sat there for a minute in shock, considering the possibility. “I didn’t know such things existed.”

“They do. I’ve seen them. Cain’s sword and scabbard are both examples of such things. That’s why you can’t see his sword unless it’s drawn.”

Now that Rory thought about it, she hadn’t noticed his sword since the battle. “So someone could be walking around with a magic ring or something that could fix me?”

“It’s possible.”

That would certainly solve the problem of how she was going to convince whoever blocked her visions to teach her how they did it, or, heaven forbid, stick by her side all of the time. She wanted a cure, not a conjoined twin. If that was a solution, she could pay Cain to hold her hand for the rest of her life. Which would never work. She needed freedom. Independence. She knew that was going to be an obstacle, but it wasn’t one she felt she could plan how to overcome until she knew who it was she would be dealing with.

Logan came in toting a bowl of soup.

“We’ll find a way to help you,” said Hope. “Logan and I have powerful friends. Like Cain.”

Logan set the soup down on a desk near the door. “Are you hungry?”

Rory wasn’t, but he’d gone to all the trouble. It seemed rude not to at least take a few bites. “Sure.”

Hope let go of her hand, and Rory’s arm went cold. She looked at the steam curling up from the bowl and realized that she had no idea what might be in it. These people wanted her to stay. They wanted her secrets. They could have easily drugged the soup.

She’d told Hope things she’d never told anyone but Mom and Nana. And she hadn’t even hesitated to spill her guts just now. That wasn’t something Rory did. Ever.