Raising Innocence (25 page)

“No, she isn’t really bad. Just sick.” I lowered the sword and gave Pamela a tired, worn the fuck out smile. “You did the right thing.”

The young witch smiled at me, her face lighting up. She lowered Anne back to the roof.

Anne smiled down on her, a sense of contentment and happiness rolling off her entire frame. “My sweet babushka, saving Mother.”

My fingers went to my pocket and the stone there, the stone that would give Anne lucidity. The stone Giselle had said I would need, and I’d almost ignored. I pulled it out, then without asking, slipped it over her head.

A
s it turned out, Will, Deanna and Alex were a long time in showing up. But with Anne back in full control of her faculties, she put the zombies down. To be safe, though, we waited on the roof. Just in case.

Pamela and I sat playing twenty questions and I spy to pass the time. Now that she was lucid, Anne even joined in. Yes, it was weird to be playing childish games with a woman that only a short time before had tried to kill me via her zombies. Then again, she seemed almost normal. The crossbow bolt had done very little damage. What I didn’t know when I shot her was that Necromancers could pull energy from the dead to heal. Anne explained it all to us while we waited, like we were in some sort of supernatural convention.

“The dead have energy, just as the living do,” Anne said, her head tipped to one side. “It is how we live so long. It is why I could keep the madness at bay as long as I did.”

I lifted my foot and put my boot on the edge of the roof wall. “Brittany was burned, that’s why you couldn’t raise her, isn’t it?”

Anne gave me a sad smile. “Yes, it was the practice then to burn the bodies, cleansing them so the sickness wouldn’t pass. The madness came on after that, slowly, but still . . . .”

Pamela wrinkled her nose and slipped out of the long black dress. Anne’s eyes still tracked Pamela’s movements, though she clearly knew it wasn’t her daughter. The Necromancer’s eyes were full of longing for something she couldn’t have.

Will and Alex were the first to reach us. Actually, Alex was the first one.

I stood at the sound of the trapdoor lifting and then a bolt of black fur and long tongue rushed me, bowling me over and licking my face. “Rylee, Rylee, Rylee, Rylee, Rylee.” Actually it came out like “Lylee,” but I suppose that was the best he could do while licking.

“Good to see you too, buddy,” I said, pushing him off me, not unkindly. He continued to bounce around, then came to a stuttering stop when he got close to Anne.

“She’s a stinky one.” He pinched the tip of his nose with two claws.

Deanna climbed up through the trapdoor and I peeked down. “What happened to all the zombies?” She glanced down. “They’re just laying there, dead.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “They were dead before.”

She put one hand on her hip. “You know what I mean. I’m no expert on the dead, it isn’t my specialty. Why aren’t they all doing their zombie shuffle thing?”

Anne spoke up. “I have released them all.”

I heard the ring of truth in her words. “What now? How are we going to finish this? The stone will only keep the madness at bay for a little while. It isn’t a cure.”

The Necromancer stared at me. “I have lost, I am done. You know what I am; will you let me live? Of course not. The child saved me, but for a moment. My death is inevitable; it is the way of our world. Kill, be killed, or raise the dead. I cannot raise the dead, and killing was never something I enjoyed.”

“That only leaves your death,” Pamela whispered, yet her words carried to all of us.

Anne gave her gentle smile. “Do not be sad, little one. You will see that it is our way. The Tracker will teach you. I see it in her. She is not like the other Trackers I have known. She has a heart that beats to save, to heal, to bring souls home. It is time for my soul to go home now.”

I closed my eyes, my grief for Giselle slipping over my heart, stifling my ability to think. Giselle and Anne, they were two of a kind, their powers stealing their minds. “Is this what you truly want?” I felt the weight of this responsibility fall on me, and truly, who would I give it to? Not Pamela, not Will or Deanna. There was only me.

Anne let out a soft breath. “Let me be with my child in truth. My heart is done with this world.”

Gods, this was not supposed to happen, not this way. Her easy acceptance of her death, her wish for it, echoed Giselle’s final request. To die the way she wanted to.

I walked over to Anne, only a couple of feet away, perfect striking distance. Never had the sword felt so heavy in my hand.

“Pamela, go stand by Will.”

Pamela gave me startled eyes. “But—”

“This is the price some of us pay. Anne has made her choice. I will honor it,” I said.

Anne touched her fingers to her lips as Pamela released her. “Your mentor is proud of you. I feel it in the air around us.”

I didn’t try to stop the sudden onslaught of tears, the loss so keen I felt it to my bones. “Tell her—”

“I will.”

There were no more words, just the slice of my blade through the air, the pause of life as Anne closed her eyes one last time, the thump of her headless body as it slumped to the roof . . . and the tinkle of the opal as it rolled to my feet.

I bent, scooped the opal up and wiped a smear of blood off the chain before slipping it into my pocket.

T
he kids Anne had under her thrall were still in the boiler room when we led the SOCA team there. I Tracked little Sophia, her blanket in my hands. She was in the far corner, her body barely recognizable as human, never mind a child’s. I spread the blanket over her, giving her a final goodbye of my own. None of the parents were allowed to see the bodies, thank the gods for that, and I didn’t have to speak to any of them myself—at least, none except for little Johnny’s parents. They ran into me in the hallway of the hospital, and I told them he’d been found. But not alive.

They were still grateful, and it ate at me, my heart and soul wishing I could do more. For a brief moment, I understood Anne, the desire to bring back to life that which had been taken from you.

Eve was pleased that we were staying. I wished we could go home, but there were too many loose ends, too many people I loved in trouble here.

There would be no closure for me in London, at least not yet. O’Shea was still missing and I’d be damned if I left him out there stuck with Milly. Which brought me to that particular reality. Milly had to be dealt with. Will agreed to help with her, even going so far as to take a leave from SOCA. He figured it would give him the break he needed both from his job and his Destruction, who apparently were pissed as cats being baptized in a toilet for what had gone on with Daniels and Deanna. Enemies and friends, I seemed to make them without even trying.

Alex healed over the next twenty-four hours, and we got moved to a different basement suite, this one all in yellows that made me want to gouge my eyes out. I tolerated it because it had an extra room for Pamela, who for the moment, I had temporary custody of, much to Dr. Daniels’ fury. Agent Valley had come through, finding Pamela’s family and getting them to sign her guardianship over to me. Of course, the paperwork had to be finalized in the courts, but pretty much, she was mine.

Pamela was freaking ecstatic.

Finally, I was able to go back to see Jack, my fingers crossed that he was still alive. Pamela was with me this time, as was Alex, of course. Will came along, but only to stand at the door to make sure we weren’t bothered.

I didn’t bother to knock, and wished to fucking hell I had when I saw Jack and what looked like a pleasantly plump nurse going at it in his bed.

“Damn it, Jack, I’ve got a kid with me!” I spun and jerked Pamela around so she couldn’t see. “You knew I was coming!”

Jack let out a barking laugh. “Don’t begrudge me a fuck or two, certainly not with this beauty.” At the slap of a hand on bare skin the nurse giggled and a few moments later she passed us in the hall, a decidedly high color on her cheeks.

Shaking my head, I dared a look over my shoulder. Jack was under the covers, by himself this time, a grin from ear to ear.

“Get the fuck in here, girl. Tell me what the bloody fucking hell happened!”

Between Pamela and me, we spun the story out for him, with only the occasional grunt from him added in here and there.

“So, the vamp tried to fuck with your mind, did he?”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“Don’t ever let your guard down around that nasty shit. Ever.”

I smiled, then frowned at the remembered pleasure Faris had stirred in me. “Yeah, I got that too.”

We sat there for a moment, and it was Alex who broke the almost silence.

“Rotters taste like shit.”

Jack burst out in a coughing laugh. “They do? Remind me never to fucking eat one.”

“Yuppy doody, Okee dokee.” Alex gave the old Tracker a thumbs up with one hooked claw.

Jack squinted his eyes at me. “You didn’t go after your sister yet.”

I chewed at the inside of my lip a moment before answering. “She’s happy. Healthy. There’s nothing wrong with her. I can’t give her anything she doesn’t already have in spades.”

“You think you can just let her go?”

That was the crux of it. I was afraid that I wasn’t good enough, that I couldn’t give her a better life than I could already feel her having. There was never a question of whether or not I would find her. I would find her now, that was a given. But I wasn’t ready yet to see her, see her happy with another family, and then walk away. Because the reality was, if I brought Berget into my life, she would be in constant danger. Just like Pamela. Except Berget had no ability to protect herself . . . so for now, I was chickening out. If going after a crazy ass witch and alpha werewolf who was enthralled by said witch was chickening out.

“No, but I have to find O’Shea first. He’s in trouble. Berget . . . if things change, I’ll go after her in a heartbeat. But right now . . . .” I looked at Jack, stared into his swirling tri-coloured blue eyes. “Right now, I need someone to train me before he dies. Can you manage?”

Jack snorted, and patted the sheets down around him. Laughing, his eyes twinkled up at me, the swirl of colors a reminder of what I was, what I would always be. A Tracker to the bitter damn end.

Jack gave me a wink. “You think you’re ready to learn what you can really do?”

I laughed, and touched Alex on the head. “What do you think, Alex? You think we should hang out with Jack for a while?

Rippling his lips up over his teeth, Alex started nodding his head at a speed that would have given me whiplash. “Yuppy doody!”

Smiling, I nodded slowly. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

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~Check out the starts of Shannon’s other bestselling series to tide you over~

Dark Waters

An urban fantasy

Sundered

A romantic thriller

Raising Innocence, like all my books, wouldn’t be possible without the amazing team of people around me. Melissa Breau and NL “Jinxie” Gervasio me two editors who keep me from getting lazy, and always tell me the truth even when I don’t want to hear it. Thank you ladies! Ryan Bibby, my cover artist who brings Rylee to life with his amazing talent, I could not do this without you! To Lysa Lessieur, my assistant, public relations and marketing Queen you have not only made my life easier, you have given me an unexpected friendship and a shoulder to cry on when need be. You rock! Ted Risk who does my formatting in record time, helping me keep my ridiculous deadlines, thank you!

Okay, now to the nitty gritty. My readers are the reason I’m here, they are the reason I can write full time. I cannot thank you enough for your continued loyalty to me and Rylee, for your tweets, messages and emails. I don’t know if you realize how important you are to my writing life and I can’t thank you enough.