Rapture (5 page)

“Yes,”
Caleen said finally. “You have children and a mate. And I know not what Father
wants with you, but right now, you are more important than any of us.”

Raine
ground her teeth together. “I am not. I will stay and fight. Anyone who can
must stay and fight.”

“That
means you need to move on through, boy,” Raider said, giving Ethan a gentle,
teasing shove. “You look like you’ve been run through a meat-grinder.”

“I feel
like it,” Ethan admitted with a shake of his head. He looked at him. “And what
about you? Have you looked down lately?”

Raider
did, and then quickly looked away. “Nothing a little blood can’t fix.”

“I
agree with Ethan,” Nitro said. She had remained somewhat distant from the
others, though her presence couldn’t be missed. “You are injured.”

Raine
noted with a start how feral the female appeared. Her lips were peeled in a
constant sneer, and she shook from effort. The blood was getting to her. Though
the female had done astoundingly well considering her new condition, there was
no point in making her suffer. As she regarded her, a small creature appeared
from thin air right beside Nitro.

Raine
started, but Nitro held up a hand to stop her. “My pet, Kaira,” she explained.

Oh,
well of course. Why wouldn’t she have a pet? Raine pressed her hand to her
forehead. “Raider and Nitro are leaving, too.”

They
both started to argue, and she was forced to shout over them. She pointed at Raider.
“You’re not going to have much movement with that arm. What are you going to
do, fight one-handed and club with the dead one?”

“If I
have to, yes.”

She
shook her head. “And you,” she pointed at Nitro, “look like you’re about to
suck everyone dry. You both need to get out of here and get blood in you.”

Raider’s
jaw clenched, but he finally nodded. He might have argued further, but knew she
was his queen and had the final say. “Fine. Blaze, you need to scrub the
humans’ minds. Come up with something believable and stick to the story.
Everyone needs to work together to keep them all safe, at least until they’re
sent away, and then you’ll need to do some cleanup. Make sure there are no
bodies left.”

“Got
it,” Blaze said.

Raine
focused on Garrick. “You need to stay with them. We’ll be in touch if we need
anything.”

“How? All
communications are shut down.” Raider glared at her in challenge and tried to
fold his arms. Realizing he couldn’t, he dropped his one good arm to his side.

“Haven’t
been able to hack your way in?” she asked him, earning a grin but no other
response.

“Here,”
Dellingr said, stepping forward. “Ally sent this with me in case you needed
it.” He handed her a bright pink, glittery phone. “I was instructed to tell you
to dial Trevor, and that she would be sure to have his phone in hand.”

“Thanks,”
Raine said. “Now that communications are open, you all need to leave.” She
shooed Ethan, Garrick, and Nitro through the portal. “And at least one of you
need to care for
Savannah
,”
she said, turning toward her sisters. Raven nodded and, with Caleen’s help,
carried her through the portal. Raider disappeared through what was left of the
doorway and returned moments later with Gregory’s small body in his arms. Tears
prickled her eyes at the sight of her dear old friend, but she brushed them
away once he and Raider were through the portal. Caleen returned to help them
clean everything up, and the doorway closed.

Raine
looked around at who was left, and what all there was to do. With the rest of
her family safely at Ally and Draven’s mansion, she could focus on the task at
hand.

It was
time to get back to work.

****

“The
humans are gone, and any others planning to come have been called off.” Blaze
rubbed the back of his neck with his hand before running it quickly over his
face.

The
night had been a long one. Even after the others had been sent away, more
Collectives and more humans seemed to show up in a steady stream, making the
cleanup nearly impossible. Even now, Raine, Odette, Caleen, Blaze, Ash, and
Ferox stood shoulder to shoulder in a circle, surrounded by small fires of all
colors.

They
had finally rounded up the last of the dead demons, which were nearly burnt to
a crisp now.

“No one
found my brother?” Ferox asked, glancing at each of them.

“No,”
Ash said. “No sign of Damion.”

The
last time any of them had seen him was during the collapse. Though they’d
searched the house, there had been no sign of the vampire. She’d wished they’d
find the bastard’s body, but with each passing minute, the likelihood of that
happening had shrunk to nil.

Ferox
nodded, a troubled expression on his face. It probably matched the one on
Raine’s. All night, she’d kept her attention in all directions, knowing that
there were demons on the move, knowing that the other Valkyries were near.
Watching. Always watching. She could practically feel their gazes on her and
her family, though there had been no sight of them.

“The
sun will come up soon,” Ferox said, breaking the silence. “I need to find
shelter.”

“We
should call Garrick for a pickup. There isn’t much more we can do tonight.” She
dialed Trevor’s number as Ally had instructed, and gave a quick, “We’re out
front, and we’re ready,” when Ally answered. She hung up the phone and slid it
into her halter top.

“You’re
sure you scrubbed all the humans?” Ash asked.

Blaze
nodded. “Yeah, and I erected a cloak so nothing looks amiss to the outside
world.”

The air
twisted and warped a few feet away and Garrick’s portal appeared. Some of the
others hastily walked through the portal, eager to get out of the cold and to
rest their worn bodies. Only Ferox, Garrick, and Blaze remained on this side
with her, the men talking in hushed voices.

She
peered at the dark mass that was their home, wishing that it looked unscathed
from where she stood. In reality, much of the roof was caved in, and brick and
debris had cascaded over the yard surrounding the house, with small bricks and
dust dotting the snow. Tears prickled her eyes as she looked at the home she
and the Guardians had shared for the last hundred years. And for the first
time, she wondered if they’d ever live there again.

“Merry
Christmas,” she said, and stepped through the portal.

Chapter Five

No
one had come away unscathed: Draven was unconscious, but breathing; Ferox was
wounded, but thank Freyja, he had survived his battle with Damion, as well as
the subsequent ones after the others had left. He was sitting on a couch,
staring off in a way that suggested how shell-shocked he really was. Blaze was
injured, but no more than what he sported when he came back from a busy night
of doing rounds, though she—and the others, she suspected—could have gone
without his antsy pacing.
Savannah
lay on the floor next to the fireplace, keeping warm as her sisters kneeled
around her. A broken floorboard had pierced her chest and nearly her heart. It
had punctured a lung, and she’d been informed that removing the shard had been
tricky since it was so close to her heart. She’d survive though, and that was
all that mattered. Ethan was slumped on the couch, finishing off a blood bag.
He stared at the Christmas tree that glittered in the front window as though
the twinkling lights had put him in a trance. Probably a good thing, she
thought, otherwise he’d be up trying to help everyone else when he needed to focus
on healing. Even Ally was trying to get up, but the nasty wound in her stomach
was making it difficult to move. Jake lay by her side, his head on her feet.
The tiny goddess was visibly worried and angry at the same time, having
mentioned several times that she’d seen Q there, and hadn’t had the chance to
kill him. Gregory had been placed in one of the rooms, the others having
decided to wait until everyone was present before the funeral would take place.

She
wanted to go see him, to hold his frail hands as he passed from this life to
the next, to ensure that his passing wasn’t a lonely one.

She
mourned her old friend, wishing and wondering if there was anything she could
have done to save him. Had it been his time to go? What if she had gone home
earlier, would his life have been spared? His death rested solely on her. Her
and Damion. She could never forgive the bastard for what he’d done. Nor for
what he’d brought to them this night.

Though
they were injured, Raine was grateful for those who had made it out alive.

Raider
and Nitro entered the room, their complexions healthy pink. “You’re looking
better.”

He
lifted some blood bags. “Draven’s backup stash.” Nitro took some to Ethan as
Raider knelt by Draven’s and Ally’s sides with a few more. “This is the last of
it.”

“I’ve
had a talk with Kaira,” Nitro said. “She understands she is not to eat the dog
or the children.” Kaira’s ears flattened, and she peered at Jake as she nodded
shyly. Nitro set two more blood bags on the couch next to Ethan as Raider ripped
one open and placed it to Draven’s mouth.

“How
many has he had?” Raine asked, eyeing the dried blood that had seeped from
Draven’s mouth.

“Probably
ten.”

“They
won’t let me feed him,” Ally said, flashing a glare at Raider. “He needs
my
blood.”

“Do
you know what he would do to me if I let you feed him right after you’ve been
skewered?”

“Right
after?” she gawked. “I’m not even bleeding anymore. My skin is already sewing
together.”

Raider
shrugged, as if it made no difference.

“Well,
you know what?” she said, pushing the bag of blood away. “I’m doing it anyway.
Give me something to cut my wrist.” When no one offered anything, Raine rolled
her eyes and whipped out a dagger, slicing it cleanly across her
almost-daughter-in-law’s wrist. Ally placed it to Draven’s lips instantly.

“Anyone
know how
Chester
is doing?” Raine asked. No doubt the boy would be shaken up. Hel,
she
was shaken up, and she’d been around
an immortal smackdown or two thousand.

Ally
nodded. “Raider had to ‘calm him down,’ and it pretty much knocked him out.
He’s up on the third floor in one of the rooms.”

“Is
Riley up there too?”

The
room quieted as everyone looked at each other in question. Finally Garrick
spoke. “You never called me to pick him up.”

“That’s
because he wasn’t down there. We checked his room, and it was empty. We assumed
you’d already gotten him.” His bed had been toppled over, bits of ceiling
thrown about the room, but no Riley. “You really didn’t take him?”

Her
attention was drawn to her oldest son as Draven’s body jerked and he sat up
swiftly, gasping for air. “What happened?” He wheezed.

Garrick
shook his head at Raine as Raider and Ally quietly got Draven up to speed. “I
didn’t. I thought you’d call when you needed me to get him. I didn’t pick him
up.”

Panic
struck her as the small hairs on her arms stood. Where was her son? She’d
searched his room. She’d searched the surrounding rooms. “We have to go back.”

Ferox
stepped toward her, placing a tentative hand on her shoulder. She leaned into
him and let his presence comfort her. She would have preferred the strength of
her mate at the moment, not the wariness of the male before her now. But she
would take what she could get. She would take any part of Ferox she could get.

“I’ll
go,” Garrick said. “I can do another sweep of the house. Make sure he isn’t
there somewhere.”

“It’s
not like he could have just gotten up and walked away,” Draven argued, finally
having gotten the gist of the problem. He appeared weak, though forced himself
to sit without Ally’s assistance.

“Actually,
he might have been able to,” Garrick responded, surprising everyone. He glanced
at Danielle before meeting their gazes. “He was being poisoned. Right before
the attack, Dani found it. The same injections Ekhart used to keep us weak were
being intravenously pumped into him.”

“We
would have seen it.” Ethan shook his head.

“No,
you wouldn’t. Not unless you’re in the habit of checking under his arms.”

Ethan
blanched. “No. I guess not.”

Danielle
glanced around at everyone. “Who would have done something like that?”

Ethan’s
shoulders slumped as anger flashed across his face. “Damion.”

A long,
slow growl reverberated from Draven. “If he’s not already dead, I’ll kill the
fucker.”

Raine
smiled on the inside even as fear and nervousness took over. She’d just been thinking
that very thing.

****

Ferox
looked around the pristinely clean room he’d been escorted to at dawn. At
first, he’d been tempted to take up refuge in the walk-in closet, noting that
it was the only place sunlight wouldn’t reach him. It was only after he had
witnessed the shades automatically draw closed, effectively plunging the room
into darkness, that he had finally chosen to rest in the bed. Sleep hadn’t come
immediately, though he’d wished it had. He couldn’t shake free of the thoughts
that plagued him. His family surrounded him now. He had a wife. Sons. Brothers.
And he didn’t remember one of them. He had spent much of the night—both here at
Ally and Draven’s home as well as earlier during the battle—watching those
around him, learning their personalities and trying to glean any sort of memory
of them. There was no memory, though there was certainly a
familiarness
to
them that eased him.