rylee adamson 10 - blood of the lost (3 page)

The kid closed his eyes and his skin shimmered a split second before his body slid downward, black fur sprouting over him. His joints popped and tendons snapped as he shifted to the werewolf body he’d had before. Stuck somewhere between man and wolf.

Liam sucked in a sharp breath. Fuck, what if he’d been wrong? “Shift back. Now.”

In the back of his head, he could feel Faris’s curiosity. The vampire no longer had real ties to Alex, yet this was still something new. Something even he hadn’t seen in all his years.

Alex grunted, his long tongue flopping out across his big white canines. “Why?”

“Do it,” Liam snapped, using his strength as an Alpha to put more command into his words. Alex bowed his head and his body reversed the process, hair disappearing, body sliding back to a gangly teenage kid. Liam let out a slow breath.

Alex lifted his head, then grabbed his clothes. “Why you gotta be so damn bossy, boss?”

Faris took control, sliding forward with ease. Liam let him, feeling a deep sense of fatigue wash over him. Tired, he was so tired. For a moment, he felt Faris’s concern for him.

“He’s got to act bossy because he’s an alpha, and for some stupid reason he cares for you,” Faris said. “Now, let’s see what Rylee has up her sleeve.”

Alex bounded forward ahead of them, so much of him wolf-like even though no longer trapped in a wolf’s form.

Pausing in mid stride, Faris spoke to Liam. “Wolf, what’s going on?”

Faris’s words floated to him in a fog.
I feel like I’m slipping away.

Faris stumbled to a stop. “No, you can’t. Not now.”

This was what Griffin had been talking about, the Veil being open and Liam’s spirit moving on. This was not the time for him to leave and he knew it.

I don’t know if I can stop it.

The vampire came to a standstill and they faced one another in a place that didn’t truly exist. Liam stared at Faris.

“What are you doing?”

His jaw twitched. “Rylee won’t survive without us. Without
both
of us. You know she won’t.”

“Knowing it and being able to do something about it are two different things.” Liam did his best not to completely lose his shit. “The Veil is pulling me, isn’t it? Now it’s open, and my spirit wants to cross over.”

Faris reached out and grabbed his hand. “You can’t go. Doran said—” He shook his head and seemed to gather himself. “Doran said we
can
save her. He said she’s going to die, prophecy dictates it. But you and I can save her. I don’t know how, he just said we had to be there at the end. Both of us.”

“I don’t want to leave her, Faris,” Liam said. “I don’t.”

“Then we have to bind ourselves together. It’s the only way to keep you here. You willing to share her? For good, until this body dies?”

Even though time was slipping by, Liam hesitated. Faris was a master manipulator. More than once he’d seemed to be on Rylee’s side, while he plotted his next move and set her up for whatever deeper game he played.

A tug shot through the middle of him, a jerk pulling him from Rylee.

“Do it. Bind us together.”

He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake.

Faris took his cutlass from his side and sliced through his palm. Blood welled, and even though Liam knew they weren’t in the physical world, it still looked and smelled real. He held out his hand. Faris slid the cutlass across his palm. There was no pain at the cut.

They stared at each other. “I love her,” Faris said softly. “I would do this for no other.”

The vampire’s words resonated with truth and Liam accepted there was no ulterior motive in him. Not this time. Faris was doing this for Rylee, to keep her alive.

To keep her safe. It was enough for him to trust the blood sucker.

Liam took the vampire’s hand. “Now what?”

“The words to bind are simple. Blood to blood, soul to soul, two as one, neither alone.”

He repeated the words and a gong seemed to toll within his chest cavity, resonating with the power of blood and the incantation. Their hands seemed to fuse and for just a split second he saw himself through Faris’s eyes.

Blink.

Dark hair, silvery golden eyes, squared jaw, body scarred.

Blink.

Someone who stood in his way, forced him to change plans.

Blink.

An ally in saving the woman they both loved.

Blink.

Shouting in the distance, a voice calling to him, telling him to open his eyes. But how could they be closed when he was blinking? Or was his life flickering in and out of focus? Yes, his life. Did Faris fool him?

“I did not fool you, Wolf. We bound ourselves together.” Sounded like Faris’s voice, but Liam was in control of the body.

“You fucking well did what?” Rylee yelled above them even as she dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He sucked in a sharp breath and realized Faris had given him the reins for the moment without asking. He lay on his back staring at the night sky through a swath of Rylee’s auburn hair.

“What did he do to you, Liam?”

Putting a hand over hers, he gave her fingers a squeeze. “It’s okay. Faris and I came to a perfect understanding.”

Faris jumped forward. “More than an understanding. I bound him to me to keep his soul on this side of the Veil. He was being pulled away. I didn’t think it prudent given the circumstances.”

Rylee let go of him and stepped away. “What do you mean
bound
him?”

Faris gave her a smile. “Liam will be a part of me on a . . . let’s say, long term basis. He won’t be crossing the Veil anytime soon. I’d rather share you than lose you, and he agreed.”

Her mouth dropped open and then snapped shut with a click. Behind her, the tall elemental, Lark, shook her head slowly. “You two boys are in for a tongue lashing.”

Rylee backed away. “I can’t believe you did this.”

Liam forced Faris back and held a hand out to her. “Rylee, I was slipping away. Faris stopped it and I trust him in this. This time there are no games with him. I should know, I’m in his head.”

There was a moment of surprise from Faris and then a wash of gratitude. Not many people had stood up for Faris in his life.

Even his “brothers,” created by the same master vampire, who had gone with him to destroy the Emperor and Empress, never stood up for him.

Rylee closed those amazing eyes of hers and bowed her head. “You’re telling me I can have you, but only if I have both of you?”

He let out a soft breath. “Until we deal with Orion. Then maybe there will be another solution.”

Inside his head, Faris laughed.
There is no way out. We are together in this now.

Perhaps the conversation would have gone further; more likely it wouldn’t have. It was hard to say with the sudden roar from Blaz as he projected his voice to the whole group.

Rylee, we have company and they aren’t here for tea and cookies.

CHAPTER 3

PAMELA

“PAMELA, GO HIGH with Eve. See how bad it is,” Rylee shouted. “Charlie, get Doran, tell him to gather everyone who can fight and meet us at the old farmhouse as fast as he fucking can. Don’t bring anyone who can’t kick ass.” She paused and yanked a sheet of paper out of her back pocket, thrusting it at him. “Tell him to follow this to a fucking T or my ass will be fried.” Rylee barked out orders and I did as she said, running for Eve.

“You gots it, lassie! I’ll tell Doran to bees doing everything on yous paper!” Charlie bolted in front of me toward the backdoor, the paper Rylee had given him clutched in his hand. I saw a few words on it written in big, bold lettering.

Unicorn hair rope. What the hell did she need unicorn hair rope for? My curiosity almost got the better of me and I took a half step to follow Charlie. He leapt through the doorway, twisting the Veil as only a brownie could to travel before I asked him to stop. I caught a flash of the interior of
Jack
’s mansion and then the image was gone along with the brownie.

Rylee’s words resonated in my head. The old farmhouse? It was burnt to the ground. Why would she go there? As far as I knew there was nothing left except the barn.

I climbed aboard Eve, and Alex jumped behind me, his arms encircling my waist. “Hang on, Pamie. I’m coming with you.”

Eve launched into the air and it didn’t take long to see how big the problem was. Blaz was right, no one was coming for tea and cookies. More like with pitchforks and torches.

A mob of humans at least five thousand deep stumbled our way. Like the zombies we’d dealt with in England when I’d first met Rylee. Only these zombies weren’t dead.

“Shit,” Alex said, his hold on me tightening. “Orion moves fast. We’ve got to get everyone out of here.”

Eve let out a hunting screech, making the hair on the back of my neck stand. “Pamela, can you slow them down without hurting them?”

I held out my hands, shaky and drained after my fight with Orion and all the healing I’d done. “I’ll try.”

A bolt of lightning arced through the sky at my request and hit the ground at the front of the mob. They sidestepped the hole it made and kept coming. Three more lightning bolts slashed downward with the same result.

“They’re mindless. They might as well be zombies,” I shouted as my frustration rose.

“Eve,” Alex said. “We’d better land. Everyone has to evacuate.”

She dropped like a stone and Alex let out a sharp laugh. “I will never get enough of this.”

I shook my head. Same old Alex; newer, more human package. Eve landed with a double hop and I jumped off. “Rylee, I think we’d better go. The humans are mindless and they will overrun us if we try to be gentle with them.”

“Fucking hell,” she snapped.

“Faris, can you open the Veil for us?” I asked.

Faris shook his head. “No. It hurts Liam too much.”

What was this? Then why did he jump the Veil to go to Tian Shan and try to save the babies?

The question hit me the same time as the answer did: Marcella, Rylee and Liam’s daughter. She was worth whatever cost Liam had to pay.

Rylee didn’t question him as she strode toward Blaz. “Liam, you ride with Marco and Berget. Take the heavy curtains. We’ll stop when the sun rises and wrap you two into burritos. The rest of you pick a ride; we’re out of here.”

Even though we moved fast, we were still too slow. The first humans came running around the corner, five or six across, their knives and guns raised. Madness in their eyes flickered with the torchlight. Rylee stepped into them, her swords whirling in the air. “Drive them back. If you have to kill them, do it.”

I swallowed hard and raised my hands. Killing supernaturals attacking us was one thing; killing fairly harmless humans was something el—

The sound of a gun retort was followed by a sharp burning in my left forearm. I clamped my hand over it. I peeked under my fingers. Shot? I’d been shot. Not a deep wound; I was lucky the bullet had only skimmed me. The pain and shock snapped me out of my reluctance to hurt anyone. Flicking my hands outward, I sent a roll of pure power into the first wave of humans. It would fling them in all directions, at least fifteen feet back.

Yet even with that, though, there were too many of them. Like roaches swarming an infested house, they just kept coming, climbing over each other faster and faster.

Lark set a quick perimeter, dropping the earth in a huge hollow around us like a moat, which Cactus then filled with fire. A good number of the humans, though, were already on our side of the fiery barrier. Peta shifted to her snow leopard form and kept the humans from getting too close to Lark, her big paws downing them with ease.

I backed up, pulling my short sword and grateful Rylee insisted I learn more than magic when it came to fighting. The first human lunged at me and I didn’t bother with a spell. With a swift twist of my wrist, I slashed him across the chest, opening him. He fell to his knees, blinking at me. “Why would you hurt me?”

I stumbled back, horrified. “Pain makes them clear-headed.”

“Fuck” was all I heard from Rylee and then nothing more. I turned to see her tackled by eight or nine human men. They piled on her like she had the ball in a rugby game.