Tracker: A Rylee Adamson Novel (12 page)

Shit, except for telling Doran. Charlie told the re ce tlusterfucst of my family about Faris’s game so I didn’t break my oaths about keeping silent. About not telling anyone that Faris was blackmailing me into helping him. But since Faris knew about Doran, I wasn’t going to count that one.

The tension between us grew and shifted, pulled taut like an overheated piece of taffy. He broke first. With a snort, he threw my weapons on the ground at his feet. “Come and get them, then.”

I didn’t hurry. Fuck, that was the last thing on my mind. Alex waited for me on the far bank. I walked over to him.

“Hate that vampire,” he growled, his teeth showing in a flash of moonlight through the trees.

I ran my hand over his soft ears, taking comfort in the fact at least I wasn’t alone. “Yeah, I hate him too.”

Faris made me and Alex lead the way back to the door. On this side, it was situated in between two trees weaving themselves together with vines and flowers. The moonlight stretched down through the canopy and lit the doorway clearly showing the edges. I pushed the door open and stepped across. Doran was there, waiting. He scooped me into his arms and hugged me unnecessarily tight.

“You do realize if I had to go to Liam and tell him you were dead, I’d be joining you on the other side of the veil?” He squeezed me tightly against his body, a cheeky ass grin slipping over his lips.

“Enough,” Faris growled and I turned, Doran still holding me, and saw something I never would have expected.

Faris was jealous of Doran.

I let my body soften against the Daywalker, felt his surprise, saw Faris’s eyes darken dangerously. Yeah, poking at the vampire probably wasn’t my best idea, I just couldn’t help myself. Truly.

“Doran is my …
friend
, and he was worried about me. Perfectly natural.” I leaned in and kissed Doran on the cheek for good measure before letting go. Doran swatted my ass. “Play nice with the vampire, Rylee. He can kill us all, you know.”

“Yes, perhaps it’s best you remember that.” Faris glowered at me, and I felt the power between us shift. Suddenly, I’d found a weakness. While he hadn’t liked Liam in my bed, there hadn’t been this jealousy. Seemed it took another fanged boy to really set him off. Good to know.

I shrugged again, though inside I was cheering. Fuck yeah—score one for the Tracker.

Sauntering down the hallway, I aimed toward the next door. A slight adjustment on my sheath, and this time I wouldn’t be taken off guard.

Chapter 12

T
he next three
doorways were total busts, one of them actually taking us back to the jungle. This was the problem with crossing the veil; even with actual doorways you never knew where it would take you, until you’d used the crossing, and there was no way to know them all.

“You’re running this show, Faris. Did it occur to you to look for a fucking map of the castle doorways?” I snarled at him, soaked through to the bone from the last doorway, which happened to open at the base of a waterfall. “Or better yet, why the fuck don’t you jump the veil with me to each of the continents?”

His fe tluan Pro hand snapped out, faster than I could track with my eyes, fingers around my throat, squeezing hard enough that spots danced in front of my eyes. This was another power game, and I’d be damned to hell and back if I broke. I’d let him choke me before I pulled a weapon on him. “You do not understand the rules, Tracker, to this ascension to the throne, and I do not feel like explaining them to you.”

He let go and I dropped. Doran caught me against his chest and I sagged against him, this time for real. I drew in breath and it was the sweetest air I’d tasted in a long time.

Faris strode down the hallway searching for the next door.

Doran tipped my head up. “You okay?”

I ran a hand over my throat, winced as I touched where Faris’s fingers dug in. “Yeah, he’s just pissy because I won’t back down.”

The Daywalker’s green eyes filled with something akin to worry. “Don’t push him, Rylee. He’s on edge, more than I’ve ever seen him.”

“I noticed.”

“Doorway,” Faris called from around the corner, and I jogged to catch up. Doran was right, Faris was not himself, even for the vampire of many faces that he was.

This was the fourth doorway in two hours. Each one I stepped through, Faris made me stand there for at least fifteen minutes. It took me less than thirty seconds to figure out the Blood was or in this case, wasn’t there.

Faris didn’t trust it could be that quick. He jerked the handle and the doorway swung open.

Daylight streamed through, catching Faris along his lower leg. He threw himself backward, scrambling away from the sunlight, his eyes wide with horror.

I stood and watched, but didn’t shut the door. “So eager to die, vampire? I can help you with that.”

“Shut the door, Tracker.”

With the tip of my sword I reached out and shut the door. “See how nice I can be, vampire?” If he wasn’t going to use my name, I wasn’t going to use his. “Perhaps you can tell me what the fuck is really going on.”

Faris sat on the ground, looking totally and utterly defeated. “I need to sleep; you three, keep checking doorways.”

My eyebrows shot up, and my jaw dropped open as he pushed himself to his feet and limped away.

Unable to process what just happened, I turned slowly to Doran. “Any ideas?”

But the Daywalker had gone pale, pasty white. “I don’t think I can do it, Rylee.”

Shit, I was pretty sure he didn’t mean continue looking into doorways.

Time to get tough on his ass. I strode to him, stuck my face right in his, like Liam had done so many times to me, only I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Yeah, you think I want to face Orion? You think I want to fulfill this particular prophecy? You think I want any of the shit that has come my way? Fuck, Doran, you of all people should know sometimes you don’t get to choose.”

He let out a slow breath. “Rylee, it is not just the daylight I will give up, but my very soul. Daywalker’s retain their souls; it is why we cannot carry the power a vampire can. Where their souls were, their strength fills.”

My throat tightened. Shit, if that was true, then he was right; I couldn’t ask that of him, not even for this. Faris would have to lead the vampires; he was the only option now. Fuck me, I hated this. “You can still help me with Berget?”

He nodded. “Yes, of course.”

I turned from him and loosened my second sword. “You open the doors, I’ll step through. We’ll move faster with Faris asleep.”

Doran opened the door that had seared Faris, and I stepped through. “Do you know why he has to sleep now? That is way too weird.”

He cleared his throat. “It is a part of the ritual. They must fast for some time before they go on their individual quests, and they may not feed until the quest is complete, or their opponent claims the throne. To do so would show weakness and the inability to conquer their own flesh. This is also to prove themselves as they pass the final tests before the ceremony.”

I did a slow circle as I Tracked, reaching out as far as I could with my senses. “That’s why he isn’t jumping the veil, isn’t it?”

“I believe so. It would take too much power, would require him to feed every day and he can’t do that.”

I stepped back through the doorway. “Nothing here.”

Alex trotted ahead of us, much perkier now that Faris was not with us. He flung open the next door with a flare I didn’t know he had, one paw flicking out, a la Vanna White. “Ta-da!”

Oh, fuck me. The other side was not a ‘ta-da,’ more of shit on toast we’re in trouble.

“Shut the door!” I screamed as I ran toward him.

He wasn’t fast enough, and the doorframe cracked as the giant spider pushed its way through. Its body brushed the top of the doorway, and its legs folded nearly in half in order to make it. A tawny golden fur covered its body, and in another time I would have said the thing was magnificent, maybe even beautiful. There was one real small glitch.

Its eyes glinted silver.

A Guardian.

And I wasn’t betting on being able to talk us out of this one. But there was no choice, I had to hope this Guardian had some sense, as did Eagle and Bear.

I lowered my blades and did my best imitation of meek. “Guardian, we did not mean to disturb you. We were on the hunt for another.” The arachnid scuttled forward, its furry legs flashing. Doran and I dove in opposite directions and the spider spun, going after Doran.

“Alex, keep the door open!” I swung hard with my blades, crisscrossing them in front of me and taking the leg closest to me off partway up. A high-pitched squeal more porcine than anything else erupted out of the Guardian. It spun and faced me, and I held up my blades.

The time for meek and mild was gone. “I will fucking well take you apart limb by limb or you can go back into that hole you came from.”

It clacked its fangs together twice. “Child of the Lost Ones, you take my leg and expect me to go obediently where you tell me to?”

I slid my blades along each other and adjusted my stance. “No. But you need to have an option before I chop you into tiny little pieces. You can leave now, with seven of eight, or you can stick around and see how many appetizers I take before you’ve had enough.”

The Guardian went still, only the fur on its long legs waving in some unseen breeze. “The Lost Ones were always foolishly brave. It is why they are no more. It seems their blood runs true yet.”

I dropped my weight, bracing my body, thinking this was it, the Guardian was going to attack. It let out a long breath. “I do not wish you well, Lost One, for I do not think well wishes will help you with where you’re headed.”

It took a step back, and then another. W ken o nith nothing more said, it slid through the doorway. Alex slammed the door shut and pressed his back against it, his golden eyes as wide as I’d ever seen them.

“Big ass spider.”

I slumped where I stood, the adrenaline rushing out of me. “Holy fucking hell that was lucky.”

Alex slid down the doorway and I pointed at him. “No more opening doors unless I’m right there, got it?”

He crossed his heart with a claw. “Gots it.”

I slid my swords into their sheaths as I turned to Doran … “Doran?”

There was no answer from the Daywalker. He must have made a run for it down the hall. I strode around the corner and stumbled to a halt. He was flat on the floor, two huge puncture marks in his middle, foam frothing out of his mouth.

“Fuck, Doran!” I dropped to the ground, grabbed him and rolled him to his side. His body convulsed, shaking with the venom pumping through it. No wonder the freak ass Guardian didn’t mind leaving. It had done damage to us already.

An eye for an eye and all that shit.

I wiped the foam away, tried to clear his throat. “Alex!”

There was a scrabble of claws on the rock floor and then he was with me, but like me, there was nothing he could do.

I lifted Doran a little, slid my hand down his arm to feel for a pulse. It was erratic and weak, but there. Only one person might, maybe could help us.

I tipped my head back and screamed his name.

“FARIS!”

Just once, I called for him. He would hear me and come, or he would ignore me and Doran would die in my arms. I quickly slid out of my jacket. Losing another friend, wasn’t an option. I wiped his face again and slid out one of my blades. I pressed it gently against my arm. The blade was so sharp, I didn’t feel the sting, even when the blood flowed down my arm to pool in my elbow.

I lowered my wrist over Doran’s mouth, my blood dripping in, turning the white foam pink. I scooped the foam out with my fingers so my blood dripped deep into his mouth.

He let out a moan, the first real noise I’d heard from him.

“You would give the Daywalker your blood?” Faris said behind me.

I pressed my wrist against Doran’s mouth, felt him latch on, his lips suctioning around my open wound. “You got a better idea?”

“You woke me to watch you two have your little love fest?”

The snarl in his voice turned me toward him. “I wasn’t sure this would work, vampire.”

Faris spun on his heel and limped away from me. In the back of my mind, I took note that Faris was really not healing well.

Doran sat up, his arms wound around mine, holding me to him. I didn’t know how long to let him draw from me, but since he was sitting up, I figured we were about done. “That’s enough for you.” I slid my finger between his mouth and my arm and popped the suction.

He moaned and sagged forward. “Rylee, that was bad.”

“I hope you didn’t see a bright light and head toward it when I brought you back.” I sat beside him, my hip against his calf.

Coughing, he shook his head. “No, not so picturesque.” He shuddered. “Your blood is different, Rylee, stronger. It shouldn’t have brought me back from that venom, not from a Guardian. I should have died no matter what you did.”

I shrugged. “Can I do anything about it, my blood that is?”

He slowly shook his head. “No, but be aware of it. Your blood was a draw before, but it is stronger yet. Do not let Faris bite you, or Berget. Or anyone else for that matter.”

His words were an eerie echo of Berget’s. “Just add it to the pile of shit on my plate. For the record, I hadn’t planned on letting anyone bite me.”

Alex snuggled up beside me. “Sorry, don’t be mad at Alex.”

I curled forward to hug him. “Hey, I’m not mad at you. You didn’t know it was on the other side.”

“Alex sorry, to Doran.” He reached out and slid a claw over Doran’s hand.

Doran waved him off. “No big deal. What’s life without a little poison now and then?”

We said nothing more, just shifted and shimmied until the three of us leaned against the wall and waited for Faris to show up. Wrapped around each other, like children scared of the dark night, praying for their parents to rescue them. Only there were no parents coming for us, we weren’t praying, and would have no rescue but the one we came up with ourselves.

The place Frank led them to was not what he’d been expecting. He’d expected an old, run down building with barbed wire twisted around the fence and gate, sluggish Trolls patrolling the perimeter, the obvious suspect.

Not a mirrored building that glistened even under the weak starlight, looking as pristine as only a brand new building could. No guards, no fence, a nice parking lot and trees planted every ten feet along the front of the property. Young trees that hadn’t had a chance to be anything but saplings.

Night had fallen as they drove, and now it was closing in on midnight. Snow still fell in an icy mist, felt but not seen. Not much time was left before Rylee would be back and waiting on them. That would be a first.