Tracker: A Rylee Adamson Novel (18 page)

Doran nodded and backed the truck and headed north. The massive snake uncoiled and slithered parallel to us. I ground my teeth in frustration. Tonight was the night of the equinox; we had to be at ground zero to stop Berget or it wouldn’t matter if Orion was alive or not, if the demons wanted to take over.

There was no way the power in Berget would allow any of us to live, not once she didn’t need us.

“Enough of this, head straight for her, slow down when you’re about fifty feet away.” I shimmied out the window, my ass on the edge of the window ledge.

“You sure?”

“Nope.”

“Excellent, I was worried you suddenly had a plan.”

Laughing, I worked my way out the window and clamored to the top of the cab. I had to believe we could do this.

Alex let out a barking laugh and thumped the roof, claws scratching the paint.

“Ryleeeeeeee!”

I grinned down at him. “Ready to rumble with a big snake?”

He gave me ‘thumbs up’ with one claw. “You betcha.”

I slid down to the hood of the truck and stood up, legs braced for any bounces, swords drawn at my sides. We drew close and Doran slowed the truck to a stop. The giant serpent raised herself into a cobra-like position, without the flare of a hood. It didn’t take a fucking genius to realize with the length of her body, she could probably strike me from where she was.

Liam’s voice seemed to whisper in my ear.
Keep it simple.

“We need to pass.”

She swayed where she was, tongue flicking out and tasting the air. “Tracker. You come for the Blood, but you bring no supplicant for the throne. You may not pass. Not until the equinox has come and gone.”

Keep it simple. Right.

Doran leaned out of the truck and hollered, “She has a supplicant.”

I frowned at him, totally confused. “What the hell are you talking about? Faris isn’t in the running anymore.” Assuming he would show up as he said he would. And that he would actually be able to find us via Alex’s blood.

The snake seemed as confused as me. “You are not a proper vampire, Daywalker. No matter the size of your fangs.”

He looked up at me and shrugged. “I tried.”

Enough of this talking shit.

“We
are
going to pass you. Either you are going to let us, or I’m going to make myself a brilliant new jacket and boots.”

“I don’t think that was a good idea,” Doran said, his voice floating up to me.

The snake hissed at me, once before answering. “You may hold the fate of the world in your hands, Tracker. But I will not be threatened.”

“Whoopty fucking do da.” I flicked one sword tip up and pointed it at her.

Her tail lashed out, slamming onto the ground with a force that rippled out like a bag of dynamite. And yes, I know what that feels like from experience.

I went to one knee, grateful the material of the dress was stretchy enough to accommodate rather than split down the middle. There were days that even small mercies had to be acknowledged. This was one of them.

The tremor passed and I stood. “That’s all you’ve got, you big—”

“Rylee.” Doran pointed. “Look over there.”

Squinting, I tried to see what it was he pointed out, somewhere to the left of the truck. “What?”

“The ground is moving.”

I blinked several times, and then it clicked. “Oh fuck.” Snakes, hordes and hordes of snakes headed our way, and in Australia, I was betting they were all venomous. I might be Immune to their bites, but Alex and Doran weren’t, and there were enough of the slithering masses to kill them both with leftover venom.

I banged on the roof as I slid off and into the truck bed. “Go, get us out of here.” Son of a fucking ass monkey. We had to get past her, time was ticking and sunset was only a few hours away at best.

Doran and Alex would be killed by the sheer amount of venom.

Berget had to be stopped.

I was the only one who could get away with being bit.

Doran had the truck turned around in a split second and took off. And I did the only thing I could.

I jumped from the back of the truck and hit the ground rolling, sprinting toward the big ass snake.

What I didn’t expect was Alex to jump with me. I slowed for half a heart beat. “Ah, fuck! Alex, run!”

He bolted ahead of me, and the snakes on the ground shifted their paths, as if to intercept us. I didn’t dare put my swords away. A large, black snake about four inches around launched at me. A back swing took its head, but it was so close the bloody stump sprayed my legs.

“Faster, you have to go faster, Alex!”

“Yuppy doody!” He cranked on the speed, claws digging into the hard ground for traction, easily leaving me in the dust. Which was what I wanted. Only thing was, it meant he was almost at the big girl.

Another snake struck at me and I cut it in half. The first bite hit me on the back of my thigh, just above my knee. Then another, and another, the bite marks literally coming one after another all up and down my legs. I cut the snakes off as I ran. Felt the poison flow though my blood, but just as quickly, swallowed up in my Immunity.

“Fucking dumb ass snakes. I’m a fucking bitch of an Immune!” Not like everyone else in the supernatural world didn’t know it already. And maybe the big girl would call them off seeing there was very little they could do.

Or maybe they’d just change tactics.

I was struck again, this time in my lower back, right over the scar of a Daywalker’s bite.

Pain, searing and dark ripped up my spine, but it wasn’t the poison. Nope, just the feel of a wicked sharp set of fangs clamping down on me.

Alex skidded to a stop. “Alex, help!”

“NO! Get away, Alex!” I didn’t see him, but he didn’t come to my aide. So maybe he’d listened.

The small snakes hissed and writhed around me, but they stopped striking. I ripped the one off my back, threw it on the ground and sliced its head off. Blood ran down my legs, and flies and bugs swarmed around me.

That, however, was not my largest problem.

A shadow shifted over me, blocking out the sun.

“Tracker, you are of the Blood of the Lost?”

I blinked up into the calculating eyes of a snake easily four feet across with fangs big enough to kill me simplykilood based on size, never mind venom.

“I am.”

“Then for a moment we will speak. If I like what you say, I will let you and the wolf pass.”

Well, shit, this was unexpected.

She lowered her head, her tongue flicking out and tickling along the side of my face. “You would face danger without your friends, to save them?”

“Yes.” A twinge of pain trickled through my guts. Fuck, maybe my Immunity didn’t want to let me get through this one unscathed.

“And do you truly understand the prophecies, what they ask of you?”

I put a sword tip into the ground and leaned on the handle. “To face the demon, save the world, all that shit.”

Her tail flicked forward, snapping me in the bare skin of my thigh. “Insolent.”

“I’ve been told that a time or two.”

Her tongue flicked out several times. I rubbed my thigh. To me, this was looking like a standoff that would result in a fight.

“My name is Tespa. And you, young Tracker, have no inkling of what comes for you in the future.”

I snorted. “You going to try and Read me?”

“I don’t need to. I understand the prophecies. And for that reason alone, I will let you pass. You will need all the help you can get.” She shifted her body, all her coils in one smooth rolling motion to the side.

“Why, you had to know I was the one the prophecies spoke of when I showed up. Why would you do this?”

If snakes could smile, this one did. “You are not the only one who must challenge me. There is another who must prove their worth. You have shown to me that you do what your heart demands, not what others demand. And now, one more must face the same challenge.”

“Then I wish that person better luck than me.” Another twinge ran along my belly and up through my lower back. If I didn’t hate snakes before, I fucking well did now. I fought back a moan that started low in my throat, every bite on my legs burning and aching as I moved.

One step, and then another and another. Neither she nor her snakes got in our way.

Alex waved at me from about thirty feet away, his tongue lolling out, a big paw waving at me. “Alex listens.”

As I walked, the burning faded and the pain in my lower back eased. “Good job, buddy. You ready to run?”

He yipped at me, high pitched and excited. Sliding my two swords into their sheaths, I caught up to him and ran a hand over his head. Looking back, I saw Tespa watching us, her collection of snakes coiling about her huge body.

Tracking the Blood, I broke into a jog and headed toward them. The first vampires ever made.

The battleground where I’d face Berget and Jack. My heart squeezed as I realized in my hurry, I’d left behind the opal, the one thing that might give Berget a chance.

I was a fucking idiot, and she wou
ld pay the price for my haste, for my reckless behavior. The arid desert dried my tears before they slid down my face. There was nothing for it now; I’d made the choice, I would have to live with it.

And so would Berget.

The only thing I hoped was something would intervene, that maybe, just maybe the gods would favor me once.

If I was lucky, I’d be able to save at least Jack.

If I wasn’t, I’d be lucky to get me and to nce.Alex out alive without any new puncture marks, our blood still singing through our own veins and not someone else’s.

What a freaking awesome day.

Chapter 17

T
he sun kissed
the horizon goodnight as we stepped into the long shadow of Ayers Rock. Hanging onto the threads of the Blood filled me with a sense of foreboding now that we were so close. Somewhere within the rock, those fanged fuckers were silently held. The energy of their lives gave off a low vibration, one that made my bones ache as if with a deep cold.

I put my hands on my hips and took a long deep breath. “It can never damn well be easy, can it?”

Alex mimicked me, wobbling to his back legs, not something he often did. “Nope.”

Ayers Rock was big. As in
block out the sun
big. Even if night hadn’t been falling, we’d be standing in shadow.

Nothing but to see where the hell the Blood was hidden.

Searching the rock was something akin to searching holy ground, or at least, that’s what it felt like to me. The age of the place weighed on me, the pulse of the past seeping into my pores. Moving close enough to touch the rock, I put my hand on black lines. I traced a design of a large snake surrounded by many, many squiggly marks. Tespa and her minions.

Perhaps here the people saw more clearly than at home, maybe the supernatural wasn’t so hidden from them. Of course, no one in their right mind would believe a tale of a giant snake. Not in our day and age.

Alex sniffed at the rock. “Vampires.”

I wanted to let out a groan. Surely Jack and Berget weren’t here already, were they? Or was Alex just picking up on the Blood? I tested that theory, but Jack and Berget still felt distant, though they were closer than before. I refocused on the Blood.

Locking onto the threads, I jogged along the length of the rock, trying to find a way into where we needed to go. “Alex, can you smell vampires still? Old ones?”

He put his nose to the ground, sniffing in and out, puffs of red dust blowing up around his face. “Yup. Oldy old.”

Perfect. Using his nose and my Tracking, we worked around the rock until the stars were our only light source. Dust stuck to my bare skin, the sheen of sweat acting like sticky glue of the worst kind. And the bugs, fuck me, were everywhere, sticking to me alongside the sweat and dirt, their flimsy wings tickling the shit out of me. I swiped a hand down one arm, came away with a mixture of muddy bugs.

“Fucking awesome.”

Alex snickered, then snapped at a large bug, catching it and then spitting it out, gagging. “Shitty bugs.” He took a step then froze, one ear flicking back. “Truck.”

I spun to stare into the darkened landscape. “You sure?” I couldn’t see or hear anything, no headlights, no rumble of an engine.

Alex nodded. “Truck.” Then he yelped and scrabbled away from the rock. I dropped to one knee, yanking out my swords, pointing them at the figure who’d snuck up on us.

Faris leaned against Ayers Rock, still all in black. “I told you I to ncds,could find you through the wolf’s blood, why again are you surprised?”

I blew out a breath, hesitating for a moment. “You’re actually going to help?”

“Are you actually going to kill the Child Empress?”

Ah, here we go. I nodded as I slid one of my swords into my back sheath, while I reminded myself I was not lying. I just wasn’t going about Faris’s plan his way. “Of course. Consider the Child Empress dead and gone from your life. IF we can slow her down first, which requires Doran. Can you get him?”

Faris stepped toward me and I saw the difference in him. The slightest glow of his blue eyes, the pink in his cheeks, the way he moved like water. He’d obviously fed, and fed well. “He’s on his way. Though I do not think you will be pleased with the shape he is in. No, not pleased at all.”

Despite the lingering heat of the day, ice seemed to travel down my spine. “No games, I said no fucking games. What do you mean?”

Faris seemed to fight with himself before spitting it out. “The snake, she gave him a fair choice. Either take her venom and pass, or stay behind.”

“How the fuck do you know that?” I glared at him, wondering if he’d somehow set up Doran. It wouldn’t surprise me. Nothing Faris did at this point would.

A tight smile slipped across his lips. “I watched from a distance, saw what happened, and then jumped the veil to where I sensed Alex. I have no need to face the overly large reptile.”

Fear tightened my throat but I forced the words out.

“Doran, he took the venom, didn’t he?”

The vampire gave me a grim smile. “He did.”

“Then I’ll give him blood. It worked with the spider guardian.”

“This has been too long, the venom will be through his whole system by now; ah, here he is.”

Finally, the sound of a truck reached my ears, the soft flicker of headlights. The truck stopped about twenty feet away, the headlights on us. “Faris, help me.” I ran to the truck. Doran was the only one who knew how to lay in the opal, the spell that would bind it to her. Even if he wasn’t my friend, I couldn’t let him die, not today.

Surprising the hell out of me, the vampire did as I asked and ran ahead of me, pulling Doran out of the truck. In the headlights, everything was illuminated, and not kindly.

Doran was limp in the vampire’s arms, his body convulsing, blood trickling from his ears. His white shirt was stained red over his heart. Tespa had stabbed him in the heart with her fang?

“He’s still breathing, but not for long. There is nothing we can do for him.” Faris laid Doran on the ground in front of the truck and I knelt beside the Daywalker.

“Doran, listen to me. You know there is a way to save you, don’t you? That’s why you let her do this, isn’t it?”

Please let me be right about this.

“Let him have peace in his final moments, Tracker,” Faris snarled, his hand clamping on my shoulder. “Give him that much, at least.”

I didn’t have to say anything; Alex did it for me, as he shoved the vampire backward with a big paw. “Fuck off, Faris.”

Doran let out a low moan. “The bag. Do it.”

There could be no more hesitation. He’d known what the choice was; he’d known there would be no turning back. “Alex, get the bag o ge it.ut of the truck!”

“What are you doing?” Faris drew close as Alex dropped the bag in front of me. I yanked it open and poured out the contents, my brain scrambling with the recipe. Please, gods, let me get it right. I mixed the ingredients, used the mortar and pestle. “Doran, the moon dust.”

He tapped his front pocket and I slid my hand in, feeling a thin paper bag. Faris let out a long, low hiss. Of course he would know, or at least recognize this recipe. He’d been planning on using it on a Daywalker himself. Which was how I’d gotten my hands on it.

“You planned this all along, you were going to turn him and let him take the throne instead of me.”

“Give the vampire a prize,” I snapped, ignoring him, pouring the dust into the pestle, the air snapping with sudden ozone. Above us, clouds rolled in, blocking the stars. Shit, this was going to get ugly.

“Yes, I have the recipe that will turn a Daywalker into a vampire.” I stared at Doran, pale and unmoving on the ground. “Who better to lead the vampires than one who is powerful both in mind and magic—and has no desire to lead?”

Faris’s jaw dropped and then he slowly closed his mouth. “Mother of the gods, it might work. Technically, he has not drunk any blood the entire time he is a vampire. Yours does not count as it is what will
make
him a vampire. That should be good enough to meet the requirements. Stunningly simple and … brilliant.”

Shocked he would compliment me, I ducked my head and focused on the ingredients going into the shallow bowl.

“He could drain you completely.” Faris dropped to a knee beside me, a look of concern etched around his eyes, softening them. Concern, for me.

I didn’t take my eyes from him. “I trust him with my life.”

“But I don’t. I won’t let him live to lose you. None of us will survive if you die this night, Tracker. You understand that, don’t you?”

Unfortunately, I did. All too clearly, I knew what was in the balance. But if I was willing to let my friends and loved ones die without fighting for them, what the hell was I fighting for in the first place?

“Believe, Faris.” I pulled my sword free and laid the blade gently against my forearm, over the scar where I’d given Doran my blood the first time we’d met. What seemed like eons ago.

My skin split and I held my arm over the pestle. There were no words, no incantations, just the potion, and the timing.

His heart had to stop beating, his life gone, but only for a split second. Any sooner this would fail, any later, same fucking result. I slowed my breathing and put two fingers to Doran’s throat, felt the slowing throb of his heart. In my other hand, I held the small pestle poised over his lips. Faris moved around me, ripped away a thin strip of his shirt and then wrapped my dripping arm with it.

“It will not be your arm he pulls from, but your neck.”

“I know.” And I did. I Tracked Berget and Jack, felt them closing in on us, a few miles at best. But they still had to get past Tespa.

Time, I had to believe we had enough time.

Under my two fingers, Doran’s heart beat once. Twice. Nothing.

I didn’t hesitate. With a single swift motion, I poured the concoction down his throat. “Come on, Doran. Don’t give up. Not yet.”

Alex sat across from me, his lower lip stuck out. “Doran’s gone.”

Dragging me down into memories that were anything but my own.

“Milly, are you
sure
those weren’t all the coven members?” He strode beside the witch as they searched the warehouse for Ingers.

“Positive. They’ve been actively recruiting for years, stealing children, and even taking adults fully trained.” Her skirts rustled as she did her best to keep up to him.

“How the hell could they take adults?”

Pamela moved up beside them. “I didn’t think there were that many bad people in the world. How could they all be black witches to start with?”

Milly lifted a hand, stopping them, her head cocked to one side. “Do you feel that, Pamela?”

The young witch went still, but Liam could tell what they were tapping into. Someone was throwing around a lot of magic, a lot of power, and they were close. The hairs along his arms stood at attention. That was more power than even Milly and Pamela had combined. This was not good.

“Yes,” Pamela whispered, her eyes widening, “I feel it. That is a great deal of magic.”

“That,” Milly said, “is the rest of the coven. They no doubt know we are coming. There are too many for us to take. We must leave.” She turned to seemingly do just that.

Tara moved in front of Milly, stopping her. “I will not leave. They killed my children, as if they were ants to be crushed under their heels. I will make them pay for this.”

“Be my guest.” Milly made a sweeping gesture. “But you will not get three feet into their presence before they do the very same to you. Though, they have ways of controlling people, perhaps they will use you as a spy and a puppet against the rest of your people. Would that be preferable to death?”

Tara’s face lost color, and her breathing quickened. “So we run away?”

“We plan.” Liam put a hand on her shoulder, doing his best to be gentle. “Too many witches, you saw what happened with those we dealt with. It was far too close for comfort.” The feel of a blade against his leg was still rather fresh in his mind. He didn’t discount there were times and places to be smart and back away. This was one.

Pamela sagged with relief. “I didn’t really want to fight them.”

“We should hurry,” Milly said, her gaze flicking around the room. “They will notice soon enough we aren’t drawing closer and they will come for us.”

Liam nodded and the four of them started to jog. A dark premonition slid over his skin and he felt Giselle’s words as if they hovered over him.