Tracking Magic: A Rylee Adamson Short Story (4 page)

There was no warning for what happened next. Her tail flipped up, coiled around my body, and pinned my arms to my sides. She crushed me, and I felt ribs pop inside my chest like bubble wrap being cracked by an overzealous kid. I tried to scream, had no air to draw breath. Time. I had to give Giselle time. The world spun as the snake bore down on me. Maybe she wasn’t trying to kill me, but I could feel my body starting to fade, to pass out. I still had my bowie knife; I wasn’t helpless yet. I clenched the hand holding the knife, and with a flex of my wrist sliced into the coils that held me tight.

“You Trackers, all the same,” the snake hissed, bearing down on me even as I pushed harder with the blade. “Stubborn. Fine, then you can die first.”

I had no words, felt the last bubble of oxygen in my blood stream crap out and darkness called, drawing me deep into its coiled embrace.

CHAPTER 5

“R
ylee, Rylee, wake up!”
I didn’t recognize the voice, not right away. Blinking—my eyes full of grit—I stared up into Milly’s face. The sun was behind her, highlighting her head like a freaking halo.

“Am I dead?” I whispered, wincing as even that slight movement of breathing and speaking shot sharp stabbing pains across my chest.

“No, you gave us enough time. Giselle made it to the car and she had this sword and while the snake had you in its loops, Giselle cut its head off.” Milly took a deep breath. “You really meant it, didn’t you. That you’d keep me safe.”

I closed my eyes, tried not to move anything but my lips. “Yes, I meant it.”

The sound of cloth rustling made me open my eyes. Giselle crouched down beside Milly, sword in hand. “You did good.”

“I would have been killed if you hadn’t been here. I don’t think that’s too good,” I said, as I rolled carefully to one side, easing to my hands and knees. Damn, broken ribs, who knew they could be so incapacitating?

Giselle helped me to my feet, a funny little smile on her face. “Sometimes the fight isn’t about winning. Sometimes it’s simply about getting the job done.”

I lifted my eyes to the sky. “No more life lessons today. I’ve had about all I can handle.”

The three of us made our way back to the car with no more surprises. Once we were on the highway heading home, I asked about the snake’s body, what would happen to it?

Giselle didn’t answer me, not right away. “You don’t touch a supernatural’s body once they die. They all have their ways of being taken back to the beginning.”

Milly asked the question that hummed through me. “Won’t the humans see it though?”

Checking her shoulder and merging into the slow lane, Giselle then shook her head. “No. Humans see what they want to, not what truly it. Get used to it girls. This is your life now.”

We didn’t go to the hospital. Broken ribs sucked, but I couldn’t take pain killers, they made me loopy. So we went straight home.

Milly crashed almost immediately when we got back home, slumping on the couch in a deep sleep that could only come from exhaustion. Giselle beckoned to me with one hand. I followed her out onto the porch, shuffling along as best I could, one arm around my middle bracing against the pain.

Closing the door behind us, Giselle put her arm around my shoulders and leaned in so she could whisper in my ear. “Milly still has the demon stone. We must remove it from her.”

I blinked several times; tired and hurt I wasn’t at my best. “She said she threw it away.”

Shaking her head Giselle’s eyes were sad. “She’s lying. I can read the darkness on her, like an imprint. I didn’t see it at first I was too busy trying to keep Seps from crushing you.”

“Seps . . .you mean the snake?”

Giselle nodded, a frown on her face. “Don’t ask me about Seps. That is for another time. Right now we must deal with Milly. She carries the demon stone still and it is infesting her.”

Neither of us heard the door open.

Not until we were both bound by invisible threads and dragged inside the house, did I realize we were in deep shit. Again. Whatever held me pressed into my ribs, constricting the broken bones and jamming them against my lungs. Fuck. I couldn’t breathe.

Milly stood there in front of us wringing her hands, her eyes wide. “I’m sorry, I can’t let you take the stone from me. It’s the last thing I have of my father’s.”

“Please,” I whispered. “Can’t breathe.”

The bands around me loosened up a fraction and I slumped against them, still held in the air, but no longer fighting for breath.

Beside me, Giselle glared at Milly. Milly shook in front of us, her whole body quaking. “I can’t let you take the stone.”

“I got that much,” I said. “But why? Why do you need a demon stone?”

Big, fat, tears leaked out of her eyes and streaked her dirty cheeks. “My father sold me to him. I don’t have a choice. I’m sorry.”

The bands around me tightened again and I squeaked in protest. “No, don’t squeeze me. Who were you sold to?”

Milly slid to the floor, her legs buckling under her. “My master’s name is Orion, like the constellation. But he’s not kind or good, and I can’t escape him. If I lose the stone, he’ll kill me.”

What a big ass mess this turned out to be. A quick glance at Giselle showed me what I was already thinking. This kid was in trouble, but I didn’t think Milly had it in her to be malicious. At least not intentionally. The fear on her was obvious, everything she was doing had been done because she was terrified.

“Let us go, maybe we can help you,” I said. “I told you I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you,” I took a breath and winced, “I meant it then, I mean it now.”

The young witch covered her face with her hands and the air within the house quivered like a bow string being pulled taut. Milly’s head snapped up. “He’s here. Oh God, I’m so sorry. He’s here.” She scrabbled away from us as footsteps echoed through the hallway.

Giselle jerked within her bonds, her eyes bugging out as a brawler of a man sauntered into the living room with us. Broad across the shoulders and all muscle that moved with a predatory grace made me wish the snake had finished me off, but his size wasn’t what made me wish for Seps. There was an aura about him, a presence that my body naturally recoiled from in an uncontrollable attempt to throw myself away from him at all costs.

You are staring at a demon. My mind told me the truth, but I didn’t want to believe it. Milly had brought a demon into our home—was somehow trapped by one. This was it. We were all going to die.

The demon, Orion if I believed what I’d been told, stared down at me but spoke to Milly. “Your bonds won’t hold her much longer. She’s an Immune, though it is just beginning for her. Certainly, it won’t be long enough to help save her.” His voice vibrated through me, striking chords of fear I never knew existed. This was terror. This was abject panic when you were bound and helpless and a demon stood in front of you speaking as if you were already dead.

“Fuck you, you piece of shit asshole eating demon!” The words poured out of me, the pain in my ribs nothing compared to the need to do something, anything.

His eyebrows rose and he stepped towards me, a smile on his lips. “I like it when they fight.”

The thing was, once I opened my mouth, I didn’t seem to be able to stop. “Yeah, well tying up women, that’s one way to get your rocks off. I suppose all the other nasty fuckers you hang with think you’re pretty tough. Scaring kids and killing helpless women. What a brave little fucker you are.” I snorted. I actually snorted at him as if he didn’t scare the living piss out of me, as if I would be able to actually stand and face him if the bonds holding me were released.

Orion continued to smile. “I like this one.” He leaned close, his nose at the hollow of my throat where he took a deep breath. “Ahhh, I see now. A Tracker. I have not met one of your kind for many years. Perhaps I was being too hasty. You could be useful.”

Shit, that wasn’t exactly an improvement. What was the saying, death before demon enslavement?

Milly crept closer. “I don’t want to kill them, master. Please, they saved me from Seps.”

“Did they now? Well, I suppose if you must have pets, then these two will do.” He waved a hand in our general direction. “Wipe their memories. Of everything. You are capable of that much, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I remember what I’ve been taught. They won’t remember any of this.”

Orion smiled, reached out and stroked her hair. “You are a good pet. The Reader, that one” he pointed at Giselle, “Give her the madness. It will cover much of what must be done, it will make her doubt everything.” I stared at Giselle, saw the blood drain from her face. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t even fight back. All because of a one tiny piece of magic we never should have gone after. A fucking chunk of rock.

The demon turned his back on us and I couldn’t hold back one last insult.

“I’ll kill you, Orion. I will. You will regret the day you let me live you nasty motherfucker!” Oh yeah, not so smart. Why the hell was I antagonizing a demon for god’s sake? I couldn’t seem to stop myself, even though a part of my brain was freaking out that death was what I was trying to avoid.

Again though, he seemed more amused than anything as he walked away muttering to himself. “Trackers, such fun they are.” The air seemed to groan as Orion disappeared into the hallway, his presence leaving the house causing a physical ripple through the building, pushing the very structure to one side on a wicked slant. With him gone, I was sure I could talk Milly out of wiping our memories clean. She had to have been just going along with him to keep us all safe.

Milly stepped in front of me, her hands gripping a shimmering red and black stone the size of a golf ball. Spikes erupted out of every piece of it, like a porcupine on steroids, some straight, some twisted like corkscrews. The main stems were black, the tips red as if dipped in blood.

“Milly, don’t do this. He’s gone now. You can let us go and we can find a way to stop him,” I said as she held the spiked stone up and began to chant.

The words melded into a white noise that embedded itself in my brain, wiping away everything I’d experienced in the last two days. Apparently I was wrong; I couldn’t change her mind.

My experiences with Martin, Seps and Orion were gone in a flash. Next the encounter with O’Shea, and the drive out to the mineshaft. Everything to do with the demon stone washed out of my mind, I let it go, none of it vitally important. And then came the part I did fight.

The ability to Track. That was the only chance I had at ever finding my sister, and Milly was going to take it away from me. I bucked against the bonds the witch held me in, fought the white noise as it scrubbed my mind clean.

“NO!” I screamed as the understanding I’d gained left me, despair settled in, and the blackness took me over once more.

CHAPTER 6

I
woke up
in the hospital next to a kid I didn’t recognize. She introduced herself as Milly Waters, the new girl Giselle was going to help mentor.

According to what everyone told me, I’d taken a tumble down the stairs in the middle of the night, smacking my head—hard—along with breaking a bunch of ribs. I couldn’t remember a damn thing about it, but Giselle nodded when I looked to her.

“I heard you tumble down; the noise woke me up and I found you at the foot of the stairs,” she said. “When you go down, you really go down. I can’t believe how badly you were hurt.”

“How long have I been out for?” I croaked, my mouth and throat as dry as popcorn farts.

Giselle handed me a paper cup of luke-warm water I greedily slurped back. Nothing had ever tasted so damn good as that stale, cardboard flavoured water.

“You’ve been out for nearly a week.”

“Holy shit,” I grumped. A week? Damn, that was a long time.

Milly stepped forward, big green eyes staring down at me. “I stayed with you a lot. I wanted to make sure the doctors took good care of you.”

I gave her a smile. She reminded me a little of my sister and a pang resonated through me. “Thanks.”

The kid pulled up a chair, sitting right beside me, her fingers tentatively curling around mine. “I think we’re going to be best friends. I just have a good feeling about you.”

Something about her was familiar, a recognition so strong and immediate. Like a dream I couldn’t quite recall. I nodded and squeezed her hand.

“Yeah, I think so too.”