Wounded: Book 8 (A Rylee Adamson Novel) (8 page)

“Zorro, how are you?” I blurted.

The male harpy chuckled, surprising me. “I see where Eve got her sass. My name is Marco.”

The two harpies banked at the same time as we dropped from the sky, right into Doran’s courtyard. Pamela was crouched over Liam’s body. Everything in me tensed, even though Tracking Liam I knew he was still alive. But barely.

I jumped from Eve’s back before she had fully landed and ran to Liam’s side. The werewolves had retreated and were pacing around, whining. Beauty stood to one side, buck naked and leaning against Faris.

“Faris, get them all out of here. NOW,” I said, doing my best to not let my voice break.

“They wouldn’t go—how would you like me to deal with them?”

“Make them.” I curled my hands into the thick fur around Liam’s neck, trusting Faris would do as I asked. “Pamela, how bad is it?”

She lifted her eyes to mine for a split second before looking back at Liam, her hands cupping his muzzle. “Bad. It’s very bad. I can heal all the wounds except the one on his chest.”

The sound of footsteps running told me people were finally listening and going to safety. Which was good because I suspected it wouldn’t be long before what was left of the ogres was over run and we’d be dealing with some pissed off demons.

Sooner than you think. They are on their way to end us now.

“Blaz, can you stall them?”

On my way.

A whoosh of wings and the dragon let out a roar that shattered the air, pierced my ears, and made my heart pound. His battle cry stirred my own bloodlust. Seconds later, the sound of flames roaring across the open field reached us. A fire line would buy us a little time.

“Doran?”

“Nothing I can do, at least, not on my own. The blade was cursed. I’d have to have more of your blood and you have given too much as it is.” He crouched beside me and held out a copper knife with a serrated edge, fresh blood on it. Liam’s blood.

I leaned forward, Tracking Liam. Yeah, he was right there, but by Tracking him I could get a better idea of how bad it really was.

His heart beat at a strange cadence, and his soul was slipping. I could push some of my strength into him. We’d done it before, when we were in Europe, but it had mostly been me drawing from him. But what if I could give him some of my Immunity, enough to fight off this poison, or the fucking curse or whatever it was he was dealing with?

“Rylee, what are you doing?” Doran whispered as I drew on my own strength and gave it over to Liam. The energy flowed between us, the bond we’d made stronger than death, and his heart started to beat faster, became steadier.

There was a moment where I thought someone was trying to pull me off, to stop me, but nothing could come between us. Liam didn’t shift under my hands, but his threads were stronger.

I pulled back, my vision doubling as hands caught me.

“You keep passing out like this and I’m going to think you like the head rush,” Doran grumbled.

“He’ll make it.”

“What the hell did you do? You aren’t a healer, Rylee.” Doran didn’t take his arms from around me and I didn’t care. I could barely keep my eyes open.

“I’ll explain later. Blaz, take Liam to London. Please.”

Tracker, you gave him a lot of energy. Too much.

“Please, don’t argue with me, I have a fucking headache.” Which was the truth, my head was pounding, the sound of my own heartbeat felt like a bongo drum inside my skull.

You are coming with me.

“I’ll go through the veil.”

Fine.

Damn, that sounded suspiciously like a woman would say ‘fine’. Like ‘fuck, I’m not excited about this, but I’m doing it anyway’.

Blaz winged over us, and scooped up Liam.
He’ll survive the flight?

“Yes. But he’ll be out of it, probably the whole way,” I said, feeling Doran’s eyes on me. No one knew the bonding that had taken place between Liam and me. Though I suspected Doran was on to us.

Get through the veil, Tracker.
Blaz called back to me as he flew into the last of the night.

“Going, we’re going!” I snapped. Of course, that was the plan. Problem was, we didn’t quite make it.

At least, not all of us.

Chapter 5

BLAZ WAS GONE and Eve was about to leave with Marco when the ogres swarmed into the courtyard. Doran dragged me toward the veil where Faris stood on the other side, his face grim.

“Hurry up!” Faris beckoned with his one hand. Like we didn’t fucking well know we needed to hurry.

The problem was, I
couldn’t
hurry; my legs were leaden. Between donating blood to Doran and giving Liam my strength, I was done in.

“Come on, Niece, let’s get you out of here.” Erik scooped me up into his arms. Pamela ran beside him, Alex beside her, and Doran led the way. We were only twenty feet from the slash in the veil when an ogre got in our way. Or more accurately, it got between Doran and us. Big and blue, it hurt me to see him. He looked so much like Dox, yet was obviously possessed by a demon.

“Rylee!” Doran yelled and his feet stopped (the only part of him I could see past the ogre) and then he was yanked forward.

My stomach sank. “Faris, you’d better have that fucking door open!” I screamed from Erik’s arms, already knowing something was very, very wrong. Pamela snapped a hand out and flipped the ogre out of our way, sticking him to the side of the house like a fly trapped in honey.

The house was in front of us, but there was no opening through the veil.

Faris had fucked us over.

“EVE!” Pamela screamed and Erik spun back the way we’d come. Eve and Marco were above us, but between the house on one side and the amount of ogres flooding the courtyard on the other, there was no way they could get to us.

Alex kept tight to Erik’s side. “Killing demons time.”

“No time today,” Erik said. And then out of nowhere, Bert was at our side.

Fuck, I’d forgotten about the doppelganger. “Follow me, I can get you around them.”

We had no choice but to trust him, and since his life was tied to Erik’s, I had to believe he wouldn’t put us into harm’s way.

Following Bert, he led us into the house. Pamela brought up the rear. I could see her over Erik’s shoulder, sending out blasts of fire to keep the ogres from us. Damn, she was a witch to be proud of. At fifteen, she was taking everything that happened completely in stride. Like it was an everyday event. And maybe for her now it was just that.

Erik ducked around a corner, banging my knees into the wall as we ran (and I use that loosely since I was doing no running) through the kitchen. “You know, you could stand to lose a pound or two.”

“I love you, too, Uncle Erik,” I mumbled, my head fuzzy as I bounced in his arms.

“This way, quick!” Bert shouted and we didn’t question him.

We should have.

He led us into the back of the house, the morning sun peering over the horizon, highlighting the row upon row of ogres waiting for us. The prick had turned on us; I don’t know why I was surprised.

“Bert,” I said and wormed out of Erik’s arms, my hand going to a sword on my back.

His eyes watered as he looked up at me. “I can’t help you, I wish I could. I am bound; my mouth is literally unable to speak the words. It is a curse placed on all the demons Orion uses, so we cannot turn on him.”

So he would take death over dishonor. If he hadn’t been a demon, I would have thought better of him for that choice. Honor I understood, but coming from a demon, I wasn’t so sure about it. Besides, he’d just admitted that he would have spilled his guts if he’d been able to.

The ogre closest to us was red-skinned and, for a second, I thought it was Raw. He chucked a spear at Bert, pinning him to the ground. The doppelganger’s eyes went wide and then slowly the image he’d projected faded, leaving the bare husk of a body I didn’t recognize. Whoever he’d possessed hadn’t been a large person. Hell, I couldn’t even tell if it had been a woman or a man.

“Rylee, you know we’re in deep shit?” Erik asked as he slid my feet to the ground and put himself between me and the ogres we faced. Pamela put her back to me and faced the way we’d come. Her hands flung out and the adobe house crumbled to the ground, the earth shaking beneath our feet.

“Yeah, deep shit is a place I know well,” I said. “Pamela, when you’re done there, think you can make a hole for the ogres to sleep in?”

I hated to ask her to be so violent, mostly because I knew what it was like to lose the childish side of your soul to fighting and surviving at such a young age.

The thing was, the ogres weren’t actually doing anything to us. Which freaked me out. It reminded me of being in the deep veil where the demons all lived and yet, for a huge chunk of the time I was there, I hadn’t encountered one. The whole thing was unnerving.

Above us, Eve and Marco circled, screaming obscenities at the ogres, who mostly ignored them. A standoff between the two sides and yet, I wasn’t sure why the ogres hadn’t attacked.

As Pamela raised her hands toward the ogres, I stopped her. “Wait a second.”

Erik choked, but didn’t turn to look at me. “We may not have a second, Niece.”

I pushed past him, carefully so I didn’t lose my balance. “Why aren’t you attacking us?”

The red ogre who’d thrown the spear sneered at me. “You are wanted by the master, alive and in one piece. All four of you.”

Oh, that did not bode well. “Pam.”

“Yes?”

“You want to work for Orion?”

I didn’t need to say anything else. Her hands were a blur as she whipped them out in front of her. The ground didn’t begin to shake, didn’t roll or heave. There was no warning.

The ground fucking well exploded beneath the ogres. Bodies flew through the air, twenty feet up before being flung outward, clearing a perfect path for us. Screams and moans rose in a cacophony that would make any horror film buff happy.

“Time to go!” I yelled, though I really wanted to duck and cover. Erik took my arm and Pamela led the way, flinging bodies left and right, her lips tight and eyes narrowed. Yeah, pissing off the powerhouse witch was a bad idea.

“Glad she’s on our side,” Erik said as we hit the open space. There was no question of that, but I agreed with him. The look in Pamela’s eyes was more than a little spooky.

Eve swooped down, landed and I scrambled onto her back. Erik climbed on with me, and Pamela leapt on Zorro—I mean, Marco—with Alex. Three seconds and we were in the air while Pamela rained down fire on the remaining ogres who stood and waved their weapons at us.

None of them were dead though; it wasn’t that easy to kill demons. And Pamela was too filled with rage to actually do more than push them away.

“If she could learn to channel her emotions more clearly, there would be no need for us,” Erik said, his body adjusting to Eve with ease.

“What do you mean?”

“Witches, their emotions run hot and cold and finding the balance for them to fight from a place of their heart is nearly impossible. They can help Slayers, but most of the time they can’t actually kill demons.”

That made a weird sort of sense. All the years with Milly and I’d certainly seen the proof of her emotions being all over the map. “If anyone can figure out the balance, Pamela can.”

Erik shrugged. “If she can, she could help save us all.”