Raising Innocence (16 page)

I slithered on my belly down the next set of steps to the second floor, where the smoke was black and thicker than one of Alex’s farts. There was no way I’d make it to the first floor. Still on my belly, I could feel the heat through the floorboards from the fire below; the house was going up fast. I worked my way along the wall, eyes burning, lungs aching from the smoke filling them.

My fingertips found the edge of a door and I lifted up just enough to get the doorknob open.

Nope, my luck was gone. The door was locked. Pushing to my feet I snapped my leg in a front kick, breaking the door open. I nearly fell through the doorway, kicking the door shut behind me. The smoke was less in this room and I took a deep breath, coughing hard on the smoke leaving my lungs. Across from me was a stained glass window. Without a second thought I grabbed a blanket bunched up on the only piece of furniture—a hard backed rocker—and wrapped my hand in it. Three quick punches and the window was gone, leaving just a few ragged edges. As I went to drop the blanket, but a name etched into it caught my eye.

Sophia
.

P
amela and Alex swarmed me as I dropped to the ground from the second story window. Rolling to take the velocity and impact out of the fall, I still managed to hit hard enough to knock the wind out of me. Alex bounced in front of me.

“Alex wants to jump!”

“Knock it off, you goof.” I grunted, dusting myself off.

Pamela’s eyes were wide, brimming with tears.

“I’m so sorry, Rylee. I shouldn’t have tried again once you were in there.”

I waved her off. “Listen, nobody got hurt. Now let’s get the hell out of here before the cavalry shows up.”

My eyes still stung from a combination of smoke and light burn, so I had Pamela lead the way, and I kept a hand on Alex’s collar; surprisingly he was relatively quiet. I tucked Sophia’s blanket under my shirt. When we found her, it was something to wrap her in. I had to believe I would find her and the other kids. But what the Necromancer had pulled, how he’d jumped through the Veil with no trace . . . I had no idea how he’d managed that.

Sirens in the distance drew closer, and before they reached us, I pulled Pamela and Alex into an alleyway. The fire trucks and police cars zipped past us.

“You weren’t supposed to go by yourself, were you?” Pamela asked.

“Not really.”

“Are you going to get in trouble?”

Shit, this kid had more questions than Alex Trebek.

I peeked out around the edge of the building to make sure the vehicles were all out of sight. “Probably. Won’t be the first time, so don’t worry about it.”

What I wasn’t telling her was that it was the first time I’d been involved in burning evidence. That was not going to look good on the old permanent record.

Without further ado, we made it back to my blue suite, an early dusk falling with the heavy cloud cover. There was no way I’d be able to go back to the station without showering and clean clothes. If I could smell the smoke and rotting flesh, there was no way Will would miss it.

Leaving Pamela in the main room with Alex, I stepped into the bathroom, and cranked on the hot water. The bite from the zombie stung like a bitch and was oozing a nice yellow pus. What a fan-fucking-tastic addition to the day.

With the water going full bore, I soaped up, re-hashing what I’d seen. The Necromancer knew how to use the Veil to travel in such a way that I couldn’t find the entranceway, he had an undead set of guards to cover his back trail, and now he knew someone was onto him. I had fucked up—royally. There had to be something good that I could squeeze out of this day. Wasn’t there?

Smoke and rot washed from my body, bandage and herbal poultice on the bite, and clean clothes on, I was ready to head back to the station. A quick glance in the bathroom mirror showed no cuts or bruises on my face, nothing that would give me away.

My hand was on the doorknob when the soft rumble of a man’s voice reached out from the living area. A voice I wanted nothing to do with.

Shit, all I had with me was my big bowie knife; my two swords I’d left in the bedroom, which was adjacent to the bathroom. But if I tried to get them, I would be visible to the main living area and he would see me. Not to mention there was no way I could leave him there with Pamela all alone.

“I can hear your heartbeat escalate, Rylee.”

Fuck!

I stepped out of the bathroom and eyed up Faris. The vampire looked the same as the last time I’d seen him; eyes a piercing ice blue, blond hair and stunning smile with only a whisper of fangs. I had to work at slowing my heart rate, at which Faris gave me a slight nod of acknowledgement. This was so not good in so many ways.

“Pamela.” I held out my hand to her and she stepped toward me, but Faris barred the way with his arm. Alex shook where he sat, but his lips were slowly lifting back over his teeth.

“Come now, I was just getting to know the girl,” Faris said, reaching out to stroke Pamela’s hair. She cringed away from him.

I pulled out the bowie knife. “Let her pass . . .”

He laughed. “Or what, you’ll stick me with your butter knife?”

My eyes narrowed; I had nothing to threaten him with, no weapon that would truly hurt him, no blackmail to make him do what I wanted.

“I could use another witch,” Faris said. “The one I have is a pain in the ass. And this one is young and teachable . . . malleable.”

He spoke like we were business associates out for lunch.

Alex sidled up to me, pressing himself against my legs. “Smells like Milly.”

If there had been a light bulb over my head, it would’ve exploded. Milly had a way to locate me, via my left over blood, and if she was working for Faris, he had access to that ability. That was singularly disastrous in my mind. If he could find me anywhere . . . it was almost as bad as him being able to Track me.

Only one way to find out if that was the case. I managed to keep my voice even. “Milly’s working with you?”

Faris nodded, though his eyes never strayed from Pamela, and I saw her sway. He was enthralling her.

No time to waste, I took two steps toward them and threw my knife, catching Faris along the side of his face and cutting off the rim of his ear.

With a roar, his head snapped around and his eyes all but nailed me to the spot. “You’d dare attack me when I come with terms of peace?”

My jaw clenched and unclenched, fear pooling in my belly. I had no weapon now and nothing close at hand.

I was in deep shit.

“You can’t have her. Bad enough you already took Milly from me.”

His blood dripped on the floor, leaving a trail as he stalked toward me. “She was already taken by darkness when I found her. You’re blind, Tracker, when it comes to those you love. You never see them for what they truly are.”

I stepped back for every step forward he took, my mind racing to find a way out of this. A glance over at Pamela showed her sagged against a chair, eyes glazed over. Alex moved with me, his hackles up and a low growl rumbling through his chest.

“No hurt Ryleeee!” He howled as he launched himself at Faris. Even with his teeth and claws bared, the werewolf was knocked aside as if he were a bothersome fly, not a two hundred-pound supernatural. Alex was thrown across the room, his back slamming into the corner of the door frame with a sickening crack of bone. Limp, he fell to the ground and lay there, unmoving.

“You really should be wiser in choosing your friends. They are weak, young, and so easy to turn against you.” He smiled and in a flash pinned me against the wall, yanking my wrists above my head, and holding them there with one hand. We’d been here before, him and me. It hadn’t ended well.

“Thanks, I needed the stretch,” I said, sweat dripping down my sides. I was so fucked, there was no way out, no lifeline I could grab. I couldn’t even get my foot up to boot him in the knee. Doran had given me that tidbit and it had, I was sure, saved my life the first time I’d met Faris. But not this time; Faris was working me over very carefully.

Faris continued to smile. “Do you know how vampires share information?”

I tried to swallow; I did, but I had no spit left.

Did it matter that he was going to kill me, then Alex, and put Pamela into some sort of servitude? Yes, it did matter, yet I couldn’t stop myself.

“I’m going to go with smoke signal for the win.”

“Do you ever learn?”

I did my best to shrug. “Only when I want to.”

His lips pulled back from his fangs. “I want to share with you all I know, Rylee. It’s a gift, one I do not bestow lightly. Even Milly hasn’t gained this honor.”

“I’ll pass. You go give your cooties to someone else.”

Even if he bit me, he couldn’t turn me. But I had a bad feeling that it wasn’t a bite I was about to get. Faris’ tongue flicked out over the tip of his left fang, drawing blood. With an infinite slowness, his head lowered to mine, his one hand held my jaw still, and his body easily kept mine pinned to the wall.

“Relax, Tracker, this will only hurt a little bit,” he murmured as his lips covered mine, the taste of coppery sweet blood coating the inside of my mouth. His power washed out over me, and I responded to the heat of his kiss, my mind blank as to why I shouldn’t. He let go of my hands, and I didn’t push him away, instead twinning my fingers through his hair and pulling him tight against me. The taste of his blood was sweet like honey and I couldn’t get enough of it or him. His arousal pressed against my belly and I squirmed, wanting more of what he had, what he was forgotten under the haze of what he was doing to me.

His fingers slid down my arms, taking one hand and shifting it between us, placing it over his hardness, groaning as my fingers clenched on him.

And then the world around me scattered, pain lighting up my nerve endings for a single heartbeat before I was inside his memories.

*-*-*-*

O’Shea had no fucking idea where he was. London, yes, but other than that his senses had been completely turned around. When they’d reached the carriage, Milly laid a spell on him blocking his sight and hearing. Except for his nose, which kept on picking up the scent of fish, he had nothing to rely on.

His gut still churned from what had happened at the police station. The look on Rylee’s face, the fact that he’d charged her and could have killed her if Milly had commanded him too. There had to be a way for him to stop this. He had to believe that he could break this spell or he’d go mad.

Finally a gust of new air washed in and around him; likely Milly had opened the door. Not that he could do anything about it anyway—commanded as he was not to move. Ocean air filled his nostrils followed by a sharp tang of men’s sweat, diesel fuel and fish. Lots and lots of fish. They were either on the docks or very close.

With a blinding flash, he could see and hear, the noise of the docks making him cringe—or they would have if he’d been able to move. Yes, they were on the docks, a large boat trimmed in red and black waited directly ahead of them. The
Saint Marie II.

“Come along, Liam.” Milly called over her shoulder as she headed toward the boat.

Come along? Could he circumvent that? He took a step toward her and then one to the side. Yup, he could do this his way. With her back to him, confident in her spell, she couldn’t see what he was up to; this might be the only chance he got. Zig zagging he tested the limits of what he could do. As long as he went in her general direction, he could go side to side. On the far left was a vendor selling wax candles and a thought popped into his head. Would the torc work if his ears were plugged?

He ran hard for the candle maker, feeling the tension of the torc on his neck increase the further from Milly he got. Literally at the end of his leash, his throat tensed, squeezing shut on his breath.

“Liam!”

Shit, she was on to him. One last heave and he leapt toward the candle maker’s stand, sending the entire wares and the shop owner crashing to the ground. Fumbling in the mess, while the shop owner screeched creating a perfect diversion, he grabbed a chunk of soft wax and tucked it into the hole in the waistband of his khakis. It would have to wait for later, but it gave him a bit of hope that perhaps Milly hadn’t bested him yet.

There was no way he was going to just lay down and let her win, not with his life, and more importantly, Rylee’s on the line.

*-*-*-*

Faris’ memories were not what I expected.

In fact, there was no blood, no gore, no tearing of throats or even mutilated bodies.

I was at a ball, one of those old school, big fluffed-up dresses kind of balls. Blinking, I stared around me, knowing that I wasn’t there, not really. A waltz played in the background, smooth and elegant; it seemed to be keyed to the dancers instead of the other way around. All of the couples who swept past me were vampires, the tilt of their heads, the tips of fangs glimpsed and then gone, showing me clearly what I was looking at. They weren’t trying to hide what they were. The thing is, there were only about thirty couples, which meant that every goddamned vampire in the world was attending this soiree.

“I’ll be buggered,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. Faris wanted me to see a ball and some dressed up vampires? Was he trying to prove how civilized he could be?

My feet didn’t move, but the view shifted and I was now across the room standing next to Faris. Not the Faris I knew, but one that was dressed up in a puffy shirt with long drooping lace sleeves, knee high boots with pants tucked in the top and several over the top bling-bling rings on his fingers. How very Lestat of him. Seeing him like this, I could imagine how easy it would be for him to find his victims. If he wasn’t a vampire, I could have acknowledged how good looking he was. No, that was too tame. Even in his ridiculous clothes, the vamp had “Fuck me, baby” written all over him. His hair was longer, trailing past his shoulders, but tied back with a leather thong. Icy blue eyes took in everything, softening here and there. That took me aback. Then he, Faris the vampire that had been trying to play some twisted wicked game with me, winked at one of the serving ladies. She was quite a bit older, dowdy, and obviously not used to attention from the vamps. She blushed and he gave her a smile.