Rising Darkness (A Rylee Adamson Novel, Book 9) (11 page)

Faris didn’t answer and Liam went quiet. There was nothing left to say. For now, he was close to her. The vampire wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Not with Liam’s love for her coursing through his veins.

CHAPTER 12

Pamela

Y
vette circled a
large mansion, the gleaming white structure almost blinding in the bright summer sun. I shaded my eyes with one hand, hanging on to Peta with the other. “Frank, do you know where we are?”

He leaned around me and adjusted his glasses. “No. Other than somewhere on the east coast.”

Even I knew that much. The ocean stretched out to the left of Yvette, a beckoning blue roll of waves. “But where?”

“I don’t know.”

It does not matter where you are, puny witch. You go where the master says. You do what he says. You kill who he says.
Yvette didn’t look back at us, just kept dropping in a circle until she landed on the green lawn of the mansion. Her claws dug deep furrows into the lush footing. Stiff from the long ride, I slid down her side. My feet hit the ground and I let out a strangled cry as the tingles raced up my legs. Peta leapt from my arms and sniffed around me as I struggled back to my feet, failing and ending up on my knees. At least the grass was soft and cushiony. My feet hurt like I’d stepped onto a thousand tiny hot tacks. Frank jumped down beside me, his face tightening with the pain I knew was dancing along his nerves. But he handled it better than I did.

He held out a hand to me. “Thanks.”

He didn’t let go, holding my fingers tight. “We okay?”

I nodded. “Of course.”

Without warning, Yvette let out a roar and launched into the air. Her wings flattened us. The whoosh of air from the downdraft sent all three of us tumbling through the air.

Frank ended up on top of me, protecting me with his body. I wrapped my arms around him, holding him against me. Afraid I would somehow lose him too. Peta clung to my jeans, her claw tips brushing against my skin as she yowled into the wind.

Yvette let out a rather nasty laugh, and I stared up at her belly, wishing I could blast her. Frank shifted his weight bringing his face in line with mine. Close enough to kiss. I blushed and pushed him off. We didn’t say anything, just stood for the second time, and looked around.

From the back of the house strode a figure I knew well. Her long brown hair was twisted into a careful chignon, a few tendrils escaping. As so often was the case, she wore a green dress that accented her bust and tiny waist, the color highlighting her emerald eyes.

“Milly!” I waved to her. It took everything I had not to run to her. I wanted to give something of a dignified approach, to look like the mature witch I wanted her to believe I was.

She drew close and smiled. “Hello, Pamela. Frank. And who is this?” She bent to get a good look at Peta.

The cat let out a hiss and bolted across the lawn. “Peta!” I called after her and took two steps.

Frank put a hand on my arm. “She’ll come back.”

The gray and white cat disappeared into a clump of bushes with bright pink flowers. It shouldn’t have hurt so much to see Peta gone, but the truth was she had wormed her way into my arms and heart quicker than I would have thought.

“Ah, we can find you another cat, Pamela. A familiar is a good thing to have, they can do so much for you.” Milly slid her arm over my shoulder and drew me against her side.

I nodded. “She was just a cat. Nothing special.” Why did I say that? Why had I just lied to Milly?

Frank let go of my hand as Milly steered me toward the big house. I cleared my throat as quietly as I could. “Milly, I have a question.”

“Of course. I’m going to teach you everything I know, so questions are to be expected.” She didn’t look at me, just stared straight ahead. We were on the back patio of the huge house, the paving stones carefully designed under our feet to look like moons and stars.

I cleared my throat a second time, nerves nipping at me. “Can you tell me again how Rylee betrayed you? I’d like to hear it again.”

Frank made a strangled sound behind us; I ignored him. I needed to be reminded why this was better for me. Because the minute my feet hit the ground, I was having second thoughts.

No, that wasn’t true. The moment Yvette had attacked my friends, I’d wondered if I made the right decision.

“Well”—Milly opened the double glass doors that led into the house—“it started when she said she was my friend, years ago. She said she would always stand by me, that I would always be like a sister to her. Then she started to drift away, going for days and weeks at a time without speaking to me. Only to call me when she needed help.” She waved a hand at a table set with food and drinks. I sat, Frank beside me.

Milly gave us a smile. “Rylee was always good at telling people what they wanted to hear. She can read them very well and sees into their hearts, she knows their deepest desires. That is the truth of a Tracker. She can sense emotions and feelings, you know.”

I nodded, reached out and took a scone. Breaking off a piece, I shoved it into my mouth, suddenly ravenous.

Milly leaned back in her chair and laced her hand under her chin. “She told me she would watch over my son until I could come for him. But when I reached out to her, she wouldn’t give him to me. Now she’s hidden him away and all I want is to see him, hold him again.”

Frank let out a soft snort. “What about the fact that Orion is your master? That doesn’t come into play at all?”

She lifted a hand and I tensed, thinking she was going to blast him. “Ah, young necromancer. Orion is trapped on the other side of the veil, is he not? That was what happened when the Wolf let his blood be spilled with the copper knife.”

The scone in my mouth seemed to turn to ash and I struggled to swallow. I didn’t realize Milly had known about the knife.

“I know how the veil works, Milly,” Frank said and I stared at him, seeing the man he would be. Strong, confident. Handsome. “Orion’s physical body is trapped, that’s true. But he could still be working through you. Depending on how deeply his ties to you go.”

Milly’s eyes flashed. I had to do something. Fast, if I wanted Frank to give Milly the time to prove she was a good person. “Do you have a spelling room?” I spit out the words along with a fair bit of scone.

“Yes, come.” She stood and swept from the room. I hurried after her, Frank didn’t follow. I looked over my shoulder and he shook his head. Nothing to be done for him. He would learn to trust Milly. All he needed was time.

I rushed down the hallway, the rich, woven carpet muffling my footsteps. I turned a corner to see a glimpse of her skirt as she turned another corner. Breaking into a run, I bolted after her.

Around the corner I went, and ran smack into a small figure holding a rag. I went flying and he let out a yelp as we hit the carpet together.

“At least it bees very padded,” he muttered, dusting himself off as he stood.

“Charlie?” I whispered, pushing myself to my hands and knees.

“Gods be praised, Pamela! Rylee’s sent yous to us, to save us!” He grabbed my face and kissed me on both cheeks.

“Save you, from Milly?”

“She’s turned us into servants. We’s has to wait on her hand and foot or she blasts us.”

I frowned at him. “That doesn’t sound like Milly.”

“What doesn’t sound like me?” She was there, stepping out a doorway to speak to me.

“Um. Charlie here.”

“Oh, the brownies. They’re upset because I took them out of their home. If I’d left them on the other side of the veil when it closed they would have been left to the demons roaming the levels there. But they don’t see it that way, do you?” She smiled sweetly and I knew she was being kind.

Charlie snorted. “Yes, mistress.”

To me, he gave a short nod. “Pamela. Not everything’s as it bees seeming.”

“I agree.” I lifted an eyebrow at him, dark thoughts roaming my mind like tendrils of smoke. “Some people don’t know how good they have it. They always want more than is due to them.”

His mouth dropped open and I strode toward Milly who had turned her smile on me. “Well said.”

“It’s the truth.” But a part of me quivered with sadness. Charlie had always been kind to me. I should have tried harder to be nice. No, he was lucky to have Milly save him. Like Frank, it was obvious that Charlie needed time to see how lucky he was.

She closed the door behind me as I stepped through. “Here is where I will train you. You will be the greatest, most powerful witch this world has ever seen.”

The pentagram etched into the floor made me take a step back, my body against the door, all my confidence fleeing. “A pentagram? Why?”

“The demons are coming, Pamela. Rylee will not be able to stop them. Which means those left behind have to be able to use their power against them. To know thy enemy is to be prepared to face them.”

I swallowed hard, bile rising fast in my throat. “You want me to call on a demon?”

“Yes.”

The world swam and I sank to my knees. “I don’t feel so well.” All I could see was the demons I’d faced on the other side of the veil. When Milly had protected me, and Rylee had risked her life to pull me from Orion’s clutches. I put a hand to my head. How could I have forgotten that? The hordes of demons washing toward us, the flashes of light. The five of us, Rylee, Erik, Alex, Milly, and myself holding them back.

“Ah, Frank. Excellent timing. Take Pamela, third room on the right will be fine. We’ll begin as soon as you’ve rested.” Milly put a hand to my forehead and the memories faded. I let out a sigh and closed my eyes as Frank scooped me up.

The bob and weave of him walking, the sound of another door being shut and then I was laid onto a soft mattress.

“Pamela, we have to get out of here. This isn’t Milly, I’m sure it’s Orion using her. Hard. Worse than ever before. I didn’t know her well, but this isn’t her. Pamela!” His words were a wash over my ears and I kept my eyes closed.

I wasn’t wrong. Milly would help me. She would teach me like Rylee never could.

“You’ll see, Frank,” I murmured. “She’s going to show you.”

Frank shivered beside me, the motion going through the bed. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

CHAPTER 13

Rylee

T
wo days left
before Orion made a break from his prison inside the veil. We were flying down the eastern coast of Canada, sometime after midnight and I was acutely aware we were running out of time.

“I have never been so happy to see the night sky,” Berget said, her chin against my back.

I laughed, though my heart wasn’t truly in it. “Yeah, the whole curtain thing worked, but I sure as shit wouldn’t have been able to handle it.”

She tightened her arms around me a little more, then started on the newest game we played to pass the time. “Do you remember when Dad tried to make spaghetti sauce and Mom was out at one of her lady parties? He was trying to make sure it was really good and put all sorts of things into it?”

I slapped my thigh with one hand. “Fuck, do you remember the raisins?”

She burst out laughing. “They soaked up all the moisture in the sauce and turned back into grapes.”

“That was the worst spaghetti sauce I’ve ever eaten.” I gave a mock shudder, laughing with her.

My turn. “Do you remember—”

Marco swung in close. “I hate to interrupt you two. But is it possible that the blood exchange you and Faris had could be wearing off?”

I looked across at Faris, he nodded. “It’s possible, especially if you’re still Tracking. Your blood would be working overtime to clear mine out of you.”

I was still Tracking, damn it all. I let go of the threads that tied me to the Great Wolf. He was close, maybe a hundred miles away by the feel of him. “Not anymore.”

Marco let out a sharp cry. “We are being tailed.”

Since the incident with Pamela and the dragon, we’d been exceptionally vigilant while in the air. Berget and I twisted around to look behind us, and Alex who rode with Marco and Faris leapt up and growled at the empty space in the clouds. The growl trickled to nothing.

“I don’t see anything.” He put one hand above his eyes, as if to shade a bright light. What a goof. But he did have a point. I didn’t see anything either.

That didn’t mean we were alone. “Marco, any idea what’s behind us?”

“I caught a glimpse of green scales.”

Fuck, not another dragon. I frowned and reached out with my thoughts like I would do with Blaz.

We’re going to eat Harpy
tonight!

Thank the gods, I’m fucking
starving.

Hit them from above, they’ll never see us
coming.

We have to stop them, if they find the Destroyer, the master will eat our
souls.

A darkness that swelled inside the dragons reached for me, the whisper of death growing as they turned my way. I jerked back and wobbled in my seat. Berget grabbed me, steadying me.

“How bad?”

“Dragons, but they are hosting demons. They are here to stop us from finding the Destroyer.”

Eve tipped her head so she could look at me. “How many?”

“Two. And they’re aiming to hit us like that last one did.”

Eve and Marco swooped away from each other. I looked up at the dark sky. Here and there the stars twinkled. No clouds. So when the stars were blotted out, I knew our company had arrived.

“Here we go. Eve, you ready?”

“Ready to bring the pain.”

A smile curled my lips. “Just stay out of their claws.”

I tightened my grip on the leather harness and Berget did the same. I looked across at Alex and Faris on Marco. Faris was strapped in.

Alex was not.

“Alex! Strap your ass in!” I yelled across the chasm.

He saluted me, but already I knew it was too late. The whoosh of leathery wings as the two dragons dove toward us, the tensing of the Harpy underneath us.

At the last second, I saw Faris reach around and grab Alex, holding him against his chest. Eve dove to the left, the dragon’s claws skimming along beside us, close enough that I could almost touch them. “I can expel the demons if I can touch the dragons.” I shouted over the rushing wind. Eve spread her wings, stopping our headlong dive. The leather straps loosened and I looked around for Marco. He was still to the right of us—upside down in the green-scaled dragon’s claws. “Eve!”

“I’m on it!”

The second dragon was black as the night sky and fucking hard to see, that is my only excuse for what happened. The big bastard slammed hard into us. His claws raked down Eve’s side, taking feathers and breaking the skin. “Berget, my straps!”

She ripped them with a swift tug, freeing me from my restraint. The black dragon rolled and tried to take Eve with him.

The Harpy dodged the grasping claws, rolling the other direction. I stood, took one step and leapt from Eve’s back. I pulled two short blades from my sides as I fell and held them out, gripped in my fists. I’d practiced this move with Blaz while I’d been away. It had better work.

The black dragon didn’t see me coming. I hit his side and drove my two blades in deep, using them as anchors. He roared and twisted trying to see me.

Bitch, I will use you as a
toothpick.

“Doubtful.” I let go, dangling with one hand, pressing the other against his scales. Sounded easy, but it wasn’t. The dragon twisted and jerked, and my hand slipped until I was hanging on with fingertips. The demon squirmed under his skin, and beneath that I felt the sorrow of the dragon before he’d been taken over. Better to be dead than a tool of a demon. “Be free,” I said. Power rippled through me and into the dragon. A flash of light as he lit up from inside, his body stiffening, the demon expelled.

Thank you, Tracker.

The dragon’s eyes met mine as the color and life in them faded. The wings stopped moving, the heart slowed. Frozen now.

We began our free fall, his body spinning slowly until it was belly up. I yanked my blades free and ran with the turn of his body like a log roll. “Eve, hurry up!”

She streaked toward me, snatching me with her claws, and then shot up into the sky hard. “Get me above the green lizard, and drop me.”

“You got it.”

She had me gripped around my upper body, my legs dangling. The green dragon roared and blew chunks of fire at something on his back.

I squinted. “Berget. Is that what I think it is?”

“Yes, Faris is keeping its attention on him.”

Faris ran along the dragon’s spine, jabbing it with his cutlass, then ducking out of the way of the snapping jaws. Alex and Marco were pinned together in its claws.

“Rylee, if you kill it, the claws . . . .” Eve whimpered and I knew what she was getting at. Death could cause a spasm, making the claws grip harder yet, and Alex and Marco would fall with the dragon.

“Change of plans, go in low and I’ll cut the fucker’s legs off if I have to.”

At least, I was hoping. With a sharp turn, Eve took me toward the dark green belly, spinning in the air at the last second in order to throw me toward the dragon’s foot that held Marco and Alex.

Her aim wasn’t so good.

“Shit!” I missed the claw completely and hung in space for a half heartbeat as I contemplated the timing gone terribly wrong. I fell, reaching for the dragon, knowing it was futile but doing it anyway.

A set of clawed hands reached out and snagged me from the air, dragging me to Marco’s back. “I has you.”

“Holy shit, good catch, buddy.”

Alex grinned at me, but the smile slipped into a grimace of pain. His back right leg was crushed against Marco on a weird angle. I didn’t have time to free him. He’d have to wait. I pulled my two blades and drove them into the tendons around the dragon’s claw. The blades cut through the thick hide and the dragon screeched, a sound that went on and on as I dug deeper and deeper.

“Let go, you fucking overgrown gecko!” I screamed, forcing the blades in as far as I could, feeling them grind against the bones, like metal on metal.

“Pull the blade to the left!” Marco yelled and I didn’t ask why, just did it. I dragged the two blades hard to the side and there was a subtle shift in the flesh they were in. The claw popped open and we fell. Alex grabbed my ankle with one claw tipped hand as he clung to Marco with the other.

“Land, just land!” I yelled as the wind rushed around us.

“Not much choice, I’ve broken too many feathers to climb,” Marco replied. We spiraled downward—fast. If Alex hadn’t been hanging onto me I wouldn’t have stayed on.

Eve followed us, and it was then that I realized we’d left Faris on top of the green dragon. Shit sticks.

I looked up to see the dragon diving toward us.

“And here I was worried we’d have to go back for the vampire.” I managed to get one blade into my back sheath as we dropped. I kept the other squeezed in my right hand. There was nothing I could do until we landed and hoped to hell that Faris could get off the dragon’s back.

I shouldn’t have worried.

We hit the dirt hard, Marco unable to slow himself enough, and Alex and I were thrown. The three of us tumbled, rolling at least twenty feet before we lost momentum. A tree stump was my stopping point. Eve landed right behind us, a hell of a lot more graceful than we’d managed.

The dragon landed ahead of us, holding its maimed claw up. Faris stayed where he was.

“I’m safer up here,” he called out.

“Ass hat!” I yelled back.

He gave me a mocking bow as the dragon roared, baring teeth and flicking its split tongue at us. It looked like they’d worked out their act together with the timing.

I eyed the distance between us, and the limping, raging dragon, as it headed our way. “Berget, think you can toss me up to Faris?”

“I could, but the dragon will just snatch you out of the air.”

She made a rather good point. “Eve, get Alex and Marco out of the way.”

If the dragon hadn’t been wounded so badly, it would have been on us already. As it was, I had a second to think.

“Berget, help me dodge the mouth.”

I put my sword into its sheath and ran toward the dragon. Its eyes glittered in the dark, and it opened its mouth wide as it swung its head toward me.

That’s right, run into my mouth, Tracking bitch!
The voice was distinctly female and seriously pissed if the volume level was any indication. Her fangs dripped with saliva that sizzled as it dripped to the ground.

Berget ran with me, keeping pace and when the dragon snaked toward me, Berget yanked me out of the way at the last second, spun, and threw me toward the dragon’s back, like we were in the Olympic Games.

Disoriented was a fucking understatement. She’d heaved me like I was a damn shot put and I stumbled hard, going to my knees as I landed on the thick scales of the dragon’s back. Faris grabbed my upper arms and steadied me. I didn’t pause, couldn’t. I reached for the dragon and she leapt into the air, throwing me off balance once more. I needed to get at least one hand on her. She climbed fast, her sinuous body twisting and spinning so I couldn’t keep my balance, couldn’t get my fucking hands on her.

No, I like my demon. He makes me stronger than the other dragons. I will kill you, and the master will reward us both.

“Not going to happen,” I yelled as I tumbled down her spine, the ridges slamming hard into my side. Jerked to a stop, I knew it was Liam, and not Faris holding my ankle. I put my hand on the dragon’s back and the power flowed through me. Calm, soothing, and so very easy to call on. “Be free.” The demon fled, its spirit twisted and writhing in the air above the female dragon. But she wasn’t giving up, either. She reared her head toward us, mouth open wide as her belly rumbled with the beginnings of a fireball I knew from past experience would obliterate us.

I may die, but you will die with
me.

“Time to go.” Faris, or Liam—whoever the hell he was at that moment—grabbed me and leapt from the dragon’s back. Flames curled around us, seeming to push us from the dragon as the night sky welcomed our falling bodies. How high were we? I had no fucking idea, but I knew we were about to feel the distance in a very visceral way.