Rising Darkness (A Rylee Adamson Novel, Book 9) (15 page)

“Griffin, you better not screw us over,” I whispered. “Or I will personally turn you into a rug.”

Alex snickered. “Yuppy doody.”

CHAPTER 18

Pamela

M
illy slammed her
plate on the table, shattering it. Her green eyes blazed, and I froze where I was. Or at least, that’s what I let her see. My hand under the table spun a spell that would block anything she sent my way. Another of Deanna’s tricks. Gratitude flowed through me for the druid’s teachings, though I hadn’t appreciated her lessons at the time.

“Damn, the Tracker is avoiding all my attempts to slow her down.” She bit the words out, and I exchanged a quick look with Frank. He shook his head, just a fraction. Not time yet.

Milly stood and strode down the table, her blood red skirts swishing. “Pamela, come with me. I want the brat and I want him now. I am tired of waiting.”

I had no idea what was going on. We’d sat for the evening meal, brought to us by Charlie, who wouldn’t meet my eyes no matter how hard I tried. Milly had stared into her wine, swirling it, and pretty much ignoring me and Frank.

“What are we going to do?” I asked, following her reluctantly.

“We’re going to find my son. And you are going to help me.” Her eyes slid over me and I shivered. I tipped my chin up.

“How? If you could have found him so easily, why didn’t you before?”

She advanced on me, stopping me in my tracks. “I didn’t have a necromancer to call on before. I will have him raise the spirit of the old Tracker.”

My mouth went dry. “I don’t know if Frank can do that. Isn’t the veil closed?”

“He will do it, or I will kill you.” She was on me so fast I barely had time to get my knife out. I swung it around and caught the underside of her arm. She didn’t scream, and didn’t slow. Her hands went around my neck and squeezed. My bladder loosed as the darkness didn’t just drag me under, but smashed into me like a tidal wave.

In the deep nothingness, for just a moment, I was at peace. No one would hurt me here. No one would hurt anyone I loved. I don’t know how long I was out.

Raised voices rose around me, pulling me from my stupor. I blinked and tried to wipe my face. Something held my hands in cold water. Wobbling, I looked around and understood how much trouble we were in.

Milly had stuck me in a tub of salt water. There was no way I could do any spelling, which meant we were completely at her mercy. A cold sweat broke out along the back of my neck.

“I will not raise Jack for you! He was a vampire in the end, raising their spirits is not safe! And she was right, the veil is closed,” Frank yelled.

“There are spirits on this side of the veil, trapped here even now. One of them will be a Tracker. Don’t help me and I will kill her! She was supposed to help me, to be my next body, but that has changed. Raise Jack, and I will let you both go.” Milly’s voice had gone from fury to cajoling in the space of only a few sentences.

“Don’t do it,” I yelled, squirming on my butt, sliding all over the place. I jerked hard to one side, spilling myself and the water all over the floor, the tub clanging to its side. The pentagram sizzled and hissed and Milly let out a screech. Something hit me hard, but then fizzled. I looked up to see the black residue around her hands. She’d thrown a death spell at me.

I laughed, I couldn’t help it. “You didn’t plan this too well, did you?” The very thing keeping me from throwing my magic protected me from her spells. How had she not realized that?

Her face slowly turned red and then purple. She yanked my knife from her belt. “There is more than one way to skin a witch.”

I scrambled backward as she reached for me. Behind her, a chair seemed to hover and then slammed into the back of her head. She went down in a heap, and I let out a cry.

Frank pulled me to my feet. “We have to hurry.”

We ran to my room and I scooped up the still healing Peta. “Take her, Frank, I’m soaked through. I have to get this salt off, or I can’t fight her.”

“So very true.”

We spun, and Milly was in the doorway, a trickle of blood curling around her neck from the back of her head. “Necromancer, if I did not need you, I would kill you where you stand.” Her voice dropped into tones that could mean only one thing, her eyes slipping into a blackness that danced with red serpents.

“Orion. It’s been you all along,” I whispered, and even though I’d already come to that conclusion, it was one thing to know it, another to say it out loud.

Milly smiled and flicked her hands at Frank. Peta leapt from his arms as Frank was lifted into the air. But Milly forgot one thing. Frank wasn’t without abilities.

He jerked his head and the air around us misted, thickening into a tornado of spirits we could see.

They swirled toward her and she let out a snort. “Are they supposed to scare me?”

Frank’s face was grim, and in that moment, I knew I loved him. “No.”

The spirits reached for Milly and her smile slipped. “No, this isn’t possible.”

She let out a scream, her body convulsing as the spirits gripped something inside her. He dropped to the floor.

“Frank . . .” I backed away from Milly, and Frank grabbed me, putting me behind him.

“Orion is a type of spirit. I wondered if I could expel him.”

I didn’t think he’d be able to. The spirits tugged on Orion, but it was like they pulled on a rubber band. He stretched, and it was obviously painful what they did to him, but there was no true give.

“Pamela, you have to go. I can hold him here, but the second I take my eyes off him, they will let go.”

I straightened my shoulders. “I’m not leaving you. Where you go, I go.”

He slipped his hand into mine and that was the mistake we made. My hand was still sticky with salt water.

Frank’s power failed as we touched, the spirits fled and Orion snapped back into Milly.

“You fucking little bastards,” she screamed and threw a spell that would kill Frank. I stepped in front of him and took it in the chest without really thinking. It pushed us both backward, smacking us against the wall, but we were okay, the salt water a double-edged sword.

The knife came down at me, fast and hard, but Milly was hit from behind. Peta had shifted and attacked, claws and teeth raking her back. Milly screamed and twisted, a spell unleashed on Peta. Death wrapped around the snow leopard, cutting off her life force.

She slumped, her green eyes fading to a dull gray as she let out a moan, her life slowly draining from her. I cried out, the loss of her as sharp as if the knife had reached me. “Stop, just stop!”

Milly surprised me. “Tell your necromancer to call on the dead Tracker, or I will kill him next.”

I hung my head, as if only sorrow ate at me. In truth, my mind worked at a feverish pace. How were we going to get out of this? How would I stop her from hurting more of my friends?

Rylee had always said I was stronger than Milly, that my soul was stronger, not just my power.

Was I strong enough to face Orion?

“I’ll let you use my body,” I said the words and Frank screamed my name. Milly laughed and I bowed my head.

I would do anything to keep those I loved safe.

Even this.

“Open your mouth.”

I did as I was told and tipped my head, mouth open, eyes closed.

His spirit was as slimy as a slug’s trail and it clung to my throat as he slid into me. I gagged and I flung myself backward. I couldn’t breathe. My eyes flew open and then I swallowed him down.

And he was in me.

Milly lay on the floor in front of me, her hand reaching out. “Oh, gods, no. Pamela.” Tears drenched her cheeks, and for a moment I didn’t understand. And then I was speaking, but it wasn’t me.

“You’re a weak fool, Milly. I can feel this one’s power. I do believe she will outstrip even your son. Though I still want him.” I turned and looked at Frank. “Come on, lover boy. Bring us Jack.”

I gasped and slapped my hands over my mouth.

No, you said if you had me you wouldn’t need the
babies!

Orion wrested control from me. “Little witch, I want both babies. Both will have their uses. One for power. The other to control the Tracker.”

I stumbled back and leaned against the bed. I was stronger than him. I would kick his ass and show him whose protégé I really was.

“Milly.” I looked at her and her green eyes were full of sorrow and pain. “Heal Peta.”

She twisted where she was and put her hands on the snow leopard. Seconds later and Peta lifted her head. “Frank, take Peta and go. You have to listen this time.”

Peta let out a pitiful meow and inside me Orion raged. I’d pushed him deep down, far enough that he couldn’t take control. For the moment.

“Frank, I mean it.”

His eyes met mine. “I can’t.”

“Milly,” I pleaded with her to side with me. She slowly shook her head.

“Love is a powerful thing, Pamela. You can’t force it to do anything. He loves you, so very much. Be grateful.”

I swallowed the tears. “I can’t hold him much longer.”

“Rylee was right, you are stronger than me. I could never hold him back.”

“A matter of love,” I whispered. There was only one thing left to do.

I raised one hand. “I’m covered in salt water. Tie me up and keep me in a bathtub of it. Take me to Rylee. Tell her to kill me and Orion.”

Milly’s eyes widened and I felt Orion reach for my magic, scramble for it with everything he had.

Nothing. His roar of impotence echoed through me, shaking my bones and bringing me to my knees. But I didn’t care. I’d won. I’d kept my loved ones safe no matter the cost. “Rylee taught me this, you bastard.” And she had. Everything she’d ever done had been for others, and I knew it now. For Liam, Alex, Blaz, and even Milly.

For me. Orion slammed against the bonds I’d placed on him and they stretched.

I laughed, knowing it was probably the last time I’d do so. “Oh, he is angry!”

“FUCKING LITTLE BITCH!” he roared out of my mouth and I fell forward onto the floor, clutching my middle.

“Hurry, hurry!”

But my plan, as good as it was, backfired in a colossal way.

If only I’d seen it coming, but no. There would have been no way to know just how things would have turned out.

CHAPTER 19

Rylee

T
urned out, Griffin
was as good as his word. Or woof, as the case was. He sat outside a cave that delved into the earth. His ears perked toward us as we approached. Alex leapt toward him, tackling him.

“Come on, play!”

And shock of shocks, Griffin did. They bounded around, chasing one another for a good ten minutes while I stood and watched with my hands on my hips. Was this really happening? The Great Wolf was playing tag with Alex.

I smiled, but it was tired. “Griffin, I take it the two vampires made it?”

From the cave came a muffled grunt. “I’m getting tired of being stuffed into things that stink.”

Berget grunted softly. “At least you aren’t stuck with someone who has vomit all over his clothes.”

Another smile flicked over my lips. “Faris, it was this or roast like a rotisserie chicken.”

Neither vampire answered.

Alex gave a moan and clutched at his stomach. “I love chicken. I is hungry. Please, I needs to eat or I will die.”

Griffin gave a soft woof and head butted Alex away from the cave. Alex looked at him and then me. “Big wolf says start a fire, please. We bring food! Yay!”

“Start a fire, with what?” But they were already gone and I slumped, sitting next to the cave opening. I shouldn’t have questioned. There on the ground was a small box that had tinder and a lighter inside.

Alex was right. We needed to eat. Especially since I was probably doing another exchange with Faris when he woke.

Gathering smaller pieces of wood and then a couple of large chunks, I laid out the tinder and flicked the lighter, which made me think of Pamela and Blaz. The desire to Track the two of them nearly overwhelmed me. Worry gnawed at my insides as I considered all the reasons Blaz was taking so long. What the hell had happened to him?

I sat, lighter still in my lap. The worst outcome was all my mind allowed me to see. Blaz laying broken and dying somewhere, his wings shredded by an unseen force. “Nope, not going there,” I whispered, leaning over the fire pit and striking the lighter. The tinder caught and I slowly fed it until I could put on the larger pieces. The flames danced and flickered, crackling as they ate the dry wood.

The flames flattened a split second before I felt the rush of wind. I leapt up, and jerked my two swords out, eyes searching. A flash of tawny feathers followed by a blue gray blur and then two rather loud squawks. I relaxed, put my swords away and then waved at the two Harpies. Eve landed first, hopping lightly to ease her final drop.

“Where is everyone?” I heard the fear in her voice.

I smiled. “They’re all fine. Vampires are in the ground for the day, Alex is off hunting with Griffin.”

Her eyes widened and she leaned in toward me. “A griffin is here?”

“No, no. The Great Wolf. His name is Griffin.”

She clacked her beak twice. “We saw activity on the way here.”

I crouched by the fire. “What kind?”

Ruffling her feathers, she settled beside me. Even laying down she still towered over me. “The supernaturals we passed are all coming this way.”

Shit sticks. “How many?”

Eve looked at Marcus. “Did you get a count?”

“More than we can take,” he said softly. “Far more.”

“Awesome,” I breathed. “How long?”

“Afternoon if they keep their pace.”

Berget and Faris were stuck in the ground until the sun set, so what the fuck was I supposed to do? Leave them behind? No, that wasn’t something I was willing to do.

Before I could consider any other possibilities, Griffin and Alex trotted back into view. Griffin had a large white turkey dangling from his mouth.

“That is not wild,” I pointed out. He shrugged and dropped it at my feet. I shook my head. “Not hungry. You boys go ahead.”

Griffin shifted, and strode toward me. “Exchanging blood with the vamp is going to weaken you, yeah?”

I shoved him away from me. “I’m not fucking hungry and there’s no way I’m eating raw turkey.”

He didn’t back down. “You will eat if I have to hold you down and shove it in your mouth, yeah?”

“Rylee, what do you want me to do?” Eve asked, swaying her head so I could see her past Griffin.

Normally I’d tell her to drop him if he touched me. But I still needed him. “Nothing. Griffin, I’ll eat if you tell me about the Destroyer.”

He nodded. “A deal is struck then.” Without another word, he flipped the entire turkey into the fire. The scent of burning feathers filled the air and I stepped away, waving a hand in front of my nose. Eve and Marco muttered and shifted away from the smoke curling their way.

“Tell me,” Griffin said, “how are the other supernaturals finding you?”

I didn’t have to think long. “Milly. She has traced me before with a spell. She got some of my blood and used it.”

Griffin eyed me. “And you think that would work now that your blood isn’t your own?”

I understood what he was getting at. If Milly had some of my blood from before I exchanged with Faris, she couldn’t find me. But if she had another Tracker, she could. “There are no other Trackers, so that’s out of the question.”

“Is it? You have a rather narrow viewpoint of life.” He took the turkey’s leg and flipped the entire thing over, searing off more feathers.

Eve and Marco shifted back, their facial expressions saying it all. Griffin had shown up, started burning feathers and hadn’t even bothered to acknowledge the two of them. Like they weren’t important.

“You have a point you’re trying to make?” I lifted an eyebrow.

Crouching by the fire, he spread his hands on his thighs. “The veil is closed, we know that, yeah?”

“Yes.”

“But there are always spirits that don’t move on. You understand that too, yeah?”

I nodded. Where the hell was he going with this?

Griffin drummed his fingers. “If the demon could find a necromancer, he might be able to call on the spirit of a Tracker who died but didn’t really leave. Possibility anyway.”

“Fucking hell,” I whispered. Frank had gone with Pamela, to keep her safe. And now Milly had them both. “Let’s hope the demon isn’t as smart as you.”

Griffin’s eyes snapped up to mine. “Demons aren’t smart, they’re clever. If there is a way around things, they’ll find them, yeah?”

There was absolutely nothing I could do about Frank, Pamela, or Milly at the moment. Though I had a feeling I would be forced to deal with it sooner rather than later.

“The Destroyer. Tell me about her. I know she’s a she, but that’s it.” I’d learned that when I’d been away.

Griffin crooked a finger at me then walked a few feet away. As if that would keep Alex or Eve and Marco from hearing what he had to say. I snorted and followed him. “Are you going to tell me her name now? I need that at the least to Track her.”

“Yup. But when I do, I think it might tear through a few things in here.” He tapped the side of my head. “When she was stuffed away, both times, her name was pulled away from anyone who might know her. So that she couldn’t be found. Means your memories when they come back to you are going to hurt like hell.”

I lifted my eyebrows. “Memories? You think I’ve met her before? And how did you manage to keep your memories of her? How do you even know I’ve met her before?”

He grinned, a smile so reminiscent of Liam’s cheeky ass grin, it hurt me to see it. “I’m special. And yes, you’ve met her, yeah? She told me about you. Said you’d find her when it was time.”

“I’ll just bet you’re special. Must run in the blood line,” I muttered. He grinned Liam’s smile. Cocky bugger.

“Ready?” Griffin widened his stance as if he were expecting some sort of explosion. I wasn’t so sure there were memories floating around in my mind that I didn’t know about. Then again, I’d seen stranger things in the world.

Griffin said one word and it rocked my world.

“Larkspur.”

The name resounded through my head like a gong, and I put a hand to cover my ears. I didn’t realize I was screaming until someone put their hands on me. They were shaking me, but I wasn’t seeing them.
I was seeing the past
.

A missing child who turned out to be an automatic writer; the kiss of a boy who turned out to be a siren. The fight through a labyrinth filled with darkness and monsters. Facing more than one Minotaur, facing the Shadow Man. Larkspur at my side, teaching me, helping a younger me. Her face as clear to me as if she’d been painted in relief, blonde hair, and eyes of different colors: green and gold. And her voice as she called to me from a place I couldn’t Track.

“Find me, Rylee.”
I knew that voice, she was my first teacher in a fight that wasn’t Giselle. She was a friend I could trust. She was family. As weird as it was to feel so tightly bound to her, we’d only spent a couple of days together.

“Is she okay?”

“I don’t know, Rylee. Open your eyes?”

“You killed her!”

“Find me, Rylee.”

“I didn’t touch her.”

“What’s wrong with her then?”

I forced my eyes open, forced myself to see the present instead of the past. “Someone stole my memories of her. Who the fuck did it?” Slowly even that memory came back. Lark’s father had taken my memories. Shit, this was crazy. I was sick when I realized how long she’d been stuffed in a hole, somewhere in the dark with no chance at escaping. Waiting for me to find her. Seven going on eight years. Holy fucking hell.

Griffin leaned over me. “Trick of the elementals. They can wipe memories like a child wipes clean a chalkboard. But there is always the residual underneath. So they can be brought forward again.”

The urge to Track Lark welled up in me and I had to fight it, breathing through my nose. “Fucking demons and their fucking ability to find me.”

Griffin chuckled. “You getting picked on, yeah?”

I glared at him. “If you call getting pinpointed by asshole demons every time I Track anyone, so that I have to fight them off when I really don’t have the time, then I’m getting picked on,
yeah.
It’s why I have to do the blood exchange.
”

He reached up and scratched the back of his neck. “Can’t Track her anyway, can you? She’s in an oubliette, you know what one of those is?”

I was shocked he didn’t add, “yeah” at the end of his sentence. No, it was time to focus. “I’ve been in one before.” The castle deep in the Russian forest, guarded by a water dragon had an oubliette within it where prisoners had been kept. I shivered.

“Then you know you have to be almost on top of it before you can sense anyone stuck in it, yeah?”

My lips twitched. “Yeah.”

His eyes narrowed. “I went to see her once, when I checked on my grandson a year or so ago. Of course, I didn’t actually say hello to him, just took a peek to see what he was up to, yeah?”

“Why the hell didn’t you let her out?”

Griffin’s eyes never left mine, never blinked. “Not my place.
Your
place is to free her. If I’d let her out then, things wouldn’t have happened the way they did. That is my curse, to see the different ways a path can diverge. I saw it then. If I took her out, as she asked me to, I would have doomed us all. You can help her, Rylee. She is going to be mighty pissed when you bring her out of that hole, and only you can help her, yeah? Do you understand?”

My shoulders tightened. “I don’t know why it is only me, but I will take you at your word. I need her help, I need her at my side for the last of this.”

Eve fluttered her wings beside me. “Are you truly okay, Rylee? You were laying there, your body twitching and you kept crying out.”

I put a hand on her wings, stilling her. “I was reliving some pretty shitty memories, that’s all.”

Even as I said it, Larkspur’s face came to the forefront of my brain. She was my friend, and it galled me that anyone could take my memories of her.

“Griffin, you know where Lark is then? You can tell me that much, right? So spit it out.”

He spread his hands wide in front of his stomach. “Even I have restrictions on me, Tracker. But I can tell you this. There is a place you know well, a place that has been both salvation and death to you and yours. A place of in between and a place of darkness.”

I frowned at him. Now we had to deal in riddles? It was a cheap way out. “Thanks, that really helps.”

He grinned. “I can do no more than that. But you’ll figure it out. My grandson wouldn’t have picked a stupid woman as his mate.”

We went back to the fire. Alex was eating away and the smell of roasting turkey had my stomach rumbling. I tore off a piece of meat and it was only then I realized how long I must have been out. Hours.

I ate, not really tasting the meat but knowing Griffin was right. I had to eat, had to keep my strength up.

“Four hours until the sun sets and your vamps can crawl out of their dirt bed,” Griffin said. “You sleep, I’ll keep watch.”

I didn’t argue, just lay down beside Alex and curled around his body. Eve lay behind me and covered both of us with one wing, shading the light from my eyes.

Alex was already asleep, but it took me longer. Full belly, safe, warm. But there was so much to do. So many people depending on me.