rylee adamson 10 - blood of the lost (40 page)

“Give it a minute, Rylee.” Doran pushed on my shoulders, holding me to the ground. “Don’t move too fast.”

I opened my eyes, staring up at an early morning sky. There were no sounds of battle, no demons leering over us. Blinking slowly, I looked around at the faces peering back at me.

Pamela, Ophelia, Eve, Marco, Doran, Charlie, and Will. Calliope and her Crush of Unicorns, India at her side. Jonathan behind Lark. The weight on my chest though wasn’t entirely from Doran. Black fur filled my vision as I looked down to see Alex seemingly asleep on me.

My shoulder’s shook as I ran my hands through his fur. “Damn you for leaving me, Alex.”

I cried until there were no tears left. There was nothing anyone could say. I’d lost him. And I’d lost Liam again. Whatever we’d gained in saving the world, I wasn’t entirely sure it was worth it. How could this world exist properly without my two boys?

Without the laughter that Alex pulled from me in my darkest hours?

Slowly, I sat up, and Doran pulled Alex from me, gently laying him at my side. I buried my fingers into his long fur, knowing that soon enough I wouldn’t even have that.

Lark shook her head. “Holy hell, Rylee, I wasn’t sure it would work.”

“How?” I whispered. “All my blood was gone, wasn’t it?”

Doran cleared his throat. “Well, that is true. But it is also the last step to becoming a vampire. You have to be drained of every last drop of blood before you can be turned. Essentially, you have to die in order to be reborn.”

My eyebrows shot to my hairline and with them I shot to my feet. Not possible, it wasn’t possible. “I’m standing in the sunlight.”

He shrugged. “You’re a new breed of vampire. Like me.”

I stumbled back and fell over a lump on the ground. Berget’s voice snapped out. “Ow! Not funny.”

I crouched. “Berget?”

“Yeah, I got stuffed undercover again.” Her voice wasn’t really irritated. “Rylee? Is it really you?”

“Yes.” I couldn’t manage more than that, so I put a hand on her back, giving her a light pat.

I looked around, searching for Faris’s body. But of course, it wouldn’t be there, but burned up in ash. Was I not to be able to even bury Liam?

I Tracked him, reaching for the threads that would at least tell me he was truly gone.

And felt nothing. Not that there were no threads, but I couldn’t Track anything. Hands shaking, I held them out. “I can’t feel anyone.”

Lark stepped closer and took my hand. “You were drained of all your blood, Rylee. The Blood of the Lost is gone, and with it, your abilities. At least, that’s what I think has happened.”

I couldn’t help feeling I was missing a part of me. That which made me
me
was gone. Yet I couldn’t be angry; I’d been given a second chance.

“Thank you.” I looked to Doran, then Lark. To each of them. “I could never have stood against him without you.”

Doran caught me first in his arms and that quickly turned into a group hug as everyone got in on it. Pamela was crying, her face pressed against me.

“Alex would have loved this.”

A laugh that turned into a sob escaped me. “Yeah, he would have.”

I held them tightly, my family. The ones who’d survived and I was grateful for all I had. Though we’d lost so much, I knew I couldn’t dishonor the sacrifices made by being ungrateful. By wanting more than I’d been given.

I closed my eyes and held tightly to them.

To those I could still hold onto.

CHAPTER 55

LIAM

FARIS SHOOK HIS head. “You lucky bastard. The sunlight burned me out of you.”

Liam frowned. “What are you talking about?’

“YOU aren’t a vampire. You never were. You were just inhabiting my body.” Faris gave a rueful smile and shook his head. “Which means when the sunlight hit us, I was fried. But you got to keep on living. So I’ll tell you this now, you’d better stick it out with Rylee, because I think she’s got a thing for that body you’re in.”

“You died for her.”

The vampire snorted and spoke over his shoulder as he walked away, heading into a fog that swam up between them. “Yeah, I guess I did. Maybe you and I aren’t so different after all, Wolf.”

“Wait.” The word slipped out of him as he tried to open his closed eyes. He made himself open them, but it was like prying apart two pieces of paper glued together. There was no answer to his request, not even a snotty reply.

Faris was gone, and for the first time in months, Liam was alone in his head.

“What the hell,” he murmured, sitting up, pushing the heavy curtain off his body before he thought better of it.

The sunlight spilled over his face and he drew in a slow, even breath. His heart beat, almost frantically, and a distant urge to run and hide from the bright light bit at him. Leftover muscle memory from hundreds of years living in the darkness. He looked down at his body.

His body.

Not Faris’s any longer. He shoved the curtain the rest of the way off and stood. The slab was bare. Rylee’s body and Orion’s were gone.

Fear clutched at his heart with icy fingers, and despite the warm sun, he was cold all the way to his core. He ran forward searching for a sign of what had happened. So much blood . . . .

“She’s in the barn.”

He spun to see Lark standing behind him. How the hell had she snuck up on him? Why didn’t he hear her? Or smell her for that matter?

The realization hit him like a hammer between the eyes.

He was human again. That was the only answer.

“Is she . . . alive?”

Lark smiled, though it was tired and full of sorrow. “In a manner of speaking. And you aren’t human, Wolf. You never were. Let your body catch up to the soul that it now contains; your senses will come back.”

A barking laugh rolled toward them and Griffin strolled up behind Lark, slinging an arm over her shoulders. “Listen to her, yeah? She’s a smart girl.”

Liam stared at the older man. “Am I still a guardian?”

Griffin shrugged. “As much as you ever were. The wolf is a part of you. Don’t matter what your body looks like, yeah? And that wee girl of yours . . . she’s going to be walking in your footsteps soon enough, so don’t forget the training that old coot
Peter
gave you.”

He nodded. Peter . . . the old werewolf deep in the wilds of Russia had given him insight into what he was capable of . . . and he’d bound Rylee’s soul to him.

Griffin turned away, and Liam couldn’t help but grab his arm. “You’re leaving already?”

Grunting, Griffin swatted his hand away. “You remember Catya? She needs me more than you do, yeah?”

Catya, the littlest werewolf Liam had ever met with a heart of pure gold. “I’m sorry.”

With a wink, Griffin shifted into his wolf form and loped away.

Lark waved at him. “We can talk later. Go to her; she thinks you’re lost to her.”

Liam nodded and jogged to where the barn, remarkably enough, still stood. Pushing the door open, the flood of smells assaulted his nose. Hay and mold, sweating bodies, and . . . take out Chinese. Lark wasn’t kidding about his senses coming back; they felt even keener than before. He sniffed loudly. “Any of that left?”

Absolute silence met his words and he looked right at her. Her eyes . . . they were the first thing he noticed. No longer tri-colored, but a perfect hazel with flecks of green and a slight rim of gold around the edge. No swirling of her emotions showed in their depths as she stood and stumbled toward him.

“Adamson, please tell me you don’t plan on saving the world again anytime soon.”

A sob spilled out of her and he caught her up, crushing her to his chest. “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.” Her grip tightened on him to the point that his ribs creaked. “Ease up, beautiful.”

She loosened her hold and stared up at him. He bent his head, kissing her hard, his tongue darting into her mouth and brushing against . . . he jerked his head back unable to stop himself. “What happened?”

Her eyes narrowed and he braced himself for an onslaught from her.

He was right to be wary. Even without the telltale swirling of colors in her eyes, he knew he’d pushed a sore spot, right off the bat.

For a moment, he thought Faris would give him shit for screwing up already. Of course, the vampire was gone. Which mean Liam was on his own.

CHAPTER 56

RYLEE

“WHAT DO YOU mean, what happened? Were you not there?” I couldn’t help the snap to my tone. I was scared. What if he didn’t want me now that I was no longer a Tracker? Now that I was something different.

He cupped my face. “I was there, but apparently, I missed the finale. Doran, you want to explain since I can smell you on her lips?”

I jerked away from him. “How about I explain?”

His lips twitched and I realized we’d both changed so much in the last months . . . but I would never stop loving him. I only hoped he felt the same.

“Spit it out, Adamson,” he growled, but there was a teasing light in his eyes and on his lips.

A breath I didn’t realize I was holding slid out of me. “My blood was gone; they had to replace it with something, didn’t they?”

“So Doran offered?”

Doran laughed softly. “She owed me a kiss.”

Liam seemed to be thinking it through, and for a moment, I thought he was listening to Faris. That maybe that brassy vampire wasn’t gone. “You only owed him one, right?” He slid his arms around me and pulled me to him once more. I smiled up at him.

“Yeah, only one.”

“Good, because I’m staking my claim on these lips for the rest of forever.”

I grimaced. “Maybe staking isn’t the word you should use.”

Laughing, he pressed his lips to mine and I fell into the kiss, peace rolling through me.

We’d done it. We’d defeated Orion.

It was time to go home.

But first, we had two little people to pick up.

My heart skipped a beat and I grabbed Liam’s hand. “Marcella and Zane.”

“I left them with John and Mary, at the hotel. And you are not going to believe what I found out,” he said and laughed again. “Seriously, Rylee. You aren’t going to fucking well believe it.”