Shadowed Threads

by Shannon Mayer

  Milly let out a breath, her shoulders slumping. “Thank you, Rylee. Thank you.”

  I couldn’t look at her any longer. I flicked my fingers at Faris. “Are we going?”

  “Now?”

  “Yes, now. Seriously, we have people to kill, a war to start. A rescue to make happen.” I shook my head at him. “All those things aren’t going to go on by themselves.”

  Faris’ lips twitched. “Good to see you have some of your old self back.”

  His hand went to my lower back, guiding me through the sea side house. I could guess where we were, but I didn’t really care.

  “Yeah, talking to dead people will do that to you. Make you smarten the fuck up.”

  He jerked me around to face him. “What dead people?”

  I knew I couldn’t break his grip on me, so I didn’t try. Besides, I was exhausted. “Berget spoke to me, when I was … dying, I guess.”

  His eyes were deadly serious. “What did she say?”

  I squirmed like a kid caught with my hand in their mother’s chocolate stash. “That she didn’t blame me, that death wasn’t the end.”

  Faris relaxed his grip on me. “That’s all she said?”

  Shrugging, I pulled myself from his loosened hands. “What else would she say to me?”

  He didn’t say anything else, just went back to guiding me through the house and out into the back yard. Blossoms and plants covered everything, filling every inch with bright sprays of color under the light of what looked to be hundreds of candles. The whole place was stunning. The smell of roses, lavender, and jasmine sat heavy on the night air and I breathed it in, wishing for a brief moment that this was our destination.

  “Why did we have to come out here?” I turned to face Faris again, but he was turned away from me, watching the way we’d come.

  “Milly is trying to learn how to jump the Veil like I do. I have done my best to keep her from seeing me jump the Veil. I do not think she can learn it, but if anyone can—”

  “She can.”

  He gave me a nod, took my hand and yanked me hard to his chest. “Hang on.” He leaned in, as if to kiss me, but I ducked my head down so his lips hit the top of my head.

  “Sorry, I’ve got a thing for a wolf.”

  “We shall see about that.”

  Faris stepped backward and the Veil parted, and we fell through the twist, jump, whatever the fuck he wanted to call it. The thing was, the Veil wasn’t magic, it was real and solid as anything else. And the ability to manipulate it apparently wasn’t magic either, or it wouldn’t work with me and my Immunity. Did that mean I could learn how to do it? Shit, now that would be brilliant. Faris seemed to be reading my mind.

  “Perhaps if we work together, I will show you how to jump the Veil. If I can.”

  His unspoken words spoke far louder than the ones he whispered. Perhaps if I let him have what he wanted from me, he’d show me how. Fuck that, I wasn’t like Milly.

  “Yeah, sure.” I grunted as we stepped out into the castle that acted as the way point between places for the vampire.

  I strode away from him, wanting to get back to where O’Shea and Alex waited, but not having the means to do so on my own. Faris had explained it to me. There were some jumps across the Veil that just didn’t work. He couldn’t take me from the forest directly to Milly; he’d had to come here first, then to Milly’s. No rhyme or reason, just the way it was.

  “You say that like you don’t want to learn.” Faris came up behind me, sliding his hands up my arms and I was suddenly reminded that Faris had taken my weapons of me in the clearing before he jumped us to Milly, and I was alone with a vampire who’d mentioned on several occasions how much he’d like to sink his fangs, amongst other things, into me.

  “I do want to learn.” I squirmed away from him. “But not at the cost of my body.”

  His eyes widened. “You think I would bargain that knowledge for a piece of ass?”

  “Yes.”

  He barked out a laugh. “Perhaps, but I’d much rather see if I could bind you to me permanently.”

  “Nope, that ain’t going to happen, either.” I put my hand on the wall closest to me, feeling the coldness from the stone numb my hand in a matter of heartbeats.

  “We shall see.”

  I glared at him. No fucking way, there was no fucking way I’d ever let him bind me to him. “You don’t know me so well, do you?”

  He took my hand and we jumped the Veil. He smiled at me, eyes sparkling. “Ah, but I plan to.”

  Chapter 16

  Problem number one: O’Shea couldn’t jump the Veil. Problem number two: Faris thought he was in charge.

  Problem number three: I had to deal with two incredibly alpha males, neither of which seemed willing to work together. Just fucking peachy.

  Faris handed me my weapons when we came back through, and O’Shea immediately shoved himself between us, a low growl on his lips.

  “Do not test me, wolf,” Faris snarled.

  O’Shea snarled back, and I put myself between them. “Listen, we have to work together, so knock it the fuck off. Both of you.” I strapped on my swords, knife, crossbow and bolts, and whip back onto my body. It felt good to have my weapons back where they belonged.

  Faris smoothed his face and gave me a barely there nod. O’Shea didn’t move, didn’t lift his eyes from the glare he’d pinned on the vampire. Well, at least they weren’t fighting.

  Alex all but glued himself to my side, the tension obviously stressing him out. He panted with anxiety, drool dripping in great gobs from his tongue, but he said nothing. Faris paced the small clearing as the night grew thin and the not so distant dawn lit the tops of the trees with a dim glow.

  I’d had enough. I needed to get Pamela and Eve, phone Jack, and pray that Faris was wrong about the Child Empress taking him … .

  On impulse, I Tracked Jack. His threads tugged me toward the south, way south, instead of west toward London, as I’d really been hoping they’d be. Shit sticks, again Faris was telling me the truth. Damn. I did not want to trust the vampire, I just didn’t. There was a saying that Giselle had been fond of, before her mind had gone.

  “The devil will tell you nine truths, so that you’ll believe one lie. Lots of supernaturals like that too.”

  The thing was, Faris was a vampire. I knew what he was capable of, or at least some of what he was capable of. But discerning the truths from the lies with him was going to be tough. Had already proved to be tough.

  I stood, stretched and turned away, heading back into the forest. I Tracked Pamela. She was roughly where I’d left her; it felt like they may have moved a little to the west, but not far.

  O’Shea ghosted to my other side, pressing his flank up against my leg. Alex grinned across at him. “Wanna play?”

  O’Shea snorted, shook his head and Alex visibly drooped, kicking at the snow.

  “Where are you going?” Faris shouted from behind us.

  “Collecting my wards and going after Jack.”

  The vampire was suddenly in front of us, eyes blazing with anger. “You tried things your way and it got your sister killed, remember?”

  “Fuck off and … well, I’d say die, but that seems redundant, don’t you think?”

  His eyes bugged out. “I saved your life, and this is how you would thank me?”

  O’Shea gave a low rumble that sounded suspiciously like a snicker. I glared at the top of his head. “Who asked you for your opinion, wolf boy?”

  Tongue lolling, he turned his head up and gave me a wink with one pale golden eye.

  Faris reached out as if to grab me, and O’Shea put himself between us, forcing the vampire back. I lifted my hands up. “Listen, you want to plan this, plan that, whatever. When I find Jack, I’ll find the Child Empress. I will kill her, and take Jack with me back to London. You either do it my way, or go the fuck away.”

  His jaw tightened as he glared at me. Finally he gave a slight nod of his head. “When you are ready to see
things my way, you can call me.”

  He turned, a slash appeared in the air and he stepped through, disappearing to wherever the hell he went. Probably the castle, not that it mattered to me where he was.

  Exhaustion nipped at me. The last twenty-four hours had been rough, as rough as I’d ever had. And I wasn’t really any further ahead. Sure, I’d found O’Shea, I glanced at him as we walked. But he was trapped, stuck in the wolf body as surely as Alex was stuck between wolf and human. Which was better? At least O’Shea seemed to have a more adult view on the world, more so than Alex, anyway.

  Then there was Berget … no, I shied away from thoughts of her. I couldn’t deal with her death, not if I were to rescue Jack. I felt him, inside my head there in the south. He wasn’t well; his heart was not strong and a steady thread of apathy hummed through him. Jack had stopped caring, which meant he’d stopped fighting and that was a bitch of a bad sign.

  As the sun crested high, and the forest lightened up, I called a halt to our walk. We’d only been at it for a couple of hours, but I was done. Since walking into a hotel—with two werewolves at my side—would be, to say the least, difficult, I opted for a tree to sit against. Alex and O’Shea curled up beside me, O’Shea surprising me with his willingness to let Alex be so close to us both. I leaned my head back, closed my eyes and drifted in and out of sleep as the day passed.

  Berget’s death.

  O’Shea trapped as a wolf.

  Jack kidnapped.

  The realities I couldn’t escape kept me from resting fully. Kept me from being able to ease the ache in my mind, body or heart. Groggily, I opened my eyes, stared at the canopy above my head. The ground was cold, but I was warm, my werewolf blanket doing a damn fine job of keeping me from the cold.

  “All right boys, time to go.” I shoved Alex from my lap, or at least tried to. He lifted his head, yawned, and then let out a gust of hot wolf breath right into my face. Nice way to wake up.

  I waved my hands in front of my face, stood, and headed toward Pamela and Eve once more. Though I hadn’t rested, I had come to a decision.

  First, we had to get Jack away from the Child Empress. That had to come first, no matter how badly I wanted to help O’Shea. And I was going to need all the help I could get, as fast as I could. Pamela, if her arm was healed—which it should be, since witches healed almost as fast as werewolves—was going to come with me, though again we’d have to leave Eve behind. The Harpy was going to be pissed.

  Second, we’d take Jack home and get O’Shea to Doran. Doran, and maybe Deanna, would be able to bring him back. I had to believe that. There was no room for any other options inside my head.

  Last, I’d grieve for Berget. And maybe, finally, for Giselle too.

  Step one required me to get my ass all the way to France. At the first truck stop we came on, early that evening, I stole a pickup truck. This time I went for something middle of the road, big enough to take two werewolves in the back, not nice enough to be noticed missing. I hoped.

  O’Shea and Alex seemed more than content to ride in the back, winter wind blowing through their fur. Alex was howling and hopping around the back so much that he actually rocked the whole vehicle.

  I cranked the side window down. “Knock it the fuck off, Alex! You’re tipping us.”

  He slapped his paws over his muzzle, eyes as big as saucers. O’Shea nipped him on the shoulder and Alex lay down, flat out on his belly. Good enough.

  After that, he settled down and we had no more problems.

  Until we crossed into Italy.

  At first, I thought it was the police behind us, dark-colored vehicles coming up fast, boxing us in on the highway.

  Nope, far worse than the police.

  Witches.

  “Really?” I yelped as the vehicle to our left slammed into us. I fought the steering wheel to keep the truck steady. A glance in the mirror showed Alex still flat on the deck, but O’Shea was staring at the people, witches, in the cars, his gaze not wavering even when we were rammed.

  I hit the gas pedal, smashing into the bumper of the car in front of us, pushing it hard. “Out of my way, prick!”

  The car spun to the right, taking out the vehicle on that side of us too. Pushing the truck hard, I took us through the opening, using the other vehicles around us as blockers. Shit, the last time I’d been in a car chase had been with O’Shea too, the irony didn’t escape me. I yanked the wheel to the left, jerking the truck around a semi as it lit on fire in a burst of flames. Yes, on fire.

  The witches were brassy to be throwing spells at us in the open like this. Brassy witches were the last things I needed. The rig next to us swerved, blowing its horn, the tires coming dangerously close to us. Behind us, a pickup truck like the one I was driving, came up fast. Fuck this. I hit the brakes and swerved to the left using the edge of the road as a new lane. Foot back on the gas pedal, I punched it hard, the truck shooting forward. Thank the gods someone liked speed in their big boy toy.

  O’Shea and Alex scrabbled to stay upright, but only O’Shea looked concerned. Alex was grinning like a fool, barking and laughing every time he wiped out as I swerved or jerked the wheel to avoid a car.

  An explosion erupted in front of us, the ground shattering, and chunks of concrete flew everywhere. A chunk landed on the hood, bounced into the back of the truck. Alex gave a yelp. I assumed he’d been smacked by the block. He started mouthing off at the top of his lungs.

  “Sons of bitches, stupid witches!”

  I wanted to laugh, it was his best rhyme yet, but I was too busy focusing on the road as it continued to explode, and I fought to keep the truck from doing a header into one of the magic-made craters.

  Then one of the witches got crafty and blew out my back right tire. The truck wobbled and jerked to the right, slowing down way too much for my liking. I grit my teeth, knuckles white on the steering wheel. Then the other back tire blew and the truck was literally dragging its ass along the road.

  If they’d wanted to, they would have just flipped the truck, but they’d held back. I was betting they were just after O’Shea and were, in their own way, trying to get me to just hand him over. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen.

  I hit the brakes hard, turning the wheel sharp to the right, turning the truck sideways across the lanes in order to block the road as best I could. The slam of two large bodies hit the back of the cab. With a jerk on the handle, I shoved the door open and leapt out.

  “Time to go, boys!”

  They jumped out of the back of the truck, one graceful, the other, not so much. Alex’s legs seemed to go every which way, tangling him up so that he landed in a heap. O’Shea grabbed him by the scruff of the neck without missing a beat, yanking Alex out of the way of a black spell that slammed into the truck where his head had been.

  I didn’t look back, just bolted down the side of the highway, the pile up from the craters, flaming rig and all the humans running around were a perfect diversion. Sure, the witches continued to lob spells at us, but they were inaccurate and sloppy. I was freaking happy that Milly wasn’t with them. Her aim was almost as good as mine.

  We ran for about an hour before I dared to Track the witches as a group. From the distance between us, I could tell they hadn’t moved from the highway. Maybe they were just putting the run on us, pushing us out of their country?

  The next day, and one more stolen truck later, we crossed into France. Pamela and Eve were a few hours south of us if we didn’t have any more diversions of the witchy sort.

  Reaching the town by the ocean that I knew was only a short jog to where Eve and Pamela had holed up, I pulled over. We were in a no driving zone, pedestrians only apparently in this section of the town, so we would have to walk from here on out. I left the keys in the truck for someone else to take. That was the least I could do after all my thefts of vehicles over the last few days.

  There was only one small problem. Alex was wearing a collar that hid him from the world of the humans. O’She
a had no such collar and it was very apparent that he was not a dog, but a big-ass black wolf.

  “What the hell are we going to do?” I muttered, staring at the two werewolves in the back of the truck. Shit, this was not really something I’d thought about. This was what I got for doing things by the seat of my pants.

  The best thing I could do would be to find something that I could use for a leash. Sure, people would wonder what the fuck kind of dog/wolf hybrid O’Shea was, but if he was on a leash, at least they would know he was tame. Right, a tame werewolf. Behind the seat of the truck was a long coil of rope, the edges frayed and smelling slightly of fish.

  “Okay, come on, let’s go.” I motioned for them to jump out of the truck, looping the rope around O’Shea’s neck as he jumped. Not thinking for one fucking minute that there would be a problem.

  My bad.

  He hit the ground and spun, knocking me over. I landed on my ass, hands clenching the end of the rope. “What the hell was that about?”

  His eyes traced the rope from close to where it looped around his neck, along the ground to my hand clutching the end of it. Realization dawned and I stared at him, frozen with what could happen. He was becoming a Guardian, if that was true, I couldn’t kill him, even if he attacked me. Not that I wanted to fight him, but … .

  “O’Shea, we have to get through town.” I held up my hands as his lips curled back over his enormous teeth. “We have to make them, the humans, think you are safe. As soon as we get to the other side I’ll drop it, we can take it off.”

  O’Shea didn’t ease up, but instead he stepped forward, his eyes no longer soft and full of recognition. I didn’t dare move, knowing that the second I tried, he’d be on me.

  Alex scooted forward, putting himself between us. “Hiya Boss, Alex holds it.”

  The submissive wolf scooped up the rope in his teeth and grinned at O’Shea around it.

  O’Shea stilled, eyes flicking once over Alex, then back to me, then he deliberately turned his face away from me.

  I slowly stood, afraid to make any fast moves. Holy shit, that could have gone bad in a fucking instant. And here again, Alex had saved my stupid sorry ass.