Veiled Threat

by Shannon Mayer

  He smiled, leaned in and took her mouth in a kiss that he’d been waiting on a chance for all day. These moments were too few, but it made them all the more sweet.

  “I’m going to find us something to eat in your barn stash.”

  Her eyelids fluttered back open. “You know, you trained pretty good for a stuffy FBI agent.”

  Laughing, she walked away and he watched her go, the sway of her body, the tumble of auburn hair down her back, her weapons so much a part of her he barely noticed them anymore. There was never a moment he regretted this life, even knowing it was coming to an end sooner than he liked.

  “Come on, Alex. Let’s get the boss lady something to eat.”

  Alex took off with a mad scramble, nearly breaking down the barn door in his excitement.

  Shaking his head, he followed Alex into the barn. No, he would never regret the way his life turned out, no matter how it might end.

  I knew it was a long shot, what I was planning, but I didn’t have much choice but to at least try. I couldn’t recall the symbols on the steel reinforced door in the castle, but if they were close enough to the ones Erik knew, I’d bet every last dollar I had that the doorway led into the deeper veils.

  Getting to the doorway and getting in would be a matter of navigating the castle, finding the captain of the red caps, and then convincing him we should be allowed to use it. Simple, right?

  Yeah, probably not so much.

  I found Erik standing apart from the two dragons, who seemed to be having a heated conversation if their snaking heads and snapping teeth were any indication. I ignored them and headed for my uncle. Damn, that sounded weird, even inside my head. “What symbol would you put on something to keep a demon locked inside?”

  He turned to face me, his eyebrows near his hairline. “And you want to know this why?”

  “Don’t answer me with a question, just tell me what it looks like.” Damn it, I had to bite my tongue to keep from cussing him out.

  “You aren’t a Slayer yet, Rylee. You don’t get all the tools until you’ve earned them.” His voice was even, but his eyes flashed and I swore there was a spark of fear in there.

  “Oh fuck off.” So much for not cussing him out. “I don’t want to have all the tools, I don’t want the title, I don’t even want to be a freaking Slayer. I want to know what the symbol to keep a demon trapped would look like. Is that too fucking much to ask?”

  His jaw twitched, but I couldn’t tell if he was angry or trying not to laugh at me.

  He pulled a short dagger from his waist and the breath in my chest seized. There was no way he’d challenge me to a fight … was there?

  He dropped to one knee and with the dagger drew a symbol in the mud. “Here, it looks like this.” He drew two squares, one inside the other, and inside the smaller square was a starburst. Simple, clean. Now it was a matter of matching it to what was on the doorway in the castle.

  “What are you thinking?” Erik stood and wiped his dagger on his pants before putting it away.

  “I have to see if that,” I pointed to the dirt at our feet, “matches what I think it does. Are you in?”

  A snort escaped him, followed closely by a laugh. “I knew you were going to be difficult, hell, I even expected it. But I had no idea what I was getting into when I set off to find you.”

  I didn’t know whether or not to take offense so I ignored him. Hell, I knew I was a pain in the ass, knew it was only a matter of time before I pissed off every person in my circle. Didn’t make me any less right though when I followed my gut.

  I put my hands on my hips. “You in or not, old man?”

  The two dragons behind us went absolutely still and silent, their snarls cut off in mid snap.

  “Old man?”

  “That’s what I called you. Seeing as you’re old.” Okay, so I was pushing, but I still wasn’t a hundred percent in when it came to him. He showed up out of nowhere, and while Blaz vouched for him, my uncle hadn’t been exactly forthcoming with how to deal with demons until it had been essentially forced on him.

  “Well, since I’m so gods be damned old, I guess I’ll stay here and tend the fire.”

  I shrugged. “Fine.” Hell, it wasn’t fine, but I wondered if he‘d be any real help anyway. Or if he would let us get hurt and then try to fix it.

  I walked away, paused and turned back. “If that’s all you’ve got in the way of being helpful maybe you and Ophelia should leave.”

  The air grew heavy and Erik kept his back to me for a split second before spinning, anger etched on his face. “You think you can do this alone? You think you’ve got it in you to finish this without anyone else? You’re as blind as your idiotic parents.”

  I faced him, all the years of anger and hurt, all the betrayal and loss I’d dealt with on my own finally getting a voice. “Where were you when I needed you, uncle? Where were you when my parents died, when I needed my family? Where were you? Oh, that’s right, you were a drunk who couldn’t be relied on when they needed you the most. You think my parents were idiotic? Well, maybe to you they seemed like it, but how would you have known when you were always sauced to the gills? Ophelia isn’t even your dragon, is she?”

  He flushed and Ophelia sucked in a sharp breath, purple in her eyes flooding the iris.

  “Yeah, that’s right, I read my mother’s journal. Ophelia was my father’s dragon, not yours. She was his companion. Your dragon was killed, wasn’t she? What, were you too out of it to realize your own dragon was being killed?”

  Erik didn’t say anything, hell, he couldn’t.

  What did you say when the truth was flung into your face? The worst part was, I wanted him to be a real part of my family, of my life. But he was proving as unreliable as my mother made him out to be in her journal. I’d wanted her to be wrong.

  What a fucking disappointment.

  I turned my back on him and strode toward the barn, but Liam and Alex were standing beside Blaz, a bag on Liam’s back.

  “Blaz, can you give us a lift?”

  Of course. You know, they could follow us.

  “They won’t follow. That would take balls.” I pulled myself onto his back. Liam strapped himself second, and Alex behind him. Blaz took off as soon as the last buckle was clicked.

  “That’s why you weren’t sold on him, isn’t it?” Liam asked as he handed me a sandwich.

  I took a bite, chewed and swallowed. “Yeah. I read all about him, and there was even a picture of him in her book. He was an ass to them both, was jealous that my father was a demon hunter of the first order. Erik did all the training, was a Slayer, but my dad was better.”

  “So he could still help you.”

  “If he didn’t let me get caught by each demon first to teach me a lesson. Maybe he hates me, because of who my parents are, and who he was to them. It doesn’t matter now, I’m done with him.” I took another bite, grateful for the food. How long since we’d last eaten? Shit, I could barely remember but my body was suddenly craving the peanut butter and jelly. I downed the last of the sandwich and Liam handed me another without being asked.

  “You aren’t taking me with you, are you?” Liam asked and I felt Blaz stutter underneath us.

  You’re taking the wolf. There is no other way.

  “Milly can’t jump him out. Which means he can’t come with me and Alex.”

  Then we go back for Erik. You bloody well cannot go by yourself.

  “We aren’t going back for Erik. He’s proven quite freaking nicely that I can’t trust him. He’s too busy trying to rewrite the past.”

  Liam grabbed my arms, squeezing them hard. “Rylee, don’t be stupid about this. I realize I can’t go. I get it. But Erik can. And even if he hated your parents, even if he is on a vendetta of his own, he can help you in there, he can be the person at your back while you face down demons.”

  I twisted in my seat. “Yeah, and when he puts his blade between my shoulders and hands me over to the demons in exchange for his own skin,
what then?”

  I can’t believe he’d do that, Rylee. I can’t.

  “Have you been in his head, Blaz?” I snapped. Anger and fear for Pamela and Milly made me less than tolerant. “You don’t know him. You hardly even know Ophelia but I would trust her over him. My father …” The words choked in my throat for some stupid reason.

  He loved her dearly, didn’t he?

  I nodded, took a breath and finally got the words out. “He died before my mother, and Ophelia nearly died with him of a broken heart. My mother’s journal said Ophelia was never the same after he died, that something broke within her. I’m surprised she’s as cognizant as she is, considering what my mother wrote.”

  Regret flowed from Blaz into me, and I realized he knew very little about Ophelia, that he’d made snap judgments about her because his heart was tied elsewhere. He back drafted his wings so our forward progress stilled and he tread the air. My jaw ticked.

  I will speak to her before we go farther. If she vouches for him, will you take Erik?

  Shit, I’d just said I trusted her over him. And I did trust Blaz. “Fine. If she will vouch for him, if she would trust him with me, then I will take him.”

  Blaz gave a nod and his eyes half closed. Minutes passed and several times he shook his head, letting out long low growls. Finally, he turned his head back to me.

  She will vouch for him, she says he has changed, and she knows he is not the man he once was. If he was still that man she would have killed him herself.

  “And she speaks truly?”

  For all her faults that I see now were my own, yes, she speaks the truth. He started off again toward the badlands, heading to the mineshaft.

  “Is he going to help?”

  No. He’s not.

  Fuck a duck, why was I not surprised?

  Chapter 9

  STANDING WITH RYLEE and Alex in front of the doorway within the mineshaft that led into the castle where red caps waited was one of the hardest moments of his life.

  “You still trust me to do what I have to?” Rylee lifted her eyes to his in the flickering light, an eyebrow arched in query.

  “I said I did. I stand by it. Doesn’t mean I damn well like this plan of yours.” Actually, his gut was churning with fear for her. The red caps were one thing, but going into the deeper levels of the veil, which neither of them knew anything about, with no one to guide her… the thought pulled at his soul. Going with her through the doorway wasn’t an option and it killed him.

  “Thanks.” She leaned up and kissed him, pressing her lips hard to his before backing away. “I don’t know how long we’ll be.”

  “How long do I wait before I come after you?” Because that was a distinct possibility.

  She shook her head. “You don’t. Because if I’m wrong and I get killed then I’m not the one the prophecies speak of, and you will be one of the last few who has an ability to face demons.”

  He sucked in a sharp breath. “That does not help me let you go.”

  “But it’s the truth.”

  Alex’s tail thumped the ground and he tugged at Liam’s pant leg. “I take care of Rylee.”

  Liam looked from Rylee—her jaw hanging open—to Alex and back again. He didn’t want to change the subject but … “Did you hear that?”

  She sputtered, “He used ‘I’ instead of ‘Alex.’”

  “Shit, he really is coming around.”

  Alex grinned at them and even winked at Rylee. “I keeps her safe, boss, no worries.”

  Without any thought other than to hold her one last time, Liam wrapped his arms around her and held her against his chest. “Come back to me, Tracker.”

  She clung to him for two breaths before pushing back. “I always do.”

  With that, she stepped back, put her hand on the door and she and Alex slipped through.

  He saw a glimmer of the castle walls within the lower dungeon levels and then nothing as the door shut behind them. In the quiet of the old mine shaft Liam waited. Hating he’d lied to her.

  “Blaz, can you hear me?”

  Ah. Yes. Why, is something wrong already?

  “I don’t care what you have to do, but you get Ophelia to get Erik’s asses here pronto.”

  Sweet mother of the gods, I didn’t think you’d let her go without a fight. I’ll make it happen.

  Liam stared at the closed doorway. There was no way he was letting her go on her own.

  She just didn’t know it yet.

  The walls were splattered with blood from the red caps where the hoarfrost demons had gone through them. Except for the distant sputter of torches the place was quiet, even more so than usual. Like a tomb. A shudder rippled through me.

  “Fucking creepy,” I muttered, and glanced at Alex. Crap, I stifled a laugh.

  He was walking on the tip toes of his front paws, very cartoon like, his lower lip drawn down in an exaggerated frown, mumbling, “Stupid red caps, dumber demons,” under his breath.

  I pulled my swords from their sheaths and drew the symbols Erik taught us. Tapping Alex on the shoulder with a clenched fist I pointed at the tip of my sword while I drew the symbol again. He nodded and did the same with his claws. But no flash of light this time, no burning of the blades. Maybe it was only the first few times? Didn’t matter. We were in and going, we couldn’t look back.

  A swell of nerves rose in me; why would the symbols work when Erik was around, but not now?

  I swallowed hard, tried to convince my brain we were ready to rumble with any demons we might face. Though I doubted we’d face those first. Red caps now, demons later.

  We made our way up the first flight of stairs and at the top I peered out a window. It was early in the night here, the crescent moon giving off a bare shiver of light.

  That would help cover us, as long as we kept to the shadows. The most direct route to the barricaded doorway was to cross the courtyard. Of course, I was assuming that not only could I get through the door, but it indeed led to the deep levels of the veil. And that I wouldn’t let anything nasty out when I opened the door.

  I had to trust my gut on this one; everything brought me back to this doorway.

  At the edge of the courtyard we stilled and I stared into the open space. An ocean of red caps lay between us and the other side of the courtyard.

  Literally.

  They camped, sleeping soundly, weapons within easy reach. Lazy bastards, hadn’t even bothered to set a guard. They just plunked down and went to sleep.

  “Stinky dead caps,” Alex said, his voice echoing across the open space. I clamped a hand over his muzzle, but it was too late.

  I balanced on my toes, waiting for the first rush, trying to see where we might dodge and get to the other side. Deliberately not thinking about having to retreat like a fucking coward. But they didn’t jump up to charge us, hell, they didn’t move a muscle. Not even a breath. “Wait, dead caps?”

  “Yuppy doody. Red caps are dead caps.” He waved a paw in front of his nose and then let out a big sneeze. “Damn stinky.”

  Alex trotted to the closest red cap, cocked his leg and peed on his face. “See? Dead caps.”

  “Stop that,” I snapped. Alex dropped his leg and shrunk a little.

  “Sorry.”

  They might not have been my friends, or even allies, but something destroyed them like matchsticks snapped in half for fun. My chest tightened as I walked amongst the strewn bodies.

  Limbs and heads twisted the wrong direction, weapons broken and, now that I was closer, I could see the pale moonlight gleaming off pools of blood. I bent and touched my fingers to the red cap closest to me.

  He was still warm.

  This was bad. I stood and beckoned to Alex. “We gotta move.”

  He trotted to my side, snapping his knees up high to miss touching the bodies of the red caps, like a prancing pony.

  Another time I would have laughed, or at least smiled. But not tonight. Whatever killed the red caps was close.

  “Fuck t
his shit.” My nerve endings jangled, dancing with the knowledge something big, bad and probably really ugly could be watching us. And if the hair on the back of my neck was any indication, I wasn’t far off the mark.

  Breaking into a jog, I wove through the bodies until we were on the far side of the courtyard. I paused at the open, dark doorway and put a hand out, stopping Alex. We couldn’t go in blind, that was just stupid.

  “What do you smell?”

  He lifted his nose, then dropped it to the ground. “Red caps. And a monster.”

  “Do you know what kind of monster?” He was usually good at identifying the things he smelled, even the ones he’d never met before.

  With a shake of his head he took another long sniff. “I sees it, but I don’t know what it is.”

  I clenched my weapons. “See it in your head?” Shit, I hoped that was what he meant.

  A quick nod and he tapped his head with the tip of one claw, and my nerves slowed a half beat. That was only a small consolation prize.

  “Is it in there?” I pointed into the dark entryway.

  Alex gave a long slow nod. “Yes.”

  Fuckity fuck fuck. This could not get any worse.

  “Traaaaaacker.”

  I spun on my heel, dropping into a crouch. A hand lifted amongst the red caps, the fingers bending to draw me close. Breathing hard, I made my way to his side and crouched near his head. He was the captain who spoke with me in the mine shaft.

  “Tracker. You are either braver than any man I know, or dumber than a troll.” His jaw was broken and words were slurred, messy and pain filled, but I understood him.

  “Combination of the two. You have to be to do my job.” I wasn’t sure what to do for him. He was dying and we both knew it. He flopped his hand over and dropped it on my shoulder.

  “I’ve never seen a thing like this before. We had no chance.”

  Chills swept up and down my spine, the skin on my arms tingling. “Can you tell me anything?”

  His eyes flickered, the light in them fading and then he let out a cough. “Alex, help me!” We rolled him onto his side as blood and bile poured out. Carefully, I rolled him back.

  “It moved like the wind, a shape that could not be seen, a monster that had no form but killed with ease.”