“Chase is right,” Chief rose from the couch. “We need to rebuild. Now is not the time for us to show weakness and fight among ourselves.”
“So you think we should just turn everyone we can?” Jax’s anger was back and directed at Chief.
“No, we don’t need to turn anyone. We need to reach out to the other shifters.”
“We tried that. They weren’t interested in joining, remember?”
“Then we try again, this time going further than before. Let’s reach beyond the local packs. New York is a haven for all types of shifters, but we can go further than that too. We reach out to Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, hell, we can try Michigan. We put a call out for help. I’ll contact the smaller, rare shifter groups locally, like the foxes and eagles. They will join us, and they can help us cover more ground.”
“Our numbers are minimal,” Jax said. “And we don’t know how much time we have. We have far surpassed the underdog category in this fight. For all we know, Riley is already starting the ritual.”
“It isn’t over yet,” Chief said. “If Chase could be so kind as to use his magic to heal the rest of our people, we can split up. Garrett and Karissa can lead one group and I’ll lead another. You and your men can take different paths. Together, we can be successful.”
Everyone watched the shifters eagerly, but silence prevailed. Jax and Chief had a conversation with their eyes and an eternity passed between that moment and the next.
“I need you in this fight, Jax,” I said. “I need all of you.”
The muscles in his jaw flexed and his knuckles popped as he squeezed his hands. Prickles of tension bit at my neck before Jax nodded. “Okay, if you want to build an army, I’m in, but we do it all the way. I’m not sending my wolves to their slaughter.”
“Agreed. I’ll come heal your injured and after that, you do what Chief suggested—find every shifter you can and convince them to fight. Marcus, you contact the other Circles and—”
“I’ve already tried that. They will no longer take my calls.”
“Once he’s up for it, use Riddley. They wouldn’t dare ignore a Circle elder.”
Marcus shifted his weight and nodded. “We can try that.”
“Good. Grams can round up the witches and recruit any others they can find. If Riddley can get the Circle on our side, you, Rayna, Tiki, and I will get Vincent and the scroll. Once I have that, the four of us are going back to the Underworlds. Drakar, Silas, and anywhere Tiki thinks we can get a vote. We’ve got an army to build.”
The room fell silent. Everyone’s eyes focused on me and they all looked surprised. My chest tightened as the quietness lingered in the room. For a moment I thought everyone would discard my plan, but after a moment, they all began to nod.
“I’m going to change and then we’re heading back to Stonewall.” I climbed the stairs, two at a time. I’d update Tiki on what was going to happen, get into yet another dry set of clothes, and we’d be on our way.
“Chase, wait, we need to talk about this.” Marcus clambered up the steps behind me.
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“I understand how hard losing Willy is. It’s a wake-up call to all of us, but you’re acting out of anger.”
“No, I’m not.” I stopped at the top of the stairs and faced him. His expression wasn’t the neutral one I expected—he looked worried. “I promised you I wouldn’t make stupid, emotional decisions anymore. I intend to keep that promise.”
“Then how do you explain what just happened down there?”
“What just happened is we made a plan and we’re moving forward. No more sitting around and ‘mulling it over.’ There will be a fight, or Riley will win. We can sit around and talk all we want, but Riley isn’t going to stop. We need to fight back.”
“All I’m suggesting is that we take a little time, do some research, and make a decision from there.”
“Most of this is unwritten, and anyone who knows anything isn’t talking. We know what needs to happen, so why waste our time turning pages? We know I need to get the scroll and bind these souls to mine. It’s the only way I stay alive. And we know Riley’s building an army. He has vampires, witches, hunters, Cyclops, gladiator demons, and as far as I can tell, the Visceratti and Kivrakai. All the monsters we’ve seen in Ithreal’s worlds will be fighting for him. If we don’t have an army of our own, we’re all going to suffer the same fate as Willy.”
“I…” Marcus trailed off, but his gaze didn’t move from mine.
“We need to watch each other’s backs, Marcus. Or at least I need you to watch mine. Am I hurting? Hell yeah I am, but I’m not fighting back out of anger, I’m fighting back because that’s what Willy did for me, and that’s what we need to do for everyone else. It’s time to stop worrying about the right decision and start doing what needs to be done, don’t you think?”
Marcus studied my face and after a few moments, nodded. “Perhaps you’re right.”
“What? Did you just say I’m right?”
Marcus shook his head. “Let’s get moving.”
Chapter 9
Rayna hadn’t spoken to me since our altercation by the lake. I had tried to talk to her before we left, but she had ignored me. With the exception of rocks clanking against the undercarriage, the ride into Stonewall remained silent. Tiki sat beside me in the passenger seat, Rayna sat in the back with Rai in a small cage beside her. Everyone else followed in a short convoy of vehicles.
We were a few hours north of Stonewall and as we closed in on the last hundred miles, we were finally close enough to break the awkward silence with a radio station. It was fuzzy and distorted, but it was better than the quiet I’d endured so far. Rayna laid her head back in her seat and closed her eyes, but with the way her eyes seemed to flutter and how she continually shifted her position, I thought she was only pretending to sleep. Maybe she just didn’t want to run the risk of making eye contact. I wasn’t upset with her for not talking to me. I had been a jerk and it took her screaming and hitting me for me to realize it.
“Chase,” Tiki said, staring out the window. “You may want to drive faster.”
“It’s a gravel road. Anytime I go above fifty the Jeep starts fishtailing pretty bad. Trust me, the moment I can speed up, I will.”
“Then you might want to pull over and prepare for a fight.”
Rayna perked up and looked out the window. “What the hell are those?”
The tree-lined edges of the road had disappeared a mile behind us and to either side were open fields. Out of Tiki’s window I could see things in the distance moving toward us at what seemed like an unnatural speed. They swerved left and right over the ground and all at once, they jumped in the air and hit the earth. Dirt and rocks shot up like an earthy fireworks, and then they were gone.
“Visceratti,” Tiki said.
The road was long and straight with no turnoff in sight. I adjusted my grip on the steering wheel and leaned back in my seat. “If you don’t have your seatbelt on, now might be a good time.”
Rayna slid into the middle and snapped the buckle in place. Tiki checked his buckle and I pinned the gas pedal to the floor. The Jeep’s tires spun out for a moment before gaining traction and lurching forward. Grams swerved her car to avoid the rocks spewing behind us. She laid on the horn in angry bursts, but soon her car was gone in a cloud of dust.
“Call Marcus, let him know what’s going on.” I grabbed the cell phone from the console and threw it back to Rayna. The Jeep’s rear end began to swing left and right and I kept both hands planted on the wheel, my knuckles white from my tightened grip.
Rayna spoke to Marcus, frantically looking out on either side of the Jeep. “I don’t know how they found us!” she shouted. “Just step on it.” She put the phone down and gripped her seatbelt. Our eyes met momentarily in the rearview mirror but she didn’t look angry, she looked scared.
I let off the gas pedal as the Jeep began to swerve dramatically. When I regained control, a lo
ud rumbling came and it had had nothing to do with gravel hitting the vehicle. Bursts of dirt flew into the air and three Visceratti launched out of their tunnels. They slid across the ground, trying to keep up. Two more came on the other side and a thick layer of dirt landed on the windshield, cutting off my vision.
I was forced to slow down and hit the windshield wipers, but in my adrenaline-infused state, I accidently pulled back the lever. The sound of the wiper fluid’s motor came and I cursed as the rubber blades swept away the dirt, only to create a pasty brown mud that smeared across the windshield.
One Visceratti jumped from the side of the road and slammed into the Jeep, rocking it to the right. Next came one from the other side, forcing the Jeep to shift to the left. We fishtailed violently, and after hitting a bump, I felt the Jeep slanting into the ditch. I kept my hand on the wiper blade lever. More fluid splattered the windshield, breaking up the mud just enough for me to see a sliver of road. The Jeep was half riding the gravel and half tearing up the weed-lined ditch. The Visceratti hissed in unison and as a demon from the right slammed into the Jeep, it gave me the nudge I needed to get back on the road.
We lurched forward and more gravel shot back. The demons’ hands covered their eyes as rocks fired toward them. The Jeep skidded left to right again as we passed fifty on the odometer, but this time I didn’t let off the gas.
The Visceratti pushed themselves across the earth, trying to keep up, but we were going too fast. I could hear their angry hisses behind us. As the fishtailing became more intense, I knew I was going to have to slow down. It was either that or end up rolling over into the ditch. Then we’d be sitting ducks.
I let off the gas enough to keep the fishtailing to a minimum. The Visceratti were behind us now, and it looked like the other vehicles had managed to get ahead of them. My pulse pounded in my head and with our speed having slowed, the demons made up ground. They were close enough to the last car that I started to worry, but a dark patch in the road up ahead gave me the confidence to bear down on the gas. We had a hundred yards until we were on paved road and then I could drop the Jeep a gear and leave the Visceratti behind for good. This time I would make that hundred yards.
The back end of the Jeep swung side to side, and we didn’t accelerate on the loose road like I wanted. The Visceratti had made it up beside the other vehicles, but they weren’t touching them. They were intent on catching ours and they were doing a good job. We’d travelled half the distance to the pavement and they were already at the rear of the Jeep. A few more yards and they were looking in my window. One demon slammed into my door and as the front end shifted hard to the right, the back end slid to the left.
“Dammit!” I screamed as the world began to spin. We made three full cycles and we’d lost nearly all our forward momentum. I jerked the steering wheel to the side and as I broke out of the spin, we were already headed into the ditch.
My body jerked hard against the seatbelt as it cut into my neck, but the vehicle didn’t stop. We were moving at a snail’s pace. The other vehicles flew past us, their rear lights exploding with red. I didn’t want them to stop and help. There weren’t nearly enough of us to fight off this many pure bloods. I dropped the Jeep into four-wheel drive and let the tires tear into the earth, but it wasn’t fast enough. The tinted back window of the Jeep shattered and the slate-grey arm of a Visceratti came through.
Long, dirty nails swiped at the air and Rayna unbuckled herself, leaning out of reach. Her back was pressed against the back of my seat and her breath came in heavy pants. With the pedal pinned to the floor, I jerked the wheel hard to the left. The Jeep responded immediately and climbed out of the ditch. The tires squealed again and we surged onto paved road.
Visceratti had nearly surrounded the vehicle—with one halfway through the back window. The snake demon’s claws tore into the leather, pulling herself through the window. Black blood ran from her arm and the multiple tears on her body as she dragged herself over the broken glass. Rai fluttered in her cage, white and gold feathers being thrown in the air from her panicked movements.
“Chase,” Rayna said. She had her whip in hand, but there was no room to use it.
“Dagger!” I said, unbuckling my seatbelt and leaning forward.
I felt the blade slip from the sheath on my back and before I settled into my seat, Rayna lunged into the back, bringing the blade down hard. The Visceratti screamed and tried to slither back, her claws cutting through the air. In all the commotion, the claws caught Rayna’s face and slammed her head into the side window. The glass cracked on impact and Rayna responded with a spine-chilling growl.
The dagger rolled across the seat and Rayna’s hand ripped through the air. Her fingers were gone and a massive black paw had taken over her arm from the elbow down. Her claws extended and a massive thud smashed against the demon’s face. The angry hiss became silent and the snake body fell limp. She slid back through the window and with Rayna’s kick to the face, her head smashed into the roof on its way out. The body hit the asphalt and rolled across the road. The other demons roared. With the Jeep on pavement, we’d reached a hundred and they gave up their pursuit. They became dull blurs in the distance and after a few moments, they were gone.
Nobody spoke. Wind howled through the broken rear window and the loud thump of my pulse echoed in my ears. Rayna’s arm had shifted back when she settled in, I saw blood dripping from her hairline and two cuts across her cheek.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“Fine, just keep driving.”
Tiki shifted in his seat, his eyes staring straight ahead.
“How about you?” I asked.
He nodded. “I am fine, Chase Williams. You drive like they do in your movies.”
“Thanks?” I said, not sure how to respond.
Tiki nodded, shifting in his seat and wiping his hands on his pants. The phone rang loudly and Rayna fumbled it a few times before scooping it up off the floor.
“Hi…yeah, we’re all okay.” She sat back in her seat, staring at me in the mirror. “I’ll tell him.” She dropped the phone and her head fell back against the headrest.
“What is it?”
“Marcus thinks putting all those souls into you has put you back on Riley and the Brother’s radar, maybe everyone else’s too. The moment we drove out of reach of the cabin’s protection, they knew where you were.”
“Riley had the chance to kill me and he didn’t. He wouldn’t send the Visceratti after me now. Besides, the cabin isn’t as secure as we thought.”
“What do you mean?”
I met her eyes in the rearview mirror and she narrowed her gaze. I didn’t want to have this conversation right now, and rather than try to avoid it, I ignored it, only further aggravating Rayna.
“Whatever,” she said. “Whether or not Riley sent them, they want you dead. You killed their princess, remember?”
She was right. Riley wasn’t the only enemy I’d made, and if all these demons could sense my power now, anyone in close proximity of me was in danger. The conversation with Drake flooded into my mind but before I could consider my options, Tiki broke my train of thought.
“There is another possibility,” Tiki said, turning in his chair. “We still have something Riley wants—The 11th Dimension.”
The pain in my stomach twisted and I gripped the wheel. I’d forgotten about the book. If they still needed it, why didn’t Drake say anything?
With one more phone call to Marcus, all the cars sped up. We were left with two possibilities: either the Visceratti were out for revenge and the souls inside me made me a blip on their radar, or we had something Riley wanted, which would count as me interfering with his plans. Either way, everyone close to me was now in danger and until I could bind the souls, I wasn’t ready for another face-off.
Chapter 10
Everybody gathered in front of the condo’s elevator. We all felt a little shaken by the run-in with pure bloods in general, let alone on Earth. I think if Chief and
Jax went the rest of their lives without seeing another Visceratti, they’d be just fine with that.
“Is everyone all right?” Marcus asked.
“Rayna’s a little cut up, but otherwise we’re fine,” I replied. Although I still felt a vibrating tension beneath my skin, my heart rate had slowed. The souls inside me were whispering, but the words were distant echoes in my mind.
Marcus touched Rayna’s chin, turning her head from side to side. “Chase, you want to take care of this?”
“It’s just a scratch,” Rayna said, pulling away. “I’m okay.”
Marcus watched her for a moment, as if trying to decide if she was being honest with him. “I don’t know how they found—”
“It’s me,” I said.
Everyone turned and the tension crept into my shoulders.
“How is it you?” Chief asked.
Rayna’s gaze was cold and hard like she knew I hadn’t told her everything. I sighed and took the plunge. “The wards around the cabin didn’t keep us hidden…at least not me. Drake found me when I was out by the lake.”
“What?” Rayna asked. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“It’s not like you were speaking with me!” I snapped, already regretting my tone. The last thing I wanted was to give her something else to be angry about. We needed to stick together, now more than ever. “I’m sorry. So much has happened in the last week, my head is spinning. I can’t even tell which way is up right now.”
“What did he want?” Marcus asked.
“He said we’re connected and that I’m not just a hunter anymore.” I paused, not sure if I should say more, but I had to. These people had risked their lives for me. They were my family, and you didn’t hold things back from family. “He said I should get away from all of you. That doing that is the only way I can be sure you’ll stay safe.”
Endure Page 7
