With my back to the farmhouse, I shaded my eyes and looked past the barn. Eve winged toward me, her tawny and gold feathers catching the light here and there. A hair-raising screech ripped out of her as she dropped from the sky, landing with several hops in front of me. Her large golden eyes sparkled with pleasure. “Rylee! I didn’t know you were coming out today.”
“I hadn’t planned on it. Any word from Marco and Pam?” When the two of them were out on their own mission, Marco had a way to chat with Eve even over a distance. A Harpy secret she wouldn’t share, but that was okay with me.
“Nothing today. Yesterday they were on the East Coast and both were fine.” She fluffed her feathers.
“And you? Are you happy you stayed this time?” We both knew the reason why. Just in case she had eggs ready. Okay, I assumed eggs, I assumed that was how Harpies had babies. She blinked and looked away. “It’s fine. Maybe next year.”
My turn to blink. “Next year?” Every time I thought I knew everything about the supernatural I was surprised again.
“I’m probably too young yet, despite everything I’ve been through. I may be mature in my mind but my body is not ready. . .” She fluffed her feathers again. “But that isn’t why you came out here, is it?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m on a salvage. You want to come?”
She bobbed her head and clacked her beak with excitement. “Yes! Do we leave now?”
“Just let me grab the harness. Is it still in the barn?”
She walked with me. “Of course.”
Once more in the barn, I found the leather harness hanging to the left of the door, hidden by shadows. Under it was a small pile of armor and weapons that had been gathered up after the battle. I grabbed the flying harness and pulled it outside. Eve dropped her head and I slid the first part over and settled it in front of her shoulders. From there I set up each strap tightening it to where she was comfortable. “You’re growing again, we’re going to need to add to this sooner rather than later.”
She stretched one leg behind her, then the other to help settle into the harness. “Good. I don’t want to be a puny chicken.”
I laughed as I grabbed my bag and swords from the Jeep. The swords went into their sheaths and then I settled the backpack on my shoulders.
“Ready?” I asked as I set my foot into the leather loop that acted as a stirrup that rested against her side, then pulled myself onto her back.
“I’m always ready, Rylee. You know that.” She winked a big gold eye back at me, the same way Alex used to.
I looked away and strapped my thighs into the harness. “We’re headed to the West Coast. The Redwoods.”
Eve crouched and then leapt straight into the air, her wings powering us up with a monster push of muscle and strength. The wind ripped around my face, and I closed my eyes, allowing myself to relax into the beat of her wings. To feel free of all that was chasing me, nothing but my own demons this time.
“Rylee, I thought you weren’t doing salvages anymore?” Eve tipped her head to speak to me.
“Never say never.” I buried my hands into her soft feathers. “This kid needs our help, so I’m going to do what I can. Even if I can’t Track anymore.”
“If anyone can find her, you can.”
Eve’s faith was heartwarming even if it was more than a bit misplaced. I wasn’t so sure. Even with the name of the trafficker, without a direction of where the kid might have been taken, I didn’t have anything to go on. Which was why I needed to talk to Lark, to find out if she had any information that would help clear up the mystery of these kids with elemental symbols stamped onto their necks.
We flew straight west until night fell. Eve spiraled out of the sky somewhere along the Canadian border to sleep. The field she chose to land in was full of canola, and it was easy enough to flatten and have a makeshift bed. She nestled down while I flipped off my jacket.
From my back, I pulled my two swords and began my nightly ritual. Parry, thrust, down to my knees, fight from there, back to my feet, drop one sword, tuck and roll, grab the handle and then through the whole series again several times. I no longer sweat like I once had, a bonus of being a daywalking vampire, but my muscles burned with the need for blood and my energy level dropped.
I drove both sword tips into the soil and strode to where my bag lay. Digging around in it, I found the flask. I unscrewed the cap and tipped it to my mouth with my eyes closed, holding my breath. I did not want to enjoy this. But even as I thought it, the blood hit my tongue and the pleasure center in my brain lit up like a New Year’s Eve fireworks display. I fought not to groan as I gulped it back. Every sinew and muscle in me relaxed, recharging on the strength of Liam’s heart.
I lowered the flask and put the cap on. I could feel Eve’s eyes on me and I glanced at her. “What?”
“Nothing. You just . . . looked like you didn’t want to like it. Then you did. It was odd to see.”
I tossed the flask into the bag and sat beside her. I leaned back against her side. “This is my life now.” And I felt like I was slowly dying.
She was quiet a moment. “Rylee, do you really think it’s over? That the world is safe?”
Her question was the same one I’d mulled over more than one sleepless night the last six months. “I hope so.”
“But you don’t know for sure?”
I tipped my head so I could look her in the eyes. “No. I don’t know for sure. I doubt things are as simple as they seem. Really, why would the assholes suddenly stop shitting on the world once the fear had passed? Sure they clenched their bung holes up for a bit, but the shit will flow once more. Of that, I am sure.”
All I had to do was look at Camos. He was a perfect example.
She settled deeper into the canola, plucking at a few of the bright yellow flowers with her beak. “Then we will stop them.”
Her words made me smile. She was young, but she’d seen a lot, fought for her family and her friends. “We will do what we can.”
I closed my eyes and relaxed. For now, we were on a salvage and while I didn’t know how I would find the kid, the basics were there. A simple salvage, no saving the world, no stopping demons. Find the kid, return her home, go back to my own babies . . .if I could learn to control myself.
There was a charm in believing my life would be so straightforward. I dozed off, and found someone waiting for me in my dreams.
Blond hair tipped with green this time, a glittering silver ring through a bottom lip, and bright green eyes that flashed when he smiled.
He grinned. “Decided to leave the wolf yet?”
I swatted at him, though there wasn’t much effort to it. “Go away, Doran. I’m tired and I never actually rest when we have these chats.”
“Cry me a river.” He grinned, but the smile faltered. “We have to talk. There are rumors flying that can’t be ignored. And Liam phoned me today.”
I hunched my back as if that would stop him from talking. “I don’t want to play in rumors and prophecy anymore. Didn’t turn out so well for me last time. And Liam should learn when not to talk about me.”
He tugged on the ring in the side of his lip with one hand. “Wow. Two sentences without a cuss word? I’m impressed.”
“Fuck off,” I snapped.
“Ah, there you are. For a moment, I thought I was visiting the wrong woman.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, spit it out. What rumors?”
“World war.”
I frowned. “Do you mean the humans?”
“Yes.”
“Bad?”
“Worse. They look like they are going to use the weapons they all agreed not to. If they manage it, they’ll wipe the world out.”
“What a bunch of fuck ups,” I spit out and rubbed at my face. “How close are they to actually doing it?”
He closed his eyes, and I recognized he was using his shaman abilities to see into the near future. “Months at the most. Rylee, I’m not sure we can stop them. This is politics,
not a single person being an asshole like Orion that we can assassinate and call it done.”
“Then why are you telling me this?”
“Because there is someone who might be able to stop things from getting out of hand. They don’t call her the Destroyer for nothing.”
Lark. He meant Lark. “Handy, I’m headed her way, right now. So you want me to send her to you?”
“I want you to see if she can do something. This isn’t prophecy, Rylee. This is happening unless we can break the humans up and stop their madness. The elementals are powerful, and they have it in them if they work together to stop what is happening. And they all trust Lark. We saw that in battle.”
He was right. The elementals from all four families had come to fight at Lark’s request and they had been the reason we’d held the demons off long enough for me to seal them back within the Veil.
“Okay, Dad.” I grinned at him as he grimaced. Doran’s blood had turned me into a daywalking vampire, so in vampire terms, he was my sire. My father. It chaffed him to no end seeing as our previous relationship had more than a hefty dose of sexual undertones. Not that you’d ever hear me admit that out loud.
“Knock it off,” he grumbled. I laughed and then stopped mid-chuckle.
“I’m on a salvage.”
His eyebrows went up. “And?”
“Think you can help?” I batted my eyes. “Dad?”
“Seriously, knock it the hell off.” He shook his head. “What can you tell me about the salvage?”
“Belinda, brother calls her Belly. Went missing two months ago from Bismarck. Police marked it as a runaway.” I thought about the one picture I’d seen of her. “Her hair is dyed bright pink right now, and she’s got freckles across her cheeks. Blue gray eyes. And maybe some sort of mark on the back of her neck.”
Doran frowned. “What do you mean?”
I told him about the symbols, about Camos, and what he’d been doing. Doran let out a low whistle. “Underbelly of the elemental world, I think. That’s what you’re touching on. If the guy who picks them up is as the incubus says, I think you’re dealing with a lizard.”
“What kind of lizard, like a shape shifter?”
He shook his head. “No, you were on the right track, but I’m not sure you want to keep on it. You’re looking for a Salamander. A fire elemental. Though what he’s doing snatching kids is beyond me. Please recall that your new supernatural designation makes you rather flammable.”
I hadn’t wanted to be right about my hunch. “Thanks, Doran.”
He reached out and touched my cheek. “You know me, a sucker for a pretty girl.” He brought his other hand up and cupped my face, his green eyes serious. “Liam’s worried, and he’s right to let you run for a bit. I can’t help you in this, Rylee. You have to find your own balance with the beast inside, the desire for blood, the instincts. This is your proving ground, and no one can show you how to accept it.”
I swallowed hard. “And the vampires who didn’t learn to accept themselves?”
“They are the ones we kill. They aren’t safe. Don’t make me do it, Rylee.” His hands slipped away and I knew exactly what he was saying. He would end my life if I turned out to be unable to control myself. No matter how much he cared for me, he wouldn’t let me hurt those I loved. A weird sense of comfort rolled through me. I smiled at him.
“Thank you.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Don’t thank me. If you lose yourself, we all lose you. And we’ve fought too hard to keep you with us.”
The dream faded, which meant I couldn’t tell him that it meant something to know I had someone who would end things if they had to. That was a friend. I know. I’d had to end it for Milly. Some people say there is no greater love than to lay your life down for a friend. But I knew how much love it took to end a friend’s life when there was no other way.
The morning sun filtered through the canola giving the world a foggy look. I sat up and rubbed at my face. I didn’t feel as though I’d slept at all. “Damn you, Doran.”
Eve grumbled and stretched her wings. “Kept you talking all night again?”
“I wouldn’t mind so much if it actually took all night. The conversation lasts a measly few minutes and I wake up fucking exhausted.” I scrubbed at the back of my head and stood.
Eve followed suit, flexing her wings. “We should be there by midday if the headwind isn’t too strong.”
“Good, then let’s go. The sooner we’re there, the sooner we’re back looking for the kid.”
I mounted up, and once more we were in the air, flying southwest as we angled away from the border. The Redwoods were the home of the Terralings, Elementals tied to the earth of which Lark was one.
Though I hadn’t slept much, I didn’t doze as we flew. Something in the air had me keyed up, a sense we weren’t alone. I could see nothing around us but the feeling didn’t dissipate. “Keep as high as you can, Eve.”
She didn’t question me. With a tip of her wings, we climbed into the clouds until the air was thin and cold, beading moisture on my face like a false sweat.
“High enough?” she called over her shoulder.
“Should be.”
“What do you think is going on?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I just . . . something is off.” I couldn’t put my finger on it, couldn’t say what it was that had me on edge, and that made me strung tighter than a two dollar ukulele about ready to bust in half. Lucky for me, I didn’t have long to wait.
Something streaked below us, followed by a shining flash of metal and the burst of a rocket’s tail.
“What the fuck?” I whispered. A boom rocked behind us. I spun in the harness and stared through the clouds. A bright light, flames, and explosions cut through the high cloud.
Eve shuddered. “It’s the humans, isn’t it?”
Fuck, I did not want Doran to be right.
Another rocket shot past us, close enough that it clipped Eve’s wing. She cried out and tucked her wings in tightly. We dropped from the sky, the momentum pulling me back to the edge of the harness. I leaned forward and tucked my head in close to her neck. “Eve, how bad?”
“I don’t know. I need to land.” Her wings trembled as she held them out and slowed us down. The right one was crimped at the end, as though maybe the tip had been broken.
I glanced over the side of her body as shrapnel fell from the sky, slicing through the air with wicked precision. “Fuck me, what the hell are they fighting over now?” Although I knew the humans had no idea just how close they’d come to being slaves to a demon infestation, I was pissed they would fight like this so soon after the battle that saved them.
I stared up as a huge chunk of spinning steel flew toward us. “Eve, bank!”
She banked to the left, cried out and we spun head over tail feathers as she tucked her wounded wing in. Seconds later she righted us, but I knew the cost was high, her whole body shook and trembled and her eyes were squinted shut with the pain.
“Ten feet,” I yelled. She spread her wings further, trusting me.
We landed a split second later and her legs buckled, flinging us to the side. I fell with her, still strapped in the harness. My head smashed into the ground, but I barely felt it. I stared up at the plane that fell from the sky, right over our heads. Seriously?
I ripped the harness, freeing myself. “Eve, move!”
She didn’t respond, her eyes were closed and her breathing shallow. Shit, this was not the time to be knocked out.
I didn’t think, just moved. I raced around to her feet, grabbed a single hooked talon from each foot and pulled with all I had. Her wings streamed out behind her as I ran, dragging her with me. I glanced up. It was going to be damn fucking close. I put everything I had into my legs, driving hard with each step. “Come on, come on!”
With a thunderous roar, the plane made a last attempt to pull up. The nose arched into the air, and the wings shook as they fought gravity one last time
. It slowed as the tail and wingtips caught on the trees. With a spin, it whipped through the air. No longer crashing, more in mid-fall. The belly hit the ground and slid toward us, sending a wave of dirt, rocks and chunks of metal into the air.
“Fuck.”
It wasn’t slowing and I wasn’t sure I could get Eve out of the way. I stopped looking back and stared into the trees and brush, focusing on where I was going. Not where I’d been. The screech of metal and rocks colliding as the plane ripped through the earth drove me. I put everything I had into keeping ahead of the hunk of metal chasing us.
The plane stopped with a thump. What was left of the wings jammed against two large trees, one on each side.
I stopped pulling Eve and stared at the mangled wreckage. Somewhere under it was my bag and the only picture I had of my family. My heart hurt more with that loss than the near death we’d just escaped from the crash.
“Holy fucking hell,” I snapped. “What the shit is wrong with you all?” As if someone would answer me.
The plane rumbled, and through the smoke I could see the cockpit and the pilot still sitting in it, his head slumped forward.
“Damn.” Flammable I may be, but the plane wasn’t actually on fire. Yet. I hurried across the short distance and climbed onto the plane. I knocked on the clear thick plastic. This was no plane, this was a fighter jet. My heart clenched at the thought of Marcella, Zane, and the triplets growing up in a world at war, or a world that had been destroyed. I tried to lift the plastic hood, but there was nothing to hang onto. It had to be opened from the inside. I drew back a fist and drove it through the plastic close to the base. I reached through and fiddled around until I found a latch and was able to open the hood.
The pilot’s heartbeat wasn’t strong, but it was there, fighting to keep going. I cut his straps and hauled him from the cockpit as the fuel caught fire with a spurt of flames.
This day could not get any worse.
RYLEE (The Rylee Adamson Epilogues, Book 1) Page 5
