I tightened my jaw, irritation flaring. I pushed past him and scooped up my gear. “Deal with it. If I have to be some sort of hero, you can damn well get along with a woman you hate.”
He growled something behind me, but I didn’t stop to listen; I made my way into the room and up the dark stairs. They creaked and groaned under my feet, but I barely heard them. I was too busy being angry to notice anything.
I knew Liam would have a hard time dealing with Milly, and I understood why. But what was I supposed to do? Pushing her away would put all that power out there to be snatched back by Orion, or maybe some other faction. At least with Milly close, I could keep an eye on her. That’s what I told myself, anyway.
My old room was lit from the moon on the snow and I dropped the sash to block the view. I didn’t need anyone noticing movement in the old house. I spread out my gear, checking for damage. Swords, short blades, crossbow, spears, arrows, and a myriad of other deadly weapons. These were my back ups; my two favorite blades were almost always with me, as was my whip now. My crossbow—I ran my fingers over it … Will gave me this in London. I liked it, and it was a sweet weapon to deal with asshats at a distance, but it was bulky and hard to run with. Yeah, running always had to be an option when you had no magical abilities, so to speak.
I might be immune to magic and most poisons, but that wasn’t a power wielding anything other than protection, defense. And my ability to Track was the same. Super handy, but no offense either. There was one reason I’d survived everything I’d faced: the simple fact I had friends a hell of a lot stronger than me in the magic department.
I stood and took a slow turn in my old room, hearing the creak of footsteps on the stairs. As I faced the door, Liam stepped in and shut it behind him.
No words, just walked to me and pulled me into his arms, burying his nose behind my ear. I slid my arms around him, felt the horror of the day seep in around the edges of my brain. A short whimper escaped me as I bit back the grief.
Dox had been one of my closest friends and had seen me through so much, stitched me up more than once, and never questioned my choice of life. His laughter and quiet strength had been a part of my world; I’d not realized how much I leaned on just knowing he’d been there. Liam’s arms tightened around me. “Rylee, I have to tell you something.”
He tipped my head up with a finger under my chin, a smile teasing at his lips. “You need to shower. You stink like Milly.”
My jaw dropped open and he ducked the reactive swing of my fist. “Jerk.” But he brought me out of the grief sucking at me. Smart man—far smarter than he let on to most people.
“Come on.” He was still smiling. “I’ll help get you un-stunk.”
Chapter 2
The hot water—and Liam’s hands—did the trick, soothed everything away, even if just temporarily. The dark moments we’d faced, the darkness we knew was coming, the fears and uncertainties. It had been too long since he and I had a moment like this, quiet and relaxed. Moments that felt normal and helped me, at least for a moment, re-center myself.
Clean and in fresh clothes, we headed downstairs. Liam grabbed me halfway down and kissed me, fierce and hot, a reminder of the shower. I kissed him back, knowing we would fight again. Of course we would. We weren’t exactly Barbie and Ken living in the pink dream house. No, more like Morticia and Gomez running with monsters, and with moments of passion that burned us both to the core. He let me go, his hands lingering on me as we started down the stairs. Stepping into the living room, I stumbled to a stop, my brain unable to process what my eyes saw: the impossible. He was a ghost; he had to be.
Charlie sat on the beaten up old couch, grinning widely at me. “Hello, Rylee. Didn’t think to see mes again, did yas?”
“Charlie, holy shit!” I ran and scooped him up, noticing some slight charring on his wooden leg, but otherwise he was in one piece. I squeezed him hard, unable to believe he wasn’t dead. He patted my back with both hands.
“It’s okay, lassie. It’s okay.” I didn’t fight the tears, because this time, for the first time in a long time, they weren’t grief. Charlie was right; for once in my life it was okay. I had one of my friends literally back from the dead.
I put him down and crouched beside him, wiping my face dry. “Charlie, how the fuck did you survive?”
“What are you talking about?” Liam asked.
Charlie tipped his head and arched an eyebrow at me. “Didn’t tell them, did yous?”
“No time.” Which was true and not.
“Yous better tell them. Only way now. Cause even if you don’ts, I wills for ya.” Charlie pushed himself back onto the couch and settled in.
Alex and Pamela came in from the other room. Alex waved at the brownie, then ran over to him, putting his head into the small man’s lap. “Hiya, Charlie!”
Charlie patted his head. “Hiya back, foolish wolf.”
I cleared my throat, thought about the oaths I’d made to Faris. “Charlie, you tell them. I don’t want to start breaking my word. Even to that asshat.”
The brownie nodded and gave me a wink. “I gets it. Long story short, Faris threatened Rylee that if she don’ts help him find the Blood, which is the only way he can secure the throne, he will kill all those that’s she loves.”
Liam snorted. “And you believed him?”
Charlie tapped his wooden leg against the couch. “He snatched me and tossed me through the veil into the lava to make sure she agreed to help him.”
“Who did, Orion?” Milly came in from the kitchen, her right hand at her neck, fingers pressed into her skin until the tips were white.
“No, Faris,” Liam growled at her.
Stillness fell on the room, and the air cooled. Giselle’s spirit guides didn’t like this kind of talk; that much was clear.
“Listen,” I said. “I’d planned to run this by you all, there just hasn’t really been a moment to say ‘Hey, the fucking vampire is trying to blackmail me so we need to find a way around his shit’ with what happened at the farm.”
Liam touched my lower back, giving me support. “I know. And I believe you, but Charlie, that still doesn’t explain how you survived.”
The brownie smiled wider yet, his eyes sparkling as if he were going to tell us a particularly dirty joke. “Well, yous see, I don’t think vampires knows toos much abouts brownies. If he did, he’d be knowing that brownies use doorways and windows as a way to jump around. An opening through the veil, it justs bees another kind of doorway.”
Pamela laughed softly. “Cocky vampire—even I know how brownies move around.”
Milly laughed softly, shaking her head. “He was always over confident. I knew it would bite him someday.”
I didn’t join in the laughter, and neither did Liam. He shared a quick glance with me, his silvery golden eyes full of questions. No doubt the same ones that rattled and tumbled in my head.
Of all the things Faris was, and there were a lot of things I’d call him, stupid was not on the list.
He had to have known Charlie would save himself, would show up here and tell us he was alive.
So why the fuck would he do it?
I slumped into the closest chair, understanding washing over me. He’d gotten me to speak oaths, oaths I would be bound to because of my very nature. And he’d sealed my belief by “killing” Charlie.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s not really threatening all of you.” I ran a hand through my hair, catching on a knot but not really feeling it. “He got me to say I would help him. And he will hold me to that.”
Milly put her hands on her hips. “You can’t be serious? You can’t help him now!”
Charlie surprised me, lifting his hand. “Besides these oaths yous spoke, that’s not really the issue. You hold a choice, Rylee. Whos will lead the vampires: a child gone mad with power and a belief she should rule all the world, or a man who is fighting to lead his people and keep them safe, and keep the humans ignorant of the supernatural a little whiles l
onger?”
If I thought the air had gone still before, it was nothing compared to the ice that crept into the room.
“There has to be another choice,” Liam said.
I slumped even deeper into the chair, feeling the truth of both Liam’s and Charlie’s words. What they said cut to the core of the problem. There was no third choice, no dark horse to bring up the rear and be better than both Faris and Berget.
“Fuck, Charlie, you’re right. One of them has to lead, and if I have to choose, it won’t be Berget. It can’t be.”
Milly stared hard at me. “You’d help Faris, after all he’s done?”
I glared at her, anger icing my words. “I haven’t killed you yet, witch, after all you’ve done. And unless you have someone better to lead the vampires, we don’t have a fucking choice.”
Her teeth snapped shut and she flushed along her cheeks. Point for me.
Liam sat on the edge of my chair, partially blocking me from Milly. Subtle—not so much. But I understood he would never fully trust her, and he was there to protect me, even from her.
Charlie jumped off the couch and strode toward me, his wooden leg only giving him a slight limp. “I’ve gots to bees getting back to me abode. I just wanted to sees that yous was all right, Rylee. And to tell yous I is all right.”
“You aren’t staying?” Pamela looked to me as if I were going to stop him. “There’s a war coming, Charlie, and we need everyone. Even you.”
The brownie glanced at her, then at me. “Read the prophecies, did yas?”
I frowned, irritation flowing through me. “Does everyone damn well know about those fucking prophecies except me?”
He shrugged and gave me a half smile. “Part of why I wanted to works with yous, Rylee. I knew what you were the minute I laid eyes on yous, not just a Tracker, but the one that would bees saving our world. When yous need me and all me brethren to fight, we’ll be there.” As he passed my chair, he patted my hand. “It’ll work out, Rylee. I believes it.” Charlie stepped through the archway between the living room and the hallway and disappeared. No puff of smoke, no twist in the air, not even a feeling of power.
Just gone.
Milly sucked in a deep breath. “He didn’t bend the veil to jump it.”
Shit. “Is that how it’s done?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
She looked at me, and then shook her head. “You don’t want to know how to jump the veil, Rylee. The cost is too great.”
“Yet you do it,” Pamela pointed out, both verbally and with a finger jabbed at Milly in condemnation.
“Yes, I do,” Milly said. “But I wish I had never learned.” She paused, and I saw her debating whether or not to continue before she said, “It’s like an addiction. There’s a rush to it, despite the cost. And like any addiction, you need more and more. The only ones who do not face that are the necromancers, as they are … no, that’s all I’ll say. I’ll never teach anyone to jump the veil; I hope the knowledge dies out.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dramatics, with you it’s all about the big scene.” I pushed to my feet and bobbed my head to Pamela. She frowned slightly, but nodded back. I wanted to speak with Liam before we talked to the whole group.
Pamela would stay behind to watch Milly.
Pretty bad when you had to have a teen watch over an adult, but then again, it was Milly we were talking about.
Chapter 3
Liam and I headed upstairs, Alex trailing at our heels. We said nothing, the stairs creaking under our feet. Inside my room, I walked to the window that looked onto the street at the front of the house. I pulled the sash up. No movement in all this snow, nothing at all.
I turned away from the window and walked to the bed, sitting on the end of the mattress.
Alex let out a yip and leapt up beside me, burrowing his nose into the thick covers, and rolling onto his back. From there, he juggled several pillows above his head, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. But even his antics couldn’t draw a laugh from me, not today. Too much had happened and my emotions were wrung out.
Liam shut the door behind us, the door clicking closed and giving us some semblance of privacy. “So, what is the vampire’s game?”
Atta boy, right to the heart of it. “Fuck me if I know.” I walked across the room to peer out the window again, as if I could find the answers in the freshly fallen snow.
Liam slid his arms around me, curling my ass tight against him as he placed his chin on my shoulder. “Already done.”
I swatted his hip, but let the smile on my lips linger for a moment. “O’Shea, smarten the fuck up.”
He let out a growl, most likely from me using O’Shea instead of Liam. “Fine. But Faris is playing a game, and if you don’t know the rules, you are going to get killed.”
Hands on the windowsill, I leaned forward. My breath fogged the old glass and I drew a circle in it, and then drew a slash through the circle. “It’s always a game with the bloodsuckers. Shit, look at Doran. It’s fun for him to yank your strings and he does it every chance he gets.”
Again, Liam growled, but said nothing. I took a deep breath, my body held tight by his muscular arms.
“Faris doesn’t really want to piss me off.” The words slipped out of me, a whisper now. “He needs my help, but I wouldn’t help him before, not even when he asked.”
Liam’s voice was as soft as mine. “Because of Berget.” No point in answering, we both knew that was the truth. Liam turned me around to face him. “War is coming, Rylee. Is there any doubt in your mind?”
“No.”
“And you need allies.” He paused and his words sank in.
My eyes widened and I stared up at him. “You agree with Charlie. You think I should help Faris.”
Fuck me sideways, was he serious? Despite what I said downstairs, I never expected Liam to agree. Yet, it made sense. Hell, what Charlie said made sense no matter how much I wanted it to be otherwise. One thing held me back.
“I don’t want to kill her, Liam. I don’t think I could do it.”
Always, it came back to Berget. I’d sworn an oath, the strongest oath I could, that I would kill the Child Empress. Of course, that had been before I’d known who the Child Empress was.
“We’ll find a way around it.”
“And until then?” I put my head against his chest, his heart thumping underneath my ear. “I can’t take anyone with me when Faris shows up. Just because Charlie made it doesn’t mean Faris won’t kill someone else. He might not have known Charlie’s tricks …”
“Really?” The dry tone in Liam’s voice was not lost on me. I slid out of his arms a few inches so I could look up at him.
“Okay, so he probably knew Charlie’s abilities. But again, it’s a part of the game. Like chess. You do realize I suck at chess?”
He laughed. “Yeah, you’re more of a checkers girl, aren’t you?”
I lifted an eyebrow. “You mean smashing my opponents as I leap over them?”
“Something like that.”
He held me and my mind worked over the issues. Only one question was left.
“I know what I have to do, Liam. Are you going to let me do it?” I stepped away from him and started to pace, stopping in the center of the room to face him.
His jaw was tight, and eyes steely. “You are always leaving me behind, Rylee. Always. As much I hate it, I—” He shook his head and then gathered himself.
I waited for him to say it. Even though I knew it was coming, I needed to hear it.
“I trust you. If the prophecies hold true, you are going to be at the center of this shit for a long time. No matter what I do, or how close and tight I hold you, the danger and darkness will always come for you. Always. If I don’t trust you, I’m going to get us both killed.” He reached out and slid his hands up my arms, smoothing the goose bumps that rippled along my skin with his near-prophetic words. “And I will always be here, waiting on you, fighting for you when I can, healing the wounds when I must.”
“Even if it means me going with Faris, without you? Only taking Alex?” I whispered, hardly believing he wouldn’t fight me on this. Even if it was what we had to do. Fuck, I so hated Faris. Even if he hadn’t killed Charlie.
He tugged me against his chest, arms banding around me. “Don’t fucking well remind me you’ll be with that bastard. And don’t let him know you know about Charlie. Whatever game he has, play along. Let him believe he’s in control. As for Alex—” We both looked down to the submissive werewolf passed out on the bed, ass in the air, face jammed in the pillows. Liam snorted. “He’s more loyal to you than anyone else, and even though he is submissive, it’s changing. I sense it in him; he’s coming into his own and will protect you with everything he’s got. You know that. If I can’t be there, Alex is the next best thing.”
On cue, the sleeping Alex let out a fart that echoed in the small room. Liam reached behind us and opened the window a crack.
I closed my eyes and pressed my face into his chest, breathing him in alongside the rush of clean snow-kissed air. “I can’t even kill Faris now. I have to help him take the throne, and Berget …”
Liam kissed the top of my head and whispered into my hair, “You’ll find a way, Rylee, that much I’m sure. If anyone can find a way, you will.”
He held me and everything sank in.
Liam knew I was going to help Faris, on my own, with only Alex for backup. A way to bring the vampires on as allies in this war with Orion and his henchmen. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” I said.
Liam hugged me tighter. “Yeah, some shit like that.”
I let out a heavy breath and stepped back from him. “Come on, let’s see if Pamela’s scrounged up food.”
Alex’s eyes flew open and he scrambled off the bed, making an even bigger mess of the blankets and pillows, one pillow exploding in a shower of feathers. “Alex hungry, yuppy doody!”
He bolted toward the door, scrabbling with the handle, and then clattered down the stairs. Liam grabbed my hand. “Wait. What are you going to do to convince the others? Pamela and Milly won’t want you to go, either.” His face shifted and his lips twisted up. “Fuck, I to have to deal with Milly on my own.”
Tracker: A Rylee Adamson Novel (Book 6) Page 2
