Wounded: Book 8 (A Rylee Adamson Novel)

by Shannon Mayer

  I took her hands again and slowed my breathing. Healing took all four elements and then something from myself as the healer, a piece of my essence. Not a lot, but it was the binding between the elements to make the healing take place. I plunged in, tying the elements to Rylee’s form and threading them through her essence. I fought not to let go when she cried out as the skin sloughed off and broke away, as her tendons relaxed and the muscles rebuilt.

  A minute passed and I’d done all I could. I looked down at her hands. They were pink in patches, like she’d had a bad sunburn, but the worst of the damage had been dealt with and her fingers were no longer charred sausages, nor were her arms black to the elbow.

  Then she tried to flex her hands.

  Her fingers barely moved, creaking with the effort. She grimaced and tried again. More movement, but it was slow and obviously painful. Rylee turned her hands back and forth several times, flexing only at the wrist. “It’ll just take some work. Bad injuries are like that.”

  I stood and brushed hay off my pants and shirt, feeling tears well up. “I’m sorry I’m not as good as Milly.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” she said, but I was already walking away as fast as I could go without running. I was never good enough, not to help Rylee, not to help anyone. But I would make sure one day that I proved I was better than Milly.

  That I would be a witch to be reckoned with.

  I put my fist to my mouth, opened the barn door and left everyone behind.

  What the hell had that been about? Teenage angst, no doubt; I remembered well enough to know nothing I said would make it better. My hands throbbed and ached like they’d been smashed repeatedly by an overzealous carpenter. At least the pain wasn’t consuming me and every thought I had.

  Zane let out a whimper and Charlie handed him back to me.

  “Whats yous going to do, Rylee girl?”

  I rocked Zane in my arms, feeling more than a little awkward. I hadn’t been around a lot of babies, never mind one this small. “He needs to be somewhere safe while we deal with the demons. He can’t come with us; he’ll be too much of a temptation for Orion and his packs.”

  Lifting my eyes to Charlie and then Erik, I saw the look on both their faces; they were holding back. “What? What aren’t you telling me?”

  “There aren’t any safe places, not anymore.” Erik lowered himself to sit beside me in the hay. “But you’re right; you can’t take a baby into battle.”

  Alex crept forward and I put a hand out to him. Pamela flipping him ass over tail and sticking him to the wall had thrown both of us for a loop. It wasn’t like her. I made a mental note to sit her down and have a talk. A good, long chat about dealing with anger and fear. But first thing I had to do was get Zane to safety.

  “You’re telling me there isn’t a place anywhere in this whole freaking world that could provide even a temporary safe haven?” I couldn’t believe that was the case.

  Charlie cleared his throat. “Perhaps I can be of helps with thats.”

  Erik picked up a long piece of hay and stuck it between his teeth. “It would put you in danger. You willing to do that for a child that is not one of yours?”

  With a deep puffing of his chest, Charlie crossed his arms. “Yous don’t know me.”

  “What are you two talking about?”

  The two men looked at one another then to me. Erik spoke first. “Brownies don’t live on this plane; they live on the first level of the veil for the most part. And while it isn’t perfect, it would provide something of a temporary haven that you are looking for.”

  “Charlie, you can take the baby with you? I thought you couldn’t cross the veil with anyone.” That had always been my understanding.

  The brownie limped to me and touched Zane on the cheek. “It bees more of a size matter. I can’t be taking a big one like yous or the wolf here, but a wee babe, him I could take.” Charlie’s eyes were soft as he looked down at the baby. No doubt remembering his own children when they had been alive.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I bees sure. Give him to me, sooner the better thats I gets going.”

  I handed him Zane, something in me lurching. I didn’t really want to say goodbye to the baby. He was the last piece of Milly I had, and probably the best piece.

  “See you later.” I lifted my hand as Charlie slipped through the doorway, crossing the veil. Alex gave a soft woof.

  “I likes Milly’s baby.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “I feeds him tiger ice cream next time.” Alex grinned at me, his eyes wide and hopeful. I didn’t answer, just rubbed the top of his head.

  Erik tapped me on the knee. “Things to do, Niece.”

  He was right, but I had to know something first. “How did you know where I would be, I mean, before Charlie found you? He said you were already on your way here.”

  “Pamela grabbed the papers from your room before we left Doran’s. Milly’s message was there, that you shouldn’t fight too hard when you next ran into a demon or two. That way she and Talia could get the book to you.” He tapped the violet skinned book of prophecy sitting beside me in the hay. “Said she would drop you back at the farm when it was all done.”

  I shook my head, disbelief flowing through me. Milly had kept her word, had fought Orion from his side of the veil. It had cost her life … emotions welled up in my heart and I struggled to put them away. Worse was when Erik slid his arm over my shoulder and tugged me close.

  “Grieve her, she was your family.”

  A sob escaped me, but I forced the next one back. “Let me go.”

  “It’s good to let it out.” He half shook me.

  “I said let me the fuck go!” I jerked away from him, taking solace in the anger that coursed through my veins. Erik didn’t seem surprised, nor upset. He just gave me a sad smile and shook his head. “One day you will have to learn to allow yourself to grieve, to feel.”

  “Well, it isn’t going to be today,” I snapped. I reached into the hay and pulled out the violet skinned book. The cover was slightly pebbled, not smooth like I knew Sas’s skin was. Maybe it was an older ogre that had lost its hide to cover this book. I shuddered and flipped it open, going for a random search.

  My eyes skimmed along, not really catching on anything at first. I flicked the page and in the middle of the paper was a picture that made me hold my breath.

  Three figures were depicted in the center, a little girl, and two young boys who were older, but not adult. Under the girl was “Spirit Seeker.” Under one of the boys was “Witch,” and under the third boy was “Human.” That wasn’t the worst of it.

  “When the three shall be bound to demons, the four horsemen shall be ready to come forth and seek the Tracker’s heart. Stop the possession and the end days shall be displaced for a time.”

  Erik leaned over me and looked at the picture. “Those the three kids who are missing?”

  “Motherfuckers,” I whispered as I nodded. They could have taken any human, but whoever had done this at Orion’s bidding had chosen to take those who were closest to me, those they knew I would go after.

  “Doesn’t make sense. Why would they take kids I knew, if they read this?”

  Erik took the book from me and looked at the page. “I don’t follow.”

  “Why not take random kids, like Simon, that I would probably never know they took? This is more like bait than trying to make something happen.”

  He frowned and stared harder at the page. “They weren’t expecting you to know this would happen. Didn’t you want this Kyle kid,” he tapped the picture in the book, “to come to you? To help with keeping an eye on things? Would you trust the spirit seeker if she came to your front door? And if a young male witch came to you for help, would you give it?”

  He had a point. I wanted to scrub my hands over my face, but I didn’t want to deal with the reminder my hands were not yet up to snuff. “Yeah. Either of them I would trust and help without thinking. Both of
them could have gotten close to me with ease. This is just another type of trap. Fuck, I hate Orion.”

  Erik grunted. “He’s a demon and will do everything he can to fool you.”

  There was no choice but to go after the three kids, even if they were bait for a trap. I Tracked India, feeling her threads steady and even in my head. I Tracked Kyle and, though he was terrified, he was physically okay. The other kid, Simon, was curious, but not hurt and not even that fearful. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It always worried me when a salvage was curious, but not afraid. Spoke of possibilities I didn’t like to imagine. Like a child being convinced they were better off with their perps.

  “What would it take to make for possession of three kids at the same time? How many witches?” I took the violet book back from Erik and flipped it open to the front. Since it had taken a full coven to try and possess India that first time, I had a feeling I already knew the answer to the question, but I had to ask, to be sure I wasn’t jumping to conclusions.

  “Three covens.”

  I nodded as my oversensitive fingers touched the pages, the words flowing under them.

  Why, oh why did I have to be right about that? A small part of me hoped it would only be one coven. One coven would be far slower in having the demons possess the kids. Which, in turn, would have given us more time to get to them.

  I Tracked witches as a whole, hoping we were wrong and it really was only one coven. Nope, there they were, lighting up inside my head like a pinball machine gone wild. A massive cluster of witches wound their way around the three threads of the three kids I still held.

  But for the first time, something new kicked in with my ability to Track.

  More than just the general direction the kids and witches were, I knew exactly what city.

  My home. Not the one I’d lived in for the last ten years in North Dakota. No, my other home, the one I was raised in with Berget.

  Boston.

  Shock rippled through me. I’d never been able to pinpoint a thread so accurately, down to the city. Usually, I had a pulling sensation either north or south, east or west, and a vague distance.

  But this time it came through loud and clear, the place visible in my head as if I were looking at a picture. Boston. Shit on sticks, if we were going to deal with Orion’s black covens once and for all, I would have to go to my hometown.

  Where my adoptive parents were, and the chance, with my luck, I would end up having to deal with the past, as well as the present. I slumped into the hay, my head swimming.

  Erik touched my elbow, getting my attention. “How bad is it?”

  How bad? Fuck, it couldn’t be worse.

  Nope.

  Wrong again.

  Chapter 8

  THE DARKNESS HAD swallowed him whole and there was no way back. A whimper slipped out of his muzzle and a voice rippled inside his head.

  Stay with me wolf, she will peel my hide and eat me for breakfast if I let your furry ass die.

  He tried to focus, to put the pieces together.

  Demons, unicorns, ogres, and a dragon. Everything was so fuzzy. There was a witch, she’d tried to heal him….

  Pamela tried to heal you, that’s true. But she is battling something on her own right now that is getting in the way of her ability. Witch hormones are the worst, almost as bad as Tracker tempers.

  Another time, that would have elicited a laugh from him. He tried to open his eyes, gave up when they proved too heavy and the darkness curled around him. He struggled against it; not his time, it wasn’t his time yet. There was too much left to do.

  Rest easy, wolf. The druids should have a way to heal you.

  Rylee.

  She is waiting for us in London.

  Louisa was closer, though. The shamans should be able to heal him.

  Excellent call, wolf. We go to Louisa first. Keeping you alive will keep us both in good standing with Rylee. Better that she sees you all put back together.

  Blaz banked hard, and the world lurched around Liam. A relieved sigh rippled out of him. That would have to be enough for now.

  Liam was going to be pissed when he figured out we weren’t following him. At least, not right away—we’d catch up as soon as we got the kids out of the black coven’s witchy hands.

  With the violet skinned book strapped to Erik’s back under his cloak, we headed out of the barn. Sunset was only fifteen or so minutes away and I marked it in my mind. On instinct, I reached back and touched my hand to the grip of my sword. My fingers curled around it, but the pain was bad, enough that I knew I’d never hold up in a fight. Fuck, this was seriously not good.

  Alex moved quietly beside me, more demure than I’d ever seen him, and it pulled me out of my own thoughts.

  “Buddy, are you okay?”

  “I feel funny.”

  I stopped and cupped his face, looking deep into his eyes. “What do you mean by funny?”

  He gave a roll of his shoulders. “Twisted up inside.”

  What the hell did that mean? “Let me know if it gets worse, okay?”

  “You gots it.”

  Of all the people in my life, Alex was one of the few constants I could depend on no matter what. I ran my hands down his cheeks and scratched his neck.

  He grinned up at me and gave me a wolfy wink. “I is good. No worries.”

  Nothing I could do other than keep an eye on his behavior and hope it wasn’t anything serious.

  Outside the barn, Eve stood at the edge of the burnt outhouse, her head lowered almost to the ground. A flutter of long blonde hair in the wind gave Pamela away.

  Zorro, or Marco as he insisted his name was, ruffled his feathers. “Your young witch is going through a hard time.”

  “Funny, I didn’t pick up on that,” I said as I walked toward the two girls. One feathered; one full of magic with no one to train her. Shit, even Milly had Giselle to guide her. With Milly dead, who did I trust to continue Pamela’s training? Deanna could do it, but there would be no training in the ways of fighting. It would be healing and growing plants and shit like that.

  Marco stepped in front of me, blocking my way. “You need to help her deal with it before you go further.”

  I glared up at him, would have liked to pull a blade and have him at the end of it to make my point. “Listen, we are all dealing with shit right now, every single one of us. She’s going to have to just figure it out.”

  He shook his head, feathers literally ruffled. “You can’t ignore this. This darkness will grow in her until there is nothing left.”

  Jaw tight, I stepped around him. Fucking bird brain, what did he know about witches?

  A soft voice, one that sounded suspiciously like Giselle’s, whispered to me. And what do you know? Not much, other than what little we gleaned from Milly.

  I stopped and put my hands on my hips, feeling the pain in my fingers and for the moment, relishing it. Pain had a way of clearing out emotions, of making everything simple.

  Pamela needed help. And the only person I had was Deanna. Fucking hell, I did not want to send Pamela off on her own. Not when I needed her to help me get the other kids out.

  “How long before this is a crisis?” I asked Marco without turning around.

  “I do not know. Not long.”

  I strode to where Pamela sat on the edge of the house’s foundation, her legs dangling over the burned and hollowed out shell. Crouching beside her, I stared into what had been my home, the one place I thought I’d always be safe. “I need your help, Pam. We have to go after those three kids.”

  Her eyes never lifted. “I’m not strong enough to help you.”

  “That’s bullshit and you know it,” I snapped. “You’re almost as strong as Milly right now, and you’ve been doing this only five months. Experienced? No, you aren’t. But you are a fucking powerhouse.”

  Her back slowly stiffened. “You aren’t mad at me for not being able to heal you fully?”

  I blew out a breath. “Look, it was some
sort of funky magic fire to do with Orion and me being a Slayer. I don’t think it has anything to do with you.”

  Her eyes, rimmed with tears, finally made contact with mine. “I don’t want to let you down.”

  “You never have.” I brushed hair back from her face and gave her a smile, though I had no doubt it was rather fatigued looking.

  Her lips trembled, but she fought through it. “Okay. Let’s get those kids.”

  Eve gave a happy squawk and flapped her wings. “Where are we going?”

  “Boston. But not yet. There is one task I have to do first.”

  Everyone looked at me and I struggled to put the words into a sentence that wouldn’t leave me gasping for air around tears. “Berget’s opal is failing. Frank is going to open the veil when the sun sets here, and get her across the veil.” I didn’t make eye contact with anyone, chose instead to stare at the barn, right where I thought she’d come through. “Pamela, I will need you to hold her. I don’t think she’ll fight you. I’ll take her head.”

  No one said anything, no one questioned me, and a part of me so badly wanted them to. To say that maybe there was another way. But we all knew that once Berget’s opal failed, her adoptive, psychotic parents would be fully in charge once more and we might not get another chance at eliminating the threat they posed. Even if it meant ending Berget’s life.

  Pamela moved beside me as I stared at the barn and Alex slid up to my other side, butting his head into my hand gently. I focused on breathing slow and even, not thinking about what I was going to do. I’d fought so fucking hard to keep her alive, to save her, and to have it fail now … I closed my eyes as the sun set. The twilight darkness fell swiftly and seconds ticked by. Maybe I’d done wrong by Frank, maybe the kid wouldn’t be able to pull it off. What if Berget killed him too? Fuck.

  The tension rose, and when I thought I’d for sure sent Frank to his death, the air in front of the barn door shimmered and opened. Berget stepped through, Frank right behind her.

  “Rylee said she wanted to see you,” Frank said, his eyes flicking up and squinting into the darkness as he searched for us. Behind them, the veil closed.