Bear tossed him a pair of pants and t-shirt. “A guardian doesn’t choose who they create, like with a werewolf. Your blood chooses who will become a guardian. The Wolf has been gone a long time, and so I suppose it was time for him to come again to this world.”
Liam, clothing on, stood in the middle of the living room, seeing a vision of Pamela curled up on the far side of the couch, her eyes wide and full of fear while they waited to see if Rylee would live or die. He shook his head, clearing the image. “So it had nothing to do with Alex drooling into the wound?”
Bear grunted. “No doubt that was part of it; you would have become a werewolf regardless, but getting swiped by me, that only made you a guardian because it was time. The world needs the Wolf again. He has always been the one to tip the scales in times of dire straits.” A light chill seemed to fill the air as Bear lowered himself to a wooden chair, his movements smooth and filled with barely restrained strength. “The Wolf doesn’t generally have a long life span, a few years at most, usually less than that.”
How was he not surprised? “Yeah, I’ve been told more than once my time is coming.”
“And did you listen? Did you hear the unspoken words of how you will die?” Bear was serious, there was no joking in him.
“I will save her.”
Bear’s eyes were grave and he leaned back in his seat. “Yes, I do believe you will. But I think—”
“Bear, who are you talking to?” Louisa stepped into the room, stalling the conversation between the two guardians. Liam wasn’t sure if he was happy about that or not. The premonitions, prophecies, and readings he’d been getting lately, none of them spoke in his favor. So one more didn’t really bother him. Or at least, that’s what he told himself.
“Louisa, I need to speak to you and the other shamans about the guardians.”
Her dark eyebrows rose and she pursed her lips. “What, no thank you for saving your life?”
“I am grateful, but my life will mean little if I do nothing with it. The shamans and their guardians, I need to speak with all of them.”
Her eyes flicked toward Bear almost imperceptibly. He was sure Bear hadn’t caught the look, but he had. She put her hands on her hips. “That is not your place, Wolf, you need to leave.”
His wolf shot upward, anger flooding him, and he didn’t even realize he’d grabbed her until he had her lifted off the floor. “The guardians are all in danger, and you will call your sister shamans here so we can figure this out.”
“Bear.” Her voice was ice, but her eyes were a mixture of emotions. “You would let him lay his hands on me?”
Bear let out a snort. “He’s not hurting you, and if my brothers are in danger then I want to hear what he has to say.”
Her jaw twitched and the indignant fury leached from her eyes, but there was something else there too. Fear. And Liam wasn’t sure if it was fear of him, or of something else. “Fine. Put me down. Now.”
Liam dropped her to the floor and she stumbled back, straightening her long flowing white nightgown.
Without another word she left the room, stomping all the way. Liam watched her go.
“She hasn’t been sleeping well. It makes her moody.” Bear sat completely relaxed. “The guardians will get here well ahead of the shamans.”
“How many are there?”
“Besides me and Eagle, only two others, Coyote and Hawk.”
Liam thought about what Rylee told him when they’d tried to go through one of the doorways in the castle with Faris.
“What about Spider?”
Bear stiffened in his seat. “How do you know Spider?”
“Rylee.”
The other guardian slowly stood, unfolding himself bit by bit. “There are guardians that help, and there are guardians who hurt. And then there are some like Spider who sit on the fence.”
Liam lifted an eyebrow. “From what Rylee said, Spider wasn’t exactly helpful.”
“Yet they survived her.”
Her. That was interesting. “I thought all guardians were male.” He chose not to mention the water dragon Rylee and he met in Russia during their vacation.
“All but Spider and one water dragon. Spider is rather bitchy, but she keeps to herself, spins her webs and tells her tales. The water dragon hasn’t been heard from in years; so long I can’t even recall her name.” Bear pointed at the kitchen and Liam followed. This was seeming so … mundane. Was this how life would be without Rylee setting things in motion? Quiet. Mellow.
Ordinary.
“How many guardians are there?”
Bear poured and handed him a cup of coffee without asking. Liam took it, but didn’t drink.
“Some for each continent.” Bear didn’t elaborate and the conversation died after that. But Bear was right, it didn’t take long for the other two guardians to show. Hawk walked in without knocking, Coyote right behind him.
They looked as though they could be twins, both with long hooked noses, shorn dark brown hair and deep tans that came from hours and hours in the sun. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder inside Louisa’s home, a few inches shorter than Liam and Bear.
“So, this is our Wolf?” Coyote’s voice sounded as though he barely restrained himself from a bout of laughter.
Liam gave him a nod but said nothing. Coyote let out a howl, his head thrown back. “Always the same, stoic and not much for fun. Good thing you’ll be dead soon.”
A threat was not something his wolf took lightly. Without thinking, he leapt at Coyote, pinning him to the floor. Coyote didn’t seem bothered by it, though, he just winked up at him as he was slammed into the wooden floor. “Ah, see, there it is, your lack of humor shining through like a ray of sunshine.” He reached up and patted Liam’s cheek affectionately. Liam fought not to bite the smaller man’s fingers.
“Stop poking at him,” Bear said. “He has information we need.”
“Like how Eagle died? That Harpy was too busy sobbing to get much information out of her,” Hawk said, his voice cutting and sharp.
Liam got off Coyote, but didn’t offer him a hand to help him up. “Eve was very attached to Eagle. He was her mentor.”
Hawk shrugged. “Doesn’t matter who he was to her. He was a guardian first. What killed him?”
The three guardians looked at him and he nodded. “You don’t want to wait for your shamans?”
“No. Tell us,” Bear said, his voice growing deeper, as though he were close to changing forms.
Even with Bear being on edge, Liam hesitated. How did he explain everything that happened in a condensed form?
“Say what you must say, Wolf,” Hawk snapped.
“Tears in the veil can be closed with guardian blood. That’s what killed Eagle. A group of demons came through, kidnapped some of our people, and used Eagle’s blood to close the tear in the veil behind them so they couldn’t be followed.”
Coyote snorted. “You’re shitting us.” Interesting. Coyote spoke in a much more modern way than Bear or Hawk, who both spoke in a more formal, old school style.
“I saw his body. I believe he was killed with the same copper knife that nearly ended my life.” Liam folded his arms, suddenly wondering where the hell that knife was. It was not the kind of weapon they needed floating about. “He was cut, badly, and bled out.”
“Guardian’s can’t be killed by mere cuts,” Hawk said, circling around. “But they can be killed by other guardians. How do we know you aren’t the dark Wolf?”
Now that was a new one. He chose not to ask what the dark Wolf was. He could guess. “Why would I kill Eagle? What purpose would that serve?”
Hawk shrugged and Liam could see he wasn’t much better than Coyote when it came to poking at things he shouldn’t. “Just pointing out the obvious. You showed up; Eagle gets killed. Not a coincidence in your favor, my friend.”
He had to fight not to roll his eyes. “I came to warn you there is a good chance the demons will come after you with a weapon, or weapons, that can kill you and
you want to play games? Not to mention there is at least one coven of black witches, and if they get a hold of you, they have spells that will bind you, and they could force you to carry a demon. And your blood and mine can be used to hide the evidence of tears in the veil. You really want to point fingers at me right now? Maybe instead we should be working together to stop this before it gets any worse.”
Silence flowed through the room, the tension between the four guardians high. Even so, Liam never saw it coming. Couldn’t have guessed what was about to happen.
Hawk and Bear launched at him at the same time, shifting mid-air, the red glimmer he caught in their silver eyes meaning only one thing.
They’d already been possessed.
Oh, hell no.
So much for his theory that Rylee was the one at the center of all things chaotic.
He hit the ground and scrambled away, Coyote on the floor with him. “Run!”
They bolted for the front door, nearly ripping the hinges off as they blasted through.
“What the hell?” Coyote barked out as they bolted into the front yard. Hawk and Bear weren’t right behind them, though.
Louisa.
“They’ll kill her,” Liam said and let the change take him. Coyote didn’t need any prompting, just shifted beside him.
The pack crept forward and Liam flicked his head for them to stay back. They would be slaughtered if they got in a fight with the guardians.
A piercing scream from inside shot through the air like a gun going off. Coyote followed him as he ran toward the house, his mind racing. Two guardians, both possessed. But they could be killed and now had to be, there was no choice.
His nose saved him as he skidded through the doorway and he flattened himself to the floor as Bear swiped a paw over top of his head. Liam rolled, then sprung to his feet, paws scrambling as Coyote dodged toward Bear, snapping teeth at the larger guardian’s legs. Blood flowed and Bear roared. Coyote let out a yipping laugh and Liam took the distraction to scent the air. Hawk was still here, but it was Louisa he worried about.
Following his nose, he found Hawk battering at a door, the frame shuddering under his blows. Even though Hawk was huge, almost on par with the size of Eagle, his wingspan easily twenty five feet, he was having trouble knocking the door down. With his wings and body, there was no room left in the hallway to get enough speed to beat down the door.
Nor did he seem interested in anything but the door. Liam didn’t hesitate, just leapt forward, aiming for the back of Hawk’s neck.
But his luck had run out. Hawk spun at the last second and ducked out of the way, his talons coming up to rake Liam across his right front leg.
As Hawk’s legs went by, Liam snapped at them, catching one in his mouth and snapping it like a chopstick.
Hawk screeched, his beak flashing forward, heading straight for Liam’s face. He dodged and managed to grab Hawk’s right wing. Using his body weight and gripping fiercely to the feathers and cartilage in his mouth, he jerked Hawk off balance, throwing him into the wall with a house-shuddering blow.
Stunned, Hawk slid to the floor.
One stride and he was on top of Hawk, the guardian’s neck in his mouth. He chomped as Hawk began to struggle, tasted the sweet blood, the pulse of life fading as he yanked at the spine. He had to protect Louisa; this was not personal in the least. Removal of Hawk’s head; that would do it, much as he wished he didn’t have to.
Three hard jerks with his teeth tearing through the flesh was all it took. Hawk’s head rolled away, shifting back to a man, as the rest of his body convulsed once, twice, and once more for good measure before stilling. The shimmer of a demon’s essence curled around him. Like a ghost it floated, eyeing him up and down. Liam snarled at it.
“We are not done yet,” the demon whispered, lifting its hand. “We will have this world. The doorway is open, and you cannot stop what is coming.” The demon faded as it laughed.
A high-pitched cry of pain snapped his head up. Bear would not be as easy to take as Hawk had been.
He bolted out of the room to see Coyote on the floor, his back bent at an impossible angle, his eyes staring toward Liam.
Bear stood on all fours over Coyote and let out a roar. Liam growled back, letting out a howl he couldn’t help. This was it; he could feel the finality of it in his whole body. Bear and he would go down together, and that in itself would keep Rylee safe. A guardian possessed; there was nothing that could have stopped them, short of another guardian. And there was no doubt that Bear would have gone after Rylee at some point for Orion; it would be just a matter of when.
His heart and mind settled into a steady thrum of acceptance. His only regret was there had been no true goodbye between him and Rylee.
Slinking forward, his belly to the ground, ears flattened to his skull, he bared his teeth. Bear had been a friend of Wolf’s for many years, but the demon in him … that could never be changed.
They circled one another, but before either could attack, the scrabble of claws on hardwood floor met his ears.
The pack slunk into the house, mimicking Liam’s stance, ears flattened to their heads, rumbling growls echoing his.
A rush of emotion flooded through him. Loyalty was something wolves understood, and even though they would die, they would fight for their alpha.
After that, the melee turned into a bloody mess. Bear didn’t hold back, but neither did the wolves and they were as tough as only werewolves could be. Dodging in and out, they took shots at Bear while Liam did the same, always working toward where he could get in a deathblow.
Minutes passed and the house filled with the stink of death, blood, and broken bowels. Half the pack had been killed in that short time, and Bear looked no worse for the wear other than the few bites Liam had gotten in. Coyote lay at his feet as he paused between attacks and the guardian shifted his head to look at Liam. “Hamstring him.”
Liam took the advice. Using the remaining wolves, they taunted and teased Bear until Liam could dive in, driving his teeth into Bears legs, ripping and tearing at the flesh. Bear roared, and from within the house the sound of a woman crying out nearly stopped him. Nearly.
They had to finish Bear off, no matter the pain it brought Louisa. She’d known something was wrong, but didn’t have the strength to stop it.
Tackled to the ground, Bear was held down by the wolves and he shocked the hell out of Liam by shifting back to human form.
“I can see I’m done in, Wolf,” he rasped, the backs of his legs shredded to nothing more than mincemeat. “But I have a message for you, from my master. Orion wants you to know you cannot stop him; he won’t settle for Milly’s child now. He knows about you, about what you’ve done to the Tracker.”
Everything in Liam stilled, but he didn’t shift, just trotted to Bear and put his muzzle next to Bear’s neck. There were no words anyway. With an efficiency born of months of practice, and a millennium of instinct, he snapped Bear’s neck and wrenched his head from his body. The demon’s essence floated away, sucked back through the veil as it laughed.
If only that would still the fear spiking through him, the fear that Bear wasn’t just making idle threats.
The fear … that Orion knew his secret.
That Orion knew Rylee’s secret.
Chapter 14
LOUISA WAS, TO say the least, shaken. It took Liam half an hour to convince her to come out of the bathroom. It wasn’t until Crystal, the youngest of the shamans, showed up that they talked her out.
Crystal took the lead, helping Louisa to the couch and then getting tea made. “Here”—she handed Louisa a cup—“drink this.”
He didn’t really want to wait around, but with Coyote in rough shape, he also didn’t want to leave them without any protection. The wolf in him didn’t like leaving allies to be killed.
“Bear, I thought something was off with him, but I couldn’t figure it out,” Louisa said, her lips touching the rim of her cup, but she didn’t sip any of the hot liqu
id. On her lap lay the copper knife. Liam itched to take it from her, but restrained himself. Any sudden moves would have the two shamans on high alert.
Coyote still lay on the floor, no longer contorted but very still, all his previous humor gone. “I can’t believe Hawk was possessed.”
Liam wasn’t surprised by anything now. “They may come for you yet, Coyote. Whether to possess or to kill for your blood, it doesn’t matter.” He thought for a moment. “Where are the other shamans?”
Crystal looked up at him, her eyes soft with sorrow and tears. “Dead. We are the only two left.”
That didn’t bode well. His wolf urged him to act, to pin Crystal down and force the truth from her. With his time running out, feeling it slide away with every passing second, he agreed, and before he thought better of it, grabbed Crystal and jerked her to him. Reluctantly, he tightened his hands on her arms and squeezed hard enough that the bones ground together. He put his face close enough that their lips nearly touched, though his teeth were bared.
“You did it, you killed them.”
She shook her head frantically as Louisa shrieked at him to let the younger woman go. But there could be no way to be sure that Crystal hadn’t been possessed too. Louisa threw her tea at him, the hot water burning his bare chest, but he held on, waiting for Crystal to do something, anything to give herself away.
Crystal was frantic, her eyes wild with fear. “I didn’t, I swear I didn’t kill them! I don’t know who did it!”
Louisa stood, the copper knife pointed at him, and though it shook, he knew she would use it.
Crystal’s eyes rolled and as she slipped into a faint, so he let her body slide to the couch once more. “She would have fought back if she’d been possessed.”
“You bastard, you can’t just go threatening people!” Louisa screeched, the edge of hysteria in her voice making the words crack and break.
“I’m not Rylee, I can’t Track people and figure out if they are hiding things. There is no other way for us to know.” He kept his voice even and firm. Business-like, more than reminiscent of his FBI days.
Louisa crouched beside Crystal, stroking her cheek. “She’s breathing, I thought—”
Wounded: Book 8 (A Rylee Adamson Novel) Page 14
