I held my sword over my head, poised to drive it straight through him when I saw the laughter in his eyes. “You will never win, Tracker. Even if I die now, you will die later. And I will be free again.”
With everything I had, I tapped into all the good in my life, the love I had for my daughter and Liam, for Alex and Pamela, Eve, and maybe even Faris. The emotions flowed through me, calming the rage. In my hands, my sword began to glow, as if lit from within. I didn’t think about this new development, couldn’t; there was no time.
“Demon, go back to your home.”
I drove the sword into his open mouth, only stopping when the hilt was buried in his throat. He convulsed around my blade, his three tongues dancing wildly in the air, like demented cheerleaders for a dying monster.
With a quick twist of the handle, I sliced through him and then pulled my sword out. A waft of rotting meat and sulfur spewed from his mouth, as if a septic main had broken inside him. The green mucus I’d seen on Lark, Peta, and Alex were next, then blood—red and black—flowed like a river around us. I looked down at my arms and legs.
The acid burns were gone, though my clothes were eaten to shit. Alex trotted toward me, the pustules gone and the mucus left on his skin already dried. Lark strode toward me, as though she wasn’t covered in left over pox. “Rylee, are you incapable of following anyone else? Should I give up now?”
I glared at her. “Maybe you should remember who broke you out of the fucking oubliette.”
Her eyes narrowed and she stepped close to me, using her height to her advantage. Peta shrunk back to her housecat form and leapt onto Lark’s shoulders, her green eyes worried.
“Maybe you should remember we’re trying to keep you alive,” Lark snapped and Peta shook her head.
Well, now was as good a time as any to have this out with her. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did you become a demon slayer in the last ten minutes?”
She shook her head ever so slightly. “We were going to hold him down so you could finish him off, remember?”
“And where were you?”
Her shoulders tightened. “Sick, but we were still fighting for you. Pamela healed Alex and me enough to get our asses here. For you.”
“Stop trying to guilt trip me, Lark.”
She grabbed my arms, surprising me. With a hard shake, she snapped my head back and forth, and Peta mewed as though that would stop her master. “You little idiot, everything we are doing is to get you to the end in one piece. I don’t want this world run by Orion any more than you do, so why won’t you damn well let me help?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling the strain of muscles there too. That damn bump from earlier was bigger and I picked at it. A flash of heat shot through me and I snapped my hand away.
A wild rush of anger slid over me as I yanked my two swords out, pointing both at her. “Because you don’t know shit, Lark! Who the fuck do you think you are anyway?”
Her eyes widened and she slowly raised her spear as I circled around her. “Rylee, what are you doing? We’re on the same damn side.”
Swiveling my swords, I loosened my wrists. “Are we? You jumped, distracted me from killing the demon. I don’t think we are on the same fucking side.” Were we? No, Lark was trying to stop me. Hurt me.
Control me.
Her eyes narrowed. “This doesn’t sound like you.”
I swung a sword as Alex slid between us, his hands up and his big eyes begging. “Rylee, stop. This is wrong.”
With only a hairsbreadth of room, I missed him. But he stayed there on the ground in front of me, unblinking. Trusting I wouldn’t hurt him.
The back of my neck tingled and itched, and I put a hand to it, dropping my sword. It hit the ground with a clatter that seemed to break the tension. Alex shimmied forward, and put his face close to mine. “You okay, boss?”
A lump in my throat seemed to freeze my ability to talk, so I just nodded.
“Maybe we should all get inside then,” he said, putting a hand to my elbow as if I were a feeble old woman. I jerked away from him.
“Don’t” was all I said. They stared at me, their eyes ranging from pity to fear. Neither of those emotions were ones I wanted to deal with; especially not in other people.
Lark turned away first. “Let’s get new clothes and get a move on.”
I watched her as she strode away, her leather vest and pants eaten through from the flinging acid. Peta dropped from her shoulder and trotted ahead of her, the white tip of her gray tail flicking back and forth rapidly. The shift in Lark’s attitude happened so swiftly I struggled to follow.
I had a feeling perhaps Peta influenced it. The cat did seem to know when she was needed.
And it had to be obvious even to the cat that Lark had been egging me on.
Right?
A hair-raising screech turned me around. Eve and Marco were slowly getting up. Whatever Pestilence had done to them had faded. Beside me, Alex shifted—albeit slowly—into his human form. The gangly teenager was buck-naked but didn’t seem overly bothered by it.
Pamela on the other hand as she walked toward us turned bright red and spun around. “Come on, Lark is right. We need to get clothes.”
I snatched up my sword, sheathed both. Limping a little, my right hip sore from something or other during the fight with Pestilence, I headed toward the box store.
“Think they have Twinkies in there? I’m starving.” Alex rubbed his hands together and gave me a sideways wink.
“Twinkies, but no rabbits.”
He grimaced and shook his head. “I think I’m done with rabbits for a while.”
We caught up to Pamela and I slung an arm around her shoulders guiding her so she was on the side opposite of Alex.
He reached around me and tugged her hair. “What’s the matter, Pamie?”
“Shut up, Alex.” She bit out, her face going even redder, if that were possible. Another time, I would have smiled and laughed. But not now.
From the corner of my eye, I watched him watching her. If it weren’t for Frank’s death, I knew what would happen.
Alex loved me like an older sister and best friend.
Pamela on the other hand . . . he watched her like a wolf hungry for a meal. Which was not totally surprising. “Pam, go ahead of us. Alex and I need to have a chat.”
“We do?” His golden eyes widened and it was then I realized that unlike other shifters I knew—excluding Liam—Alex’s eyes didn’t revert to their original color. They stayed werewolf gold despite being in human shape. Perhaps leftovers from being a submissive so long . . . .
Pamela hurried ahead of us, her blonde hair swinging loosely down her back. Alex tracked her with his eyes—the same way I knew Liam did me. Yeah, that was not happening anytime soon.
“Uh-huh, you and me need to chat. Might not get another chance to.” I stepped in front of him, blocking his path and put a hand on his chest. “Down, boy.”
“What? I’ve been good.” His eyes went as wide as I’d ever seen them. A false innocence, if I ever saw it.
My lips twitched despite the morose mood swirling through me. “Look, I get it. I do. Pamela is pretty, smart, a powerhouse of a witch. But she is fifteen and you are what, twenty?”
He at least had the grace to blush. “That obvious?”
“I don’t think subtle is in your repertoire, my friend.” I smiled to soften what I was going to say. “You need to remember that no matter how grown up she is, she is too young for you, right now. She and Frank were only a year apart. And now he’s dead and he was her first love. Be her friend. Be patient.”
Cactus strolled by us as he headed toward the store, catching the last bit I said. He burst out laughing. “Be a girl’s friend? Goddess, might work eventually. At least, I’m hoping.”
Alex looked from me to Cactus and let out a low growl. “Don’t mock her.”
I put a hand on his arm. “Alex. I may not get another chance to say this. Let Pamela have time. If, when she’s a few year
s older, you feel the same way, then you can say something. But not before that. Do you understand?”
He blew out a slow breath. “Yeah, I get it. I’ll be her friend.”
Cactus patted Alex on the shoulder. “Welcome to the friend club. Membership is free and at least you’ll get to hold them while they cry over another man.”
Alex grimaced and I shook my head. “Ignore him.”
We went into the box store to shop together for the last time.
Although saying we shopped would imply that we paid for our things, which we most certainly did not.
CHAPTER 8
PAMELA
I RIFLED THROUGH THE clothes on the racks, looking for something . . . or nothing. I wondered where the alarms were; it wasn’t like we’d had keys and pass codes to get in. Berget and Faris, or Liam depending on who was in charge, had broken the locks and headed deep into the storeroom.
Berget ghosted to my side as if thinking of her called her to me.
“I saw you looking at the cameras. Faris and I disarmed the whole system when we came in, so we should be good here for a while. All the workers are . . . sleeping now.”
“Oh, I . . . I thought we were going to have to rush out.”
She nodded. “Yes, like we always do?”
“Yes.” I breathed the word, feeling a strange hesitancy in our conversation. We’d talked before, but not alone. Not when Rylee wasn’t in the room.
Berget had tried to kill me the first time we’d met, and I wondered sometimes if she still harbored those intentions. I didn’t think so, at least I hoped not.
“The blue will look good with your eyes.” She pointed at a turquoise button down shirt.
“It would look good with yours, too,” I said softly. A question hovered on my tongue and I took a breath, wondering if I should bother asking.
“Go ahead,” the vampire said. “You won’t offend me.”
“Do you think it is coincidence that you and I look so alike? I mean, what do you think?” I wanted to kick myself, but Berget tapped a hand on the rack of clothes we stood by.
“I doubt anything in this world of ours is coincidence. If you hadn’t looked so much like me, maybe Rylee would have let you go into foster care. Or maybe even to the druid who wanted to train you. And without you, she wouldn’t have survived this long.” Berget cleared her throat. “May I ask you a question?”
I nodded quickly. “Of course.”
She seemed to stumble over the words. “Do you think . . . she loves you better than me?”
My eyes sprang open at the mere suggestion. “Are you kidding? You’re her sister. She never stopped looking for you.”
“And I tried to kill her on several occasions.”
“Not your fault.” I lifted a hand and carefully put it over hers. “Why would you even think she could love me more?”
Berget’s eye’s glimmered with tears. “Insecurities run deep, I suppose. I see her with you, and I see the bond you have. I . . . she doesn’t turn to me like she turns to you.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I flipped through the clothes. “I think you’re right. This blue would look good on both of us.” I shoved a shirt at her and then grabbed her hand. “We might not be normal teenagers, but we can act like it for a few minutes, right?”
She laughed softly and grabbed another handful of shirts from the rack. “Okay, let’s be teenagers, for now. No spells, no blood, no monsters.”
“Definitely that last,” I said and caught her eye. We burst into giggles like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Within minutes we were in the fitting room, swapping clothes under the door and leaping out at the same time with the most ridiculous of outfits on. And for those few brief moments, I was just Pamela, hanging out with a girlfriend.
There was nothing to be scared of, no future to wonder about.
No monsters, zombies, demons, or vampires trying to take us out.
And for that moment I forgot I was a witch and we were trying to save the world from being overrun by demons.
CHAPTER 9
LARK
I LOOKED AT THE women’s clothes, found a pair of jeans that looked like they would fit, and a dark brown T-shirt. I slid out of my beat up clothes and pulled the human clothing on. My sister Belladonna would have loved to be here, picking outfits, and trying them on. I realized I was doing my best not to think about what had almost happened with Pestilence.
Sitting on top of a pile of cotton T-shirts, Peta stared hard at me.
“You know you were wrong, Lark,” she said softly.
I hunched my shoulders a little. “You don’t have to rub it in.”
“I’m not.” She let out a jaw-cracking yawn and then rubbed a paw over her face. “It’s my job to help you grow. Admitting your wrong when you are wrong is a way to do that.”
I frowned at her and she grinned back. Dropping my face to hers, she rubbed against me. “And I only do it because I love you.”
Scooping her into my arms, I held her to me. “Thanks, cat.”
“Anytime, dirt girl. And to soften this, you may have been wrong, but I believe something is wrong with Rylee. She is not herself.”
“I picked up on that too, but unless she opens herself, we can’t help her.”
I set her down and my mind immediately went back to the scene in the parking lot.
Rylee had come so close to being killed, and I’d been unable to do anything as my body was wracked with spasms. If Pamela hadn’t been there, and hadn’t been with it as much as she had, there would have been no way I could have helped Rylee in the end.
Cactus cleared his throat beside me. “You should try the green shirt. It’ll look better on you.”
“The green shirt is two sizes too small.”
“Yes, that’s what I said, it will look better on you.” He slapped my ass and I glared at him.
“Not now, Cactus. I’m not in the mood.”
A low grumbling hiss came from Peta. “Prick, keep your hands to yourself.”
“What? You two badass girls kicked that demon into the seventh Veil, everyone is still alive; what more could you want?” He backed away from Peta a bit. He’d learned the hard way not to ignore her.
I finished buttoning the jeans and tugged at the T-shirt. “It didn’t go as planned. The whole thing fell to pot as soon as Pestilence arrived. I’m supposed to help Rylee get to the final battle with Orion, but how can I do that if I can’t even run a play?”
“What? Have you been watching football?” He smiled at me and I swatted him on the arm.
“Cactus, you know what I mean.”
“I don’t understand why it’s such an issue. When you first started as an Ender, you didn’t exactly plan things. You tried, but then you rolled with the punches as things shifted and changed.”
How did I explain to him this was different? Lives were on the line, but when I was younger, those lives wouldn’t affect the outcome of the whole world.
Rylee’s life would. And I was determined to see her through to the end, no matter what.
“You have to let her do her thing, Lark. You have to. No matter how hard it is for you to let go, this isn’t your hunt. It’s hers. We can only try to manage the fall out, whatever it might be.”
Goblin piss and worm shit, he was right, and I felt that from Peta too. She knew it as well as I did. “See if you can find me a belt, would you?”
He leaned in. “Don’t I get a kiss for helping you figure out you were wrong?”
I lifted my hand and squeezed his cheeks until his lips puckered. “No. I told you we would have this discussion later.”
“It is later,” he spit out through puckered lips.
“Not late enough,” I murmured as I walked away from him, Peta following me. Rylee was a few aisles over, rifling through the tank tops. “Hey.”
She looked at me, her tri-colored eyes swirling. “Hey, nice digs.”
I glanced down at myself. “Listen,
I shouldn’t have tried to take control back there. This is your show, so you lead and I will follow.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Why the sudden change in heart? Admitting you’re wrong doesn’t seem like something you’d ever do, what with the whole ‘I’m an elemental and I’m better than you’ shit you’ve got going on.”
I had to bite my tongue not to respond to the dig and remind myself she was not herself in the least. “Oh, Cactus reminded me I was not so unlike your leap-before-you-look style when I was younger. And that I managed to survive my own crazy ideas. Of course, he also pointed out I am support for you in this. I’m one of the keys to the final battle, but right now? This is your show.”
She gave a slow nod. “Thanks. You do realize I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, right?”
I rubbed a hand over my face. “Yeah, you aren’t the first Tracker I’ve met. You all tend to be like that from what I understand. It’s the Spirit Elemental in you, it makes me unpredictable too. Though to a lesser degree.” I smiled to soften the words. She laughed and a little of the tension between us dissipated.
“Somehow I doubt that. If we’re related, you probably have more than your fair share of a temper too.”
Peta snickered softly at my feet. “That’s an understatement.”
I ignored my familiar. “Yes, but I’ve learned to control it.” Which I had for the most part. Occasionally, it still flared. My guts twisted with the thought of seeing my family after being locked away for so many years and what that would do to my careful control. Likely break it into a million pieces of pissed off.
The sounds of clothing being pushed aside and a stealthy pair of feet made me step back. Liam stepped out from behind one of the racks. I’d never known him separately from the vampire, but I could only imagine the struggle of choosing between the two men. I snorted softly to myself. Who was I kidding? I was still trying to choose between two men, and was no closer to making a decision after years in banishment and the oubliette to think about it.
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