He snarled, “That is not fair.”
“All’s fair in love and war, asshole,” I bit out, using the strength they gave me to stand and push Orion to his knees. Around me, the Veil flickered, and I saw it for the first time. It was built of threads, not unlike those I Tracked for a salvage.
Using my ability, I Tracked the Veil, and the world around me opened like a map unfolding. Each piece of the Veil lay out in front of me as simply as a drawing. I let go of one of Orion’s hands so I could run my fingers through the threads around me, plucking at them like a harp. They were all intertwined, but I could fix that.
But that would mean letting go of Orion completely and exposing myself to him.
I swallowed hard, and unlinked our fingers. He leapt toward me, and I braced myself. But the blow never came.
A black, furred figure slammed into him. “No hurts Ryleeeeeeeeeee!”
“Alex, no!”
He glanced back at me, golden eyes glowing in the darkness. “I gots it, boss. You take care of the Veil.”
Shaking, I watched with my mouth hanging open as Alex dodged Orion’s blows while driving him farther from me. Did that mean Alex had died on the other side?
Between Alex and me ran a gold thread—the bond between us. His heart beat in time with mine; a steady pulse that reverberated his strength and love through me.
I lifted my hands and closed my eyes, seeing the Veil. As quickly as I could, I pulled the threads apart, untangling them from one another. Those that went to the first six levels, I left alone, smoothing them out. They were needed. There was still a place for them in the world.
Alex let out a howl that was cut off as quickly as it started. Tears slipped down my face as I grasped the threads of the seventh Veil and began to tie it off. Knot after knot, I tightened the threads in on themselves, over and over again. The bundle of threads vibrated in my hands and I stared at it, knowing I wasn’t quite done. There was one thing left to finalize this sealing of the Veil.
“You fucking little bitch!” Orion screamed at me and I looked up. I was no longer within the darkness, but Orion was.
Alex lay at my feet in his wolf form, his sides heaving. “Finish it, boss.”
Orion hammered his hands on the now solid wall between us. “Fucking little bitch!”
I flipped him off. “You’re repeating yourself, demon. A sign of dementia, perhaps?”
The black Veil shivered and the demons behind me screamed as they were sucked into the seventh Veil, one by one. Their bodies popping as they slid through, like mosquitos hitting a bug zapper. I waited, feeling the demons careening along the threads as they were sucked in from the world.
A vacuum of epic proportions.
Hands touched my shoulders and I knew without looking it was my mom and dad. “Rylee, a life is the final key.”
Alex sat up, shifting into his human form. “Her life, or any life?”
Elle stared at him. “Her blood started the ceremony. She was needed because she was the only one who could see the threads of the Veil and untwist them. The Blood of the Lost created the seven Veils, so it took someone of the same heritage to fix them.” She was avoiding the question. Alex stared her down.
“Any life, or just hers?”
Elle’s eyes never left his and her unwillingness to look my way freaked me out. “You are correct, wolf. Any life will do, now.”
“No, Alex. You aren’t doing this.” I shook my head and tried to back away.
He stood and held his hands out to me. “Rylee, Giselle said I was the lynch pin, and so did Lark. This is the last thing I can do to keep my family safe. To keep those I love from facing this kind of darkness ever again. I can be the lynch pin to keeping your life intact.”
I shook my head, unable to see past the sudden onslaught of tears. “Alex, you can’t. Without you there, my life won’t be intact.”
Yet, already I knew he’d set his mind on it. “I can. I do this because I love you, Rylee. You were my only friend and you believed in me when no one else did. You took me in and saved me.” He wrapped his arms around me and I sobbed into his chest, clinging to him.
“Alex.”
“No, this is the way it’s supposed to be. I can do something no one else can. I can give you back to the world. I can give you back to Marcella and Liam. To all of them. They need you more than they need me and we both know it.”
He kissed the top of my head and I clung to him harder. Not Alex, anyone but him. But that wasn’t true, either, I didn’t want to lose any of my family.
“I can’t let you do this. I am the one who is supposed to die. Not you.”
He shook me lightly, and for the first time I truly knew he was no longer submissive. “You can and you will. For Marcella, if for no one else, you will let me do this. We both know this is the right way. But you have to promise me something,” he said, pulling back from me. Tears streamed down his face too, soaking his cheeks and chest where they dripped. Damn him, he was right. For Marcella, I would let him go.
“Anything,” I whispered through the pain and the tears.
He gave me a quirky smile and for a moment I thought his tongue would loll out. “I want you to go into the desert, get one of those fucking rabbits, and roast it over an open fire for me.”
A sob escaped me, and with it, I lost my ability to speak in coherent sentences. He stepped back, glancing at Elle. “I have to touch the Veil now, don’t I?”
From the corner of my eye I saw her nod. Alex lifted my hands, kissed them both, and then gave me a wobbling smile. “Don’t tell Pamela how I felt about her. She’s lost enough.”
“I won’t,” I whispered.
He swallowed hard. “I love you, Rylee.”
“I love you, Alex.” I couldn’t stop the cry as he stepped backward and into the black Veil. A burst of light exploded outward like a supernova. We were thrown back, and I hit the ground hard, feeling it dig into me like a slab of rock. I tried to open my eyes, but wasn’t able to even blink. Voices surrounded me; first, those I’d been reunited with, and one new one that sent my heart into overdrive.
“It’s okay, baby girl. Go, we’ll be here when it’s your time,” Mom said, and she pressed a kiss against my forehead.
“Alex knew it wasn’t your time to let go. Tell Ophelia . . . tell her I loved her,” Blaz whispered in my ear.
“Tracker. Your damn wolf was right. Love is worth dying for.” Faris breathed over me and I forced my eyes open, though it took all my strength to do it. My heart leaped at the sight of him until I realized what it meant.
Faris was dead. Liam was Faris.
“No, no. I can’t lose you too!” I screamed the words and his arms slid around me, pulling me to his chest.
“Ah, you don’t know how long I’ve waited to know for sure you loved me. That it wasn’t just the wolf you wanted.”
A hiccupping sob escaped me and I’d thought I was through all the tears in my body, but I was wrong again. I held him, feeling the strength in his body as he bent his lips to mine. A kiss that was for the first time free of manipulation or lies.
Just Faris.
“Damn you for making me love you too,” I whispered.
He laughed softly. “I could say the same. But I won’t. Your love . . . I think it might have saved me from penance.”
Faris ran a finger under my eye, swiping away the tears. “Don’t cry for me, Rylee. You were a blessing and a curse, and I am grateful for both.” His blue eyes glimmered with unshed tears. “Maybe I can find my mother and sister now.”
Sniffing, I nodded. “Then this is goodbye.”
He tipped his head to one side and smiled, not a single fang showing. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. It’s hard to say in this world of ours, don’t you think?”
My laugh turned into another sob. “I don’t know anymore, so many people gone, lost.”
“Willingly, Rylee. We all went willingly.” He tucked a finger under my chin. “Remember that, we would all do it again to be
at your side. To fight for you. To love you.” He leaned in and kissed me again, soft and gentle, as sweet a kiss as I’d ever tasted. Then he stood and stepped back. “Get out of here, Tracker, you aren’t ready for this adventure . . . not yet.”
My eyes slipped shut again. But Liam didn’t come to say his goodbye and my heart lurched. Perhaps that was my penance for letting Alex go. For allowing him to take my place so I could go home to Marcella and Zane.
They all came to me, my friends, all those I’d lost until their voices blended into one thing.
We love you, Rylee. But it isn’t your time yet. Not yet.
Their voices faded and new ones slipped in and became those I’d left behind.
Doran’s voice was the first I heard. “She’s going to kick my ass for this.”
“I’ll take the blame. Do it,” Lark snapped.
A rush of warmth filled my mouth and I swallowed instinctively. Gulp after gulp of sweet liquid flowed down my throat until my belly was full. I turned my head. “No more.”
Lips brushed against mine. “I have to seal it with a kiss. The kiss you owe me.”
Doran pressed his mouth against mine, his fangs pressing into my skin. I groaned, but not out of pleasure. My body hurt all over, and I struggled to open my eyes.
“Give it a minute, Rylee.” Doran pushed on my shoulders, holding me to the ground. “Don’t move too fast.”
I opened my eyes, staring up at an early morning sky. There were no sounds of battle, no demons leering over us. Blinking slowly, I looked around at the faces peering back at me.
Pamela, Ophelia, Eve, Marco, Doran, Charlie, and Will. Calliope and her Crush of Unicorns, India at her side. Jonathan behind Lark. The weight on my chest though wasn’t entirely from Doran. Black fur filled my vision as I looked down to see Alex seemingly asleep on me.
My shoulder’s shook as I ran my hands through his fur. “Damn you for leaving me, Alex.”
I cried until there were no tears left. There was nothing anyone could say. I’d lost him. And I’d lost Liam again. Whatever we’d gained in saving the world, I wasn’t entirely sure it was worth it. How could this world exist properly without my two boys?
Without the laughter that Alex pulled from me in my darkest hours?
Slowly, I sat up, and Doran pulled Alex from me, gently laying him at my side. I buried my fingers into his long fur, knowing that soon enough I wouldn’t even have that.
Lark shook her head. “Holy hell, Rylee, I wasn’t sure it would work.”
“How?” I whispered. “All my blood was gone, wasn’t it?”
Doran cleared his throat. “Well, that is true. But it is also the last step to becoming a vampire. You have to be drained of every last drop of blood before you can be turned. Essentially, you have to die in order to be reborn.”
My eyebrows shot to my hairline and with them I shot to my feet. Not possible, it wasn’t possible. “I’m standing in the sunlight.”
He shrugged. “You’re a new breed of vampire. Like me.”
I stumbled back and fell over a lump on the ground. Berget’s voice snapped out. “Ow! Not funny.”
I crouched. “Berget?”
“Yeah, I got stuffed undercover again.” Her voice wasn’t really irritated. “Rylee? Is it really you?”
“Yes.” I couldn’t manage more than that, so I put a hand on her back, giving her a light pat.
I looked around, searching for Faris’s body. But of course, it wouldn’t be there, but burned up in ash. Was I not to be able to even bury Liam?
I Tracked him, reaching for the threads that would at least tell me he was truly gone.
And felt nothing. Not that there were no threads, but I couldn’t Track anything. Hands shaking, I held them out. “I can’t feel anyone.”
Lark stepped closer and took my hand. “You were drained of all your blood, Rylee. The Blood of the Lost is gone, and with it, your abilities. At least, that’s what I think has happened.”
I couldn’t help feeling I was missing a part of me. That which made me me was gone. Yet I couldn’t be angry; I’d been given a second chance.
“Thank you.” I looked to Doran, then Lark. To each of them. “I could never have stood against him without you.”
Doran caught me first in his arms and that quickly turned into a group hug as everyone got in on it. Pamela was crying, her face pressed against me.
“Alex would have loved this.”
A laugh that turned into a sob escaped me. “Yeah, he would have.”
I held them tightly, my family. The ones who’d survived and I was grateful for all I had. Though we’d lost so much, I knew I couldn’t dishonor the sacrifices made by being ungrateful. By wanting more than I’d been given.
I closed my eyes and held tightly to them.
To those I could still hold onto.
CHAPTER 55
LIAM
FARIS SHOOK HIS head. “You lucky bastard. The sunlight burned me out of you.”
Liam frowned. “What are you talking about?’
“YOU aren’t a vampire. You never were. You were just inhabiting my body.” Faris gave a rueful smile and shook his head. “Which means when the sunlight hit us, I was fried. But you got to keep on living. So I’ll tell you this now, you’d better stick it out with Rylee, because I think she’s got a thing for that body you’re in.”
“You died for her.”
The vampire snorted and spoke over his shoulder as he walked away, heading into a fog that swam up between them. “Yeah, I guess I did. Maybe you and I aren’t so different after all, Wolf.”
“Wait.” The word slipped out of him as he tried to open his closed eyes. He made himself open them, but it was like prying apart two pieces of paper glued together. There was no answer to his request, not even a snotty reply.
Faris was gone, and for the first time in months, Liam was alone in his head.
“What the hell,” he murmured, sitting up, pushing the heavy curtain off his body before he thought better of it.
The sunlight spilled over his face and he drew in a slow, even breath. His heart beat, almost frantically, and a distant urge to run and hide from the bright light bit at him. Leftover muscle memory from hundreds of years living in the darkness. He looked down at his body.
His body.
Not Faris’s any longer. He shoved the curtain the rest of the way off and stood. The slab was bare. Rylee’s body and Orion’s were gone.
Fear clutched at his heart with icy fingers, and despite the warm sun, he was cold all the way to his core. He ran forward searching for a sign of what had happened. So much blood . . . .
“She’s in the barn.”
He spun to see Lark standing behind him. How the hell had she snuck up on him? Why didn’t he hear her? Or smell her for that matter?
The realization hit him like a hammer between the eyes.
He was human again. That was the only answer.
“Is she . . . alive?”
Lark smiled, though it was tired and full of sorrow. “In a manner of speaking. And you aren’t human, Wolf. You never were. Let your body catch up to the soul that it now contains; your senses will come back.”
A barking laugh rolled toward them and Griffin strolled up behind Lark, slinging an arm over her shoulders. “Listen to her, yeah? She’s a smart girl.”
Liam stared at the older man. “Am I still a guardian?”
Griffin shrugged. “As much as you ever were. The wolf is a part of you. Don’t matter what your body looks like, yeah? And that wee girl of yours . . . she’s going to be walking in your footsteps soon enough, so don’t forget the training that old coot Peter gave you.”
He nodded. Peter . . . the old werewolf deep in the wilds of Russia had given him insight into what he was capable of . . . and he’d bound Rylee’s soul to him.
Griffin turned away, and Liam couldn’t help but grab his arm. “You’re leaving already?”
Grunting, Griffin swatted his hand away. “You remembe
r Catya? She needs me more than you do, yeah?”
Catya, the littlest werewolf Liam had ever met with a heart of pure gold. “I’m sorry.”
With a wink, Griffin shifted into his wolf form and loped away.
Lark waved at him. “We can talk later. Go to her; she thinks you’re lost to her.”
Liam nodded and jogged to where the barn, remarkably enough, still stood. Pushing the door open, the flood of smells assaulted his nose. Hay and mold, sweating bodies, and . . . take out Chinese. Lark wasn’t kidding about his senses coming back; they felt even keener than before. He sniffed loudly. “Any of that left?”
Absolute silence met his words and he looked right at her. Her eyes . . . they were the first thing he noticed. No longer tri-colored, but a perfect hazel with flecks of green and a slight rim of gold around the edge. No swirling of her emotions showed in their depths as she stood and stumbled toward him.
“Adamson, please tell me you don’t plan on saving the world again anytime soon.”
A sob spilled out of her and he caught her up, crushing her to his chest. “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.” Her grip tightened on him to the point that his ribs creaked. “Ease up, beautiful.”
She loosened her hold and stared up at him. He bent his head, kissing her hard, his tongue darting into her mouth and brushing against . . . he jerked his head back unable to stop himself. “What happened?”
Her eyes narrowed and he braced himself for an onslaught from her.
He was right to be wary. Even without the telltale swirling of colors in her eyes, he knew he’d pushed a sore spot, right off the bat.
For a moment, he thought Faris would give him shit for screwing up already. Of course, the vampire was gone. Which mean Liam was on his own.
CHAPTER 56
RYLEE
“WHAT DO YOU mean, what happened? Were you not there?” I couldn’t help the snap to my tone. I was scared. What if he didn’t want me now that I was no longer a Tracker? Now that I was something different.
He cupped my face. “I was there, but apparently, I missed the finale. Doran, you want to explain since I can smell you on her lips?”
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