Pursued: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Beasts of Edgewood, Book 3)

by Danica Rayne

  “Ow!” I cried, quickly bringing my fingers to my mouth. I wasn’t sure if Liam was aware of what happened, because he hardly looked my way. His attention was on the dinosaur, his chest puffed up as though he was gathering more fire.

  “Don’t let him kill the dinosaur,” I told the others. “Focus on the knights. I have an idea.”

  Knights continued to attack me from all different directions, and I was so tired I was amazed I managed to avoid their attacks. Well, mostly. One of them banged his mace into my ribs, making me cry out in pain. I couldn’t worry right now whether or not it was broken.

  Kayden was doing a good job steering Liam’s uncontrollable fire at the knights, and it seemed the more fire he shot at them, the softer their armor was becoming. That only added more fuel to my plan.

  “Ryker!” I called as I hurried over to him. “Give me a boost.” I nodded to the dinosaur.

  “What? No way. I’m shifting into a wolf.”

  “No, don’t shift. I have an idea. Toss me onto the dinosaur’s back.”

  He gaped at me. “Are you crazy?”

  “Trust me.”

  From the emotions passing over his face, I knew all he wanted was to push me behind him and shift into a wolf to protect me. But he knew very well that I wasn’t the kind of person who cowered while others fought for me. With a defeated nod, he placed his hands on my waist and lifted me off the floor, throwing me upward like a rocket.

  I grabbed hold of the skeleton and pulled myself onto his back, then scooted over until I was just behind the back of his head. “Okay, dinosaur,” I said. “It’s time you have a new master.” Fitting my fingers through the small holes in his head, I jabbed the heels of my boots into the sides of the dinosaur and tilted his head toward the knights. “Get them!”

  The dinosaur shook his body with such power that I was nearly tossed off his back. Clearly, he had no intention of listening to me.

  “Forget your old master!” I shouted over his deafening roars. “I’m your master now. Remove yourself from whatever hold the demon put on you. Listen to me!”

  I swore he must have popped my eardrums with his boisterous roars. And he continued to shake his body, still trying to throw me off. The battle down below didn’t look very good. Liam’s eyes and hands were no longer on fire, his whole body drenched in sweat. He had exhausted whatever energy he had left, barely able to stand. Finn’s mouth was split open, his large teeth trying to bite into the knights. But even his sharp teeth were no match for that kind of armor.

  “Listen, dinosaur!” I bellowed as I tilted his head back toward me. “You are going to listen to me and you are going to help my friends or so help me—!”

  With another roar, he spun around and ran in the opposite direction, trampling over half the knights.

  “Watch out!” I yelled at the guys as the dinosaur twisted around and stampeded in the opposite direction. Finn and Ryker threw themselves to the side and Kayden got out of the way in a blur. But Liam was still on the floor, too weak to move.

  “Liam!” I cried as the dinosaur charged toward the other end of the room. I yelled as he smashed through the wall, jumping off before the debris split my head open. When I turned around, I found Liam safely on the side with Kayden. He hurried over in a blur, grabbed my arm, and brought me to the others.

  “Are you okay?” Ryker took hold of either side of my face, turning it from right to left.

  “I am, thanks.” My gaze shot toward the knights. They lay on the floor, their bodies and armor flattened like pancakes. “What a mess.” My attention shifted to Liam. “Are you okay?”

  His gaze lowered to the floor. “I…I don’t know. I couldn’t control it. It was like I saw what I was doing, but I couldn’t do anything to stop myself.” His eyes slowly lifted to mine, and they filled with pain. “I could have hurt you. Is your hand okay? Did I burn you?”

  Kayden suddenly shot to attention. “You hear that?”

  I strained my ears. “Sirens.”

  “The police!” Liam said. “We definitely tripped an alarm with all that fighting.”

  “Time to leave. Now!” Kayden said. “Everyone, grab hold of me.

  We did, and Kayden sped out of the building just as Attila the Hun and his army made their way toward us. Kayden stopped right outside the entrance to the museum, where Finn armed the alarm and turned on the camera.

  The sirens were louder now. It wouldn’t be long before the police would appear.

  Just as lights came down the street, Finn nodded that he was done. We all grabbed hold of Kayden again, and zoomed away.

  Chapter Six

  Of course I didn’t get any sleep that night. I came home an hour and a half before I was supposed to wake up for school. Every part of me was wound up after the crazy night we had. How was I supposed to go to school today? All I wanted was to delve into the book and learn how to stop the demon from opening the portal.

  But like we had discussed before the guys dropped me off at my place, we had to go to school. It would look suspicious if five kids were out sick, not to mention I wasn’t in the mood for Aunt Bea getting a call from the school. Hopefully, the demon wouldn’t open any portal while we were wasting our time learning sine and cosine.

  As soon as I was dressed, I sat down on my bed with my laptop and searched for the latest news. My heart pounded in my ears as I sifted through articles pertaining to the Edgewood Museum of History. I braced myself for the worst, but I couldn’t find any mention of a break-in or anyone trashing the place. Was it possible the police were keeping it under wraps for now?

  “Good morning, sleepyhead,” Aunt Bea said when I dragged myself to the kitchen. “You look like you didn’t sleep a wink.”

  I stifled a yawn as I poured myself a glass of orange juice.

  “I’m a little worried about your eating habits,” Aunt Bea said as she bit into her toast. “Lately, you’ve been leaving the house with only a glass of orange juice. That can’t sustain you until lunch.”

  “I’m not really hungry,” I said.

  “I thought you would get used to slaying by now. You’re still feeling sore?”

  “No.”

  “Come across anything worth mentioning?” She narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously.

  Shoot. She would see right through me. I stole her toast, took a bite, then swept my bag off the floor. “Nothing to tell,” I lied. “Same old, same old. I’m coming home a little late today. Going to the school library.”

  Her eyebrow rose. “Kids your age still go to the library?”

  “I’m meeting someone there for a project,” I continued to lie. “And before you ask questions, no it’s not a guy.”

  “A girl?”

  I groaned. “Goodbye, Aunt Bea.”

  As soon as I was out of the house, I grabbed hold of my left side. Kayden had pressed his fingers against me last night to make sure my rib wasn’t broken, and as far as he could tell, I was fine. Luckily, the pain had lessened since last night. Good thing, because I was not in the mood to pay Dr. Caldwell a visit.

  The guys were waiting for me in the parking lot. Kayden was pacing, Ryker stood there with his arms crossed over his massive chest, a worried crease in his brows. Liam was running his hand through his hair, causing the embers to come alive, and Finn just stood there staring at the ground, as though wrestling with troubled thoughts.

  I got out of my car and walked over to them. “Why do you guys look freaked out?”

  “Did you watch the news?” Kayden asked. “No mention of the museum.”

  “Yeah, I searched first thing in the morning. I don’t get it. Are the police keeping it under wraps?”

  Ryker tilted his head toward Kayden. “Tell her, Kay.”

  “Ten minutes ago, I checked on the museum to see what’s going on.” He shook his head in disbelief. “No police cars. No yellow tape. The museum wasn’t open yet, not officially, but the doors were unlocked and I managed to speed inside and take a look. Guess what I found?”<
br />
  “What?” My stomach twisted.

  “Nothing. The place was spotless.”

  “What do you mean? No stuffed penguins strewn on the floor? No pancake knights? No holes in the walls in the shape of a dinosaur?”

  He shook his head. “It’s like last night never happened.”

  I just stared at him for a few seconds, then moved my gaze to the others, each of them looking just as worried and anxious as I felt.

  “But…how?”

  “No idea.”

  Now it was my turn to pace. “The place was a mess last night. There was no way anyone, demon included, could have cleaned it up that fast. The police were right outside when we fled. How could they not have seen anything?”

  They all shook their heads unsurely.

  “And why would a demon care about a wrecked museum?” I continued. “It makes no sense.”

  “I don’t know, Alivia,” Ryker said. “But I don’t like it. We need to figure out how to keep the demon away, once and for all.”

  I nodded. “We’re meeting after school. We’re going to get to the bottom of this, guys. We’re going to keep Edgewood safe.”

  ***

  Just as last period bell rang, I sent Liam a text. Want to ride with me to your house?

  He answered a few seconds later. Sure, Livia. Would love to.

  I met the guys in the parking lot, where we separated to our cars and promised to meet at their house. Liam grinned as he got in the passenger seat. “Feels like forever since I hung out with you alone.”

  I returned the smile.

  As I pulled out of the parking lot, he said, “As excited as I am, I know why you wanted me to ride with you and not any of the others.”

  I glanced at him for a second before focusing on the road.

  “You want to talk about last night.”

  I sighed. “I don’t want to put you on the spot or anything. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

  He leaned his head against the window. “Did I freak you out?”

  “No,” I said too quickly.

  “You don’t have to lie to me, Livia.”

  I pressed my lips together. “I’m not lying. Not exactly. I mean, it wasn’t you who freaked me out. It was…”

  “What I did?”

  “I’ve never seen that before.” I glanced at him. “Your fire is getting stronger.”

  “I was so worried when that knight attacked you. I don’t know, I can’t explain it. It’s like something took over me. Like a primal instinct to protect you. Next thing I knew, fire burst out of me. It was like I was watching a movie, aware of what was going on, but unable to stop it.” Since we were at a stop light, he reached over and gently pried my hand off the steering wheel. He gasped when he saw how red it was. “Is that because of me?”

  I pulled my hand away. “It’s fine. It’ll heal.”

  He knocked his head against the window.

  “You helped, you know,” I said. “Because you softened the knights’ armor, it was easy for the dinosaur to stomp on them.”

  “How did that even happen? You taking control like you were some dinosaur tamer or something.”

  “No idea,” I admitted. “We were losing and I had to do something. I figured if the demon could control it, I could, too. I guess it worked.”

  The car grew quiet. There was still so much I wanted to discuss with him, but it seemed he’d rather not think about it anymore. Maybe he wanted to pretend it didn’t exist. If his dragon side was starting to break through, this wasn’t something he could avoid or push away. But I couldn’t force him to face it when he wasn’t ready. He needed to come to terms with this at his own pace.

  I placed my hand on his knee, wishing I could tangle my fingers through his. If his dragon side was getting stronger, there was a good chance his temperature was rising as well. Which meant it would be even harder to touch him.

  We reached Caldwell mansion and I parked behind the guys’ car. As Liam and I made our way toward the door, I moved as close to him as I could, wishing to show him that I wasn’t put-off by him. Whatever was going on, and whatever would happen in the future, he had my support.

  The rest of the guys were already in Kayden’s room, but like they had promised last night, they didn’t touch the book until every single member of our party was present. We had decided to keep the book at their place because there was a chance Aunt Bea could find it. Not that she would ever go snooping through my things, but I really didn’t want her to have anything to do with this. I needed to keep her safe.

  The five of us gathered in a circle on Kayden’s bed. Good thing it was queen-sized and could fit all of us, though my shoulders kept knocking into Kayden and Ryker’s. Not that I minded. Liam sat farthest from me, since his heat would make me uncomfortable. The other guys weren’t as affected by him like I was.

  Kayden placed the book in the center of the bed. We stared at it, none us wanting to make the first move.

  “Do you think they realized the book’s been swapped?” I asked.

  “Probably not,” Kayden said. “And probably won’t for a long time.”

  Taking a deep breath, I carefully pulled the book closer to me, my hand tracing the letters on the cover. World of the Unnatural. In here held all the secrets to the supernatural world. In here, we would hopefully find the key to keeping the portal closed. Was I ready for this?

  It didn’t matter. I had to be. Before I had any more anxious thoughts, I opened it and skimmed the first few pages. They spoke about the history of supernatural creatures, how some had been in the human world since the dawn on time, while others snuck in through cracks between the worlds. It even discussed what happened all those years ago, when portals were opened all around the world and how a group of slayers had sealed them.

  But I didn’t have time to read any of this. I flipped through the pages until I found what we were looking for. “So much information,” I mused as I continued turning the pages. “Things I don’t even understand…”

  My flipping came to a halt when I came across the words “Portals: an Entrance to a World Beyond.”

  “Guys, I think I found it.”

  They all leaned closer to get a better look. We scanned the words, looking for key elements that would help us.

  “A portal is an entranceway to another world,” Kayden read. “Some appear on their own, through the weakening of planes between two worlds, though that is extremely rare. Sometimes, a disruption in the energy can force a portal to open. But in most cases, portals are opened by demon lords.”

  “Demon lords,” I said, thinking back to what I read in The Book. “Powerful demons from the demon world who command lesser demons. The more minions they command, the stronger they are.”

  Kayden nodded. “That’s why they don’t slip into our world on their own, because they wouldn’t be able to survive without their followers.”

  Liam tapped his chin, the embers in his brown eyes coming alive. “So the demon lord wants to open a portal to let other demons in? And then he’ll come in.”

  “Yeah, that’s what it seems,” Kayden said.

  “We need to find out how to stop that from happening.” I turned a few more pages and read, “The human world, Earth, is very vulnerable to supernatural invasions. As humans have a tendency to destroy their world since the beginning of time, Earth is not very protected.”

  “All in the name of science and discovery,” Liam muttered. “Don’t diss on humans.”

  “Since that is the case,” I continued, “Slayers of the past, with the help of some other unearthly beings, have created four pillars around their designated spawn point. As each pillar stands, so does the barrier. No portal can be opened. With each pillar that is destroyed, the barrier is weakened. Earth is weakened. And once all pillars have been destroyed, so is the barrier, leaving Earth vulnerable.”

  “So let me get this straight.” Ryker rakes a hand through his long hair, then gathers it in his hands. “These pillars a
re keeping Earth safe. If the pillars go down, a portal can be opened.”

  “Each spawn point has its own barrier,” I clarified. “Its own set of pillars.”

  Finn signed.

  “But where are these pillars?” Kayden interpreted.

  Liam turned the page, his eyes roving over the words. “The locations are listed here.” He moved his finger down until he reached the Edgewood spawn point. “It’s some kind of riddle.”

  I took the book from him and read out loud:

  Where the sun’s first ray kisses the earth, there shall be the first location you seek,

  The second, not far behind, where the darkest of shadows loom,

  Followed, in third, where fishermen quarreled and ultimately met their maker,

  Lastly, where first stones laid foundation for a new future.

  We were quiet as we absorbed the words.

  “Um?” Ryker said. “Do any of you get this? Because I don’t.”

  Kayden took the book from me, his eyes scanning the words intently, muttering them under his breath.

  Liam tapped his chin again. “The sun’s first ray kisses the earth. That must be referring to where the sun rises.”

  Finn signed.

  “The sun rises in the east,” Ryker interpreted. “Where does the sun rise here in Edgewood?”

  Finn started opening drawers, looking, I assumed, for a map of Edgewood.

  Ryker sat up. “I see the sun rise and set all the time. Alivia and I…” He shut his mouth and cleared his throat, clearly not sure how comfortable he was about sharing our personal time with the others. “I mean…”

  “Do you know where it rises?” Liam pressed.

  Finn sat down before Kayden’s computer and started typing.

  Ryker closed his eyes as he thought. “Why didn’t I pay more attention…?” he muttered. Then his eyes popped open at the same time Finn turned around and signed.

  “Luigi’s Taste of Italy,” Ryker said as Kayden interpreted for Finn.

  I was on my feet in an instant. “Of course! The locations the hellhound targeted. He was trying to destroy the pillars so the demon lord could open a portal.”