Ryze Series: Books 1 & 2

by N. Isabelle Blanco

  Ducking to avoid a low-hanging beam, I edge closer to them, moving at a snail’s pace. I lock onto all of their grids at once, even though doing so is just as painful for me as the emotions they’re feeling.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.” Tranquility pulses out of me in blue-and-gray waves only I can see.

  The humans stare at me wide-eyed as I approach, but they don’t make any effort to move farther away from me.

  Not that they can. They’re already with their backs against the wall.

  I can see my powers of Tranquility sliding into each of their grids and burrowing into their minds, one molecule of energy at a time. “I can help you get out of here.”

  “What is this? Are we all going to die?” one extremely young girl asks, brown eyes wide.

  I shake my head and get down on my knees in front of the girl. “No. We’re making sure it isn’t. I can help you.” I extend a gloved hand, making sure to keep the calming waves coming out of it steady and strong.

  The girl reaches out, her teary eyes focused on mine. Our fingertips touch. The tears slide out of her eyes and she launches herself into my arms.

  I catch her, careful with her fragile form, my ears picking up on her small sobs. She’s shaking uncontrollably. I close my eyes, cranking up the peace-waves.

  “I can help get all of you out of here. You need to trust me,” I tell the others, making sure to take the time to stare each and every one of them in the eye and show them how serious I am.

  One by one they nod at me, their fear abating a little more.

  It’s going to take time to dematerialize all of them, especially considering how far I have to take them.

  At least past the highway leading out of town, away from all the carnage. Most of them are probably going to get sick from dematerializing, and there’s always the danger of some of their organs not being able to handle it and shutting down.

  Fuck it. I still have to try. Can’t leave them here.

  “Zen.”

  I turn and see Ianythi behind me. Her blue and white armor, so much like her brother’s, is covered in blood. She seems out of breath, and her pupils are way too dilated.

  Yeah, most of the blood on her is obviously from battle, but it’s the blood at the corners of her mouth that has me worried.

  Shit. She was feeding.

  “I’ll get them out of here. You go back out there. We need you out there.”

  The humans’ fear spikes back up at her arrival.

  “You can trust her.” At least, I hope so. I nod reassuringly at the humans, gently extricate the girl from me, and make my way to Nythi.

  “You’ve been feeding. Are you sure you got this?” I ask once I’m close enough for only her to hear.

  “I had to. Needed the intel,” she replies under her breath.

  She didn’t kill the Maeltzkon agents she fed off. I can see that. “You sure you got the bloodlust under control?”

  Her stare snaps away from the humans and slaps me in the face with the force of her annoyance. “I haven’t even begun to enter bloodlust. I’m fine. For now,” she admits. “Go out there. I’ll start evacuating the humans.”

  A blast of air behind me heralds the arrival of another immortal in the basement. Looking behind her, I see the golden-skinned, tattooed Sesengt named Agathen.

  He nods in my direction, his hazel-green eyes then moving to the humans. “I will help her get them out of here. You are much needed above.”

  Alright, then. With Agathen here, I at least have some assurance that there will be someone around to control Nythi in case her bloodlust does rear its head.

  As if she hears the thought, Nythi glares up at me, her stare as good as a middle finger pointed at my face.

  I send one last wave of peace at the humans. “They’ll get you out of here.”

  Just as I turn to leave, a scream tears through the air that’s powerful enough to shake the building.

  The humans cry out as their eardrums shatter.

  Evesse.

  I flash outside, my vision getting lost behind a sea of red.

  CHAPTER 41

  EVESSE

  I pull with all the immortal strength in my body, tearing the Refluth’s head off its shoulders. The body falls to the floor as I turn and fling the head like a bowling ball, taking the legs of another Refluth out from under it.

  “Die. You will all die here today!”

  The sun and all the light disappear under a red-and-black cloud. The sound of thousands of wraiths coming to life fills the air, their laughs echoing inside the mist.

  My pain, anger, and need for retribution disappear under a wave of pure disbelief.

  All around me, the wraiths multiply, attacking every single Aviraji warrior, minion, and creature in sight.

  All of them. Thousands ripped apart as their sins are replayed before their eyes.

  All at the same time.

  Holy . . . shit.

  This is what my male is capable of.

  This is why everyone fears Mavrak so much.

  The human agents scatter in every direction, running for their lives. Aviraji warriors begin dematerializing, just as desperate to escape the reach of the wraiths. Only the Refluths and ceFtuts remain, and a few of the Aviraji warriors that weren’t able to get away fast enough.

  The multitude of screams becomes all I can hear.

  One Refluth manages to evade the reach of the wraiths, twisting and turning out of reach and heading straight in my direction.

  Dimithinia jumps up behind it, grabbing onto its shoulders, and even through the mist, I can see that her eyes have gone entirely black.

  “Die,” she whispers in a double tone.

  The creature falls to the ground, lifeless. Not even a twitch. Its life is given in an act of total obedience to the female that demanded it.

  She runs at a dark-blue skinned Aviraji, catching him before the wraiths can. Two words, “die now,” and the male falls to the floor, his black eyes unseeing.

  Dead.

  The huge hands of a Refluth come at Dimi from behind, and the wraiths are spiraling to life feet from it, but there isn’t going to be enough time.

  It’s going to grab her if I don’t do something.

  I materialize in front of Dimithinia just in time. The Refluth’s is catapulted into the air as a wave of red, blue, and white energy hits it straight on.

  I slam my hands down on Dimi’s shoulders, pushing us both towards the ground just as seven feet of nasty flies in a spiral over our heads.

  It lands on the concrete behind us, the tri-colored energy it’s hit with flaring so brightly around it that it lights up the darkness of the mist. The wraiths get to it just as it starts to change, becoming another of those silver creatures.

  The wraiths float above it, obviously confused, then continue on, clearly looking for another victim to attack.

  Turning, I catch sight of Soleria, hands extended as she sends another wave of power at a ceFtut.

  She’s shaking. Sweating. Unsteady on her feet as she sends out another blast.

  Despite all that power, I sense she’s still human.

  “Sol! What the fuck are you doing?” How the hell did she get here?

  A purple-skin Aviraji female appears behind Soleria and sends a pulsing wave of gray energy at her. It hits her from behind, going right through her.

  The Aviraji female vanishes.

  Soleria’s heart stutters inside her chest, and I hear it clearly across the feet that separate us.

  No. No. “Sol!” I materialize behind her—

  Sol’s heart stops. All the life leaks out of those baby blues right as the mist disappears and the daylight reclaims the world around us.

  “Soleria!” My scream is echoed by a heart wrenching, ear-splitting howl. I’m too shocked to even move.

  Soleria’s body lands on the ground, her dark red hair fanning out beneath her.

  “No!” Ismini screams from somewhere behind me. “Soleria! No!”
<
br />   Another howl, this one closer this time.

  Sinking to my knees, I stop breathing, my ears searching desperately for any sound, a heartbeat, a fucking breath . . .

  There’s no energy signature.

  Nothing.

  Her soul isn’t in there anymore.

  No. Fuck, no!

  “Move!” Dimithinia shoves me out of the way, throwing me several feet to the right. She looks way too pale, and on the verge of passing out herself, but the female crouches over Soleria, hands pressed to her chest. “You shall not die. You shall live.” Instead of the black energy that came out of her while she killed our enemies, pure white currents shoot out of her hands and into Soleria’s chest.

  Soleria’s upper body contorts off the floor, as if she’s been shocked by a defibrillator.

  “Live, damn you. I command you to live.”

  Another dose of that white energy; another contortion of Soleria’s back.

  Her baby blue eyes shoot open momentarily, and the hard inhale she takes bursts out from her parted lips.

  Soleria’s body falls back to the floor, her eyes closing. The sight of her chest rising and falling makes my word spin.

  Dimi moves back, breathing shallowly. The sleeves of her long black coat rise up a few inches.

  That’s when I catch a glimpse of a very familiar looking arm cuff around Dimithinia’s wrist.

  A red-skinned, yellow-haired male materializes behind her—

  His blade takes Dimi’s head off her shoulders.

  The next howl that rings out is different from the first, but no less agonized.

  Blood spews all over Soleria. The male dematerializes just as a wave of Zen’s mist comes at him, missing him. Dimi’s headless body falls to the ground next to Sol’s, her head rolling several inches.

  Then, both body and head are gone, disappearing in a poof of dark smoke.

  Tears run down my face, mixing with the blood still on my cheeks. I know, beyond all the shit twisting in my head, that Dimi isn’t gone.

  She’ll be back.

  Whatever Dimithinia is now, she has clearly been given the power over life and death.

  Ianthen, in wolf-form, comes running towards us, his legs seeming to fall out from under him as he gets close to Sol. He falls to the ground next to her, his massive canine head on her chest. Energy crackles around him, and the fur on his body shimmers and shakes.

  He’s trying to change back to his regular form, but he can’t. The whimpers that leave him are able to penetrate some of my numbness.

  Ismini appears next to Soleria, falling to her knees and cradling her head in her now gloved hands.

  Ianthen rubs his head into Soleria’s chest, clearly taking in the sound of her heart beating as his body keeps twitching and shimmering.

  Ismini looks up at me, tears striking down her cheeks. “Dimithinia—”

  I hear my deadened voice answering my friend. “She’s fine. She came back last time.”

  Dyletri appears behind Ismini, wrapping her in his arms and staring down at Soleria and Ianthen with an enraged scowl.

  Zen. I need him. Where is he?

  Almost as if I called him, he materializes in front of me, his face sliced open, a gash cutting across his forehead, eyebrow, and the bridge of his nose. He falls to his knees, shaking, his red-and-black eyes tortured.

  And still, he reaches for me, bringing me to his chest and cupping my head gently with his palm. He presses his nose to my hair, sniffing me, and rocking me back and forth as my sobs starts to really gain steam.

  “It’s over, my R’ma. It’s over. Shh.”

  His presence helps—feeling him is pure medicine to my rabid adrenal glands—but nothing will be able to erase the emotional twister ripping through me.

  “You’re hurt.” Zen brushes his lips against my injured cheek, his tongue flicking out to taste my blood even as the cut begins to heal.

  Cyake also appears, out of his wolf-form and suited up in his gold-and-black armor this time. He kneels behind his best friend, laying his large, gloved hand on the back of Ianthen’s head.

  Zexistr and Keiros appear next. Zexistr looks ready to pass out, his too-pale skin three shades lighter.

  They’re followed by a black-eyed man that looks exactly like Crius.

  Hades.

  Crius himself is next, and he’s still in the form of a wolf, running towards us like a tank. He’s near-rabid, those monstrous jaws snapping at the air as he growls furiously.

  Zexistr, Keiros, and Hades catch him right as he slams out of wolf-form, looking like he’s gone mad with rage.

  “Calm down! Crius!”

  “Where is she?” he screams, his eyes monstrous. They’ve turned light-purple, huge pupils almost overtaking his irises. “Where the fuck is her body?”

  There are black scars on almost every inch of him. Starting from his chest, and arching down in almost tattoo-like lines down to his ankles.

  “Calm down! You’re already blitzing out, you idiot!” Cyake cries, jumping away from Ianthen and joining the circle of huge male bodies trying to keep his naked brother in check.

  “You morphed into your wolf-form,” Keiros says in a soothing, calm tone, lowering his head so his mouth is near his brother’s ear. “The spell that helps you stay celibate is already failing you. You’re going to go rabid, brother. Calm down. Breathe.”

  Crius hears none of it. He struggles against the hands and arms holding him.

  “I don’t give a fuck! Where is her body! They—they fucking killed her. I felt it. She’s gone.” Tears wells up in his changed eyes. “How can you all be so calm? They killed her!”

  My heart twists inside me. “She’ll be back.”

  Crius’s head turns slowly in my direction. I’ll never forget the look in his eyes. Ever.

  “It happened before.” I clear my throat when I hear how hoarse my voice has become. “She came back. In Renentr. She said she woke up there.”

  Crius flings all his brothers off him at once, sending them flying in every direction. He’s gone before anyone can say or do anything else.

  Trembling, I fall further into Zen’s lap. When he shifts, lifting me the rest of the way up, I let him. One look around proves what I already knew. The battle is over. The Sesengts are materializing, forming a circle around us. Everyone’s eyes are on Ianthen as he keeps on whimpering, his snout now pressed under Sol’s chin.

  Three of the turned ceFtuts stand off to the side, like big, white, bear-dogs waiting for a command. Four of the changed, now sleek and silver Refluths are behind them, doing the same.

  Zen cups my chin, tilting my head up. “Tell me you’re okay. Please.”

  His hoarse plea, combined with the look on his face, makes me cry harder. “No,” I answer honestly. “I’m not.” He tenses under me, eyes widening. “But I will be,” I hurry to add, sliding my hand around his neck.

  It’s true. I will be. I have no choice. I’ll just have to figure out how the hell I’m going to deal with the emotional and psychological backlash of everything that I’ve experienced.

  That reminds me. “Makayla. Get her. Please.”

  Zen’s expression makes it obvious that leaving me is the last thing on his mind.

  “Please. I can’t dematerialize right now.”

  He presses his lips to mine almost ruthlessly. Our tongues don’t meet. It isn’t so much a kiss of passion as it’s a relieved, brutal act. He’s gone the next second, dematerializing to do as I asked.

  On my hands and knees, I move closer to Soleria and the others.

  “She’s going to be okay, big guy,” I tell Ianthen, all the while praying that it’ll be true. He moves, and the cuffs around his front legs glint in the sunlight. Those cuffs grew huge, expanding to accommodate his new size.

  What’s obviously a red, white, and dark blue mating mark can be seen through his fur, covering his entire left side.

  I rub between his ears. “You’re the biggest idiot I know, but we’re going to
get her back for you.”

  He whines, sniffing his R’ma’s skin. His eyes are red when he lifts his head up and turns to me. He nuzzles my face with his snout in a totally canine way. I close my eyes and hug that big head to me. “We’ll get her to Vedlyl. You’ll see. She’s going to be fine.”

  Zeniel materializes, his arm around a sick-looking Makayla. I’m surprised to see none of the satisfaction from last time in her eyes considering what’s going on around us.

  Her teary brown eyes meet mine. “They took Enteax with them. I saw them go into the hole and carry him out. He was unconscious.”

  So that’s why she isn’t taking any pleasure in the suffering playing out.

  Dyletri goes ramrod straight, his lips peeling back from his lips in a snarl. “Enteax?”

  Zeniel shakes his head, giving Dy a hard look.

  “What does she have to do with Enteax?”

  Ismini turns in her mate’s arms, trying to bring his attention to her. “Baby, calm down.”

  “He fucking killed you. He killed Evesse.”

  Makayla gasps loudly.

  “Technically, Lisrn threw her in and I ran in after her,” I mumble, still cradling Ian’s head to my chest and petting between his ears.

  No need to bring up the sword-to-the-throat portion of that.

  Dyletri’s stare promises total violence.

  Zeniel flashes before him, slapping him lightly on the forehead.

  Dy’s on his feet in a flash. Both males get up in each other’s grills, armored-chest to armored-chest, so close their noses bump.

  “Don’t stare at my R’ma like that.” Zen’s voice is calm, but deadly.

  “What does that girl have to do with fucking Enteax? Did you forget that he helped kill our females?”

  “No. I did not. But in the end, it worked out. We were able to regain our females in stronger forms. And Nylicia advised me to leave him alone. His destiny is changing.”

  Dyletri growls. “I don’t give a fuck. I don’t want to ever lay eyes on him.” He throws a hard look at Makayla, his silver-and-blue irises glowing. “If the girl has to come along, fine. But if I so much as see him—”