There was nothing to be done for it. “Is that all?”
“You don’t trust me yet, wolf, but you will.” Erik held out his right hand and it was the first time he noticed the last two fingers were missing.
Liam didn’t offer his own hand back. “Missing appendages don’t make me trust you any more, they only make me think you’re weaker than you look.”
Their eyes met and Liam expected a challenge, but Erik didn’t seem to be looking for a fight. His eyes were full of questions, but no direct challenge.
“Well, goodnight then, Liam.” Erik walked past him toward the guest room down the hall. Liam watched him go and waited until the sound of the bedroom door clicking shut reached his ears.
His voice low, he stared at the closed door. “I don’t trust you. But I think we’re going to have to.”
Moving quietly, he slipped back into his own bedroom and shut the door. Rylee still slept, motionless on her belly, her breathing deep and even. Lying beside her, he pulled her gently into his arms. She murmured something unintelligible and buried her face against his chest. The long gold chain holding the pendant he’d given her when they’d bound their lives together warmed between them, reminding him of the promises he’d made.
Holding her tight, he closed his eyes and let out a long, slow breath.
Keeping Rylee safe, and in one piece, was his number one goal. And his wolf acknowledged, as he did, that if Erik was telling the truth, the Slayer would be able to help them do just that.
Of course, that was assuming Rylee wouldn’t take exception to Erik bringing in Ophelia, or trying to tell her how to kill demons.
Another long, low breath escaped him. Yeah, it was going to be an interesting morning.
Waking up to a dragon roaring inside my skull was not what I’d call pleasant. I was on my feet and scrambling for clothes before I was fully awake.
“What the fuck is going on, Blaz?” I grabbed my new leather jacket as I bolted for the back door. I was still breaking it in; it only had a few stitched up spots from our stay in Europe, and the leather was still a bit squeaky. When I reached the door, a burst of cold air wrapped around my neck and face as Erik stepped in, blocking my path. He held up his hands, palms facing me. I hadn’t noticed before that he was missing fingers on his right hand. Not that it mattered.
“Let them work it out. A tiff like this always looks worse than it is.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Let who work it out?”
He tipped his head toward the window over the sink and I peered out. On the far side of the barn, in the fields, was a red and silver dragon beating the shit out of Blaz. Her wings buffeted him as she snaked her head forward, biting his shoulders.
“That doesn’t look like they’re working it out.” And just how was I going to stop her? I mean really?
“You want get between them?” Erik laughed at me and headed to the coffee pot. He was wearing the same clothes as when we’d met him, minus the long fur-trimmed cloak.
“Not really. She won’t kill him?”
“Nah, she’s just pissed he’s avoided her for so long.” He sat with a thump and then I realized we were by ourselves. I Tracked the others in the household and found them either still asleep or, in Liam’s case, out for a run with Alex.
I kept my back to him and watched the dueling dragons, seeing now they were both holding back. Blaz was no longer yelling inside my head—hell, how did he think I was going to help anyway?
“How do I know you are really my uncle, or if you are my uncle, you’re not some evil ass relative who’s waited for years to get your revenge on my parents by trying to take me out?” Fuck, I felt like some twisted Disney princess saying that, but the possibility was there. Especially with my life.
The sound of someone choking came behind me and then a cup being set on the table. I turned to see a very amused Erik leaning back in his chair.
Before he said anything, a rather loud and peevish female dragon interrupted, her voice echoing inside my head loud enough that I knew I was not the only one hearing her words.
Tracker. Come and deal with your lily-assed blue boy; I cannot talk any sense into his pea brain head.
I didn’t wait for Erik to follow me; I was pretty sure he would. Hell, I had no doubt he’d set this up, even though he’d said he wouldn’t call Ophelia.
Which went to prove my distrust was well placed. Already I knew I needed whatever knowledge he had about demons and fighting them, but I was keeping him on the outskirts of my circle. No need to let the viper in the front door, even if you needed his venom to poison the bad guys.
Walking across the muddy farmyard, I circled to the back of the barn. Tracking Eve, I found her sound asleep too. It was like everyone was still on vacation, sleeping in, resting their bodies as much as possible. That we were all on the same page made me a bit jittery. Like we all knew the “big game” was coming and we were prepping. I didn’t like it, not one bit.
Around the back of the barn I found the two dragons. Ophelia sat on her haunches, still as a statue, glaring at Blaz with his wings spread wide and his jaw open as if warning her off.
“You two kids having fun?” I stopped and put my hands on my hips. Blaz tipped one eye toward me.
This is not fucking funny, Tracker.
I lifted my hands overhead. “Look, you two big-assed lizards figure this the hell out. I’m not a negotiator and I don’t relish the idea of trying to work out your breeding rights or who takes out the fucking garbage in your dragon relationship.”
Ophelia’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened, showing off the deep brown edging the purple of her iris. I am not here for breeding rights. That is months away. I am here to help my rider. And quite frankly, I am here to help your scrawny ass, Tracker.
Blaz snaked his head toward her going nose to nose. Don’t talk about my rider that way, bitch.
Ophelia snarled and shoved him away. So, you do have some spine in there after all.
Again, I held up my hands. “Stuff it, both of you. I’m going to Portland; Blaz is taking Liam and me.” I glanced at Erik leaning against the barn. “I suppose you and Ophelia are coming too?”
Erik nodded the same time Ophelia did. Though on him, it looked like he held back a laugh, and Ophelia just looked smug.
A black streak of fur ripped across the yard, mud flying in all directions. “Alex tooooooooooo!”
Liam in his wolf form loped lazily along behind Alex, his tongue lolling out. He gave me a wink over one silvery golden eye as he stepped beside me, Alex right behind him. Alex pushed hard against my leg on one side, and Liam pressed against the other, heat from their bodies warming my legs in a split second. Submissive he was no more; Alex pressed harder, begging with his eyes as round as he could get them, his lips whispering “please, please, please.”
“Fine, Alex, you can come too.”
He leapt up and mud sprayed around him, splattering my pants and jacket. I wiped it off, but didn’t bother to scold him.
Within fifteen minutes, we were ready to fly. Liam shifted and put on warmer clothes, and Blaz backed from Ophelia to give them both room to take off.
I cannot believe she is here. His voice was low and I knew he spoke just to me. I shrugged; nothing we could do about it.
I know that. His voice was resigned. Was it really that bad being with her? Hell, I’d be pissed if my mate avoided me for years.
I don’t love her. It is that simple. A picture of a smaller dragon, tawny and cream colored flickered from his mind to mine. Shit. And Ophelia no doubt knew Blaz felt something for this other dragon.
It was her cousin.
I didn’t stop the groan that slipped out of me. A dragon love triangle? That was not going to be good. Wait, was?
Sorrow, thick and heavy, flowed into me. Her cousin is dead. Gone for many years.
What the hell was I to say to that? Nothing. If I lost Liam, no way I could just “move on” with someone else. Not even if someone paired us up and sai
d it was for the best and we needed to be together.
I touched Blaz’s back, pressed my hand into his scales. “I’m sorry.”
He said nothing more, the feel of his long-buried sorrow enough to keep our thoughts to our own heads.
Liam and I tucked into the harness on Blaz’s back, and Alex climbed behind us, wrapping himself into the leather. Though we planned to see Doran and Louisa first to ask about casting out the evil spirits, at the last minute I directed Blaz to head to Portland. I could always call Doran, or even Louisa, but the ogres had waited long enough.
Blaz didn’t wait for Erik to mount on Ophelia before he spread his wings and launched into the air. A few short hours and we’d be in Portland, and I’d be facing ogres I wasn’t a hundred percent sure were on my side anymore.
Peachy.
Ophelia’s voice rippled across my mind, and by the way she spoke, she wasn’t projecting to anyone else. Curious.
May we speak, Rylee? Apparently she could be polite when she wanted.
I gave her a nod.
I am the keeper of the knowledge, the last dragon to hold information about the Blood of the Lost. Of which you are the last. If you are anything like Erik, trouble will soon find you and I will lose my chance to speak with you.
My mind whirled. If Erik was related to me, how was it I was the last?
Erik is your father’s brother. Your mother is the one whose bloodline carries the Blood of the Lost. They were an ancient supernatural, one who held much sway over the rest of the world of magic and wonder. It is why they were wiped out. They had too much power. They were the ones who created the veil.
Son of a bitch, that did not sound like it was going to help me in the “making friends” department. A question formed inside my mind but I blocked it. I didn’t do well with the whole speaking privately inside my head. Not when I would just have to fill Blaz and Liam in anyway.
“How many other supernaturals might remember this?”
Ophelia was ahead of us and she craned her head back and lifted her eyebrows at me as if to ask if I were sure.
“How many, Ophelia?” I repeated the words louder.
Her voice projected through us all, a booming echo where before it had been just above a whisper. A few of the very old ones, this all happened thousands of years ago. The blood line was thinned to a few families, barely enough to keep it alive. Your kind was not always known as “The Lost.”
“Then what were we know as?” This was too damned weird of a conversation, but it had been a long time coming.
That is beyond even myself and I have all the information anyone could have. It was a part of the systematic destruction of your kind. If you didn’t know what you were, how could you possibly return to it?
She seemed to let out a heavy sigh and a deep regret flowed through her and into me. You need to know that your kind created the many levels of the veil; your people ruled the supernatural world. And now it has come to you to bring that world together again, under your name to fight the darkness. To fight the demons. It will be the last act of the Blood of the Lost, to finish what they started, keeping the world safe from the demons who would rule it. That was why they created the veil in the first place, a holding ground for demons.
Her words stirred something deep within me and I recognized what she said for the truth it held, even if I didn’t like it so much. Liam’s hands tightened on my waist and I glanced over my shoulder. His eyes reflected what I already knew. Truth, when it came, was less likely to make us happy than we thought. Finding out who and what I really was didn’t necessarily make life easier.
My fingers dug into the leather straps in front of me, but I wasn’t really that freaked out. To be fair, in some ways this was just regurgitation of what I already knew via the prophecies I’d read. I had to pull off this coup and kill Orion or everyone was doomed. Did it really matter what my bloodline was when no one else knew or even gave half a shit. “Anything else? Any other skeletons bitching in my family closet?”
Ophelia blinked back at me, her eyes uncertain. Perhaps you do not understand the severity of the situation, Tracker.
Erik slapped her on the neck. “Spit it out, cranky.”
Blaz snickered and Ophelia glared first at Erik, then Blaz.
Pushy dicks. Fine. There is only one thing you truly need to know, if Erik would have his way. Erik threw his hands into the air and she ignored him. Seal the veils, that is what you must do to stop Orion.
Well damn, that was actually helpful. It was the first time anyone said how I was going to stop the demons. “Do you know how I’m going do that? You know, the details of this deed I’m supposed to perform?”
She shook her head, and I glanced at Blaz. “How about you?”
No, I don’t know either. Has there been nothing in those ogre-skinned books of Jack’s?
We flew through a bank of clouds while I mulled it over, moisture slicking any bare skin in seconds. I wiped my face and closed my eyes, thinking hard. When we’d been in Europe, I’d spent time reading through the remaining books of prophecy at Jack’s manor. I’d done my best to decipher the meanings, but so much was written in cryptic old English, it was difficult at best to slog through.
“No. Just lots of ‘you will be the one to stop him,’ no how to actually stop him, or any helpful shit like that. Knowing my luck, that bit is in the violet skinned book.”
The two dragons kept pace with one another, their wings dipping and rising almost in tandem. Neither had anything else to add to that.
Liam leaned forward and put his mouth near my ear. “You okay?”
Surprised, I turned to face him. “What do you mean?”
His eyebrows rose high. “Just surprised you aren’t freaking out. You don’t tend to take information like that well on a good day.”
“Just what is that supposed to mean?”
Means you explode first and think about the new info later, once you’ve caused a fair amount of chaos. Blaz didn’t project to everyone, or I might have given them the explosion they expected.
Instead, I withdrew, pulling deep into myself. I didn’t want to admit they were right. I wasn’t feeling like myself lately; something was off and I couldn’t pinpoint it. Maybe it was all the quiet hours and too much time to think, or maybe it was the fact I slept through the night consistently for a longer stretch than I ever have.
Even Berget’s visits didn’t disturb me. She made it a standing meeting that we saw each other at least once a week in my dreams, but they no longer left me shaking and pumping full of adrenaline. Now, they were like seeing her face to face, no more smoke and mirrors, no more wondering which Berget I was talking to—the sane one, or the one who wanted to see my head on the end of a pike.
I leaned against Liam’s chest and closed my eyes. “I’m going to see if I can talk to Berget. Maybe her memories will hold a clue for us.”
I wasn’t sure if I could sleep while flying, the air cold on my face, legs strapped against Blaz, but it was an excuse to keep to myself.
And damned if I didn’t slide into a light doze. I reached for Berget as she’d shown me, and she came into view, walking along the edge of Blaz’s wing and sat beside me. She wore a long, full blue skirt and corseted top, very old school. The colors accentuated her bright blue eyes and long golden hair. Of course I knew she wasn’t really here; her hair and skirt didn’t move in the rushing wind and she walked just above Blaz, floating an inch over his skin.
“Rylee, is something wrong?” Her mouth turned downward in a sharp line.
“Yes and no. Don’t use the castle, the doorways have all been destroyed with the exception of three and red caps are guarding the shit out of the place.” My eyes drifted to half mast and I almost pulled out of the doze. Berget crouched beside me.
“Orion and his demons are making a bid?”
I nodded, still disturbed at times with how old she sounded when she spoke most times. Old and wise. The memories and power of her adoptive parents
were held in check by the opal implanted into the side of her chest, but she could still access them when needed. And sometimes the years of playing the part of the thousand-year-old vampire came through in her speech patterns and behavior.
She rubbed her fingers over her side where the opal was buried. Fear sparked through me.
“Are you having problems?” I didn’t need to be more specific; we both knew what that one problem was.
“They are … grumpy, for lack of a better term. Irritated that I’ve bound them.” She gave me a small smile “But that isn’t here nor there. For the moment, they are fine. What is it you wanted to ask me?”
I looked her over, saw she wasn’t trying to hide anything from me. Worry still trickled along my spine. The opal was a temporary stop, one that would eventually run out. I pushed that aside; I had to believe we had the time to figure out a better way to keep her safe. And to be honest, the help of vampires with a lot of years behind them was not a bad thing. At least, not right now.
“In their memories, is there anything about how to close the veil?”
Her eyes widened and I quickly told her about Ophelia and Erik, and what Ophelia shared in regards to how to bind the demons.
Berget didn’t ask if I trusted them; even though we’d spent most of our lifetime apart, she knew me well enough to know I wouldn’t pursue this if I didn’t think it was the truth.
“I will have to take some time to see what I can find. While I can access everything, it is delicate because they are bound. They are not always willing to share. I will come to you if I drag something out of them.” She shrugged her pale, slim shoulders, and her lips tipped upward, though a current of sadness ran through her eyes. Then, she went a totally different direction, one I wouldn’t have seen coming, not in a million years.
“Doran is in love with you, you know that, right?”
I couldn’t hold onto the light doze, jerking awake with a gasp. Liam’s arms tightened around me.
“Bad?”
My jaw dropped open and I coughed on the moist air. Doran was … nooooooo. That couldn’t possibly be. Of course, I forgot to close my thoughts from Blaz so he chimed in.
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