Falling Blind: The Sentinel Wars

by Shannon K. Butcher

  “Once the demon is dead, then we can go after Connal.”

  “You really think that I’m going to worry about myself while there’s a missing child at stake?”

  “It’s not safe for us to wait—not now that I’ve given the demon reason to fight even harder to free itself by implanting that knowledge in your head. Ronan can’t help you again. He’s too weak.”

  “Screw safe, Cain. I saw what your life was all about. You never once thought about your own safety when there were others in danger. Don’t you dare try to feed me any bullshit now, because I know better.” She sucked in a long breath, trying to find enough calm to sound reasonable. “Now, you and I are going after the asshole who abducted those people. We’re going to find them and make sure that they’re safe. And then we’re going to find the demon in my brain and kill it. And then we’re going to find the person who blocks my visions and take their magic ring or whatever so that I don’t have to walk around blind half the time. Got it?”

  She felt a heavy throb of frustrated anger pulse out of him, but when he spoke, there wasn’t a single hint of it tinting his calm tone. “Is that what you really want?”

  Rory didn’t bother with words. Instead she gathered up her determination to do the right thing and shoved it at him. She let him see how he wasn’t going to stop her, even if that meant she ditched him. Whatever it took, she would not let that woman and child end up trapped in a flooded basement filled with monsters the way she’d been.

  Cain shuddered and gripped his phone until his knuckles popped. “This is the worst timing possible. You realize that, don’t you?”

  “Don’t fucking care. It’s the timing we’ve got.”

  “And if the demon emerges and takes control of your body again?”

  “Knock me out. Kill me. Whatever you have to do. Until then, I’m going to fight.”

  She felt his grudging acceptance stomp through their link. “Get in the car. We don’t have much time.”

  Cain said nothing as they drove back to the nearest highway. It was well past midnight, and there wasn’t much traffic.

  The car accelerated until they were pushing ninety. Regardless of what he said, Cain wanted to find that kid as much as she did.

  His voice was hard, leaving no room for argument. “We keep the link open. That way I can monitor your thoughts. If the demon breaks free or starts whispering things to you, I’ll know.”

  “Agreed. Though I would guess the first thing the demon would do would be to shut you out.”

  “Likely. Which is why if you try to block me, I will render you unconscious.”

  She still wasn’t used to the idea of having Cain in her mind, touching her in such an intimate way, but so far, he’d been the one who’d been putting himself out there, exposing his entire life. He hadn’t asked for much in return, and his request now was completely logical.

  “You have my permission,” she said. “Don’t you dare let me hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve it.”

  He nodded, his face grim. He handed her his phone. “Call Nicholas. Ask him where Connal is. He may be able to track his vehicle.”

  Rory didn’t waste time asking questions. She didn’t know these people, but she was willing to do anything that might help save that kid.

  Nicholas answered fast. “Tell me you changed your mind, Cain.”

  “Hi, Nicholas. My name is Rory Rainey. I’m with Cain and he asked me to call you and have you tell us where Connal is.”

  “Thank God. Is Cain okay?”

  “He’s driving.”

  Suspicion was clear in his tone. “Let me speak to him.”

  Rory sighed in frustration, but held the phone to Cain’s ear. “She’s with me, Nicholas. . . . Yes, with me with me. Tell her what you know.”

  When Rory got back on the line, all of Nicholas’s suspicion was gone, replaced with a kind of excited reverence she didn’t understand. “Sorry about the confusion. I had to be sure who you were before I gave you information.”

  “Sure. Whatever. Now spill. This Connal asshat was the one who stole the woman and kid, right? Where is he?”

  “Connal disabled the tracking device in his car, but Ella has a cell phone on her. We’re tracking that. I’ll send his coordinates to Cain’s phone.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Tell Cain we have warriors on the way now, but they’re at least twenty minutes behind you.”

  Rory relayed the message.

  Cain nodded. “Ask him—”

  She didn’t need to hear the rest of his question. It had already slipped into her head fully formed. “Cain wants to know if you’ve got Gerai on the way to intercept him.”

  “No. It’s too dangerous. We didn’t want any more human victims. Connal has already killed one woman and damaged two men’s minds with brutal force. Gerai don’t stand a chance.”

  She didn’t have to say a word. She felt Cain absorb the knowledge from her.

  It was such a cool process she didn’t spend time thinking about how creepy it was. Or would have been with anyone else. With Cain it wasn’t so bad.

  “Call us if anything changes,” she said.

  “Will do.”

  By the time she hung up, Nicholas had already sent a message with an attachment to Cain’s phone. She opened it, and rather than listing coordinates as she expected, she saw a little dot moving across a map. She zoomed out and saw another dot where they were.

  “He’s heading south. If we turn east up ahead, we’ll be on course to intercept him.”

  Cain gunned the engine. Apology laced his voice. “We’re going to hit the edges of civilization soon.”

  “It’s okay. I can take it.”

  “You’re taking an awful lot right now.”

  “Good thing I’m tough then, huh?”

  As they headed east toward the suburbs, visions began to flicker more frequently inside her eyes. The unpredictable motion of a dozen other people moving about made her queasy. She gripped the seat and focused on her breathing.

  Cain’s hand slipped under her hair, stroking the back of her neck. Like a switch had been thrown, the visions disappeared, giving her some visual peace.

  “Thanks.”

  “I wish I could do more. I wish that taking my luceria would have given you the ability to control the visions.”

  “Yeah, me, too. But having you touch me is a hell of a consolation prize.”

  “I won’t always be around.”

  The thought made her heart squeeze with anxiety and something else she refused to acknowledge. “I know. But you’re here now. That’s good enough.”

  As each mile passed, she felt the demon swell with power. They were getting closer to it, making it hard for Rory to concentrate on anything else.

  She checked the phone again and saw that Connal had just passed the road they were on. “Go right at the junction ahead. We’re close.”

  Cain went where she told him, and once again they started leaving the populated areas for more isolated countryside.

  The demon shook inside its cage. She could hear it now, growling in hunger and eagerness. It knew she was getting closer.

  “How far away?” asked Cain.

  She wasn’t sure if he meant how far away was the demon or Connal, so she picked the one she could actually answer.

  “Connal is a few miles in front of us, and he’s flying.” She watched the flashing red light as it seemed to slow. “Wait. I think he’s stopping.”

  Rory zoomed in on the map until she could get a satellite image showing photographs of the area. It was an old picture that looked like it had been taken in the green heat of summer. All she could see was trees, and open expanses of uninhabited land.

  “There’s nothing there, but his dot isn’t moving.”

  “Let me see.”

  She zoomed out so he could get an idea of the location and showed Cain the map. After a quick glance, he gave her a grim nod. “I know the area. It’s riddled with caves.”

  “Gr
eat. Fun times.”

  “You know you don’t have to—”

  “Stop right there before you piss me off. I know I don’t have to do anything. As if you could make me even if you tried. Quit reminding me of the obvious and let’s go rescue a kid.”

  He let it drop, though she could feel a throb of his frustration sink into her. Alongside that, she also felt a slight tug, urging her to come closer. The demon.

  Cain pulled off the road. A few yards away, a black van sat parked at the edge of a field, next to a jutting, rocky cliff. There were no houses in sight—no lights other than the stars overhead. They were too far out for streetlights. There weren’t even any power lines, which reassured her that when Cain moved his hand from her neck, she wouldn’t get blasted with a bunch of blinding TV images.

  She wasn’t ready for him to stop touching her yet, so as soon as he stopped, she put the car in park and killed the engine, leaving the keys in the ignition.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  “I can do this.”

  “We can wait for help.”

  “And let the demons do whatever it is they’re going to do to that baby? Fuck that. Let’s go get some.”

  He nodded and lifted his hand to open his door. The instant his skin left hers, she was hit with a thousand scenes of blood and rot. Filthy, oily beasts fought each other for scraps of rancid meat, giving her an up close and personal view of their jagged teeth and feral, glowing eyes.

  Thank God she didn’t see in smell-o-vision.

  She had to make sense of the visions—to collect whatever information she could so that they didn’t go in there blind. With only the two of them, they had to be careful.

  Rory gripped the strand of power running through her and tugged hard. She focused in on her eyes, the way she’d done to make them see in the dark, hoping it would sort out her visions. Instead, they grew only more vivid and blinding. The harder she tried, the worse it became until she was nauseated and panting with effort.

  Finally, she let go of Cain’s power, feeling the ribbon snapping back into place.

  Her normal fucked-up visions were back, but at least they weren’t in IMAX 3D anymore. They faded down until she saw one sight that made sense. A lean, beautiful man had a woman’s limp body over his shoulder. Under his other arm, he carried a toddler whose chubby limbs bounced as the Sanguinar hurried through a rocky passage.

  Then, as she watched, another angle appeared, and another. Connal was being surrounded by creatures, and each one of them was closing in.

  “We need to hurry,” she squeaked out.

  “I understand. Let’s get you suited up.”

  Rory didn’t waste time arguing. She felt his determination to see to her protection as an immovable force pounding through him. By the time she’d fumbled her way out of the car, he was there with a long leather coat. He slipped it on her arms, clearing away the rank visions as his skin brushed hers. A plastic shield went on over her head.

  “I can’t see,” she admitted.

  “Use my eyes.”

  “How?”

  “The luceria. Our connection is wide open. Use it to see what I see. Or you can stay here. I’ll go in and get them without you.”

  Her instant gut reaction to that was to scream at him in denial. Not only did she want to help, but she also didn’t want to be standing around in the dark, blind and alone. But as rational thought seeped in, she realized the truth. She was going to slow him down. Maybe even get him killed. She hadn’t considered what it would be like to be this close to a horde of demons. It was just as bad as being in the city, only with bloody chunks instead of crappy late night infomercials.

  Rory wanted to fight. She needed to fight. The urge burned through her so bright it blinded her to any other possibility. Only now, she realized just how stupid her lack of forethought had been. If she couldn’t see, how could she fight?

  Cain grabbed her shoulders and gave her a little shake. “You’re giving up on me now? You haven’t even tried yet. Now pull yourself together and use the luceria.”

  He was right. She couldn’t give up. Even now, that woman and her baby were being dragged deeper into the bowels of the earth.

  Rory concentrated on the luceria, felt it hugging her neck. It warmed and vibrated in anticipation. She sensed his thoughts, felt his emotions. All she had to do now was filter all of that out and use his eyes. Certainly, seeing what he saw now shouldn’t be any harder than seeing the memories of something he’d seen before.

  With that strategy in mind, Rory closed her eyes. The demonic images flared in more gruesome detail, but she tried to ignore them—tried to ignore her own eyes altogether. Only Cain’s eyes mattered.

  Power wove around her, trickling out of the luceria to hug her close. She didn’t even have to try to take it from him now. It simply came to her as if it belonged inside of her.

  The strands of power thickened, turning into resonant ribbons of energy. Something clicked into place, and she saw her face. She grasped onto that image, concentrating on her pink hair, glowing bright under the moon. Suddenly, the sight slipped past her, out of reach.

  “Almost,” she heard Cain whisper.

  More power glided into her, sinking into her skin and bone. She felt lighter, as if she could float away if she let go. Only Cain’s hands on her leather-clad shoulders kept her fixed on the ground.

  Like tuning a radio, she searched for the right frequency, discarding those visions flowing from the demons.

  There. Right there. She saw her head again, and this time, when she clutched on to the image, it stuck with her.

  Pride filled his tone. “That’s it. Just like that.”

  Before she even had time to smile at her success, her control failed, and her vision dissolved into a flurry of teeth, blood and fur. The strand of power she’d been holding snapped back into Cain, leaving her feeling like a pile of suckful failure.

  “It’s okay,” he said. His voice was gentle, but she could feel him fighting his disappointment. “We have time for you to figure it out.”

  “Just not now,” she added. She grabbed his hand so that she could see his face clearly, and almost wished she hadn’t.

  His jaw was set with determination, and his shoulders were pulled back. Regret hovered in his eyes, and she knew she was going to hate the next words coming out of his lovely mouth. “I can’t take you down there. Not when you’re blind and compromised. I have to focus completely on getting that woman and her baby out.”

  Rory nodded as an avalanche of frustration pinned her in place. “I understand. I’ll slow you down. Get in the way.”

  His voice rang with apology, “Rory, I’m so—”

  “No. Don’t be. It’s okay. You go in there and save those people. I’ll stay here.”

  “You’re not fighting me.”

  “There’s no time to argue. They need you. Go now. Before I change my mind.”

  “If things get dangerous, drive away or put up a shield to protect yourself. The sun will be up soon. Synestryn will be coming back to hide.”

  “I’ll be fine. Just go.”

  Cain turned and left. A swarm of demon sights filled her eyes, making her sick.

  Disappointment and rage shook her to her bones. She wasn’t afraid. If the demons came, she knew she could protect herself. But that wasn’t enough. Not even close. She wanted to be like Cain and help others, too. Her life had been all about her for too long. Isolation had managed to narrow her focus until she could hardly see past herself.

  Cain had opened her eyes and shown her what she was missing. And now that she’d seen how it could be—how it was supposed to be—she knew she’d never again be happy settling for less.

  She couldn’t just stand around doing nothing, so she stumbled back to the car, got in, locked the doors and latched on to Cain’s power. One way or another, she was going to make her brain see what she wanted it to see. And then she was going in after him.

  * * *

  Ray
gh felt his prey draw near. The urge to grab her mind and reel her in made him salivate, but he held fast, pretending he was still trapped and held in check. She’d stopped moving now, but the closer she got, the easier it became to feel her heartbeat. It would go still soon enough, but not until he’d given her the same pain and fear that had been visited upon his sons.

  Once all of her screams were his, trapped for eternity within his memories, then he would drain her blood and carry her with him for all time. She would provide him with information and fuel his power, giving him the strength to find her friends—those who were also responsible for Raygh’s grief.

  In fact, one of them was with her now. He sensed the man’s power radiating through her, and sent his demons out to gather the man’s blood.

  It had been a long time since Raygh had tasted the power of a male Theronai’s blood. But that was about to change. Her mate possessed great knowledge. If anyone knew how to reach the Gate and the Athanasian blood that lay on the other side, it would be this man. And everything he knew, Raygh would soon know as well.

  Chapter 28

  Canaranth smelled Ella before he saw her. The sweet, light fragrance of her skin was unmistakable. His heart jumped with excitement and joy, and he broke out in a dead run, sprinting toward her.

  Before he’d gone ten feet, his mind caught up with his emotions. If she was here, she was in terrible danger. Raygh destroyed all he touched. He didn’t care about how foolish it was to kill three Slayers when cultivating their blood was far smarter. He’d already killed one of the human children they needed. Nothing mattered to him beyond his rage, hunger and his whims. Zillah had been ruthless, but at least he had some sense of preserving their future.

  Raygh was on a rampage of anger and grief, and Canaranth knew he wouldn’t stop until everyone who’d witnessed the death of his sons had been destroyed.

  He had to get Ella out to safety—back into the hands of the Sentinels.

  As Canaranth rounded a curve in the tunnel leading to the surface, he saw her body draped over the shoulder of a Sanguinar they’d had dealings with in the past—Connal. In his other arm was a small child—one who smelled familiar.