How the hell had she known? The Shaman spoke again, perhaps seeing the question in my eyes; more likely she just knew me well enough by now.
“I can see it in you, Rylee, the venom flows sluggish in your body, kept at bay by your immunity and the fire opal. But still it flows, seeking an outlet to another person, one it would devour, one it would use to bring about the destruction of the world. It is like a killing charm lying across you, a burden no other could take. If the wolf had been the recipient, even now we’d be facing legions of the undead and demons that our minds could not comprehend. If the child had been the one to take the blow, she would even now be opening portals across the deep levels of the Veil, bringing destruction and chaos to reign on Earth as it has never before done. But you” —she reached out, brushing my hand with her fingers— “you have it in you to contain all that evil with barely a dip in your ability to exist.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I do not think this will be the last time you will have to carry a burden that no other can.”
Her words struck me to the core. I did not want to do this again, and I wasn’t even at the end of this round.
“My sisters are waiting on you, Rylee. And is there not a child also waiting on you, left behind in the north?”
I closed my eyes, the weight of responsibility to so many as heavy as it got. Shit. Opening my eyes, I pushed it all down. I had a job to do, and I couldn’t do it cowering in the fucking corner.
“Where are they, your sisters?”
Louisa shifted in her seat, a grimace twisting her face. “I do not know. I escaped, but only because the creature who held us thought me dead, throwing my body out with the refuse. Hallucinating, delusional with fever, I made my way home on foot, but I have no idea how far I came.”
Tapping a sword tip against my boot, I asked, “Do you have something of theirs, something personal I can use to Track them?”
She shook her head. “No, we keep nothing like that of each other’s, the temptation to set magic upon each other in the past was too great.”
Fabulous. A thought circled around my head, one I considered a distinct possibility. “Which direction did you come from?”
Pointing to the back of the property, she said softly, “The north. Through the mountain pass.”
What other choice did I have? I stared in that direction, wishing to hell now that I’d at some point visited one of the other Shamans. Short sighted—it wasn’t something I’d make the mistake of again.
“Rylee, there is something you need to know. The creature who took us, she drained my powers, that is why my Guardian arose. It is why the giant eagle now searches the skies. As a Shaman’s powers are drained, their Guardian rises to protect them.”
“What is it,” I asked, “The creature who took you?”
Louisa’s head dropped. “I am not certain. She looked human.” We both knew no human could manage this sort of damage on a Shaman.
“Okay.” I turned to leave. Her voice called me back.
“You do not understand, Rylee. You need at least four Shamans to draw the venom out of you. If the creature takes another one of my sisters, you will be set to carry this demon with you. But if you kill the creature, our powers will be released back to us.”
I looked over my shoulder and gave her a tight smile, my heart racing at the thought of not being able to bring Ricky home. “I guess I’d better get moving then.”
Striding through the house, I nodded at the Guardian, one supernatural to another. Grabbing Alex’s collar, I gave him a tug. “Come on, boys.”
O’Shea followed, limping slightly, blood dripping down his right leg, a big wet spot where Alex had laid his head. Those pants were done for. “Where are we headed?”
“You are headed back to Dox, to get stitched up. Alex and I are going to track Louisa’s back trail.”
Alex hopped on his back legs. “Alex wins.”
“Sit,” I snapped, pointing to the ground. Alex slammed his butt into the dirt so hard a puff of dust billowed up around him.
Big amber eyes stared up at me and he whispered, his lips barely moving over his teeth. “Alex wins.”
I swore that the male species would be the death of me. “No, you . . . just sit there.”
Moving over to O’Shea, I tried to hustle him into the SUV. “I’m not going.”
“You can’t come with me. You need to get stitches and you can barely walk.” I poked him in his hip, making him crumple almost to the ground to prove my point.
Pulling himself back up, he countered. “I’m damn well not leaving you on your own again. You don’t know what you’re going after . . . .”
I was already shaking my head. “Rarely do I know what I’m going after. It’s called flying by the seat of your pants for a reason. It’s how I work.”
It was hard for me to turn my back on him, to walk away. Because I was starting to rely on having him with me. If nothing else, I knew I wasn’t alone. Alex butted his head into my hand, his wounds already healed up, as if they had never been.
“Rylee.”
I didn’t look back, couldn’t. O’Shea’s voice had softened. “I can’t watch you go off on your own, not again.”
I took a deep breath.
“Then close your eyes.”
11
He slammed the heels of his hands onto the steering wheel, fury keeping him from feeling the gouges in his leg. Damn her! When he’d gone to follow her, that bear Guardian bastard had stepped out on the porch; its freaky silver eyes making him feel every inch the human he was. No words were needed; O’Shea knew the Guardian would never let him pass.
Rylee had walked away, Alex at her heels, happy as a fucking lark. And here he was, so pissed off he could barely see straight.
The Landing Pad came into view in a surprisingly short time. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he’d had his foot almost hammered to the pedal the entire way.
Limping his way into the front of the motel, he started hollering for Dox.
The ogre came bounding out from deeper in the building, his eyes widening. “Where is she?”
“She blodoy well took off without me again.” Of course, he wasn’t going to admit there had been no way he could get past the Guardian to go after her. Not to mention his hip being flayed open like a steak.
“Shit. Well, let’s get you stitched up so you don’t bleed all over the desert looking for her.”
“I should just leave her on her own.” He grumped, turning so Dox could get a better look at the gouges.
“Louisa’s Guardian do this?”
“Yes.” He hissed out as the ogre poked at the torn flesh.
“Could be worse. There’s lots of blood, and your pants are done for, but it could be worse.”
“That’s what she said.”
Dox pointed him to a table and O’Shea hiked himself up on it, feet propped up by a chair.
The ogre made swift work of the stitches.
“You aren’t going to leave her on her own, are you?” Dox lifted his head, pausing in his stitching to ask the question.
“No. I’m not.”
“Good. She deserves someone who won’t give up when she pushes them away. She does it because she wants to protect you.”
He knew, in his gut, she did it because she cared, but hearing it from Dox made it more real.
“She’s so damn stubborn.” He yelped, his eyes snapping wide, as Dox hit a particularly tender spot.
Laughing, the ogre nodded. “That too. Though I suspect you might match her in that department.”
Grunting, he closed his eyes again.
“You need to tell her how you feel, man. She doesn’t play games. If she’s holding back, there’s a reason.”
Love life advice from an ogre? “And you would know this how?”
The needle snagged on a piece of skin and he sucked in a sharp breath, almost missing Dox’s answer.
“Because she’s honest to the core. Fou
l mouthed, stubborn, at times downright vicious when it comes to protecting those she cares about. But always, she’s honest. I don’t know that she’s got it in her to lie to you. Pin her down, tell her how you feel, and I bet” —Dox tied off the last stitch— “she’ll open up.”
The idea of pinning her down certainly had its merits. But before he could do that, he had to find her. Again.
“Thanks for the advice.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I think.”
“Anytime. Want a beer to chase the ache away?”
O’Shea lifted an eyebrow, remembering all too well the hangover from the last beer he’d had at the Landing Pad.
“Thanks, I think I’ll pass.”
Dox laughed and moved out of the way, giving O’Shea room to get off the table. He stood, wincing when he tried to bear weight on his wounded leg. How the hell was he going to go after her? Sure, he could drive to Louisa’s again, but then he’d have to get past the Guardian, which wasn’t going to happen. Then there was the terrain, all on foot, with a messed up leg.
A flutter of movement from the courtyard through the window caught his attention, and he turned to Dox, a question in his eyes.
Dox smiled. “Man, it’s your life. But it probably would be the best way to catch up with her.”
With a ruthful grin, O’Shea limped out into the bright sunlight; that it was, on both counts.
*-*-*-*
Alex and I kept a steady pace, jogging as he scented the ground, following Louisa’s scent backwards to wherever she’d been held.
In theory, it was sound, but there were spots where we lost her trail either from the shifting sand, the time, or the wind, and apparently there had been a rain shower at some point. That was according to Alex, so I didn’t wholly believe it was the issue.
The biggest problem I was dealing with was Alex. Even now, sniffing along, he started to veer to one side, tail wagging as he picked up a scent that interested him, taking him from the task at hand.
“Alex, Louisa, not the fucking rabbits,” I said, slowing to wait on him.
With a doggy grin of shame, he shrugged. “Fucking rabbits smell good.”
I did not want to know that. “You can come back here and smell all you want later, but right now, I need you to find Louisa.”
He pointed back the way we’d come, head cocked. “Isa back.”
Oh crap. “No, I want you to find her, that way.” I pointed in the opposite direction. “Where she was before.”
“Gotcha!” And he was off again, following her scent late into the day. We stopped for dinner, sharing one of the ‘fucking rabbits’ over the fire. I wasn’t really hungry, and I was exhausted past the point of being able to sleep, laying there, feeling like I wasn’t doing enough. Ricky was waiting on me, and with the three Shamans left, no one else even had a clue where the hell they were. My fire opal was already half used up which stressed me out. From what Doran said, once I lost it, I would be hammered by the cold. Louisa had been stripped of her powers, but even when I questioned her, she would refer to her captor only as a ‘creature.’ I had no idea what we were walking into, not even a whisper of a clue. A small part of me wished Milly was here, but then I pushed that away. She wasn’t the friend she’d used to be; something had changed in her, taken her away, even if she was back with us in the physical sense.
Then there was O’Shea. I’d hurt him by leaving him behind. But if he died because of me, I wasn’t sure I could deal with that. Not again. It was one thing to lose people you knew, but didn’t really love, but to lose someone you loved was . . . my thoughts stuttered as I realized what I was thinking.
I was falling in love with the agent.
Everything in me went still, the truth of my own emotions shocking me to the core. Shit, I really didn’t like this; it was not in my plan. But, I’d never shied away from the truth before, not even when it hurt me. It just sucked so badly that the first man I felt these emotions for was sleeping with my best friend.
He’s not sleeping with her right now. The traitorous side of me spoke up, egging me on to a possibility I refused to consider. It didn’t matter that she—Milly—wasn’t here. I had my standards, and I would hold to them kicking and screaming if necessary. Which meant no stealing your best friend’s man, even if she kinda stole him first. Damn it, I wasn’t going to sleep anyway; might as well make something happen.
“Alex.” I stood. “Let’s get going.”
The werewolf got up, stretching with his paws jammed into his lower back, almost like a man. “Yuppy doody,” he grunted. “Going.”
Dropping his nose to the ground, he started following Louisa’s fading scent as I kicked dirt over the small fire we’d started.
The silver glints of Alex’s fur were all I had to follow as he followed his nose. I checked my weapons as we walked. Two swords, four daggers, the whip and a set of cuffs I’d snatched from the SUV. They would come in handy—that is, if Louisa’s captor had hands small enough to fit in the cuffs. All the spells I’d left in the SUV, unable to pack them with me without the chance of breaking them on myself. No need to knock my own ass to the ground; there were plenty enough other people willing to do that for me.
We were jogging, our footsteps silent in the almost pitch black night. The moon was dark, and my eyes struggled to keep Alex in sight. Just the flicker of movement paired with the silver tips of his fur kept me on the right track.
As we ran, the terrain slowly shifted from open desert to paved roads and family homes. This was where it was going to get tough.
Alex stopped, sniffing the air and the ground, and then slowly spun a circle. “Hard to smell.”
I waited, knowing there was nothing I could do to help. “You can do it, Alex, you can find her.”
His ears perked up and his tail wagged with the praise. Jamming his nose onto the cement, he took an exaggerated breath, stilling as he picked something up. “This a way.” He took off at a gallop, and I was hard pressed to keep up with him.
We ran down the silent street, our footsteps and breathing the only thing I could hear. At the first stop sign, Alex plunged his nose onto the ground again, lifted his head and howled a long piercing note as he bolted off to the left.
“Alex, no howling,” I yelped as lights in the neighbourhood started to flick on, dogs going ape shit and howling along with him. Damn it, the last thing we needed were ‘concerned citizens’ asking us questions. I turned on the speed, not seeing that Alex had stopped. I slammed into him, tackling him to the ground to try and soften my own impact. Of course, he thought the whole scene was great fun.
“Wrestling!” He grabbed me in a bear hug, pinning my arms to my side.
“No, no wrestling. It was an accident,” I grunted out, squirming my way out of his reach. His head drooped.
Getting to my feet, I knocked the dirt off my knees. “Okay, pick up Louisa’s scent again.”
He let out sigh. “No fun.” But did as I asked.
Over the next four hours, we wove our way in and out of subdivisions, and I began to see the major downside to my plan. Louisa had been hiding, and even in her altered state of incoherency, she’d had enough self-preservation to keep herself tucked away from prying eyes.
There was no straight line, and as dawn began to clear the sky, highlighting it pink and orange, I finally called a halt. Both of us were exhausted, but I didn’t want to go back to the Landing Pad. There was no way I’d convince O’Shea to stay behind a second time.
Worse, Alex had lost her scent. Weaving back and forth, we traced our steps back to the last place he could pinpoint her. Then, there was nothing, like she had never even been here.
Fatigue clawed at me. We needed a place to crash, if just for a few hours; then I could figure out what we were going to do. Putting my back against an older adobe style home, I worked my way over to the closest window and peeked in, scanning the darkened house. Built into the side of a cliff, it was painted a dark slate to blend into the surrounding area. Mig
ht work, if no one was home.
A car engine revved up and the lower level of the house came alive, the garage door opening, and a sleek sports car backing out and taking off. Before the garage door slid shut, I ducked inside, Alex right with me.
The interior of the house was warm, the lights were all out, and it seemed empty. “You hear anyone?”
Cocking his head to one side, Alex listened for a moment and then shook his head. “Nope.”
Perfect.
Working our way through the house, I checked all the rooms, eight in total, to make sure we were indeed alone. With no alarm system, we had a perfect place to sleep for a few hours.
Picking the bedroom with the balcony as an escape route if we needed to leave quickly, I closed the door behind us. Leaving my weapons and clothes on, I lay down on the padded mattress and fell asleep within moments, Alex lying across my legs.
You know the saying, ‘No rest for the wicked?’ Yeah, looked like it was going to apply to me.
The dream hit me hard, Faris standing there, smiling at me like a cat who’d just got into the freaking catnip.
“Hello, Rylee. You are such a pleasant diversion.”
I felt for my weapons, feeling nothing at my sides. “Fuck you and let me sleep.”
“Tut, tut. Such language on a young lady like yourself.” His eyes glinted and he stepped closer, blue eyes shining like jewels, his hands snaking around me faster than I could react. “I like it.”
I jerked away from him, slamming my fist up where his chin had been only to find empty air. Faris was standing to one side of me, smiling as if he had all the time in the world. Being a vampire, that wasn’t entirely untrue.
“What do you want?” I’d asked it before, but the fucker didn’t seem inclined to tell me the truth.
“I want your trust. I want you to come and work for me.”
I was shaking my head before he finished the first sentence. “Nope. Something else? ‘Cause if not, I’ve got things to do, people to see, asses to kick.”
Laughing, he strolled in a circle around me. “Doran told you something, something that sparked your interest. Ask me the question, I wish to prove you can trust me.”
Immune: A Sexy Urban Fantasy Mystery (Rylee Adamson # 2) Page 10