Veiled Threat (21 page)

Thomas let out a long sigh. “This is why I do not like opening the veil into the deep level. No one comes out, not ever. I told you that.”

Liam spun toward him. “You never said that.”

“Didn’t I? Well, it was implied.”

“You hold that open.” Liam stalked toward the open veil, but whatever made him a guardian kept him from going any further. He stared onto the open plain. There was movement, far, far in the distance.

“There is someone coming.”

Thomas snorted again, and his voice was strained. “Even if it is her, I am not sure how long I can hold this open, wolf.”

“Thomas, hold it open. You have to.” He strained his eyes, peering into the shimmering darkness.

The veil slammed shut. “I cannot, Liam.” Thomas slid to the ground between Megan and Frank.

“No!”

Thomas lifted his hand. “Let me rest. I am a fool, but I will open it again for you.”

“He’s lying,” Megan whispered. “It’s all an act.”

Frank’s eyes went wide. “Megan, why would you say that?”

Liam had a bad feeling this was not going to be easily cut and dried. “Megan, sit down.” He pointed to the ground, a few feet away from Thomas.

Thomas lifted his head. “Someone has gotten to her, I think. She is marvelously strong, but …” He didn’t finish. Megan lifted a hand and around them the ground shifted.

“I will kill you, old man. You’re too stupid to see you’re weak now. Too weak to stop me, too weak to open that gate. Orion will rule, and I will be his queen.”

From below, the dead began to rise, pushing themselves out of the dirt. Liam didn’t hesitate, though his heart faltered.

He leapt toward Megan, who had her back to him, and wrapped his fingers around her neck, lifting her from the ground. Quick and easy, he’d snap her neck; she wouldn’t feel a thing.

“If you kill her, we won’t be able to open the veil,” Thomas said, as though their lives weren’t in danger, as if zombies weren’t even now crawling toward them with open mouths and reaching hands.

“Knock her out. I can drain her powers. Permanently.”

There was no other choice. She struggled in his hands, her face going red and then purple. He shifted his grip so the pulsing carotid artery was under his fingertips and then he squeezed.

Out like a light, she slumped, her body loosing urine all down her legs, urine he couldn’t smell over the heavy perfume she wore. She must have known he could scent her lies and had covered them; the naivety had all been an act. Fortunately, the zombies she’d called stilled as she passed out, dropping where they were.

He all but tossed her limp body toward Thomas. “She is another of Orion’s pets.”

Thomas nodded. “It would seem that way.”

Something about this bothered Liam, a piece that didn’t make sense. “Why didn’t he use her the way he used Talia?”

With a sigh, Thomas crouched beside Megan. “She is still young, likely he was grooming her to be a back up. She is untrained and without the proper training she could never have opened the deep level of the veil for Orion.”

A back up necromancer. Shit. There was nothing for her then, nothing to redeem her of this if she’d thrown her lot so fully in with Orion. Which was obviously the case. Liam’s gaze met Thomas’s. “Do it.”

Thomas beckoned. “Frank, come, you must learn this too.”

Frank stepped forward, his eyes glassy behind his too large specs. “I thought she was … I thought she liked me.” He shook his head.

“We all get fooled by a pretty girl at least one in our lives,” Thomas said, putting a hand on Megan’s head, then taking Frank’s hand and doing the same. “Likely, more than once, actually. This will help you in the long run, you will be stronger now than even she was.”

Liam knew he couldn’t rush them, knew that it was going to be close.

Come on, Rylee, let it be you. Come home to me.

Chapter 21

W
e ran as
fast as we could, but demons came from every side. Thousands upon thousands, more than I could comprehend. Most seemed pulled from the human psyche, nightmares lain dormant awakened, monstrous and terrifying. Others, though, were disturbingly normal.

Human like, and in that, all the more frightening. Because I never would have known them for what they were if they hadn’t been chasing us. They would have fooled me.

Ahead of us, far ahead, I saw a speck of light. An opening into the world. Our time was up.

“Hurry, we have to hurry!”

But even as I said the words, the light disappeared, closing us off.

Alex whimpered and Pamela choked back a sob. I kept my focus straight ahead. “Keep going. Liam is with him; he will get that fucking veil open.”

And so we ran, an avalanche of demons closing in, tightening the deadly noose that would swallow us whole if we slowed for even a heart beat.

“Rylee, when we get to the arch, put the others inside and you and I will defend,” Erik said, out of breath from running while carrying Milly.

We hit the archway a few minutes later. He dropped Milly to the ground and swung around. Pamela and Alex crouched beside her, and I spun to face the horde. But Alex didn’t stay with Pamela, he pushed her down and then leapt up beside me.

“I protect you.”

I wasn’t going to argue with him. We were done.

Fuck me, we were so done.

I had no illusions; this was a last stand, a way to etch ourselves into the memories of the demons as the ones who took out hundreds of them. Erik’s hands shot out, catching the first demon on the chin, his power vaporizing the monster before I even registered what it looked like.

“Rylee, you always bring the trouble, my girl.” Giselle’s voice made me smile. I knew she’d come; she wouldn’t let us fight on our own.

“What happens if you die here?”

“Then I am gone. Gone to my reward, wherever that is.” She loosened her weapons and steadied her stance. “There is no greater joy than to take a stand for those you love.”

Erik grunted. “Fierce love is a power unto itself.”

She smiled at him and gave him a wink, of all things. “That it is, Slayer.”

And then they were on us. I used my sword, my whip, my hands. The power I’d not understood flowed under my skin, driving the demons back. From the heart, it was all from the heart.

Giselle fought like lightning, striking and withdrawing, her weapons dropping demons all around her.

And Alex, everywhere he bit, clawed and struck, demons fell. It had nothing to do with symbols or etching designs into blades and weapons.

No, this was about the heart. Alex had more heart than anyone I knew, he fought for me because he loved me. And then it all clicked, and I finally understood.

Every person I loved, every child I’d brought home, every decision I’d made because it was the best I could do, that was what it took to take out a demon. This power was bottomless; there was no draining it, though I felt the toll on my muscles, on my stamina. The well in my heart would not run dry.

Liam.

Giselle.

Pamela.

Milly. All those I loved fed that power. Their love gave me this strength to face the darkest of hours without hate in me. Without anger. Without fear. That was why Alex could tackle demons. That was what the necromancer Talia meant when she said he had a pure intent. He fought from a place of love, he fought for those he loved.

The scent of roses swam up around me and I didn’t look, I knew Milly was awake and she was pissed.

Her magic flowed and struck with a deadly aim, pushing the demons back. She wasn’t killing them though.

“Milly, I know you want to hate them, but you need to let that go—you have to think of those you love. Of your baby. Then use your magic.”

She stepped beside me, tears tracking down her cheeks. “Of you, too, Rylee.”

Her power swept out in a bar of light and the demons cowered. To the other side of me, Pamela stood, her hands out, a smile on her lips.

“That’s the key, isn’t it?”

“I think so,” I whispered, snapping my whip out, curling it around a demon’s neck. There couldn’t be hate, and even though there was, it wasn’t the driving force. I did this for love, for those I loved. Not to gain vengeance to make Orion pay. I did this to keep those I cared for safe.

Bar after bar of light burst out of Pamela and Milly, driving the demons back, way back. Far out of reach of my weapons or Erik’s hands. The demons weren’t dying from the magical assault, there was too much anger in Pam and Milly, too much rage at being held captive. Not that I was going to complain. They were giving us a respite, holding the demons at bay.

“Rylee. The door isn’t going to open on its own. We’re stuck here,” Erik said. “And your girls, they will tire out sooner rather than later.”

“Liam will come through.” I stared at the archway.

“You are willing to bet your life on him?”

“Always.”

Draining Megan took close to ten minutes, her pale face dipped into a shade of white Liam had never seen on skin before. She still breathed though; her body was alive even if she’d been stripped of every drop of power she had.

“It is done,” Thomas said, his voice heavy with sorrow. “She had great potential, a shame she was tainted.”

“Open the veil.”

“Wolf, let me get to my feet! I know you think they will be there, and I will open the veil once, and once more only. If they are not there, I cannot open it again, not for days. And by then …” He lifted his brown eyes to Liam’s. “By then it will be too late.”

Clenching his hands into fists, Liam shook with fear, though by the look on Thomas’s face, the necromancer thought it a more aggressive emotion that claimed his body.

He could barely say the words. “Open the veil, she will be there.”

Never in his life had he been so afraid. Even when Pamela and he had been separated from Rylee and Alex in the underground palace, when the water had come and swept her away. Even then he’d thought perhaps there was some way she would make it. But this time it was too close to the end game; walking into Orion’s own territory, no matter the reason, was a death sentence. And he’d let her go.

He should have fought harder, should have made her see that Pamela and Milly were not as important as she was.

The veil sluggishly opened, the archway showing clearly. No one stood in it. A moment passed where he heard nothing and then … .

A deafening roar, the sounds of battle drove out of the opening, the scent of blood and magic lit up his senses.

“RYLEE!” He roared her name and then let out a howl he couldn’t hold back, the cry of a wolf for his mate.

“Liam!”

Everything happened so fast. Pamela and Alex came through first, and then … Erik?

“What the hell, I thought you were with the dragons?”

Erik’s eyes flicked over him and Liam caught a new scent. This wasn’t the Erik they’d left behind. What the hell was going on?

“Where’s Rylee?”

“Here.” She stepped up to the edge. “Don’t touch me, anyone. I’m covered in venom.”

Behind her, he saw Milly.

Worse, behind Milly stood a figure who could be only one person.

Orion.