rylee adamson 10 - blood of the lost (35 page)

CHAPTER 44

LARK

BESIDE ME, PAMELA healed Liam, though I could see the toll it took on her. Her lips were pressed tightly together in a thin line as she closed the wound. He sat up, reaching for his cutlass before Pamela’s hands had even fallen from his chest.

Around us, the demons began to die as they fought our allies. Not dissolve, not go down in a massive twitching of limbs that could re-spawn. No, they were dying, and the elementals roared with a fierce and wild glee.

Fiametta met my eye and nodded, pride filling her face; her fire elementals were a wicked force to be reckoned with, and were showing how very dangerous they were. From the weakest of them to the strongest, they’d blasted a line through the demons in order to get me to Rylee in time, to get the sword into her hands.

Somewhere behind me, Finley worked with her Undines, and they in turn were assisting the queen of the Sylphs. I was still surprised she’d come. Mind you, she’d stayed as far away from me as possible, but that was fine.

A swirl of a black cloak ten feet from me drew my eye. Blackbird had come as he’d sworn, and as I stared, he killed the demons around him. I hesitated, my spear in my hands as I considered running him through.

The time is not now, child. For this moment he stands with you, and has earned his life.
The mother goddess spoke firmly to me, as if perhaps I wouldn’t listen. It would not be the first time I’d ignored her.

“Until tomorrow then,” I breathed the words out, spun, and took a demon’s oversized rat head from his shoulders.

Rylee and Ophelia winged above us, heading for the ceremonial slab. Orion was hot on her heels, ripping through his own people to get to the slab before her. I gathered the power of Spirit, but held back at the last second. I could not use it, the fear of what it would do to me stopping me.

A demon that looked like he’d possessed an ogre’s hulking mass roared at me. I screamed back at him, driving the shaft of my spear into his groin and dropping him to his knees. On his back was a black and gnarled bow that I ripped off. Kicking him in the neck, I pushed him the rest of the way over and took his arrows as well.

Orion mounted the steps of the burnt farmhouse.

Rylee dropped from Ophelia’s back, not seeing him or his raised sword.

I lifted the bow, sighted the arrow staring at the back of his neck where it joined the base of his skull. I released the bowstring and the arrow flew straight and true, slamming through him.

My vision blurred as I was tackled by two demons at once. “We’ve got her. Master will like us for this. Blackbirdy, we’s got her!”

Hell no, this was not happening.

I called the earth up under us, pulling all three of us down deep. With very little effort, I pushed myself back out and shook the loose dirt off. The two demons were buried; the tips of their fingers the only thing visible.

“Blackbird, you bastard.” I snarled. The time was soon coming that I would have to deal with him.

Not yet.

No, I was rather busy making sure the world didn’t get overrun by demons. But as soon as that was done with . . . Blackbird would get his comeuppance.

One way or another.

CHAPTER 45

RYLEE

I SPUN AS ORION came at me, his sword over his head, already in a downswing toward me. There was no way I’d get my weapon up in time. The moment slowed, and I stared up at him.

But at the last second of his swing, his whole body jerked as though he’d touched an open electric line.

“No, I won’t let you win,” he spit out, blood flecking his lips. He twitched and turned sideways, the arrow protruding from the back of his spine dancing like it was a fishing line with a large catch. Lark saw me, gave me a nod, and then was tackled to the ground by a couple of hulking demons.

I raised the katana. Orion was dying, and I needed a wound from a demon to kick start the ceremony; but I finally realized it couldn’t be just any demon. It had to be Orion, or this wasn’t going to work. That was what Deanna hadn’t understood either. As much as she’d tried to help me, she’d only ended up killing herself by letting the demon in.

“If you don’t want me to win, then you’d better take a swing at me, you fucking idiot,” I snapped, bringing his attention back to me. His red eyes were clouded with a gray fog as death crawled up and over him. Fuck. I was running out of time. The night was beginning to fade, the distant light of the dawn coming faster than I could believe.

Orion reached around and pulled the arrowhead from his neck, and his eyes cleared. “You didn’t think a single arrow could actually down me, did you? Who is the idiot now?”

Oh, fuck.

Here it was, the moment I’d been trying to make happen all along.

I had a moment of fear that Doran hadn’t listened to Charlie when I’d sent the brownie with instructions for how to set up things. Because it wasn’t just my blood needed to send the demons back and close the Veil.

It was Orion’s, too.

Spinning, I leapt over a burnt-out timber into the well of the house. The ceremonial slab had been cleaned off, and its placement was under what would’ve been my bedroom.

I stood in the middle, and breathed out a sigh of relief. The ropes were in place as I’d asked Doran to do. Orion came at me.

We circled the thick slab, the details of it searing my brain. The depressions under the seven points where blood would be drawn from me, the channels that would take that blood into the earth and seal the Veil. The section pushed out to the left would be for Orion’s body.

“This game has gone on long enough.” Orion lunged at me, his sword tip missing me under the chin as I backpedaled, forgetting I needed him to cut into me. But it had to be the right place. Seven points: both arms, both legs, my heart, neck and belly. Belly was for the demons.

“I agree. But it has never been a game to me.”

Orion seemed perplexed by my words. “A game is a game. There are winners and losers.”

“But if you’re a loser, is it a game?” I stepped toward him, the katana arcing through the last of the night air, faster than any blade I’d ever used. I followed it up with a roundhouse, catching Orion in the side of the head. He reeled back and off the slab. Too far. I needed him up there with me. I folded my arms over my chest and snorted. “So you want to rule the world, but you can’t fight without your voodoo magic?”

Snarling, his face twisting into a grimace that let his true colors show. He clambered onto the slab with me, the monster in him glimmering through the thin Veil of humanity he held over himself like a cloak.

Back and forth, we fought, our weapons never drawing blood as we pushed each other to the limit. Other demons came close, but none stepped in to help him. At one point, he saw me looking.

“If I can’t kill you on my own, I am no leader,” he said, then spit at my feet a glob of black saliva.

What he said hit me hard, right in the heart. I wasn’t alone.

That was what Lark had been saying all along. That even the smallest piece of the puzzle like Jonathan was important to make this picture whole.

I didn’t have to do this alone, so why was I trying so hard to?

“LIAM!” I screamed his name, knowing he would hear me no matter how far away he was. “ALEX. BERGET. DORAN. PAMELA. LARK. EVE. OPHELIA. PETA. CHARLIE. WILL. JONATHAN. CALLIOPE.”

The names of my family, the ones I loved beyond anything this world could ever offer me. Orion’s eyes widened. “That’s cheating!” He lunged forward, his sword aimed for my belly. I spread my arms wide and let it drive into me.

The blade slid through me to the hilt. I stared up at Orion, the physical pain nothing to the echoes of what was coming. “No. This is family. And I don’t have to do this on my own,” I said. Alex tackled him from behind, dropping him to the slab with a meaty thunk. Liam was right on top of him, then Doran for good measure. Pamela was there at my side, breathless with exertion as she wove a spell around Orion. “I don’t know how well it will hold.” She looked at me, her face paling. “I have to heal you, Rylee.”

I shook my head. “No. Don’t heal me, no matter what happens.” Dropping to my knees, struggling to breathe around the gut wound, I scooped up one end of the rope Doran had placed earlier when prepping the slab. “These will hold the big bastard.”

I made a slipknot and put it over Orion’s left wrist. Lark copied for his right wrist and ankle. Peta fought beside her, slashing any demon that got too close. Berget caught me as I slumped backward and onto my ass, the gut wound finally taking me down.

“You’re almost done, Rylee,” she whispered into my ear. I nodded, the sword slipping from my fingers. I touched the wound at my stomach and Pamela rushed to me. I shook my head.

“No, this has to bleed.”

Around us the air shifted and a thunderstorm rolled in at a speed that was anything but natural. Lark came to my side and put a hand to my cheek. “The elementals are turning on each other.”

I stared up at her in shock. “They’re what?”

“I knew this would happen. They bought us the time we needed, but I never expected them to play nice for this long.”

Peta shook her head, her green eyes sorrowful. “Stupid idiots, they will pay for this one day.”

The storm broke over us, big fat raindrops falling on my upturned face as Lark scooped me up and laid me on the slab beside Orion. He thrashed, but the ropes held him.

“Ropes made from unicorn hair,” I whispered to him with a smile. I lay there, feeling the time slip away. “Lark, you know what has to happen?”

She bent over me, her eyes brimming with tears. “I do.” She touched my cheek gently and stood back. “Say your goodbyes.”

Pamela startled like she’d been shot in the ass. “Goodbyes? No, this is—”

There was no chance for her to say anything else. The demons around us were no longer held back by Lark’s groups. The few elementals left—Cactus, Lark, and her sister Belladonna—were the only ones who’d stayed. The remaining wolves and half-breed trolls circled tightly around us, but their numbers had been easily cut in half.

Lark held my hand. “I can’t help them and do the ceremony. There is no time for anything else.”

I nodded, a warm fatigue spilling over me. The wound in my stomach was bad. “You’d better hurry then, I’m not sure there is going to be much blood left in me.”

Lark nodded and let me go. “Cactus, Bella, Pamela. Make a circle, hold them as long as you can.”

Not too long, though. It wouldn’t be too long and this would be done. My family would be safe.

The world would be safe.

Marcella would be safe.