Rising Darkness (A Rylee Adamson Novel, Book 9) (3 page)

I held the boy in my arms a little tighter, wishing I could do more than drive the demon from him. The smallpox still held him in its grip and he gave a moan. There was a bed, empty, on my right.

“Faris,” I called to him and he turned to see where I pointed. We laid the three kids down, and they snuggled against each other. Jaw tight, I strode away from the ward, my emotions warring within me. Sorrow for those who faced death with their children and gratitude it wasn’t my child lying in a bed, dying from a disease supposedly eradicated.

No one tried to stop us, not a single person commented that we weren’t supposed to have animals in the hospital. Peta still led the way, not once glancing back to see if we followed.

“Isn’t it strange they wouldn’t say something to us?” Faris asked. “Humans are notoriously suspicious when it comes to things out of the ordinary. Like people just showing up with sick kids and dropping them off in a hospital room.”

I nodded, noting the humans did seem particularly blind to us. We made it outside and I stared, mouth hanging open in shock. The parking lot was set up like an army camp, tents and military personnel everywhere.

“This is worse than we thought,” Faris said.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” I snapped. The world was going to hell in a demon’s hand basket and I had less than a week to stop the free-fall before it got worse. Knowing what had been happening was one thing, seeing the results of said free-fall was something else entirely.

Staring around us, I had a hard time believing it could get worse, but it would. And in a damn hurry, too.

“Fuck,” I whispered. “We’ve got to get our asses in gear.”

Peta let out a little meow that caught my attention. Stalking toward us was a large, black werewolf, teeth bared in a snarl that had saliva dripping from his mouth. Narrowed golden eyes locked onto us as his silver tipped black fur stood on end, the tips catching the weak light from the camp.

Alex.

I smiled at him, ignoring his snarling face and ran for him. “Alex!”

His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open, the snarl falling from his face. Tears welled up and then slid down his furred cheeks as he blubbered, grabbing at me. I caught him in a hug and held him, his sides heaving under my arms. He fought to get closer, his claws digging as he squeezed me to the point of feeling my ribs flex under his strength.

“I’m here, buddy, I’m here. I’m not going without you again.” I buried my face into his neck and breathed him in. He shook, his body trembling as he clung to me, whimpering.

I pulled back so I could look into his face. “Hey, aren’t you going to say anything? Didn’t you miss me?”

He nodded, his chest still shaking as he gasped for air and I braced myself, feeling the howl coming on as his lungs filled.

“Ryleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee’s baaaaaaaaaaack!”

CHAPTER 3

Pamela

A
lex’s howl jerked
me out of sleep and I stumbled from my tent to see him wrapped around her.

Rylee.

I stepped forward, a smile on my face, a huge weight lifting. She was back, and she would make things right again.

And then I remembered she had left us, that she wasn’t the person I thought she was.

That I’d had to kill Liam because of her.

She lifted her head and saw me. A smile, so rare on her face, beckoned me, and I couldn’t stop moving toward her like a moth to a flame.

“Pamela!” She caught me in her arms and I fought the warring emotions. I wanted to bury my face against her, and let her take care of everything that had gone wrong. Of all the things I’d had to face. And I wanted to hurt her, make her pay for those same things.

“I’m surprised you came back,” I bit out, and she pulled back from me.

“I said I’d come back.” Her tri-colored eyes took me in and I squirmed, feeling like she could see through to my soul. Like she could see . . . everything. Like somehow she knew I’d killed Liam.

“You’ve grown up since I left,” she reached out and touched my cheek. Or at least tried to. I jerked my head away from her hand.

“Don’t touch me.”

Her eyebrows shot up and I really looked at her. She seemed . . . different. Harder and softer at the same time. I couldn’t put my finger on how or what was different. Or maybe, maybe it was just me. Maybe I was the one who changed. I turned my back on her. “I don’t need you anymore.” The words hurt my throat and I thought about Milly. Milly was my friend. She would be the one I leaned on now.

“Pamela, I still need you with me.”

I stopped and hunched my shoulders, as if she’d hit me. The careful shell of disdain I’d been building cracked and I breathed deeply. “What for? I’m just a kid, right? That’s why you left me behind, because you didn’t think you could trust me.” And she’d been right. I’d killed Liam, and then kept the truth from her. She was right not to trust me, and it galled me to the core. I wanted her to love me, even as I hated her for leaving me.

“Look, there isn’t time for this shit, kid.” Rylee grabbed my arm and spun me around. I shot a thread of power at her, to blast her backward, forgetting she was Immune to magic.

She grabbed my other arm so I was caught and then she shook me. “Pamela, you are a part of my family, and family means that no matter how angry, or stupid we are, we still fight for each other. No matter how fucking stupid we are, or how hurt our feelings are, we stand together. So whatever is going on, tell me or don’t, but I will be damned if you think I don’t trust you.”

My mouth dropped open and she let me go, but I just stood there, stunned. “Then why didn’t you take me?”

“Because Liam told me who to take and I had to trust he was right.” She put her hands on her hips. “I left Alex behind too, I left
Eve
behind. Doesn’t mean I don’t trust you three, just that where I was going wasn’t for you.”

“Where did you go?” I whispered, remembering that she’d taken Zane, that he was wherever she’d been. Zane was Milly’s. And Milly wanted me to help her find him.

Her eyes were sad. “I don’t know. My memories were taken from me, to keep those I left behind safe.”

It was as if Milly was right there with me, her presence real. Like I could reach out and touch her. I felt her push me toward the words I wouldn’t have otherwise said.

“You’re a liar. A dirty, rotten liar!”

Her eyes went wide and I saw her tense. I waited for the blow to come. Surely she’d slap me for that.

Nothing.

She shook her head. “Pam—” and then she stopped, her eyes going distant and I recognized she was listening to Blaz. Talking about me no doubt.

“That’s right, more secrets!” I yelled and stomped back to my tent. I threw myself onto my bed and screamed, the power in me erupting into a physical manifestation. The ground shook and bucked and then, when I expected it to crack open, Milly was in my mind.

“Easy, Pamela, you don’t want to tip your hand. You are going to need your strength. I need you to come to me.”
Her voice soothed and helped me pull the power and anger in. She was right. I needed to conserve myself.

“When?” I whispered the word.

“Soon, I need you to listen in to what the others are planning. Maybe you will hear where they took my son. And then come to me.”
Her voice sounded so sad. So lost.

I flopped on the bed, tears trickling down my cheeks. “I hate them all. They hurt us both.”

A gray and white cat pushed her way into the tent, ran to my bed and leapt onto it, purring. She butted her head against my chest. Warmth spread through me and I automatically stroked her silky fur. “Where did you come from?”

Rylee poked her head in the tent. “Peta?”

I frowned at the cat. She just purred louder and curled against my chest.

“Get out,” I growled, staring at Rylee.

“You may very well be the strongest witch this world has seen, but that doesn’t mean you have to prove it every time the thought crosses your tiny teenage brain.” She snorted. “Peta, stick close to her, please.”

I glanced down at the cat and she winked her green eyes at me. “Peta.” When I looked back up, Rylee was gone and I was alone.

Curling around the cat, I laid down on the bed. At least in my dreams I had a friend. A smile warmed my lips as I closed my eyes.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing with Pam, then again, I knew what she’d been asked to do. What Liam had asked of her. Damn him for not trusting me.

Alex tugged at my leg. “Pamie sad, darkness is around her all the time. I sees it.”

I put a hand to him, resting it on his head. “Darkness?”

He nodded and then tipped his head to one side. “Pamie hurt, angry, lonely. Too many things she feels.”

That was pretty spot on with what Blaz had said.

She is at a crossroads. She will either chose to fight with you or against you. There is not much you can do, nor if you stayed would things be different. She had to face this on her own. As we all must make a choice as to what path to take at some point in our lives.

I gritted my teeth, the urge to fix things strong. Faris strode toward me, a glower on his face.

“Bratty witch.”

“You don’t know what she’s been through, Faris.” I turned, expecting him to keep up with me.

“Doesn’t matter what she’d been through, she could kill us all if she doesn’t learn to control herself. I thought you said the druids were training her. They should be teaching her the healing arts, not destruction, since she has that down pat.”

I let out a sigh. “She’s always had a way with the power moves, she’s a heavy hitter, not a creature of finesse.” I put Pamela from my mind, knowing I would have to deal with her soon enough. Right at that moment, I needed to find Doran. He would tell me what was going on.

As it turned out, he found us as we strode through the makeshift camp. One second it was just me, Faris, and Alex, the next, Doran was beside me, a hand on my lower back.

“I know you like the whole danger and doom aspect of leaving things to the last second, Rylee,” Doran said, “But even for you this is a bit silly.”

I stopped in my tracks. “We need to talk.”

He tipped his head to the right. “This way.”

The four of us cut through the people milling about, the number of humans and supernaturals interacting was shocking, and to be honest, it made me nervous. “Do they know?”

Doran knew what I was asking. “No, the humans think the volunteers here are just good at what they do.” He pushed through a small knot of vampires who glowered at me and Faris. I glared back, not recognizing any of them. Doran led us into a thick canvas tent that was seven or eight feet tall and easily twenty feet square. A command center if I ever saw one.

Doran waved at the chairs and those who occupied them. Deanna and
Will
,
Frank
, and
Mer
the green ogre. Probably the only ogre we had on our side after the massacre at Doran’s home in New Mexico. They all stood as we walked in, but it was Will who rushed to greet me. I wanted to cringe away from him, and at the same time jam my knife under his chin for his inappropriate moves, his hatred of Liam, his unwillingness to help. Looked like he was going to try and make a pitch for me yet again. I steeled myself, but didn’t need to.

Faris blocked him from getting too close to me, and I fought not to smile my gratitude. “Leave her be, cat.” Power swirled in Faris’s voice, power that felt a hell of a lot like Liam, and Will actually stopped, shook his head and took a step back. Now that was interesting.

“Rylee,” Will said my name and I nodded at him.

“Will. Deanna. Frank. Mer.” I nodded at each of them by way of greeting. “Fill me in.”

Deanna did most of the speaking. “Filling in” was a nice way of saying the catastrophe had gotten uglier than I ever thought possible.

The plague sweeping the world had infected over half of the global population. Majority of those hit the hardest were the young ones, those who hadn’t had years to build up their immune systems. And of course, they were the ones Orion and his demons wanted weak anyway. The young. The ones who would be the strongest in body and mind.

“That isn’t the worst of things, though, Rylee,” Deanna said, her voice hitching.

“Fuck, how could it be worse?” I was still struggling to comprehend the numbers they were throwing at me, the sheer effect of the world losing half its population either dead or so sick they wished they were dead, bleeding out their pores as fever raged and their bodies gave up, death coming slowly and with unimaginable pain. Or, if they were truly unlucky, their bodies and souls were hijacked by demons.

Deanna pushed a hand through her hair; her eyes and the pale, sickly pallor of her skin gave testament to how hard the situation had been on her. “The supernaturals have been dying off as well. We’ve lost entire species.”

Chills swept my body, chased by a wave of heat. All I could think about was my friends. Those I’d left behind.
Charlie
being at the front of the list. Brownies could contract the same diseases as humans, part of the reason they avoided our world and stayed on the other side of the veil. Only, the veil had closed and how had that affected them?

Almost as if reading my mind, Doran spoke. “The brownies were essentially booted out of the veil when Liam closed it. We don’t know why, only that they were pushed out. We haven’t heard from any of them since then.”

“Charlie?” I asked, hoping he would pop in like he so often did.

“Nothing.”

“Who else?”

Doran moved to my side and I knew it was going to be bad when he took my hand and squeezed it gently. His green eyes on my own.

“The Harpies have been hit hard. They have enough human blood in them that the pox swept through their numbers. There are only a few left, barely enough to re-populate their species. And that is if we can keep them clear of the disease.”

I swayed where I stood. Harpies. “Eve?”

It was if everyone held their breath and I closed my eyes against the truth. Instead, I Tracked my friend, knowing the demons could pinpoint me as I did. Her threads burned bright and clear, far to the north. I gasped, relief coursing through me, and a tear trickling from one eye. “She’s alive.”

Doran gave me a grim smile. “She can’t land anywhere here. Her and Marco are the only pair left in the area, and they’re staying with the unicorns in the forest near
Jack
’s manor,” Doran said. “You can’t see her, Rylee. Even now, you could carry the taint of the pox on your skin and we can’t risk losing them.”

“Who else?”

The list was enormous.

Witches and druids, daywalkers, vampires, trolls, mermaids, shifters, and goblins. Any supernatural that had even a hint of human blood could contract the pox.

“How can that be?” I whispered, sinking into a chair as I realized the people in front of me—they were what was left of our team to face Orion and his hordes. A handful of us. That was it.

“Orion knew what he was doing when he unleashed this particular pox. So even those who have been unable to get sick in the past, like the shifters, for example, they are open to being infected. And since no supernatural has ever contracted even a human cold, there are no antibodies in their systems. Zero immunity. The death toll is a hundred percent when it comes to our world.”