rylee adamson 10 - blood of the lost (32 page)

Her horn stabbed and slashed, as did my swords, as we carved through them. Twice, I caught the edge of blades on my right leg. An arrow shot out of the horde and deep into Tiomon’s shoulder.

But we didn’t slow. Her hooves clattered on the edge of the cement as we scrambled up the back steps and onto what was left of the foundation of the farmhouse.

I leapt from her back, the burning fire in my leg telling me all I needed to know. The blades that had cut into me were poisoned, and for the first time in my life that meant something. What a great fucking time to lose my Immunity.

Tiomon reared up and then plunged forward, her head down as she charged Orion. With a roar, he tried to get out of her way, but holding two babies that wasn’t going to happen.

He threw Zane first, tossing him high into the air above our heads.

“NO!” I was too far away, Zane would fall. He would be crushed against the broken timbers and cement. His green eyes found mine and he reached for me, the only mother he’d known. Child of my heart, but not of my blood.

A hair-raising screech snapped through the air, and as Zane fell, Eve swooped out of the night sky, catching him as carefully as if he were her own. From her back, Alex whooped. “Gots him!”

In the distance, came the growing howl of wolves rolling through the night air. Hundreds of wolves coming to our aid. But how the hell was that possible?

Eve screeched again and I glanced up to see Alex grinning down at me. “Reinforcements!”

I stumbled to one knee, the poison spreading fast despite Faris invoking the bite. Fucking hell. I stared at Orion as he tried to dodge one very pissed off unicorn. She darted in, her horn piercing his left shoulder, right over Marcella’s head.

He screamed and I scrambled forward. With Tiomon keeping him busy, I had my shot at him.

A body slammed into me from the left, taking me down in a tumble of limbs. Around us, the horde roared and pulled back. Hot, rancid breath poured over me and a thick body pressed me into the ground. “War has come for you. Now what will you do?”

Tiomon’s voice reached me.
I have her. Fight, Rylee, and fear not for your daughter. She is my heart mate and I will protect her.

Relief flowed through me and I stared up at the demon on top of me. He looked like a politician I’d seen on TV once, with a weak chin and terrible hair that might as well have been a mop badly stitched on.

“Rhymes, really?” I drove my elbow up, catching War under the chin and knocking him off me.

But my blow was weak and he reeled back only a little.

“Oh, we aren’t done yet.” He laughed, pushing his hips against mine and it slammed home what he wanted to do. War wasn’t just about fighting, it was about showing how strong you were over those who couldn’t defend themselves. Rape, degradation, horror. They all made up war. I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him tight against me.

“You want a piece of this?”

I grabbed his ears and slammed my head forward, breaking his nose. He howled. Black blood poured from his mouth and busted face. I held onto his head as he writhed, trying to get away from me.

“What the fuck is wrong with you. I thought you wanted a piece of me?” I distantly realized that he was affecting me, making me do to him what he wanted to do to me. But I couldn’t pull back.

Calm, Rylee. Feel the calm. These horsemen are tough because of how strong they are, but they can still be sent back. You know that.
Ophelia was right, but I couldn’t let go of him. If I did, I would be done in. The demons around us backed farther, making room as if we were a show they didn’t want to miss. But why wouldn’t they take a shot at me now that I was down? At the edges of the circle, I caught the eyes of two demons with scars on their cheeks. Two parallel vertical lines with an intersecting dash.

Moloch’s demons were helping in the only way they could, holding their own back. I hoped it was enough.

War stood and inadvertently took me with him. My legs trembled under the strain of holding me so tightly to him while the poison from the blades made my blood sluggish.

I bent backward as I pulled my whip free from my hip. War couldn’t keep his hands to himself and he slid one palm up my belly.

What a fucking idiot.

Orion roared at him. “Kill her, you fool!”

“In my own time,” War yelled back. “I want to make this last. I haven’t had a woman in centuries who could—”

I sat up with the whip stretched between my two hands. “And you’re not about to, you piece of shit.” I wrapped it around his neck and yanked it tight as I let go of him, and my entire weight dropped to the ground. He let out a strangled scream that barely gurgled past his lips. Putting my boots to his shoulder, I straightened out, pulling for all I was worth. The demons around us still hadn’t come any closer. Thank the gods for Moloch and his friends.

War clawed at the whip while I was killing his body. Why was he still here? “Go, would you, already!” I yelled at him.

A laugh that could only be Orion’s reached me, and the crowd parted. I Tracked Marcella and Tiomon. For the moment, they were together and safe, but not very far away.

Which meant they were still in danger.

Orion leaned over me while I strangled his general. “Rylee, Rylee, Rylee. When will you learn that you are not meant to win this war?”

He kicked me hard in the hand closest to him, breaking bones. I clung to the whip with all I had left in me.

“Go, War. You’ve failed,” I whispered thinking of Marcella and Zane. They did not need war in their lives, not ever. I gave myself over to the calm and the love of those two babies; to the purity of their innocence and their sweet souls. The whip began to glow, pulsing in time with my heart. The light as pure and clean as the love I had for those around me.

War’s black eyes widened. “No,” he mouthed as his body began to dissolve.

Orion let out a roar and booted the side of my head. The world spun, and I kept pushing War away with all the power of a Slayer I had in me.

The horde around us shifted, like storm clouds carrying the threat of an epic flood to wipe us off the face of the earth. Or maybe that was my eyes watering from the pain. Orion booted me again, but not as hard. I looked up at him, the blood trickling down the side of his face as he shook his head. The bond worked against him again.

He lifted his foot and I braced myself, but he stepped back. “Fucking manipulative bitch.”

War glared down at me as his body turned into nothing but a distant, ugly memory.

I lay on the ground. “Sticks and fucking stones, Orion. And I will hurt you.” I pushed myself up. The demons let out a series of low, angry hisses that filled the air like pissed off cicadas. But they didn’t approach us. Moloch’s demons held them back.

Orion spat on the ground in front of me. “You think I won’t kill you now?”

I slowly reattached my whip to the left side of my belt and pulled my two blades. “I think you’ll try.”

My body hurt all over, and the poison was slowing me down. Faris’s bite had faded, and while it had healed some things, I was not at my best.

And I was about to face the biggest, baddest demon of them all.

Fucking hell, it felt like a Monday hopped up on steroids.

CHAPTER 39

LIAM

THE NUMBER OF demons was beyond staggering. He fought with his cutlass and fists, and picked up a short blade for his other hand somewhere in the melee. But they kept coming, the demons interchangeable as far as he was concerned. One downed body replaced by an upright one over and over.

He let out a grunt as he was hit from the side. The one good thing about Faris’s body was that it took damage almost as well as a Guardian’s. Almost.

There was a thundering of hooves and a bay unicorn slid to a stop in front of him.

Take your daughter, Wolf.
The unicorn spun sideways showing him a tiny girl that had Rylee’s eyes. Without hesitation he reached for her, pulling her tightly against his chest. His daughter.

A demon with long spider legs came at him from the left. He let out a snarl and cut off the two closest legs, unbalancing it. Marcella clung to him, but didn’t cry. Didn’t let out a peep.

I will guard this side of her, you guard the other.
The unicorn said as she struck out, demolishing three demons with one well-placed kick.

Side by side they fought. Above them, Marco and Ophelia culled the horde while Eve flew high, protecting Zane. Doran, Louisa, and the other supernaturals held their own, but for how long? There was no way they could defeat this number of demons. No way at all.

Wolves darted in and out of the legs of the demons, taking them down in sneak attacks the fuckers never saw coming. Here and there, he even thought he saw the pale skin of a half-breed troll fighting. He didn’t question why they were there, only knew that without them they would likely have fallen already.

Despite the shitty odds, they battled onward. Marcella tucked her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes, her lashes brushing against his skin like butterfly wings. As if she couldn’t bear to see what was going on around them. He didn’t blame her. If he could, he would have closed his eyes too, and wished the whole world away. Inside his head, Faris paced.

“You know, that’s fucking irritating as hell,” Liam grunted out as he took the head from another demon.

Nothing else I can do, is there?
The vampire snapped at him, still pacing.
I’ll admit, you are the better fighter when it comes to this sort of shit.

Only a few days before, Liam would have gloated, but not now. There was too much riding on the outcome.

We have to get her to the ceremonial slab, Liam. That is the only way this is truly going to end.

“How do you suggest we do that?”

Do what I say, and we can all get out of here alive. I think.

“I’m listening, vampire.”

Faris’s plan, as he spun it, was simple and smacked of actually putting someone ahead of his own well-being. Liam liked it.

There was nothing he could do to help Rylee, though, until Marcella was safe. But where would his daughter be safe?

There was only one place left in the world he could think of.

“Alex, bring me the boy!” He slammed his shoulder into a demon as it reared back to strike at him. The unicorn behind him let out a grunt and he turned to see a demon on her back. Grabbing it by the ankle, he ripped it off her and used the half-beetle, half-man as a club to clear a bigger area in front of him.

Eve dropped low and Alex leapt off her back, Zane clinging to him.

“Boss?”

“We’ve got to get them out of here.” He flipped his hand in front of him, opening the Veil to a tiny motel on the outskirts of Bismarck. Tiomon, and Alex ran through first, and he was right behind.

But so were several demons, their headgear over seven feet tall, antennas waving around as they surveyed the place he’d inadvertently brought them. He closed the Veil before more could pour through, then spun around. The unicorn was already on them. She skewered the first one through the neck, the second through the chest, and the third in the belly. Then she turned to face him, her horn was as clean as if she’d not run three demons through in the space of as many heartbeats.

You believe this is a safe place?

He strode toward the office. “Yes. Though they won’t know me in this body.”

Alex jogged beside him, breathing hard. The kid had scratches all over his face and arms.

“You doing okay?”

“Huh? Yeah, I got banged up fighting on the way here.”

Liam wanted to ask, but there was no time for small talk. He pushed the door to the office.

John, the owner of the motel looked up from under a beaten down cowboy hat. He looked straight at Alex. “What did I tell you?”

Alex shifted his feet but said nothing.

Obviously, Liam was missing something, but again, no time. “John, I know this is a lot to ask, and you won’t remember me, but—”