"Okie dokie."
I grabbed the phone, my hands shaking. We weren"t going to lose her. Terese would get here in time. The leader of the local coven picked up on the first ring. I didn"t give her a chance to speak.
"I need you at the farmhouse to heal someone who is going to die without you."
"Rylee?"
"Yes, now hurry your witchy a.s.s up."
Alex bounced at my side whispering, "Hurry, hurry, hurry."
"I"m coming, it"ll take me at least a half hour."
It would have to do. I slammed the phone down, grabbed some towels from the bathroom, and then ran back out the door. "Alex, get some blankets!"
"Going!"
Back in the barn, Liam had set Eve"s head up on a bale of hay. "She"s in and out, but hanging on. The worst injury is there." He pointed under her left wing at the gaping wound. Blood and bone, torn muscle and the flutter of something moving inside that I suspected was her heart. Whoever did this was going to be wishing their mother never wh.o.r.ed herself out to their father. Because I was going to f.u.c.king slaughter them. Slowly, and with great amounts of creativity and pain.
I folded the towels and pressed them against the open wound. Eve let out a groan, her eyelids fluttering. "I tried to stop them, there were too many of them."
"Shhh. Just hold still. Terese is coming and she"ll patch you up," I said, hoping that Terese would get here in time.
Alex came barreling in, two blankets streaming out behind him like capes. Liam took them and laid them across Eve. Calliope curled up next to Eve, laying her head against the Harpy"s side, mortal enemies no more. Alex shuffled next to me and then wrapped his arms around Eve.
"Evie hang on."
Liam cleared his throat, and I looked up to see the moisture in his eyes. "She"ll make it. I"ll go wait for Terese."
Seeing Eve lay out like that ... he hadn"t realized how much he had grown to care about Rylee"s "crew", as he called them, until that moment. When he"d thought they"d lost Eve.
Not since he"d had to bury his parents had grief swamped him like that. The bracing cold air outside the barn helped clear his head. What could have taken Eve out? What had the strength to kill a Harpy without leaving any evidence behind?
Had the unicorns gotten fed up with waiting? Somehow, even knowing as little as he did, he doubted it. Something else then. Milly? No, this wasn"t her style, too messy.
He paced the barnyard, then paused, lifted his head to the air, and took a deep breath. The scents were jumbled. Alex and Rylee came through loud and clear, a whisper of Eve, Calliope and then another scent. One he recognized all too well.
Faris, the motherf.u.c.ker; he"d been here.
There would be no respite this time; he"d seen it in Rylee"s eyes. It was one thing to hurt her, one thing to take a child she didn"t know, but to hurt one of her own?
Liam had a feeling that Faris was about to meet a side of Rylee he"d not yet encountered. A side that Liam had seen glimmers of over the years, but that she"d never fully unleashed.
The squeak of tires on the hard packed snow brought his head up. Terese pulled into the farmyard in a small red truck. He waved at her and she ran toward him.
"Who is it, who"s hurt?"
He didn"t answer, just led her to the barn. G.o.ds, let her have made it in time.
Terese stepped into the barn followed by Liam. A fierce look settled on his face, reminding me of his Agent days when he thought he"d caught me in a lie. There was only one thing I could think of that would leave him looking like he was ready to interrogate someone at the end of a hot poker.
He"d figured out who"d done this, or at least, he thought he did. I didn"t ask him, though; right now, there were more pressing matters. I"d kill who I needed to kill soon enough.
"Terese." I pointed at Eve.
The witch stopped. "Are you serious? You called me out in the dead of night to help a Harpy?"
I fought not to reach over and smack her for her a.s.sumption Eve wasn"t worthy of healing. p.i.s.sing Terese off wouldn"t help anyone. "They took Pamela, the young witch I told you about. We need to help Eve and then we can figure out who has Pam."
That seemed to get through to her. "They took ... ." Her eyes widened and she dropped to her knees next to Calliope. Startled, she stared at the filly for a full ten seconds.
"Terese, we are running out of time." Eve was slipping again, and I didn"t want to take anymore time than we had to.
"Right." She leaned forward and put her hands on Eve, words breathed out past her lips as she wound the spell over Eve"s body.
The Harpy let out a low, pain-filled moan, her body jerking as it knit back together.
"Hang on, Eve, I know it"s bad. But it"ll ease," I said, but I kept my hands to myself. No need to have my Immunity interfere with the healing.
Eve shifted, clacked her beak, and Alex started to jump up and down. "Evie!"
Evie, indeed. Her threads were running strong, if fatigued. She rolled to her feet, and I pointed at Calliope.
"Watch out, your savior is rather tiny."
Eve ducked her head down. "Little foal, you brought me back. I am forever in your debt."
Calliope bobbed her head once. But stayed where she was.
Terese bent to her. "Since I"m already here." She laid her hands on the foal, and the broken leg knit in a matter of seconds.
The filly scrambled to her feet, startling us all as she reared back, front legs flashing in the air. I Tracked her, felt the joy running through her.
Two Salvages now, one for Calliope and one for Eve. One more to go. One that I couldn"t feel.
A f.u.c.king blind salvage. Why, oh why did Doran have to be right about this?
Terese stood, dark circles under her eyes. "I hope you have no more injuries because I am done. I do not have the power you are used to seeing in Milly. Most witches are lucky to perform one spell a day, never mind curatives of this level." She waved her hand at Eve. The Harpy bowed her head. "Thank you, Terese. I am, it seems, in your debt as well."
Calliope stomped her foot into the straw, then flicked her head to the doorway. Standing there was her father, the leader of the Tamoskin Crush. The filly ran to her father, b.u.t.ting her head against his shoulder.
Tracker, you have brought her home. You have our undying loyalty.
At that moment, I didn"t give a s.h.i.t about his loyalty. "Where were you when Eve was attacked?" I snarled, p.i.s.sed off that they would just allow this to happen, to just stand back and watch Eve get gutted.
They came on suddenly, and we ran them off, but it was too late. We grieved the Harpy"s loss. How is it she is yet alive? He tipped his head to one side, then flicked his nose toward Eve.
"Your daughter saved her."
Calliope saved ... the Evening Star?
I nodded, the anger flowing out of me. "Yeah. She"s going to be something when she grows up. They both are."
He bobbed his head once. A new generation, a new understanding. So it begins; Tracker, you are the catalyst we have waited for.
With no more words, he backed away from the door. Calliope reared up, tossing her head, her thin-spiked mane waving, and struck her front feet into the air.
"Stay away from Rocs!" I called after her as she bolted, bucking and leaping after her father into the night.
I turned to Eve. "There is no time to waste, Eve, who did this?"
"There were two groups; they hit us at the same time." She ruffled her wings and settled away from the blood that had pooled in the middle of the barn. "First was Faris. But we didn"t think he was going to be trouble. He asked only that we take a message for you, and he took Pamela into the house to write it down."
I Tracked Faris as Eve spoke, while my anger rose into a white heat that would put the lava we"d dodged to shame. He was on the other side of the veil, which wasn"t terribly surprising. But Pamela wasn"t with him. With her, there was still a large, blank nothing. Not even that shimmering sensation of knowing she was alive, but not being able to pinpoint her, that came with someone being across the veil. With her, there was nothing. She wasn"t with him. She was across some large body of water.
Eve continued. "The second group was like vampires, but not. I know that doesn"t make sense but-"
Liam lifted his hand. "Shadows, the servants of the vampire. They have abilities, but not quite at the level of their masters if they are like the ones we tangled with in Venice."
"They came with weapons, in the dark. I did not hear them, and they did this while I slept." She hung her head. "I was caught unawares. I am sorry, Rylee."
"This is not your fault, Eve." I put a hand to her side, just grateful she was alive.
The barn door creaked open and Dox stepped in. Alex waved at him, his claw-tipped paw flopping bonelessly.
"Hiya, Dox!"
"Hi, Alex." He stepped into the barn. "The others are checking the perimeter. Is Eve ... ?"
"I am well." Eve fluffed her wings once, settling deeper into the hay.
Everyone looked to me, even Liam. I was going to have to make the call.
And again, I was going to have to leave Eve behind. Logically, I knew that the chances of another attack on her were slim to none. But I didn"t like it. And there wasn"t time for any other preparations.
"Terese, you stay here, keep an eye on Eve and call in reinforcements if you have to."
She spluttered, all her dulcet tones lost in her disbelief. "You can"t possibly think you can save Pamela from a group of vampires, do you?"
"I have something they want. Something I can bargain with." I quickly went over the weapons I had on me, and then lifted my eyes to hers. "Can you say the same?"
"Rylee, this is what they want, what Faris wants," Liam growled.
"Faris isn"t the one who has her," I said, striding toward the barn door.
"Alex comes too." The werewolf shoved himself up against my side. I dropped my hand to his thick black fur.
"Yes, you"re coming this time."
Terese threw her hands into the air. "You think he can help you better than I can?"
I stared down at Alex, and then flicked my eyes up to Terese. "He has saved my life more than once. He"s my wolf as much as Liam is. Maybe more."
Liam grunted, but he couldn"t really argue. Alex listened to me, let me lead no matter what. That quality was good and bad. Right now, it was a good thing.
Terese put her hands on her slim hips, but I turned my back on her before she could say anything else.
"Dox, you, Sla and the triplets set up around the barn. Hold down the fort."
Dox nodded, his face grim. He"d finally realized the realities of my life, what I dealt with everyday. Between that and making his first kill, I could see a part of him was lost. He was no longer just a gentle ogre; he"d found a dark side to himself. Whatever his past had held, he"d overcome it on this trip, and he would be stronger for it. His words only confirmed what I thought.
"Kill the f.u.c.kers, Rylee. Kill them and be done with it."
I nodded. "That"s the plan."
Liam led the way out of the barn, toward the farmhouse and the dry cellar around the back. I followed him down the steps and turned the light on. At least my weapons stash was still here.
Liam grabbed a couple more blades and my back up crossbow. I went to one knee and opened up the army green lock box that held all the pre-made spells Milly had prepped for me, and the one spell Terese had prepped for me. A holding spell, one that would bind Milly and make it so she couldn"t use her magic, as well as be unable to move. My hand hovered over it. No, that wasn"t the right one. Not yet, anyway.
I carefully lifted out three pre-made spells, firebombs that worked like napalm and would stick to everything they touched. I slid them into their hard carrying cases that would keep them from breaking and, if they broke, would snuff the fire. Then there was the obsidian blade, a four-inch fragile blade that would break the first time I used it. I slid it into a sheath and hung it from my neck, under my shirt. What good it could do, I had no idea, but Doran said to take it. So take it I would.
"Rylee, can you tell where Pamela is at all?" Liam slung the crossbow"s strap over his shoulder.
I headed back up the stairs and stared into the dark night sky. "I don"t know. Across water."
"Then how the h.e.l.l are we going to find her?"
I gave him a half smile. "I"ve got an idea."
HER IDEA WAS not what he"d expected, not at all. Liam stood in the center of the castle breathing deeply through his nose. He could smell Pamela, but not well, just faintly.
Alex, on the other hand, had his nose crammed to the ground and was working through the castle with an intensity and focus the submissive werewolf didn"t often show.
Rylee trailed Alex, a few feet behind, her eyes searching the castle as they went. When Eve had been slipping, he wasn"t sure if Rylee was going to pull through. There had been too much loss for her, too much pain and grief.
Yet, here she was, her s.h.i.t together and on another hunt. There was a reason others let her lead. Though he"d had to cover for her for a bit, she"d gotten herself under control again.
"Liam, anything?" She called over her shoulder.
He took a deep breath, caught a faint whisper of Pamela and vampires. "Still there, Alex is doing well."
Alex"s tail wagged twice with the praise, and he lifted a paw with a single thumbs up, and then he was back to scenting the trail.
They wove through the castle, pausing at intersections for several minutes to be sure they were on the right track. Liam was almost certain that the vampires were Berget"s. h.e.l.l, there were only two factions of vampires, and Rylee said that Faris wasn"t with Pamela ... though that didn"t mean he wasn"t going to cause trouble.
Liam jogged to her side, and lowered his voice. No need to announce his thoughts to anyone who might be lurking in the castle. "Can you Track Faris, didn"t you say he was on this side of the veil?"
Her tri-colored eyes flicked up to his, her brows furrowing as she Tracked the vampire.