Blind Salvage: A Rylee Adamson Novel(10)

I’d suggested going to Agent Valley, to use his specially rigged jet that blocked whatever vibrations supernaturals gave off, but Liam had wanted to avoid his old boss. He wouldn’t say why, even when I pressed him. My suspicions were that he didn’t want to get roped into working for the AA division. Which, with Agent Valley showing up when he did, was exactly what would have been required of us in exchange for using the FBI’s plane.
That had left only one option.
In order to get us all home together, this was the only route we had left to us. Even if I knew how to jump the veil like that asshole, Faris, Liam couldn’t cross the veil like that. It had to be a physical crossing, like the way he’d come with Milly. A pain in the ass, but it was what we had to deal with unless we wanted to take a boat across the Atlantic in the dead of winter. Not something I was interested in, thank you very much.
The path wound through the forest, and as we walked, a light drizzle started. Alex grumbled up ahead about the ‘fucking wet’, Liam chuckled softly, and even Pamela laughed.
Me, not so much. All I could think about was why the hell this giant showed up here. Now.
Right in our way. And how the hell we were going to get by it?
I had a sudden, terrible feeling that someone didn’t want us going home. Unfortunately, I didn’t think it would be Will popping out to stop us from leaving. Not this time.
 


The castle stood on an outcropping of rock that overlooked the channel, but calling it a castle was a bit of stretch. A pile of crumbled rocks, which maybe at some point had been a castle, were strewn about for at least a quarter mile. Maybe a thousand years ago it had been a fortress, a stronghold on the edge of the island. But not anymore.
“Holy shit,” Liam whispered.
I pulled up my second sight and sucked in a gasp of air. A castle it was, indeed. But it wasn’t the castle that made me suck air, no, the castle, turrets, and thick stone walls weren’t the issue. The issue was the giant sprawled out in front of it sleeping on his side facing us. His body stretched the entire front entrance to the castle, blocking it effectively. Tanned a deep brown, the giant looked just like a man, only on a gargantuan scale. Ruddy brown hair topped his head and dusted the parts of his body that were visible—which was a lot of him since he seemed to be wearing nothing but a loincloth that happened to be hanging to the side, giving us a full view of his—
“Nasty,” Pamela said softly. I had to agree, there was far too much visible in the way of what the loincloth was supposed to be hiding.
On the top edges of the castle, along the battlements, movement caught my eye. I squinted, but couldn’t tell what I was seeing. “Liam, can you see what’s moving around up there?”
He stared long and hard, as did Alex. Liam spoke first. “Humanoid, but bigger. If I can see even that much at this distance, they’ve got to be competing with Dox for size.”
Shit, Ogres and Trolls were comparable in size. The last dealings we’d had with Trolls had been nothing short of a clusterfuck, though we’d come out on top. Sort of. And ogres? Well, unless they were blue like Dox—which I was doubting—we were in serious trouble. Ogres, like so many supernaturals, were territorial and freaking touchy about what they deemed as ‘theirs’. Not to mention, they loved to fight and took any reason, good or bad, to start one. Neither option left us in a good spot.
“I just don’t understand, why is the giant here?” Pamela stared out across the rocky ground, and her question was spoken softly. Almost like she wasn’t aware she asked out loud.
“I think someone doesn’t want us going home, or at the very least, they want to split us up.” I turned a slow circle to check behind us. There were a few possible culprits. Faris was at the top of the list, Milly was close behind, and much as I hated to admit it, Berget was on that damn list too. So much for trusting family.
Did it matter which one of them was trying to stall us or split us up? No, not really. We just had to deal with the shit they tossed our way. But if I had to put money on anyone, it was Faris. Milly seemed to be out of commission since her pregnancy was progressing, and Berget … well, maybe I just didn’t want to believe it was her. Faris though, he had some serious motivation. He needed me to solidify his throne, and I’d turned him down. Berget needed the same thing from me, but she already held the throne. As long as Faris didn’t prove her claim false, she was sitting pretty.#p#分页标题#e#
Vampires were not known for going easy on people that had pissed them off.
And I’d definitely pissed Faris off.