Blind Salvage: A Rylee Adamson Novel(8)

“Tyrants, that’s what lives inside her. Mad, power hungry tyrants who want to rule the world, both the humans and the supernaturals. That cannot happen.”
I closed my eyes, grief spilling up through me. You’d think that after all these years of hurting, of saying goodbye to her over and over in my head, that this moment would be easier. Yet it wasn’t. Because for a few brief weeks, I’d thought I’d be able to have my little sister back. That I could heal up some of the gaping wounds in my soul I’d pasted over with brash words and a hard exterior. It just wasn’t to be and the wounds haunting me cracked and bled with a pain I didn’t know how to stem as Doran’s words sunk in. The hope I’d clung to faded to a feeble whisper as it died inside of me.
His hands skimmed up my arms, fingers light against my damp bare skin. “I’m sorry, Rylee. I truly am.”
I just stood there, eyes closed, waiting for more. His hands slid off my arms as the distant rumble of thunder rolled toward us, bringing another storm.

Even with my eyes closed, I could tell we were getting close to our drop off. The road got rough, bumps and drops jarring me from any semblance of rest. My brain wouldn’t let go of what Doran had told me. He hadn’t answered all the questions I had, but I wasn’t ready to ask them yet either, so that was fine by me. Like what he knew of the Blood that both Berget and Faris wanted me to find for them to secure their leadership.
“Why didn’t we just have Will take us? He has a car that would fit us all.” Pamela’s voice pulled me out of my reverie.
I turned to her, an eyebrow arching up. “Really? You have to ask that?”
She blushed. Yeah, she just wanted one more glimpse of Will. “You don’t think they’d really fight, do you?”
The upside was she didn’t know why Will and Liam didn’t like each other. And I certainly wasn’t going to tell her that the man she had a crush on had a bit of a thing for me. No, that wouldn’t go over well with a teenage witch whose hormones were, on a good day, all over the map. So I fudged it.
“Alphas can rarely be in the same room together. It’s just the way they’re hardwired. They will end up fighting if they stay in close proximity. Just one more reason for us to go home.”
“Will could control himself; it’s Liam that can’t,” she said, her nose turning up with a snobbery that only came to her when she spoke about Will.
I snorted. Nothing Will ever did would be bad in her eyes. Nor would she see that he was pushing hard to get Liam to step away from me. Again, I wasn’t going to explain that part to her. “Right, whatever.”
The cabbie pulled off to the side of the road, where we’d asked to be dropped. Pretty much in the middle of nowhere. From here, the directions were straight forward. Follow the dirt path to the rundown castle at the end of the road. Easy peasy.
We stepped out of the car, grabbed our bags, and paid our fare. The cabbie turned his car around, and then headed back down the poorly kept road to the main thoroughfare. As the cab disappeared over a hump in the road, a rustle from the bushes turned us both around.
“Tell me you brought clothes.” Liam said, standing strategically behind a bush so that he didn’t flash Pamela. I reached into my bag and tossed him a shirt and pair of jeans, and the last pair of shoes I had in his size. With all his shifting, we were going through clothes like crazy.
He dressed and stepped out from around the bush, Alex right behind him. Tongue lolling out, he had a big grin on his misshapen face. I had no doubt that the run had been a blast for him.
“Have fun?”
“Yuppy doody. Boss is good boss.”
With that, we headed out. Liam led, Alex tucked in behind him, then Pamela, and then me.
The heavy brush on either side of us would make for a perfect ambush, which was not something I was interested in dealing with. Without a break in my stride, I pulled a sword from my back, and adjusted the bag of weapons so I would have an easy swing at anyone, or anything that might pop out to say ‘hello.’
With my luck, the chances were high we’d run into at least one nasty ugly.
Pamela glanced back at me, saw the sword, and lifted her hands to prep a spell. I didn’t stop her. The more ready we were, the less likely we were to get our asses tromped by something. No need for the Monday blues to kick us into next week if we could avoid it.
Alex trailed behind Liam like a well-trained dog, never once straying out in front of his alpha. Liam’s steps slowed and he turned his head to look into the bushes, as we slid down a small slope into a depression in the ground. Along the edges of the path the trees were bent, large branches snapped like twigs, and sap ran freely from the wounds. Whatever had caused the damage, it had been recent and on the far end of the ‘big ass’ scale.#p#分页标题#e#