Blind Salvage: A Rylee Adamson Novel(9)

“Something rather large has come this way.” Liam reached out and touched his fingers to the jagged edge of a tree, then closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath as he scented the air.
I tightened my grip on my sword and slowly lowered the bag of weapons. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Wait, how the hell can you smell ‘large’?”
“I don’t know. A lot of whatever came through here. Look around. That’s how I can tell.”
I pulled my other sword from my back and rolled it in my hand. “Alex, can you smell what it is?”
The werewolf stuck his nose to the ground and moved in an ever-widening circle, finally stopping about ten feet out in front of us, his eyes round with fear, as he whispered. “Big bugger.”
Obviously, he’d picked up on the local lingo. “What kind of big bugger?”
He mouthed the word, and I groaned. No. Fucking. Way.
Liam spun slowly. “Did he say what I think he said?”
I nodded. “Yup. He did.”
“Yuppy doody,” Alex said softly. “There be giants.”
Crouching over my bag, I opened it with a yank on the zipper and quickly geared up. Was it fun to run with all my weapons on? No, but running with my weapons on was a hell of a lot easier than running with a bulky bag. I handed out the few weapons I couldn’t strap onto my body. A short sword for Pamela, and Liam took the crossbow. Yes, I could have strapped it on, but if I needed speed, it would get in the way and Liam could handle the extra bulk better than I could. Finally, I pulled out the burlap-covered black demon book. Cold seeped through it and into my fingers. Liam took it from me and shoved it under his shirt, tucking it into this belt. “I’ll take it.”
I gave him a tight smile. The thing gave me the willies, but there was no way we could leave it behind.
Pamela’s fingers tightened on the handle of the short sword. “Are we going to have to fight a giant?”
“Hopefully not. They aren’t real bright and love to be destructive. They would make Blaz look neat and tidy.”
There was a twinge in the back of my head as Blaz, even as far away as he was, perked up as I said his name. I ignored him.
She swallowed hard. Liam shifted his shoulders, glanced at Pam, and then away into the forest. Yeah, he wasn’t real comfortable with the young witch yet, but we didn’t have time for worrying about who liked who the best at the moment.
Liam stared around us, touching the broken branches closest to him. “Why didn’t we feel the giant walking?”
Pamela answered for me. “I read that they move on the other side of the veil, that only when they move on this side of the veil can they be felt moving around, and then the humans think it’s just thunder.” She looked to me for confirmation. I nodded.
“She’s right. And they tend to be lazy, sleeping for days, sometimes weeks at a time. But when they wake up … .”
I stood and put both swords back into their sheaths. Liam frowned. “What about when they wake up?”
I gave him a tight smile. “Hungry. Like sharks on the prowl, they’ll eat anything, friend or foe, alive, dead, rotting. Whatever. If it’s even remotely edible, they’ll scoop it up and eat it. Then they crash again.”
“Well, that’s just fantastic,” he grumbled. “Should we be expecting more than one?”
Pamela shook her head. “There are less than six giants left in the world. Only one resides here in Great Britain, and from what I read, he spends most of his times in the wilds. It would be quite unusual for him to come this far south, actually.”
“How do you know all this?” Liam glanced down at the young witch, making eye contact with her for a split second. That was an improvement for him.
She gave him a tentative smile. “I like to read, and once Jack’s library was opened up for us, I read everything I could about our world.”
Smart girl.
We left the empty bag behind and started out again along the path. The depressions we had noticed before were clearly visible for what they were now—giant footsteps.
“Rylee, do you think the giant is here for us?” Pamela’s eyes flicked up to mine, then back to the ground at her feet.
I couldn’t lie to her. “Probably. Though how the hell anyone knew we were coming this route, I don’t know.”
I had made sure that only Deanna and Will understood why we were choosing to use the castle as our means of travel. It hadn’t been our first choice. Liam, Pamela, and I had gone to an airport and boarded; Alex was put underneath in the cargo hold. We’d sat in the plane for three hours before everyone was forced to disembark.
Apparently, the engines wouldn’t start, and the humans couldn’t figure out why—as soon as all the passengers were off, the engines miraculously revved to life. Supernaturals causing grief again and the humans were none the wiser. Though it had been a pain in the ass for us.