Raising Innocence: A Rylee Adamson Novel(25)

Shifting his weight in bed, Jack leaned closer. “You’re right, you won’t get another chance. Far as I know, I thought I was the last Tracker. So that means now you’re it. You’re all we’ve got.”
A prickle of unease crept alongside my excitement. “What do you mean?”
Jack hung onto my hand. “Which one of the vampires has made a bid for you, or have they both?”
My muscles clenched, and a mixture of fear and surprise shot through me. I leaned forward, lowering my voice. “How did you know?”
“Wolf, go shut the door.” The Tracker commanded and Alex did as he was told, trotting over and slamming the door shut. “Lock it too.”
Over the scrabbling of Alex’s claws, Jack spoke. “You think I’m here by accident? The doctors are claiming its lung cancer, but I ain’t never smoked a fucking day in my life. You know what stimulants do to us?”
That I did. “Something like smoking would send our hearts into overdrive, cranking our metabolism up to the point of having our hearts burst.”
He nodded and went on. “There were two leaders of the vampire nation. Emperor and Empress. They have a child, one they’ve raised to be the heir. But before they could get their kid on the throne, they were killed by a usurper.”
I knew what was coming, so I beat him to it. “Faris.” Jack’s eyes all but sparkled, a thread of life still beating strong in his ravaged body.
“Yes. Now there is a full-out battle coming between the two factions. You are the key. They will both vie for you.”
I snorted. “Why? What can I do for them? They can’t even turn me into a vampire.”
A soft click and Alex got the door locked, then made his way into the bathroom. The faucet came on and then the slurping of water, followed by a splash. He’d be busy for a few minutes at least.
“You really don’t know your limits, do you?” Jack asked softly, his eyes full of worry. “Shit. I can’t teach it all to you, not in one session.”
“Tell me what you can. Please. And I’ll come back as soon as I can.” I swallowed hard and spit out my biggest concern, one that weighed on me far more than Faris and any stupid vampire shindig I might get yanked into. “I’ve been trying to Track the missing kids, but I can’t feel them. It’s like they don’t exist; like they’ve never existed.”
Jack laughed, a choking gasp at the end that had me reaching for the call button. He waved me off. “Try now.”
I didn’t want to fail, but even more, I didn’t want to fail in front of someone I’d prefer to impress. One deep breath and I reached for the kids, all twenty or so of them. Like a blinding beacon, I could feel them, dead, but still there. I was still able to Track their faded threads. Relief coursed through me, making me sag into my chair.
“You tried to Track them on your side of the water, didn’t you?”
“No, when we were in the air. What does that have to—”
With another wave of a gnarled hand, he cut me off, his other hand tightening over my fingers.
“Large bodies of water, like an ocean, bar our ability to Track. There is no child you can’t find, Rylee. You just have to be on the right side of the water.”
I stood up with a jerk and reached for Berget before he’d even stopped speaking. Her life force blazed through me and with a sob I dropped to my knees. Golden sunlight and blue eyes beckoned to me, the scent of summer and the warmth of my little sister’s love was a rush so heady I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
She was alive! Oh my god, Berget . . . A hand patted my shoulder. “Hush now. You thought she was gone for good?” I must have spoken my thoughts, though I could barely pull them together. I clung to Berget’s thread like a drowning man to a dingy. She was alive; I could take her home. I wasn’t alone—my family wasn’t all gone.
Shaking, I stood and turned to go, already formulating how to get to Berget. Forget the other children. They were dead; they could wait. Berget was alive and I was going after her. Right now.
Jack spoke, his words echoing mine in a twisted way. “Rylee, wait. There is so goddamned much more. Your sister can wait a few more minutes, can’t she?”
I took in a long, slow breath, my heart beating as if I’d been sprinting. My back still to him, I said, “You don’t understand.”
“I do. Perhaps more than any other Tracker would. I was like you. My abilities came on line long before I found someone to share their knowledge with me. Let me pass on what I know before you run off after her. Before I die.”
Biting down, I clenched my jaw, turning to face him. “Quickly.”