“Rylee, what are you doing?” Doran whispered as I drew on my own strength and gave it over to Liam. The energy flowed between us, the bond we’d made stronger than death, and his heart started to beat faster, became steadier.
There was a moment where I thought someone was trying to pull me off, to stop me, but nothing could come between us. Liam didn’t shift under my hands, but his threads were stronger.
I pulled back, my vision doubling as hands caught me.
“You keep passing out like this and I’m going to think you like the head rush,” Doran grumbled.
“He’ll make it.”
“What the hell did you do? You aren’t a healer, Rylee.” Doran didn’t take his arms from around me and I didn’t care. I could barely keep my eyes open.
“I’ll explain later. Blaz, take Liam to London. Please.”
Tracker, you gave him a lot of energy. Too much.
“Please, don’t argue with me, I have a fucking headache.” Which was the truth, my head was pounding, the sound of my own heartbeat felt like a bongo drum inside my skull.
You are coming with me.
“I’ll go through the veil.”
Fine.
Damn, that sounded suspiciously like a woman would say ‘fine’. Like ‘fuck, I’m not excited about this, but I’m doing it anyway’.
Blaz winged over us, and scooped up Liam. He’ll survive the flight?
“Yes. But he’ll be out of it, probably the whole way,” I said, feeling Doran’s eyes on me. No one knew the bonding that had taken place between Liam and me. Though I suspected Doran was on to us.
Get through the veil, Tracker. Blaz called back to me as he flew into the last of the night.
“Going, we’re going!” I snapped. Of course, that was the plan. Problem was, we didn’t quite make it.
At least, not all of us.
Chapter 5
BLAZ WAS GONE and Eve was about to leave with Marco when the ogres swarmed into the courtyard. Doran dragged me toward the veil where Faris stood on the other side, his face grim.
“Hurry up!” Faris beckoned with his one hand. Like we didn’t fucking well know we needed to hurry.
The problem was, I couldn’t hurry; my legs were leaden. Between donating blood to Doran and giving Liam my strength, I was done in.
“Come on, Niece, let’s get you out of here.” Erik scooped me up into his arms. Pamela ran beside him, Alex beside her, and Doran led the way. We were only twenty feet from the slash in the veil when an ogre got in our way. Or more accurately, it got between Doran and us. Big and blue, it hurt me to see him. He looked so much like Dox, yet was obviously possessed by a demon.
“Rylee!” Doran yelled and his feet stopped (the only part of him I could see past the ogre) and then he was yanked forward.
My stomach sank. “Faris, you’d better have that fucking door open!” I screamed from Erik’s arms, already knowing something was very, very wrong. Pamela snapped a hand out and flipped the ogre out of our way, sticking him to the side of the house like a fly trapped in honey.
The house was in front of us, but there was no opening through the veil.
Faris had fucked us over.
“EVE!” Pamela screamed and Erik spun back the way we’d come. Eve and Marco were above us, but between the house on one side and the amount of ogres flooding the courtyard on the other, there was no way they could get to us.
Alex kept tight to Erik’s side. “Killing demons time.”
“No time today,” Erik said. And then out of nowhere, Bert was at our side.
Fuck, I’d forgotten about the doppelganger. “Follow me, I can get you around them.”
We had no choice but to trust him, and since his life was tied to Erik’s, I had to believe he wouldn’t put us into harm’s way.
Following Bert, he led us into the house. Pamela brought up the rear. I could see her over Erik’s shoulder, sending out blasts of fire to keep the ogres from us. Damn, she was a witch to be proud of. At fifteen, she was taking everything that happened completely in stride. Like it was an everyday event. And maybe for her now it was just that.
Erik ducked around a corner, banging my knees into the wall as we ran (and I use that loosely since I was doing no running) through the kitchen. “You know, you could stand to lose a pound or two.”
“I love you, too, Uncle Erik,” I mumbled, my head fuzzy as I bounced in his arms.
“This way, quick!” Bert shouted and we didn’t question him.
We should have.
He led us into the back of the house, the morning sun peering over the horizon, highlighting the row upon row of ogres waiting for us. The prick had turned on us; I don’t know why I was surprised.