A tear slipped from my eye, swept away by the wind rushing around us.

CHAPTER 6

Rylee

I stared at the spot I thought I’d seen Pamela duck behind a car. “Pam?” I knew she was there, but there was no movement. Damn, the kid was going to be tough to reach. I put a hand to the back of my neck. Tracking her would give me an idea of her emotional status, but I’d Tracked a lot already and was pushing my luck.

Later. I thought I would have time to talk to Pamela in the morning.

That was the plan, anyway. Alex sniffed the air beside me and wrinkled his nose. “Stinks like dead people.”

Frank caught my eye and I motioned him over to me. “Have you and Pam been getting along?”

He blushed and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. So that’s how it was. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, we get along most days.”

“Go check on her, make sure she’s all right.” I patted him on the back as he went by me.

He stopped and looked back. “And if she’s not?”

“Be her friend. I’ll talk to her tomorrow and see if I can get through to her.”

A quick nod, and then he was off and running. Literally.

I slipped back into the tent in time to see the troll standing, its skin free of pustules. Shit.

“Tracker, you healed me. You saved me!” He roared the words as he scooped me up into his arms, faster than anyone else could react. His breath was a mixture of rotten teeth and garlic. Not pretty. I turned my head to the side. “Put me down.”

The troll continued to jump with me in my arms, breathing heavily on me and making me desperate enough to pull one of my short blades from my hip.

Deanna let out a gasp and I would have shrugged if I could have moved my upper body. “Put me down or I’m going to run you through.”

He dropped me, his voice booming. “Your blood saved me, SAVED ME!” and then the big bastard ran from the tent, shouting to the world that I had saved him, a vial of my blood had saved him.

My eyes met Faris’s. Those baby blues were tight with worry. Then I looked at Doran, who wasn’t really looking at me. He was looking between me and Faris.

Oh, fuck, I did not need a pissing contest. “Deanna, your troll friend is making my life rather difficult at the moment.”

The tent around the bottom edge shifted and Alex let out a low growl. “Vampires coming.”

Yeah, that was what I was thinking might happen. Faris reached me first, grabbed my arm, and started dragging me out. “Time to leave.”

I didn’t disagree. “Everyone, let’s go. This party is over.” I jerked my arm from his hand and strode ahead of him, Alex on my right. Berget behind me. “Don’t get separated” was the last thing I said before everything around us went to hell.

The vampires hit us first, tackling Deanna and Will to the ground, Berget was swept from me, and Alex let out a yelp as he was yanked from my side. Faris picked me up before I could do anything. I don’t know how many vampires attacked us, I only knew there were more than I could have handled on my own. “Put me down, Faris!”

“You can’t fight them all!”

I struggled to pull my blades, but Doran stopped us all with a single word.

“Cease!” His voice was imbued with a power even I felt through my immunity to spells and magic. My hands stilled and around us the vampires trembled under his control. Shit, it was one thing to know he led them; it was another to see it in action.

The vampire closest to me and Faris crawled toward us. “Just a taste, to keep us safe, your Highness.”

“There will be no drinking of Rylee’s blood. None,” Doran barked, and the vampires cringed. Faris didn’t put me down, though, despite the fact that Doran seemed to have control of things. Which made me nervous.

“A taste,” several vampires whispered, one over top of the other so the whisper grew and quivered in my ears. Fuck that was creepy. I couldn’t help the tremor that ran through me.

Faris’s hands tightened on me, but it wasn’t his voice who spoke with his lips.

“Hang on, Adamson.”

The shiver that ran through me the second time didn’t have anything to do with fear. “Liam?”

“Boss?” Alex barked and the hands on me tightened further.

The vampire at Faris’s feet, a red-headed woman in a shimmering black top, grabbed at his boot. “Just a taste, baby, and then—” She leapt up, fangs extended. Faris spun giving her his back, protecting me with his body.

There was a scuffle, and when Faris turned back around, still holding me, the woman’s head was no longer attached to her body. Doran stood over her. “I said leave her be. Anyone else want to try?”

The vampires melted into the darkness. Doran dropped the woman’s head, the look on her face slowly going from surprised to the slack jaw of the newly dead.

“Put me down, Faris.” I knew I couldn’t force him, he was too strong.

He slowly let me slide down his body and I glanced at his face. A tinge of gold rimmed those blue eyes. Damn it, what was Liam doing?

I patted his shoulder, feeling awkward. “Thanks.”

Maybe more would have been said, but there were bigger problems than Doran’s vamps going rogue.

The shouting troll has caused a bit of a stir. Every supernatural able to move is headed your way. We have to get you out of here, Rylee. Now. Blaz’s voice held no room for argument.

“Alex, take Berget and go to Blaz. Faris, I don’t suppose you’ll go with them?”