The tears soaked my face. Frank was wrong, there was no way I’d be able to get away now. “Frank, you should go. Get to Rylee. Tell her what happened and that I . . . I don’t want her to come save me. I made this bed, and now I’ll sleep in it.”

Frank didn’t leave, though. “Rylee can get you out of this.”

“She can’t,” I sobbed, clinging to him.

“She can. She’s a goddamned demon slayer and Milly is obviously possessed by a demon. So there is only one thing we can do now.” He shook me, stopping me in the middle of my pity party.

His eyes were hard. “We play this game that Milly, or whoever she is, has laid out. We play hard. And we learn everything we can. And we wait for Rylee to come.”

A shiver swept through me as his words sunk in, and I understood what he meant. A fierce sense of purpose filled me, pushing away the fear and the shame. I would make this work, somehow. Somehow.

CHAPTER 16

Rylee

Berget as my sister? Wonderful. Berget as a vampire? Groovy.

Berget as a teenage driver?

“We’re going to die,” Alex whispered in the back of the mini-van we pinched. His eyes were wide and three cheerios stuck to one side of his face. I clenched my teeth together. I would have answered him, but I was too busy trying to keep my stomach in one place. The wind in the car rushed around us, tangling hair and ruffling clothes. We’d rolled all the windows down not to keep the van cool, but to air out the scent of baby shit and some sort of green and black fungus growing on the back window. Humans were fucking disgusting.

Berget laughed. “I have this under control. I don’t know what you were talking about, Rylee. Driving’s easy.”

My gorge rose along the back of my throat as we took a corner at a speed and angle that made me wonder if we would still be upright in a few seconds. The mini-van’s tires squealed on the blacktop and I clutched the seat in front of me. Faris sat in the passenger’s seat next to Berget.

“She really is doing quite well,” he said softly.

She laughed. “Thanks, Liam.”

And just like that, the ridiculousness of the moment evaporated. Faris stiffened. “As much as I am handling him being in me, that is not my name.”

Berget shrugged. “He was the one speaking to me. Not you.”

Maybe the conversation would have escalated from there, they might have even started fighting. There would be no chance to ever know, though.

Something rammed the side of the mini-van, picking it up off the blacktop. The tires spun in the air, engine whirring as Berget gunned the gas pedal. She twisted in her seat so her feet were against the door. “Oh no, you don’t!”

A large, furry hand the size of two frying pans shot through the open window, grabbed her around the waist and yanked her out.

The car dropped, bounced once and flipped onto its side. I didn’t wait to ask questions or wonder what the hell was going on. I scrambled up through the center of the van and into the driver’s seat, then right out the window. Faris was already out and Alex was behind me.

I lowered myself from the side of the van and stared at the scene in front of me. Berget seemed to be okay, but she was pleading with a rather large, hairy looking beast that resembled an oversized ape. I ran a hand through my hair. “Big foot? Really, man?”

His eyes—bright, brilliant green—raised to mine. He lifted his hands up, the long hair hanging from them in dreadlocks in several places. In the dark of the night it was hard to see what color he was. But I was guessing shades of brown and maybe even green if what I was seeing was right. Not that any of it mattered. His fingers twitched as if beckoning me closer. “Blood heals. I need.” It was only after he spoke that I saw the pustules on his face, partially hidden by matted hair and dirt. Shit.

“You can’t, Rylee.” Faris put his hand on me. “Your blood is mingled with mine right now. There is a chance you could create some sort of big foot with vampiric qualities.”

I stared at him. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”

He shook his head. “Unless we stop exchanging, you can’t give your blood to anyone. It is no longer Immune like it was before.”

Now that was a pickle I wasn’t expecting. Alex sniffed the air beside me, rising up on his hind quarters until he stood fully erect beside me. “More coming.”

Double shits. “How many?”

He took three exaggerated sniffs. “Seven, maybe more.”

Seven more big foot? Big feet? Whatever the plural was, didn’t matter. “We have to go then.”

The creature in front of us growled and it made me think of the slow, hissing rumble of a crocodile. Only louder and deeper. I lifted my hands. “Sorry, buddy. We can’t help you.”

“Blood helps. Heals babies. Tracker helps. Tracker always helps.” He pleaded with me and my heart squeezed painfully. Babies, they had sick babies. “Faris, how sure are you?”

“Sure enough. You can’t help them. The only way to help them is to get to the Destroyer.” That sounded like advice Liam would give and I fought not to look at Faris to confirm my suspicions.

“Berget, are you okay?”

“Ready to go.” She spoke from behind the big foot, who let out another low rumbling hiss. I racked my brain, trying to remember just how fast the American apes were. Faster than me most likely.

“On three, we run.” I clutched at the threads I’d tied to the Great Wolf. He was close, only a few miles away now. Maybe we’d luck out.