“Let’s go.” I didn’t know where we had to go, only that we needed to leave. And since Faris had brought me here, I needed him to take me away.

Milly stepped so that she was in front of me. “You owe me, Rylee. I saved your life.”

Ah, f**k it, I knew this had been coming. “What do you want?” I asked, but already knew the answer. Hated that it was going to be forced on me.

“Promise me you’ll protect my son, at all costs.”

Gods that was a loaded request. “If I do this, it doesn’t absolve you. The next time we meet … .” I turned and stared at her. My former best friend, the one person I would have trusted over all others.

Her eyes welled with tears and she gave a slow nod. “I know where you stand, Rylee. I always have, I think. I’d just hoped that you’d understand why I’ve done what I’ve done. Maybe someday you will.”

“Whatever.”

“Swear an oath, Rylee. One you’ll keep.” Milly said, her voice soft with tears.

I took a deep breath, thinking about the best way to word an oath that would satisfy her. “I swear on the souls of all those I love, of all those who stand in need of my abilities that if your child needs protecting, and if I am able to, I will protect him at all costs. Even to the loss of my own life.”

Milly let out a breath, her shoulders slumping. “Thank you, Rylee. Thank you.”

I couldn’t look at her any longer. I flicked my fingers at Faris. “Are we going?”

“Now?”

“Yes, now. Seriously, we have people to kill, a war to start. A rescue to make happen.” I shook my head at him. “All those things aren’t going to go on by themselves.”

Faris’ lips twitched. “Good to see you have some of your old self back.”

His hand went to my lower back, guiding me through the sea side house. I could guess where we were, but I didn’t really care.

“Yeah, talking to dead people will do that to you. Make you smarten the f**k up.”

He jerked me around to face him. “What dead people?”

I knew I couldn’t break his grip on me, so I didn’t try. Besides, I was exhausted. “Berget spoke to me, when I was … dying, I guess.”

His eyes were deadly serious. “What did she say?”

I squirmed like a kid caught with my hand in their mother’s chocolate stash. “That she didn’t blame me, that death wasn’t the end.”

Faris relaxed his grip on me. “That’s all she said?”

Shrugging, I pulled myself from his loosened hands. “What else would she say to me?”

He didn’t say anything else, just went back to guiding me through the house and out into the back yard. Blossoms and plants covered everything, filling every inch with bright sprays of color under the light of what looked to be hundreds of candles. The whole place was stunning. The smell of roses, lavender, and jasmine sat heavy on the night air and I breathed it in, wishing for a brief moment that this was our destination.

“Why did we have to come out here?” I turned to face Faris again, but he was turned away from me, watching the way we’d come.

“Milly is trying to learn how to jump the Veil like I do. I have done my best to keep her from seeing me jump the Veil. I do not think she can learn it, but if anyone can—”

“She can.”

He gave me a nod, took my hand and yanked me hard to his chest. “Hang on.” He leaned in, as if to kiss me, but I ducked my head down so his lips hit the top of my head.

“Sorry, I’ve got a thing for a wolf.”

“We shall see about that.”

Faris stepped backward and the Veil parted, and we fell through the twist, jump, whatever the f**k he wanted to call it. The thing was, the Veil wasn’t magic, it was real and solid as anything else. And the ability to manipulate it apparently wasn’t magic either, or it wouldn’t work with me and my Immunity. Did that mean I could learn how to do it? Shit, now that would be brilliant. Faris seemed to be reading my mind.

“Perhaps if we work together, I will show you how to jump the Veil. If I can.”

His unspoken words spoke far louder than the ones he whispered. Perhaps if I let him have what he wanted from me, he’d show me how. Fuck that, I wasn’t like Milly.

“Yeah, sure.” I grunted as we stepped out into the castle that acted as the way point between places for the vampire.

I strode away from him, wanting to get back to where O’Shea and Alex waited, but not having the means to do so on my own. Faris had explained it to me. There were some jumps across the Veil that just didn’t work. He couldn’t take me from the forest directly to Milly; he’d had to come here first, then to Milly’s. No rhyme or reason, just the way it was.

“You say that like you don’t want to learn.” Faris came up behind me, sliding his hands up my arms and I was suddenly reminded that Faris had taken my weapons of me in the clearing before he jumped us to Milly, and I was alone with a vampire who’d mentioned on several occasions how much he’d like to sink his fangs, amongst other things, into me.

“I do want to learn.” I squirmed away from him. “But not at the cost of my body.”

His eyes widened. “You think I would bargain that knowledge for a piece of ass?”

“Yes.”

He barked out a laugh. “Perhaps, but I’d much rather see if I could bind you to me permanently.”

“Nope, that ain’t going to happen, either.” I put my hand on the wall closest to me, feeling the coldness from the stone numb my hand in a matter of heartbeats.

“We shall see.”

I glared at him. No f**king way, there was no f**king way I’d ever let him bind me to him. “You don’t know me so well, do you?”

He took my hand and we jumped the Veil. He smiled at me, eyes sparkling. “Ah, but I plan to.”

Chapter 16

PROBLEM NUMBER ONE: O’Shea couldn’t jump the Veil. Problem number two: Faris thought he was in charge.

Problem number three: I had to deal with two incredibly alpha males, neither of which seemed willing to work together. Just f**king peachy.

Faris handed me my weapons when we came back through, and O’Shea immediately shoved himself between us, a low growl on his lips.

“Do not test me, wolf,” Faris snarled.

O’Shea snarled back, and I put myself between them. “Listen, we have to work together, so knock it the f**k off. Both of you.” I strapped on my swords, knife, crossbow and bolts, and whip back onto my body. It felt good to have my weapons back where they belonged.

Faris smoothed his face and gave me a barely there nod. O’Shea didn’t move, didn’t lift his eyes from the glare he’d pinned on the vampire. Well, at least they weren’t fighting.

Alex all but glued himself to my side, the tension obviously stressing him out. He panted with anxiety, drool dripping in great gobs from his tongue, but he said nothing. Faris paced the small clearing as the night grew thin and the not so distant dawn lit the tops of the trees with a dim glow.

I’d had enough. I needed to get Pamela and Eve, phone Jack, and pray that Faris was wrong about the Child Empress taking him … .

On impulse, I Tracked Jack. His threads tugged me toward the south, way south, instead of west toward London, as I’d really been hoping they’d be. Shit sticks, again Faris was telling me the truth. Damn. I did not want to trust the vampire, I just didn’t. There was a saying that Giselle had been fond of, before her mind had gone.

“The devil will tell you nine truths, so that you’ll believe one lie. Lots of supernaturals like that too.”

The thing was, Faris was a vampire. I knew what he was capable of, or at least some of what he was capable of. But discerning the truths from the lies with him was going to be tough. Had already proved to be tough.

I stood, stretched and turned away, heading back into the forest. I Tracked Pamela. She was roughly where I’d left her; it felt like they may have moved a little to the west, but not far.

O’Shea ghosted to my other side, pressing his flank up against my leg. Alex grinned across at him. “Wanna play?”

O’Shea snorted, shook his head and Alex visibly drooped, kicking at the snow.

“Where are you going?” Faris shouted from behind us.

“Collecting my wards and going after Jack.”

The vampire was suddenly in front of us, eyes blazing with anger. “You tried things your way and it got your sister killed, remember?”

“Fuck off and … well, I’d say die, but that seems redundant, don’t you think?”

His eyes bugged out. “I saved your life, and this is how you would thank me?”

O’Shea gave a low rumble that sounded suspiciously like a snicker. I glared at the top of his head. “Who asked you for your opinion, wolf boy?”

Tongue lolling, he turned his head up and gave me a wink with one pale golden eye.

Faris reached out as if to grab me, and O’Shea put himself between us, forcing the vampire back. I lifted my hands up. “Listen, you want to plan this, plan that, whatever. When I find Jack, I’ll find the Child Empress. I will kill her, and take Jack with me back to London. You either do it my way, or go the f**k away.”

His jaw tightened as he glared at me. Finally he gave a slight nod of his head. “When you are ready to see things my way, you can call me.”

He turned, a slash appeared in the air and he stepped through, disappearing to wherever the hell he went. Probably the castle, not that it mattered to me where he was.

Exhaustion nipped at me. The last twenty-four hours had been rough, as rough as I’d ever had. And I wasn’t really any further ahead. Sure, I’d found O’Shea, I glanced at him as we walked. But he was trapped, stuck in the wolf body as surely as Alex was stuck between wolf and human. Which was better? At least O’Shea seemed to have a more adult view on the world, more so than Alex, anyway.

Then there was Berget … no, I shied away from thoughts of her. I couldn’t deal with her death, not if I were to rescue Jack. I felt him, inside my head there in the south. He wasn’t well; his heart was not strong and a steady thread of apathy hummed through him. Jack had stopped caring, which meant he’d stopped fighting and that was a bitch of a bad sign.