“Zorro, how are you?” I blurted.

The male harpy chuckled, surprising me. “I see where Eve got her sass. My name is Marco.”

The two harpies banked at the same time as we dropped from the sky, right into Doran’s courtyard. Pamela was crouched over Liam’s body. Everything in me tensed, even though Tracking Liam I knew he was still alive. But barely.

I jumped from Eve’s back before she had fully landed and ran to Liam’s side. The werewolves had retreated and were pacing around, whining. Beauty stood to one side, buck naked and leaning against Faris.

“Faris, get them all out of here. NOW,” I said, doing my best to not let my voice break.

“They wouldn’t go—how would you like me to deal with them?”

“Make them.” I curled my hands into the thick fur around Liam’s neck, trusting Faris would do as I asked. “Pamela, how bad is it?”

She lifted her eyes to mine for a split second before looking back at Liam, her hands cupping his muzzle. “Bad. It’s very bad. I can heal all the wounds except the one on his chest.”

The sound of footsteps running told me people were finally listening and going to safety. Which was good because I suspected it wouldn’t be long before what was left of the ogres was over run and we’d be dealing with some pissed off demons.

Sooner than you think. They are on their way to end us now.

“Blaz, can you stall them?”

On my way.

A whoosh of wings and the dragon let out a roar that shattered the air, pierced my ears, and made my heart pound. His battle cry stirred my own bloodlust. Seconds later, the sound of flames roaring across the open field reached us. A fire line would buy us a little time.

“Doran?”

“Nothing I can do, at least, not on my own. The blade was cursed. I’d have to have more of your blood and you have given too much as it is.” He crouched beside me and held out a copper knife with a serrated edge, fresh blood on it. Liam’s blood.

I leaned forward, Tracking Liam. Yeah, he was right there, but by Tracking him I could get a better idea of how bad it really was.

His heart beat at a strange cadence, and his soul was slipping. I could push some of my strength into him. We’d done it before, when we were in Europe, but it had mostly been me drawing from him. But what if I could give him some of my Immunity, enough to fight off this poison, or the fucking curse or whatever it was he was dealing with?

“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.