Blind Salvage (5 page)

Liam screamed my name as the giant’s hand closed around us. Ignoring Liam was hard, but I had to. I had to focus. Before the log-sized fingers curled tight on me, I yanked my swords free and slashed upward with them, cutting through the giant’s fingers. Two fell off; two others were left hanging by tendons and ligaments, blood spurting out around us.

Squealing like a two-story stuck pig, the giant dropped us. Falling, I realized—belatedly—that we were a hell of a lot higher up than I’d thought. I hit the ground with a solid thud, and the crack of my ribs filled my ears as I slammed into a barely protruding rock.
That
was going to leave a mark. Alex rolled across the ground beside me, snarling up at the giant.

“Stinky nasty bugger. No touching Ryleeeeeeeee!”

Hands jerked me to my feet. “Rylee?” Liam was trying to help; I know he was. But I couldn’t breathe, and pain shot through my middle, a band of red-hot knives jabbing into me with each tiny bit of movement. I forced myself to shove him away, to stand on my own. If he knew how badly I was hurt, he’d try to carry me too.

“Go. We have to go,” I managed to gasp out.

Far too slowly for my taste, Liam led now, Alex limped along beside me, and somewhere in the next ten steps I found the ability to breathe again. Broken ribs were a bitch at any time, but when trying to outrun a massively hungry and fingerless peeved giant—well, let’s just say I could have done without.

The slam of the giant’s foot into the ground scooted us forward faster yet, and my ribs protested yet again, stealing my ability to breathe. We were just twenty feet from the open arch of the castle entrance way. Pamela pushed herself off Liam’s back and turned to face the giant. The look on her face was one I was beginning to know all too well.

Eyes narrowed, chin tipped up, she lifted her hands and flung them toward the giant. Two fireballs erupted from her fingertips, hitting the giant in the chest.

Damn, I wish I’d thought about that … nope, never mind. The giant patted the fire out, almost calmly, and then snarled at us. His jagged teeth had hunks of flesh and armor clinging to them, and from between them protruded a thick, long tongue that he used to clean his own face with in single lick.

“Fuck, that is nasty,” I spit out, along with a gob of blood. “Move it, Pam. Your fireballs are just pissing him off. Just get inside. I don’t think he can follow.”

“What? Why not?”

“Giants aren’t real smart and as soon as we’re out of sight, we’re out of mind.”

Gods, I hoped that my memory was right. Grabbing her by the arm, I ran as fast as my labored breathing would allow into what I hoped would be the safety of the castle.

Right, I’d forgotten for a moment about the creatures we’d not been able to identify, a part of me hoping Pamela had taken them all out.

The creatures that had been firing on us were not trolls or ogres.

They were gods-be-damned big ass red caps. I did a fast count. There were at least twenty red caps. Two arms, two legs, built like a man, but their faces looked as if they had been smashed with a shovel, flat with just slits for noses and no lips to cover their blocky square teeth. Each of them was close to seven feet tall, carried a wicked iron pike, had heavy iron boots, and then there was their namesake. On each of their heads was a cap made of some sort of viscera, blood from the organ poured down the sides of their heads, and stained their skin a rusty brown.

“We can’t outrun them,” I said, as I slowed to a stop.

Liam grabbed my arm. “Yes, we can—”

“No, we can’t,” I snapped. “They can’t be outrun, not on their own turf, at least.”

The red caps started pounding the butt of their pikes into the ground at their feet, each thump bringing them a step closer. They had ringed us. From what I knew of them, which wasn’t a lot, we were in for a fight. Trained warriors who bathed themselves in the blood of their victims. Yeah, not really how I wanted to start my week. Freaking stupid Mondays.

“Pamela, to my back.” Thank the gods I’d been training her. She responded without question, pressing her back into mine. Alex tucked his butt in next to mine.

Liam didn’t question, just slid his back against ours.

“Head shots, people,” I said, my words calmer than I felt. Twenty red caps was no small feat to take on at the best of times.

As if in response, as I steadied my stance, something shifted inside of me, and one of my ribs pressed against my right lung. Shit, this was about to get tough.

Their pikes still thumping into the ground, the red caps were twenty feet away in all their blood and viscera glory. This close they looked like Dox on steroids, all muscle and small beady black eyes, bloodstained skin, with armor stretched taut over their bodies. My guts churned; injured, I was going to be more of a liability than a help in this particular situation. As if to drive the point home, pain rippled sharp and intense through my chest.

Four red caps engaged us, and I spun my swords out, crisscrossing them to catch the downward blow of a pike. The red cap forced me to my knees, the stone biting through my jeans. Alex leapt forward, snagging the red cap’s belt and yanking him off balance.

The red cap spun toward Alex, giving me his back. Thinking I was the weaker of the two of us. Perfect. He snapped his pike back in order to drive it into Alex’s side, but I beat him to the punch.

I drove my sword through the base of his neck, then yanked the blade to the left, beheading the big fucker before he could complete his swing.

“Good job, Alex.”

Alex blew a raspberry at the red cap. “Bloody stupid messy bugger.”

Yeah, he’d definitely picked up the local lingo.

A roar came from outside. The giant was still stomping around, and pissed as all get out. He gave me an idea. A bad idea maybe, but it might be the only chance we had.

“Pamela, knock out that arch.”

She spun, clapped her hands together and then flung them apart. The arch over the entryway blasted apart with the force of her spell, and as the dust settled, a loud, booming laugh floated down to us.

Garbling his language, whatever it was, the giant stomped into the courtyard, scooping up the closest red cap and jammed him, pike and all, into his mouth.

I blinked several times. That had been the hand that I’d cut off his fingers. And while they were maybe a bit on the short side, they’d grown back. Son of a bitch, I didn’t know giants had
that
ability.

The red caps were torn, half of them engaging the giant, the other half standing in our way. Better odds than we had before. Liam fired the crossbow, the bolt taking the closest red cap in his right eye. With a scream, the red cap went down to his knees, and then fell forward onto his face. Liam was already reloading the crossbow before the red cap hit the ground.

“Pamela, out front,” I said. “I’ll keep an eye on the big bastard.”

Trusting my crew, I let them take the lead. Which meant I had to let them guard my back while I watched the giant take out the red caps one by one. Their fighting style was guerrilla, striking hard and then darting out of the giant’s way, inflicting blows, but not any real damage that I could see. The giant’s skin was thick, and the red caps weapons weren’t spelled to cut deep like my swords.

Unfortunately for them, the giant caught on faster than I had thought he could, and in a matter of minutes, he’d eaten four more of them, armor and all.

“Rylee, we have a problem,” Liam said calmly, like he was telling me about the upcoming weather.

I turned away from the giant and his snacks. Ahead of us another legion of red caps trotted into the castle courtyard. Three rows of ten—maybe that wasn’t a legion, I didn’t really know for sure. But another thirty red caps? Shit.

A body went flying by us and I ducked, rather belatedly. I turned to the giant, who had demolished the last of the red caps and was now eyeing us up. I saluted him with my sword, another idea forming.

“You remember this?” I called up to him.

Apparently he did, as he flexed his hand with his newly regrown fingers. He roared and I did the only thing I could think of. I ran toward him.

O
kay, so maybe
—again—it wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had. “Stick with me,” I gasped out, and again, Liam and Pamela moved with me. I wasn’t worried about Alex; he wouldn’t stray from my side with a battle like this going on. He panted, alternating between whimpers and swearing at the red caps, but he didn’t get in the way.

Through the giant’s legs I ran, skidding through the blasted rock and vaulting over a downed block. My feet hit the ground on the other side and the rib that had been knocking on my lung slid through it. Sharp, piercing pain rocketed through me, and I clutched my chest, still managing to get around the broken entryway, before flattening myself against the outside wall of the castle. Now the giant stood between us, and the red caps, giving us time to regroup.

Pamela and Liam plastered themselves next to me.

Liam smiled over at me. “Out of sight, out of mind. Too bad it isn’t always that easy.”

I couldn’t smile back, just slid to the ground, blood bubbling up to coat my tongue. I swallowed the coppery flavor back, knowing that if they saw it, they would panic. And while it was bad, I would survive; it just hurt like a son of a bitch to breathe. Or move. Or blink.

“Rylee bleeding.” Alex sniffled, the little rat fink.

“I’m fine.” Okay, that’s what I said, but the blood in my mouth made it a rather garbled ‘I’m fine.’

The sounds of death and destruction rolled out of the castle around us. The giant was cleaning house, as I’d hoped.

“Rylee, open your eyes.” Liam called to me, and I wondered when I had closed them.

I took a slow, shallow breath. “Ribs should only be outside of lungs.”

His hands hovered over me. “Shit.”

“I can carry her, if you can clear the way,” Pamela said, and I started to protest that I could walk. And while my legs weren’t injured, with each breath, the rib pushed further in and it felt like it was aiming for my heart, the traitorous little bastard.

It didn’t matter how tough of a supernatural you were, heart shots tended to be deal breakers, and I was no exception to that rule.

“Alex helps.”

“Yes, Alex, you guard Pamela against anything that shows up,” Liam said, and my eyelids fluttered. Gods, this hurt. The pain and lack of oxygen was beyond mind-numbing.

“Pamela, you take Rylee to the dungeons. Just keep heading down.”

I wanted to protest, point out that the exit in the dungeons would take us to New Mexico, not North Dakota. Why would we be going to New Mexico?

“I can’t lift her!” Pamela cried, and I did open my eyes then. This was one of those rare times that my Immunity was a real bitch, and peeling it back over my whole body, well, I didn’t think I could do that. Liam’s arms went around me, and I had to bite back a whimper as he lifted me up, doing his best not to jostle my body.

“Rylee.” Liam brought his face close to mine so I could clearly see his pale gold eyes. “We have to turn back; we need to get you help.”

“We do that, and then whoever is doing this will have time to plan something new to stop us. We don’t have a choice, we can’t go back.”

He let out a breath, his nostrils flaring. I thought he would argue, would try and force me to do what he thought was best.

“Then that means you’re up to bat, Pamela,” Liam said, his voice deadly serious.

“I can do this.” There was movement to my left, and then her hand curled around mine, giving it a quick squeeze.

He grunted. “You have to, or Rylee is going to die, and a good chance we will follow her shortly down that dark walk.”

Hell, I wasn’t in that bad of shape, was I? No, a punctured lung wasn’t that bad.

Liam’s arms tightened around me, and we started forward. With each step he took, the rib shimmied forward. Maybe only a breath forward, but still, it was working its way closer to my heart. Awesome.

A whoosh of something, and then there was a chorus of high-pitched screaming. My eyes were closed, and I drifted in and out of consciousness, the pain making me black out.

I saw Berget, somewhere in my in-and-out state, my mind playing tricks on me, no doubt. The Berget I remembered, yet not. She was older, but she wasn’t the bitch vampire I’d met in Venice. No, this was the girl I had called my sister. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a sweetness that she’d had in all of her early years. She reached for me, her hand brushing mine, fingertips resting on my pulse.

“Rylee, you’ll save me. I know you will. Don’t give up. Please.” Her fingers stroked down the length of my cheek.

“You’re gone.”

“No, I’m not. There is a way to untangle this monster that I’ve become.”

I didn’t want to hope for this, not again. Each time I believed her salvageable, her life was snatched away from me.

Maybe she sensed that. She leaned close and put her lip to my ear. “You will find the way to release me from the bonds they placed on my heart, soul, and body. I believe in you. You are my hero still.”

I turned my face from her, unable to say anything. And then we were below ground, and Liam lowered me to sit against a wall. “Stay here, and don’t move.”

Right, that was not high on my priority list.

Alex curled up beside me. “Pamie hurt.”

My eyes shot open and I Tracked her, felt her threads above me, and though they were strong, she
was
hurt and her last emotion before she blacked out was a fear so strong it could still be felt along her threads. With the last of my strength, I pushed myself to my feet, using the wall as a brace, and I started up the stairs. Two steps up, and Liam was rushing down, Pamela in his arms.

Blood, lots and lots of blood. Liam was covered in it, but I knew through the thread I Tracked Pamela with that she was the one hurt, not him.

I tried to speak, but that required a deeper breath. So I had to settle for snapping my fingers at Alex. He moved to my side and I buried my hands into his thick coat. Damn it all to hell and back, how was I going to walk when each step sent waves of pain and darkness my way?

Liam blocked my way. “Wait here, I’ll take her through, and then I’ll come back for you.”

I shook my head, swayed on my feet, and managed to whisper. “That’s what they want. Can’t split up.”

So in the most painstakingly slow parade, we inched through the dungeon. No red caps showed up, so I assumed that Pamela had taken care of them all. The girl was one hell of a witch.

I used the wall and Alex to brace myself, pain darkening my vision twice before we reached the exit through to New Mexico. At the last second, I remembered that the exit had been blocked, and I cursed under my breath.

Gods help us, let it be open now.

With the last of my strength, and with the gods apparently looking out for us, I stumbled through, crossing the veil into the icy blast of the New Mexico winter. There the morning had only just started; a hint of the night still clung to the edges of the land. Though, the fact that we had come out in a cave probably wasn’t helping any with the light. Stumbling forward, I didn’t see him until he grabbed me. Hands, big blue gentle hands caught me, shocking the hell out of me.

“Dox.”

“Hey, Rylee. Heard you were coming my way and might be in some trouble.”

Distantly, I knew that there was no way Dox could have known where we were going to come out, or that we’d need help. So how had he found us? Who had told him?

“Don’t try to talk, Rylee,” Dox said, his face coming into view as he carefully scooped me into his arms. “We need to get you two out of here.”

Liam and Dox carried Pamela and me out to Dox’s oversized bright red pickup truck. The back seat was big enough for a twin bed and had leather seats that matched the exterior paint, which would at least make for an easy cleanup. Pamela came around as Liam laid her on the seat. She sat up fast, her eyes wide and hands up in prep for a spell, aiming straight for Liam. I reached over and grabbed her hands, my wayward rib wriggling closer to my heart.

“Stop,” I gasped out, blood trickling down the edge of my mouth. Crap, if she let loose on Liam, there was no guarantee I could convince him not to take her out.

There was a split second where I wasn’t sure she heard me, and then she lowered her hands. “Sorry, I thought we were still in the castle.” She turned to look at me. A large gash over her right eye seemed to be the cause of all the blood. Dox leaned in and pressed a wad of cloth against her wound.

He introduced himself to her, and when he stepped out to get into the drivers side, her eyes widened even more.

“I’ve never met an ogre.”

I didn’t answer her, just focused on sitting still. Liam slid into the passenger side of the truck and the engine choked, then died.

Just brilliant. What else could go wrong?

“Alex and I will run, we’ll meet you there,” Liam said, and before I could protest, he’d stepped out of the truck and slammed the door. Dox turned the key in the ignition and the engine rolled over without a hiccup.

Dox didn’t take us back to his place, but to Louisa’s. He pulled in as the sun climbed the rest of the way up over the edge of the horizon. Her house, built in a classic southwest style, hadn’t changed since we’d last been there. Dox parked the truck, and then slid out, reaching for Pamela first. She turned her head to me, and I gave her a nod. If I couldn’t trust her with Dox, I couldn’t trust her with anyone.

Louisa met Dox on the front porch and ran her hand over Pamela’s head, then pointed into the house. Without waiting for the ogre to come and get me, she instead climbed into the back seat of the truck beside me.

Her hair was cropped short, still growing back after her time spent with a Daywalker who’d used her as bait for me.

“Rylee, do you want to call in your favor to me?”

“Heal us both,” I said, the rib digging in hard. I wanted to cough, fought the urge and held my breath against it.

She put her hands to my ribcage, clucking her tongue as her fingers prodded at me. “The girl I can heal; you are going to need more help than I can give. I will need to call in another Shaman.”

“Do it.” They all owed me a favor, so if I had to cash in two favors to save both our lives, I would do it.

Would I heal on my own, without her help? Possibly. But with my rib so far out of place, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure. Even supernaturals healed wrong if the bones were broken too badly, or too displaced. Made for some seriously ugly and misshaped bodies.

She left me there, her beaded necklace and bracelets jangling with each step as she walked away. I leaned my head back. Right there, in that position, I didn’t hurt too badly. The pain still hummed under my skin, but with my eyes closed, I could believe that I was suffering from nothing more than a bad fall.

A whisper of wolf musk curled into the truck and then Liam was there, staring up at me. He didn’t shift back into human form, which worried me. I reached out to him.

“Liam.”

He whined and licked my fingers, shaking his head afterward. Louisa came out, and shooed him away as if he were a wayward mutt, and then she stilled, her eyes widening as she took him in. “I’d heard a rumor that a great wolf had been born. But I didn’t truly believe it.”

“Later,” I whispered.

She pointed at me. “You stay there. We aren’t moving you again; the rib is too close to your heart. But you knew that, didn’t you?” Her shrewd eyes snared mine, and I couldn’t look away. I also couldn’t get enough breath to answer her so I just nodded.

“And you continued on anyway?” Her hands were working fast now, a sharp knife in one as she cut away my shirt.

I wanted to slap her hands away, but even if I could have lifted my arms, I knew she was helping me.

She peeled off my shirt and cut through my sports bra to reveal not only my shattered rib cage, which had some really interesting points pushing up against my skin from the inside, but the black snowflake that had been permanently etched into my breast bone.

“Well, if you can survive a Hoarfrost demon, you can survive this,” she said. The cool air ghosted across my skin and an involuntary shiver grabbed me. Locking my jaw, I could only just stop myself from arching my back against the pain. Louisa shouted for Dox, and the rib shifted, slicing through what was left of my lung—and my world went black.